Were-Hunter - Mating

Mating

Mating is a serious affair in the Were-world. Mating is not just sex: it is the discovery of a soul mate. That soul mate is one chosen by the fates. As many animals mate for life, the prospect of finding a soul mate for most Weres is as natural as breathing.

For some species, mating involves a hunt or chase. For, the female must have reached maturity and be ready to receive the male. For some, it is just the divining of the proper pheromones. Than all of this animal instinct has to be weighed against the two Weres as humans, with all the pain and emotional baggage that goes with that.

Once the soul mates have discovered each other, beautiful Greek scroll-markings burn themselves into the palms of the male and female after they have sex. The markings mirror each other exactly, showing parental lineage and the ancient cipher can only be read by another Were. It looks a bit like a delicately detailed henna tattoo.

While they bear the mark, the couple must be careful as each will carry the scent of his or her mate. This complication has put a Were in mortal danger more than once. Once an enemy has pegged a Were, that Were will be tracked by his/her scent. A Were’s scent is the one thing he cannot change or hide with magic.

Once the mating marks appear, the couple has three weeks in which to consummate the mating - an act over which the female has total control. She is the one who must decide whether to take her partner into her body and accept him as a mate.

This is a tribute to the first law of Weres:”Nothing a woman gives is worth having unless she gives it of her own free will.”

If for any reason she does not, and the couple does not consummate their relationship within the allotted weeks, the Fates have declared that they must live out the rest of their very long lives without another mate.

Such solitary damnation has less of a biological impact on the female of the species. She is still able to copulate with whomever she pleases-she just won’t ever be able to have any children.

Those are only the Fates’ laws, however. The clan laws are not so benevolent. They are strict about who and what they will allow into their patria, Fates be damned. In certain Arcadian groups, punishment for a female mating with a despised Katagria male is that she be “given” to the unmated men of the clan. Few women survive such a punishment.

The male of the species must face if he decides to reject his chosen soul mate is just as cruel. He is rendered not only sterile, but also unable to perform the sexual act with any other woman, ever again, so long as his rejected mate lives.

To make it worse, it’s not something the couple can just change their minds later. The couple must make the decision within the allotted time, and they must make the right one. It’s forever. Their future depends on it.

Now, once mated, there are two classification of how strong the bond between each couple could possibly be: claimed mates and bonded mates.

Each couple is given the chance to decide whether or not to claim each other. Like almost every other decision in a Were’s life, the decision to bond or not to bond is once again eternal and irreversible.

In order to bond, during the consummation of their love the couple must clasp their mating-marked hands together. Then, each must recite the words of the Bonding Spell:

"I accept you as you are, and I will always hold you close in my heart. I will walk beside you forever."

Directly after the bonding spell, the Weres succumb to the thirio-their passionate animal instinct. They give in to their wild side, and their canine teeth elongate.

At this time, the couple can officially bond with each other by mutually sinking their teeth into each other, drinking their partner’s blood, and combining their life forces.

Just as it is the female’s choice to claim her mate, bonding is also totally within the female partner’s control. It’s easier to resist the thirio than resisting a soul mate.

The act of choosing to not claim her mate is more common practice among the indecisive female Arcadian Weres. Very few Katagaria females refuse their mates. To them, claiming your mate is simply accepted as the way things should be.

Once formally bonded, if one of the Were couple should die, the other will die as well. The only exception to this is if the female Were is with child. If a Were is pregnant when her mate dies (or is killed), she will outlive her partner only long enough to give birth to her litter. If the couple is not bonded, then when one mate dies, the other is free to mate again.