Franklin swallowed rapidly.
“Finish the punishment,” Cameron said again, loud enough for the others to hear.
A movement on the other side of the room warned Cameron that Ellery was about to fulfil his request.
The whip came down again and again.Cameron’s stomach turned over, his head spun, his back burned.Still, he never once stopped whispering to Franklin, trying to reassure his pet that everything was fine, that his master wouldn’t let anyone hurt him now.
Cameron told him over and over that the punishment felt different to a lion, that the whip didn’t really sting at all when it hit a shifter’s flesh.But, as the pain from one particularly harsh lash rolled through his body, he couldn’t quite drag enough air into his lungs to lie anymore.All he could do was wait for the next blow.
A minute passed, but the whip didn’t fall again.
Cameron blinked open his eyes.Turning his head, he looked toward the other members of the pride.
Ellery held his gaze as he pointedly set the whip aside.The punishment was over.Cameron pulled a shaky breath into his body.The punishment was over.The same fact rolled around and around inside his head until it stopped being about anything so simple as a punishment.
It was over.The worst was over.Everything that had happened since he’d left his parents’ pride was over…
Cameron closed his eyes again.Turning his face into Franklin’s hair, he hid there for a moment, simply relishing the knowledge.
“Cameron…?”
“It’s okay,” he whispered.“Everything’s going to be fine.”He’d make sure everything was fine.He was the master.That was his job.
Cameron nuzzled gently against Franklin’s neck once more before slowly turning his attention to the buckles holding the cuffs around Franklin’s wrists.
Moving made the injured skin on Cameron’s back stretch in a different direction.Pain rushed through him, making him clumsy.Somehow, he still got the buckles undone.Without the leather to support him, Franklin began to collapse forward.
Unable to pull his pet back safely against his body without hurting him, all Cameron could do was guide him down onto the dustsheet-shrouded mattress.He quickly followed him onto the bed, not at all sure how to make him more comfortable but as determined as hell to try.
As Franklin lay face down against the coarse fabric, Cameron dipped his head and lapped as gently as he could at one of the harsh red whip marks.His pet murmured.He arched his back slightly, as if he was attempting to offer himself up to his master’s tongue more eagerly.
He didn’t need to do that.Cameron brought his hand to rest on the unmarked skin over the small of Franklin’s back, encouraging him to simply rest and let his master look after him—let hismatelook after him.
It had been so long since he thought himself capable of being the kind of lion who had a mate.He stared down at Franklin, but he couldn’t bring the words to his lips.
“Is there something you want to ask him, Cameron?”Arslan asked from the side of the bed.
Franklin half lifted his head before lowering it back to the mattress once more.Cameron turned to the leader of the pride and held his gaze for several long seconds.
“I…” Cameron looked back down at Franklin.
“Do you remember what the right words are?”
Cameron nodded.He’d thought about them often enough, when his body was being used and his mind found itself free to wander into all the darkest corners of his brain, to those places that it was always the most painful for him to investigate.
“Cameron?”Franklin turned, rolling half onto his side as he tried to face his master, despite the pain each movement brought.
Suddenly, his eyes opened very wide.He reached out and touched Cameron’s arm, where blood was drying around the claw marks he’d left in his own skin.
Carefully taking Franklin’s hand in his, Cameron guided him to lower it back to the sheet.Except, somehow, he didn’t let it go once Franklin’s hand was back where he wanted it.His own hand stayed wrapped around Franklin’s fingers as he sat next to him on the bed and stared down at him.
There was no way he could fail to ask the question.
“If you come to us willingly and of your own free will, with no thought for your own gain and only wishing to add to the pride, then you are welcome.”
Franklin looked up at him, his expression gaining more focus by the moment as he seemed to realise what was being said to him was important.
He went to speak, but Cameron put one fingertip of his free hand against Franklin’s lips and silenced him before he could either protest or agree.
