FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The next few days were incredibly busy for me as I had to learn to juggle all the jobs and responsibilities that I was getting from both the Guardian and the Matriarch. I was quickly coming to understand that those two really did do a trial by fire when it came to dominant cats such as myself. I don't know how they handled a cat that couldn't hack it, but I was determined not to fail and so I waded through the work.

As soon as I had a rough budget worked out for the introduction of tech to the spread-out housing of the pride I called Wild Valley and talked to Robin and Lea about the install. I also got in touch with the suppliers and began the process of locating where core Pride Security should be located. Our current security office was completely unsuitable since there were no provisions for the kind of upgrade that we were performing. After looking through all our options I finally had to shake my head and consider the fact that we might have to build ourselves a new building for the security and data-center.

Unlike most of the Packs that we had visited along the way here from Wild Valley the housing for the pride was spread out around one corner of the territory. The main Pride House may be the administrative center for the Pride but the housing for most part, was spread amongst the houses of the various family houses that made up the Pride. My house was one of the smaller examples of that policy, some of the houses, though difficult to spot from the air, were quite large and housed several dozen cats. The whole reason for the difference was down to the basic social differences between cats and wolves. If the entire pride had been forced to live under one roof there would be chaos, since we didn't operate in a rigid structure the way wolves did.

Most of the territory was wild terrain that backed onto more wild lands, some of which had been logged in the past, though those lands were recovering as trees were growing back. The one issue with those parts of public lands was the ever-present roads, which allowed humans to get closer to our territory than most Weres preferred. Therefore, we always had patrols running, though those patrols would, at most, have three cats in them, since we operated better with smaller numbers.

When I finally realized that we couldn't use and existing building for the new security office and data-center I had to bring that to the attention of the Matriarch and she had understood, after I had spent a good deal of time explaining the reasons why. The new building, like our other buildings, would be well concealed, and relatively close to the Pride House since it would be the new place from which the Pride's security would be administered.

I couldn't really finalize the details of the network system that we were going too be using, since that really fell outside my area of knowledge, instead I had to ask Adam's son, Robin, to come and take a look for himself on what we needed to do to get us a reliable network link. I was frustrated several times, both with work, and the occasional game that I still played, when my own network connection failed due to the vagaries of weather.

When almost a week had passed since I'd joined the Pride and dove headlong into the business of getting the Pride to a more modern level the Matriarch finally pulled me aside.

"Mark, I love you drive and dedication to the Pride's welfare, but you have ignored one thing."

"I don't follow you Matriarch, I'm doing this not only for our Pride but also for myself. If I didn't do the best job that I knew I was capable of I'd feel like I'd not lived up to my oath. Furthermore, my work ethic has always focused on that. I'd rather do a job right the first time, rather than do it more quickly but make mistakes."

"She chuckled, and how much have you been listening to your cat? Most cats don't like to work non-stop from the time they wake up to the time they fall asleep and yet here you are doing just that."

"Ma'am my cat and I want to prove that we are up to the job that you desire of us, whatever that may be."

"Then come to the Pride House tonight for dinner, and bring your cub with you. My daughter is in town this evening and Ivan will be eating with his family at their family house."

"Thank you, ma'am, I'll do that." I told her and then thought of something else that had been bothering me ever since I'd first been told what I was. "Matriarch, my parents live in the city and I'm their only child, would it be permissible if I informed them of what has happened to me?"

She gave a gentle chuckle, and I could sense, through the Pride Bonds that her cat was also laughing. "Mark, they are immediate family, and therefore you can tell them about us and what we are."

"Thank you, Matriarch." I told her gratefully, "I would like to have them come here, possibly this weekend, if that is okay with you."

"You mean to your house on the Pride territory?" She asked for clarification.

"Yes, ma'am that is what I meant, I should have made that clear earlier."

"That is okay, you will have to inform Yevgeny when they are expected to arrive so that he can tell his person at the gate so that they can clear the gate and be directed to your house."

"Thank you, Matriarch, my family is important to me and I want them to know that I am doing well and am alive."

"As it always should be Mark, family should always be important even if they aren't cats." She told me.

Once I had that permission I sent them an e-mail that evening and was gratified when my father contacted me, via a hangout, to let me know that they were going to be over by mid-morning.

That evening I showed up at the Pride House for dinner and this time I didn't have to give anybody any kind of glare. As soon as Sergey, myself, and Katy sat down we found ourselves surrounded by a number of younger cats, all of them were under forty years of age and from the looks on their faces I could tell that all of them were in what Shanna had termed, New Wave.

One of the females, a rather attractive girl with pretty brown eyes, leaned towards me and asked me if it was true that I was going to be responsible for helping the Pride move into the modern age.

"That's right Sharina, I guess the Matriarch was looking for somebody to dump all this stuff onto, and I got the honour." I told her, though I was smiling since Katy had decided that tonight she would do her level best to charm each and every cat at the table. Her methods weren't subtle, since she was so young. She simply engaged in lap switching, and currently she was sitting in another young male's lap and leaning back against his chest while snagging bits of food from his plate. Nor did he look like he minded her nicking his food since he was rumbling softly to her in a slight purr of pleasure.

"That little pup is such a cutey," One of the other females said with a smile.

"That she is, you guys should have seen the first time she saw me." I closed my eyes and recalled what had happened that day. "I was still a bit out of it, and hungry as... well a cat, since I was recovering from the infection. I'd just grabbed my plate when something tackled my leg and shouted 'Kitty'."

"So, you aren't a cat by birth? A round faced you man who couldn't have been more than 17 asked.

"No, I was born human, and I was raised in the city to our north. I was living in Calgary when I was attacked by..." I closed my eyes and shook my head, "You don't really need to know that, since the subject is a bit painful and it really disturbs my cat. Let's just say a rogue bit me and the result is that I am now a tiger."

"Oh, that's rough man." I would hate to have to grow up without my cat he said and the look on his face and in his eyes told me that he was speaking the truth.

"I know, I wish I'd met my cat years ago, but the fact remains that I was born human. That means that I have a somewhat different perspective when some things are considered. Boris, you're still in school, aren't you?"

He nodded his head slightly, "Yeah, I graduate this coming spring, and if the Matriarch allows it I am gonna try and get into a tech school."

"Oh? What are you planning on trying to learn?"

He looked happy that I was interested and he excitedly said, "I'm trying to get my certification as a network security administrator, but I am not sure that the pride really needed such a thing. But, now that you're here... I might actually have a chance."

"I'm glad for you Boris, I can't do all this by myself. I am actually a facilitator, I have friends and contacts who actually know how to do this, but personally I would have a lot to learn before attempting to put something like this together, never mind running it with any level of competence. I will make sure that your request for more education in that field has my endorsement on it."

"Oh, thank you!" He exclaimed jumping from his seat to give me a rather enthusiastic hug.

The rest of the dinner that evening went on pretty much the same way, and by the time I headed home I knew that all the cats at my table were firmly behind me in getting the Pride more or less up to date.

The two days later I was expecting my parents to visit in the later part of the morning so I spent part of the early morning tidying up the living area with Sergey, since Katy was in the habit of scattering her toys around the room like confetti. Keeping the room tidy with her around was more than a little challenging. Her toy collection was rather interesting since there were some toys that were obviously for toddlers and other that looked to be for a puppy. As we were cleaning up the room Sergey looked to me and finally asked,

"Mark how are you going to handle telling your parents what we are?"

"I'm still trying to figure that one out Sergey." I told him honestly as I picked up a well chewed toy and deposited it into a tote. "I think that we need to pay a visit to a pet store soon, some of Katy's puppy toys are looking a bit worse for wear."

Sergey nodded holding up another toy that looked like it was being held together by hopes and dreams. "It appears that she does like to chew on things." He replied with a smile, "One of these days you are going to have to replace a lot of these, but that might cause problems, because they smell like her."

"I don't think she's quite that sensitive to the fact that her toys don't all carry her scent, though I'd ask her to make sure first."

Once the living room was tidy Sergey made a hearty breakfast for the four of us before he cleaned up and vanished. So far there was one thing that he didn't involve himself in, and that was taking care of Katy. I suspected part of that was the fact that he didn't know what he was doing, and the other part was that young children like Katy still intimidated him. Once I finished with Katy's morning bath and getting her dressed for the day, one thing I did like about her was when I needed her to stay still she would at least give me that much since I couldn't imagine what it would be like if she wiggled around like a landed fish, I brought her down stairs and asked her to play quietly, without tearing every toy she owned out of the totes. For some reason, she obliged me and grabbed her protected tablet and began playing the game that Adam had showed her during our visit.

I also grabbed my tablet, and started to catch up on my backlog of emails that had accumulated over the past few days, though most were of the sort that I'd simply ignore and delete. I found that I had less reason to frequent my favourite sites from before my turn. I'd never really been all that active before, I was one of the most hard-core lurkers out there. I tended to lurk on every site I signed up for, even though I did have a few pieces of my literary creations posted they tended to die on the vine, largely uncomplete.

A short time after I started my sorting through my flood of Email I was slightly surprised as a smallish tiger walked into the room, found the spot on the rug in front of the fireplace where the sun was shining through the front window and curled up on that spot with his head on his forelegs.

"Interesting Sergey, I guess you want to be the one to show them what we are." I commented as Katy got up and walked over to him, giving him a soft hug before she sat down, leaned against his body and went back to her game.

It was approaching ten thirty when I got a message from the gate that my guests were coming and would soon be ringing the doorbell so I put my tablet down, before walking over and picking Katy up, she gave a soft growl at me because I caused her to lose concentration on her game, though since it was a game designed for toddlers it wasn't hard for her to recover.

"Papa I almost won dat one." She growled at me.

"Sweety there are some people coming that I believe would like to meet you, though I haven't seen them in a few years."

"Oh? Who are they?" She asked as I piqued her curiosity just as the doorbell rang.

I smiled as I walked to the front door and opened it, smiling even more as I saw them. "Please come on in, we have a lot to discuss."

Both of them looked a more than a little suspicious since I only had a very slight resemblance to what I used to look like, but I did lean on them a bit, to get them to at least hear me out. Mom of course, quickly told me that she was here because her son had told her this was were he was.

"Please sit down, and everything will be explained," I told them before I took a seat. Almost as soon as they took a seat Katy wiggled from my arms and went over to my parents, quickly getting herself a seat in my father's lap. My mom as was typical for her, didn't really have much in the way of patience with young children and Katy was no exception.

As I tried to come up with what to say Sergey made his move, uncurling, stretching, and yawning before he walked towards the door to the dining room, when he got there he paused for a moment and then to the shock and amazement of my parents his rapidly shifted to his human form, though he was nice enough to keep his back to them before retreating into the dining room towards the kitchen where I assumed he'd placed his clothes before shifting to his cat.

"What on earth is going on here?" Mom asked after a few moments of thought, she was always the smarter and more adaptable of my parents.

"As you can see, Sergey, rather pointedly exhibited what we are."

"What has that got to do with Mark?" She asked with a certain degree of acerbity.

I gave a soft chuckle, "What it means, Mom, is that I am not the same man I once was. In August, I was bitten by a being, very much like Sergey."

That caused both my parents to look across at me with a certain amount of disbelief before I quietly began reminding them of memories and events in my past that only they and I would know. Finally, after a few minutes they conceded that I probably was who I said I was, and we exchanged hugs in the middle of the living room.

"Okay Mark what does this all mean, about you being a..."

"A were-tiger dad, that's what I am now." I told him as I sat down before Sergey came from the kitchen with a warm pot of tea. I knew that my father and I did like our coffee, but in deference to my mom I'd decided that some tea would probably go over a bit better.

"Okay a were-tiger. What does this mean? I mean you liked Calgary. That is, after all, why you lived there isn't it?"

"I did like it mom, but since I've been turned I had to come where there were others like me. Otherwise my cat wouldn't be a happy cat and I had no intention to end up like the one who did this to me."

"Mark, you were allergic to cats... what's this about your cat?"

"Mom my allergies disappeared when I was turned, but when I say my cat I am referring to the animal part of me. Every Were has a human side and an animal side, since I am a were-tiger that means that my animal side is a tiger which I refer to as my cat."

When I'd hugged my mom, I'd been surprised to pick up a hint of a cat in her, though it was buried deeply and it was only a trace, which told me that in some way she was related to a Were.

"Mark, what do you plan on doing now?" My father asked me as he hugged Katy gently.

"Well for now I am working on learning as much as I can from the Pride Guardian, he's teaching me how to best use my body as a warrior and a leader."

"Pride Mark? What is that? A group of cats like you?" My mom asked in quick succession.

"Yes, that is exactly what it means mom." I replied, "Some cats live solitary lives, but others seek to live in groups like this Pride."

"Mark, can I please shift and return to that sunny spot? My cat liked it that we could relax and enjoy the warmth." Sergey silently asked me through our bond and I nodded gently before he left the room, returning a few minutes later as a cat to take back the sunny spot chuffing softly as he stretched out to take full advantage of the warm place on the rug.

Mom glanced at him as Sergey took the spot and then glanced at me. "He's a handsome tiger Mark, but he looked so young as a human."

"He is mom, he's fifteen." I told her before kneeling and gently giving my young adopted son a gentle scratch around the base of his furry ears, causing him to offer a relaxed growling purr of pleasure.

At that point Katy jumped from my dad's arms and looked at mom, giving her puppy dog eyes. "Please?"

After a moment of resistance my mom finally picked her up and I could see that Katy was happy about the situation since she was finally cracking my mom's thick shell.

"Mom, that's Katy Whitestone, I adopted her when her parents were killed in a car accident." I told her, though I kept the full version from my mom since I didn't want to upset my cat too much talking about... him.

"She's adorable," Dad said with a smile.

"I've always thought so." I replied before telling both of them about the first time that I'd met Katy.

An hour later, right before they left both my parents asked if they could see what I looked like as a cat. By that point Katy had gone back to her tablet game because to her listening to adults talk was more than a little boring. "Mom I think I can do that," I told them before picking up Katy. "I think Katy and I will both show you our other forms."

"You mean that she's a tiger too?"

"No, she's not a cat she's a wolf, a very cute little wolf puppy." I told them, "Now give us a few moments, I don't like shifting when I'm wearing clothing, and mom, dad, please remember this information isn't to leave this room. It is critical that we maintain secrecy, for the sake of all of us here and elsewhere."

After I got agreement from them I left the room, and returned a short time later with Katy at my side. She immediately dashed over to my mom, yipping happily her wolfy tail wagging wildly.

"Oh... wow Mark, you're... gorgeous." My mom said softly as she approached me and looking into our eyes. What was interesting was the fact that although I was in my animal form my head was almost chest high on her. After a moment, I felt her fingers gently scratching around my ears and I began the rumbling, growling purr of a contented big cat. Since I was in my tiger form I could much more easily sense my mom's own Were heritage and knew that I needed to do some research when she and dad left. The one thing that was clear to me was that she wasn't Siberian, instead I felt that she was either Bengal or Sumatran, though I leaned towards Bengal.

After a few more minutes spent with my parents they left, and the three of us shifted back to human before we went to the city to do some much-needed shopping. Partly to replace Katy's worn out puppy toys, partly for toiletries, for all three of us, and lastly to get some more clothes for me. I didn't have enough clothing for formal situation such as the next month's full moon Pride Council. With our shopping done we ate at a restaurant in town that was actually owned by the Pride. It was one of the few businesses in the city that gave us any kind of income. After that we returned home for the day to relax and enjoy our day off.