“I…” He bit back the rest of the words as he realised how weak his voice sounded.
Soothing noises immediately surround him, a full orchestra of purrs and murmurs ranging from the deep bass that vibrated through Arslan’s chest through to a sweet top note that could only have come from Kefir.
“I thought they’d come after me,” Cameron whispered.
It had just been an argument, some stupid little argument.He hadn’t wished to follow his leader’s demands, hadn’t wished to bow and scrape the same way all the other lions seemed to.
The freedom to do whatever he wished with no one to answer to—it had seemed so beautiful, something to be sought out and cherished, until his pride finally tracked him down and dragged him back to their den.Except… “They didn’t.”
Cameron turned his face more firmly into Arslan’s chest, and there was no way for him to hide the pain and the shame that coursed through him then.
“It was alltheirfault,” Cameron whispered, anger creeping back into his voice, despite his exhaustion.
“Your pride didn’t realise—”
“Not them,” Cameron snarled.“The men who… If I hadn’t… How could I go back to my pride after I…?I thought it would be no big deal.That it would be like the sacrifices, but it wasn’t… It…”
The rest of the lions pressed still closer around him, cocooning him in the middle of them as they sensed his pain and instinctively tried to soothe it with their presence.
“A pride doesn’t abandon one of its number,” Arslan said firmly.“No lion will be cast out of this pride, not for any reason.”
Cameron struggled to take a deep breath.“I want Franklin.”He had no idea he intended to say the words aloud until he heard his whisper hit the air.
“As your mate?”Arslan asked, as he rubbed his palm in soothing circles over Cameron’s back, the same way someone would a sniffling baby.
Cameron nodded, his cheek rubbing against Arslan’s chest.
“Then, your new pride will teach you how to look after him properly,” Arslan promised.“And everything will be fine.”
Cameron nodded again, more in the hope that what Arslan said was true than because he actually believed it.
He wanted Franklin.He needed Franklin—maybe even as much as he needed his pride.
“I won’t take his money.”Even Cameron wasn’t sure if the words were intended to be a warning or a protest.
“No,” Arslan agreed.“You won’t.”
Cameron nipped at his bottom lip.His instincts remembered what it was like to be part of a pride, especially when they physically surrounded him the way they did right then.Those same instincts remembered what it was like to feel pride rather than shame, too.It was only his mind that wasn’t so sure it would ever be possible to go back to that time.
Chapter Seven
Franklin’s pacing brought him to the wall in the living room.Spinning around, he retraced his steps for what felt like the hundredth time that evening.“What going on in there?”
“They’re being lions,” Ellery said from his post just to the right of the door.
Franklin glared at him as he made his way back across the room.There was no way he’d be able to get past him if he tried to physically force his way out of the room, and Ellery wasn’t an easy man to bargain with or manipulate.
As he leaned back against the wall, Ellery folded his arms across his chest.He didn’t look like he loved the idea of leaving Kefir alone with his feline compatriots either, but he also had the look of a man who was going to do the right thing, however much he hated it.And the look of a man who thought the right thing for him to do was keep the other humans in that room until the lions had finished doing whatever the hell it was they were doing in the meeting room.
Not for the first time that evening, a roar filled the air.
Practicalities forgotten about, Franklin stormed toward the door.Fear raced down his spine faster with each step and nothing mattered but getting to Cameron.
“He’ll be fine; he’s just letting off steam,” Ryland said, as he stepped between Franklin and the door and, perhaps not entirely by coincidence, between Franklin and Ellery at the same time.
“If Arslan—”
“That wasn’t Arslan’s roar.”Ryland cut in.“I know what my master sounds like—and I know the roar of every other lion in this pride, too.Cameron is the one doing all the shouting in there.”
