FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Sunlight flooded though her windows and broke itself on a dozen crystal prisms that dangled before the panes. Brown eyes flickered open to the gentle oscillating of one of the fragments, pulled by refraction into a variegated streak over one eyelid. The shifting of color from the general whitish glow, through the spectrum from violet to red, permeated her dreams and roused her far earlier than she was accustomed to waking. She grunted and turned, but it was too late to salvage sleep.

Her mouth opened wide with a yawn and the motion carried into her torso and limbs as a stretch. Her left leg, as it was wont to, shuddered through the stretch and shook the bed. When she relaxed again, she stared at the ceiling and watched the motes of rainbow drift in lazy arcs with the slight turning of the prisms. She'd loved the angular crystal forms ever since she was a kit. They took such a boring thing as sunlight and destroyed it to make something beautiful out of the pieces. Every now and then, even as an adult, she hoped that the same might happen to her. Sniffing and rubbing her face to clear that thought, she reached for her phone and started her morning ritual.

Threading through the notifications in each of her social media accounts, she soaked up the gossip from the friends she had never met, about their friends--whom she never would meet--and filled herself with the pleasant warmth of the knowledge that she was better than any of them. She posted a trite inspirational photo with a message of self acceptance and love, in a nauseating script font, and moved on to her messages. One of her friends in America had continued a conversation from the previous evening.

"Did your sister actually show up with a man like she said she would?"

Snickering, she replied, "By some miracle, yes!"

"Let me guess, he's some ugly, boring fuck with awful breath?"

"Not even close."

"Really? How old is he?"

"Late 30's or something. I didn't pay attention."

"Ugh! Gross!" She threw in an animated emoticon that repeatedly vomited. "That's still almost twice her age. wtf?"

"That's what I thought at first. He's got a little white fur here and there, but he's definitely doable."

"Dude, pics or you're full of shit."

"Ask and ye shall receive." She tapped through to her photos and found a candid shot that she had snuck while Alder was walking through the lounge. The others hadn't noticed her taking the picture, because they were busy tittering over Abigail being a fuckwit. The photo was a little shaky, but it showed enough: the slender puma casually walking in his oh-so-American casual outfit.

"Holy shit...are you serious?"

"It's my family's house, innit? You've seen it in pictures before."

"Not that. I know him."

She snorted and typed, "Now who's takin' the piss?"

"No! I shit you not! My little brother goes to summer camp at a park down in New Mexico. That guy is one of the counselors."

"A) How the fuck would you know what he looks like? You a happy little camper, too? And B) I bet you couldn't tell the difference between a puma and a lioness, much less between two pumas."

"Well, A) fuck you and B) bite my ass. Hang on."

Molly sat up in bed while she waited. She finished perusing her other messages, including a dozen or so requests for nude photos of herself. As usual, she replied with photos sourced from the internet. Like I want any of ye disgusting cunts tae see an actual photo of me. A part of her had long ago realized that it wasn't even her they wanted to see, that any photograph of any rabbit would have sufficed. The knowledge made an already hollow hobby even less rewarding, but habit carried her on checking and replying to messages. The compliments that she got still gave her the tingle of a personal thrill, but it was no where near the fix she needed.

With her digital workflow finished, she still waited.

"Fall in the toilet?" she typed with a yawn.

There was no indication that the message was read or that a reply was coming, so she slid out of bed and stretched again. The was a scent of arousal on the sheets and in the air as she moved. She guessed that a dream during the night must have excited her. The dappled rainbows cast by the lazily turning prisms described glittering arcs across her fur and ignited the tips of the hairs with color. A floor-length mirror by her wardrobe reflected her full body and she turned to admire herself. There weren't many days out of the year when the sun hit the prisms right--when the sun poked through the clouds at all--but she left them there for just such times. They were the only possessions of hers that remained in her room when she moved out. Her bedroom in the flat in London didn't get direct sunlight, so it wasn't worth bringing them down.

Her body ran warm, so she slept in the nude. Well-manicured paws brushed at her tousled cheeks and smoothed the fur down her torso. She matched her sister, Cataría, in height and color, but she split the difference between Cat and Iseabail in terms of body mass. Jogging in the mornings and yoga with her flatmates kept her from getting overweight, despite her tendency to eat her stress and emotions. The only place that she couldn't seem to manage the fat was in her dewlap, which matched Cat's in volume despite their age difference. her paws reached her belly and slipped behind her to fluff her tail and follow the curve of her bottom, as she turned to inspect and admire it.

Her eyes narrowed, noticing the wetness of the fur where her ass met her thighs. Turning back to face the mirror, she grazed her damp crotch with her right paw, flinching and sucking air through her teeth at the tingles that radiated from the nerves as the fine fur of her fingers slipped through the fluff on her mound to tickle bare flesh. She bit her bottom lip and flared her nostrils at the heavier scent of arousal that wafted up. Mustae been a really good dream. Before her paw could explore more, her phone buzzed on the bed.

"Found it! Here..." read the notification on the screen.

There was a photo attached, but the preview was too small to see. Her thumbclaw tapped in her passcode and opened the appropriate app.The photo was of a polaroid tacked to a cork board. The date on the wide, white strip at the bottom was two summers ago. In the picture a scrawny human kid, her friend's brother, sat on the shoulders of a puma that must have been Alder. She couldn't see his eyes; they were scrunched closed by a massive, joyful grin that showed huge teeth. The teeth shocked her out of the moment, briefly. She hadn't seen them well in person, but they were so clearly predatory that they set her heart racing.

Alder stood waist-deep in a swimming pool, beneath a sky so blue it rivaled the water. Atop his shoulders, the kid sat with a matching grin, blue eyes glinting like little turquoise half-moons. The kid held a beach ball up with knob-jointed arms, while the puma held him steady with his paws. A closer look revealed little things--the shape and color of the puma's nose, the shape of his muzzle stripes, the slight color variations around his eyes--that definitely confirmed his identity. Water dripped from Alder's chin, cheeks, and elbows and plastered the fur to his arms and torso, outlining the well-toned muscles beneath his loose skin. Molly swallowed hard and her nostrils fluttered. Her ears leaned forward over her forehead, focused on the photo along with her eyes.

"Aye...that looks like him," she tapped, left-handed. Her right paw had unconsciously returned to her crotch and cupped her mound with a squeeze.

"Small world! Kyle loves the guy. The brat won't shut up about him for like a month after coming home each time."

"Oh?" Her breathing became heavier with the stimulus to her sex. "Looks like Kitty found herself a nice toy."

"Wish we could be that lucky."

The knuckle of her thumb pressed into her cleft and she growled. This wasn't going to be enough. She pulled her paw up to her mouth and licked at the moistened fur. Nah, no even close!

"So, whatcha gonna do today? You guys are still waiting for some of your family to show up for the holiday, right?"

"Aye," she typed, casting her eyes to her wardrobe to stare at the robe she nicked from Cat's room. "But I'm sick of waiting Just because they haven't come doesn't mean I can't."

"lol...What?"

The left side of Molly's mouth twisted into a lascivious smirk.

"I'm going out to play with Kitty's toy before she wakes up."

"OMFG...careful you don't get eaten!" A bouncing, yellow emoticon laughed its ass off at the end of the sentence.

Molly replied, "I'm not the prey this time, Leigh. RAWR"

She closed the app and locked her phone. Tossing it onto her bed, she strode to the wardrobe and selected some sweatpants and a thin tank top. Once the clothes were on, she slipped Cataría's robe off of her wardrobe door, tugged it around herself and tied the belt. It'd been piss easy to sneak it out of her sister's room. Folding her ears behind her back, she looked at the mirror. It might as well have been Cat staring back. The rabbit switched her phone to silent and left it on the nightstand when she left her room. She didn't need it interrupting her fun.

The corridor was quiet. Most of the house seemed to still be asleep. She still kept as quiet as she could and twisted her ears constantly to catch sign of anyone who might ruin her fun. She ducked into the loo and relieved herself. Cleanup took a moment longer than usual because of the state of her fur down there. Content, she washed her paws and snuck downstairs. The noisy steps were easy to skip, thanks to long practice for late night missed curfews. Even after moving away, she remembered the sixth step of the third flight and the eighth step of the first.

From the main hall, she could smell breakfast cooking. Judging by the muted laughter, it was probably her mother and that fucking ginger scrum half that Frank married. The scent of porridge and scones would have made her mouth water, if it weren't for the acrid smell of something else mingling in the air that she could practically taste. Meat. Some special treat just for Abigail and the pussy cat.

Well, she thought, I'll huvtae wash that taste oot wi' somethin' else!

She walked softly into the anteroom and picked up her boots. These she carried to the back door so that her footfalls might not attract attention in the house. Booted and clutching the robe to herself, she went out and gently closed the door behind her. It was freezing out, but she wouldn't be in the open for long. She kept to the far right of the terrace and descended on the side of the greenhouse farthest from the kitchen and dining room. Someone could probably glimpse her from the windows above, but they would only see black fur and a green tartan house coat hurrying across the back garden. Along the way, she notice the tracks that lead from the path to the little patio on the side of the building. She thought nothing of them; probably they were left by her father when he returned to the house last night.

She reached the cottage and cautiously opened the door. Inside the kitchen, her boots came off and she placed them next to Alder's. She removed the housecoat, her pants, and her shirt, then shivered. It was colder in the cottage than she expected. The housecoat went back on, but her clothes she draped over the back of a kitchen chair. Padding through into the lounge, she saw a bath towel laying on the couch and noticed still-damp prints on the floor: feline and clearly non-feline, but also barefoot. There was no sign of boot prints.

She followed the tracks with her eyes, noting that only the feline prints went to and from the bedroom. The other tracks stopped at a chair and she sniffed the fabric of the back. Mum? The old rabbit must have been out rambling and saw the puma outside. Perhaps she came to play, too; though, there was no scent of arousal, other than Molly's own, in the room and no sign that anything had been done. Mustae just talked. She gave a shrug and picked up the towel. The puma's scent was heavy on the cloth.

"Fuck..." she whispered, breathing in the pure novelty of it.

The maleness of it wasn't the half; it was carnal in a way that she had never considered before. A detached part of her brain tried to remind her that the word derived from the same root as carnivore. But things were hazy, indistinct. The only thing that reached her was flesh; she wanted it--his--pressed to her, buried inside her, moving with hers. This was going beyond wanting to play with Cataría's toy. The others had been disposable things: one and done. Molly wanted to own this one. Holding her paw against her mouth and squeezing her eyes shut, she listened to be sure she hadn't woken him. If this was going to work, she mustn't wake him until she had already started things going. Toys never quit once the game was started. When things appeared to be safe, she strode down the hall to the bedroom.

The window was open a crack and it was much colder here, that wouldn't do. She quietly walked around and slid it shut. Sunlight streaming in the window fell across the sleeping cat. He was splayed out on his back, clad in light pants and a t-shirt. The room was filled with the scent of snow, and of pine, and of him. It was so right for his scent to mingle with these. Her mind was already projecting ahead to when she would own him, skipping everything between. When he was hers to have whenever she wished, she would take him to Cairngorms and the Trossachs, and to every mountain and glen. She would take him into the pine forests of the highlands in every season and in every weather, and she would fuck him until these scents and his became a part of her. Maybe then something beautiful could be made from her pieces. She shook her head and reminded herself to focus.

Her breath shuddered through quivering nostrils. It was strange that her heart had not somehow managed to tear its way out of her ribs and wake him with it's mad pounding. The robe was open and her paw was stuffed into her crotch; her hips and arm ground the fur-shrouded pads of her fingers against her sopping cleft. She could see that the smell of her wetness had reached the sleeping puma and triggered the natural response. His pants strained as his erection strove against them for freedom. Molly watched the bulge grow and licked her lips.

It's time.

The housecoat slipped from her shoulders and she grudgingly removed her paw from her mound so that the fabric could come off of that arm. Her footfalls were silent on the carpet as she approached the bed. There was a lingering smell of alcohol on his breath, and tea strangely enough. The rabbit smiled. Her mother liked to calm herself from her midnight strolls with tea and whiskey. It was a safe bet that she offered the same to the cat who now lay deeply asleep in the daylight.

I wonder if Dad gave him some of the stuff he gives business guests?

She'd snuck down to play with a pawful of them when she still lived at the house. The best thing about business visitors was that you could trust them to keep their mouths shut, unlike the pieces of shit that her sisters brought home. None of the ones she had gotten her paws on had stuck around. That was the girls' faults for picking weak toys. They were just too easy to break.

I wonder how sturdy this one is?

Molly stopped by the edge of the bed, leaned over, and tentatively whispered the puma's name. He didn't budge. She called to him a little louder, right next to his muzzle; still no reaction. Content that she had a few moments to get proceedings underway before he would wake up, the black rabbit gave him a soft kiss on the mouth and carefully draped the robe over his head. Smelling both her and Cat in the fabric would make this go even easier.

She ran her paws down his chest, feeling the muscles beneath the thin shirt and thick fur. They tensed slightly at her touch, especially as she reached his belly. Her left paw slowly shifted the hem of his shirt away from his waist and exposed the pale, cream-colored fur. She pressed her nose into the fur and took her first breath of his undiluted scent. Molly nibbled and nuzzled at his belly, moving closer and closer to the waistband of his light trousers. He shifted, still asleep, as she reached the button. Her paws deftly flicked the disc of metal through the buttonhole and moved on to drag his zipper down. His scent in the room increased, mixed with the new smell of his own leaking arousal, as she opened the fly fully. His cock sprang forth at eager attention, the tip glistening and trailing a gossamer thread that ended at a small patch of damp, matted fur.

What the fuck are those? she wondered, staring.

The skin of his dick was flushed a deep, pinkish scarlet from his tapered tip to the fur of his sheath. Around the base and for a few centimeters up its length, the shaft looked like some instrument of torture. Row upon row of pale, sharp bristles encircled his penis, moving slightly with the twitching of the organ. They almost looked like smaller versions of the barbs on his tongue, which had also intrigued her when she saw them during conversation yesterday. Each point angled down, toward his sheath. She brushed the back of a finger down the length of his shaft, which elicited a moan from his covered face and a stiffening of both cock and bristles. A muted rumble started in his chest and throat. Running her finger back up his length, against the grain, was a bizarre sensation that revealed the spines to be less sharp and more flexible than they first appeared. It also generated a large drop of fluid that built at the tip and raced down the flushed skin. Catching the drop on her finger, she sniffed it; musky, warm and intoxicating. She thought to taste it, but decided to put it to better use. Her paw rushed back to her mound before the drop could cool and rubbed it into her already soaked pussy. Resting her chin on Alder's waist, she gasped and moaned. Both paw and drop were cooler than the heat of her sex. Maybe it was just in her head, but an electric tingle seemed to radiate from the tiny bead of his fluid. Rather than soothing the burning ache, it fanned it to a flame The smell of her increasing wetness filled the room and further stimulated the puma, whose purring rose until it was almost all she could hear.

Still bent over him, still madly rubbing her cunt, she took his tip between her lips and drew its warmth into her mouth. She stopped just before reaching the spines and slowly rolled her tongue around it. The taste of him, so different from the men she had played with before, forced another moan from her throat. It's vibrations tickled the puma and he shifted again, inhaling deeply.

"Mmm...bun?" he rumbled from beneath the robe.

Her fingers continued to furiously rub her cleft, focusing on the sensitive angle of the Y where her clitoris sat, swollen and hard. She moaned a quick, "Mmmm," as an answer to him, confident that her voice sounded enough like Kitty's to carry the ruse a little longer. To entice him further, she slid her mouth farther, taking some of the odd prickles in. She felt his body tense and his paw come to a rest on her head; a smile tugged at the corners of her occupied mouth.

Typical toy, she thought, huffing around his cock as her fingers drew her closer to the edge from which she desperately wanted to fall, just wants tae play. And Kitty said he disnae like this. Just goes tae show that she's nae clue know how tae play with it properly.

Alder's paw slid from the top of her head up the length of her ears, something that Molly always enjoyed. Driving her paw harder against herself, she took more of him between her lips. The tip of his cock grazed the middle of her palate as his fingers reached the ends of her ears and stopped. The fingers seized around the fur, skin, and cartilage in a vicious grip and she almost came on the spot. She had no idea that her sister liked things this rough! It was enough. Her knees wobbled, and she groaned and bucked her hips against her paw. A static buzz filled her ears as the climax beckoned her over the edge.

"Molly..."

The rabbit snapped back to her senses. She couldn't tell what happened first: the slow withdrawal of his shrinking cock, the complaint from the bases of her ears as her head was pulled away from his crotch, the shift from purr to growl, or the fact that his voice had called her name. All four realizations seemed to strike her at once. Her eyes flicked to his face to find it still covered by the robe. The muscles of his right arm tensed and quivered under the fur as he continued to pull her away by the ears. His free paw grabbed the robe and dragged it off of his face.

The game aspect vanished as the robe fell away. The fury on his face was far beyond even that of her sisters when they learned why their toys left. Hot tears burned in his eyes and his ears were pulled so far back that she could hardly tell they were there. His muzzle wrinkled where it drew back from his fangs and creased in the middle where his eyebrows drew together. It was the teeth, though, that drew most of her attention. Long, white and terribly sharp, they glinted in the blue-white light from the window.

"Molly, what the fuck do you think you're doing?" he hissed at her. His voice dripped with anger and pain, and his grip increased, introducing new points of agony as his claws prodded the sensitive flesh of her ears.

Tearing her eyes away from his teeth, she did her best to keep her cool and to control the situation even though she was clearly under his power now. She swallowed hard and licked her lips in a way that she hoped would come across as more seductive than nervous. Tasting him on her lips bolstered her confidence. After all, he was her toy now, wasn't he? She smirked and brought her soaked paw up to her mouth mingling her taste with his on her tongue.

"I came to play with my sister's toy," she breathed. Her eyes watered from the tension on her ears, but she tried to keep her voice husky.

He sat up, bringing her face closer to his, and snarled, "What?" His eyes narrowed and the pupils dilated until only a thin ring of yellow-green remained around them.

Molly's resolve broke upon those huge teeth. They were too close, too large, too sharp. Her confidence slipped and she wrapped her arms around herself. Her body threatened to introduce a different wetness to her crotch and legs. A shiver passed up her spine. Her voice traded its smoothness for a rough tone of defense.

"I've done it before. Dinnae act like ye're above this. All ye toys are the same. Ye know what ye are and ye want tae play," she said. The pitch of her voice slipped higher, betraying the fear and pain that was replacing her arousal. "Yer cock knows it! What the fuck are ye fighting it for?"

Something snapped in the puma. The fury vanished like the light of a blown bulb, flashing brighter just before it disappeared. The creases on his muzzle smoothed and his lips slid down over his fangs. The tears remained, reinforced by new ones that now pushed them out of the corners of his wide eyes. It was there that the biggest change occurred. Their pupils now shrunken to pinpoints, they no longer looked out but stared vacantly, locked on some scene that played out in his mind. He was shaking harder than her now

"Al--" she started, worried what the change might spell. It was starting to look like she had broken this one worse than the rest, and it was increasingly clear that this toy was more than capable of breaking her.

"No!" he shouted, releasing her with a swing of his arm.

She landed on her bare ass on the floor and her back struck the wall. Her ears hung limp and throbbing at the back of her head. Alder had sprung from the bed to stoop on the opposite side, holding himself up with one paw against the wall. He looked down at himself, seeing his open trousers and exposed sheath and scrotum, and whispered "...no..." again. A stiff shudder went through him and he heaved. Hacking, he fastened the zipper and the button and staggered out of the room.

Molly listened as the French doors opened and his feet crunched through the snow of the patio. There was a louder crunch and a series of staccato gurgling sounds, followed by the puma being violently sick.

***

Cataría was halfway along the path to the cottage with she heard the side door open and watched Alder dash onto the patio. Before she could call out to him, he fell onto his knees and retched over the snow. It was the beach all over again. Forgetting her sister for a moment, she followed her mother's footprints to cut from the path to the patio. The puma was curled in a ball when she reached him. His eyes were squeezed shut and he shook from head to toe. Tears, snot, and sick dirtied his face.

What the fuck? she thought. Whatever it is, it's bad.

The rabbit called out to him and stroked his head, but he seemed not to hear. She looked around, trying to figure out what to do. Inside, a black head with terrified eyes poked into the hall from the bedroom and Cat shouted to her.

"Molly, dammit, dinnae just staun there! Help me get him in."

Molly was wrapped in the stolen housecoat and didn't appear to have on anything else. She stared with wide eyes and fallen ears at Cat and at the puma on the ground. Nodding meekly, she joined Cat on the patio and they helped Alder to his feet. They walked him into the lounge and sat him on the couch. Cat wrapped her jacket around him, eased him down to lay stretched out on the couch, then moved to close the door.

Molly tried to explain. "Kitty, I--"

"I ken perfectly well what ye came here tae dae," she replied, cutting her younger sister off. "Dinnae think I'm lettin' ye off. I aim tae kick yer fuckin' teeth doon yer throat and keep kickin' 'til they fall oot yer arse. But I've never seen him in this bad a state, so takin' care o' him takes precedence owar takin' care o' you."

The younger rabbit flinched at her sister's words and tears welled up in her eyes. Her game was up and there was no worming out of it. But, worst of all, the stark realization was setting in that it had never been a game in the first place.

"The noo, I'm gonnae gie ye three very simple instructions and ye're gonnae carry them oot tae the letter or I'll add shavin' ye bare tae the list, alang wi' draggin' ye through the snaw tae River Earn and lettin' it take ye tae the fuckin' sea. Dae I make mahsel clear?"

Trembling, Molly nodded.

"Guid. Ye'll get whatever clothes ye wore here on and leave my fuckin' hoosecoat on the bed. Then, ye'll gae tae the hoose and fetch our maither here in a way that disnae bring the whole fuckin' family alang wi' ye. Once the two of ye are back, ye'll sit here in one of these chairs wi' yer face shut until I know he's arite. Got it?"

"Aye," Molly whispered.

"Right, then," her sister said coldly. "Aff ye fuck."

The younger rabbit stumbled over herself getting to the kitchen for the clothes. She dressed there and returned to the bedroom to lay the robe on the bed as commanded. without a word, she shot off to the house. She returned ten minutes later with a worried Mrs. Caird in tow. Cat was kneeling on the floor, stroking Alder's head, when they walked in. In one paw she clutched a washcloth from the bath, with which she had cleaned the big cat's face.

"Kitty?" she asked, surveying the scene. "What is it?"

"This," Cataría growled, pointing to Molly as the latter sat down, "did something to him. I dinnae ken what, but I can guess from things that I've heard from the others aboot what the hoor did with some of their guys."

Molly started to speak, "I--"

Cataría's voice was low and trembling when she cut her sister off. "As Mum is my witness, Molly Caird, if ye say one more fuckin' word they'll need tae medflight ye from the back garden. I dinnae want tae hear another fucking peep oot--"

Alders paw stopped her. He squeezed her arm weakly and said, "...s enough."

"Tree?" Cat gasped, turning to him. "What?"

"Threw her off of me," he whispered. "She's probably already hurt. Ears...haven't fixed my claws yet..."

Indeed, they could see streaks of red on the cowering rabbit's ears.

"'Sides, it wasn't her that got me like this. Not really."

"What did?"

"The cave," he muttered, drawing a start from Mrs. Caird, whose ears perked forward. "I remembered."

"Cave?" Cat asked, confused.

The white rabbit eased into the free chair with a queer look on her face. "Frae the dream last night?"

Alder nodded, passing his paws over his face. "The part where it switched from climbing over rubble to climbing out of the cave, carrying the kitten. But it wasn't the kitten, it was Mimosa and it wasn't me, it was myself when I was a cub. Something Molly said when she was trying to get me to fuck her..."

"What?" Fenella demanded, turning to her younger daughter.

Molly cringed into herself and whispered, "I just wanted tae play wi' him."

Cat, furious, started to get up, but the puma took her paw and stopped her.

"Enough, bun. That was it, y'see," he said, staring at the ceiling. "It was in the heat of the moment, I don't think she was even thinking about what she was saying." He turned to look at her, his deep, sad eyes catching hers and boring through her. "Were you?"

Molly's tear-streaked face quivered and she barely managed to shake her head.

"Do you remember what you said before I threw you off?" he asked, adding, "I'm really sorry about that, by the way. At the time, I wasn't thinking either, just fighting ghosts."

She shook her head again.

He held her gaze. "You said that I was a toy for you to play with and ended with something like, 'You're all the same. You know what you are and you want it. Your body knows. Why are you fighting it?' That was what made me remember. I'd heard it from someone before and the more I look, the more I think you have, too."

The other rabbits turned from Alder to Molly. She was collapsing into herself, as if making herself smaller could allow her to escape their eyes, his eyes.

"Molly, that's no tru..." Fenella started, but then she saw it, too. The walls Molly had built against her mother's eyes broke down The evasiveness wasn't just guilt. That was there, too; but this was deeper. She put her white paws to her mouth and whispered, "Dear god, love. Why didn't you tell me?"

"Are ye serious?" Cat gasped, scowling. "Why didn't you tell me? We told each other everything when we were younger. When the hell did it happen?"

"I couldn't tell ye. Either of ye. It was my fault," she moaned. "It was Steadbridge, in second year."

Fenella was aghast. "The football coach?"

She nodded.

"That 'toy' bit runs deep for you, hon," Alder said, groaning as he sat up. "That's what he told you, wasn't it? That you were his toy to play with as he pleased."

"She. She said she wanted to play and I wanted to be played with and that I was begging for it with the way I moved and the things I wore and said," she told the floor. "She told me everyone was like that and if ye aren't the one playing the game, ye're the toy."

"But if ye knew how awful it felt," begged Cat, "why would ye do that to someone?" She turned to Alder and added in confused anger, "And why the fuck are ye so bloody okay wi' this?"

Molly shrank farther into herself and tears pattered on her paws where they sat folded on her knees. She wanted desperately to answer, but her mind kept generating counter arguments to every way she tried to word it. As the narrative she had woven for herself unraveled, so did any chance to explain herself.

Alder chimed in softly, "I'm not okay with this, Cat. Maybe part of it is because my mind is preoccupied with the memories that surfaced, maybe not. I'm hurt and furious at her, but it doesn't stop me from seeing the hurt in her, too. As for why she could do it to others, it's probably because as bad as it feels to be used, the attention feels good and it's better than getting nothing at all. You spend enough time dwelling on lie you tell yourself, you just might convince yourself that the person you're 'playing with' really does want it. Because it's better than the only alternative you can picture."

"How...?" Molly whispered.

"Because, I know what it feels like to be ignored and to want anything from someone, even what you get is being used like a thing. I've been on the receiving end of similar abuse in previous relationships," he said, "and I saw. They mostly just wanted to please themselves, but they also sincerely thought that I was enjoying it, too. They used the same logic: these are toys, toys are made to be played with, therefore they must enjoy it. They didn't know how much it hurt and probably wouldn't have cared. The cave thing was different, though.

"We were six, I think, when it happened. This tall puma we'd never seen before showed up at our house. We were outside playing and Mom was inside taking a bath or something. I remember the record player was turned way up. Can't recall the record. He just sauntered up the driveway and said, 'Alder, Mimosa, how's it going? You probably don't remember me, but I'm your dad.' And he was. Even at our age, we could tell.

"We asked him if he wanted us to get Mom for him, but he told us that she wouldn't want to see him because he made her mad a long time ago and he didn't want to make her mad again. We were why he came. He'd never met us and he wanted to see the faces of his kids. We thought nothing of it when he told us not to tell Mom that we met him. We didn't want her to get upset."

Cat frowned and cast her ears back. "I thought ye said ye never knew yer faither?"

"I didn't," Alder sighed. "Even remembering what I do now, I can't say I knew him. I can't remember anything about him except the look of him and his...scent. I don't even know if he talked about himself at all. No clue what he did for a living or where he lived. I might ask Mim,"--he tossed a fleeting glance at Fenella--"next time I see her. But there's no telling if she remembers anything."

Fenella's face remained serious but a glint in her eyes answered his glance as she asked, "Why do ye think she widnae remember as weel?"

Alder's ears flattened against the back of his head and the tip of his tail quivered on the cushion beside him. His eyes were tremendously sad when they held hers.

"Because she was out of it when I carried her out of that cave. Also, my memory wouldn't have remained blocked if she remembered. I mean, we've been drunk as hell together many times. Can't help but think me killing him would have been a prime topic for conversation." He finished with a shuddering breath and the sort of gruff throat clearing that suggests a desperate attempt to maintain composure.

The silence that descended in the lounge was cacophonous. Every creak of the house as it warmed in the sun and every rustle of windblown snow from the trees seemed to stick in the heavy air. Two sets of brown eyes stared at the cat in disbelief. Mrs. Caird's blue eyes searched his, hoping find that he was jesting or speaking in hyperbole. Her right paw clenched over her left in her lap. He couldn't have been more serious.

"Lad...," she hesitated, unsure of how to proceed.

Cat got uneasily to her feet. She walked out of the lounge to the washroom and returned the cloth. They could hear her washing her paws and the rustle of a towel. She walked back into the lounge, face still slightly damp from splashing it with water. Sinking onto the couch beside him, her arms wound around him and drew his head to her chest. She kissed him on the forehead. One of his paws reached up and clasped hers. The muscles of his jaw worked against the sobs that wanted to come. He breathed raggedly through flared nostrils.

"Tree, ye're sittin' on enough with the shite in Newcastle. Let me--" She looked at the other rabbits and corrected herself. "--us help ye. Get it aff yer chest."

"Aye," agreed Fenella.

Molly just nodded.

He sat up, rubbing his face and chuckling. To answer Cat's confused and worried look, he said "I was just thinkin' that I'm gonna need a stiff drink after this. Know where I can find one?"

She snorted and smacked him lightly on the shoulder. "Get on wi' it, ye big bamstick."

"All right," he muttered with a sniff. "I think it was in summer that he showed up. The fifth or sixth time that he visited, he brought chocolate milkshakes for the three of us. Mimsy loved hers and drank it so fast she got a headache. We drank 'em on the way to the cave. I could only drink half of mine before it made me nauseous, but I didn't want to seem rude, so I poured the rest into Mim's cup when he wasn't looking. The cave was near enough to our house that we played there a lot, but it was still secluded. No ears to hear or eyes to see. For us it was just a cool place to hang out and read comic books, or have sword fights with sticks. We showed it to him one of the previous times he visited. The three of us sat there with an electric lantern and read comic books for a while. I think we did that several times. It's like every time I see it in my head we've all got different clothes. That last time, though, I started getting dizzy and tired. At one point, I noticed that Mim was asleep on the ground.

"He saw something amusing in the comic he was reading and waved me over. He had me sit on his lap so we could read together. In the middle of reading, I fell asleep. Whatever was in the milkshakes must have been just enough to keep us out for long enough to do what he wanted with us. The half that I drank didn't keep me down long enough. I woke up to find myself naked from the waist down and his mouth around my dick. When I asked him what he was doing, he said he was playing a game with me. I told him that I didn't feel good and I didn't want to play, but he showed me that I was stiff and then he showed me his. He said that our bodies tell us when it is time to play and we don't get a choice."

Molly gasped and covered her mouth with her paws.

"Yeah," Alder said, glancing at her. "You can see why your words hit me like they did. Y'all are the only two people that have put it in those words. The others just,"--he twitched his paws vaguely--"stuck with actions."

He sighed and shook his head. His ears swiveled ever so slightly as he considered the carpet and resumed his tale.

"I was still too woozy to stop him. He did what he wanted with his mouth, then he turned me over and raped me," Alder growled the last two words though gritted teeth. "It wasn't 'playing' and it wasn't fucking. It was just rape. I did everything I had the strength to do to stop him, but my arms and legs were weak and numb, and he did it just the same. It hurt worse than anything that had happened to me, including the arm I broke falling out of a tree when I was three. I broke claws and scraped my pads raw on the floor trying to drag myself away--I've got a really clear image of red smudges on the damp rock right in front of my face--but his paw grabbed the back of my neck and the fight went out of me. He pushed my face against the rock and kept going until he finished in me. As he pulled out, he patted my head and told me I wasn't very good at playing the game yet, but I would get used to it. Then he left me crying on the floor and sat next to the lantern drinking a soda. After a little while, I quieted down and we just listened to the water dripping in the darkness."

"Fucking hell," Molly whispered. "All Steady ever did was finger me and make me eat her."

"I don't know how much time passed like that, but eventually he gave me a smile and said, 'Well, son, guess we should find out how good your sister is.' He got up and moved toward her. For a moment, I lay there feeling helpless and pissed off. I saw myself spread on the floor like a rug and him getting ready to do to her what he did to me. I didn't even know what it was that he did, just that it was terrible. The rest of the cave dissolved; the lantern and the light at the opening disappeared. There was just his back, bending down toward her.

"The pain faded away and the drowsiness, too. All I could feel was this heat that burned me all over. I couldn't let him hurt her like he hurt me. So, I pushed myself up enough to be on all fours and sprinted at him, screaming. I guess he thought that I was just crying on the floor again. He didn't look up until I was on him. It's funny, I don't remember what it felt like when the claws I had left got into his skin, but I know all of my paws latched onto him. He swung around, trying to get me off of him, but he tripped on a rock and pitched over onto his stomach. I do remember what it felt like when my teeth went into his neck. I remember how warm his blood was on my tongue; what it felt like when I put every bit of that pain and anger behind my jaws and my fangs went between his vertebrae. I remember his scream and his body shaking...and then stopping. He pissed and shit himself at some point. The smell was horrible. It hit me when I got my teeth loose, and I threw up on him."

Cat's gaze was distant. She was thinking back to the scene she watched in her own dream: the mother mountain lion pouncing and biting the horse. She shivered.

Alder continued, "The next image I have is the one from the dream: me carrying Mimosa out of the cave. Mimsy wasn't moving and wouldn't wake up. I think I thought she was dead. I probably passed out again once we were out. Mom must have found us there, or someone did. I woke up in the hospital with Mim. We had neighboring beds. Mom told us that we narrowly missed a cave-in and that we must avoid the cave if we didn't want something worse to happen. The only part of any of it that stuck with me over the years was that we had to stay away from the cave. Couldn't even remember why."

The room was silent as the three rabbits absorbed this new information. To varying extents, each of them considered the fact that the bloke slouching on the sofa with his elbows propped on his knees was not only a predator in the biological sense, but that his nature had been successfully put into practice. Molly shuddered, thinking how close she had been to those fangs. Cat worried what greater toll the memory might have on the puma, whom she knew to be deeply sensitive. Their mother's thoughts were scattered between her two children and the big cat who increasingly felt like one of the family.

He shrugged. "In an odd way, I lucked out."

"How the fuck dae ye figure?" Cat demanded.

"Well, I managed to go through thirty-odd years of my life not even remembering that it happened. It never had a chance to ruin the way I look at people or fuck with my psyche. My relationships mostly ruined themselves. Molly, here, got the short end of that stick, didn't you? I'm sorry that you had to go through that."

The black rabbit brushed her tears away and laughed bitterly. "Ye daft cunt! Dinnae sit there and tell me sorry. After what I've done...what I was prepared tae dae tae ye?"

"The bitch has a point," Cat said, cold as stone.

"Bun, no." He held her eyes and reached out with one paw to hold hers. "I'm the one she did it to and I forgive her. I mean...yeah, it doesn't change that what she did wasn't wrong. I don't know if your eyes can see in her what mine do, but she's not the same doe that I pulled off of me. However many times she's done this sort of shit to others, she's stuck living with that now. Those ghosts are on her back forever." He sighed. "Look, y'all were real close once, right?"

Cat nodded and he leaned over to kiss her on the bridge of her nose.

"Be close again. Both of you," he added with a glance at Molly. "Because you need help to get trough this. Bun, you've got plenty to work through, too. There'll be things you won't want to take up with me, so you ought to make sure you keep as much of your family close as you can. A safety net is better than a safety rope any day."

Cataría mumbled something unintelligible.

"Lad," Fenella remarked, "ye had better stay a part of this family. Other than me needin' a break from being the village therapist, the net could use another strong rope." She smiled, "Tae continue yer analogy."

He grinned at her. "Make it a little lower impact than this, and I think I'd enjoy that, ma'am. Just need to figure out who's gonna help me with my head, now."

"Twat," Cataría grunted. "Us of course."

He rested his forehead against hers. "All right. I'm countin' on you, bun."

Turning to the others, he said, "I dunno about y'all, but I need a shower and some breakfast. My stomach is fussin'. How about we reconvene after some clean-up and let this depressing shit fall back into the background, huh?"

They agreed and Fenella returned to the house with Molly. Cat held Alder on the couch for a few minutes, divining that he still needed comfort and knowing that she did to some extent as well. Her paws wandered over his head and down his neck to his shoulders. Sighing deeply against his ear, she couldn't keep it in any longer.

"This is really the first ye remembered it?"

As he nodded, his cheek rubbed against her chest.

"Ye're takin' it awfully well."

He snorted. "On the outside, maybe. On the inside,"--he shook his head--"it hurts, bun. I wish it could have stayed locked away."

Squeezing him tighter, she grumbled. "Well, ye didnae huvtae be sae soft on her."

He snickered. "She wasn't you, so I couldn't stay ha--ow!"

She had smacked his head.

"Any more of that and I'll twat ye again," she grumbled. "I'm bein' serious, here."

"I know. Sorry. Humor is often all I can fall back on." He sat up straight and said, "I couldn't be harder on her, bun. She wasn't out to hurt me, or you for that matter. I could see it in her eyes as soon as I woke up: no other people existed outside of her. There might as well have been a wall between her and the rest of the world. That wasn't the same person that walked out of the bedroom and fetched y'all's mom."

"Ye seemed pretty out of it at the time. I'm kindae surprised that you noticed."

"I was still there. I couldn't trust my voice or my legs, but I was there."

"The coo's done this before," Cat grumbled as she stared at the doorway to the cottage's kitchen. "What makes ye think this time changed something in her?"

He shrugged and answered, "Maybe having someone turn her down cracked the wall, or maybe it was the violence of it. It could have shocked her out of herself just long enough to see that there was another soul there and they were in pain." He sighed and shook his head, leaning forward and propping his elbows on his knees. "Or, maybe I'm imagining things. I'm still fighting with my head right now, so I might not be seeing what I think I see. Maybe I just knocked her on her ass hard enough to put her off her stride for a bit and nothing's really any different at all."

***

Molly stood in the hot spray of the shower with her forehead pressed against the tiled wall. The walk to the house had been deathly quiet. It was a small mercy that none of the other Cairds were in the main hall when they came in.

"We need tae talk later, love," her mother had told her, "but ye should hurry aff tae the bath before any of them catch yer scent."

The black rabbit had nodded absently. Her head was abuzz with internal voices, but she caught her mother's meaning. She was a muddle of both her and his scents. Her paws and the fur of her crotch and thighs were matted with the drying residue of her game.

Game? What the fuck was I thinking?

Her foot missed the first stair and she went down hard on her knees. Her jaws clenched tight and tears that had already clung at the corners of her eyes fell onto the carpet. Her mother had helped her to her feet and up the steps.

At the corridor to the bedrooms, her mother hugged her tight and said, "I'm so sorry, Molly. If I had seen what you were going through, I could have helped."

"No," she mumbled into the white rabbit's shoulder. "I did everything that I could tae keep ye from knowin', and I widae refused tae let ye help if ye did."

"Well," Fenella whispered, kissing her daughter's forehead, "I dae noo, and I will help ye."

Under the steaming water, Molly pulled her head back from the wall and returned it with a thump. She didn't know what her mother could do to help her--what anyone could do. Her mind kept wandering back to the men she had 'played with'. Did she hurt any of them the way she hurt Alder? If she had, would they have forgiven her like Alder did? She groaned, "They shouldnae," at the tiles. Nor should her sisters, whose friends she had sent running.

Her claws skited over the tiles as her paws dropped to her sides. Fucking whore! she screamed in her head. She brought it against the wall with another thump. Then another, and another. She slid down to the floor and sat in the puddling water, bawling.

"I wis wonderin' which wid break first, the wall or yer heid," called a voice just outside the stall. "Kindae surprised the wall won this time."

She turned to find a rabbit shape outlined against the frosted glass partition. Despite the steam and the glass, she could make out the two-toned fur. A lot of it.

"What dae ye want, Sìl?" she asked in what should have been a demanding tone, but tumbled out as a plea. Neither could tell if it was a plea for Sìlas to leave or stay. The younger rabbit's reaction would have been the same either way.

They opened the door and stepped in; confirming, to Molly's surprise, that they were naked.

"Oh, shut up," they said, cutting off her complaint as they knelt on the floor and wrapped their arms around her. "Ye need this and I'm no gettin' my claes aw wet."

Molly scowled and tried meekly to pull away from Sìlas. Her sibling held her just the same.

"Stop it, ye cunt. I want tae be alone."

Sìlas snorted. "Ye never wanted tae be alone a day in yer damned life, Mols." Their white paw held her left paw where it lay on the floor, and their black paw cradled her head against their shoulder. "Ye surroond yersel wi' bodies day in an' day oot, but aw ye ever been is alone. Now ye need someone tae actually be here wi' ye, an' here I am."

Molly sagged against Sìlas and let her tears mix with the water that soaked them both. The guilt and self-hatred that had awakened within her poured out in a torrent that outlasted the hot water. In an instant, the pair were suddenly, shockingly cold.

"Ah! Fucking hell!" Molly screamed, receiving the brunt of the blast.

She stood quickly to shut off the water, but lost traction on the wet floor and tumbled back down with a shriek. Sìlas' footing was slightly better; they managed to turn off the flow, but tripped on Molly's legs and went down as well. The pained moans from both rabbits turned to snorts and snickers, then to giggles, then to a gale of laughter as the ridiculousness of the situation fully dawned on them.

"Ah, shite!" Molly gasped, wiping her eyes where she lay on her back on the floor. "What the fuck are we doing?

Sìlas, on hand and knees, coughed, "Dunno, Mols. But I'm freezin'. Let's dry aff, so's we can talk proper."

The two of them helped one another get up and towel off. Once they were dressed, they went to Molly's room and turned up the heater. For a few awkward moments, they were both silent. A buzz and chime from Molly's phone startled them. When she lifted it, she saw that she had missed several messages from Leigh.

"You through fucking around?" began the thread. "Apparently not....Hello?...Wait...Were you serious?...Holy fuck...This isn't like Donna's squirrel putz or that human that you fucked out from under Iseabail, or any of the others. If you piss him off and he doesn't hurt you, your sister will!...omg Molly, I can't believe this....Please tell me you're ok....HELLO?...MOLLY, SERIOUSLY....HELLOOOO??"

"For fuck's sake, Leigh," Molly muttered with a shake of her head. Her ears drooped back and she sighed.

"Friend?" Sìlas asked, sitting on the bed next to their sister.

Molly nodded. "Aye, a girl in America that I've been talkin' tae for three years or so. She never judged me aboot the shite I was doing. I guess she thought it was just right. Probably gonnae hate me for the change of heart, but things cannae keep goin' like this."

"Leigh?" she typed.

The response was quick. "JESUS CHRIST MOLLY WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN?"

"Fuck, calm down. Things didn't go like I expected." She rolled her eyes at herself. No shit.

"Calm down my ass! I've been worried fucking sick. Are you okay? Did he hurt you? Did she? What happened?"

"Leigh, seriously, calm the fuck down. No one got hurt. Not bad anyway. Just a lot of stuff happened."

"That doesn't sound ominous at all. What kind of stuff?"

"He took it really bad. Like, REALLY fucking bad. Made him remember a childhood trauma and he freaked out for a few minutes. He literally threw me off and then ran out and puked in the snow. Proper rejected, y'know?"

"Ouch! That sucks. You gonna head back to London?"

"Nah, Kitty wanted to skin me, probably for real, but he held her back and forgave me. Even recognized what started it all."

"Your sister scares the fuck out of me, Mols. No joke. Wait, he figured out about the coach thing? I thought I was the only one you talked about that with?"

Molly grimaced and rubbed her chin against her dewlap while she thought out her reply.

"You were the only one I told. He sussed it out. He's got eyes like Mum's: it's like they rummage through your soul's pockets for loose change. Called me out on it right in front of Mum and Kitty. Didn't have much choice but to confess."

"WTF? Confess? You didn't do anything wrong, dumbass."

"I know. Not at first. But everything after. Talking with him and hearing his story made me take a hard look at what I've been doing. People I've been hurting. Leigh, it's gotta stop. I gotta put an end to it."

There was a long pause. Molly set the phone down and wiped her eyes. "Dammit!" she whispered.

"Ye'll get through it." Sìlas reassured her.

"I dinnae want tae," she said. She laid down on the bed and brought her knees up to her chest. "Sìl, I wasnae just treating people like things. I really thought of them like that. They might as weel've been dildos to me, but they were people with thoughts and feelings."

"Aye."

"That's proper, fuckin' evil."

"Aye."

"Ye cannae come back frae somethin' like that." She was sobbing again. "What am I gonnae dae?"

"Nonsense."

The black and white rabbit curled up behind her and wrapped their arm over her body. They pressed their forehead to her back and said, "Ye came halfway back hame already, Molly. If ye cannae see the path and need help coming the rest of the way, there's loads of us ready tae help."

"Bollocks!" Molly rasped. "Ye an' Mum, mibbe. The rest of 'em widnae piss on me if I wis on fire."

Sìlas squeezed tighter. "We're family, Mols. If they see that ye want help, they'll bloody help. We staun by each other."

"Sae what? Once I gae back tae London, none of ye will be around."

"Donna's doon there."

Molly scoffed. "She's on the opposite side of London from me, Sìl. It's hardly next door. She widnae trouble her arse, no matter what ye say. I ruined things between her and...and... Oh, for fuck's sake! I cannae even remember his fucking name."

"It was John."

"Was it? Disnae matter. I literally fucked things up between them the week before the fucking wedding. She's no gonnae be pally wi' me just because I feel bad for it now."

"If no, tae hell wi' her. There's--"

Molly's phone chimed loudly and buzzed on the covers. The screen lit up with a message from Leigh again; a long one that couldn't all be displayed. When she opened it to read the message, her paw shot to her mouth and she started shaking with sobs.

Sìlas sat up in concern. "What is it, Molly? What did she say?"

Molly shook her head, clenched eyes shedding tears onto her duvet. The bicolor rabbit grabbed their sister's phone from the bed where it had fallen and looked at the screen. Leigh had sent a list of about two dozen links to websites; therapists, counselors, support groups, suicide prevention.

"I hope you didn't mean that how it sounded," Leigh wrote. "If you want to turn things around and need help, check these out. I'm pretty sure most of them are near your place down south. There's probably more, but that's what I could find right now. Please, Molly...Let. Your. Family. Help. You. And for the love of fuck, if you ever, EVER, need to talk, you know where I am. Love you!"

"I told ye, Mols," Sìlas laughed. "There's a fuckin' load of us ready tae help."

***

"Well! Look what Cat dragged in!"

Alder and Cataría gawped at her father, who sat at a crowded dining table, sipping tea. Everyone seemed present at first. Donna and Iseabail looked up from Donna's phone, where they had been looking at something. The younger ones were in various stages of avoiding their breakfast and Fenella tried to convince the youngest, Efric, to eat her porridge. Malmuira dropped into her seat from refilling her tea. Wendy was describing something in an animated fashion to Ceit who did her very best to seem interested. Frank and Abigail both were quietly poking at their meals, one with dropping reddened ears and the other with a sullen red face. David elbowed Frank and grinned like a complete idiot. Only Molly and Sìlas were missing, out of those who were on the estate. All heads raised at Bothain Caird's announcement, giving the two latecomers the uncomfortable sense that a spotlight had fallen upon them.

The puma smiled self-consciously and offered a half-hearted, "Morning, all."

"Food's in the kitchen, help yersels," Fenella called, giving up on Efric.

David snorted and said, "Assumin' ye huvnae both already et yer fill."

He and Bothain burst out laughing and there were mingled giggles around the table, as well as a smirk from Malmuira. Fenella cast a stony glare at her husband and son, which they failed to notice.

Alder saw Cat wince out of the corner of his eye, but affected a grin and said to David, "I haven't, but maybe you'll do."

It came as a shock to the others to see Davie's ears go bright red as he nearly choked on his tea. None of the young ones had a context for the statement, nor did Mr. or Mrs. Caird; so, they took it to be a good-natured predator-prey joke and snickered at his reaction. Ceit, Donna, Iseabail and Abigail, all of whom had spoken with Cat and knew of Alder's rather broad romantic preferences realized the meaning behind the quip and laughed. Frank was utterly lost. Cataría, embarrassed for herself, for Alder, and for David to a lesser extent, pushed Alder into the kitchen so that they could find food.

"I'm gonnae huvtae start callin' ye fuckwit insteid of tree," she muttered, spooning porridge into a bowl.

Alder shouted his thanks to Abigail for the bacon and sausage and then mumbled to Cat, "Aw, no sense in lettin' the kid have all the fun."

A spoon clattered and she seemed to change the subject. "Are ye really okay, Alder?"

"Not entirely, but I will be," he insisted. "Back in Australia, you caught me at the brink of a complete breakdown. Thanks to you, I've been able to pull back from that. I can't ignore the pain from this new-old trauma, but I'll be damned if I'm going to let something that happened more than thirty years ago infect me now and ruin what is a pretty okay life. I'd already resolved to take Fenella's advice and set up an appointment with a shrink after I'm home. Newcastle needs to be dealt with still; nothing wrong with tossing in an 'Oh, by the way' when I meet with them."

"I keep tellin' mysel that ye cannae be as laid back as ye are, an yet--"

He wrapped an arm around her and stopped her with a kiss. Stepping away with a grin, he concluded for her, "I am. I need to be. It let's me deal with the unexp--"

His voice broke off with the impact of a black and white blur that wrapped him an a ferocious hug. Bobbling his plate, the puma barely managed to keep his breakfast from scattering onto the floor and all over his assailant. He looked down at Sìlas, whose clothes were wrinkled and whose eyes and cheeks were still wet.

"Whoa, whoa!" Alder breathed, setting the plate down on a counter nearby. "Hey, Half-n-Half, you okay?"

He twisted in their arms. and brushed the backs of both paws across their cheeks. The bicolor rabbit looked up and beamed at him. Their voice was thick but full of mirth.

"Ah'm fantastic, ye glorious cunt! I dinnae ken what happened in that cottage; Molly widnae tell me any details. But, thank ye! There's been a wall between her and us for ages and I can finally see the bricks comin' doon."

The puma ran one hand from the top of Sìlas' head down to their back and gave them a comforting pat.

"She's okay, then?" he asked. "Things got a little...." He offered an uncomfortable shrug by way of conclusion.

"Aye, she is. This is the first time I've seen her pulled ootae hersel like this, but she's good. She's lying down right now."

"Poor kid."

There was a sharp thump from across the kitchen, followed by, "Poor kid, nothin'!"

Cataría stood there, glaring at the two of them. Sìlas broke the embrace and cocked their head. Alder's tail flicked in confusion, but he could see something boiling beneath her surface. She worked her mouth as if she wanted to say something, but the thoughts tangled with themselves before any could tumble out. Instead, she just growled, set her bowl on hard upon the counter, and walked briskly out of the kitchen, ignoring a handful of comments and questions from the rest of the family.

"Ah, shit..." grumbled the cat.

Sìlas stared at the doorway through which Cat had gone and wondered aloud, "What's eating her?"

"Dunno, kid. Only one way to find out."

When he left the kitchen, Cat was already through the dining room and into the lounge, showing no signs of stopping. He waved apologetically as he rushed to catch up with her. He reached the main hall as she mounted the second flight of stairs. He called out to her, but she shook her head and put on more speed. She hurried along the third floor landing to the library and slammed the double doors shut. Even over his panting, Alder could make out the sharp clack of the lock being thrown. He reached the top of the stairs and padded heavily to the library. The knob wouldn't turn when he tried it, so he called through the door.

"Bun, please let me in so we can talk."

Her muffled voice was furious and betrayed the presence of tears. "Fuck off, Alder. I need a minute alone."

"All right..." he said with a grunt, sinking to the floor. "When your minute's up, I'll be right here."

He sat with his elbows on his knees and his back pressed to the door. An hour passed, then two. He couldn't see the grandfather clock on the second floor of the hall, but its relentless heartbeat and chimes made time's passage all too clear. Every now and then, he could hear her move inside the room. She seemed to be pacing the chamber and alternating between grumbling and crying. Two and a half hours had gone by when he caught the squeak of cork on glass and furniture creaking deep in the room. He sighed quietly and rested the back of his head against the door.

"Alder?" whispered a voice nearby.

The puma's head snapped forward and he blinked to bring his surroundings into focus. It was Fenella that had spoken. She stood over him with a tray of cups and a tea pot.

"Shit," he moaned. "How long?"

"Since the two of ye disappeared? Four hours, mair or less. It's quarter past noon."

He nodded and glanced up at the handles of the doors. With an abundance of achey, old cat noises, he heaved himself up to his feet and leaned against the wall.

"Any idea what this is all about, ma'am?"

She smiled and handed him the tray. When he took it from her, she stepped to the other side of the doorway and reached behind the painting that hung there. Her white paw returned with a key, which she fitted into the lock.

"It's aboot time we figured that oot, innit?" she said, unlocking the door and returning the key to its place.

When the doors opened, they caught the scent of strong liquor immediately. Cataría slouched in a brown, imitation leather chair and stared through the broad windows that faced the back garden. A bottle of whiskey sat on the side table at her left hand. She didn't look up when they entered.

"Kitty, dear, I brought ye some tea."

The black rabbit's gaze remained fixed on the outside world and she didn't notice that more than one person had walked in.

"Thanks, mum," she mumbled. "I guess just set it doon anywhere. I might have some later."

Fenella closed the door and re-locked it from the inside. "No, love, ye'll have some noo, and some biscuits byhands to offset the drink."

"Mum...not noo. Please," she groaned, tossing her head back so that her ears fell over the back of the chair and her nose pointed at the high ceiling. She closed her eyes and wiped her paws over them. "Somethin's bustit 'tween him an' me, and I dinnae ken if I can fix it."

"Oh, aye? What's that?"

"I cannae look at him withoot seein' Molly's heid poking oot the bedroom door. And even though he washed her off of him, I swear I can still smell her on him. I've seen the others lookin' at him wi' the same kind of eyes she had. They want him too: Donna and Iz, Ceit...even Abby looks like she'd want tae have a go wi' him."

Mrs. Caird laughed. "Pish! What are ye on aboot? They dae not. Widnae matter if they did, since it's ye he's daft on."

Cataría sat forward and shouted, "Oh, gie's a break, mum! How lang will that keep? I'm no the prettiest. What's gonnae happen when Dallis an' Lissa come? Or when Maggie an' Senga get back frae Ibiza? Every one o' them's better lookin' than me and none of them are half as fuckin' broken."

"Kitty, ye know Dallis has Connor noo and Lissa has plans tae marry Martin. As for Margaret and Senga, they are tae young. They widnae be interested in an old man nor he in them."

Alder had had just about enough. "Don't suppose I get a say in any of this, do I?" he growled.

Cat's head snapped around and her eyes briefly locked on his with a look of panic. She tried to sit up and straighten her face and fur, but the attempt collapsed and she slumped back in the chair.

Her voice was resigned when she slurred, "Wha'ever. Ye'll jus' tell me what ye think I wannae hear."

"Not exactly my style, is it bun?" he gruffed, sitting down in an adjacent chair.

Instead of meeting his eyes, she took a pull from the whiskey and grunted, "Dunno. Is it?"

"No," he said, taking the bottle and corking it. "If anything, I've done what I can to stop repeating the one thing you tell me you don't want to hear."

She pouted at the confiscation of the bottle and offered a sarcastic, "D'ye really? An' what's that?"

"I love you, bun."

She shook her head and whispered, "...dinnae..."

He persisted, "Goddamn it, yes. I don't say 'I'll take any rabbit in general' or 'Golly, I just need some wet hole to throw my cock at", Cataría! That's not me. It's the shadow of your fears that some dark voice inside your head is tying to convince you of. I don't want Molly, I don't want any of your sisters--or any of your brothers, for that matter. I want you. You weren't the only person I met in Australia. Hell, you weren't even the first to hit on me. You were the only one with whom I felt a connection in conversation and who I felt comfortable just being with for any extended period of time.

I flew halfway around the goddamned world to stay by your side, because I enjoy being there more than I have enjoyed much of anything in the last several years. I ain't that asshole horse. And, for Chrissakes, bun, you ain't damaged."

"I am!" She hurled at him, slapping the arm of the chair with her open paw. After the outburst, she sank back into the chair and said in a quieter tone, "I am. I could think that I wisnae when we were a world away. But I look at them and..."

"...and seein' 'em reminds you of the bad ol' times and they just look so damned perfect to you, right?" he snapped. "Molly with her self-destructive sex addiction and Donna with her over-work and self-loathing. Ceit, who is so terrified of what it'll mean for her future that she talks herself out of saying anything to any of you about her...uh...circumstances. David and Iseabail seem fine on the outside, but both of them are ridiculously lonely, so one pores herself into her work and the other acts like a little shit. Frank and Abigail can't have children, obviously, but they're starting to realize that it's a lot more important to them than they first thought. The kids are probably the least troubled ones; though, Wendy has definitely got a crush on a girl at school and Mal...I don't know. There's something behind her eyes that I can't figure out.

"There's bound to be things going on with the ones who aren't here yet, too. There's shit behind everyone's curtain, but no one is damaged, Cat. They're living. You don't do that without picking up some scars, but you also don't sauce yourself up, alone in a locked room, trying to pretend like you're the only one that's got any! You find people that you love and you take care of each other's hurts, and goddamn it, bun, I want us to be that for each other."

Fenella placed a paw on his shoulder, causing him to jump and quirk his ears backward.. "That's enough. Take it easy, lad."

Cataría sat forward in the chair now, holding her head in her paws. Her ears were folded back as far as they could go and her shoulders were shaking. Alder left his chair and crossed the short space between them. He eased down onto his knees before her and rested his forehead against hers, placing his paws on her thighs. After a moment, she reached out and drew him to her. Her paws clutched at the fabric of his shirt and he returned the embrace softly.

The three of them remained in the library and talked until mid-afternoon. Conversation, uninterrupted by the clamor of the family, did well to smooth the tension that Cataría felt and allowed the alcohol to work its way out of her system. They finally came out when her bladder could take no more. Abigail and Iseabail were in the back garden playing with the younger bunch. There was no sign of Sìlas or Molly. Cataría ducked into the toilet while Alder and Mrs. Caird silently watched the young ones at their games.

"Come alang, you two," Fenella told the two of them after Cat returned. "Neither of ye have eaten anything of substance today. That's nae good."

***

Mimosa loved traveling by air. Rather, she had loved it. After forty-five hours, three planes, two hotels, and more molded plastic terminal seats than she had ever wanted to sit in, she would have built a boat by hand for the return trip. Presently she sat in wrinkled cargo pants and a plain t-shirt, compressed against the wall of the plane by the bulk of her neighbor. The badger in the seat next to her was nattering on about her husband's Navajo blankets and the puma was running desperately low on patience.

"...and you know," the badger was droning in her ubiquitous received pronunciation, "that marvelous use of color and shape! I really don't think anything is a beautiful as Indian craft. Your people have such--"

"Not my people," Mim interrupted dryly.

The interruption took her neighbor aback. "I beg your pardon?"

"You should; though, you folks can't really be expected to know the difference. After all, it was Europeans who spent five hundred years tying to kill us all. We could hardly expect y'all to remember our names, when you couldn't be bothered to dig graves for us much less put up stones."

The flabbergasted badger sputtered, "Of all the...How dare you!"

Mim rubbed her face with her paws and said, "Look, lady, I'm sorry for being blunt. I know you meant the best, but lumping in pumas with Navajo just because they're both indigenous peoples from the same rough geographic area is the same thing as lumping you in with the Conquistadors or the Nazis just because y'all are European. If anything, we're more closely related to the puma and jaguar confederation that formed the backbone of the Inca empire, before it collapsed. We had our own crafts, our own customs, and our own language before missionaries took it all away from us and stuck it in museums. Hell, I don't even know how to weave."

"Well, I can understand that, dear; but it wasn't necessary to be so rude."

The puma sighed. This was a brick wall that wasn't worth banging one's head against.

"No, I suppose it never is. Chalk it up to two days worth of airplanes and recycled air." ...and half a millennium of assholes who thought native crafts were more worthy of preservation than the people who made them, she didn't add.

At least she had quiet for the remaining fifteen minutes of the flight. She wondered if maybe she should have chewed the lady a new ass earlier and saved herself two hours of drivel about warp, and weft, and dyes. She smiled out the window.

The airport was a hellishly busy place, just like the previous ones. Thousands of frantic people dashed about as if unsure whether they were chasing something or being chased by something. Maybe it was all the same thing. Maybe you chased your prey only to find that it eats you when you catch it.

She repositioned the strap of her purse on her shoulder and followed the signs to the proper desk for international arrivals and passport control. The Border Force officer raised his eyebrows at her approach and asked for her passport and landing card. These she handed over and yawned while he checked them over.

"Long trip?" the human asked in an oddly inflected voice.

"Yeah, you could say that. Doesn't show too much, does it?" she said, flashing him a polite smile.

The broken garbage disposal in her apartment sink could have replied with more emotion than the officer did.

"Not at all, ma'am. What brings you to the United Kingdom?"

"I'm visiting family."

"How long will you be staying?"

She wanted to remind him that he could find that information on the landing card, but she was too tired for the hassle that would follow. Instead, she replied, "Should be no more than a week. Depends on how my brother is doing."

"Thank you," the man droned as he returned her papers. "Baggage claim is to your right. Next please."

Mimosa waited to roll her eyes until she was facing away from him. The gesture earned her a chuckle from a couple of the other travelers in line. She squeezed through the crowd at the baggage carousel and waited for her bags to materialize. Half of the crowd dissipated within fifteen minutes or so. She yawned again.

Better not have gotten fucking lo--

Something softly grabbed her tail and she froze. Her hackles raised and the fur of her tail puffed out. Before she had a chance to wonder who to punch, though, a high-pitched giggle came from behind her. Looking over her shoulder, she found the offender still holding her tail.

A small, human child--not more than one-and-a-half or two years old--stood with a wild shock of strawberry blonde curls and a look of disarming joy. "Kitty!" she tittered.

The girl's mother noticed and apologized in a lovely, high, lilting voice, "So sorry! Mary, let go. That's rude."

Mary was having none of that. Her mouth drew into an exaggerated pout and she transitioned from holding Mimosa's tail to hugging it to her chest. The puma snickered.

"Is not wude! Is nice!" Mary asserted. "Wuv fwuffy kitty!"

"It's all right," Mim said to the mother with a laugh. "This fwuffy kitty has had a very, very long trip and needed something nice to cheer her up. Thank you, Mary."

A small, bright purple suitcase with cartoonish unicorns on the front tumbled out of the chute and the girl squealed. She released Mimosa's tail and ran to the carousel, struggled to pull the case off and succeeded. She half-danced, half-staggered back to her mother, who already had her baggage. The pair said their goodbyes to the puma and walked off.

"Adorable kid," she mumbled to herself.

The first of her bags slid down and she pulled it from the line. As she waited for her other bag, she busied herself checking that no damage had been done to the first. The second bag appeared five minutes later. Content that both were in good condition, she moved on to the customs desks. It came as no surprise that the person behind the counter there, a grey-muzzled canine with a look of permanent disgust, was no less robotic than the previous officer.

"Anything to declare?"

No jokes, Mim. Be. Serious. "It's a long damn way from Albuquerque to Edinburgh." Fuck.

Cold brown eyes blinked over the dog's reading glasses as she droned, "Indeed. Open your bags, please."

A thorough search of both suitcases and her purse revealed noting of concern to the customs officer, although her ears perked up at an item in the side pouch of the puma's toiletries bag. She cleared her throat and cocked her head. The insides of Mimosa's ears went bright red and they folded back.

"A girl's gotta be prepared, right?" she quipped, wishing the desk offered a bit more privacy.

"Ah..." the dog hesitated, blinking and zipping the pouch and toiletries bag closed again. "In-indeed. Sorry, I've seen a lot working here but nothing quite so...aggressive-looking." Her tone was less robotic now, more personable.

Mim laughed. "When heat strikes and there's not a biological alternative, anatomical accuracy is...helpful."

The customs officer smirked and finished closing the luggage. Signing of on the paperwork, she said, "Yes, an unfortunate truth for us, too."

"Ah!" the puma said, "Hang on."

She dug through her purse and produced a business card, which she handed to the officer. It was a plain white card with a website on one side and a swirling floral logo on the other. The business name was not evident from the logo or the site.

"Here, they have a...uh...wide variety."

The dog took the card in a sooth, discrete motion while handing Mimosa's papers back to her and replied with a faint wink. "Thank you. Safe travels, ma'am."

There was a throng of people waiting for international arrivals to process through customs. Most of them appeared to be hired drivers, low-level office workers, and corporate toadies. There were a few families and individuals as well. The badger's husband, a rotund thing in beige tweeds, offered a meek wave to his wife as she waddled up with her bags.

"You'll never imagine, Humphrey, the horrible Indian I was sitting next to!" is probably how the conversation'll go, Mimosa thought to herself. Or whatever his name is.

Everyone seemed to be dressed in heavy clothes, thick coats, scarves, and hats. It made her feel almost naked in her light trousers and t-shirt. She scanned the crowd, trying to find her ride. It didn't help that there were around half a dozen rabbits. As her eyes made their fourth pass over the masses, a lithe figure wormed between a couple of crisply-suited business types. The cotton-white fur of his face stood out in stark contrast to the dark colors of the suit jackets that sandwiched him and made him look like the cream filling of a giant Oreo. He popped free and ran his paws down his anorak to straighten it. Below the jacket, he wore battered denim jeans and work boots, whose condition was no better. The rabbit's ears drooped back as his wide, blue eyes picked through the exiting passengers. When his gaze landed on her, though, the lids narrowed above his grin and his ears popped upright.

"Miss Matsubayashi!" he called, waving.

As she approached, she smiled politely and said, "That's me. Mimosa is fine. You must be Alastair."

"Aye!" he said. "Mimosa, eh? Like the wee shrubs? Eh...'sensitive plants'...Mimosa pudica and aw'?"

That accent and those eyes, dear god...she thought. Could the timing for all of this be any worse? I'm due for it any day now and if it comes while I'm here, I might just break this spindly kid in half.

"Uh, no," she said aloud. "My brother tells me that the tree I was named after isn't actually a mimosa."

"Eh? It's no?" His right ear remained upright, focused on her, but his left dipped in bemusement.

Oh, fuck, you're adorable! She smiled and shifted her weight, replying, "Yeah, it's...um...All bees...Albeezo? I don't know. Alder's the plant guy.

Those bright sapphires lit up. "Oh, Albizia, aye! We've a couple Albizia julibrissin in the greenhouse, they're pretty too."

She cocked an eyebrow and he suddenly realized what he said.

"I mean, y'know, mimosas and albizias. They're both...they're both pretty, that is," he stammered. The insides of his ears went a magnificent crimson and the puma could almost see the skin beneath his fur going red as well. "Och! That's no tae say that ye're no pretty! Ye are. Beautiful, I mean. Ah...shite."

Mim laughed and said, "Calm down, son. You're gonna give yourself an aneurysm. Thank you. Y'ain't half bad yourself."

"Bah!" he scoffed. "Nonsense! Skin and bones, me. Here, I'll gie ye a hand wi' yer stuff."

She let him take the handle of one of her suitcases and the pair trundled through the mob to the exit. They caught a shuttle cart to Alastair's car, a boxy two-seater that just barely fit her bags in addition to the ones he had in the boot. He was easily a foot shorter than her, but handled the heavy bags without effort. All skin and bones, my ass. They passed through the ticket booth and paid for his parking, then caught the M9 out of Edinburgh.

"It'll be aboot ninety minutes tae get tae the place; two hours if the roads are terribly wet, which they almost always are. I'll bet ye're knackered after the flights."

"I'm what?"

"Tired" he said with a sidelong glance and a grin.

"Oh! Yeah, forty five hours is pretty rough."

He shook his head. "Fucking hell. Look, the seat'll lie back a bit. Have a kip while I drive, there isnae much tae see anyway."

She smiled at the offer. "I appreciate that, but it wouldn't be polite. I can rest later. Maybe it'll help me get into the proper sleep schedule for this time zone."

"Whatever ye say, lass," he chuckled, switching on the radio.

***

Three little rabbits stood panting at the base of a tall spruce. Their thick outerwear left only their paws and heads exposed, revealing black fur on one and white fur on the other two. Between the overcast sky and the thick needles overhead, the early afternoon was transformed into a hushed twilight. Seven-year-olds Mark and Stuart stared at the surrounding woodland with nervous eyes and ears swiveling to and fro. Struana, one year their senior, closed her eyes as sniffed at the air.

"Anything?" Mark gasped, brushing his paws over his face.

Struana opened her brown eyes and shook her head. The white fur of her eyebrows settled into a frustrated frown. Both bunnies looked at their all-white brother Stuart, whose eyes and ears were locked on a dim area of brush.

"Didye hear tha'?" he whispered with a shudder.

"Hear what?" responded Struana.

Stuart pointed to the brush and said, "I think I heard a twig snap. Ower there."

They all held their breath and strained their ears, but only the wind and their heartbeats could be heard.

"Where is he?" Mark moaned.

Behind them whispered a voice, "Right here."

They wheeled to find themselves face-to-face with gleaming eyes and fangs. The trio wheeled and ran, too focused on fleeing to notice that one of them didn't keep up. The moment they turned, Stuart tripped on the uneven ground and landed on the snow with a soft thump. The other's squeezed their eyes shut when they heard his screams and struggled to pour on more speed.

"Stop!" shrieked the kit. "Stoppit! Ahh!".

"There!" said Alder, brushing loose snow off of his paws after sprinkling a pawful onto the bunny's head. "Y'all are the ones that wanted to play 'cowboys and indians' with an Indian cowboy. Good work listening there, though. If I hadn't tossed a rock into that bush, you might have heard me sneak up!"

"Hey! That's no fa--" Stuart stopped, realizing that the cat had already melted back into the shadows.

"Kindae creepy how he can dae that, isnae it?" whispered his older sister, Cataria, stepping up from the side.

She helped Stuart up from the snow and brushed him off. He laughed and shook the snow out of his anorak and off his head.

"Aye! He's dead good."

A hundred and fifty meters away, the puma was crouched low and moving quickly. The late afternoon sun fell through the pinewoods as a blue-green haze, rather than distinguishable light. The bunnies could see surprisingly well in the dark, but he could see better. He wore light grey trousers and a dark green shirt, no jacket and no shoes or socks. His soft paws made only a whisper of sound as he followed their tracks and their scent. Fortunately, he managed to stay downwind of them.

The rabbits and their pursuer circled through the woods on the east side of the house, moving toward the front. Mark and Struana huddled next to a thicket and watched the woods behind them. There was no sight or sound of the puma. Breathing heavy, the pair turned to look at the front of the house. There was an open stretch of snowy ground, maybe twenty meters, between them and the veranda. Their mother sat at the top step, surrounded by the others who had already been tagged out. All they had to do was make it up there without being caught.

"Arite, Mark?" Struana panted.

"Nup," he replied, "but let's dae it anyway."

They braced to run and paused. The sound of a vehicle filtered through the forest. Someone was crunching up the driveway to the house. The rabbits glanced at each other with a smirk and nodded. Once the car came closer, they could use the noise as cover and dash to the veranda.

Headlights appeared through the trees and swung side to side with the curves of the gravel path. It materialized as a little blue compact car that they recognized as Alastair's. They counted under their breath as the car rounded the last bend. After the headlights swung past them, they bolted.

Halfway across the open space, the puma burst from the woods at their left and cackled, "Two for one!"

They couldn't dodge left because of the oncoming cat, nor right because of absence of cover in the driveway. Slowing down would get them caught even faster. Gritting their teeth, they ran as hard as they could. It wasn't going to be enough. He was twenty yards away, then fifteen, ten...five.

"Oof!" grunted the puma, tumbling to the side and skidding into the snow.

The kits heard Cataría's bright laughter behind them as they ran. A look over their shoulders showed that the cat lay upon his back, howling with laughter as their big sister straddled him and nibbled on his sides. They grinned and jogged up the steps to join their mother and collect some hot chocolate from a thermal flask.

"Enough! Enough--argh!" Alder grunted. "I surrender, Cat."

She lifted her head up from his side and kissed him long on the mouth.

"Didnae expect another predator tae be hidin' in the woods, didye?" she asked, sitting up proudly.

He chuckled, out of breath. "Nope! Nice work, bun."

She stood and helped him up. They brushed one another off, sneaking a squeeze or a grope here and there and nipping at each other's muzzles. Two days worth of relaxing, talking, getting used to the surroundings, and talking some more had done wonders for the tension that had briefly threatened to sour their relationship. They had even managed to get some "together alone" time, though they had mostly spent that cuddling and talking. Once, it had developed into some heavy foreplay just in time for Mrs. Caird to knock on the door and announce that dinner was ready. Now, they walked slowly over to the veranda to meet up with the others.

"That was Alastair's car," Cat noted. "Looked like he wisnae alone. I hadn't heard that he was bringing someone."

Alder looked over to where the car rolled to a stop and noted that the head leaning against the passenger window was light brown, with dark ears and what just might have been white dots. A smile pulled his muzzle to the side and he blinked some unexpected moisture from his eyes.

"I'll just be damned," he muttered.

"Eh?" Cataría asked, realizing suddenly that her companion had altered course to meet up with the car and the thin, white rabbit that climbed out.

"Alastair?" the puma called as he walked up.

"Aye? Oh! Mr. Matsubayashi, right? Aye, yes, Alastair. That's me." The skinny boy reaching out to shake his paw was twenty-one and looked every bit as though he might shit himself as Iseabail had suggested.

"All right, kid. Calm down. Jesus, it was one paper." He took Alastair's paw and was happy to find that this Caird male wasn't interested in a contest of strength.

"Ah! Iz told ye aboot that?" Alastair asked with a red tint rising in his ears, which he tried to conceal by dropping them back. "Sorry. It really was a dead good article. I've been talking with my professor down at uni aboot tyin' tae implement some of the practices on new buildings goin' up in the city center. We just need tae get approval from the planning commission and the council, and find a contractor who isn't a cunt."

"Well, good luck with that. We never managed."

"Really? That's a shame. I'd half hoped to see photos of the practical applica-- Oh! Eh...look, your sister is asleep over there, we should probably let her know we arrived."

"Yeah, poor girl must be beat."

The rabbit laughed. "Aye, she tried tae stay awake, but the countryside was just too boring. By the time I tried tae point out Sterling Castle tae her, she was alreidy oot."

Alder looked at his sleeping sister through the window with a tender, far away expression. He wasn't seeing a puma of thirty-nine, but a cub of ten who slumped against the window of a Pontiac station wagon in a Dramamine coma. She never dealt well with the trips through the mountains. Still, she loved that final descent from the Sierra Blancas onto the High Plains that surrounded Roswell. So, even after they had moved away from the town at four years of age and settled in Alto, she demanded that he wake her when they reached the end of the foothills on trips to visit family friends, so she could see the lights spread out below them. The tenderness faded and his eyes glinted. His dark ears folded back at a playful angle, accented by the smirk that played across his muzzle. He leaned toward the window and cupped his paws on the glass.

In his highest-pitched voice, he cried, "Mim! Mim! Mimsy! The lights! You're gonna miss 'em!"

Mimosa's eyes fluttered open and she sat up, craning her head to see...snow. Shitloads of it. And trees. And a fucking big house with a crowd of rabbits and... Oh, right. There was her brother, grinning like a goddamned moron. She unfastened her seatbelt and opened the door.

"Not cool, dick," she grumbled around a yawn.

"Couldn't resist," he chuckled.

They wrapped each other in a tremendous embrace, far longer than a greeting called for. Cataría, watching from the side, noted with surprise that Mim was taller than Alder by an inch, even accounting for the shoes she wore. They were both dressed similarly, stressing the physical resemblance. But, now that they were next to each other, Cat could make out the differences.

Mimosa had the same slim build that Alder did, but carried a bit more weight. While his work kept him outside and active, she spent more of her time indoors. It really only amounted to a small reduction of that characteristic looseness of skin that pumas share. Her muzzle was slightly shorter and broader than her brother's, but its lines were also softer. The biggest difference was in their eyes: where Alder's were yellow-green and seemed to reach into the observer, Mimosa's were deep, quiet pools of a darker green, flexed with brown. They seemed to draw the observer in and show them a reflection of themselves. When the pools focused on her, Cat found herself abstractly noting that female house cats were called queens and how much more appropriate the team would have been for the individual in front of her.

I wonder if she smells softer, too, she wondered.

That regal illusion dissipated rather quickly when Mim shook her brother by the shoulders and squealed, "Eeeee! Alder, there's so many bunnies!"

He gave a single, staccato laugh and brought her over to Cataría. "Mim, y'all have seen each other on the phone, but this is Cat...Cataría Caird. Bun, Mimosa."

The rabbit found herself subjected to a hug before she could say hello. The puma didn't apply excessive force, but was clearly not shy. Her cheek brushed against Cat's ear and her large paws patted her back through the coat.

No, not softer. He's all trees and stone, and she's more... It was hard to place. ...burnt but green...

Then it hit her, shortly after she got to Australia, she had been out for a drive with a friend, to a safari park. On the way, the passed the scene of a recent wildfire. It had been snuffed by a heavy downpour the night before and the hot spots still steamed and hissed as they drove past. The harsh odor of ash mingled on the wind with that of the wet, unburnt foliage. The cougar's scent was much the same: sharp, rich, and slightly acrid but oddly pleasant at the same time.

"It's good to meet you in person, Cat," Mimosa whispered next to her ear. "Thank you for taking care of this asshole."

"It's good tae meet you, too," she replied, gently returning the embrace. "He makes it surprisingly easy."

Mim snorted, "Yeah, right!"

Alder chimed in, "Whisper all you like, I'm still right here. Besides, while y'all are making out over here, there's a bunch of folks that still need an introduction."

His sister turned and stuck her tongue out at him, hugging the rabbit tighter and quipping, "Don't tempt me, bud. It's been a long time for me and she smells intoxicating."

"Dae I need to yell 'stranger danger'?" Cat squeaked.

Mimosa let her go with a pat on the back and said, "No, no. I know better than to stand between two lovebirds. I'll end up getting my eyes pecked out."

Alder and Cat walked Mimosa over to the rest of the family, whom Alastair had joined. The puma introduced his sister to the group, naming each and explaining the connections between them. He explained that she'd have to wait to meet Donna, Frank, David, and Cat's father, who were at the distillery, as well as some other siblings that were still expected to arrive. Mimosa at least had the tact to ask if any of them had objections to getting a greeting hug. A couple of the younger boys declined and she had to suffice with pawshakes from them. The rest were game and the big cat was ecstatic. She had always loved the four-legged kind of rabbits and had been looking forward to meeting the Cairds since Fenella offered to bring her out to Scotland. The matriarch was the first to receive her embrace, along with her heartfelt thanks. As she broke free from Abigail, the last of the conveyor belt of greetings, Mimosa noticed that Alastair was looking a bit dejected.

"You all right, there cottonbud?" she asked, drawing a couple of snickers from his siblings.

The insides of his ears darkened a bit and he replied with a laugh, "Fine, aye. I was just thinkin', I didnae gie ye a pawshake or say 'hello' or anything when I met ye. Didnae even occur tae me. Feelin' like a bit of an arse."

Mim's weight shifted onto her left hip as she crossed her arms and folded her ears back in thought, mumbling, "Really? I was pretty beat but I coulda sworn..."

"Nup!" he said shrugging and holding out his paw. "Guess I'd best make up for it."

She looked at his paw and her tail twitched sharply, then she met his eyes again. The left side of her muzzle pulled back into a half grin that exposed a fang. Uncrossing her arms, she stepped up and laid both paws on the sides of his face. His gorgeous blue eyes went huge when her lips me his to a chorus of "Oooohs" from the younger bunnies and a gasp from Abby. It was a short kiss but warm, and she grinned as she pulled back.

"It was my bad as much as yours. Hope that settles it," she said with a wink.

"Eh...yeah..." he whispered, ears now properly red and canted to the sides.

Alder sighed and shook his head. Interacting with people came a whole lot easier to Mimosa than it did to him, but surely there were limits. The kid was high-strung enough without her teasing him.

"All right, all right," he chuffed. "Let's all get in before the kids freeze or this poor, pale fucker passes out."

As the younger bunnies thundered indoors to shed their gear, with help from Iseabail and Abigail, Alder approached Fenella.

"Ma'am," he said in a low voice, "thank you for this. It means...it means an awful lot."

She favored him with a sidelong glance. "I know, son. I didnae regret my decision, even if it was rather rash. Ye're a good lad and ye both need this...at least as much as we needed ye here."

"Maybe. Still, it's a hell of an expense."

Her bright laugh echoed off of the front of the house. "Dinnae fash, dear boy; we're loaded."

He snickered. "All right. Thanks, still. But, umm..."

"Where to take her things?"

He nodded with a smile.

The white rabbit shrugged her shoulders and said, "Well, the cottage, I suppose."

Alder raised an eyebrow, but opted against noting that the cottage was terribly small. "Allrighty. I'll carry her things through for her. She's had a rough couple of days. No sense making her haul her own stuff."

"Oh, aye. That'll be fine, then."

Something struck him about her demeanor. He couldn't put a pad to it, but she was acting awfully--if he had to put a name to the feeling--smug. He walked over to Alastair's car, where the boy was unloading things from the boot. Cat tagged along behind.

"I'll take Mimsy's stuff," Alder said as the white buck looked up.

"Eh? Oh! Sure," Alastair said, pulling out the heavy bags. "It's these two and her handbag up front. Guess she got...eh...distracted."

"Yeah, sorry about that. She can be kinda effusive."

Alastair laughed. "Aye, that she is. She must be a pawful when she's not knackered."

Alder grabbed the handle of one of the suitcases and said, "More than just one pawful. Just thank your lucky stars this isn't her 'time of the month'. She can be...we'll just call it aggressively clingy."

"Disnae sound so bad, really," the kid said with a grin.

It was the puma's turn to laugh. "Careful, bud! That's my sister you're--"

Alastair's cocked eyebrow and amused smirk stopped him. The rabbit's stark blue eyes looked just past the big cat. When Alder turned he found Cat failing to suppress a fit of giggles.

"Ah," he said, turning back to Alastair and passing his free paw over his face, "right. Okay, so, I'm a hypocritical asshole, and you are a grown up. Let me try that over: if you wanna try for her, go ahead. Just be good to her and be very, very careful."

"Gonnae tell him that ye'll pull out his balls an' wedge 'em in 'is nose, tree?" Cataría asked with a grin.

"Nah, I don't need to threaten violence. I know she's an adult and can take care of herself. Plus, she's bigger and stronger than me, so there's nothing I could do that she couldn't do worse."

"Sae...um...what wid I need tae be careful aboot?" wondered the white rabbit.

Alder's muzzle pulled into a dangerous looking grin and he drawled, "Well, kid, there's not much to you. If you get her riled up when she's on her moon, she'll fuck you clean in two."

Cat and Alastair both fell about roaring at that.

"Laugh it up, fuckers" the puma chuckled. "I just hope you don't play sports, kid. You won't anymore if she get's hold of you."

Alder grabbed the handle of the other bag and strained his way back up to the house lugging both. Cat caught up to him along the way and took one of Mim's bags off of the struggling puma. As the two walked, she smirked at him beneath a quizzical frown.

"Cannae quite tell if ye're serious, tree," she finally mumbled as they reached the veranda at the top of the steps.

There was a whump behind them as Alastair shut the boot of his car and gathered his things to carry them in. The white rabbit threw one light duffel bag's strap around his neck, so that it hung against his chest. He slung his other two bags over each shoulder and started up the steps. The bags on his shoulders were about the same size as Mimosa's and looked to be about as heavy. Despite this, the rabbit was casually hopping up the steps two at a time.

Tough little guy, huh? thought the cat. To Cataría he said, "It might be a tiny exaggeration, but there's truth enough behind it. There was this football player--our kind, not soccer--at our high school, one of those huge, hairy, fuckin' humans that makes you wonder if maybe there aren't voxipedal gorillas. Like, all of the DNA from all of the neanderthals they fuck-fought to extinction coalesced into one monument to the concept of mouth-breathing. He was one of those types that needs to prove themselves to be a capital-M man, no matter what they were doing: had to be stronger than everyone, more virile than anyone. Let me see...Luíz Paloverde, that was his name.

"He defined himself two ways. First, and most important to his identity, he was an athlete. Football and wrestling were his favorites and he expected to get a scholarship for one or both to get into a good college. He had his sights set on professional football. Secondly, he had to fuck any girl that he could. He wasn't picky about species or how he got them. He got one little chicana cheerleader pregnant, convinced her he loved her and wanted to marry her, which he didn't, of course. About the same time, he supposedly knocked up the school librarian; though, that could have just been rumors."

Alastair, curious about the conversation, set his things down on the veranda and stopped to listen.

The puma continued, "After those two, Paloverde leaned more toward voxipeds, didn't want to run the risk of ruining his future career by getting saddled with a job and a kid right out of high school. I bet it saved him on sleeping pills, too. Rumors, again. With our kind, all he had to do was catch them when they hit estrus. It worked really well for him, up until he caught Mimosa when her moon turned."

"What happened? She rip his cock off?" Cat joked with a wink at Alastair, who grinned.

"Almost," Alder deadpanned.

"Oh, cummoan!" groaned Cat.

Her brother echoed her sentiment with a chuckling, "Aye, gie's a break!"

The puma scratched his side with his free paw and said wryly, "No, dead serious. Puma ladies are loud and rough. It's a throwback to our forebears. See, Mom was working her night job, and I was over at a friend's house playing video games and laughing at her getting stoned. Mim went out with Paloverde for dinner and a movie, all cliche-like. She told me later that they made out so heavily in the theater that they got kicked out...loud, like I said. Since they were all horned up and the house was empty, they went there to get down to business. Mimsy called me at my friend's house and begged me to come home. When I got there, Paloverde was a fucking wreck. He was screaming and crying, laying on what was left of Mim's bed. She was in hysterics. When we tried to help him get dressed and up, I got a clear look at the poor bastard.

"He was one solid bruise from his navel to halfway down his thighs. His dick and nutsack were this awful purple-black. Cleaning him up was a fucking chore. We couldn't touch him anywhere without him yelling. We finally got him wiped down and took him and his motorcycle down to the road and put them both in the ditch."

"Fucking what?" Cat demanded. "Alder, why the fuck widye do something like that?"

"He asked us to, in between crying like a fucking baby. Said his reputation would be ruined if anyone found out a girl had done it to him. So, he had me lay a stripe of rubber with the bike--that was fun!--and roll it down the ditch. We got him back in his riding gear with a ton of trouble and set him down on the shoulder of the road. He tipped himself over and screamed the whole way down, scraping himself up on the rocks and stuff. After he came to a stop, we checked he hadn't hurt himself too much worse and then ran to the house to call for the cops and an ambulance. They took him to the hospital and treated the whole thing like an motorcycle accident.

"A week or so later, he got released from the hospital. Turned out he had a broken hip and had torn six or seven ligaments in his pelvis, including a couple that connect the penis to the muscles in the groin. One of his balls was pretty much ruined. Physical therapy and surgery got him walking almost as good as new, but the doctors told him that sports were right out. Killed his dreams. Can't say I felt sorry for him, though. Crazy thing is, that cheerleader still wanted him. Sat with him through most of his therapy sessions. By the time he graduated from high school, they were like a proper family. He worked at his dad's machine shop to help take care of her and the baby, then took an academic scholarship to a local college and ended up teaching P.E. and coaching the football team. Fuckin' fairytale ending that no one expected."

As the cat finished, he glanced between the two rabbits. Cat looked shocked but still dubious, one ear elevated and the other laying at a angle to the side, twitching. The boy, on the other hand, looked properly terrified. His ears were folded all the way back and he shuddered at some mental image.

"Don't let that discourage you, though, kid," Alder said, patting Alastair's shoulder. "She's older now and probably calmer...maybe. Besides, if you take the top or go in from behind, you'll be fine." He paused and snorted, "What the fuck am I saying? Holy shit. Just, uh...I dunno...if you wanna take the shot, just be good to her, all right?"

With a nervous nod and a preoccupied expression, Alastair picked up his bags again and hurried inside and up to his room. Cat and Alder passed through the anteroom and the main hall and out through the back door. When they reached the cottage and went inside, the puma was struck by a change.

"Someone cleaned in here." he said, noting the smell of chemicals as he stepped into the kitchen.

Cat slipped her boots off and set them next to the door with a coy, "Oh, aye. Mum and I did earlier while ye were playin' wi' Iz, Abby and the kits."

"I wondered where y'all had got off to. Can't believe I didn't notice."

"Ye were aff in the woods at the time" she called over her shoulder as she walked into the lounge and continued to the bedroom.

Alder stopped in his tracks when he walked in with his sister's bag. The bedclothes were changed and the room smelled fresh, but...

"Uh, bun?"

"Hmm?" she hummed, placing Mim's bag on the floor next to the wall.

"Where are my things?"

She looked back at him with a face of purest innocence. "Yer things?"

"Yeah, Cat. My luggage and whatnot. They ain't here or in the living room out there."

"Oh? Surely, they must be in there. Mibbe they're behind the sofa?"

"Cat," he smirked, "my nose is better than that. They aren't in there."

She walked over to him and placed her arms over his shoulders. Favoring him with two quick pecks on the lips, she smiled and said, "My room."

"Oh?" he said with raised eyebrows. "I'm off probation, am I?"

"Mum and I talked and both of us discussed it with your sister over the phone. It's better this way. Mimosa needs a space of her own while she's here, and this way ye and I can, mibbe, 'sleep' better."

Alder smiled and dropped the bag he was carrying. He wrapped his arms around the black rabbit and lifted her off her feet, which elicited a shriek and a giggling fit that was cut short by his mouth upon hers. Her paws began to wander, one up his neck to hold the back of his head and the other down to his shoulder and back. He nipped at her twitching nose when he felt her claws through his shirt. His paws slipped down to cup her rump and pull her tighter against him. It had been days since the two of them had sex and their hunger was fierce.

"Tree?" she gasped in between nibbles at his neck.

His paws squeezed her ass and he growled, "Mmm?"

"Your phone." Her tongue ran up his chin, where she sank her teeth gently.

"What about it?" he breathed.

She chuckled into the fur of his cheek, "Ye just gonnae let it keep ringing?"

He looked her in the eye, perplexed. "Pardon?"

"It's getting distracting."

He shook his head gently and said, "Mine's plugged in in the house. Left it there to keep snow and mud out of it."

"Eh? Then..."

His senses broadened beyond the bunny in his arms and he caught what she heard. A low, pulsing buzz was coming from somewhere in the room. He set her down and together they scanned the room with their ears, pinning the sound down to the bag Alder has just set down.

"Why would the silly cat have put her phone in a checked bag? Must have left in a rush."

"Tree, I don't think..." Cataría started as he unzipped the bag.

"Well, if someone's trying to call her, she'll probably want to know," he mumbled, locating a smaller bag inside that seemed to house the phone.

"Eh...it might be a...ah...I mean, wouldn't a phone have gone tae voicemail by n--"

The puma had unzipped the side pouch of the bag, after finding only hygiene gear in the main compartment, and stopped cold. His ears remained perked forward, but his tail increased in diameter a bit and lashed a couple of times.

"...ah," he whispered, rocking back on his heels.

There in the pouch was vibrator whose business end was an exact anatomical replica of a macrofelid's penis. The base contained a knob whose markings suggested that it controlled both power and intensity, with a button in the enter that cycled through vibration patterns. The silicone skin of the device was a swirl of yellow and green and the semi-rigid bristles wiggled slightly with the rotation of some inner mechanism.

"Heech! Fucking hell! Turn it...turn it off, Adler," Cat stuttered, staring at the humming thing. "Just turn it off and zip it up. Gie the lass her privacy!"

He chuckled and reached for it. The heft surprised him a bit, though not as much as the immediate tingling in his paw pads. He fumbled with the knob, accidentally hitting the button and switching through two more patterns of buzzing, the second of which made Cat gasp behind him at the frequency of the pulses. She sighed in relief when he worked out how to shut it off. Her ears burned red and she stared at the vibrator with wide eyes. As the puma set the device back in its pouch, she noticed something and put her paw on his shoulder.

"Hang on..."

He looked up with a question in his eyes, but hers were locked on the vibrator.

"What is it, bun?"

"Are the bristles...the same on every puma?"

He blinked and squirmed, feeling pins and needles in his left leg. "They feel and behave the same on all of us, yeah. Why?"

"Naw, I meant the number and spacing, like: the pattern."

Shifting his weight, he cleared his throat and said, "No. They're different on all of us. Like rosettes on a jaguar."

She frowned in thought, then leaned forward and picked up the toy. She turned it over in her paws and the frown melted in to confusion.

"Alder," she whispered, "why it is yours?"

"What?" he gasped in genuine surprise. "Bullshit, let me see."

She handed it back to him and he ran the pad of his paw over the spines.

"Jesus..." he whispered with a shudder. "What the fuck?"

They jumped when a voice behind them growled, "Snooping, brother?"

Alders turned backward sharply and his eyes went huge, their pupils contracting to pinpoints. The fur of his back fluffed out enough that it was noticeable under the fabric of his shirt and his tail doubled its diameter as it thrashed behind his frozen body. Where he was still, Cat was animated, leaping to her feet and taking a couple of steps back, she instinctively put her paws up in front of her and stammered a vague apology.

"Mimosa! Sorry! We're...it isnae like that! It turned on when the bag hit the floor. We didnae ken what it was until we saw it, and then we shut it aff. That'll aw!"

"Hush, bunny. I got no bone to pick with you," Mim assured her. "I'm more concerned with how bad I need to beat my forgetful brother before his memory returns."

"What memory, Mimosa?" Alder asked, standing up with the vibrator still in his paws. "I've a suspicion I've remembered things recently that you haven't a clue about."

She curled her paws and rested them on her hips. "I'm thinking about a night four years ago when a desperate and vulnerable sister asked her brother to be the model for a mold so that she could take care of her heats without risk."

Alder was taken aback. "What? Four years ago? When--how-- did this come up in conversation?"

"Almost exactly four years ago, yeah. It was on our birthday just before Christmas."

"Our b-- Mim! We emptied three bottles of whiskey and half a bottle of that disgusting sambuca shit you brought. The only reason I can remember that is because I had to clean your licorice-scented puke out of my goddamn couch. I don't remember agreeing to plaster-casting my cock!"

Mimosa laughed and plopped down on the bed. "Seriously? I must have gotten you way, way too drunk to get you to agree to it. I only had two glasses of whiskey that night. You had the rest and the sambuca. And that puke was yours."

"Mimsy, what the-- Okay, no. I'm gonna approach this calm and collected." He took a deep breath and started over, "All right. So, on our birthday, you got me plastered and then got me to agreed to being plastered?"

"Well, no..."

"Oh, thank fuck."

She grinned, "It wasn't plaster. I think it might have been the same stuff they use for dental molds. Alginate? I think that's it."

She laughed at his slack-jawed expression of disbelief. It wasn't a cruel laugh, just a simple, joyful one. He knew he wasn't being teased, but his ears still burned. He bent and slipped the vibrator into its pouch and closed the suitcase. He brushed his paws on his pants with an exaggerated look of distaste that almost set Cat laughing as well.

"But, eh," she said to Mimosa, "isn't it a bit...weird...using your brother's willy for that?"

"It's good, though," Mim winked, "right?"

"That's hardly the point," the rabbit snickered. "He's...he's your brother!"

Mim rolled her eyes and pointed to her bag. "That's not. It doesn't move like he moves. It isn't warm like his is. Most of all, it doesn't come like he does. It's an imitation solely to quiet my urges at the times when I have the most trouble controlling them."

"I guess imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but...I dunno how I feel about there being a dildo based on me."

"Buck up, bud!" Mimosa said with a massive grin. "You should be thrilled. You're their third best seller."

Alder ran his paws over his face, flinching when he suddenly recalled what he had been holding moments before. "Hey, Kitty?"

She started at the sound of his voice calling her family nickname; he'd never used it before. "Yeah, tree?"

"I don't know about you, but I could really use a drink right about now."

***

"What are all of ye conspirin' ower in here?" Sìlas quipped as they walked into the library.

Ceit, Molly, Donna, Iseabail and Abigail stood clustered and whispering around Cataría, who sat at one of the three desktop computers against the wall opposite the dark windows. Alder and Alastair were out in the greenhouse discussing plants. Fenella was watching a program on television with the younger bunnies. Bothain was asleep in one of the chairs in the lounge, where after-dinner conversation had failed to engage his interest. Mimosa, still exhausted from the trip, had already retired to the cottage and bed. The six ladies shushed their sibling and waved them over.

"Brace yersel, Sìl" Iz chuckled.

"For wha--t the fuck are ye looking at?" Sìlas gasped.

The website on the screen was laid out in clean, sedate colors. There was a swirling, floral logo at the top left, but no clear site or company name. The background was overlapping curves in shades of blue and grey: a stylized ocean. There was a great deal of text describing the product on display and a price that was equivalent to a piece of high technology. Some of the text even referred to rechargeable battery life and aesthetic lines. It wasn't a phone or a computer, though. There at the top of the screen, shown at a variety of angles and with a handful of accessories in a looping slideshow, was a frighteningly massive synthetic phallus of no shape they could have conceived in the wildest of their thirteen-year-old dreams.

"It would seem," Donna said in a low voice, "that some clever cunt with a lot of time on their hands found a way to model an anatomically correct sperm whale cock."

"Fuckin' hell..." muttered the two-tone bunny, reading. "Two...two meters? Who...why?"

Quiet giggles crackled all around and Abby, blushing, said, "Some people must like a challenge."

"Challenge, bollocks! That's longer than any of us are tall. It probably weighs more than I do! And who would pay two thousand quid for a dildo they can only use a sixth of?"

The others blinked at that. Iz poked Sìlas in the rib with an elbow and snorted. "I'd bet thirty-three centimeters is mair than most of us could accommodate at the best of times. Just what are the two of ye packin', Sìl?"

Their black and white ears both went a dark scarlet and folded back as they stuttered, "W-well, y'know...I just...I'm only guessing. I'm just sayin' two meters is a hell of a lot."

"Well," grinned Ceit, "If it's somethin' smaller that you want..."

She leaned forward over Cat's shoulder and typed quickly into the website's search field. Sìlas didn't catch what she typed. The screen went blank, then faded into a new page that traded the simplified ocean waves for a stark arrangement of triangles in greens, greys, and white. As the page faded in, Sìlas realized that they were meant to be snowcapped mountains and pine trees. The description text faded in with talk of motors and rotation and intensity, but Sìlas couldn't pay attention to all of that. The image slideshow faded in with a silhouette of a wild mountain lion set against a white background.

"Dear, sweet, fucking..." they whispered. "Ye cannae be serious."

The others stifled laughter as the silhouette faded away and a slideshow slowly progressed through around ten images of the device, including one animated image that showed the bristles in action. The giggling and tittering all dropped off. They watched through the slideshow twice, even though the others had already seen it.

"I..." Sìlas stammered, "I'm no sure what tae make of that."

Donna cleared her throat and mumbled, "A hell of a night, I would bet."

"I'll say it again," Abby whispered, patting Cat's back, "you're a brave girl, Kitty. That thing scares the fuck ootae me."

"The real thing isnae for the faint o' heart, either," Cat replied with a snicker. She glanced sidelong at Molly, whose ears reddened a bit more.

"Ye must be glad he disnae like gobjobs. It'd tear up yer mooth." Iz said with a grimace and stuck out her tongue.

"I'm mair glad he disnae like 'em because I dinnae like geven 'em. They prickles look harder an' sharper than they are," she added, pointing at the screen.

Ceit snorted, "Aye, mibbe, but ye still told us that ye was sair-cunted for a bit after the first couple of times."

"I no sayin' they dinnae take a bit o' gettin' used tae. But they have their charms."

She clicked on one of the image thumbnails below the slideshow, expanding an embedded frame with a larger version of the photo. The claw of her index finger traced down the shaft of the vibrator and stopped at a section of the spines at the near the top edge of the bristle ring on what would be the underside of the cock. The swirled yellow and green silicone made it difficult to tell, but there was an oblong patch of slightly denser bristles, roughly the diameter of a five pence coin. The spines there were also very slightly longer than the rest.

"This bit is fucking magic when he's behind," she whispered.

"Wait..." Sìlas was catching on to what the others had already been told. "Dae all mountain lions have the same--" they waved their paws vaguely at the screen "--arrangement?"

Cat grinned and shook her head. The two-toned rabbit's mismatched eyes went back to the screen. The others snickered as they watched the bunny suddenly get it.

"Fuckin hell..."

"Yeah," Molly giggled, "it's actually him."

"You would know," mumbled Donna.

Molly shrank into herself and looked at the floor. To everyone's surprise, it was Cat's paw that reached over and took Molly's with a gentle squeeze.

"Ye're gonnae get a lot of that, Mols," she said, looking up at her sister. "Alder forgave ye for what ye did tae him and I'm makin' my peace with it and with ye. The other's have had longer tae brood on it and didnae have the benefit of ye realizing the pain ye caused at the time. Bear with them noo. Ye owe them that much, lass."

Molly squeezed Cataría's paw in return and nodded. A tear slid down her cheek and she whispered, "I ken."

The group went quiet for a moment, so that Donna's teeth grinding was clearly audible. Her ears were laid back as far as they could go and her eyes clenched shut.

"Ahh, for fuck's sake!" she grumbled, grabbing Molly by the shirt.

Molly squeaked as Donna pulled her over and wrapped her in a strong, uncomfortable embrace.

"Listen, ye cunt," Donna huffed, "I love ye. I cannae drop the anger yet, but i dinnae hate ye. I never have. John widae aff an' wetted his cock in some other bitch eventually. I wish it had been a different bitch, but ye saved me the trouble of finding oot after the vows."

Molly clasped the fabric over Donna's back and sobbed into her shoulder. She knew the path to absolution in her sisters' eyes would be long and that she would never be free of the shadows of her actions, but it was comforting to know they would at least allow her to walk it. Tutting, Ceit joined the embrace, followed by Iz. Cat looked up at Sìlas from the chair and smiled.

"Close the thing," Sìlas said, waving at the computer. "I cannae stand here thinking how happy I am that the bloke came intae oor lives while this technicolor monstrosity stares at me."

Cat closed the browser and turned off the computer with a chuckle. "A bit mair info than ye widae wanted?"

"Ye're damn right! I like 'im, Kitty, but that's gonnae haunt me for weeks."

"What is?"

The group turned to find Alder and Alastair standing at the door with confused expressions. The fact that half of the room was wrapped in a hug was unsettling for Alastair, who was more accustomed to the girls being at each other's throats most of the time. The puma on the other hand, noticed the blush that crept into the assembly's erect ears and the grins that the older girls bore. Sìlas couldn't even meet his eye.

"Oh..." he breathed, eyes flicking to the computer as the last electric whirs and beeps died within it. "Ah, shit, bun..."

His ears folded back, hot and red, and he grimaced. The white rabbit looked from the group to the big cat, befuddled.

"What'd I miss?" Alastair asked?

"Oh," replied Ceit, "not much."

"Widnae say that," Abby blurted out. Her cheeks were nearly scarlet above her grin.

Scattered giggled erupted front the group and Cat smacked her with the back of her paw. "We were just looking at something online. Nae bother."

"Arite, arite," he said with a shrug. "No my business. Aw ye had tae dae was say as much."

"Aye, sorry. What brings ye lads up here?"

"There was a book I wanted tae show Alder."

Cat smiled and said, "Well, dinnae let us distract ye."

He shrugged and waved the puma over. "It's over here."

As Alder followed, he watched the Alastair, the floor, the book-lined walls; anything but the girls; but, they were the only thing that occupied his conscious. It felt almost like being pantsed in the hall at school. They resumed talking to each other in hushed tones, just at the edge of his hearing. As Alastair removed the book he sought and held it open to show Alder, the puma sighed.

He flinched when Donna whispered, "Arite if I buy one, Kitty? Looks like it'd be a hell of a good time."

For a moment, he was viciously embarrassed and a little angry, it felt like an invasion of privacy, but then again...

It's not like it just sprang into existence when I found out about it. It's too late to let it bother you now, besides...

"Dunno why you're asking her," he called over with a smile that belied his embarrassment. "It's mine after all. She just borrows the prototype from time to time." He winked at Cat.

The statement had the desired effect: the girls immediately went quiet.

"Ah," Alder purred, "it's fun to dish out the teasing, but uncomfortable when it gets turned around on you?"

Cat laughed. "Tree's got a point. It not me ye should ask. Lang as ye dinnae touch the real one, I'm no bothered."

"Eh...ye sure ye're fine wi' it, pussy cat?" Donna grinned. "It widnae be awkward?"

Alder laughed. "Nah! Awkward was coming to grips with my sister using it. After that, hell, Fenella could order one and I couldn't care less. Damn thing is apparently the third best seller on the site, after the dog and that scary fucking octopus thing, so there's already shitloads of people with a copy of my dick in their sock drawer. What's a few more?"

Cat walked over and kissed him. "One day, tree, I'm gonnae find somethin' that ye cannae be laid back aboot."

He snogged her in return and chuckled, "Good luck, I just get mellower as I get older."

Alastair watched the pair and considered the others who stood at the other end of the room.

"I really have no...wait," he said. "Did ye just say copy of yer...what?"

Alder shrugged. "Yeah, apparently I drunkenly agreed to model for a mold that ended up being used to make sex toys."

Alastair blinked and swallowed hard. "Jings...hang on...yer sister has one?"

"Yep."

"Of yer..."

"Yeah. Crazy, right?"

Because his eyes were focused somewhere through the floor, it took Alastair a few tries to slip the book back into its space on the shelf. He gave up and laid it down in front of the other books.

"I, uh..." he mumbled, "need to...something. Head hurts. Gonnae go tae my room and lie doon."

"Kid?" Alder called out to the rabbit as he reached the library door.

Alastair paused and blinked. "Huh?"

"Two days."

"What?"

The puma grinned. "Day after tomorrow, when everyone hits the sack, go out to the cottage and knock on the door."

"Why?"

"She'll be up for some exercise, if you think you can keep up with her. Just, y'know, stretch first. Can't be too careful."

Alastair shook his head. "What, like, a jog? It's fuckin' freezing ootside."

Alder rolled his eyes and trotted over to the rabbit. He whispered something into his ear that made the inside turn bright red.

"Eh..." hesitated Alastair.

"What's up?"

"Widnae that be as bad as that Pollovulva guy?" the white buck asked with a frown. "Worse, even. There widnae even be the pretense of formalities."

Alder patted him on the back. "Good man. It was Paloverde, but the name wasn't important. What's important is that you aren't interested in taking advantage of her. I'll talk with Mimosa. There's a lot going on with our family right now, but she's also a woman with emotions and physical needs. She already seems to be keen on you, so you may have a chance. Don't hold your breath, though."

With a minuscule, nervous nod, Alastair bolted down the stairs and into the dormitory wing.

"What was that all aboot?" asked Iseabail.

"Hmm?" hummed Alder with a queer smile on his face. "Oh, nothin'. Carrying on from a conversation we were having before about the challenges of fertilizing Albizia julibrissin and the physical dangers of dealing with--"

"Nup!" she interrupted. "Talk plant shite and this astronomer is gonnae fall doon deid frae boredom. All ye need tae say is 'plants' and we get it. That's between the two of ye."

He smiled. "All right, then. Y'all finished giggling over my pecker, or do I need to swing it around in a clown nose and wig?"

The group laughed and agreed to drop the subject for the time being. They began to disperse from the library with designs to retire to their own rooms or to the lounge downstairs. Molly and Sìlas went out first, closely followed by Donna, Iseabail, and Abby. Ceit was slower to depart and almost seemed ready to say something, but her shoulders dropped and she turned for the door without a word.

"Hey, Ceit?" Alder asked, his voice low.

"Hmm?" she replied.

"Curious about something," he grunted, dropping into a chair.

She regarded him with a raised eyebrow and ear tilted forward. "Whazzat?"

He smirked. "I'm thinking about cooking something for y'all as sort of a 'thank you' for hosting me and my sister. I was wondering if I could get your input."

A culinary arts student at university, Ceit was immediately interested. "Aye?"

"Yep. If it isn't any trouble." He motioned to one of the other chairs and nodded to Catarìa, inviting her to sit next to him.

Ceit eased into a chair and asked, "What'd ye have in mind?"

"Well," he drawled, "I saw that y'all have a big variety of peppers out in the greenhouse. It's the Anaheim chiles that drew my interest."

"Ah, aye," she smiled. "We fix a bunch of dishes with those. They're the only ones mild enough that the weans dinnae moan aboot 'em."

"Excellent!" the puma said, clapping his paws. "That was one of my concerns. It can be tough adapting to the tastes of children."

She crossed her legs and shuffled in the seat, as if tryin it get more comfortable. Cat was watching Alder and wondering what he was getting at. She didn't have long to wait.

"I already noticed that y'all are no strangers to fried foods. I haven't seen many dishes with dairy products, though."

Ceit shook her head. "We don't really have the taste for milk or cream, not after infancy. Cheese and butter are about all we dae. You haven't caught us on a pizza night."--she laughed--"The weans need tae be hosed doon tae get all the sauce an' that off 'em."

"Yeah, little ones can be quit a pawful, can't they?" he chuckled.

She shuffled again and her ears fell back. "Eh...what were ye thinkin' of cookin'?"

He smiled at her and held her brown eyes for a beat longer than a reply should have taken, then said, "Chile rellenos, if you're familiar with it."

She shook her head. "It disnae soond familiar. The name is Spanish?"

"Mexican Spanish, yeah. The dish is kinda classic Tex-Mex fare, though the cultivation of the peppers was refined to an art in New Mexico. It's a beautiful little dish with a surprise inside."

"Oh, aye? How so?" she asked, clearing her throat.

"Basically, you clean the pepper, stuff it with cheese, batter it and fry it. I bet I could drum up a couple of appropriate side dishes to compliment it."

"Soonds great! Would it bother ye if I help? I'd love tae learn how to make it."

"I'd be happy for the help. But, on the topic of help..."

"Aye...?"

"Are you getting any?"

She cocked her head to the side. "With what?"

He nodded toward her stomach, where her right paw had been unconsciously describing slow circles over her shirt.

She jerked her paw away and sat up straight. "I dinnae ken what ye--"

"You hung back just know to tell Cat what you haven't worked up the will to tell anyone else," Alder noted. "Your dad painted her as a sort of surrogate mom and confidant for her younger siblings. You've got all the tics of a nervous, expecting mother, from the way you walk and move to the way your paw keeps ending up right there. You haven't got a crippling bowel disorder because you don't scamper off to the toilet at any great frequency or with any urgency, yet. You couldn't tell your confidant. You haven't told anyone else here; though, obviously, your mom knows."

The paw was back on her stomach and her gaze pierced the carpet. She grumbled, "Wish ye'd turn those eyes somewhere else."

"Ceit? Really?! Cat practically screeched. "You are?"

"Shh! Fuckin' hell, Kitty. You'll bring everyone up here. I dinnae...I'm no ready tae tell."

"Look," said Alder, "you not wanting to tell your folks is one thing, but judging by the way you act, you haven't even told the father yet, have you?"

She closed her eyes and shook her head, swinging her ears in a broad arc behind her.

"Ye're sure, though? You took a test?" Cataría asked.

"Six," whispered her sister. "I'm sure."

"How long have you known?"

"Mibbe a week. I took the tests just before I came home. We huvnae seen each other for, like, a fortnight. He had tae return tae Kyoto to visit his family."

"Oof!" Alder grunted. "Long way. Y'all serious?"

Ceit's head dropped. She shrugged.

"Oh, love," muttered Cat. She got up and walked over to her sister, leaning over to hug her and kiss her forehead. "So, who is he?"

"Hideki Yukiguni. He's a classmate and a really good friend," Ceit whispered. "We just...it kindae happened. We're close an' aw, but we huvnae talked about being official or anything. We'd never even hugged before. But, we were over at mine to have drinks and watch a documentary about a famous sushi chef, and one of us made some joke about seaweed or somethin'. Next thing, we're pullin' each other's clothes aff and.... I dinnae ken if it was a one time thing or no."

"You guys talk much while he's gone?" Alder asked. "Call, text, e-mail...if anyone still does that, social media?"

She nodded. "We text a few times a day. Nothin' romantic or whatever, just I dunno...stuff. He's been sending me pictures from Japan: snow piled on the landmarks and aw. Sometimes he says, 'Wish you could be here to see this in person' or somethin' like that."

"And you?"

"I dunno," she shrugged. "Jus' sortae, like, respond. Tell him how beautiful it is over there and how some day I'd like tae visit some of the places he's shown me. There was one, a really old restaurant. Like, ridiculously old. He said it had been in the same family for eight generations. I told him I wished I could learn from the chefs there, since they had obviously been doing something right for a very long time. He sent me a smiling face and didn't say much else."

Alder nodded. "It can be hard to tell with people, sometimes. Let's say worst comes to worst and he leaves you high and dry: what do you think you'll do?"

The silence that followed was on the edge of becoming uncomfortable when Ceit offered only closed eyes and a barely perceptible shake of the head by way of reply. Alder nodded. There wasn't much to say. Voxipedal rabbit pregnancies typically lasted three months. This early, it would still be too hard to tell if it was a single kit or multiple. Between that and the unstated status of her relationship, the girl was stranded in a fog of uncertainty.

"Ye need tae talk wi' Mum and Dad," Cat said, stroking her sister's head. "Ye cannae carry it all on your own. I mean the emotional weight and the worry. If I'm gonnae be thoosands of miles away, I won't be able tae dae anythin', but they will."

Ceit wiped at her eyes with the backs of her paws. "Everybody else has been jined wi' somebody, though. I'm feart they'll be angry wi' me. That...that I'm gonnae be a burden on them."

"Oh, bollocks tae that. It was just after ye were born, so ye widnae mind, but Agnes went through the same thing. The boy that knocked her up fucked off. Mum and Dad helped her figure oot if she was keepin' the kits or sending 'em for adoption. She decided herself that she couldnae care for them well enough on her own an' that. All three went tae one family in America."

"But," Ceit muttered, "if they're okay with it, why dae they no ever talk aboot it?"

"It hurts tae talk aboot, I'm sure. I was wee then, but I can still remember Mum and Aggie crying thegether in the kitchen on the weans' first birthday."

"I know I'm the outsider here," Alder offered, "but your folks are good people. Trust 'em. And, really, if you're good friends with the father, trust him, too."

"Aye, but wh--"

Ceit squeaked and almost jumped out of the chair. The buzz that startled her was accompanied by a sedate tinkle of wind chimes. With one paw over her chest, she withdrew her phone and blinked at the screen.

"It's Hideki. He wants tae know if I'm still awake. Probably wants to send another picture."

She typed a brief reply and set the phone down on the arm of the chair. Before her paw withdrew, the chimes sounded again. She viewed the message and quirked her muzzle to the side.

"Weird," she said with a twitch of one of her erect ears. "He disnae usually send videos. Big one, too. It's still loading."

When the video finished downloading, she hit play and the others could hear the ubiquitous noises of a household kitchen and a television. Cat, standing next to her sister, could see a dun rabbit with white patches and dark eyes in the center of the frame. He blinked a couple of times and opened his mouth to speak, but a youthful, feminine voice from off screen cut in.

"Onii-chaaaan, nanishiteruno? Kanojo ni ai o kokuhaku shiro!"

The rabbit on the screen gaped at the person behind the camera. "Dameru, baka Hoshiko!"

"Kanojo wa tomodachi desu ka?"

He nodded with a grunt, looking away from camera and the person holding it.

"Motto o hoshigatta ka?"

"Mochiron!" he snapped.

"Keito-chan o hanase yo!"

"Demo, wareware wa sudeni..." His eyes went wide and the insides of his ears blazed crimson.

The off screen voice sighed. In the manner of a child attempting to affect an older voice, it deepened and said, "Keito-chan, I lavu you sooooooo mach." The camera tipped slightly from side to side in time with the words.

Hideki leapt to his feet and tried to take the camera from whoever held it, but they dodged and scampered out of the room in a jostling, laughing blur. The camera turned around to show a young bunny, the same color as Hideki, winking at the lens.

"Hi, Keito-chan!" she giggled. The sounds and blurring in the background gave the impression that she was running through the house and that Hideki was hot on her tail. "Hideki onii-chan like you but not tell, so I send this if he not stop me."

The video cut out to laughter and a clatter from off screen.

"Little sister," Alder chuckled from his seat a few feet away.

Ceit blinked at the screen of her phone. "Aye, Hoshiko. He talks aboot her sometimes. She's nine or so, I think."

"Any idea what that was all aboot?" asked Cat, receiving a shrug from Ceit.

"Hideki's been teaching me some, but that was too fast to follow."

Alder snickered, "It sounded like she got fed up with him not expressing his feelings and decided to express them for him. Last name notwithstanding, I don't know any Japanese. That last bit seemed pretty clear, though."

The wind chimes sounded again. Ceit got up from her chair and walked a few paces away, rubbing her face with her paws. She finished with a sharp smack on both cheeks and grabbed the phone. Her thumb claw clacked against the screen as she opened the message. The spotted rabbit stood motionless for far longer than it should have taken to read a message. It took Cat and Alder a moment to realize that the phone had already faded into darkness and that her eyes stared through it.

"Well?" Cat said. "What is it?"

"He wants tae know if he can call."

"What did ye say?"

"I didnae."

Cat groaned. "Oh, for fuck's sake, Ceit. Dae ye have feelings for 'im?"

"It's no that simp--"

"Dae ye?"

"Aye, but--"

"Oh, fuck off wi' yer 'buts'. Lemme see that message."

Ceit unlocked the phone again and opened the message. She passed the phone to Cataria, who took it and immediately tapped a few characters. The whoosh of the message sending startled Ceit, who accepted the phone back with wide eyes.

"What'd ye say?"

"I told him tae call."

"Fuck! Kitty?! Why? I don't know what tae--"

The ringing of the phone cut her off. She stared at the screen, where Hideki's number appeared, as well as the indication that it was a video call.

"Shit!" she choked.

"Oh, aye...I might have told him to make it a video call."

The panicking rabbit was fully prepared to ignore the call, but Cat would have none of that. She reached out quickly and tapped the "answer" icon on the screen. The screen showed Hideki in what must have been his family's house; though, little could be glimpsed in the background. The grey-brown rabbit's left ear stood erect atop his head and his right one dropped down toward his back. He dark eyes held a sense of panic that matched Ceit's.

"Hello." His voice was shaky and he was out of breath.

Ceit smiled and waved, not trusting her voice.

"You,"--he paused to scratch his neck--"you got the message that Hoshiko sent?"

She nodded.

He dipped his head. "I apologize for my sister's rudene--"

"Kanojo o hanase yo!" came his sister's voice in the distance. "Baka baajin, Hideki."

Hideki turned his head and shouted over his shoulder, "Urusai! Baajin janai yo!"

Hoshiko laughed in the background. "Usotsuki!"

Looking back at the screen he rolled his eyes and grimaced. "Sorry, Ceit."

She laughed and shook her head. "It's fine. I've got plenty of little siblings to harass me, too."

"It's..." he grunted and shifted on his couch.

"It's?"

"It was not how I wanted to tell you," he mumbled. "I wanted to tell you in person when I got back, but Hoshiko said that I needed to hurry or another guy would take you away."

Ceit's ears perched atop her head and leaned forward, betraying her excitement. "So, ye really...?"

"Yes!" he emphasized with a vigorous nod.

"Me too," she smiled.

His cheeks drew back in a joyous smile and his ears quivered, noticeable even in the poor quality video. Ceit dreaded what might come after her next words. She paced around the library for a moment, turning her back on Cat and Alder.

"But..."

Hideki's smile collapsed and he cocked his head. "But? What is it?"

"Would ye still feel that way if..." She hesitated and looked anywhere but the phone, wishing she could hide.

"Ceit, are you okay?"

She nodded, on the edge of tears. "I'm fine, really. I've somethin' I need tae tell ye as weel, but I'm scared shitless."

Hideki stared for a moment, so still that the signal may have been lost. After a moment, though, he smiled and nodded. "Whatever it is, I will be there for you. Even...even if this is the only way I can do that right now."

"Hideki, I..." she opened her mouth to finish, but the words wouldn't come. Instead she growled, "Ah, for fuck's sake," under her breath.

"Oh, bugger this!" grunted Cat. "She's--"

Alder's paw cut her off closing gently over her mouth. He wrapped his other arm around her waist and kissed her neck.

"Shh, bun," he whispered into her ear, "he needs to hear it from her as much as she needs to be the one to say it."

"Take your time," encouraged Hideki. "I'm not going anywhere."

Ceit sighed, "I'm pregnant."

"Nani sore?" muttered Hideki's sister, poking her head into the frame. "Hi-chan? Nanda?"

"You are?" he whispered, pointed absentmindedly at himself. "With...my...?"

Ceit nodded.

"Hideki? Nanda sore?" Hoshiko was now leaning on his shoulder and staring at his phone.

Hideki sat there, gobsmacked. "Keito wa...ninshin shita."

"Maa, o kinodoku ni! Dare no?" she said in bored disappointment.

"Waga," he muttered with wide eyes and a ridiculous grin. "Ceit, are you sure.You really are?"

His sister blinked over his shoulder and grumbled, "Masaka...joudan wa mou takusan da."

The Caird lass chuckled and said, "Six tests, all positive."

Hoshiko stood up straight and stared down at Hideki and the phone from behind him. She wobbled a little and grabbed for the back of the couch. She shook her head and muttered a curse.

"Kaa-saaaaan!" she yelled to the house at large. When the muffled answer came, Hoshiko shouted, "Hi-chan wa Keito-chan o ninshinsaseta!"

The image on Ceit's phone shook along with the jolt that ran through Hideki's arm when a loud clatter rang out off screen, accompanied by a shriek that crackled in her speaker. Hideki grimaced and his ears laid back.

"Ah...I have to let you go, Ceit," he said. "I will call you back with Mother settles down."

The sound of running feet and bare claws clacking on hard floor was getting louder, as was the continuous squeal.

"Ok," replied Ceit. "I'll be here."

The form of Hideki's mother appeared in the background, hurrying to her son. The dodgy video quality made it hard to tell if she was happy or angry.

"I love you, Ceit," he grinned. "I am...very happy."

"Me too," she whispered. "I--" With a series of beeps, the connection ended and her screen went dark.

She stood still, staring at the phone. Cat and Alder watched her from across the room. Her white ears stood erect, though the left one twitched ever so slightly. Tucking the phone back into her pocket, she scratched idly at the back of her left paw and turned to the others. Her eyes and cheeks were damp with tears but her lips curled into the most radiant smile of relief.

"I'm gonnae kick yer arse, Kitty," she laughed. "But, thank you!"

"Aye, ye can try tae," chuckled Cataría walking over to wrap her sister in a huge hug.

"It went well, then?" came their mother's voice from the walkway outside the library door.

"Mum!" Ceit gasped. "How long have ye been been there?"

The white rabbit beamed, "Long enough!"

"Damn," she grumbled.

Cat nudged her with an elbow. "Gonnae huvtae tell everyone anyway, may as weel start noo."

Fenella bustled in and hugged Ceit. "Aye, but wait 'til the morn. The rest of yer siblings, barring the ones who cannae come, should be home by afternoon."

Cat and Alder left mother and daughter Caird to talk. Outside the library, Alder yawned and stretched. The black rabbit at his side chuckled briefly before being struck by her own yawn. With her jaws stretched wide, the light of the electric wall sconces glinted on her long incisors. The big cat glanced at her sidelong and snorted.

"And folks say we look scary with our mouths open."

"What's the matter?" Cat joked. "Feart of being eaten?"

He grinned and softly flicked her left ear. "Nah, bun. Not by you."

She wrinkled her nose and clacked her teeth. "Dunno. Might dae. Been 'hungry' lately and huvnae been able tae get a bite."

"Tell you what, I think I know a place where we can get you and me a 'snack' to tide us over until we can have a proper sit-down."

"Oh, aye? Lead on, tree. Let's see what ye have in mind."

They descended the stairs to the ground level and he took her to the main hall's anteroom to grab her boots and coat. She smirked at him with a cocked eyebrow, but slipped into her gear anyway. Once she was properly attired, he led her through the hall and out the back door onto the terrace.

A bitter wind from the east cut across the paving stones and formed eddies of small dry flakes where it met the odd corner. the sky was heavily overcast and neither moon nor star pierced the thick ceiling. The only lights that shone in the night were the windows of occupied spaces in the house. Before Cat and Alder loomed the greenhouse, a dark, angular mass that showed sparks of reflected light from the house and no more. The puma waved his paw toward the door with a smile.

"Gie's a break!" the rabbit snickered.

"What?"

"Ne'er mind castin' stones, tree; people in glass houses shouldnae pump each other."

"Don't knock it until you've tried it," he said with a wink, continuing toward the greenhouse.

She followed, still arguing. "It's fuckin' transparent, ye daft cunt!"

"Hush," he breathed. "If you're worried about attracting attention, keep your voice down."

Cat rolled her eyes and lowered her voice, "Disnae matter if we use fuckin' sign language, arse. Anyone can see in!"

The puma stopped and turned to her with a smile. He licked her nose and pointed a thumb at the greenhouse over his shoulder. "What do you see in there?"

She craned her head around him and realized suddenly that she couldn't see a damn thing. The lights from the house glared on the broad glass panes such that no shapes could be discerned through the glass. If anything, she could only just make out the haze of condensation on the inside of the walls on the upper floor. Her mouth tugged to the left in an acquiescent smile.

"Fuck all."

He grinned wide in the dim light and whispered, "Exactly."

They passed from the frigid outside air into the much warmer airlock. Even in the sealed space, the heavy odor of soil and the myriad scents of flowers and plants was strong. Alder offered to help her out of her coat, but she removed it herself and hung it over a peg on the wall. He chuckled as she breezed through into the humid air beyond the inner door.

Transitioning from airlock to interior was a shock every single time. After the dry, harsh, cold outdoors, the still air at the upper level door was like a physical barrier. They stood for a moment at the railing of the entresol and gazed out over the dark space. Fans at the peak of the ceiling, six meters above, drew in the hot air and returned it via a series of ducts to the ground level. Enough light came through the glass to bathe the wet leaves with a galaxy of slender, wan arcs and dim points that twinkled with the dancing of the leaves nearest the ventilation registers. The low light posed no challenge to either of them.

"Dinnae think I've been in here at night wi' the lights aff," Cat murmured. "Widnae thought it'd be so..."

"Warm?" asked the puma. "Dark? Secluded?" He wrapped his arms around her from behind, resting his chin on the to of her head, right between her ears.

"I was gonnae say 'pretty'." She leaned back into him.

"So was I," he purred.

She laughed brightly. "All right, ye silly twat! Ye've already got me here, ye dinnae need tae lay on the bullshit."

He turned his head to nip at the base of her ear. "I'm not shittin' you, bun. You're gorgeous. I love looking at you,"--he punctuated with a kiss on the top of her head--"and I love smelling you near me,"--another kiss, halfway down her neck--"and I love feeling you in my arms,"--another, on the side of her neck that made her tilt her head to the other side--"and I love the taste of you,"--his tongue slid up the length of her neck to the base of her ear, drawing a squirm from the rabbit that made her spin in his arms and lock her lips on his.

Breaking the kiss after a few moments, he licked his lips and growled low, "...and, I love the sound of your voice!" At which, his right paw slid up the inside of her thigh in time with his left paw tracing the curve of her lower back. The former cupped her crotch through her jeans at the same moment that the latter gripped the short, fluffy tail that wiggled below the hem of her shirt. He was rewarded by claws in his back and a hungry moan into the fur of his neck.

"Fuck," she gasped, "I've been missing this."

She pressed her mouth to his again and her left arm tangled with his right, searching for his growing cock through the barrier of his clothes. She got her paw around the bulge and squeezed, eliciting a snarl from the big cat. He pulled her hard against him, tapping their arms between them. Their paws continued to grind on one another's pants in a woefully inadequate manner. With a grunt, he lifted her up in his paws and carried her awkwardly down the length of the entresol to the stairs. At the top, he set her back on her feet in grudging acknowledgement of the fact that a spiral stair was not the place for theatrics. She raced down the steps with him close behind.

On the ground level, she grabbed his paw in hers and pulled him toward the end of the greenhouse that connected to the terrace. Here, no light reached the interior from the house and they were that much less likely to be spotted. As they passed beneath the entresol, the rows of benches and raised beds gave way to an open space. Still drawing Alder along with her, the rabbit turned to walk backward. She shortened the distance between them and began pulling his shirt off over his head as they continued to walk. Against the back wall, there was a broad work surface with a stainless steel top and an inset sink at one end. Beneath the counter were latched cabinets and two meters above was a dark bank of lights suspended from brackets bolted to the stonework. The work surface was littered with cardboard starter pots, bags of mineral fertilizer, trowels, and pruning shears, which all jostled when Cataría's butt bumped into the edge of the counter.

There was the briefest pause as the puma gripped her waist and hoisted her onto the countertop. His fingers gently kneaded her sides beneath her shirt as he licked and nibbled at her neck and dewlap. Her paws wandered to his ears, his neck, and his shoulders, furrowing the course, tawny hairs with her claws. She giggled and tweaked his whiskers when he hit a ticklish spot where her neck met her jawline.

"Bun," he whispered, "goddamn have I needed this."

She nodded, but her agreement only came though as a moan. She turned her paws to the task of shifting the clutter out of the way and removing her own shirt. Before she had pulled it over his head, his lips and tongue were on her chest, her sides, her belly. The pads of his paws and the claws at his fingertips--properly filed and dulled--dug through her thick, soft fur and relished in the touch of her hot skin. The heavy, panting breaths from his nose blew transient craters in her coat and tickled at the sensitive flesh of her abdomen and her nipples when he groped over them. Her shirt fell to the ground at his feet and her paws raced down to fumbled with the closure on her jeans.

Between the darkness and her closed eyes, she couldn't anticipate his movements. His muzzle withdrew from her belly and reappeared on her wrist, causing her to gasp. His lips traced a rapid path down the back of her paw to the fingers that fought with the button. His right paw moved her paws out of the way as his left paw reached behind her, sliding along her waistband. He stood up and kissed her slow on the mouth. The fingers of his right paw gripped the button above her zipper and his left paw took the button above her tail. In two simultaneous motions, he flicked each button through its hole. The claws of his index and middle fingers played about the base of her tail as he tugged her zipper down with the other paw. Cat pulled away from his kiss and buried her panting face in his neck.

Careful not to let his paw pads leave her body, he slipped his paws around to her hips and gripped the fabric of her jeans and panties. The rabbit took the cue and lifted her ass off the work surface enough for him to pull down her last remaining clothes.

Almost.

"Shit," he chuckled. He was having difficulty focusing around the feel of her body and the now overpowering scent of her arousal.

She snickered and toed the heel of her left boot, shoving it off of her foot. The right boot followed, as did her trousers, knickers, and socks. He wasted no time tracing the long lines of her feet and legs with his tongue and lips. Cat's breathing became ragged and she leaned backward against the stone wall. Her paws met his head as it reached her crotch. She splayed her fingers through the short fur on his forehead and gently gripped his ears. With a needy growl, his mouth was suddenly on her mound.

Like the first time, his hunger did not override his caution and care for his lover. He slid his tongue across her cleft, starting with the tip so that his motion went against the grain of his barbs. Though this spared the rabbit's sensitive minge a potentially painful rasping, the feeling of the bumps rattling backward over her throbbing clitoris was compelling. Cat's claws bit though the fur of the puma's neck and head, sketching angry red lines on the skin beneath. This spurred the big cat on.

Alder twisted his head to change angles, dragging his tongue in proper licks around her mound. The barbed surface combed the hair in a starburst that radiated from her sex. She jumped and moaned aloud when she felt it pass at the edge of her ring. His response was something that might have been a growl or a chuckle, or both. The next thing she felt was the smooth tip of his tongue lightly probing between the folds of her cleft. Her rear wasn't off the hook, however. After a quick pass through the damp fur of her crotch, the pad of his thumb pressed to her ring, which tightened at the contact. He left his thumb in place and curled his tongue, wrapping the barbs to protect her. The tip worked its way inside her pussy, hot and searching.

"Oh, fuck, Alder!" she grunted, nearly biting her tongue. She reluctantly pulled his head away from her crotch.

In answer to his questioning murmur, she said, "I'm already on the edge, tree. I want you in me when I come."

His answering purr almost drowned out the sound of his pants dropping to the floor. He stepped out of them and up to the counter.

He breathed, "My pleasure," as he guided her rump to the edge of the work surface and his cock to her sopping cunt.

The tip of his shaft was slick with his own arousal as it met her hot, bare flesh. The combination of his wetness and hers sent him hilt-deep in one effortless thrust. She whispered to him to hold still, as his balls came to a rest against her ass. The muscles of her pussy fluttered with chaotic spasms, overstimulated once more by the bristly ring around his base. The days since they had last fucked had seen her nerve endings forget the sensation of those countless points. It took her a few breaths to calm down and feel confident enough to move.

The short, slow motions of her hips cued him to begin his own careful pumping. Their accustomed rhythm of slow withdrawals and rapid thrusts built to a crescendo of deep, short pumps that brought his bristles into constant contact with the most enervated areas of her walls and his tip to just within reach of her cervix. Clasping each other in a desperate embrace, they reached the brink together; but she toppled first. She squealed and hooked her heels around his ass, pulling him hard to her. The pressure sent his tip skiting across the twitching ring of her cervix to bury itself in the deepest recess of her vagina. The rabbit's teeth clamped down on Alder's shoulder to stifle her cries..

Between the scent of their tryst, the frantic clinging of her limbs, and the pulsing heat of her cunt there was no chance that the puma could extend the experience as long as he would have liked. He pressed his chin to her neck and dented the skin of her shoulder and lower back with the blunt tips of his claws. His breath huffed through his nose between strained moans as his balls gave up their stores.

Five minutes calmed her screaming nerves and withered his prickly shaft enough for her to loosed the grip of her legs around him. He eased out slowly and looked around for something to manage the aftermath of their fucking. With a sigh of relief, he shuffled to the sink end of the counter and grabbed several paper towels. He wetted a couple and applied a small amount of soap to one. When he returned to her, he helped clean up their joint mess and dry her fur for the brief walk back through the cold.

After they dressed the pair strolled, still slightly weak-kneed, through the rows of planters. They walked quietly through the greenhouse, at times twining paws, just enjoying a peaceful moment together. When both yawned simultaneously, they laughed and made their way back up the stairs and out into the night air. The main hall was quiet when they entered and retired to Cataría's room. Sleep came quick to them both, finally wrapped in one another's arms again.