“You can’t ground me!”
“Try me.”
Dex opened his mouth to reply but seemed to think better of it. They both knew their dad would totally find a way to ground him. With a deep frown, Tony reached behind Dex and took hold of his arm, causing Dex to suck in a sharp breath. Therian marks took forever to heal on a Human.
“Ouch. Damn it, Dad.”
Tony’s nostrils flared, and Cael took a slight step back. He knew that look. His dad was trying to keep his cool, and there wasn’t a whole lot that made him lose it. Unsurprisingly, Dex was the exception. His brother could send most anyone off the deep end. It was a talent.
“Do you know how serious this is? Did you ask Sloane to do this?”
“No.” Dex pulled his arm away. “It was both our decisions, and before you ask, it’s not something either of us has taken lightly.”
Cael was glad to hear his brother and Sloane hadn’t rushed into it, but Cael shared their dad’s concerns. This sort of thing wasn’t taught in school. It wasn’t even talked about out in the open. It was a parent’s responsibility to have “the talk” with their kids about markings. Preferably a talk not accompanied by a five-hour sex education class with visuals and gay porn. No one needs a play-by-play on how the prostate works from their dad. At least he and Dex could laugh about it now. Back when they’d been fourteen, not so much. Mortifying didn’t begin to cover it. There was more to being a Therian than having the ability to shift into a feral creature.
Tony leaned against the island counter and ran a hand over his jaw. “You two are going to be the death of me. You thought keeping your relationship secret at work was going to be tough before? Now every damned Therian agent is going to know you’ve been claimed as a Therian mate by an Alpha who will tear their throat out if they come sniffing around you with less than wholesome intentions. Do you know what this does to the dynamics of your partnership with Sloane at the THIRDS? And what the hell are you going to tell Sparks when she gets a whiff of that?”
“Sloane and I will deal with Sparks when the time comes. Granted, I don’t know what we’re going to do yet, but we’ll work it out. As for our work partnership, why should this change anything?”
“Son, you took the Therian courses at work. You know how fiercely they feel things in their Therian form. How protective they get of their partners. I went over Therian marking when you were fourteen.”
“Yeah, well maybe you shouldn’t have used porn as a teaching aid, because a good deal of what you said got lost in the pizza guy’s ass.”
Cael cringed and took another subtle step away from his brother. He could practically see the steam coming out of his dad’s ears while the gears in Dex’s head spun furiously in an attempt to figure out why this was such a big deal. And it was. Maybe not to most Humans, but it was a hell of a big deal to Therians.
“I don’t get it, Dad. What Sloane did is meant to keep other Therian’s paws off, not invite them to challenge his claim on me.”
“In their Therian form, their animal instincts are at their strongest. Correct?”
“Yeah.”
“And when you have two Alphas and one mate, what happens?”
“Hold up. I only have one mate. Sloane.”
“And when another Therian decides he likes how a Therian’s mark smells on you. When he wants to challenge an Alpha like Sloane or when a Therian perp gets a whiff of that and decides to get to Sloane through you? What do you think happens then?”
“Um….”
“Therian cage match,” Cael offered quietly. He understood his dad’s concerns, but he also understood his brother’s struggle to comprehend something that was a natural instinct for a Therian. Their Dad had seen it all after being with the THIRDS since the beginning. Cael was a Therian. Dex had never even dated a Therian before Sloane. It wasn’t Dex’s fault. There was still an overwhelming amount of information the world had yet to uncover about Therians. First Gen Therians were only in their late thirties now. Who knew what the hell else might develop.
“No one’s going to challenge Sloane in his Therian form.” Dex pursed his lips in thought. “Okay, at least not at work,” he conceded.
“Oh?” Tony folded his arms over his chest. “What about Taylor?”
Dex mirrored their dad’s pose. Uh-oh. Cael looked from one to the other. He slowly reached behind him and plucked a cookie from the plate, then brought it to his mouth for a nibble. This was going to be good.
“Taylor knows I’m off-limits.”
“His Human side does. If he’s in his Therian form and he gets a whiff of that, he’s gonna go all feral, and he might challenge Sloane. Why do you think we have a no fraternizing rule?”
Ooh, Dad’s puffing up his chest. It’s on now. Cael nibbled some more of his cookie. He really wished he had some milk, but if he got their attention, he’d get dragged into this mess, and he was so not taking sides. When he was little, they’d tried a few times to drag him into taking sides. He’d burst into tears and screamed at the top of his lungs. They stopped trying to get him involved real quick after that.
“Because of what happened with Seb and Hudson?” Dex asked. “The kid that got killed when Seb broke protocol to save Hudson from getting shot.”
“That, and Seb marked Hudson.”
Dex’s jaw dropped, and he put a hand up. “Whoa, hold the phone. You’re telling me Sebastian Hobbs claimed Hudson and marked him?”