Author's note: No actual sex, but certain sexual subjects are talked about.
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There were many other things that were going on while the other group went travelling. Brent sat quietly looking around what would now be hir home in Janace. It was a nice house, but it carried some strong memories the previous owners, Luna and Lia. As shi sat in what would be hir living room, shi thought back to what Luna had told hir before shi and hir family left for Paris...
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"You're okay with this?" Brent asked to Luna as the Wolfkat finished packing up hir things, "This was your home..."
"Yes, but we'll be moving to Paris and since we're going to be training to take over for Justin and Francine, should something happen to them, it's probable that we won't be back for a long time... and when we do come... it'll only be for a short time," Luna replied, "I'm glad that Midnight is okay with it and that mom and dad are supportive... but I can't just hold onto this house indefinitely."
The sound of kids playing in the distance echoed through the building soon brought up an additional point.
"And since you have about twenty eggs forming inside you... you'll need help with all those kids if you really wish to raise them all," Luna commented, "Mom and dad can help as running the orphanage... they're used to working with lots of kids and they'll certainly help."
Brent listened to the kids at play, and could hear Kila playing with the other children.
"You're sure?" Brent asked.
"Of course, Auncle," Luna smiled and then hugged Brent from the side, "Just be a good mother and everything will be fine."
"Thank you, Luna, this means a lot, really," Brent answered.
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And it did mean a lot. Shi liked being a guest in Jess and Nikole's house, but a part of hir did want hir own space, and then there was the pleasure filled cries of mating Kats that came from Nikole and Jess's room at night. Neither was presently in heat, but it was obvious to anyone who saw them that they were deeply in love and very passionate with each other. Brent had no problem with their lovemaking, and was happy that hir mother was happy, but it was a reminder of how different shi was from other Kats.
Hir form was based off of a scorpion, an invertebrate. While fully capable of mating, shi could only do that with another Scorpkat as unlike many other Kats, hir organs couldn't accept the organs of a non-Scorpkat. Hir female organs were protected by a gonopore in the center of hir body, and moving from front to back was between where hir second and third set of legs where, and it did not function in any way that would allow hir to mate with any Kat based off of a vertebrate species. Hir male organs were in hir tail, but served only to deliver a spermatophore onto a spot where another Scorpkat could rub it with hir own gonopore and pull the spermatophore inside hir. Every other Kat was based off of some vertebrate species and managed to mate in the same ways.
And that left Brent somewhat depressed. While there was more to love than sex, and Elise had a wonderful personality and Brent did find hir beautiful, Brent knew that that outside of a sex-toy, shi could never please Elise and knew that if at some point they decided to have children of their own...they would have to figure something out, which Brent hadn't figured in anyway. In addition, Brent did want to be able to share hir love with another Kat on such a level. But, since shi physically couldn't, a part of hir actually felt rather jealous at hearing hir mother share hir love with hir mate in that way. Hir thoughts were soon broken by a voice coming from behind hir.
"Hello... Ms. Wise?" it was the invertebrate expert that Brent had found in New Jersey. "Can I talk with you?"
Brent turned to face the woman, who stood calmly in the doorway. She was very friendly, and perhaps a tad flirty, but had been very helpful. The one thing that Brent didn't like was her apologizing for her distracted answer when they first met. She had been running a specialized zoo there in New Jersey that dealt exclusively with invertebrates, but she had also said that they weren't the only animals she was interested in, and had been reading a book on the behaviors of some reptiles, birds, and dinosaurs and how their evolutionary lines intersected. It had apparently been a very good book and she referenced that when she gave her answer to Brent. Brent had accepted the apology easily, as the woman, Kathy Reinquest was a knowledgeable and friendly woman.
"Sure, what is you need?" Brent asked.
"Ultimately some help, come on," Kathy waved Brent in a sort of beckoning way.
Curious, Brent followed. Kathy ultimately took Brent out and they walked along Janace's streets. They passed the school, the CI offices, and the UN headquarters building and came to an area near the town's southern outskirts. Brent soon noticed that the area was marked with large wooden stakes that made a large thirty by fifty yard rectangle in the ground. In the middle of the area was a sign that read: "Future Site of the Exo-Zoo: Where You Can Learn All About the Amazing World of Insects and Arachnids and Our Natural History."
"I've decided to move my zoo here," Kathy explained, "It'll take awhile to get the building built and to get all my specimens here, but soon I'll be able to show everyone about how marvelous the world of insects and arachnids is. There are more of them than ANY other animal and they live on every continent but Antarctica. Wouldn't that be a great idea?"
"It is interesting," Brent answered, "what does that have to do with me?"
"I was hoping you would want to work with me once the zoo is up and running," Kathy answered, "caring for the animals... feeding them, cleaning their containers, demonstrating the looks of certain species for tour groups... with your exoskeleton and size, you shouldn't have any fear of being hurt by the larger spiders or scorpions... and I'd be able to help you."
"Help me...?"
"Yes, I know I was distracted before, but I am the best source to help you with regard to when your eggs hatch inside you and your children emerge, as well as when they grow up and molt as they grow," Kathy answered, and then took Brent's right pincer in her hand and softly rubbed it, "Please..."
Brent did concede that she was right on that. Regardless of whether or not shi took Elise as hir mate or not, Ronnie and Mina were both trained with mammalian pregnancies and best could only speculate on how long Brent would be carrying hir eggs before they hatched and then emerged from hir. Maurice and Snowy knew the most about Kats, but since most Kats were based off of mammals, they also didn't know much about how Brent's pregnancy would progress. Shi figured that Kathy would actually work with Maurice, Snowy, Ronnie, and Mina to help expand their medical knowledge on Kats, but then again, she might still do that.
"I'll help," Brent offered, and then reached up with hir other arm and pulled Kathy's hand away, "but... I've kinda been dating Elise..."
"That Dinokat?" Kathy's eyes widened and she actually gave a bit of a sniffle.
Brent inwardly gulped, as shi didn't want to put anyone in tears. "Yes... I'm sorry... but I met hir before you and shi was very friendly to me..."
"Aren't I friendly?" Kathy asked.
"Yes, but we met later," Brent said nervously, "I can't cheat on hir."
What was said next made them both jump.
"I wouldn't necessarily call it cheating," came Elise's voice from behind them.
Kathy jumped back a little and Brent did the same thing, feeling hir eight legs bounce back like springs when shi hit the ground again.
"Sorry, I saw you both walking by and got curious," Elise answered and then looked to the sign, "a insect zoo... don't people already know about bugs?"
"They know about what they see in their everyday life, but they don't see all of them and they don't see the beauty in them," Kathy answered, "They live with their "bones" on the outside, they can climb almost anything by gripping minute cracks and bumps in things, essentially by gripping the texture of a surface. No other animals can do what they do..."
Elise nodded, "and what about the space for a museum?"
"Yes, half will house the living species of insects and arachnids in my present New Jersey facility and half will be with your museum of natural history and we'll try to connect everything so that they work together..." Kathy answered, "You do have insect or arachnid amber?"
Elise nodded with a smile, "and your zoo will explain how your insects and arachnids help clean up after larger animals?"
Brent stood their trading looks between the two, at a total loss for what was going on. Shi then watched as Kathy nodded.
"What's going on?" Brent eventually asked.
"I was invited to come here when they were all working to allow Charlie to take hir present Manticore based form, and thankfully I'd found an amber in which part of the stinger of a prehistoric Manticore had been broken in," Elise answered, "And Mikkie and Flake had the idea that I could run a museum here... it'd be small, but still a pleasant addition to Janace. But I've never been good with the business side of things, and most of what I've found or recovered has usually been on the research side of things. Miss Kathy, here though, has been good with the business side of things and we've actually been talking on the idea. And she got the organization to put things in place. It'll be a collaborative effort."
"But how would this relate not cheating?" Brent asked, still feeling left out.
"Well... when I first became a Kat, Flake was there when I finished transforming and was clear to leave," Elise explained, "I'd always been friends with Flake and when we hugged, Alexis made the joke about us being trimates..."
"Trimates?" Brent asked.
"Yes, the joke was that Alexis, Flake, and I would all be mated to each other," Elise answered, "and they wouldn't be the only time Kats have made that comment, if only in joking."
Brent listened quietly, and remembered overhearing hir own mother make a comment about finding Janace's Hybrikat form to be rather attractive, but shi couldn't remember the exact comment Nikole had made to Jess, but figured that Jess either understood or wasn't entirely opposed to the idea, based on the giggle Jess gave.
"What does that have to do with this...?" Brent asked.
"Well," Elise admitted slowly, "I've been thinking things over... and I know you'll probably want to kill me for saying this... but you know that you and I cannot physically mate with each other right?"
"Right... but there is more to love than sex," Brent answered.
"Correct, but that doesn't mean that either of us will be content to be fully celibate," Elise said slowly, "I love you, Brent... and I want to be able to give you everything that you could want or need..."
"So you're setting me up with Kathy?" Brent asked, sounding forceful and hurt.
"Not with me," Kathy spoke and then came around to put her hand on Elise's shoulder, "With both of us... I find you very beautiful Brent... I can't deny that... in a way, you're everything I'd want to be... and I also know the position you're in. You can't mate with any Kat but a Kat that reproduces like a scorpion. Elise cannot mate with Kat but most of those already in existence, and Elise actually approached me with what shi had been thinking over..."
"Which is?" Brent wondered.
"A very complex Hybrikat form," Elise answered, "Which would include normal scorpion DNA in it. Kathy would gain the ability to physically mate with you and with me with two different sets of genitalia."
"But didn't you say that Alexis was joking with regard to the trimates thing?" Brent asked.
"Shi was, but that was before there was a situation like the one we're presently in," Elise sighed, "And Kathy isn't a bad girl and is friendly... and the idea is for you, Brent... to make you happy. I've seen your looks toward many of the others with their mates... you know that you can't have the exact same happiness they feel and you know that I can't give that to you and you cannot give that to me... and I want you to be happy in every way, and I'm sure you want me to be happy in every way..."
"And the solution was polygamy?" Brent asked.
"Is there any other solution?" Elise asked, "The only other thing would be to buy a good vibrator and to use that and let your hands manipulate my penis... but that would be all me... would you get anything out of that?"
"Well... the joint in my pincers can be sensitive," Brent admitted
"But the sensation isn't fully the same," Kathy commented, "Locking pincers part of the mating rituals of scorpions, but's more like a human's kiss... neither of us would be able to give you an orgasm by rubbing your pincers... and the scans that Ronnie and Mina have taken have found large nerve clusters near your gonopore. They'll likely control the opening to allow for pulling a spermatophore into you, and that would be the only thing that could give you an orgasm."
"And since the new Wise Vaccine has made it impossible for either of us to change from what we are now... you can't become a Dinokat, and I can't become a Scorpkat... being one of three mates would be the only way to let you feel as happy as the others," Elise answered, "and that is entirely your choice."
"My choice?" Brent asked.
"Yes," Kathy nodded, "you're beautiful... and so is Elise...but if you don't want it, I'm not going to force myself on you... and hope you could still tolerate having me here."
Brent really did not know what to say. Shi found both of them to be beautiful and shi loved aspects of their personalities, and they appeared to get along well enough come up with this trimates idea. But at the same time, every other Kat that had a mate only had one mate. Brent really didn't know what to do.
"I'd be more than happy to help with the zoo and museum," Brent answered...
"And the rest?" Elise asked.
"Strangely... I feel happy that you'd go through so much planning to make me happy," Brent answered, "but I need some time to think this through."