Chapter Eight #3
As Franklin lay face down against the coarse fabric, Cameron dipped his head and lapped as gently as he could at one of the harsh red whip marks. His pet murmured. He arched his back slightly, as if he was attempting to offer himself up to his master’s tongue more eagerly.
He didn’t need to do that. Cameron brought his hand to rest on the unmarked skin over the small of Franklin’s back, encouraging him to simply rest and let his master look after him—let his mate look after him.
It had been so long since he thought himself capable of being the kind of lion who had a mate. He stared down at Franklin, but he couldn’t bring the words to his lips.
“Is there something you want to ask him, Cameron?” Arslan asked from the side of the bed.
Franklin half lifted his head before lowering it back to the mattress once more. Cameron turned to the leader of the pride and held his gaze for several long seconds.
“I…” Cameron looked back down at Franklin.
“Do you remember what the right words are?”
Cameron nodded. He’d thought about them often enough, when his body was being used and his mind found itself free to wander into all the darkest corners of his brain, to those places that it was always the most painful for him to investigate.
“Cameron?” Franklin turned, rolling half onto his side as he tried to face his master, despite the pain each movement brought.
Suddenly, his eyes opened very wide. He reached out and touched Cameron’s arm, where blood was drying around the claw marks he’d left in his own skin.
Carefully taking Franklin’s hand in his, Cameron guided him to lower it back to the sheet. Except, somehow, he didn’t let it go once Franklin’s hand was back where he wanted it. His own hand stayed wrapped around Franklin’s fingers as he sat next to him on the bed and stared down at him.
There was no way he could fail to ask the question.
“If you come to us willingly and of your own free will, with no thought for your own gain and only wishing to add to the pride, then you are welcome.”
Franklin looked up at him, his expression gaining more focus by the moment as he seemed to realise what was being said to him was important.
He went to speak, but Cameron put one fingertip of his free hand against Franklin’s lips and silenced him before he could either protest or agree.
“If you wish to belong to the pride, to take your rightful place in the pride, you are welcome,” he said.
It was a battle for him to keep his words loud enough for anyone but Franklin to hear them, but Cameron forced every syllable out as clearly as he could.
The words had to be heard by the pride. That was important.
Franklin’s answer had to be heard by the pride, too, no matter what it was.
The pain in Cameron’s whipped back became irrelevant as he pushed on. “If you come to us without lies or secrets, you are welcome.”
As he stared down at Franklin, there was no way Cameron could believe that he would ever say yes to his offer, or that he deserved for him to say yes to it, but he kept going, regardless.
As he felt the full force of a true lion’s instincts racing through him for the first time in years, there was nothing else he could do but try to claim his mate. “If you are who we believe you to be, say that you wish to take your rightful place in the pride, and you will be welcomed.”
Cameron lowered his fingertip from Franklin’s mouth, freeing him to answer, but before Franklin had a chance to say anything, Arslan stepped forward.
Obviously, he was going to tell Franklin not to accept—that they weren’t ready. Cameron dropped his gaze, knowing that the leader of the pride was probably right, knowing that being part of a pride meant sometimes having to tolerate that.
“Franklin,” Arslan began. “It’s important that you understand what Cameron is asking you.
He’s asking you to become his mate. To be…
married to him, a human would say. It is a permanent bond—it means you will spend the rest of your lives together.
It’s not something that should be entered into lightly. ”
Franklin dropped his gaze when Arslan fell silent. When he looked up again, his eyes went straight to Cameron. “You really want…me?”
He sounded so shocked by the idea, Cameron automatically reached out to him, cupping his cheek in the palm of his hand. Unable to trust his voice he just nodded. He wanted him.
“Are there words I’m supposed to…?” Franklin asked.
“A clear yes or no is all that’s required,” Arslan said.
“Yes.”
It was the single most confident word Cameron could ever remember leaving Franklin’s mouth, and the only confident word that seemed to be said by him rather than someone he was pretending to be. He said it like he believed it with his heart and soul.
It took all Cameron’s strength to look away from him then and to turn his attention to Arslan. “You’ll give us your blessing?”
The older lion looked from Cameron to Franklin and back again. “I think you’ll suit well.” His expression turned a little more serious then. “That doesn’t mean I think you should rush. There is plenty of time. You’ll both need time to heal.”
“But the whole pride will help however we can.”
Cameron looked past Arslan to where Ryland stood next to him. He smiled slightly as he saw the look in Ryland’s eyes when he looked up at his master. Cameron turned his own gaze back to Franklin.
He was so exhausted, and in so much pain, but there was a spark of hope in his eyes that Cameron realised he hadn’t seen there since Franklin had agreed to be his pet.
Reaching out to Franklin once more, Cameron gently stroked his fingers down his cheek.
“Do you need help to get back to your room?” Arslan asked.
Franklin looked up to his master. He didn’t want that. Cameron could see it in his eyes.
“We’ll stay here?” Cameron suggested.
Some tiny part of the tension that had flooded into Franklin’s body eased, letting Cameron know that he had guessed just the right thing to say.
He looked up to Arslan. “We want to sleep in here tonight,” he said, with more confidence.
He was disobeying his leader, contradicting him in front of his pride. Cameron only realised that after the words had already been said. Memories came flooding back of the last time he’d defied the leader of a pride that way. The roar he expected to fill the air failed to materialise.
Arslan’s gaze flashed back and forth between them.
“Franklin is your mate. As the lion, it is your responsibility to see that your mate can rest comfortably here, if this is where you wish him to sleep.”
Cameron nodded his understanding.
Arslan looked around the room as if assessing it in a million different ways. Finally, he seemed willing to grant their request. “It won’t do either of you any harm to stay here.”
In reality, Cameron was sure they all started to move quickly toward the door at that point.
But, somehow, it still seemed like hours before he was able to finally be alone with his new mate.
Closing the door between them and the outside world, Cameron leaned against it for a moment, his forehead resting against the coolness of the woodwork as he relished the term—his mate.
Franklin had turned his head and was already watching him carefully when Cameron turned back to him. Their eyes locked.
Hours might truly have passed then, without either of them being aware of it. Neither of them moved until a knock sounded on the door. Spinning around, Cameron tore it open, more than ready to be furious with anything that interrupted their time alone together.
Ryland stood on the other side of the threshold, a set of blankets in his arms. “We stripped the bed before we put the dustsheets over it. You’ll need to remake it.”
He held out the sheets, and Cameron automatically reached out and took them from him.
“Do you need help with that?” Ryland asked, with careful politeness.
Cameron shook his head. “I can do it.” He could look after his mate. He didn’t need anyone’s help. Franklin was his, not Ryland’s.
Ryland stared up at him in silence for several long seconds.
“Thank you,” Cameron said, more politely. “But I can handle it on my own.”
Ryland nodded his understanding as he turned away and retraced his steps to the master bedroom and his mate. Closing the door firmly between them and the outside world once more, Cameron made his way back to his mate, too.
“Can you stand?” he asked, setting the bedding to one side.
Franklin nodded. He shuffled to the edge of the bed, but his legs seemed to disagree with his assessment of his capabilities. His knees buckled as soon as he tried to put even a little of his weight on them.
Cameron sprung forward. Remembering not to catch hold of his pet’s back, he wrapped his hands tightly around Franklin’s arms instead. A lion’s strength still made it easy for him to guide Franklin to a chair, so he could rest there while his master remade the bed.
Franklin allowed him to help him to and from the bathroom and tend to his wounds with well-practiced skill. He didn’t mutter one word of protest or make any attempt to take control of anything between them.
Franklin didn’t seem to mind the silence that stretched out at all, but Cameron’s inability to find the right words tore at his own soul a little more with every second that passed. The marks that crossed his back were barely an annoying irritation in comparison.
The same couldn’t be said for Franklin. No matter how hard he seemed to be trying to hide it, it was impossible for him to conceal the way every movement sent a fresh wave of agony through him.
Nothing could have shocked Cameron more than when Franklin reached out to him as when he tried to settle them between the sheets as painlessly as possible.
“You need to rest,” Cameron reminded him.
“I need my master,” Franklin said. “I need my mate.”
When their eyes met, it was obvious just how much it had cost him to say that.