Kane

Spoilers: Rafael

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Kane is Asher’s lover and later werehyena to call. He is an all around jealous possessive asshole, although it's possible that Asher failed to warn Kane upfront that he's never going to be the only person in Asher's heart or bed, so some of it could be counted justified, even if that doesn't excuse how Kane goes about it. He doesn't appear to be too intelligent and has poor self control, but is very good at lying to himself. Kane is mentioned for the first time in Affliction, but only shown in person in Dead Ice.

Appearance[]

Ruggedly handsome.^[1] Has his head shaved down to black fuzz that shows a sharp widow's peak. Anita expects his hair would be curly if he grew it out. The lack of hair emphasizes his bone structure, making him look handsome, bordering on pretty. Constant sourness makes him seem less attractive. Six feet tall. Has starker contrast from tan lines than Micah.^[2]

History within series[]

Affliction[]

Kane initially belongs to a werehyena clan in a city that is in need of a new Master of the City. Asher has been temporarily exiled there, both to see if he could rise to the occasion, and as a punishment for his poor behavior. The first five months go well, but then his patience for the uncertainty of his future runs out and he starts acting out. It's unclear whether Asher picks out Kane as a lover just to piss off Jean-Claude, or also because of genuine affection or attraction, although all these things might be true. Whichever the reason, Asher only does so after seducing the Oba of Kane's clan, Dulcia, and then ignoring her in favor of Kane, who isn't particularly powerful or impressive beyond his good looks. This very nearly earns Asher a death sentence for the insult, and his continued poor behavior and rubbing his new boyfriend to everyone's faces afterwards doesn't help.^[3]

When Asher is finally allowed back to St. Louis, more to keep Dulcia from killing him than because he has learned the lesson he was sent away to learn, he brings Kane along. Asher leaves Kane into a hotel room for the first meeting with everyone. Anita takes this as a sign that Kane is genuinely important to Asher and he wants all of them to like each other. Kane gets a nasty surprise, though, when he learns about the commitment ceremony that is in the plans, and that several people want Asher to be part of it, Asher himself very much included. Kane doesn't want any kind of ceremony that would tie Asher to others but not him, and it's difficult to blame Kane for that after he's just given up his old clan, job, and home, and followed Asher to a new city.^[4]

Dead Ice[]

Kane is having hard time accepting that Asher isn't satisfied with being monogamous, and keeps trying to push away his other lovers, particularly Dev. Kane's bitchiness is fast beginning to wear out any goodwill and sympathy towards him.^[5]^[6] He tries to forbid anyone from Asher's bed who doesn't meet a specific need that Kane himself cannot provide, including women other than Anita, and even Jean-Claude himself, although Jean-Claude puts a quick stop to the idea that someone as insignificant as Kane can tell Jean-Claude what to do, let alone ban him from the bed of his lover of several hundreds of years.^[7] Dev isn't a king, though, so when Asher isn't willing to fight for him, Dev gets tired of Kane's attitude and starts thinking about other options, and others are likewise starting to think Dev as an option again.^[7]^[8]

Things go even further downhill when Anita discovers that Asher has just made Kane his hyena to call without discussing the matter with anyone else. This puts their whole power base at risk of Narcissus' retaliation, as he fully expected to get that honor eventually, and Kane has no position or power that would noticeably boost Asher's. Kane himself does get a significant power boost, but he is being a total ass about it and his new status, and acting like it lifts him far higher in the power hierarchy than it actually merits. Kane has also picked up some of Asher's anger, which does not improve Kane's personality at all. Anita finds it tasty, however, and keeps needling Kane until he tries to attack her, giving herself an excuse to drain his anger. Asher is still dead for the day and cannot boost Kane's power to help him. Anita drains him almost to unconsciousness, and hammers in that she won't let Kane and Asher escape the consequences of this stunt, no matter how much Jean-Claude hates to see Asher hurt.^[9]

Narcissus is furious, as expected, and wants to kill Kane, and possibly also Asher, and maybe even start a war over the insult, or to take his clan to another territory and leave St. Louis defenseless. Jean-Claude manages to calm things down a bit by dangling Anita's as of yet unclaimed position of hyena to call as a bait, but Anita shoots the idea down and points out they can always call in some other clan from some other city if needed, and tying themselves to Narcissus wouldn't make anyone happy. Narcissus threatens to kill Kane again, and Anita points out it makes Narcissus look weak in the eyes of his men, and with Anita and Jean-Claude's backing, some of them just might decide to do something about it. They end up locking up Narcissus instead of giving in to his demands.^[10]

There is a big meeting between Asher, Kane and Jean-Claude's power base. People throw around cheap insults and Asher tries to demand respect and considerations that he no longer deserves. They hammer down to Asher that he could have ruled the hyenas with Narcissus' help, but cannot do so against his will. Choosing Kane limited Asher's command to only Kane, and there are more non-hyena soldiers in town than hyena soldiers. Kane finds it unnatural that different kinds of wereanimals work together, but no one cares about his opinion. He tries to claim that it was Julianna's doing, and now Anita's, to drive a wedge between Asher and Jean-Claude, but that is thoroughly shot down as well. Jean-Claude lists the relationships and responsibilities Asher failed to honor with his stunt, and points out that Asher should have married Kane rather than make him his animal to call. Kane says that Asher wanted to show him that their love is eternal, unlike marriages. Anita accuses Kane of manipulating Asher into this mess, but Nathaniel says that Kane isn't that smart and Micah agrees. Things descend into more arguing and name calling again, until Anita takes Kane physically down to prove she can do it even without her powers. She almost ends up shooting him when he refuses to learn the lesson, but Nicky manages to talk her out of it. Kane has to be helped out of the room. He is afraid of Anita now, and Asher is finally starting to realize that Anita is ruthless enough to force him to toe the line, even if Jean-Claude can't make himself do that. Asher still refuses to back down from Kane's rule that Dev is a useless addition to their bed, though, so Nathaniel and Jean-Claude choose to take Dev into theirs instead, in addition to some more complicated arrangements.^[11]

In the end Kane gets his wish, because Asher is on everyone's shit list and even Jean-Claude refuses to sleep with him for a few weeks. Asher isn't nearly as happy as Kane about the forced monogamy and keeps trying to chase his former lovers, even Dev, who enjoys turning Asher down in turn.

Trivia[]

Dev might also have his feelings hurt because he likes Kane better than Kane likes him.^[6]
Kane has started to train with the guards some for the sake of making himself look more muscled, but is still not well trained. He only does it to please Asher aesthetically.^[9]
Asher has refused or not taken the opportunity to marry Kane at some point, potentially around the end of Dead Ice when they learned about the commitment ceremony.^[9]
Kane is completely vanilla in his sexual preferences, which is why he can't find an excuse to ban several of Asher's lovers from his bed. Kane still manages to tell himself that Asher only sleeps with those other people for the very specific things that they provide, and wouldn't be interested in anything more from them.^[9]
Anita also threatens to break the connection between Asher and Kane and make him her own bitch instead, although the chances of Anita actually wanting to tie Kane to herself for all eternity are pretty much nil.^[9]^[10]
Anita does agree with Kane that Asher loves him. She tells him they deserve each other, and it's not a compliment.^[9] Narcissus disagrees, and thinks the only one Asher truly loves is Jean-Claude and is just using other people to fill the hole from Jean-Claude loving Anita more.^[10]
Cynric hates Kane and finds him irritating.^[12]

Crimson Death[]

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Rafael[]