“Stand down,” I say to everyone, relaxing my own grip. I feel confusion from River and the kiinas, but Bastet seems to already know who’s there. It makes sense – her sense of smell is better than any of the others who seem to be primarily sight-hunters. “Lathani, come out,” I tell her wearily.

The bushes rustle a bit more and then the nunda cub emerges from them. I don’t even need her to speak to know how she’s feeling: her body-language tells the whole tale. Defiance on the surface with forward-tilted ears, stiff shoulders, and a lifted tail, but hints of guilt clear nonetheless in the way she slopes forwards. I might have thought it was shame to do with being caught, but I’m pretty sure it’s more that she knows she’s not meant to be here – but has come anyway.

“Why are you here?” I ask with crossed arms and a glare. “I’m pretty sure that your mum and I were very definite earlier about you not coming on this trip.”

I don’t see why I should be excluded. I didn’t even have to ride on anyone’s back to keep up, she accuses defiantly, her teeth slightly bared.

“Because both your mother, the strongest being I know, and I, the person you’ve acknowledged as pack-leader before, said so!” I half-shout back at her. I sigh forcefully, then breathe in deeply, trying to calm myself. Getting angry at her, even if I’m furious, won’t solve anything. “How did you even get here? Have you been following us?”

Yes. And you didn’t even realise I was here until now. She seems to think that should mean something.

“We weren’t exactly watching for pursuers,” I tell her, a little exasperated. Though, honestly, it is a bit of a failing on our parts. What if whatever had followed us so quietly had been something waiting for the moment to strike? We were travelling pretty fast, but that doesn’t mean we could have just escaped any danger; Lathani has proven that.

Well, I’m here now, so I’m coming with you, she announces, like that’s the end of the matter. Bastet growls at her tone, crouching as if seconds from pouncing on her to teach her respect, and River shifts uncomfortably. Conflict between me and Lathani is always difficult for him given his past history with the cub, and his loyalty to me.

I want to refute her, want to send her packing back home. But I can’t. My mind races, but I can’t think of an alternative solution which would present less danger to her. If her mother is in hot pursuit, which she may be, that would be the ideal scenario – I could pass Lathani over to Kalanthia for a judicious scolding and return to the cave. But I have no idea if that is the case or not.

If she’s not coming, then the options are to leave Lathani here, send her home, or bring her with us. Of the three, the last seems the least dangerous and most likely to succeed. I doubt I’d be able to send her home: she’s defied both Kalanthia and me to follow us in the first place. At best she would just follow us at a greater distance.

As for leaving her here, that’s not really an option: I’d have to tie her up to stop her from following us, and then she’d be very vulnerable to any creature which happened upon her – which would be completely counter-productive. Actually, even if I did succeed in convincing her to go home, it’s probably pretty dangerous too. After all, moving as a group of three Tier twos, four Tier ones, and me presents a strong front. I doubt much would try to attack us.

A single Tier one juvenile nunda moving through the forest on her own would probably be a different story. I don’t want to open her up to more danger. But at the same time, we’re heading into an unknown situation, with at least one creature involved which has already got the better of a group of four of my Bound, two of whom are the strongest in terms of Tier.

I sigh and return my gaze to Lathani who, wonder of wonders, has realised that she shouldn’t interrupt my thought process.

“Fine, you’re coming with us,” I say. Her body language immediately changes, clear elation running through her at the acceptance. Confusion and surprise come across the Bond from my Bound at my changed mind. “Only because it would be more dangerous to do anything else now you’ve forced my hand,” I tell her with a hard edge, staring sternly at her. “If your mother comes, I’ll happily relinquish you to her care.”

She won’t come, Lathani interrupts cheerily.

“Why do you say that?” I ask with a frown. Did Kalanthia change her mind?

She’s said before that she thinks I should learn the ‘consequences’ of my ‘actions’. She won’t come, Lathani reiterates with a chirp.

“Meaning that instead you’re going to become a pain in my arse,” I sigh. “She’d better not blame me for if you get injured or killed, then,” I grumble, eyeing my current headache. Not that I mean it – obviously I’m going to do my best to not let her get hurt. Still…. “Let me make one thing clear though, Lathani,” I tell her, pinning her gaze with my own. “While on this trip, you obey me or any of my Bound without question. In this hunt, you are at the bottom of the pecking order. Do you understand me?”

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

She grumbles and looks away, her posture showing displeasure. I move closer, crouching down in front of her and putting my hand on her neck, gently but firmly pushing with my fingers to indicate that she should look at me again. She does, a bit unwillingly.

“Your mother talked about consequences,” I say, quietly, but very firmly. “Maybe you’re mentally prepared to be hurt. Perhaps you think you’re even ready to face death. I won’t say whether you are or not. But consider this: are you ready to watch Bastet get hurt because of your disobedience?” She jerks, her eyes going wide. “Or die? What about River? I know you’ve got closer to him since the rocky beginning of your relationship. Are you ready to watch him be hurt because you refused to dodge when someone told you to? Or die because he moved to protect you when you disobeyed the order to retreat?”

She’s broadcasting her emotions and I feel the denial and rejection of my words. I press harder.

“What about me? You are precious to me, Lathani. If I see that you’re in danger, I will try to protect you, as much as I would any of my Bound. We’re going to save Fenrir because of that. But could you live with yourself if you disobeyed an order and then I died while trying to protect you from the consequences of your choice?”

My words are hitting home; I see the horror in her eyes. If she could tear up, I’m sure that there would already be rivers running down her furry cheeks. As it is, her fur is dry, but I think that I’m getting through to her. Good. I don’t want to scare her unduly, but the fact is that she’s chosen to add complication into something that was already going to be a nightmare. I don’t think I would be able to forgive her if she caused the death of one of my Bound because of wilful disobedience.

It’s one thing if we get hurt or worse in a fight; it’s quite another if the injury was easily avoidable. The more I can impress the dangers into her head now, the better.

“My Bound and I are able to communicate mentally. We can send messages to each other in split-seconds in the midst of a fight. This allows us to tell each other of dangers, and to strategise or change our strategy at a moment’s notice. We’ve also hunted together,” some of us more than others, admittedly, “and trust each other’s judgement. I have no doubt that if I give a command in the middle of the battle, they will follow it.”

Well, if I told Hades to abandon Persephone to danger, I have some doubts about him obeying that. But then I know that the male kiina is intensely protective over his mate, so I wouldn’t give that order unless it was absolutely necessary. And if it was absolutely necessary, and would, in fact, be the best option for protecting his mate overall, I’m sure that Hades would then recognise that and follow it. Although we haven’t hunted much together, we’ve gone out a couple of times, so I feel like I’ve started to understand where he’s coming from.

“We work together as a team. We do our best to support our team-mates, not expose them to danger,” I continue. “I don’t have the same confidence in you,”

This gets a new reaction, one of indignation. She shakes off my hand and pins her ears back, glaring at me.

I wouldn’t put anyone in danger!

“You already have!” I snap back at her, dropping my hand to my side and standing up to glare down at her. “By coming here, you have added an extra element to an already-complicated situation. Right now, I should be feeding mana into my Bound, preparing all of us for the fight ahead, but instead I’m having to talk to you. Your actions are already having consequences – and right now, it’s not you paying them!” I breathe more heavily, my anger rising despite my attempts to control it.

Taking in and letting out a couple of deep breaths, I feel the rising tide ebb a little.

“Listen, Lathani. I love you like family.” I’m amazed at how easily the words fall out of my mouth – if only I could have been as open as that with Lucy. “But if even a single action of yours in the next few hours makes me fear that your presence will put the rest of us in danger, I will tie you to Persephone’s back and you’ll both be out of the fight.”

I mean it, too. From the wave of sudden support from Hades, I can tell that he’d be happier with that solution, too. Persephone’s disgruntled response both to me and to her mate, on the other hand, proves that she wouldn’t be happy if we end up doing things that way. Nevertheless, I don’t doubt that she would accept, however grumpily – that’s exactly the point I was trying to make to the juvenile nunda.

No! Lathani protests.

“Then prove to me that you’ll obey any order,” I tell her, shaking my finger in her face. “That’s the choice now. Accept that you are at the bottom of the pack hierarchy, or be side-lined completely.” There’s a long moment where I can’t read her emotions from either her body or her eyes. She’s clearly taking care not to broadcast them either.

Fine, she accepts finally. It’s sulky, but genuine.

“You’ll obey any order from any of us?” I check, not relenting.

Yes. I stare at her expectantly. I’ll obey any order. From any of the pack, she continues the sulkiness leaving her tone to be replaced with resignation.

“Alright,” I sigh too, suddenly feeling even more exhausted than I had been earlier. I look around at my Bound. “Looks like Lathani’s coming with us,” I say, probably pretty redundantly: they were there for the discussion, after all. But it feels like something I should ‘officially’ acknowledge.

The others seem to take that as the cue to reach out to Lathani in acceptance, ranging from the standoffish greeting of the two kiinas to the enthusiastic head-butting of the raptorcat cubs. Bastet actually moves over and bites Lathani’s ear before rubbing against her. Not that hard, but enough to make Lathani yowl slightly – evidently the raptorcat hasn’t quite forgiven the nunda for her disobedience.

River’s own emotions are a little complicated, probably not comfortable going into danger with the young nunda again.

Are you sure about this? he sends to me, the message having the feel of being a ‘private’ one – I’ve started getting to grips with how messages directly sent between two on the ‘web’ feel different from ‘general broadcasts’.

No, I send back to him alone. But I don’t see any other option. If she’s a liability, I’ll carry out my threat of tying her to Persephone’s back and side-lining both of them, but I’d rather not lose a capable fighter if I can avoid it.

We’ve already lost more time than I’d hoped. Fortunately, my Bound kept eating while I was dealing with Lathani. I didn’t, obviously, but should be able to at least eat my ‘flatbread’ and grilled meat while we move.

“Come on everyone; we need to get moving,” I say grimly.