"Ready, dad?" Rylan shouted through the door, making sure not to have it open more than a few inches so that his brother couldn't smell the stack of cubs curled up on each other in the far corner of the living room. Rylan could just barely see them from where he stood, but Tarren's lion would definitely zero-in on the poor kittens if given the chance.

"Yeah! Let him in," Jordan yelled back.

Rylan backed away from the door, allowing it to swing open and give Tarren a perfect view of the sleeping cubs. Tiegan was back in his human form with a pair of loose black shorts on and two kittens wrapped securely in his arms. He looked flabbergasted at the sight, but Rylan's brother looked just about the opposite. He did exactly what Rylan had expected and began stalking towards the cubs, head swinging from stress and anger. It was an obvious sign that he was going to kill them... that he had been pushed too far too fast.

That's where their father came in, though. He stepped in front of the little tiger cubs and let out a very impressive roar. The resonating sound shook the walls and vibrated through the floors. It did its job, too, stopping his brother in his tracks. Cutting off the lion's vision of the kittens also helped snap him out of his aggressive state.

Rylan slowly walked around him and knelt beside the squirming pile of butts, pulling a particularly wiggly one out before turning to move in front of his father's lion. Tarren's eyes were immediately locked onto the cub, but it didn't dare take a step closer with Jordan's lion out. There was definitely one person who did, though.

A very excited tiger ran over with its two tiny cubs carefully held between its teeth. Tiegan gently set his kittens down on the blanket with the others and curled up protectively around the huge group. He began cleaning mewing bundles of fur without a second to spare, moving every single one to nurse after he was content that they were nice and squeaky clean... and covered in tiger spit. The bigger cubs got a little aggressive with the smaller ones, and especially the little hybrid, but one upset roar from their mother quieted all of them down immediately.

Jordan cautiously stepped aside then, so that Tarren could see, but sat down instead of walking away. They could all tell that Tarren was on edge and Tiegan wasn't paying enough attention to really defend his cubs if the lion attacked.

Rylan.

Rylan could feel how hard his brother was fighting with himself with just that one thought.

If you need to go upstairs and get control, go do it. These are Tiegan's remaining babies. Dad worked really hard and spent millions to get them back for your mate.

I know. My lion, though...

He'll need to get used to them. Look how happy Tiegan is, and I know he'd love to share that with you, your cub, and his older babies.

Rylan felt his brother struggle to nod as he turned, then stalked upstairs.

That went better than I thought it would. Throwing all of these cubs at him was definitely a hard trial for his lion, Jordan thought to him calmly.

Rylan nodded.

"Want me to go upstairs and hang with him for a bit?"

Yes. Take him some food. That should calm his lion.

"Alright."

Rylan ran to the kitchen to grab a good amount of chicken before heading upstairs.

Erin swore that Grayson was the cutest and sweetest mouse he'd ever seen. He hadn't really met many mouse shifters, but he definitely was way above the ones he'd had the unfortunate pleasure to meet.

These daydreams are going to get me in trouble.

"Hey, Spots!"

Arron turned with a smile, his little silver cub tucked into a blanket in his arms.

Cute little brat.

It had been so long since Arron had been at school, and Erin hadn't had much of a chance to go out to Larro's place to play with Roan.

"Can I ask you something?"

Arron smirked and walked over, handing him their son. Well, Erin's, his, and Rylan's. Long story short, nature is weird as hell. Erin took Roan without a single complaint and nuzzled his nose against his soft furry head.

"Have you seen Grayson around? Little kid with grayish-white hair?"

"You mean the mouse-boy?" Arron asked.

"Yeah."

Erin handed Roan back as Arron spoke again, making his heart sink a little.

"He bumped into someone in the hallway and the last I saw of him he was being lead toward the stairs. That was just a few moments ago. I told a teacher but they didn't seem that determined to check it out."

If Erin didn't have Roan with him he would have been pissed that he hadn't tried to help, but there was no way he could get involved with the cub in his arms.

"Okay, thanks."

Erin rushed past him and nearly broke the door to the stairwell as he crashed into it. A group of three boys, surprisingly all of them human, were surrounding his little mouse. Grayson was literally in his mouse form sidled up against the wall as the boys tried to use him as a soccer ball.

"Excuse me, but that's my mouse."

They turned around at his words, the tallest one sending him a glare.

"Yeah? Well you can have him back when we're done playing with him."

"I don't think you understand. That is my mouse... and I don't like it when anyone besides me plays with him."

The boy was about to throw a punch at him in response, but Erin grinned and let his elephant take over just enough to wrinkle his eyes in grey.

"Oh shit, you're that elephant!"

"Oh shit, you're right. Smarter than you look. Now get the hell away from my mouse, and if I ever see you messing with him again I won't hesitate to teach you a very painful lesson about bullying!"

They were already stumbling out of the stairwell before he finished speaking so he doubted that they heard him much, but he was pretty sure the threat was solid enough that they weren't going to mess with him again.

Erin let himself relax after a moment, then walked over to kneel down next to Grayson. He squeaked up at him, making Erin grin and reach over. Grayson scurried up his arm immediately, then plopped down on his shoulder.

Those guys were butts.

"Oooh, bad word from such a little boy."

I'll pee on your shoulder.

"I love you, Gray."

That's what I thought.

He squeaked again for good measure as Erin laughed and walked back out into the halls, grabbing his clothing and backpack before leaving.

"I'm not really feeling gym or art today. Want to go on a date instead?"

Erin's shoulders suddenly felt a lot heavier as Grayson shifted, his legs on either side of his neck and a certain something a bit too close to the back of his head. At least for a public situation...

"Yeah!"

Thankfully, most of the kids were already in class so there weren't many people to stare at the very naked Greyson cheering with his legs over Erin's shoulders. Either way, he didn't want anyone seeing his mouse naked, so he grabbed his shirt and quickly set him down before yanking it over his head. Since Erin was so much taller, the thing easily came to rest just above Grayson's knees.

"Alright, you can get changed in my car on our way to Menzini's, okay?" Erin asked with a smile.

"Sure!"

Erin knew that he'd love the place. They had lactose free cheese. It sounded terrible, but eh, it actually was pretty good, especially with all the other toppings on the pizza.

Gray was dressed after only a minute and buckled in, allowing Erin to pull out of the parking lot and head toward downtown. They didn't quite make it there, though, because about halfway to the restaurant something darted out in front of the car, forcing Erin to swerve and skid into a drainage ditch. They were incredibly lucky that it wasn't very deep and he was able to drive the car out, but he wasn't too sure if the thing that ran in front of them was as lucky.

"Hang on, it's laying on the side of the road."

Grayson was already out of the car and running across the road to scoop up whatever they had just clipped. Erin figured that it wasn't going to survive and they could at least bury it, but when Grayson ran back across to him panicking, he knew that something was up.

"He's got a diaper on. It's disgusting and super old, and he's got healing wounds."

"Oh shit! Get in the car!" Erin exclaimed worried.

Grayson was already doing just that, the dirty little shifter hugged tight in his arms. Erin floored the car back onto the road and drove to the first vet office he could find.

He held the door open for Grayson, watching as he literally ran into the back area and screamed for the vet.

Good kid.

Erin followed after him after he'd parked the car. Thankfully, a doctor was there who wasn't busy. He was a bit peeved that they had run into the back, but as soon as he saw the bleeding wolf pup in Gray's arms he immediately grabbed it and rushed to a different room, shouting over his shoulder at them before disappearing.

"Go sit in the waiting room, I'll be awhile!"