Characters
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Quince Baum
- Gender:
- Male
- Age:
- 25
- Orientation:
- Straight
Born to the lead pair of Home, Lila and Jerald: their first and only son after four earlier miscarriages. He was named Quince because he was supposed to be their fifth child. Quince sports the same strawberry hair as his mother and father, and he has olive eyes. His sharp features and haughty nature were what drew Elaine to him in the first place, because he didn't seem like the typical sweet guy that Home was over-packed with. Quince's mother passed away when he was very young due to a multitude of health problems and a weak body. Her frail state kept Jerald from marking her, so he was forced to take another, Seria, as his mate--though he only marked her and refused anything else. Quince grew up with Bryce and Camden, and the three were all but litter-mates. The trio still occasionally get together for "guys' night" at Bryce's home where they watch football and enjoy Anne's (Bryce's mate's) home-cooking. When he was able to support himself, he left. He only ever spoke to Seria once more: when Jerald passed away and the woman begged Quince to take up the position as lead male so she could leave Home. The need to have the other woman out of his mother's house fueled him to approach the council, who agreed that Home would be without a lead pair until Quince found and marked his mate. Of course, he would only be able to take up his position when he had his first cub, for the position was hereditary and he had to prove he could father children. Quince was a bit of a womanizer--to live it up while he didn't have all of the responsibilities of the entire town. But when Quince saw Elaine in the bar, he immediately knew she was his other half; he assumed she knew as well, as she "behaved as any lioness would if she was being courted." As a result, he thought Elaine was just teasing him about being a one-night stand and did not take her seriously at all until she stormed out at the tea shop; so he decided to stop playing games and worked to be a devoted mate. Despite his conflicted feelings about accepting his fate and dragging Elaine into a world of chaos, he still could not help but want the family that would seal their place as the lead pair. He wants a family so desperately because he has the crippling fear that he could end up like his father: torn from his mate and, due to impossible circumstances, forced to take another female for the sake of his people.
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Elaine Porter
- Gender:
- Female
- Age:
- 24
- Orientation:
- Straight
Elaine was raised in a suburb of Chicago by her dead mother Christine's best friend Lucille, whom she calls her Godmother. Lucille loved to talk about Christine, but her father was such a taboo subject that Elaine never even learned his name--nor did she have a desire to ever know. Elaine had many relationships but always cut them off because she truly believed she wasn't the marrying type; this caused her to reject the man who proposed to her. And when she is fired from her going-nowhere job, she books a flight to Oregon in pursuit of her dream career as a teacher; it was an easy way to run from both her failing love-life and her unemployment. Her appearance always made her stick out wherever she went because of her platinum blond hair, skin as pale as snow, and strikingly silver eyes (which Lucille said she had inherited from both Christine and her father). These looks result in everyone in Oregon asking her if she is from the "Northern Sector." She has no intention of a life with Quince Baum, but something keeps dragging her back to him no matter how she fights it. When Quince vouches for her at the school where she wants to teach, her fate seems sealed and she freaks out. This attraction--this need for him--scares her, because she had never wanted a family--not until coming to Home and meeting her best friend, Anne, who makes her rethink everything. Including Quince.