One of the side effects of Leona Mangle joining Rudy's hunting team is that Kell more frequently comes into contact with one of her Herd Thinners colleagues, Leona's father Frank Mangle. At Herd Thinners, predators are less "colleagues" than rivals, and R.L. seemly doesn't mind his staff hunting each other as long as quotas are filled. In this respect, both Kell and Mr. Mangle have the distinction of being survivors.
Mr. Mangle is an interesting case in that he's a single father who (in the eyes of his species) works in the traditionally female role of a hunter. Kell told me the backstory: When Leona was eight, her mother died after a lengthy illness. While she'd been sick she'd been unable to hunt, so her husband Frank secretly learned to take down prey to feed his family and so that people would think his wife was still healthy and active as a predator. It was supposed to be just a temporary arrangement until she recovered, but fate had other ideas.
Mr. Mangle had become quite good at hunting, so after his wife's death he applied to Herd Thinners and was hired. This, of course, meant that he was ostracized from his lion pride. Kell has faced similar pressures, but in Mr. Mangle's case it caused him to develop a rather large chip on his shoulder. He's surly toward Kell and to pretty much everyone else...except for his daughter.
Leona seems very devoted to her father for the role he's taken in raising her. I can definitely relate to that!
