ff:Walking the Cat Chapter 3 Spirits in

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Title: Walking the Cat.
Rating: NC- 17. Smut 
Chapter Three: Spirits in the Material World.
Disclaimer: All BTVS characters belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy.
Summary: Buffy has been tricked by the counsel into taking another mate.
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Thanks: Dysfunctional Girl

Walking the Cat.
Chapter Three: Spirits in the Material World.

Willow had checked both the cat's and Buffy's aura and chakra points, twice.
They were fine technically. There was a wash on the cat, like she was
healing from a cold or the beating Buffy had given her. To a beginner it was
all well and good. Willow was not a beginner. There was something, but she
was at a loss to pinpoint it. Maybe Buffy had really hurt the cat in their
war for dominance, the struggle of Prime and Beta.

Willow always checked this first. She always did first aid on the cat and
Buffy first before anything else happened. They were both bruised, Buffy far
worse then the cat, with dozens of healing scratches from the cat's claws.
True, the Slayer would be healed by nightfall, but the cat would wear the
bruises for days, not having slayer healing power.

So, Willow made them a healing tea position, fed them well and let them
sleep the day away. She checked them both between reading their auras and
her student's papers. All in all it was a typical `post reclaiming of the
prime throne' day. Yet her worry about what she couldn't name, couldn't
pinpoint was in the back of her brain. 

Buffy woke first, dressed and went off to slay. Buffy hated hurting the cat
and would stay at her office for the next day or two out of guilt. A phone
call away. Before leaving Buffy unchained the cat and let her out into the
yard, putting her on a long chain. In lion form, Tecal could not leave the
yard but was free to sit in the sun. Then she only needed to shift to human
form and all doors would be open to her.

Tecal stayed in cat form outside all night, not coming in to bed. Normally
once Buffy left to slay, Tecal would return to the living room and watch TV
in lion form. Tecal loved TV regardless of her form. The cat loved action
movies and animal channels. In human form she would watch old movies and A &
E or the History channel. Once Buffy had brought home a porno movie for
laughs, the cat was asleep after 30 minutes of watching it, exhausted.
Willow and Buffy had spent the whole time watching the cat.

Tecal had become so confused by the picture she couldn't stop shapeshifting.
She wore herself out shifting. Buffy had put her to bed, carrying her like a
child, her cat body curled in the Slayer's arms. 

>From the first minute of the film the girl didn't know whether to be
offended, turned on, outraged, puzzled by the actions of those on scene,
intrigued by the biology, or to join in on the mating ritual. To the cat,
all
sex was mating. 

It had never occurred to Willow or Buffy that Tecal was raised by a stodgy
old watcher. Outside of a few stolen kisses with an older girl in college,
Tecal knew nothing about human sexuality. The cat mated by instinct. Outside
of Buffy and Willow, Tecal had never even seen a woman naked. The movie
served
to fry the connection between the cat, her larger self, and the human,
sliver self. Sex with her bonded mate was what allowed her to maintain a
shape. Presented with visuals of other possibilities her ability to hold
either shape was lost and confused.

Buffy never brought home another porno film again and Willow spent the next
month explaining human sexuality to Tecal. Xander had once told the witch
that "If she was doing it, she should be able to say it."

For Tecal doing it was natural. Talking about and understanding what she did
was another thing entirely. Sure she knew the names of the body parts and
the things to put in them. She understood the textbook side of sex. Tecal
the human understood a lot. The cat Tecal, just did things. The film showed
Tecal women mating without the Prime and Alpha structure. It was sex for
sex. It was sex without love. It was the without love part the cat got from
the film and could not understand. Tecal would die for Buffy or Willow. She
had killed for both of them. She loved them. She was mated with them for
life, bonded. She might take an alpha mate herself someday if she could win
the right from Buffy, but she was mated to them forever. 

Mating had triggered her fight with Buffy. Tecal had been a child bonded to
Alfred. He was her parent, her prime, her ancient and wise one. Then she had
reached the age of 16 and tried to mate. Alfred would have
approved of Emily in time. At least the cat had believed this, otherwise she
would never have tried to mate with her. 

Then Alfred had died. Her prime, her parent, her teacher had died and the
demon had taken her soul. Not the cat or the human, the soulless demon had
taken control of the body. Both the cat and the sliver of human inside her
had a soul. When the demon was tricked into mating, into letting the cat
take a mate and join the Slayer's pride, it had been the adolescent cat that
had mated with her prime. Adopted by her prime, her Slayer, her Buffy.

Buffy already had an Alpha, Willow. Tecal could have killed Willow had she
not been taken as Beta. Accepted her youthful place and become Buffy's Beta
mate. They were a pride, a family. They were the Prime and her mate the
Alpha, with the younger Beta wife. It was expected and right to Tecal. Still
Willow never knew the danger she was in that first year. Tecal could have
killed her and taken her place as Alpha. The cat actually thought about it.
Then the cat had accepted Willow as the Alpha. As the one whose children she
must protect, even from Buffy. That was the job of the Beta. Protect and
serve. 

Beta was the job of an adolescent. A job for youth. Tecal was about to turn
22. She was now an adult. And like all young adults she wanted to prove she
was an adult. She wanted a mate of her own. 

She could try and take Willow as her Alpha, which meant either killing Buffy
and becoming Prime, or the cat could fight Buffy and win her freedom to
take another mate and leave the pride. This meant letting the demon free and
re-bonding. She could also fight both Buffy and Willow, becoming an Alpha
herself, winning a higher place in the pride. To do this she would have to
take Willow as a mate outside of Buffy's and her own relationship. She would
have to bond with Willow while not losing her bond to Buffy. It was a tricky
thing to do. The cat lacked words to express any of this, and the rules of
mating forbid words anyway. It would be like rams butting heads. Only after
winning her place as an Alpha in the pride could she look for her own mate.
If she wanted one of her own, besides Willow. 

The cat, after being dominated, reassured it was a Beta, had to rest.
Resting after a round like they had last night meant staying cat. Staying in
its natural form. The mating allowed it to become human but didn't mean it
had to be human. It always rested in cat form. Except on rare occasions,
like the first time she slept with Willow alone. Buffy had given her
wordless permission across the Atlantic ocean to mate with Willow. To take
her place, while she was in England. The Beta always mated the Alpha when
the Prime was busy or away. That too was a job of a Beta.

Under the Colorado sky the cat slept and dreamed of mating. Of taking
Willow, not as a Beta but as her equal. She was dreaming of the bonding
ritual. She would need to build the devices, order the supplies and find a
woodland place to bond with Willow alone. 

When Willow woke she went to check on the cat. She was gone. Panicked, she
called Buffy. 

The Slayer knew it was Willow calling and considered not answering the
phone. The rules of mating were wordless. If she answered she would have to
hunt her down, and she would end up either killing her or being killed.
Buffy had dreamed of the bonding as well last night. The less she was
involved the better.

After an eternity Buffy picked up the phone. "I know Will, and I can't
help."
No now, not without killing her. You will have to find her. I won't be home
until you do." Buffy then hung up the phone and cried. The bonding had been
the most pain thing she had ever done. More painful then sending Angel to
Hell.

And she had done it willingly. It had been her choice in the end and she had
chosen the bond. Willow would chose the bond in time. They were already
mated, the bonding would be easier. 

Willow was stunned. Buffy expected her to find the cat. They lived in the
mountains just outside of town, how the hell was she going to track a large
shapeshifting cat without the Slayer. Buffy was going to have to do a major
Lucy Ricardo after she found the cat. That and sleep on the couch for the
rest of her life. 






"The extreme always gets a reaction" -Heathers

"Anyone who's not having fun here, follow me." -Buffy