Mated to the Warrior Beast
Chapter 260 260: NEXT GEN: Don’t Care

~ ZANE ~

Lia actually giggled and it was such a brilliant sound I wanted to make her do it again. But pretty soon we were both serious again.

"Seriously, Zan—"

"Don't."

"But you're all messed up about this when you don't have to be! No one cares that you can't shift!"

"I care."

It was the first time I'd ever said it out loud and it shocked me. I usually downplayed all of this, because Lia was right: Human-form-to-human-form I'd bet on myself against any shifter, any day of the week. My father was Chimeran wolf, and my mother was human. I was… something else. No one seemed to know. But whatever it was, it was strong.

And fast.

My mother had been worried about me when I was little because I looked human. Large and strong for a full-human, but still human. But I had the senses of a wolf. And something else. Something even I didn't really understand. Something we didn't really talk about because none of us knew what to call it.

But sometimes I caught my parents looking at me like they were a little bit afraid.

I hated that.

Then, a couple years ago, I discovered the portal to the human world. It was a closely guarded secret that they even existed. I'd heard my parents talk about them at home since I was small, but they'd always emphasized that it wasn't something we discussed with others. Only certain Anima and Chimera knew they were there, and even fewer could walk through.

And the one who wanted to was rare.

Both Anima and Chimera had been harmed by the humans. My own parents still shuddered when they talked about how my father had been raised by them. My mother no longer saw herself as one of them, even though genetically she was.

I'd always seen them as these villains. These… horrific creatures. I'd hated it when shifters called me human—because my mother assured me that I wasn't. Not purely. Though I looked like one.

When I found the gateway I'd been running from everyone because I was feeling angry and helpless and I needed space. When I realized what it was, I didn't even really think about it. I just walked through.

I think I was telling myself that maybe that was where I belonged. Maybe who I was would make sense in this world.

It didn't. But a lot of other things did.

And for me, being here was intoxicating. Much as I hated to admit it to myself, I kept coming back after shorter and shorter times away because there was something compelling about being here among the humans. About always being the strongest guy in the room.

The females certainly thought so.

And unlike the animal shifters, human senses didn't warn females against me. Instead, their buried, ancient instincts were drawn nearer. They wanted to stand in my shadow. They wanted to watch me.

And the females wanted to mate with me—

"Zan. Stop."

I blinked, then realized with horror that I'd been imagining what I would have been doing by now if I'd stayed back at the bar. And Lia was scenting it on me.

I gripped the steering wheel, waiting for her derision. Waiting for the way she'd belittle me, as she always had, even though I was almost five years older than her.

Lia was the Anima Queen's daughter. We'd been thrown together our whole lives because I was the Chimeran Alpha's son.

There'd been jokes about our future together since we were kids—fated to guide the two peoples of Anima through the next generation. But we'd both fought those stereotypes and expectations since we were old enough to understand them.

Lia was as fiercely anti-me as I was repelled by the idea of bonding with her. I couldn't believe I was stuck here with her now!

But then the memory of watching her dance flashed in my head—when I hadn't known who she was. The way her body arched. That glorious combination of grace and strength. The way my belly had clenched—

I cleared my throat.

It's Lia. Holy shit, I was mad kinds of horny if I was thinking about her.

"Sorry," I muttered.

But she just shrugged.

I kept driving, heading back towards the Big House.

That first time I'd come through the now-empty portal two years earlier—naïve and pissed off—I'd been met by three half-Anima, the children of former generations, who'd been left stuck in this world when the portals closed. They couldn't see the portal, couldn't use it, but knew it was there.

They'd inherited the place from the former family who'd all fled to Anima at the Queen's order when the humans were trying to invade. They had only seen an Anima twice since they'd taken the house, so they were almost giddy when I showed up. But they were also confused. Because I wasn't actually Anima.

That was a tense conversation. But my knowledge of the Tree City and the people there slowly convinced them. They'd heard my name and eventually believed that I wasn't an imposter.

Now they rolled out the red carpet every time I came through. They'd helped me get clothes, they left this car for me to use any time I wanted. And every time we ate together or shared time, they peppered me with questions about "home," though none of them had ever visited because they'd been raised here.

It hadn't occurred to me that anyone else would sneak through. That they might talk to anyone who knew me. So I'd been completely open with them.

But if Lia had come through, others probably were going to as well.

We couldn't be the only ones of our generation who could see the Portals.

I tensed. If our parents knew…

It wouldn't matter that I was an adult in my own right. It wouldn't matter that if my parents hadn't survived, I'd already be leading the Chimera myself.

My dad didn't give a flying fuck how Alpha I was. If he found out I'd crossed without permission he was going to kick my ass.

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