Chapter Two
Kefir Tinsley stared up at the pride’s newest sacrifice in awe.
The man had been fascinating kneeling on the rug in front of the fire.
Now that he was standing at his full height, he was…
glorious. There was no other word for him.
Strength and dominance radiated off him in a way Kefir hadn’t even realised was possible in a human.
Kefir stroked his fingers down Ellery’s arm as he guided him toward the sofa.
Muscles tensed under his touch, but not with pleasure.
Ellery didn’t like being blindfolded or bound.
His scent made that very clear. Kefir’s teeth nipped at his bottom lip.
He was pretty sure Ellery actually hated the bondage far more than any of the humans Kefir had seen thrown to Arslan’s pride—not as if he was scared by it though, just annoyed with it.
With every moment that passed, Kefir itched to snatch the leather away from Ellery’s skin.
A desperate need to please him and see that he always had anything and everything he could ever want roared up inside Kefir, demanding to be sated.
It was only Arslan’s watchful presence that made him keep the blindfold and the cuffs in place.
Ellery stilled when his shin brushed against the sofa. Kefir guided him down onto the cushions as carefully as he knew how, but it wasn’t easy to direct limbs that were so much longer than his own. The landing was more sudden than Kefir would have liked, but Ellery made no complaint.
Climbing onto the sofa next to Ellery, Kefir pulled his legs up onto the cushion in front of him so he could turn and face Ellery properly.
Keeping his hands from stroking Ellery’s skin was impossible.
Humans were supposed to feel ever so slightly cold to the touch—Kefir knew that much from hearing the other lions discussing both the sacrifices and their mates.
But he hadn’t realised just how tactile, how addictive, stroking his fingers across a human’s skin could be.
It explained why Luther and Blaine could never keep their hands off Marrick for more than a few seconds at a time. Kefir tore his gaze away from Ellery for a moment and looked across to where all the other lions were crowded around the trestle tables full of food.
Luther and Blaine were both glaring at him and Ellery. If Marrick really had mellowed the other lions’ inclination towards brattiness the way Arslan said he had, there was little sign of it tonight.
Kefir turned back to Ellery. His shoulder was right there, barely an inch or two away from Kefir. Leaning forward, Kefir nuzzled against him, breathing in his scent, enjoying the simple feel of Ellery’s skin against his face.
There were dark hairs on Ellery’s torso, more so than on the lions, more than on either of the humans in their pride, too. Kefir let his head drop down and rubbed his temple against his chest. When he turned his head, the hair tickled against Kefir’s cheek, making him smile.
Ellery let out a half chuckle, as if the sensations pleased him, too.
The sound was quiet, but it reverberated through Ellery’s chest and made Kefir’s smile widen.
He glanced across at the food again as he lifted his head, but he wasn’t the least inclined to leave Ellery on his own while Luther and Blaine were still frowning angrily in their direction.
He made no attempt to approach the tables.
A protective instinct he hadn’t even been aware of possessing made itself felt inside Kefir as he sat there. He closed his eyes as he snuggled a little closer to Ellery’s side, automatically trying to warm him with his own body heat.
He only opened his eyes again when someone cleared their throat, someone who was close. A plate of food appeared before Kefir. He looked up, and Ryland proffered the plate to him.
Kefir sighed his relief as he realised he wouldn’t have to leave Ellery’s side at all. “Thank you.” He took the dish and watched as Ryland made his way back to sit at Arslan’s feet.
“Kefir?” Ellery prompted.
“Are you hungry?” Kefir asked. “There’s food. Chicken and ham, and—”
“Are you going to untie my hands?”
“I’m not allowed to do that, but I could feed you,” Kefir suggested. He’d seen the other lions feeding their mates. The idea appealed to him then, in a way it never had before. Anything that involved contact with Ellery’s mouth was suddenly a truly fascinating prospect.
“No.” Ellery sounded very certain about that answer. He didn’t seem to like the suggestion at all.
Tilting his head on the side, Kefir studied Ellery for some time.
“The others were right when they said you’re not like the men who are usually thrown to us,” Kefir observed. He picked at a few of the bits of meat on the plate but found he had little appetite for eating alone.
“What were the other men like?” Ellery asked. His tone of voice was different from the other sacrifices, too. His words didn’t sound like a plea for reassurance. They were much more like a demand for information.
Kefir thought about it for a few moments, letting images of the other men flash through his mind. “They were…less…” Kefir couldn’t find the right word.
They were simply less than Ellery. Smaller than him, younger, weaker—yes, most of the other sacrifices had been those things, but not all of them. It was something else, something less physical, less visual. None of them had Ellery’s energy, his presence.
Kefir gazed up at him, completely enchanted. “Are there many humans like you?” he asked.
Ellery’s face turned toward him. His eyes remained hidden away behind the leather, but he still seemed to be looking at him in query.
“I haven’t had a great deal to do with humans,” Kefir confessed, dropping his gaze. “I didn’t even know men like you existed until…” Until Blaine and Luther had marched him into the room, and all the oxygen had disappeared from the world.
“Dominants?” Ellery suggested.
Kefir thought about the word. “Like the lions who lead the prides?” he hazarded.
“Something like that, yes,” Ellery agreed, his voice all calm certainty.
Kefir nodded, a little sadly. He might not know a great deal about humans, but his work often took him to meetings with the leaders of all the different prides in the country. They weren’t the kind of people who would wish to be anyone’s pet.
Not all the sacrifices were suited to being pets. Arslan had made that very clear to all the members of his pride. Potential pets were very rare—that was one of the many reasons they should always be cherished and treated with all possible respect.
Kefir glanced at Ellery again. He had the distinct feeling that Ellery wasn’t a man who needed to be given respect. He was more than capable of demanding it, taking it.
Setting the plate aside, their food barely touched, Kefir rested his head on Ellery’s shoulder again and watched his own fingers trace patterns over Ellery’s skin. There were a series of darker little marks on his collarbone, like freckles. Kefir explored them thoroughly.
There was no point in regretting that there was no way Ellery would wish to be his pet, let alone his mate. The only sensible thing to do was relish the time they would have together that night.
There was a pale scar on Ellery’s stomach, low down on the righthand side.
“You were hurt?” he whispered, quiet horror running through him at the thought, even though the scar was obviously old and had healed years before.
“Appendix.”
He said the word as if it explained everything. Kefir had already parted his lips to ask for more information when another voice cut through the world.
“Kefir, do you have anything to say?”
Looking up, Kefir met Arslan’s eyes across the room.
Arslan was studying him very carefully, and Kefir had no doubt that Arslan was well aware that he hadn’t been paying the least bit of attention while the other lions were telling the pride about their week.
Kefir took a deep breath and tried to pull details of his own life to the forefront of his mind.
His work on recording the genealogy of all the lions in both the local and the not-so-local prides was going well.
He’d made progress on some of the lines that he’d been struggling to untangle for months.
None of that seemed to be significant enough to mention right then.
He shook his head, but Arslan didn’t immediately move on to speak to anyone else. Kefir dropped his gaze and waited, his pulse quickening as he became aware that the pride’s leader might not be entirely pleased with him.
Finally, Arslan’s attention moved away. Kefir remembered how to breathe.
“Are you scared of him?”
Kefir stared up at Ellery’s blindfolded face as he tried to make sense of the strange question. “Afraid of Arslan?”
“If that’s the leader of your pride, then yes—are you scared of Arslan?”
Kefir tilted his head to one side and considered the matter very carefully, trying to work out what Ellery might be trying to get at and failing. “Why would I be afraid of him?” he asked, eventually.
Ellery said nothing. He seemed to be listening to the conversation on the other side of the room now.
“The man Arslan’s talking to now is human?” he asked after a while.
Kefir nodded, rubbing his cheek against Ellery’s shoulder with the movement. “Yes. Ryland’s Arslan’s mate.”
“His submissive?”
“Lions call the humans that belong to them their pets. Would a sub be the same thing?”
“The sub is the person who does as he’s told, the dom is the one who does the telling.”
Kefir glanced up at him through his lashes. “You wouldn’t wish to be a lion’s sub or his pet,” he said. It wasn’t even a question. He might have only known him for half an evening, but he would have already been sure of his answer, even if he hadn’t heard Marrick call Ellery a dom.
Ellery tensed. “No, I wouldn’t want to be anyone’s pet.”
Kefir dropped his head back to rest on Ellery’s chest. His heartbeat was strong and steady beneath his cheek. Closing his eyes, Kefir let that become the only sound in his world. He had no idea how much time passed before he felt someone approach their sofa.
“It’s time the sacrifice was on his way, Kefir.”
When Kefir looked up, Arslan’s expression was very serious. There was no point arguing when he looked that way, Kefir knew that.
“The car will be waiting for you outside,” he whispered to Ellery. Forcing himself to pull away from his side, Kefir rose to his feet and guided Ellery, still bound and blindfolded, toward the door.
Until they stepped outside, some part of Kefir clung to a vague hope that the car simply wouldn’t have turned up, that he’d somehow be able to keep Ellery with him a little longer, even if that time would have been spent standing idle in the driveway.
But the car was there, black and shining in the second-hand light from the house. Kefir led Ellery toward it, moving even more slowly across the gravel than he needed to in order for a human to keep up.
They stopped next to the open back door of the car. It was impossible to read Ellery’s expression when only half his face was visible. Kefir had no idea how to say goodbye to him.
A brief hesitation and he rose up onto his toes on the rough gravel and pressed a gentle kiss to Ellery’s cheek. His skin was a little prickly under Kefir’s lips, rough and perfect. Swallowing down his reluctance, Kefir helped Ellery to fold his tall frame into the car.
Car door closed, Kefir backed away. Arslan stood in the doorway leading into the house. Kefir stopped next to his leader and turned to stare at the car.
The driver started the engine. The moment Ellery leaving became a real thing that was actually happening, Kefir became incapable of remaining where he was.
He rushed forward and wrenched the car door open before the chauffer had a chance to pull away. Ellery tensed as he turned his head toward Kefir, instinctively ready to defend himself.
“You’re very sure you don’t wish to be a lion’s pet?” Kefir blurted out.
“Yes, I’m sure,” Ellery said. He sounded as certain about that as he did about everything else.
Pain shot through Kefir, harsher than anything he had ever felt—unable to be understood and equally impossible to ignore. But there was nothing Kefir could do, except close the car door once more and watch the car drive away.
A hand came to rest on his shoulder, and Kefir knew Arslan was there, watching over him. But, for the first time he could remember, the fact that he was safe and the member of a good pride wasn’t enough.
Kefir wanted a pet. He wanted a mate.
He wanted Ellery.
As he turned and looked up at Arslan, Kefir knew his leader could see it all in his eyes, all the confusion, and all the pain, too. Arslan led him back into the house and closed the door behind them, destroying Kefir’s attempts to steal one more glimpse of the disappearing car.
“Tell me about him,” Arslan ordered, when everyone else had left and only he and Ryland remained there with Kefir.
Kefir gazed at the rug where Ellery had knelt such a short time ago.
“He’s…” The words still weren’t there. He was perfect.
In a way Kefir hadn’t believed possible, Ellery was faultless.
He’d fitted against him so effortlessly as he curled up with him on the sofa.
And everything had meshed together within Kefir’s own mind while he was near him, a problem that he hadn’t even been aware of having had solved itself, but now, Ellery was gone.
Eventually, Arslan stepped in and saved Kefir from the silence that filled the room. Ruffling his fingers through Kefir’s hair, Arslan excused him from trying to find the right words.
“Don’t worry, little one. I understand.”
Kefir’s teeth nipped at his bottom lip. He understood the situation, too. Understanding it and liking it weren’t anything like the same thing.