Beasts and Burdens

Sister

WINTER

One of my more annoying duties as the leader of the region was meetings, how I loathed meetings. I knew they were necessary to be successful but sometimes I couldn’t help but wish I wasn’t of dragon lineage so that I wouldn’t be responsible for so many people/persons/things. It would save me from these tedious meetings. We owned so many different businesses and had control over so many things that these meetings were, unfortunately, necessary to check in with each other. Of course it helped that it was my sisters I would be speaking to, once everything else was done we would stay on and just chat. As the third child I was smack dab in the middle with Tori, who was the second child.

For business purposes the four of us had taken over the previously split up regions of the United States. While our parents oversaw all four, they had delegated heads of regions as well, which was basically what we did now. There was no one above us now, so we all checked in weekly for status reports and if we needed any assistance. Our parents had strategically had four kids, for this purpose as well as to propagate the line on the off chance we ever ran across a pure dragon male. Which we had, and he was firmly attached to the hip of my oldest sister, Fera; a fierce woman who only ever showed her softness to us and her partner Gunnar who we had honestly happened upon during a trip to Scotland. A small hole in the wall cafe where we had stopped to sample the local dish, haggis. Our server had been very kind and gentle, and somehow managed to catch my sister's eye; no easy feat. As shifters we could sense other shifters, just not what they were. So months later, after many middle of the night phone and video calls, and bi weekly visits to each other's homes Gunnar has revealed he was a dragon. A pure blooded dragon. His parents long dead he had been very secretive about his nature, as he had been cautioned to be by his adopted non dragon parents. When Fera had shown him the ultimate trust in revealing her nature, he had done the same. In dragon culture the females were revered and honored as life bringers, the men typically bending to the women as our society was matriarchal.Due to his lack of knowledge about his own species, Gunnar had asked to never become a citizen, rather he kept dual citizenship and Fera made him her partner legally as well. She followed in the steps of our mother who was the one to make that specific law after finding our father. She wanted him to be treated as her equal even by others, so she made it possible for a woman to declare a man their equal partner. The man was then no longer a piece of property but considered the equal of the woman who vouched for him, as long as she vouched for him; she could revoke the privilege. Nevertheless, this was a very uncommon practice. This privilege was granted in the case of lovers, if the male was exceptional in his line of work, or if his bloodline was needed. When other shifters had gone to our ancestors for assistance, it was said they saw the suffering and agreed to help. But nothing is given freely when you bargain with a dragon. One of the conditions for providing said assistance was ensuring that the dragons would be in charge: matriarchal society and all. In the aftermath, everyone, men or women had been punished for their crimes and everybody had now a specific purpose, men especially. Speaking of purposes and men, a smile graced my lips as I thought of my delicious snow leopard shifter, and the things I would do to him.

“Uh oh, Winter’s smiling!” Jade, the youngest sing songed over the computer monitor on our video chat. Left blissfully alone from assistants and other heads it was just us four, doing our weekly check in. Jade was the youngest at twenty five, exactly ten years younger than Fera; and she was a spitting image of our mother, with curly brown hair and golden eyes. Her dragon was the smallest of the four of us as well, but a beautiful copper shade. Fera’s red eyes narrowed on me through the screen, her ash blonde hair hanging straight to her shoulders in a severe bob cut. Tori, the one born before me just grinned, her dark hair a river down her back and her equally dark eyes crinkling at the sides.

“Alright, spill it,” Tori demanded, waving her hands.

“Am I that transparent?” I asked, grinning at my sisters on the screen.

“Yes” they answered in unison.

“Well, I guess I can tell you guys.” I paused for dramatic effect, knowing they would be as excited as I was. “Jake brought me something very special today, he managed to get a hold of a snow leopard shifter.”

“Can we see him?!” Jade exclaimed, clearly excited. “I’ve heard they are beautiful, but so rare.” She sighed and I laughed.

“He’s not around right now, he’s with Heather taking a tour and signing his contract.” Fera snorted.

“I don’t know why you bother, it’s not like you need it. He’s just property.” Fera intoned, sounding bored.

“Oh? And is Gunnar JUST property?” I questioned, my eyebrow raised.

“You know if he was anything but a pure dragon he would be” she growled, her voice dropping slightly lower, letting me know she was pissed. I rolled my eyes, Fera was a b***h with a capital B. Men were just property to her, as they were to most, but she didn’t treat her property nicely, only Gunnar. Thankfully Tori and Jade just sort of had a quiet indifference to them, treating them like toys they used and put away. For me, well, yes they were toys; but I also liked outlining my expectations for both their and my behavior while they were in my service. After all, it made everything easier and no second guessing; being direct and clear cut. Sort of like job expectations, and I had Heather draw up a special one for my newly acquired employee.

“Yeah yeah, he’s special, we know.” Tori waved her hand and rolled her eyes, a smile on her lips. “So, have you had a chance to break him in?”

“Not yet, but hopefully soon. He seems like he’s going to be fun.” I laughed, truly looking forward to learning more about my mysterious new acquisition.