Horizon Ridge The Eyes of Another

Much to Pied's irritation, Rob suddenly loped back onto the scene. Her teeth ground together and she looked at him coldly, though she did not say anything. She moved a little nearer to Kisu, heartened by her mate's presence, and stared a little when Rob addressed the two of them. She felt her fur prickling slightly despite Rob's apologetic words and appearance, mistrusting them.

Then, suddenly, the air beside her grew empty and cold as Kisu stepped toward Rob, stammering in his excitement. Pied froze questioningly when he left his post, then her lips parted when she heard the words pouring from his mouth. It took a second for everything to compute in her mind and when the realization struck, she filled with an unpleasant dread. Rob was Kisu's long-lost son?

She wanted to refute it, yet as she glanced between the two, the resemblance was uncanny, especially in their eyes. As she looked back and forth, Pied felt herself backing up a few steps, her limp tail dangling between her legs. That's my stepson, she thought with a shiver. It wasn't just that she didn't like Rob—and his first impression still left a bad taste in her mouth—but that he was an embodiment of Kisu's life before her, a stark reminder that he'd had a mate and children before she'd come along.

She'd felt a little peculiar upon first discovering Kisu's background, yet at the time, she'd told herself it only made sense. Now, with Kisu's past standing before them, flesh and blood, she felt queerly displaced and even slightly heartbroken. If Kisu wanted to rekindle his relationship with his son, would it affect their relationship? Would Rob come first now? Although Pied recognized some of her fears as irrational, she nonetheless felt herself shrinking away.