Chapter 18:Talking With Hyenas

Standing outside of the vet's office, Jordan watched as his son slowly disappeared inside. Straightening his shoulders, he turned and walked away from the gathering crowd, pulling out his phone and dialing a number before lifting it to his ear.

"Hello?" replied a scratchy voice on the other end.

"Hello, I'd like to have several searches put out. I can pay for everything up-front... and more if they lead somewhere."

There was some mumbling on the other side of the call before Jordan grinned.

"Good. They are about stolen tiger cubs."

Standing right outside an apartment on the other side of town, Erin suddenly felt a little unsure about the whole situation. Not that he didn't trust Tarren, he was one of his best friends, but going to see hyenas for relationship advice seemed a bit odd.

Worth a shot, I guess.

hesitantly, he lifted his hand and tapped on the door three times. Awkward laughter was heard inside in response, then a few whines and something crashing into something else?

What the hell?

After another minute the sounds quieted down and he heard the lock on the door turn before it opened, revealing a young guy in nothing but a pair of basketball shorts. He was decently built, if a little skinny, and his hair spiked up almost like a mohawk.

"Uh..."

His brows rose before he grumbled, annoyed.

"Listen, whatever you're selling, I don't want it, and if you want to argue, I'm a hyena who couldn't care less about castrating annoying salesmen."

Charming.

"Um, I'm looking for Tayn?"

His eyes narrowed and he bared his teeth.

"Look dude, Tarren sent me over. He said Tayn lived here and he could help me out with a cross-shifter I know."

He blinked, eyes going wide.

Well, at least his teeth are put away.

"There's another cross-shifter? You're not talking about Arron?"

"No. There are two others, but I definitely don't want the feline one. Tarren already claimed it."

His head tilted as he stepped back and Erin took the gesture as an okay to walk inside.

"What's the other shifter? And I'm totally gonna kill Tarren for not telling me about his," he said as Erin heard him shut the door behind him. The guy then walked ahead and dropped down onto the sofa. Erin had planned to just stand, but when he pointed to the seat next to him, he hesitantly sat down.

"He's a mouse."

Tayn's eyebrows pinched together before he leaned close to him and sniffed, then leaned back with a your serious sort of look.

"Sorry dude, but uh, elephant and mouse?"

Erin was about to reply when a hyena suddenly scampered into the room and began sniffing at the guy's leg quite aggressively.

I'm so confused.

Tayn seemed to just get annoyed as he pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed.

"Counting to three Pask..."

The hyena looked up, seemingly considering making his attentions more inappropriate. He got a growl in response. "Three. Two."

The second he said one the hyena jumped up on the couch and flopped its head in the guy's lap. It would have actually looked cute if it wasn't baring its rather large teeth at Erin.

Tayn didn't seem to care, though, since he just smacked the hyena on the nose.

"Get over it, Paskal, I'm not going to strip for every guy that comes in here. I do have morals, you know?"

The hyena huffed and continued to glare at Erin as it licked Tayn's shorts once. That only seemed to make the guy's eyes roll before he shoved the plump beast off the sofa to thud onto the floor.

"I told you to watch the pups."

Paskal grumbled and stood up, shaking out his spotted coat before plopping his butt down and growling at Erin again.

"Pask, you won't get anymore pups unless you start behaving. Every damn time someone comes here that isn't Larro, Ariel, Arron, or Rylan, you start getting all defensive!"

The hyena grumbled but didn't stop looking at Erin until Tayn smacked its nose with a house shoe.

"Go. Now!"

While he was obviously upset, Pascal did as told and stomped his paws before he disappeared back down the hallway. Erin was expecting to get the chance to finish speaking with Tayn finally, but seconds later there were two hyena pups squirming up into his lap.

"Dammit Pascal!"

The big hyena loped into the room looking guilty.

"It's okay, I don't mind pups."

Erin wiggled his fingers above their heads, making the little boy growl and swat at them while on his back. The female was a bit more stoic and hopped onto her mother's lap to curl up for some attention. Evidently, Pascal minded him playing with them, though, because he quickly grabbed his boy by the scruff and put him down a few feet away on the carpet.

"I'm not going to hurt your kids, Pascal... and I'm not interested in Tayn, I just wanted to talk with him about a friend I am interested in."

The large hyena's eyes narrowed.

Turning his attention back to Tayn, Erin figured that they better just get the show on the road.

"So uh, my mouse friend, he's in heat... I think for the first time considering how he was acting."

Tayn grinned and relaxed back against the sofa, patting his pup and crossing his legs when Pascal leaned closer to sniff.

"Your friend needs to have sex, then it will go away."

I don't mind doing that with him, but...

"Is there any other way? I mean, can't he just, y'know... in the shower?"

Tayn chuckled and patted Pask's head after their pup hopped off his lap, making the hyena smirk and thump its funny looking tail on the floor.

"He could, but it would take about ten or twenty goes to feel any kind of relief."

"Uh..."

"Yeah, his hand would probably get raw, along with other things."

Okay, so that's out.

"So, I guess sex it is, but uh, can protection be used? Would that work?"

"Yeah. May take a few goes, but it should work fine. The body can just tell the different somehow which is why the shower thing or a box of tissues just won't work all that well."

Tayn opened his mouth to say something else when Pascal shoved his nose into his crotch, making him jump and laugh out a snarl.

"Dammit Pascal, I am not in heat! Now go make dinner or give the pups a bath before I beat you."

Pask's hyena pinned its ears and tried for a puppy face, but Tayn just bared his teeth and pointed towards the kitchen.

"Go. Now."

Erin watched as they glared back and forth at each other, but after a moment he did as told, trotting off to the kitchen with the pups hot on his heels.

Grinning, Erin stood up and turned to shake Tayn's hand.

"I'll get out of your hair now. Thanks a lot for the information."

He stood up and nodded, taking his proffered hand before speaking.

"Be careful with him, man."

"Huh? I am careful. That's why I came to talk to you."

"I know, and it was a good idea, but think about it. He's a mouse... if you get him pregnant and anything besides color is transferred to the kid, you could kill him. Most cross-shifters get stuck in their animal forms for gestation, and that would mean your little mouse friend would be growing an elephant-sized baby inside his tiny body if fertilization even managed to occur."

Shit. He has a point. I hadn't thought about that.

"I'll definitely remember that, thanks Tayn."

He smiled and nodded, though it looked a little sad.

Once Erin was back on the road he headed straight for Grayson's. If Tayn was correct, he was probably still stuck in his heat and god, if he figured out that his hand wasn't going to work before he got there, he'd probably beat the crap out of anyone who might be trying to help him.

The results for the call Jordan made were almost immediate on two of the cubs. It showed just how stupid the people were who'd sold them. Jordan had paid twenty thousand through his phone minutes ago, five of it going to the shipment of the first cub while the other will take a bit longer to get a hold of. The first cub was due to arrive in a little over an hour since it hadn't been shipped far to begin with, so he had to floor his car in order to get home in time after making sure that his son and his mate would be okay.

When the delivery arrived he paid the man a generous tip to tear up any documents leading back to him, then quickly got the little cub out of the box with holes poked in it. He knew that it was no way to ship a tiger baby, but he'd had to be sure that it wasn't obvious.

"Hey there little guy."

It growled at him, its voice scratchy as it tried to wiggle free of his hands. He was definitely in need of some extra food but he looked to be about a year old and, thankfully, would be able to eat whole foods. Actually, that was a good idea. Stepping into the kitchen, Jordan held the cub against his chest and fished out a pound of fresh chicken from the fridge. It was already in a ziplock bag so he just carried it out with the little tiger, straight to the car.

When he stepped into the vet's office a short time later most of the people who had been there earlier to see the damage his son had caused were thankfully gone. Jordan found both him and Tiegan curled up in the surgery room, their last remaining cub in the incubator above them, keeping warm. Tiegan appeared to be asleep while Tarren kept guard.

Jordan smiled at him, chuckling quietly when his eyes widened and he bared his teeth at the little cub in his arm.

What is that?

It's one of Tiegan's cubs that were sold.

What? But how?

Well, let's just say that I called in some favors. He was the closest one and actually arrived only forty-five minutes ago.

The rumbling growl that followed his response was expected, but he wouldn't let his son's lion take control of the situation.

Don't let him take over. This is your mate's baby and if you kill it, I can promise you that he'll never let you near him again.

Tarren seemed to struggle for a minute as he wrestled his lion's instincts to kill another's cubs back.

I wouldn't do that to him. Bring it here.

Jordan did so carefully, being sure to watch his son's lion for any aggression. Once he was kneeling next to him, he gently set the cub on the tile floor and let Tarren rub his scent all over it. It wasn't the best way to deal with a baby that wasn't his, but it was at least trying. He was going to pretend it was his, or at least trick his lion's sense of smell. When he was content he nudged Tiegan's face with his nose, repeating the gesture until the tiger blinked open bloodshot eyes. He gave a quiet grumble and tried to go back to sleep but when Tarren scruffed the tiger cub with his teeth and lifted it in front of his mate, the larger tiger looked like it had seen a ghost.

In a flash he had the cub between his paws and was grooming it incessantly. At first the cub seemed confused and even scared, but as Tiegan relaxed a little and calmed down, the grooming got more gentle and the little cub settled in, his tiny grumbles matching his mother's loud ones.

Smiling, Jordan set the bag of chicken down near Tarren's lion and got up.

"Take care of him. I have more phone calls to make so I'll be back later."

Tarren nodded and Jordan returned the gesture before walking out.

One down, five to go.