Page 181 of The Queen’s Shadow

“Come on, Kyro, I thought you were a big bad cat, ready to challenge your Rhoan? You’re telling me you can’t even shift twice in a row?”

The K’aalpa-kah shuffled awkwardly behind me, no doubt wondering if I could even do what I was asking this young panther to do.

K’yen cleared his throat. “Rycon… this seems… harsh.” He said hesitantly and I snapped my head to face him.

“Is that a challenge, K’yen?” I asked, and he sighed holding up his hands in deference.

“No, Rhoan. Not a challenge.” He dipped his head and dropped his gaze. I snorted.

“Better not be. My sister will be pissed if I end up having to kill you.”

I turned away from K’yen and made eye contact with Kyro, cocking my head to the side.

“Do you think I’m being harsh, Little Cub?” I asked him.

In his panther form, he couldn’t answer, but he lowered himself closer to the ground, clearly asking for mercy, and I huffed at him in disappointment. I turned to face the rest of the K’aalpa-kah.

“Do any of you think asking Kyro to shift is harsh?” I barked at them, but none of them answered. Maybe it was the way I was gesturing at them with a loaded gun. I holstered the firearm, and without warning, I tore into my panther form. I snarled at the K’aalpa-kah warriors before turning to face Kyro. I towered over him in this form as well. He still had a lot of growing to do. I stalked around him, swishing my tail and intentionally slapping it back against his face, before tearing into my human form again without so much as a grunt. Double shifts barely phased me anymore. It wasn’t until I got close to the double digits that I started bleeding internally. Just to drive the point home, I shifted back and forth once more, showing them that what I was ordering Kyro to do was not only possible, but easy.

Practice makes perfect.

The K’aalpa-kah let out a collective gasp, and K’yen’s mouth dropped open. I couldn’t keep the cocky smirk off my face.

Looking down again at Kyro, whose eyes were now burning with something closer to fascination than anger, I cocked a brow at him.

“I will never ask you to do something that I can’t already do myself.” I promised him, speaking loud enough for the rest of the K’aalpa-kah to hear. I turned to face them, and found they were watching me with completely rapt attention now. Their bored, annoyed, and even fearful expressions had been replaced with something closer to awe, and respect.

“So, you can either whine and cry that I’m being too hard on you, and live the rest of your lives being pussy ass little bitches... Or you can pay fucking attention and learn something that might save your pathetic lives one day.” I turned back to face Kyro, letting him see the challenge in my eyes. “So, what’s it going to be, Little Cub? You want to get strong enough to challenge for the position of Rhoan someday? Or do you want to spend the rest of your days taking orders from some asshole like me?”

Kyro gave me a determined snort, and I watched with something akin to pride, as his fur began to ripple, and he went against all instincts and forced himself to shift back into his human form.

I had expected him to immediately collapse, but to my surprise, he struggled to get to his feet. Once he was upright, he coughed up a mouthful of blood and fell to his knees before me. I was about to turn away, when he pushed through the clearly agonizing pain he was experiencing and stood up on shaky legs. He walked, butt ass naked, to join his sister in the ranks, before jutting his chin out at me.

“I will stand with everyone else.” He said, more blood dripping out of his mouth and down his chin. I forced myself to keep my face neutral, not wanting him to see how impressed I was with him. I didn’t need it going to his head.

I snatched up his loincloth with a snort and rolled my eyes.

“Fine, cover up your dick at least,” I snapped, tossing his clothes at him roughly. “No need to show all the females here what they’re not missing.” I mocked, and his cheeks flushed red as he stepped into the animal hide.

“K’yen, make sure no one moves. The first one to break will be banished, and not just from the K’aalpa-kah, but from the Olkuyrbe tribe. We don’t have room for weak little bitches here.” I snapped over my shoulder and stalked off to check in with Rhyalla to see if we had heard anything from the leaders of the other shifters yet.

I snuck a look back over my shoulder as I left, and bit back a smirk, as I saw Kyro force himself to stand ramrod straight next to his sister, still somehow managing to hold form better than half of the other assholes who weren’t suffering from internal injuries.

I was going to have a lot of fun with that kid… and maybe I would get another half decent warrior out of this leap of sorry losers after all.

Rycon

Ientered Rhoan House to find Rhyalla had just returned from distributing the leftovers from breakfast to the rest of the community. She was flipping through the vinyl next to the record player trying to find something to listen to while she waited for Kasha to wake up from her nap.

“She’s sleeping again?” I asked, concerned. Rhyalla pursed her lips and nodded.

“I haven’t heard a peep from her since you left.” She said softly, and I felt my chest tighten. I didn’t know if it was a good thing or not, that she was resting this much. During my time serving the Ironclad Company, I had been exposed to alot of sexual abuse victims, but the females I interacted with were usually hardened survivors with old wounds. Many of the females that I worked jobs with had been victims of abuse themselves and had become mercenaries as a coping mechanism.

They were angry, and broken, and they murdered males as a form of vengeance for what had been done to them. I wasn’t sure what their recovery had looked like before they had become the ruthless assassins that often found themselves either on my team, in my bed, or both. I had never been in the habit of talking about my past or been interested in the pasts of my partners while I had been living that lifestyle. But things tended to come up, especially when the female I was fucking asked me to do some shit so depraved it made even my toes curl.

The first time one of my partners had told me she got off on getting tied up and gagged, I had been intrigued and more than willing to play. I soon found that there were all sorts of kinks out there that made the predator in me purr, but I also quickly learned the very real and serious consequences to playing these games with broken people.

Without rules and safeguards put in place, consensual play could quickly turn into a traumatic experience for a survivor, and I had learned early on that aftercare and safewords were necessary when engaging in these types of sexual relationships. Especially with people whose kinks were a product of extensive trauma.