"Who was it?" Malice asked.

  Natalie groaned, letting the towel drop from her waist. She climbed bato bed. Maliuggled into her, the wolfgirl thhly satisfied by rounds two, three, and then a hastily cluded fourth.

  "Aina," Natalie said. "The baron's daughter."

  "You sound upset. Why?"

  "It's awkward, for one," Natalie said, ing an arm around the girl who had cozied up to her. "I thought for sure that was going to be Jordan, or maybe Sofia tellio keep it down." She'd fotten to throw up a sound-dampening barrier, and it hadn't been until the knock at her door that she'd realized her mistake. "But 's the damn baron's daughter." She groaned loudly, c her face with a hand.

  "So? Who cares?"

  Natalie shook her head in exasperation. Of course the wolfgirl didn't uand the mortification of the situation. Never mind the whole, Natalie-wasn't-allowed-to-sleep-with-Aina thiher. Gods, she'd opehe door in just a bra and a towel. The tter of which had definitely not hidden much, by how incredulous blue eyes had kept flig down there.

  "Hm," Malice repeated at Natalie's ck of a reply. "Whatever. I don't really care, to be ho." A few seds passed in which they basked in each other's hot, sticky skin. "You asked me questions, human. Do I get to ask my own iurn?"

  "Oh?" Natalie said, peeking past her fingers. "About what?"

  "There's a few things I want to know."

  "Go ahead, then." She couldn't imagihere was anything she o keep a secret from Malice. After all, Natalie didn't e from an inscrutable, all-powerful deity-like dungeon plex, thus holding unfathomable knowledge that possibly no humans ience were aware of.

  "I've been trying to uand the hierarchy," Malice said. "But humans are fusing."

  "What hierarchy?"

  "You five. Your pack."

  "My pack?"

  "You're at the top, obviously," Malice tinued breezily, as if what she was saying wasn't totally ridiculous. "But putting the others in their order is harder. Or where I stand, for that matter."

  "What are you talking about, Malice?"

  "The hierarchy," she repeated. "Jordan is sed, yes, because she's your mate. I have that much figured out."

  "W-What?" Natalie stammered, growing immediately flustered. "My mate? What do you mean by that?"

  "Is she not?"

  "Well, what's mate mean to you?"

  "You two are bonded. Whatever you humans call it." She paused, as if searg for a word. "Married?"

  Natalie made a choking noise. "No. We're not married." That begged the question of how Malice was even aware of those parts of human society—how did she speak their nguage anyway? But Natalie was too flustered to go down that path. "Where did you get that idea?"

  Malice stared at her.

  "Hmph," she finally said. "Never mind then. But if you two aren't mates … no, she would still be sed. Ana third? I 't decide who's at the bottom, though. The white-haired one or the healer."

  "Sofia? Liz?" As bizarre as this versation was, Natalie couldn't help herself from growing amused. She ughed. "Holy, I'm not sure which of them is the bigger bottom either. So it's fair you 't figure it out."

  "Oh? It's ablished yet?"

  "We don't have a hierarchy like you're saying, Malice. We're a team."

  Malice rolled her eyes. "Yes, but authority is always anized, even unofficially. It's a w of life. Even humans are animals, in the end."

  "Liz and Sofia have as much say in team decisions as I do. We don't even have an official 'leader'. We're all equal."

  "Stop being obstihere is a hierarchy. If you refuse to tell me what it is, I'll make my own assumptions. It goes you, me, Jordan, Ana, Sofia, and then Liz."

  "Wait, you're sed, now?" Natalie ughed. "When did that happen?"

  "I ged my mind. Seeing how the rogue isn't your mate, then I would naturally be sed."

  Natalie twitched for a sed time at the implication of Jordan being her 'mate'. "We're just friends," she repeated.

  "Why do you two look at each other like that, then?"

  "Anyway," Natalie said loudly. "If there was a hierarchy, Sofia goes otom. And Jay is sed, not you."

  Maliiffed. She didn't seem offended by that; it had been her inal assumption.

  "Why's Ana fourth?" Natalie asked. Maybe she should be shutting down this whole talk more seriously, but Malice's adamant world-view wasn't going to ge anytime soon. Natalie could tell that much. If she thought their group operated on power dynamics that weren't really there, all the insisting in the world wouldn't sway her.

  Plus, she was just ied in what Malice had to say.

  "She's a difficult one," Malice admitted. "She clearly has a strong will and is respected in the group. But people don't look at her wheant about something." She made a noise. "At least she isn't blushing all the time, like the healer and the fighter are."

  "True," Natalie said, smirking. "I'm not sure anything could make Ana blush. Why'd you put Sofia so low, though? She's fident. And a great fighter." Was Malice's views based only on … what, sexual fidence, and not the regur kind?

  Malice's nose sched, as if disagreeing. "She acts like she's fident. Which ts for something, I suppose. But it's not really there. That's easy enough to see."

  The words had Natalie blinking. Sofia? Not really fident? What the hell did that mean?

  "She is a good fighter, though," Malice tinued breezily, not realizing her words had silenatalie. "That's why I put her above Liz. But if you say she belongs at the bottom, I believe you. But the healer her knows how to fight, nor does she have any fidence, feigned or otherwise, so I would've figured she was at the bottom…"

  "Liz has plenty of fidence," Natalie disagreed, her brief disorientation from Sofia dispelling, though she knew Malice's interpretation was going to be sitting ihoughts for a while. Liz's poise duriing the baron had shown that she had plenty of self-assurance, and for that matter, she didn't show musecurity in general. "She's just a bottom, and easy to embarrass," Natalie ughed. "It's not like a real authority hierarchy is based on someone's sexual tendencies. e on."

  Malice hummed as if she both agreed and disagreed. "Humans," she said. "Too plicated."

  "What if I said you were otom of the list?" Natalie teased. "Am I allowed to decide that?"

  A sdalized expression appeared on the wolfgirl's features. "What? Me? Why would I be the lowest?"

  "You were making some awfully pathetioises a few minutes ago. Some I'm not sure I could eve out of Liz."

  "I am not at the bottom of the pack."

  "If you admit you are, then we go a few more times, tonight."

  "What?"

  "You heard me."

  Malice's mouth opened and closed as a blush grew on her face. "You— are you serious?"

  "Why not? If my puppy 't maintain her dignity in the face of her neediness, wouldn't she belong at the bottom? If she o be fucked so badly she'll do anything, even accept a demotion?"

  "Human! Don't tease me!"

  Natalie ughed, squeezing the girl in. Malice gred at her from her side.

  "Okay, no, but really," Natalie said, knowing she o say this ht, even if it wouldn't ge Malice's mind. "There's no hierarchy in roup. Everyone's opinions matter the same. Including yours. All six of us are tied for first pce, and if you go walking over other people because you think you're 'higher oem pole', then I'm not going to be happy." She kissed Malice to ease the scolding. "So please don't act that way. Okay?"

  Malice frow her for a long several moments, theually said, "If that's what the packleader demands, then that's what I'll do."

  Which robably tradig the point Natalie was trying to make, but she would take what she could get.

  "So," Malice coughed, looking away as another blush grew on her cheeks. "You aren't, um, done for the night, right?"

  Natalie rolled her eyes.

  Seriously, how insatiable was this woman?