“Arslan stopped by to speak to me.I thought he’d come back.”
“Does he often do that—stop by to talk to you in the middle of the day?”
Kefir frowned slightly, not sure he understood why Ellery’s tone sounded so strange.“Sir?”
“What were you talking about?”Ellery asked—except it sounded more like a demand than a simple enquiry.
“You.”
Ellery’s lips twitched as if he was holding back a smile, the way he so often did at the den.“I can’t fault your honesty, can I?”Hooking his fingers under Kefir’s collar, Ellery tugged him forward for a kiss.
The atmosphere around them changed as Ellery explored Kefir’s mouth with his tongue, easily making Kefir’s brain melt and his cock rise.
“Did you have a good day, sir?”Kefir managed to ask, as he was released.
Ellery nodded.Sitting in the desk chair, he pulled Kefir back to rest on his lap.Reaching out to the mess of paperwork on the table, Ellery picked up one of the top sheets.
“This is the work you were telling me about before?The lineages?”
Kefir nodded, squirming to arranging himself more comfortably, at least until the arm Ellery had wrapped around his waist tightened its hold on him, in a silent command to stop fidgeting.
Ellery picked up another piece of paper.“What’s so special about Cameron?”he asked.
Kefir looked at the circled name and the line of question marks that followed it.“No one knows what happened to him, sir.”
“Oh?”
Kefir frowned.“He left his parents pride years ago, but no one knows which pride he joined.I’ve been making enquiries but…”
“Maybe he didn’t join any of them,” Ellery suggested as he ran his gaze over the page.He looked up when Kefir shook his head vehemently enough to make the chair wobble beneath them.
“Lions have to belong to prides, sir.It… A lion without a pride would be…” Kefir shook his head again, a flash of pain shooting through him at the very idea.
Ellery was silent for some time.“I don’t suppose this Cameron you’re looking for was a dancer?”
Kefir tilted his head on the side.
“Rumour has it one of the dancers who works in the local clubs is a lion-shifter.His stage name is Caramel,” he went on.
“A dancer?”Kefir echoed.
“Mostly,” Ellery murmured, his attention already back on the page he was reading.
“Sir?”
Ellery’s expression turned more serious as he set the page down and gave Kefir his complete attention.“I’ve heard that he works for street money, too.”
Kefir blinked at him.
“Men pay him to have sex with them,” Ellery explained.
“Like with the sacrifices?”Kefir hazarded.
“Probably not,” Ellery said, gently.His tone of voice said far more than his words, and Kefir remembered Ellery’s concerns about how the pride treated the sacrifices.
Kefir frowned, helpless to stop himself imagining the other lion’s life and all the situations where those kinds of concerns would have been justified.To be without a pride, without anyone watching over him…
Ellery stroked his knuckles down Kefir’s cheek, pulling him back to reality.“Do you want me to ask around, see if I can find him for you?”
