Chapter Six
One moment, Ellery was glaring across the room at a rather concerned looking sub, about to remind him in no uncertain terms exactly who was the dom and who was the pet in the room.
The next, a fully-grown lion hit him square in the chest. The room spun.
His back landed hard against the floorboards.
The air rushed out of his lungs. Claws caught at his shoulders as huge paws pinned him to the floor.
A mouth containing more sharp teeth than any animal could have any reasonable need of flashed in front of his face. Big brown eyes stared down at him, full of frustration and anger.
A lion. An honest-to-God lion, with a short golden mane and a throat that produced the kind of roar humans were genetically predisposed to run away from. Ellery stared up at it, fight and flight too shocked to make up its mind and prompt him into any sort of action.
And, just as suddenly as he’d been floored by the so-called king of the jungle, Ellery found himself with a pretty little sub huddled against his chest. Kefir dipped his head and nuzzled against Ellery shoulder.
For several long seconds, nothing happened, but eventually, Ellery managed to move.
Without any clearer orders being issued by a brain that wasn’t really ready to face the world yet, his arms instinctively moved to cradle Kefir against him.
Patting him vaguely on the back as he stroked the fingers of his other hand through his hair, Ellery automatically hushed the boy with a low noise in the back of his throat.
Werelions. Of course, he’d known the theory long before he’d even met one. Apparently, the practical application of it would take a little bit more getting used to. Ellery took a deep breath and let it out very slowly, Kefir moving up and down on his chest with the motion.
“A human can’t win a fight with a lion,” the boy whispered to him. “Not even with a small lion.”
Ellery stroked his hand up and down Kefir’s back again, as the warmth of the little lion’s body slowly seeped into his skin.
“They said that you need to learn how to be a proper pet, and if I can’t teach you, they would see to it that you learned from them.”
The words were whispered so softly, Ellery had to strain to hear them, but they made the world around him morph into some sort of sense.
“They were wrong.” Ellery made no attempt to gentle the words. They hit the air, strong and loud, after the little lion’s whispers.
“They’ll—”
Ellery hushed him again, and Kefir obediently fell silent.
“I may not know as much as you do about lions, and you may well be right that shifters are stronger than humans. But I know more than you ever will about human doms and subs, and I’ll promise you this right now. There’s nothing they can do that will turn me into a sub.”
Kefir lifted his head and blinked down at Ellery, his body still resting comfortably on top of Ellery’s larger frame.
“There are people who switch, but they don’t do that because someone changes them,” Ellery explained. “And there’s no way in hell they can change me. That’s just not in me.”
Kefir dipped his head to rub his temple against Ellery’s chest. Ellery wasn’t sure if that meant the boy was going to accept that he knew more than him about such things or not.
“Are you still going to try to throw me out?” Ellery prompted when no words were offered.
He took the lapping kiss Kefir pressed against his skin as a no. For all he looked like a real lion when he shifted into his feline form, Kefir had something undeniably kittenish about him when he was in his human shape. And he really was an affectionate, snugly little thing.
Ellery allowed that, he even quietly encouraged it, but he wasn’t about to let the boy get the idea that everything could be cured with distracting kisses and licks.
“Look up. Look at me.”
Kefir did as he was told.
“One thing will be clear between us, right from the start. You don’t look after me—I look after you. Understand?”
Kefir’s head tilted to one side, as if he wasn’t sure what to make of such a strange new idea. “Lions and humans—”
Ellery silenced him with a fingertip. “Not lions and humans, you and me. Forget about everyone else.”
“Arslan says…” He hesitated then, as if he expected to be interrupted, but Ellery forced himself to stay silent and let the boy continue. “He says things are the way they are for good reasons.”
“That’s nice.” And completely irrelevant—Ellery let his tone of voice tell that part of the story.
Kefir stared at him, curiosity shining in his eyes. He looked down then, to watch his fingers trace patterns on Ellery’s chest. “I’ve never met a human like you.”
Ellery rearranged them slightly, encouraging Kefir to kick off the tatters that were all that remained of his jeans and curl comfortably into his side, but he didn’t go so far as to move them off the floor. Kefir seemed quite content there, and learning was far more important than moving.
“Are there lots of humans like you?” Kefir whispered after a little while.
Ellery laughed.
If Kefir didn’t understand his amusement, at least he didn’t seem offended by it.
“Are there lots of lions like you?” Ellery tossed back at him.
Apparently, lions weren’t hot on sarcasm, because Kefir considered the matter very carefully before shaking his head.
Ellery stopped chuckling.
“Most lions are more like Luther and Blaine. Some of the leaders of the different prides are more like Arslan. I don’t think there are many lions that are like me at all.”
Ellery nodded. Not just the only submissive in his pride, but one of the few in his species by the sound of it.
“Do you mind?” Kefir asked, softly.
“I wouldn’t be interested in you if you were like them.”
Kefir pulled away then, to sit up on the floor next to him. “You’re interested?”
Ellery bit back a smile, not willing to let it loose until he was sure they were on the same page. “I’m not interested in being anyone’s pet or anyone’s sub.”
Kefir nodded, very seriously.
“But I am interested in you.” Except interested wasn’t truly a strong enough word. He’d been interested in a lot of men over the years. He hadn’t been fascinated by one before.
“In being my…” Kefir looked for a word that fitted, but he didn’t seem to have one in his vocabulary.
Master. But Ellery forced himself to ignore the part of him that wanted to use that word from the very first moment. “Dom,” he said instead.
One step at a time. Even if there was part of him that knew that’s what he would become in due course, there was no reason to throw it all at the boy in one fell swoop. Someone like Kefir needed careful handling, a gradual introduction into a world that he had no knowledge of.
“Like a master?” Kefir asked, cautiously.
And omission was one thing, but there was no way in hell Ellery could bring himself to actually lie about it. “Yes, very much like a master.”
“If you were my master, that would make me your pet,” Kefir pointed out.
“Yes.”
Kefir took it all in, seeming to think it all through very thoroughly. “Your sub,” he ventured.
“Yes.”
The little lion nodded his understanding. “I think…I think I might like that.”
Success rushed through Ellery, harsh and electrifying.
Sitting up, he rolled his shoulders to work out the knots that had been pushed into them by the hard floor.
Reaching out to Kefir, he stroked his fingers through his hair, taking a tight grip on the short blond strands in the process.
When he tilted the little lion’s head back and brought their lips together, Kefir didn’t even try to take control of the kiss.
His submission was completely instinctive. Ellery was all for having a well-trained man kneeling at his feet—far better that than a badly trained man. But he’d have been lying if he’d said that any amount of training could take the place of that natural instinct to submit.
Kefir lapped gently at the tip of Ellery’s tongue, asking for permission to kiss him back. When Ellery ignored the request, he didn’t push the issue but parted his lips and gave his new master everything he had.
Ellery rolled Kefir over onto his back, staring down at him as he let his hands wander freely over the little lion’s body. Kefir was hard again and thrust eagerly against Ellery’s palm as he wrapped his hand around Kefir’s dick.
A purr vibrated against Ellery’s lips. Kefir’s hands came to rest on his shoulders, but their only agenda seemed to be to touch rather than to try to control.
When Ellery pulled back from the kiss, Kefir didn’t try to hold on to him.
He lay back on the floorboards, a sweet little smile on his face as he stared up at Ellery in complete wonder.
As Ellery pulled back further and got to his feet, a shake of the head was all it took to keep Kefir where he was, looking content and curious while he watched his new master walk across and sit on the edge of the bed.
“Come here.”
Kefir rolled over and pushed himself up onto his hands and knees. He wasn’t far away, and he didn’t bother to get to his feet. He simply crawled toward Ellery.
If Ellery hadn’t been hard from the start, that sight would have seen to it that he was.
Kefir didn’t seem to need anything explained to him.
As soon as he was close enough, he lapped delicately at the tip of Ellery’s cock.
Lifting his hand to wrap his fingers around Ellery’s dick, Kefir sucked him slowly into his mouth.
He’d never done that with another man, Ellery would cheerfully have bet his life on the fact. Ellery was the only man that Kefir had ever gone down on—and the only man he would ever go down on.
Ellery didn’t consider himself to be a man who made a habit of falling in instant lust with a submissive, let alone in instant anything else.
But, in that moment, he didn’t have to think about it.
He wanted Kefir collared and kneeling at his feet for the rest of his life.
So simple. So natural. It seemed pointless to question it.
As soft lips and a rough agile tongue worked enthusiastically around Ellery’s dick, he knew exactly what he’d love the little lion to be doing most of the time he knelt there, too.
Ellery smiled as he met Kefir’s eyes. The boy stared up at him, stunning and dangerously addictive in equal measure as his lips thinned into a pale pink line around Ellery’s dick.
Still, for all his wonderful instincts, there were some things that really needed a degree of practice and experience that Kefir simply didn’t have. A few minutes later, as Ellery came, Kefir pulled back, startled by the suddenness of an orgasm that had even taken Ellery by surprise.
Some of Ellery’s cum spilled into Kefir’s mouth, but more of it fell over Kefir’s lips and even more into his hands, as he continued to work Ellery’s dick with his fingers regardless of everything else.
A little trickled down Kefir’s body, too, before he leaned forward and took the tip back into his mouth.
Pleasure rushed through Ellery, hot and uncontrollable, and for a few minutes, there was no room in his head for anything but that.
No thoughts, no realisations, no words, just several successive waves of bliss.
As he began to recover and found himself able to focus on the real world again, Ellery stared down at Kefir.
He looked so innocently shocked, and so deliciously cum splattered at the same time. Lifting one of his hands to his lips, the little lion wiped some of the drops of cum from his face. While Ellery watched, waiting for his reaction, Kefir lapped at his fingertips.
For all the world like a kitten licking up spilled cream, he began to clean the cum from his skin with every sign of enjoyment. There was no pretence. No show. Kefir didn’t even seem to be aware that Ellery was watching, completely enchanted, until he chanced to look up, and their eyes met.
Kefir hesitated for a moment before offering his fingertips up, to share his treat with Ellery. A shake of Ellery’s head didn’t seem to offend him, and he went back to contentedly cleaning his fingers himself.
As Kefir finished his self-appointed task, Ellery took him by the wrist and guided him up onto the bed. Leaning back against the headboard, he soon had Kefir sitting between his outstretched legs, resting back against his chest.
Kefir’s cock curved up toward his stomach, begging for his attention. Ellery stroked his fingers against the length, making the little lion purr and arch his back as he rubbed himself enthusiastically back against him.
“Do you want to come?” Ellery whispered into his ear.
Another purr, and a definitive nod of the head.
“No.”
Kefir tried to look over his shoulder, arch his back and thrust into Ellery’s hand all at the same time. It was both an unsuccessful and a very pretty move.
“If you’re to be my sub, that’s one of the decisions I’ll expect you to give up to me.”
Kefir slowly gained a little control of his limbs. He fell still, devoting all his energy to listening to what Ellery had to say to him.
“I’d be the only one who could touch you like this. You wouldn’t be allowed to reach for your cock whenever you wanted. You’d have to wait for me to decide if you should come. You wouldn’t even be allowed to ask for the privilege.”
Kefir whimpered. Turning his head, he rubbed his temple against Ellery’s shoulder. His hands settled on Ellery’s forearms, but he made no attempt to try and control the way Ellery touched him.
“And you?” he whispered.
“I’d be allowed to come whenever I want—and I could order you to service me however and whenever I wanted to come, too.”
Kefir made a sweet little noise in the back of his throat, halfway between a whimper and a purr.
“Would you like that?” Ellery asked him.
Kefir half-nodded, then stopped himself short. “Just me?” Ellery could barely make the words out. “You said you could order me to… Just me, or…?”
Ellery considered the suggestion very carefully, his fingers still teasing Kefir’s cock as he thought through his options.
Would he need another man in his bed if he could collar Kefir and keep him at his side forever?
Would he even want one? He found himself surprised at how easy the questions were to answer.
“Just you,” he agreed.
Kefir nodded. That was apparently the only question he’d wanted to ask. Topic settled.
He made no comment when Ellery took his hand away. He remained, leaning back in Ellery’s arms, apparently content to rest with him, even if Ellery was the only one who was sleepy with afterglow.
“Good boy.”
Ellery smiled when Kefir purred, apparently as easily pleased by a kind word as he might have been by the abandoned hand job.