Ellery turned back to face him.
“If you stay here, they’ll hurt you.They won’t mean to.They’ll think they’re helping, but…but they’ll hurt you, and I won’t be able to stop them,” Kefir forced himself to say.
“What makes you think they want to hurt me?”Ellery let out a rough half laugh.”What makes you so sure I’d be the one who got hurt if they tried to?”
He didn’t get it.And the idea of him being hurt was running around and around inside Kefir’s head, making him quietly more frantic by the moment.He closed his eyes for a second.If there really was only one way to make his pet understand what the real difference between humans and lions was, then so be it.
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.”
