He quickly backed away from him, as mortified by that as he had ever been by the way a punter ogled him.He almost stumbled over the edge of the hearth rug in his haste.
Luther stepped forward as if ready to catch him when he fell.Cameron snarled and jerked away from him, too.And, suddenly, they were all around him, all staring at him, suffocating him with their presence.
If they’d been lions who were ready to attack, it would have been easier.If they’d been humans with wallets and hard-ons, he’d have known how to deal with them, too.Cameron tried to back away once more, only to find the fire behind him.
In that moment, his body realised his human form had no chance of coping with what was going on around it.It did the only thing it could.
Cameron’s claws forced their way out.A lion wouldn’t have to think of an answer.A lion didn’t have to do anything but roar.
The shift burst through him so suddenly he felt as if it might rip him apart from the inside, tearing him into weak little pieces that would never have any chance of coping on their own and would always need the safety and protection of a pride wrapped around them.
Every muscle, every joint Cameron possessed, was wrenched in a different direction.Panic coursed through him, and he lashed out, fighting against everything in the universe, including his own shift.
The pain only grew worse as he fell to the floor, his body unable to support itself as it became caught between shapes, between worlds.A roar echoed around the room as the lion side of Cameron finally won out over the human part of him.His claws scrabbled at the rug as he lurched himself up onto four large paws.Large teeth snapped at the empty air around him as a full lion’s mane replaced his long blond hair.
A shifter that was still in his human form rushed up to him.Cameron didn’t even look at who it was.His paw swiped across the man’s body.The scent of blood filled the air as his claws left deep gouges in their wake.
The figure gasped, tumbling backward from the force of the blow.And, suddenly, there were men all around Cameron, lions on all sides of him.The world was full of movement and pain and confusion, and he was trapped in the middle of it all.
Cameron tried to push them away, to tear at them with his claws and with his teeth.Nothing he did made any difference.There were too many of them—too many hands, too many bodies pressing him down toward the floor, holding him still as he roared and railed against them.
Cameron arched and twisted, but neither his teeth nor his claws were able to find any target within their reach now.
Words started to flow around him, but Cameron couldn’t make them out, couldn’t concentrate on them through the pain.He roared again, but when the harsh, agonised sound faded from the air, the words were still there, still caressing and sliding over him no matter what he did, seeping into his mind, whether he wanted them in there or not.
With the last scrap of energy he could summon up, Cameron tried to buck and free himself from the hundreds of limbs that seemed determined to hold him down.
His struggles were all in vain.Together, a pride would always be stronger than one lion would ever be—there’d been a time when he knew that without ever needing to think about it.
Cameron collapsed back against the rug, exhausted, defeated.The men pinning him down him failed to disappear the way he assumed they would once they’d realised they’d won.Bodies still surrounded him as he lay there in his feline form.Half of them were covered in the dense fur of a lion, the rest were just bare human skin, but all of them were hot the way only a shifter could be.
Hands and paws moved across Cameron’s fur again and again, but there was no lust in their touch.The men’s bodies moved against him the same way his little brothers had when they were all nothing more than cubs, bringing back more memories than he’d even known he possessed.
The only things he felt from the men around him now were care and concern, and acceptance—so much acceptance.
Cameron struggled to draw air into his lungs, barely able to breathe while the other lions were wrapped so tightly around him, filling his world and reminding him of a time when he had a pride, when everything was right with the world, and he’d felt safe.
His form faltered as his mind once more struggled to find a way to cope.If a lion’s brain couldn’t understand what was happening, perhaps a human’s psyche could.
The shifters around him curled in closer as Cameron morphed back into his human shape between them.A human shaped hand brushed against his arm, a lion’s fur covered shoulder rubbed against his leg, fingers stroked through his hair.
So many memories, so many things he’d tried not to think about, that he’d tried not to feel lost and empty without, rushed through Cameron.
A time where there had been both a pride around him, and he’d had nothing in his past to be ashamed of…
There was no going back to that now, Cameron knew that.A lion who was nothing more than a whore couldn’t hope to be anything but an outcast to his pride, toanypride.
Cameron closed his eyes as tightly as he could and turned his head to the side in the hope none of the lions would see his weakness.
“I don’t know all the reasons why you left your last pride, cub.But you’ve got a new pride now, and everything will be fine.”
The sound of Arslan’s voice let him know that he had somehow turned his face into the older man’s chest as he tried to find a place to hide his emotions.
A strong arm wrapped around him, holding him there, welcoming him just as easily as all the others that cocooned him.
If the leader of the pride felt silent tears fall against his skin, he didn’t mention them.
The whole pride merely curled a little closer around Cameron in response.
