---Lane's POV---

The entirety of the Council was gazing our way as Gi leaned his chin on his hand. Eyes flitting over my form before they lazily flicked towards Jethro when a growl slipped from his throat.

"Temper, temper." Gi purred, showing a hint of his feline background, even if it was a mythological one. His finger dipped into his shirt before tucking it to the side, baring pale skin and a bright pink mark contrasting sharply against it.

Jethro instantly relaxed at the sight, huffing with annoyance as Gi grinned slightly, allowing the shirt to droop around his mark. "I'm already claimed, big boy. Your kitten is safe from me."

A scoff slipped from my master's throat as he relaxed further into the seat, pulling me fully in his lap whilst ignoring the remainder of the Council.

Gi let out a soft, throaty pulse that vaguely resembled a moan, finger tracing the general vicinity of the mark. "Hmmm, it was quite a surprise to find my intended, especially when they were capable of handling me."

He grinned, leaning his head to the side. "Not many have the balls to put me in my place but man, he knows exactly what to do. Even his punishments hurt but so good... No matter how rough he gets, I just can't-"

"Gi..." Alurea sighed tiredly, pinching her nose bridge with growing frustration. "Keep your kinks and sexual exploitations to yourself."

That only earned her a deep, resounding purr as Gi languidly stretched before crossing his arms and laid his head on them. "You're no fun Ally."

She scoffed at that, giving Vladimir a pointed look when the vampire bit back a smirk. "The concept of fun that you and Vladimir share is detrimental to the Council's reputation."

Vladimir's smirk only widened while Gi sighed and stretched sloppily in his seat, finally removing his fingers from his mark. Not before giving it another, hard press with his digits, smirking as he did.

"You're playing with fire, Gi." Vladimir chuckled while shaking his head, throwing his boot clad feet on the table without a care. "Your mate is going to kick your ass for playing around with your mark."

Gi's eyes sparked mischievously, biting his lip with a smirk. "That's the plan." He confided with a wink, snickering as his eyes flitted across the room when one of the guards reappeared and shot Gi a flustered glare.

It only made the Hybrid's smirk widen, licking his pale lips before chuckling as the guard across the room sighed and shook his own head.

"Anyways, we aren't here to discuss my mating status. I've been called here to talk about your heritage, Lane." He rested his chin on the palm of his hand, purring softly.

Jethro's arms tightened slightly while I leaned against him, unsure where this conversation was going.

Gi tapped his slender fingers on the solid wooden table, eyes hooded as he hummed. "I already had suspicion that the Prides ... forgot to inform the Council of any hybrids." He chuckled, leaning heavily against the seat.

"Every population has their own hybrids. Packs, vampires, dragons... Finding one's Intended is not bound to a single species. So when the Prides have never spoken of any hybrids, not even among the felines themselves, we already anticipated problems."

"Problems?"

Gi's eyes flitted to me when I spoke, making me lean against Jethro before the slender male chuckled. "Hybrids always grow differently than the pure form. For example, a tiger and lion hybrid will always be larger than the parent animals."

"So...I'm a liger?" I hesitated, confused as to where this was going. "Both my mother and father are Siberian tigers though. The prides have always been very keen on keeping their bloodlines as pure as possible."

Gi snorted at that. "And they're failing miserably. No matter how much they try, if they can't fight their instincts they can't keep their bloodlines from mixing together."

The half dragon must've seen the confusion on my face as he leaned forwards in his seat, lips stretching in a grin. "What is the one, big difference between the wild cats found in nature and the feline shifters of today?"

Blinking at the sudden change of topic, I thought for a moment before shaking my head. The only obvious thing that came to mind, was our ability to shift, our humanity.

Gi bared his teeth in a grin as he prompted. "Living conditions." He tapped a perfectly manicured nail on the tabled whilst explaining, "You see, a wild male tiger will roam over a vast territory that overlaps the territories of around three female tigers. All four of them are highly territorial and don't allow competition nearby."

Then it clicked. "But the Prides live together in family groups." I realized wide-eyed, making Gi nod as the implications settled in.

It was feline nature to be promiscuous. Looking at our respecting wild counterparts, none of them were monogamous by default.

Wild male felines would mate with several females, provided that those females were within their territory. During the heat cycle, breeding would almost certainly lead to offspring, given that feline ovulation was induced by copulation.

"Breeding instincts are one of the most powerful ones in existence. While our human brains can resist them to a certain degree, it is always harder to suppress those instincts when we surrender to our animal forms." Gi continued, pursing his lips thoughtfully.

"My assumption is that your mother was in the earliest stages of her heat and caught off guard in her feline form. Mating while feline are renowned to be very short. As such, it wouldn't be difficult to assume she bred with another feline before she managed to gain back control of her instincts."

He hummed thoughtfully as he added "It's well known that feline litters can consist of kittens with different paternal figures, depending on who the mother mated with."

Cold rushed through my body as I could finally answer so many questions that have popped in my head throughout my youth.

Like why my father had always neglected me, had never loved me like he did my siblings. It was because he had definitely realized what had happened.

There was no way of hiding a breeding as the pheromones produced would've been far too strong to hide. If my mother had been overtaken by her own feline, had mated without her own intention...

I glanced at Gi, who seemed to realize the direction of my thoughts as he sighed sadly. "Instinctual breeding is... a difficult case to judge. One could call it rape but only if either one of the parties is sound of mind. However, males are equally as susceptible to an Instinctual Override as females."

He gave me a soft, dimpled smile, eyes squinting slightly as he spoke gently "I don't know your mother's case, as it has never been presented before the Council. But my assumptions are that both involved parties, her and your true father, have been led by their instincts."

"Taken over by her instincts, she bred with an available male and then had a moment of clarity to which she returned home. Most likely her mate smelled her pheromones and fell into his own breeding frenzy and bred with her as well."

Alurea sighed tiredly, rubbing her temples as she shook her head. Black hair dancing around her as she murmured "You would think that the Prides have a measure in place so females in heat don't traipse around, ready to be mounted by any willing male."

"Ally, such foul language, especially from you." Gi gasped, eyes sparking with amusement as Alurea shot him a glare. "I didn't know you had it in you."

Jethro's growl stopped them in their tracks as my master and Mate was beyond frustrated. "So what exactly is Lane?"

"Ah. Isabella, dear?" Gi motioned towards the eager woman, who nearly vaulted off her seat to grab several papers in front of her.

She let out a muffled squeal of excitement as she hurried through the papers, finding the one she obviously needed. "Yes! Ah, here! According to the blood sample that we retrieved from Lord Lane, with Lord Jethro's permission of course, we ran some tests to conclude his ancestry."

"And?"

Isabella flushed at Jethro's tired tone, bouncing on her feet. "Well, we cannot say with 100% certainty as some of the bloodlines are rarer to check but we've found conclusive evidence to support our theory."

She took one of the papers and handed it over to Gi, who's eyes flared with interest before he nodded. Slipping out of his seat, he held out the paper to Jethro with a grin.

"You found quite a rare kitten indeed, Lord Jethro. Lane might be the first recorded hybrid between a Siberian Tiger and an American Lion."

American lion?....but, America doesn't have any lions.

Jethro's eyes flared as he grabbed the paper, holding me closer to his chest. "American Cave lions, my sweet." He murmured, chuckling as I flushed.

"Considerably larger than their current offspring. If I'm correct in this matter, the small cluster of American Cave Lions shifters have been forbidden by their Elders to breed with anything but their own bloodline."

"Which further exiled Lane when his parentage was revealed." Jethro snarled as the papers went up in smoke at his touch. "His mother's mate hated him for not being his own, the elders for being a hybrid of a line they coveted to be pure."

The Council remained relatively silent save for a few hushed murmurs. Gi effortlessly plopped his ass on the table without a care of proper etiquette and tilted his head curiously.

"Curious that they covet their pure bloodlines so much, yet hardly any of them are considered pure." Gi motioned with his chin towards me as he tacked on ,"Part of his paternal DNA revealed a smidge of Smilodon ancestry as well. Like I said, the Pride Elders love their conception of perceived purity."

Alaric spoke up, a frown marring his handsome features. "So when Lane was birthed and naturally checked, his ancestry was revealed. Why wasn't he killed at birth, if the Prides were so inconvenienced with him?"

The vampire was quick to bow his head in Jethro's direction, adding a hurried, "I mean no disrespect, My Lord! I'm simply trying to place my head into the mindset of the Pride, I assure you!"

Gi hummed, tapping his nails on the table as he swung his legs back and forth. "This is all speculation but knowing those Elders... While the Elders found Lane's birth to be an insult to the bloodlines, he could also prove to be useful."

"No matter how diluted the bloodline, if he were to breed with another Cave lion hybrid, their offspring would be a more concentrated bloodline than that of the parents."

"Then why didn't they treat me with respect?" I questioned, causing Gi to look down at me with a soft, understanding smile. "I was used as target practice by the cubs, forced to sleep in the pride's waste depository. If they valued my blood so much, then why-"

Suddenly Gi was right in front of my face, a gentle finger resting against my destroyed, blinded eye. "No matter how treasured the bloodline, those old farts would rather see it condemned than add a hereditary shortcoming into the mix."

Ah...that explained everything. Of course they wouldn't want to muddy their coveted bloodlines with negative traits that would get passed on to the offspring.

Even if my eye had degraded naturally due to the actions at my birth and later my exile, where a claw to the face eradicated any hopes of improvement, it still had a genetic issue.

I was born with a defect in the eye, albeit small. Yet the Elders have picked up on that. If I had been a pureblood Cave Lion, perhaps I would've been treated better.

But a mongrel mix, that had been created without their permission? That would be considered as discardable waste, seeing how I was the representation of not one but two soiled bloodlines.

"While your parentage was the cause of your treatment and resulting exile, it has also been your blessing." Gi spoke lowly. "If you had been anything but such a rare bloodline, the Elders would've had no qualms with murdering you the second you emerged from the womb."

I didn't respond, too tired, too confused to properly think. All this information, memories of the past and present were all simmering under the surface, along with Jethro's ever growing rage.

The Prides aren't going to like the consequences of their actions...