And, now, he’d seriously consider selling his soul for another full night’s sleep just like that.
In the confusion of all the other lions leaving and everything being cleared up, Marrick found himself standing alone in the hallway.The thought of going back up to their bedroom rushed to his cock as quickly as ever, but hot on its heels came uncertainty.It was one thing to know he could keep up with the lions’ kinks, quite another to try to keep up with their apparent fetish for insomnia.
Grabbing a long coat from the rack, he walked out the front door and calmly sat down in the middle of the lawn that stretched out to one side of the gravel driveway.The night air was chilly.It snapped a little bit of wakefulness into him, clearing his head and letting him think coherently for what felt like the first time in years.
Gravel crunched behind him, just once.Either that footfall belonged to someone who had been able to levitate over the rest of the gravel between the door and the edge of the lawn, or it belonged to someone who’d been able to walk that far perfectly silently, but who now wanted him to know he was there.
Marrick looked over his shoulder.
Kefir stood on the edge of the grass.It was the first time Marrick had seen him fully dressed.
“I thought you’d left,” Marrick said.
“I’ve been speaking with Arslan.”He hesitated for the briefest moment before sitting down next to Marrick, quickly pulling his knees up in front of him and wrapping his arms around his legs like a little kitten curling into a ball.
“You should go in,” Marrick told him.“You’ll get cold without a coat.”
“Humans get cold quicker than lions.”
Marrick couldn’t argue with him on that score.He’d hardly been away from Luther and Blaine for a few minutes, but he could already feel the chill seeping into his bones.They might be as annoying as hell at times, but it was hard to deny that lions made bloody fantastic hot water bottles.
Pissed off with himself for feeling uncomfortable just because he wasn’t being kept perfectly snug and warm every second, Marrick glared at Kefir.“If you’re going to tell me to go inside, forget it.I don’t need looking after like that.”
Kefir tilted his head to one side.“I didn’t tell you to go inside,” he pointed out, mild as ever.
Marrick sighed and ran his hand down his face.“Sorry.I’m just…” No, he couldn’t say he was just tired.He couldn’t risk Kefir running back to Luther and Blaine and telling them he couldn’t keep up with the pace.
Tipping his head back, Marrick looked up at the sky again.
Kefir sat silently next to him.He didn’t seem the least offended that Marrick was ignoring him.Which only actually made it all the more difficult to keep on doing that.
“The project—mapping out the lions’ family trees and stuff.Sounds good,” he offered.
Kefir nodded.
Marrick took a deep breath and let it out very slowly as he lay back on the cold ground so he could continue to stare up at the sky without getting a crick in his neck.Kefir’s simple silence seemed to suck words out of him to fill the void.“Do you and your mate find the whole lion-human bullshit really annoying, too?”
“My mate?”He seemed a little unfamiliar with the concept.
“The guy who was just thrown to you—I thought all the unmated lions took a turn with him.You didn’t.”
“It’s not compulsory,” Kefir said, softly.
Marrick glanced sideways at him, not sure what to say.
“Arslan says it’s nothing to worry about.One day, I’ll…take an interest in one of the humans who are thrown to us, and then, I’ll want to play the game.”
“And Arslan’s always right about everything?”Marrick asked, unable to keep a little of the resentment out of his voice as he pushed back his sleeve and stroked his fingers over the scratches Luther and Blaine had left on his arm.
Marrick had seen the look in Arslan’s eyes when he’d spotted the marks, and he’d sensed the change in Luther and Blaine, felt the change in the way they touched him.Marrick wrapped his fingers tightly around his wrist, gripping just hard enough to hurt a little, just to remind himself that he wouldn’t break if someone wanted to hold him that way.He wasn’t some fragile little kid anymore.
“Luther and Blaine both care for you a great deal,” Kefir said after a little while.
Marrick nodded.He had doubts about a hell of a lot of things, but that wasn’t one of them.
Suddenly, Kefir stood up and brushed off his jeans.“I should go home.”
Marrick sat up.A sound on the gravel made him look over his shoulder.Blaine and Luther weren’t as quiet as Kefir had been as they walked across it.
