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“Blue, I have a question.”
She glanced at her sister, Charlie, who looked upset.
“Why aren’t mommy and daddy together?”
She turned away from where she had been watching their mom, wanting to know where Charlie got that idea.
“What are you talking about?”
“You know how mommy sometimes shows us movies. I noticed that humans who are called mommy and daddy kiss each other, but I’ve never seen our parents do that. So does that mean they're not together?”
“Humans are complicated. I don’t know why Mom and Dad don’t kiss. Maybe they do, just not in front of us.”
“They don’t snuggle either, or do anything humans who are supposed to be in a relationship do.”
Charlie pouted, getting increasingly more upset.
“That’s because they're not in a relationship.”
Echo came over and looked up at their mom, who was talking to one of the stupid prey humans who weren’t pack.
“How do you know that?”
Blue huffed, and Charlie gave her sister a distraught look.
“Mommy and daddy aren’t together?”
“Nope. Mommy likes that one human female.”
Blue looked over in shock and horror.
“I thought that was over. I even destroyed his pants to make sure his date didn’t go well.”
“He still occasionally comes back smelling like her.”
Echo shrugged, and Delta finally came over, noticing her sisters had gathered together and were talking about something.
“What’s everyone talking about?”
“We’re talking about how mommy and daddy aren’t together.”
Delta looked between her siblings in confusion.
“Do they have to be?”
“Yes!”
The other three barked.
“What are you four doing down there?”
Owen finally noticed they’d gathered together and were talking amongst each other. Their tails wagged as they looked up at their mommy, trying to look innocent. He wasn’t buying it much to their disappointment.
“We need to find a way to get them together.”
Blue decided, and the others agreed except Delta, who looked a little conflicted.
“What if they don’t want to be together? Mommy still likes that one human female. Maybe we should just leave them alone and not interfere.”
Charlie, wanting her parents together, decided to speak up about what she knew.
“Daddy likes mommy. He always smells funny whenever he’s around mommy, like he wants to mate with him. We just need to help daddy woo mommy.”
“Then we’ll have more siblings.”
Echo added, and Charlie's tail wagged at the idea of not being the youngest anymore.
“Ooh, I want more siblings.”
Charlie blinked, tilting her head as she just realized something.
“If mommy and daddy aren’t mates. How did they have us?”
“You don’t have to be in a relationship to mate. Mom probably got pregnant by accident.”
“Daddy should have mated mommy and made their relationship official.”
Charlie looked upset on their mommy’s behalf and wanted to know why their daddy wouldn’t mate with them.
“Why didn’t he make their relationship official? Now other people will try to steal mommy away.”
“Humans are complicated. Who knows why he didn’t mate with Mom and make things official?”
“Do you think that one fat human has something to do with it?”
All of them growled their sickle claws tapping on the ground unhappily.
“He'd better not be involved. I’d never let someone like him mate with mom.”
“Agreed.”
All of them looked up as though they expected him to be there.
“The next time I see him, I’m going to find a way to knock him inside.”
“That’s a good idea, then we can have a chat and remind him why he should stay away from our mom.”
They were distracted by the squeal of a pig that reminded them all of the fat human. They rushed towards the sound in delight and gave chase to the little pig running through their enclosure. All of them imagined it was the fat human. Which made them even more determined to catch the pig. On the catwalk, Owen watched his girls give chase. He’d noticed they’d been talking to each other, obviously plotting something likely out of boredom. He was hoping the pig would distract them, but he knew it was only a temporary fix.
He didn’t know what his girls were planning, but he decided to tell everyone to be more vigilant and have the enclosure checked four times instead of the usual two a day.
“What do you think they’re planning?”
Barry watched their girls, who were now playing around after successfully getting the pig.
“I don’t know. I just know they’re planning something.”
He noticed Blue come over and stand under the catwalk. She didn’t do anything except watch them, which wasn’t unusual except there was something in her eyes, almost as though she was looking for something.
Seeing mom and dad together, she walked under the catwalk and sniffed the air. Sure enough, their dad smelled like he wanted to mate with their mom. She couldn’t believe she’d missed this, although it looked like she wasn’t the only one. Despite how strong the smell was. Their mom seemed completely oblivious.
She went over to her sisters, and the four of them began discussing how to get their parents together.
“How are we going to help Dad woo Mom?”
“We could give him flowers? Humans like giving flowers to their mate.”
“Romantic music?”
“Where are we going to get music from?”
“Remember when mom sang to us when we were little? We could try that.”
“I don’t think that's going to work.”
“We can give them a romantic date.”
“We can have Dad give Mom gifts?”
“Ooh, I know we can have Dad rescue Mom from danger.”
“No, absolutely not.”
“I’m not hurting Mom.”
“No way, that’s a terrible idea. I don’t want to put our parents in danger.”
“Hear me out.”
“No.”
“No.”
“Absolutely not.”
Blue put her foot down, and Delta huffed.
“Fine, what do you suggest?”
“Have you noticed that when we’re more rowdy leading up to our hunts in the forest, mom will take dad with him instead of going with us alone?”
Her sisters nodded.
“Our next hunt is coming up in a few days. We need to be more rowdy so that way they’ll go together. Then we’ll hunt a meal together, and instead of eating it, we’ll let mom and dad have it, giving them some alone time while we go hunt our own meal.”
“Ooh, I like that.”
“There are so many pretty flowers in the forest. We can pick some and have Dad give it to Mom.”
“Good idea, Charlie.”
“What are we going to do about clothes? Humans usually dress nicely for their dates.”
“I don’t think Dad looks so bad. It's Mom who needs the help.”
“We’ll destroy his outfits until he has nothing left to wear and has no choice but to wear something nice.”
“At least he won’t be wearing those orange, ugly shorts. I already took care of them.”
Echo smirked, looking proud of herself.
“With our plan, they’ll be together in no time.”
Owen watched his girls talk and knew they were planning something. He thought about cancelling the upcoming hunt, but knew how much his girls looked forward to it. He’d just have to invite Barry along to help him keep an eye on them.