his ear and shook his head, feeling the weight of his antlers—still smaller than those of either of his fathers’ or the other stags, but eight points, nonetheless. Unlike their animal counterparts, red deer shifters didn’t shed their antlers. They kept growing at some unknown rate until they settled into a final size. His father, Donner, had an enormous rack, the biggest, since he was royalty, which meant eventually, Finley’s might be as impressive someday. But it wasn’t like he’d have anyone to impress.
Finley splashed his tail against the surface of the water. He’d cooled off sufficiently, but he hesitated to get out. He should really be of use and patrol the fence line. He needed to feel useful. Most of the time, he didn’t.
He pulled himself out of the pond and shook, shedding the excess water in splashes all around him, then stomped off toward the trail that led back to the fence. He wanted to be sure their estate was safe more than ever with the pregnant deer.
The pregnancies seemed like an epidemic. Not only was his father, Rory, pregnant, but so were his sister Alana and their adopted sister Maja. Alana had mated with the new buck, a new Romeo they’d picked up, Ellas. He was an impressive stag, and it had been amazing watching him go up against Donner and Rocco during the rut. They had all said the restrained fighting was closer to normal behavior for red deer than it had been in the past few decades, maybe longer, since the herds had been decimated by the wolves. Finley only knew the newcomer wanted to mate with his sister, but Alana assured him she wanted that, too.
Maja had mated with Lotte, Eyrk’s son. That didn’t surprise anyone, except that Lotte was a bit younger. The old hind, Isla, said she’d thought it wouldn’t happen until the following year, but with all the deer pheromones flying around, it was only natural to have an early rut for him.
And of course, Donner mated with Rory, and Emma mated with Rocco. For Finley and Eyrk, the rut didn’t come. It didn’t come for Isla either, but she was older. She’d had ruts in her life years ago, and Eyrk had experienced at least one since he’d sired Lotte. Finley was not so lucky. He would never have it. There were no more red deer coming out of hiding for him.
Finley shook off the bleak thoughts as he approached the fence. He eyed the structure cautiously. They’d only ever had one breach, and that had been from a couple of petulant child-wolves. After that, Finley had beefed up the security. The fence was now electrified and used a backup generator with redundancy built in. Razor wire twined across the top in a double loop. No one but the birds was going over this fence.
He followed it around, back toward the main house and birthing barn, keeping vigilant as he picked his way as quietly as possible along the path through the forest. The trees above him were full of thick foliage, the leaves green and lush. Beneath his feet, last year’s fall leaves crunched softly as he walked.
In addition to the fence, they had a series of security cameras set up. He would trigger them as he went by, but they were monitored—no reason to worry.
As he came up to the field area behind the house, he could hear the pregnant deer rustling around and softly calling to each other. A few more steps and he could smell them as well, similar to the musky mating scent, only a little sweeter. It made Finley jealous. Not that he wanted to have babies and stay in deer form for months and months, but he wouldn’t mind a hind or stag carrying his fawn.
It will never happen.
If the royal line were to continue, it would be through Alana’s fawns, so he was happy for her, and Ellas seemed like a good guy. Not that they could have ever been too picky. There weren’t enough of them for that.
It was one more reason to fight this never-ending war with the wolves. Thankfully, it seemed the tides were changing. The deer were winning by using different tactics. Rather than running and hiding, they attacked the wolves financially and any other way they could. They had other species spying for them, which allowed them to monitor the wolves’ movements and alert human law enforcement when necessary. All of it had been working well.
None of