The Coyote Is Building A Zoo

There's trouble afoot. I can smell it.

Since the literal incarnation of my spirit animal manifested, I can smell everything. This is different, though. Our nearest and dearest are drifting away, and I have to stop it. Wilde's tried his best to provide discouragement, but it hasn't worked.

It's time for mama to take over.

You're probably wondering why I want to keep people from being happy, aren't you? You can wonder all you like; it doesn't bother me. It's incorrect, but people are always assigning inaccurate motives to my actions. No one ever understands how I—how we—work. It's the curse of being the ‘misunderstood rebel' that I've dealt with my entire life.

Everything—and I mean everything—I do is to protect the people I love, even if it's from themselves. They don't always comprehend what I'm doing, and that causes a lot of dust-ups, but I don't worry about it.

When the Cabal left after the Conflict, Wilde and I were adrift. We switched sides to help them and got our reward, but they all peaced out. It was a domino effect. Talia's family went into exile. The other leaders went back to the other side. The Resistance disappeared, and the few semi-permanent residents we knew weren't enough to keep us occupied.

We could spend more time in the other place and for a while, we did. I got the brilliant idea to hang out in Bytes ‘N Chips, hoping that some of the hidden rebels would come there. Good thing I did, because that's where we met Deli and her boys. Back then, it was her, Leo, and Hex. She was head over heels for Victor—who could blame her—but Donatella was still around.

I called around to some of my Cabal friendly folks that left, and we built a bar down the street from the Cabal Quarter. We called it Dirty Deeds, and it was a new place for everyone to play. Well, everyone that was cool, of course.

DD was invite-only and the hottest ticket in town.

I had people; Deli had people. We were a natural match in terms of leaders who didn't want to be leaders. Wilde enjoyed her constant challenging of his strict behavioral norms, and I liked how free spirited she was. We ruled the roost at my little venture until the bar exploded in the middle of the night. Faulty gas line, they said, but I've never believed that. I think the Company got involved because we were taking away from Bytes ‘N Chips' recruiting capabilities with our private venue.

In the meantime, Deli had met and mated with Rafe. That meant Wilde was a lot more comfortable asking if I minded if he courted her. She was so different from ‘tomboy' me and his ‘Lady Fair' Rhea. Deli was bad to the bone, and he liked she made him stretch his boundaries. Once she had a mate, he didn't worry about upsetting me.

Wilde and I have always understood one another's needs.

After a short, but adorable courtship full of dates, flowers, and taking drives in the country—all that rot he loves so much—not only did he end up mating with Deli, but I got involved with Rafe. I've loved that clone from the beginning, you know. He may be lazy and loungy, but he's a stallion in the sack and makes my heart do girly flip flops. I haven't ever been able to figure out why, but he does. I ended up mating with him just as quickly as Wilde did with Deli.

Deli finally invited us to join the Resistance community after we mated. I had no idea how many people lived there full time. We met all the families, and I saw Heaven for the first time. Her family kept growing, and they made new droids for all the members and new recruits. There were droves of people to play with in her hidden corner of our world.

Tension flared with Rhea and Alistair after we started spending more time where they couldn't find us. The drama stayed in the background at first because I didn't tell our new mates. They didn't need to know that our other loves were demanding we mate with them now—even though Rhea had insisted she and Alistair would never mate with others. That was Talia's influence, but once Rhea saw Deli horning in with Wilde, she had a conversion of beliefs.

We did it because we loved them. It wasn't enough, though.

Rhea wanted more of our time, more of us, and to read about fewer adventures with the other two. It was hard to explain that because Deli, Wilde, and I were writers, we had to tell our stories in the blogs. It wasn't our fault she didn't like to write, and couldn't play the same way. She was constantly miserable, and we fought all the time about where Wilde and I were spending our time.

Finally, I went to Dels with my hat in hand. I begged for her to invite Rhea into the Resistance despite being droid-less. That was the only requirement to be part of the Resistance and though it was reasonable, I had to get Rhea off my back. In retrospect, it was one of the dumbest ideas I've ever had, and I've done some dumb shit in my lifetime.

After a week on pins and needles as Deli, Lily, and Dona discussed her inclusion, I went out and bought one of those stupid robot dogs. I gave it to Rhea as a present and went back to Deli to plead again. I knew it was a cheap trick. I was playing on her heart strings for someone that made her uncomfortable. I gave her my personal guarantee that none of the bad behavior they'd seen from Rhea at Dirty Deeds would happen here.

I shouldn't have given that guarantee.

I've known Rhea for a long time in the other place. She's not evil, but she has issues from her childhood. Her worst behavior stems from being adopted—inferiority issues from her non-adopted brother and her adoptive father. The same issues eventually crop up no matter where Brenda is, and even I can't control them.

Shit, my bad. That was probably confusing.

Most of us take on alternative names for our new lives in the Rift. Talia's the only person I've ever known who uses the same name on both sides. Brenda is Rhea's Earth name and mine's Priya. Deli swears her actual name is Delilah, but I'm not so sure. She's not semi-permanent, though, so I suppose it doesn't matter what her Earth name was, huh?

I digress. It happens.

Rhea always comes in like a meek little rabbit, but this time, she hit like a wrecking ball. Within a month, Deli was dating Alistair. Rhea started seeing Rafe, and boom! Somehow, they're mated. Then she pushes on this family mating thing and I'm like…whoa.

Mating involves sex, blood, forever—involving all four of us means Rhea would have to take part. I'm cool with an occasional dip in the female pool and Wilde was absolutely in love with Rafe. But Rhea was never—and I mean never—comfortable with homosexuality if wasn't packaged in a fluffy friend to take shopping.

It was amazing to watch as an outsider observer. She got Alistair involved with both Rafe and Wilde in a short timeframe. I remember wondering what in the hell books she read about this at her bookstore. Rhea does nothing new without research. I would have bet my last quarter that she and Alistair had a stack of erotica and a browser full of slash fiction that she used to get them ready.

I figured Deli would have more sense than fall for it and believe me; I tried to warn her. The kitty didn't listen, and neither did her mate. I tried to stop the train by booking a trip with Wilde, Alistair, Rhea, and I to the other side for a sci-fi convention. I figured Rhea would lose her momentum and I could prevent it from going any further.

All I accomplished with that gambit was the four of us mating. I'm still not sure how it happened, but I know tequila was involved. Deli and Rafe got pissed that we did it without telling them, especially because they had planned something similar with Rhea and now I'd cut them off.

I can't win for losing, right? That's the story of my life.

My attempt to help blew up in my face for months. I can't help but think it lead to Deli inviting the head fucking dictator of the Cabal back into our world. I mean, what in the actual fuck was she thinking? Of all people, Talia and Taurus are the most rigid, least free loving, and most judgmental of all that wretched group. Wilde and I only joined their side in the Conflict because they were obviously winning, and I wanted some of that clone magick shit as a reward.

Queen D brought back the Terror Twins with her tête-à-tête with Taurus and then she hid it for weeks. Hell, I only found out once she'd posted enough blog info to guess. I still haven't figured out why the hell she tapped him. She told us it was for a project, but I doubt it. What the hell does that blowhard know she couldn't find online? The girl's a literal genius.

What could he possibly be teaching her?

It might have to do with the hellcat she grew at Christmas. I thought she and Wilde had that fixed after the big night. He's been walking around with his cockneyed demon loose more than ever, and I figured they tamed one another. Our reindeer games get a lot rougher now and that makes us both happy, especially since my pup showed up.

The mystery of ‘why' is unimportant, though. The important thing is that since that blasted bird showed up, Rhea's in psycho mode and Deli's completely MIA. She keeps insisting that nothing is going on. Normally—given Taurus' ideas on life, love, and limb removal—I'd believe her.

Except…something has set Rhea in overdrive. All she seems to want to do if screw Taurus instead of crying about how mean he is. Except…Deli has been MIA, and when she's not, she's distant. Except…Deli won't talk about Taurus like she did with Alistair. Except…I don't trust Taurus or Talia as far as I could throw them.

Something stinks in Deli-land—I need to find it and throw it out. Deli's brilliant, but she's oh-so-easily distracted. It used to be by sex. Wilde tried that, and he's tried pushing the protective button.

It's not working.

I'm going to push her anger button. Belle and I have a plan that will have her so distracted that she'll abandon whatever bullshit she has going on with Taurus to attack us. Our friends in the community will jump in to defend us and there will be a big ass schism over who's right and wrong. She won't have time for Taurus, and eventually, he'll get bored and leave. With him gone, Deli will have time for her mates and though we're all dysfunctional, we can go back to normal.

It's a perfect plan and I have the perfect way to execute it. We will hit her in public, where she can't stop us without looking like a dictator.

See? Like I told you, everything I've done in the past and everything I do now is to protect those I love.

I can't figure out why people don't understand that.