Davonyé
I growl loud as fuck and lunge for Clarence. “Muthafucka!”
He ducks down and I barely miss connecting with his snout, but I keep swinging and rushing towards him. ‘Don’t take it personal,’ Ari said.
Fuck all that. This shit is more than personal.
He avoids my right swing again, but then I just catch him with my left. He growls before grabbing me around my neck and slamming me to the ground.
“That’s better,” he says, having shifted back.
I move my arm to swing for him again, but he grabs it like its nothin’.
He laughs but that makes me even angrier. My blood is literally on fire, I’m so mad. I ain’t even a violent man, but the shit he was sayin’...
I snap at his face but he moves back just enough that I miss.
“That anger you feel inside you right now, that's what you need—”
“Ari’s mine!” I growl, still struggling to get free of his hold. Fuck him and anyone else who thinks they can take her from me. I’ll kill every last one of them muthafucka.
“Calm your young ass down, Davonyé! It ain't even like that. You and my daughter are mates! You think I could keep her away from you even if I wanted to? Come on, man, none of that shit I was talkin’ was true. You only ever get one true mate.”
He pins me harder to the ground as he stares down at me. I see some emotion in his eyes but I don’t know what it is.
“I promise you, Ariella ain’t going nowhere.”
He jumps to his feet and leaves me on the ground. I stare up at him as thick clouds of steam escape from my snout.
“Don't try nothin’ else, cuz I will make you submit,” he warns.
I get to my feet and then find the nearest tree to punch the shit out of it.
“There’s gonna be enough wares that will want her when they see her … Mates or not, you think she's gonna have time for you in the long run, huh? … She’s an Elder and you're just a ware … How the fuck you expect to protect my daughter? … They’ll take her from you easy.”
I couldn’t even protect my sister…
I smash my fist into the tree harder, and the bark flies all around me, then the whole tree begins to tilt backwards with each punch.
Then it falls.
I look down at my claw and see it heal through the fur. I’on give a fuck if that's his training technique or not. Shit has me all the way fucked up.
Take Ariella...
Fuckin’ over my dead body.
“You feelin’ better yet?” I hear Clarence say behind me.
I ignore him, cuz what I really wanna do is knock him out, but I don't want him trying to assert his dominance over me either.
He said he didn’t mean it…
My line of sight lowers and I know I’m shifting back.
I smell Clarence close behind me, but I don’t turn around.
Fuck him.
“How do you feel when you think about someone taking Ariella from you?”
I swear this brother just can’t leave it alone. I literally hover in a place that’s mid human, mid ware.
“What you’re feeling now, that’s called your trigger. You take that feeling, along with your want to change, and that’s what you use to get yourself there. You gotta want it, and eventually you’ll be able to merely think it and do it.”
I think about killing him and instantly change back to a full-grown ware.
I’ma just use that.
“Good. We’ll keep working on your shift, but then we gotta work on your anger.”
I turn around and glare at Clarence. He’s wearing sweats now. I think about my human side and manage to slowly change back to myself. “My anger's fine till someone provokes me. I ain't even a violent man.”
He gives me a look.
“I ain't, believe it or not. My dad woulda beat my ass if I got into trouble, let alone be out in the streets fighting.”
“Well, I hate to break it to you, but fighting comes with being a ware. You are a dominant, Davonyé, which means you’ll need to use force to keep your wares in check. Like it or not, you will eventually learn to embrace it.”
“I just wanna learn this shift thing.” And get the fuck back to Ari.
I need some reassurances.
***
We walk back towards the house in silence after running far as fuck as wares to some cliffs to the south. We only just touched on jumping, but mostly I’ve been changing back and forth from ware to human. Over and over again. Shit was repetitive as fuck.
Ari’s still got me blocked out, and I guess Abriya’s still blocking Clarence, too. I wish Ari would let me back in cuz I miss her bad, but not only that, I still feel vexed from earlier. As pathetic as it might sound, that shit hurt. The shit he was sayin’ touched nerves on a deeper level than I was anticipatin’.
“I can feel your mind in overdrive, Davonyé. What you thinkin’?” Clarence asks from beside me.
“Nothin’.” I ain't tryna be disrespectful, but I'm deep in my damn feelings.
He stops walking so I reluctantly turn to face him.
“You feel a way about earlier?”
I try to keep a straight face. The urge to change so I can beat his ass ain’t nowhere near as strong as it was earlier, but I still ain’t ready to be tested on it. “I'm good.”
He sighs. “You know I didn't mean that shit, right? It was just to get you changed.”
“Yeah. It's cool.”
He rolls his eyes as he takes a step closer to me. “Listen, I know you’re feeling a way, but it ain't like that. You wanna know what I said to Abriya to get her to change when I trained her?”
I stay quiet.
“I called her a whiny bitch.”
I blink, but then a laugh slips out cuz I'm that damned shocked. “You serious?”
He nods. “Ask her. She could hear my thoughts, too, and she still fell for that shit. She chased my ass, caught me up and then almost killed my ass, too. And she could have, easily. She was much stronger than I was.”
“Damn…”
“You don't wanna know some of the shit I've had to say to new wares to trigger their changes. My point is, I'm experienced in this shit, you ain't, and I know what the fuck to say to bring out the worst and the best in people. My daughter loves you, and you love her. I ain't blind. Anyone can see that you'd protect her from anything or anyon—”
“I would.”
“And that's exactly why I gotta test you like that. You think when you go back to school there ain't gonna be times when you'll wanna fuck up a little punk for looking at her a kinda way? Or there won't be times when you'll get angry over someone bringing up your past, knowing it might upset her? And who you think is gonna be the one to blame if you out us, huh? Me. So I ain't gonna apologise for being hard on your ass. Your ass was mated to someone from the wrong family if you was expecting this shit to be easy.”
He rests a hand on my shoulder and then starts walking towards the house again.
I never thought this shit would be easy, I just never expected to feel so much for Ari.