He was sure he should feel vaguely embarrassed, but the part of him that had always loved these games simply smiled to itself, thoroughly sated and more than a little pleased that he had pleased his masters.
Chapter Five
“Are you two going to go and fetch him, or are you going to leave him standing on the doorstep all night?”
Luther reluctantly moved his lips away from Marrick’s neck and lifted his head.
Arslan stared across the room at them, not looking the least happy with what he could see.Luther felt the same guilty shiver run down his spine as he always did when that particular expression passed across their leader’s face.The fact that he was pretty sure he hadn’t done anything wrong didn’t change that.Arslan could still make him feel like a foolish little cub with nothing more than a look.
Finally, Arslan’s order sank in.Doorstep.Fetch.Luther pulled away from Marrick.On the other side of Marrick, he felt Blaine grudgingly do the same.They always went out and retrieved the offering from the humans.They’d done that ever since they’d first joined Arslan’s pride.But doing that had never involved leaving Marrick alone before.
Their pet looked up at each of them in turn.“What’s going on?”
“The sacrifice has arrived,” Blaine explained.“Stay there.”
Turning his back on their pet, Luther walked out into the night at Blaine’s side.
The man on the doorstep was bound in the same way humans always were upon delivery.Each taking hold of one of the man’s arms, they led him briskly into the den’s meeting room.He was much like the other men who had been thrown to them over the years.He was well built for a human, his skin and hair much darker than most.He smelt nervous, and his muscles were tense under Luther’s hand, but it was hard for Luther to make himself notice all the details that he’d have usually feasted his eyes on.
The only thing he could think clearly about was how Marrick had been left alone with the other members of the pride.He was perfectly safe there.Some part of Luther understood that, but it still couldn’t make him like it.As soon as they stepped back into the room with the sacrifice in tow, his eyes went straight to Marrick.
Their pet didn’t meet his gaze.His attention was all on the new sacrifice.His eyes ran over the naked newcomer from top to toe, but it was impossible to read his expression.
The moment the sacrifice’s feet hit the hearth rug, Luther dropped his hold on him and retraced his steps to their pet.
As Luther sat to one side of Marrick and quickly made himself comfortable, Blaine mirrored his actions on the other side of Marrick.
“He’s here the same as I was?”Marrick asked.
It didn’t sound like a real question, but Luther nodded anyway.He curled in closer to his pet’s side, rubbing his forehead against Marrick’s shoulder in greeting after their brief absence.But Marrick didn’t return the gesture, his eyes never strayed from the man standing in front of the fire.
“Who decided you two would be the ones who screwed me?”Marrick asked, from nowhere.
“We did,” Blaine said, running his hand idly over Marrick’s stomach.
“And whose turn is it this week?”
Luther frowned as Marrick shrugged his shoulder, making it impossible for him to continue nuzzling him.“Whoever wants him,” he said, trying not to make it sound as if that should have been obvious—even to a human.
“Should I be insulted?”
Luther tilted his head to one side as he tried to make sense of the question.
“That you two were the only lions who wanted to screw me,” Marrick specified.
Luther felt the atmosphere around the sofa change.
“You think we’d let any other lion lay a hand on you?”Blaine asked, ice dripping off every word.
“You said anyone who wants a piece of the sacrifice can have him,” Marrick pointed out in a tone Luther was pretty sure wasn’t nearly as mild as it sounded.
“He’s not you.”The ice melted under Blaine’s snarl.
None of the other lions had approached the current sacrifice yet.Everyone seemed to be waiting for another lion to make the first move.
“You can if you want to,” Marrick said, still staring at the man on the rug.
Luther frowned, wondering what he meant.
