Mated to a Lion

Page 1

I stripped as I prepared for my run. Being a shifter I loved to run, even if this wasn't a normal run. It was a Mating Run. Our Shaman would do a ritual, say a prayer, and then I'd shift as I went into heat. I would get a one mile head start and then the males who were competing for me to be their mate would shift and run after me. I had a total of twenty miles laid out for me. No one but me and the Shaman knew the route I was taking. They'd be running up and down hills, along a ridge, through a river, through a system of caves and finally an all out mad dash the last three miles. The best, if their was a best, would catch me. Their last task was to convince my pup to submit and let them mount and claim me. If they couldn't and I made it back without being mounted then I was free. A barbaric rite but one that was a fact of our existence everyone who came of age did it. Males were more likely to pass and not get mounted. Females pretty much always got mounted. So I was doomed. Any male of any race was allowed to run. Though few outside the race of the runner tried. Since I was a Were-dog I was expecting mostly them.

"Ann, are you listening to me?" I sighed and looked at my father.

"No. I'm tired of listening to you tell me what to do about my run." I didn't want to do this. I didn't want whatever mate could catch me, I wanted to be loved. Ideally I'd like a goddess blessed mate. Those were hard to find. These runs had been tradition for a very long time. No one was ever let out of them, not for any reason.

"I'm just trying to help you get the best mate possible."

"I'll run and the best one will catch me and convince my pup to submit. If they can't then obviously none of them were worthy of me." I turn to look at the men lined up down the tree row behind me. There were twenty running. Most wouldn't shift until they saw me shift. It was the cue I was getting ready to start. Three had come in full shape. I'd asked the shaman about them. He'd said they were three that wanted to remain anonymous until they won me. That had worried me but he'd assured me it was within the rules. The three were a black wolf, a dog who was Doberman in shape, and a black panther. All three stood apart from each other and the main group of males running for me. Turning back to the shaman I nodded, I was as ready as possible. He stepped up and started the ritual he walked around me muttering and waving his hand over me. He had said that I would know I was ready because the shift would happen and a heat would start. It was bad enough to get an unwanted mate without enforcing it by getting me pregnant, or trying to at least. A heat upped your chances it didn't guarantee it. My body shivered and I shifted into my pale gray husky skin. I felt another wave run through me and I began to get hot. The thing about heats, they made you hot. Kind of self explanatory but, there it is. The shaman stepped back and gave me a wave. I darted forward.

The start of my run was three miles straight through dense brush. It wasn't going to be easy for me let alone them. It was my fur that got pulled at and slowed me up. For them, they were bigger it would be hard to get their bodies through. I knew some would but a few would get trapped and have to fall out of the line up. Past that three miles was another three over a rocky edge of a river. I'd then cross the river, which was deep and fast. It would carry me down river and they'd have to find my trail to get behind me again. I would do a half mile straight up a ridge. Two miles down the ridge and half a mile down. Those that couldn't go up, the heaviest usually, would be caught at the beginning. Those to heavy to stop or not paying attention would slip over the edge at the bottom straight ten ten feet into another leg of the river. Another mile through trees got me to the half way point. I'd see who could find me by back tracking down paths and up and down hills to get them confused. Then I'd dart through the caves. All that would take seven miles. The last three was a long curve around the rest of the mountain toward my start. If I got back to the Shaman unmounted then I was free of the run and heat. I was also free to find my own mate.