Even if the sacred guardian is still in a cat form and doesn't transform yet, the ownership imprint is still there until the day the owner releases the imprint to return the beast to the prairie. It happens when the owner can't handle the beast anymore.
“I can’t help it! I didn’t change because I wanted to. Do you think I wanted to become servile? I want to be upright too. I want to act according to my ideals too. But you know better than anyone that business doesn’t always go the way you expect.”
Their focus was actually on which spirit Ainsley made a pact with. It's a common knowledge that the strength of a shaman relied on the dead spirit that they managed to contract.
Seeing Ainsley was so gloomy that she looked like she couldn't love her life anymore, Finley felt his heart ache for the girl. The boy then stretched his hand and pulled the girl into his bosom.
He didn't even try to do adultery with his past lover. That man was admirable even for Finley, who didn't know whether to side with his mother or his father.
Her surroundings were pitch black with no lights at all, except from the memory stream lining up on her left, right, above and below her body, looking like star systems in the universe.
Ainsley sighed after touring the mansion for an hour. The people there acted polite and such, but she could still feel the tension coming from their body.