It had been three months since Ryan, King of the Northern Pride had sent out the call looking for shifters born on the 1st of the month during certain years. Since then he had been distracted. His loyalties split between his destiny as one of the chosen and to the Pride that he had built. Although, he was abandoned as a young cub, this Pride had taken him in and raised him together. His adoptive mother and father were wonderful people. Lena never treated him differently than any of her other children. Even when it became obvious, that he was stronger than her children were. She knew that he would be the leader of the Pride. Lena raised him to be an honest and good leader. His father, who was responsible for setting up the community, had not wanted to be leader even though he was a leopard Alpha. His mother was a cougar and helped him realize his potential. So when he became of age he secured the community by becoming the official leader. Since he was a lion, they became the Southern Pride. None of the members had challenged his strength or authority, happy to just be a part of a Pride. Luckily, at the turn of the century when land was cheap, his parents had purchased hundreds and hundreds of acres. At the time, they only wanted running and hunting grounds. Then in the fifties, oil and natural gas had been discovered there. So the Pride never needed to worry about money. With some of the members of his Pride being mixed breeds or hybrids, and thus outcasts from most of the pure bred Packs, Prides, and Dens he felt he had to protect them, his Pride, and his responsibility. When he looked at the list of members of his Pride, he thought of John and Dana, a wolf and a cougar who had a child that when shifted it looked like a dog, with a cat’s coat and whiskers, and then there was Georgie, a bear and cheetah combination which was hard to describe. They had suffered in the past with ridicule and shunning, he vowed he would not allow that to happen again. He just needed to remember that he’d addressed the Pride and explained all about the New Council and him being one of the Chosen. He laid out his concerns and then put it to a vote. Damn, he was proud of his Pride, they had supported him unanimously. Suddenly he sat up in his chair. Mom would be ashamed of me if she saw me hemmin’ and hawin’ like this, he thought. Come on Argus, grow a pair! If any shifter dares hurt my people, I’ll just maul ‘em a little til they see things my way! The Southern Pride was just outside Dallas in wide open country. They called it a gated community, but it was really his Pride. They had walls and gates put up years ago to keep the humans out. When they wanted to run, they did not want to fear being seen. People probably would think it was a Zoo in here if they saw them shift. There were so many different shifters in his Pride; they could probably fill a Zoo. Argus chuckled as he looked out the window and saw his newest Pride members eating leaves from the top of the trees surrounding the lake. Yes sir, his pride had the only North American shifter giraffes as part of their pride. In the wild, they might be considered prey, in the Pride they were Daniel and Asha a couple of retired runway models from New York. Their humans preferred the U.S.to Africa and having heard of his Pride through the shifter grapevine, asked to join so they could settle in and start a family. He was happy to have them. The best way to make peace between groups was to let the children grow up together. Children knew how to play, and make friends, they accepted everyone Argus sat back and thought about his childhood. If it had not been for his best friend, Jacob, he probably would have gone down the wrong road. Jacobs mother Seila always said that Jacob was his conscience; Seila was best friends with Lena which made things worse. She loved to tease them about being together all the time. Where one was the other was certain to be close by. Just recently, both women decided it was time that their fun loving sons needed to settle down. It had gotten to the point where he was avoiding Sunday dinner, so was Jacob.
What do You think about Argus: Accepting The Challenge?
