Page 20 of Prey It By Ear

“Japanese proverbs? Very nice, snack size,” the dragon says. I turn to look at him, my smile crooked because he knows I read it in one of the books he gave me while we were researching the pred schools and their formation in the gargoyle library. “You were paying attention, hmm?”

“My angel is always paying attention when you least expect it,” Chess says proudly. “You know that, Aubrey.”

Waving my hand at them, I mumble, “Alright, alright. Enough fluffing my tail, boys. I appreciate the effort, but we’re talking about Felix and Chess right now. I’m not the subject of the family intervention.”

“Good call, Baby Girl. I prefer fluffing your tail when you’re naked anyway,” Fitz interjects. Felix scowls and Chess leans in to whack him in the back of the head for his twin. My crazy tiger gapes, shaking his finger at his mate with a look of shock. “Chessie, you whacked me! And not in a good way! What the hell?”

Felix grins broadly, leaning forward to hold his fist out for Chess, who shyly bumps it. “Damn, little bro. You took my side for once. I’ll be damned.”

“Raj, he takes your side far more often than you know,” Renard says as he smirks. “He just doesn’t do it in front of your twin. It’s much easier to do when the situation does not devolve into a twin fight. Trust me.”

The elder tiger looks at me curiously, and I nod. “He does. But then, all of you behave less goofily when you are in smaller groups where you don’t feel the need to poke one another. It’s a guy thing, I guess, so it doesn’t bother me. In fact, I think it’s pretty adorable.”

They all huff this time, and I watch them fidget as they squirm. No one wants to correct me, but they also don’t want to be cutesy when this is about being big, bad grown-up men. I love making their brains misfire like this; I’ll never, ever tire of it. Once they’ve grunted and muttered a little, I finally break the grumpy noise-fest by saying, “Of course, you’re also very manly, strong, brave, smart, and sexy. It’s a balance, and I’m definitely impressed by it.”

Fitz rolls his eyes before he groans. “Fuck, now she’s humoring us, guys. Our sweet, whip-smart predatory bunny is humoring us as if we’re little cubs. I don’t know if I can survive this; never let anyone know, I beg of you.”

“You don’t give a red, raring fuck what people think of you, Fitzgerald. Why would this matter?” Aubrey says, his voice full of amusement. “I believe even you admit that you’re shameless.”

Renard nods, leaning back in his chair again as his tail twitches mischievously. “Flames has you pegged almost as well as our bunny did, mon ami. You are not one to worry about random outsiders and their opinions of you. Why the dramatics?”

“Damn, you assholes are really trying to fuck up my pity play, aren’t you?” Fitz pouts as he yanks Chessie closer and rests his chin on the cheetah’s head. “I was hoping she’d come over to sit on me, dickwhistles. How are you all so dense?”

Holding me tight, my other tiger sighs as he buries his face in my hair. “Princess, stay with me now. He was trying to steal you by acting all hurt. I’m definitely the one who's being made to face bad shit, and he was trying to get you via sympathy.”

Oh, they’re both playing on my emotions now, eh?

Wriggling out of his arms, I rise to my feet and look down at Felix. “You’re both incorrigible. I should let you stew on your own and let Fitz handle his own shit tonight.”

Chess’s eyes widen, and he beams. “You can snuggle with me, Angel. I’m behaving.”

Ren and Aubrey open their mouths to contradict him, but I hold up my hand. “None of you are anything but rascals. I should make you all sleep in the other room in a squished-up pile while I luxuriate in this bed alone. It would serve you right for pitting yourselves against one another.”

It takes a moment, but every one of my older, more experienced mates sits up and stops acting like a bunch of teenagers. I smile as I notice Fitz is the last to do so; that’s probably because I let him play me like a fiddle more often than anyone else. It’s not because he’s a favorite, though; it’s because everyone gave him so much shit before I figured out why he was struggling. That gives him a teeny bit more leeway than the others, but not much.

“Sorry, Princess,” Felix says as he takes my hands and looks up at me seriously. “We didn’t mean to put you in the middle; that wasn’t fair.”

“No, it wasn’t, but I get why it happened.” My sigh echoes as I continue, “You absolutely need to reflect on the stuff everyone said so you can heal properly, Sir. But also, we need to talk about how the death of Chessie’s parents changed the landscape of the Khan’s power and what that means for the rest of the Society fuckers. I think that’s more important than silly games, yeah?”

“It is, Angel, and I think we should do that while we’re all focused, even if it makes the past ache longer.”

If Chess can get through this, we all can eventually—and I’ll add anyone involved to my ‘Not Really A Vengeance List’ for later.

Could Have Been Me

Felix

“When the independent inspectors went missing, our father made a big deal of ‘adopting’ Chess as a gesture. He did all this dancing around meetings and flying places while Nonna kept everything held down on Bloodstone. Unfortunately, that gave him the opportunity to meet and greet the worst of the rich folks, and suddenly, we were less objectionable gangsters than before. I guess he could show that crossing the Khans would have dire consequences that extended far beyond our borders—though I’m not sure how.”

Aubrey gives me a disbelieving look. “You don’t know how? Really?” He looks at Fitz and Chessie, who shrug, and then the princess, who shakes her head. “How in the fuck do none of them know this shit, Rennie?”

The gargoyle flicks his tail, sighing heavily. “Much like some humans, our leaders have ‘cleansed’ some history, mon amour. Perhaps I did not realize how much until we began this journey, but hiding things so recent is a bit shocking, I confess. Especially since the Prednet was conceived, I would have thought it would be harder to keep quiet.”

Fitz gives Ren a dark look. “Look, Frenchy McSmugpants, our education in history and current events happened on Bloodstone. When we were exiled, you know how we were. It’s not like we were charging into Scaly Balls’s library looking to figure out what we might have missed, eh? Don’t be a dick.”

My twin is being harsh, but he’s not wrong. We had no idea reality wasn’t what we thought it was; why would we even consider that?

“I’ve lived outside of Bloodstone and went to school at the best schools… but I don’t believe we were taught about whatever it is you’re getting ready to reveal. I mean, I feel like if something really fucking big about the Khans was a part of my classes, I would have said so when we first met, you know?” Dolly frowns as she moves to sit on Fitz’s lap this time.