“Now, you’re going to be my new slave, cub, so you need to learn that whenever I say that phrase you need to do exactly what they just did. I would hate to have to punish you on your first day.” He snickered. “Who am I kidding? I would love to punish you, cub. I’m Culin, but you can call me Master after today. What’s your name?”
“His name is Nial, and he’s mine.”
The new voice came from behind me in the cat section, I believed. The sound was deep and silky, unlike Culin’s voice, which shredded my skin with its sound. This voice slid in and wrapped itself around my chest, giving me a warm feeling I couldn’t quite describe. Culin’s hand tightened around the back of my neck ever tighter, and I couldn’t hold in a slight whimper at the sudden pain.
“This isn’t your business, Ze. Back off and no one gets hurt.” He squeezed even tighter than I thought possible, and I moaned with pain and the thought that any second he was going to snap my spine.
“Well, he might get hurt, but that’s my decision, not yours.”
I heard shuffles, mumbles, and then strong and steady footsteps heading in our direction. I kept my eyes open and trained on Culin’s eyes. He was following who I assumed to be Ze as he came up behind me. Culin tried to hide it, but he was a little scared of this man heading his way, and I wondered what the man would look like who could scare someone like Culin.
I didn’t have long to wait. In one blink I was still in Culin’s grip. In the next blink, there was no more pressure on my neck, and I was pulled away from Culin, whipped around and pushed close behind a very large man. He just stood there, legs wide, arms flexed at his side and stare pointed straight at Culin.
“I told you he was mine, mut. You should have listened and let him go. No one in here, including you, can touch what’s mine. We already established that nine months ago. If you don’t remember, I can always refresh your memory.”
Ze’s body language and deep, dark tone told me he was not kidding. He was fully ready to take on Culin and was confident he would win. Presumably for the second time. Culin seemed to know that, too. He raised his hands in a sign of surrender and began laughing that maniac laugh again.
“Fine, kitty, fine. You can have his skinny cub ass. I was just bored and wanted to play a little with the new meat, but if you’ve got a hard-on for some lion cub meat, have at it. He’s not worth it to me.”
He stepped backward a few steps, keeping his gaze on Ze the whole time, then turned and walked to his pack, taking up his center seat. A younger man with a black leather collar, a rabbit shifter, attempted to sit on Culin’s lap, but he roughly pushed the boy off, causing him to land on the ground hard. He winced, but then he masked the reaction, stood up and stepped away silently.
When I brought my attention back to my situation, I noticed Ze was gone. I whipped my head around and saw him walking back to his group, too, leaving me standing there by myself. This, I hadn’t expected. I heard Sallyann in my memory telling me to find Ze and attach myself to him. I turned around and followed him to the group, through some clusters of men standing around and finally reached the middle of the pride. Now that I wasn’t in any danger, I could finally see what Ze looked like, and I wasn’t disappointed. I shouldn't have found him handsome, seeing as he had just claimed my ass as his property one minute ago, but facts were facts. Ze sat at a table with the tigers I had sensed, with one lynx sitting at the end. The two tigers were very close, shoulders and thighs touching where they had slid into the attached benches. Ze sat on the opposite side of the table, and the lynx sat on his side, but way at the end, watching everything around him.
Ze, even sitting, towered over the others. He had dark, almost black hair and a full dark beard. His golden eyes were familiar for a lion, but the hair color was not. It was almost unheard of for a lion shifter to be anything but blond, like me. There were a few, but very rare. The black-maned lions were always bigger and known to be much more intense in both physical and emotional issues. They were considered volatile, with a hot temper. I had just witnessed that so I could confirm at least that rumor. My protector was gorgeous, but he was also ignoring me, and I needed answers. I decided he was the only one who could give me those answers, so I walked right up to the table and sat down a little distance from him on his side, opposite of the lynx lookout.
“Thank you for the rescue. I’m Nial, and I’m assuming you’re Ze. Could you answer a few questions for me?”
Ze cut his golden eyes toward me, then turned to one of the men across from him.
“Time for the rounds. Geordie, you’re in charge of cub sitting.”
After that, the bigger tiger stood up with Ze, and they walked back through the group of cats and out of sight. My mouth hung open for a minute at least from the realization that this guy had just ignored my request and was incredibly rude about it. A finger under my chin pushed my mouth closed, and a giggle from across the table caught my attention, so I focused on the tiger that was left, presumably Geordie. He was a little smaller than the other tiger, but not small by any means. His rich tawny hair was similar to mine in length, long and straight enough to fall into his eyes. He had rich green eyes though that said he wasn’t all tiger, but he got the ability to shift into one from one of his parents. His smile was warm and genuine, and his eyes glittered with friendliness.
“As you can probably guess from what Mr. Grumpy Pants said, I’m Geordie. That was Ze, by the way, and my mate, Luke. I’m not going to baby you, so don’t worry. Did he say your name was Nial? Or did I mishear?”
“Yeah, it’s Nial.”
I had to fight the urge to saynice to meet yousince I had been told my manners might get me into trouble. I needn’t have bothered
“It’s very nice to meet you, Nial. You’re in with us now, since Ze told Culin to back off. You’re lucky. You’re the first one Ze has shown any interest in since he got here nine months ago. You’re his new cellmate, so I’m sure that’s part of it. I know I talk fast and never stay on topic long, but you said you have questions and since Ze is doing rounds and can’t do that for you, you’re stuck with little ole me. What’s your first question?”
I had a hard time following Geordie since he really did talk fast and never seemed to take a breath. But he was being nice and who knew how often that would last.
“What are rounds?”
Geordie’s eyes got big and round, stuck in that position for a few seconds, then he banged the palm of his hand on the table and giggled even louder than before.
“Damn you don’t play, do you? Go right for the heart. I like that, I really do. I wish I could answer that for you, but I can’t. You’ll have to ask Ze yourself, and it’s his decision. Now, anything else you want to know? Want my security clearance? The last number in Pi?”
I had to chuckle a little despite myself at the very smart science reference. Most average shifters would never have been allowed to take advanced math, so Geordie wasn’t just friendly, he was very smart.
“No, I don’t want the answer to infinity either. I would like the lay of the land though if you’d help me with that.”
“Of course I will! Logistics is my specialty. When I’m done, you’ll know as much as I do, which granted isn’t a ton, but it’s better than nothing.”
Over the next hour, Geordie explained, just as Jarvis had, that the species tended to stick together. It was more for protection than anything else. It was customary for species not to attack their own with violence. Deceit? That happened all the time, like Kane’s situation with his beta. And someone had to have framed me, too. But I didn’t want to think of the possibilities, so I shifted my thoughts back to the rules.
“You can talk to someone weaker than you, which as a lion, even a young one, will be practically everyone. So that’s a plus for you. You can talk to anyone but don’t unless you have to. It’s best to stick in your group as much as possible. The loyalties in here can change within an hour, so you don’t want to get on the opposite side of a disagreement that you don’t even care about. Keep to yourself and us. Lunch is served in here at eleven and dinner is at eight. If you miss it, you’re out of luck. You can get snacks from the store if you have money, but you can only eat them during night lockdown or meal time.”
