Luther shook his head, all his attention on the sacrifice’s reactions as he trailed his fingernails over his skin.Blaine didn’t say anything either, and Arslan didn’t try to draw them out the way he sometimes did.They were left in peace to explore the sacrifice’s body as their leader’s attention moved on to the other lions in the pride.
“Are you going to take the cuffs off at any point?”their human asked, sometime later.
Luther tilted his head to one side as he thought about the possibility.The man’s hands were still bound behind his back.He couldn’t reach out to touch them the way they touched him.
“No.We don’t do that,” Blaine said from behind the sacrifice’s shoulder.
Luther met Blaine’s eyes.That was true.Lions didn’t free a sacrifice’s hands or his eyes.Except for when Ryland was thrown to Arslan, of course, but that was different—Ryland was Arslan’s mate now, and…
“It’s late now.The car’s outside waiting for him.”
Luther turned and looked up at Arslan.The other members of the pride were still lingering, but they were obviously ready to leave and were only waiting for the sacrifice to be properly handed back to the humans before they returned to their own homes.Luther was in the best position to untangle himself from the knot they’d formed on the sofa.He stepped forward to face their leader.
Lacking any inclination to free the sacrifice, the solution seemed obvious to him.“We can—”
“He leaves with the driver,” Arslan cut in.
Luther squared his stance to face Arslan head on.“You—”
Arslan just raised an eyebrow.“If you’d known him before he arrived here, perhaps that would change things, but you didn’t, did you?”
Luther had never been more tempted to lie to the leader of the pride.If he’d actually thought there was the least chance Arslan would believe him, he’d have tried it.But Arslan had proved to be impossible to fool so often in the past, Luther knew it would only waste time.He couldn’t even protest that Arslan hadn’t already known Ryland long before Ryland had been thrown to them, when he so obviously had.
Luther turned away from his leader and strode back to the sofa.“The car’s here.”
Blaine hesitated before he let the sacrifice go, but as his eyes met Luther’s over his shoulder, he seemed to accept that they had little option.He let Luther help the sacrifice to his feet.The walk to the car that delivered and collected the sacrifices from their doorstep had never felt shorter.It had never been harder to make sure his grip on the human they were escorting stayed gentle either.
Luther’s instinct to hold on to a human and damn the consequences hadn’t been that strong since that first disastrous time that they’d tried to accept a human’s sacrifice.Even after the years that had passed since then, Luther could still taste the blood in his mouth when he thought about it.
He pushed the memory away as hard as he could, but it was impossible to hide from the fact that putting this particular human in the back of a stranger’s car felt as if it was just as much a betrayal of his trust as hurting that first man had been.
From the way Blaine slammed the car door, it was clear he felt the same way.As Luther walked back to the doorstep, he felt the tension pouring off Blaine, sensed the pain that seeing this human leave gave him.
Even when the car was far out of sight, they both remained in the driveway, staring at the empty road as if that would somehow mean their human was less gone than he really was.
Luther was the one who finally moved.Sliding his arms around Blaine’s waist, he pulled him back to lean comfortably against him.
“You didn’t want to let him go either?”Blaine asked.It was only half a question.
Luther had no doubt Blaine already knew the answer, but it still had to be said.“No, I didn’t want him to go.”
Blaine’s body moved against Luther’s as he took a deep breath and let it out very slowly, almost like a sigh.
Luther lapped gently at Blaine’s neck, unable to hold back his smile.“Do you remember when Arslan wanted to discuss how humans should be treated when they agreed to be thrown to us, when he went to visit the man who arranges the sacrifices?”
Blaine shrugged.
“Do you know where to find that man?”
Blaine turned around within the circle of Luther’s arms.“You know!”His eyes sparkled with renewed pleasure as he realised it.
Luther smiled.That knowledge hadn’t made it as easy to let go of the sacrifice as it should have, but it would certainly make him much easier to track down again.
Chapter Two
“You’re sure he came in here?”
“Yes.”Blaine rose onto his toes, trying to look over the crowd of men and spot one head of short black hair among the masses.
