Chapter Eight
Luther felt Marrick tense between them.
“What?”
Luther swallowed down his reservations. As much as he hated to speak about it. It wouldn’t be fair to let Marrick think anything had been entirely down to Blaine. “If Arslan hadn’t stepped in, he’d be dead,” he echoed.
“Who?” Marrick asked.
“The first human who was thrown to us.”
For a long time, their pet was silent. “What happened?”
Luther made the mistake of closing his eyes. All at once, he was back there. Fear and the confusion rushed through him. They had come so close that night, so close to doing something that—
“We were so used to being with each other,” he managed to say. “Neither of us had any experience with humans, neither of us wanted to admit that to Arslan.”
“We were too rough with him.” Blaine’s voice was just as uneven as his. “Being with a human for the first time, we didn’t—it wasn’t until Arslan separated us that we realised that he was hurt, he was scared, bleeding.”
“Lions have to be careful with humans. We have to keep them safe. A lion can never forget that.” Luther opened his eyes, but he couldn’t bring himself to look toward Marrick.
He felt Marrick move between them and knew he was leaving again.
He closed his eyes again, clenching his hands into fists next to his sides as he resisted the urge to reach out and try to pull him back.
Lips brushed very gently against his own, shocking a gasp out of him. He blinked open his eyes as the touch faded away. Marrick stared down at him, a strange expression on his face.
When he turned away from Luther, it was only to offer Blaine a similar kiss.
“The idea’s to feel alive—not to get myself killed.”
Luther saw Blaine’s expression change as their eyes met past Marrick’s shoulder. When Blaine would have risen, Marrick caught hold of his arm and stopped him short.
“You’re scared you might really hurt me the way you might have hurt him if Arslan hadn’t been there. I get that. But I’m not asking you to do that.”
Luther saw Blaine look pointedly at the grip on his arm, but Marrick didn’t take the hint and let go of him.
“It’s the difference between going bungee jumping and actually throwing yourself off a bridge.
I don’t want to do anything that’s actually going to get me killed.
I wouldn’t ask you to do anything that would really hurt me—I wouldn’t ask you to sit back and let me do anything that would really hurt me either. I promise.”
He looked to Luther as he said the last word.
Luther smiled slightly as he saw the acceptance and maybe even the beginning of understanding in their pet’s eyes.
“But you realise that doesn’t mean you can start telling me I can’t even ride a bike around the city, right?” Marrick said, his expression turning ever so slightly wary.
Blaine, as politely as anyone ever could, took his wrist out of Marrick’s grip and reversed the situation, so he was holding onto their pet’s arm instead. That done, he turned his attention back to the conversation. “Falling off your bike hurt you in a way you didn’t enjoy.”
“In a way that left me sore for a few days. It didn’t do me any real harm.”
Blaine looked to Luther for his opinion on the matter.
“You’ll be careful?” Luther asked.
Marrick nodded. “And you’ll let me feel alive?”
Luther and Blaine exchanged another look. When they heard the need for it in their pet’s voice, it was hard to argue with him. “Promise,” Luther whispered.
“Yes. Although I won’t promise to be enthusiastic about it,” Blaine added.
Marrick laughed then. Dipping his head, he let it rest on Blaine’s shoulder. For his part, Blaine managed to keep his posture stiff and his displeasure at the idea obvious for all of a few seconds before he gave in and nuzzled the top of their pet’s head.
Luther smiled at them both.
“I’ve booked to go sky diving this summer.” The way he said it made it sound as if the piece of information was important. Luther looked to Blaine, but Blaine seemed to be as blank as he was.
“You go up in a plane, then you jump out of the plane when it’s still flying. A parachute keeps you safe,” Marrick explained.
Luther pressed his lips together very firmly, just in time to keep back the word No! God, but humans had some weird hobbies. “It’s one of the things that makes you feel alive?” he asked, as calmly as he could.
“I’ve never tried it before, but yeah—that’s the idea.”
“You couldn’t…feel alive at ground level?” Luther checked.
Marrick shook his head. Luther had the feeling they were discussing far more than their opinion of him jumping out of a plane. “Any lion who wanted to be your master would have to accept that,” he expanded.
Their pet offered a nod but no words to go with it.
“We’ll go with you,” Blaine decided after a while.
“I’ll go in the plane with you. Blaine will wait on the ground so he will be there when you to land,” Luther specified. He didn’t miss Blaine’s relief at the idea things would work well that way, without the lion who was so scared of heights having to jump out of a plane.
“You don’t have to… I’m not asking you to join in. Just…”
Luther leaned in and pressed a kiss to Marrick temple.
“I’ll do the high ones; Blaine will do the wet ones. We’ll see you’re kept…just safe enough.”
Marrick smiled slightly.
“Our mate will be kept just safe enough?” Blaine asked, cautiously.
Marrick sat up as if he couldn’t think clearly enough about such an important question while lying down.
For a long time, he said nothing. Luther moved to sit on one side of Marrick and wrapped his arm around his shoulders in a subtle little effort to keep him warm.
A moment later, Blaine did the same thing on the other side.
Looking up, Luther saw that Arslan and Ryland were both standing on the little patio at the back of the house, watching them. It wasn’t always easy to work out exactly what Arslan was thinking. Ryland might have been a different species, but he was far easier to read. He looked happy.
A glance back to Marrick, showed Luther that their pet looked far more serious than Arslan did.
“We should probably go inside soon. It’s getting late,” Marrick whispered.
Luther leaned down and brought their lips together. For the most part, it was a very gentle little kiss, but he couldn’t quite resist the temptation to nip a little at Marrick’s bottom lip, just for the pleasure of hearing him moan.
Blaine helped their pet to his feet. Luther slid his arm around him as they walked him back into the house. Marrick accepted it all without a word.
* * * * *
“You’re all just in time. The sacrifice will be here soon.”
When Marrick glanced up, Arslan met his gaze and held it.
Marrick had a horrible feeling the leader of the pride could see right into his soul right then.
Marrick wasn’t sure if he was ready to face the thoughts inside his own head, let alone accept the feeling of someone else spying on them.
Looking abruptly away, he found himself studying his own fingernails as they all headed into the meeting room.
All rest of the lions in the pride were already assembled there.
“The car will be here any minute,” Arslan told Luther and Blaine, the dismissal in his voice very clear.
Each of them looked towards Marrick, and it was obvious neither of them was thrilled about leaving him behind, but after a few more seconds of hesitation, they both accepted Arslan’s command and went outside to wait for the car.
Marrick looked up and met Arslan’s eyes again. This time, he didn’t let himself flinch. “They told me what happened.”
Arslan said nothing.
“That’s what you meant when you said I should ask them why prides of lions receive sacrifices,” Marrick added.
“Before lions learnt to be careful with the humans they lay with—before prides made a point of teaching them to be careful, a great many humans were hurt. It did little to help humans accept the fact that there were lions living in their midst,” Arslan said, looking out of the window to where Luther and Blaine stood on the drive.
“The tradition of human sacrifice has kept humans safe and the principle of lions living among you accepted within the human world for hundreds of years.”
Marrick followed Arslan’s gaze. It wasn’t cold for lions, but Luther and Blaine were cuddling up to each other anyway.
“Lions generally have very little to do with humans while they’re with their parents’ pride.
It’s always been thought best that our young are kept entirely separate until they are old enough to understand just how fragile a human can be, despite the fact they look so much like a lion does when a lion is in their human form,” Arslan said.
“Even when lions are old enough to go out among humans, most still work and socialise entirely with other lions. My choosing to work at a human university makes me something of an outlier. So, it’s not uncommon for things not to go to plan the first time a lion receives a sacrifice. ”
Marrick continued to stare through the window at them. They were so affectionate with each other. It was beautiful.
“If they couldn’t be trusted not to harm you, they would never have been left alone with you.”
Marrick turned and looked up at Arslan. “I’m not afraid of them.”
For his part, Arslan remained facing the window and didn’t take his eyes off Luther and Blaine. “They may be a couple of years older than you, but it’s best that you remember that the only real knowledge they have of humans is the sacrifices and Ryland.”
“I guessed that,” Marrick said, smiling through the window at them, remembering how lost they’d looked as they faced his parents across their living room.
“Then, you may also guess that any man who intends to make a life with either or both of them cannot run away at the first hint of a misunderstanding. It may well be a habit many humans like to indulge in, but it has no place in a pride,” Arslan said, his tone of voice implying he would allow no arguing on the matter.