Marrick’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed.
“Humans give their time to the pride,” Marrick expanded.“It’s a way of letting lions get to know more about humans and um…human culture and stuff, isn’t it?”The last few words were said in a very specific tone of voice.
“Yes.Time.”Luther nodded.“That’s right.”
“Well, isn’t that nice?”Marrick’s mother said, her smile once more bright.“Would you like a piece of cake?”
Lowering themselves back into their seats, they each obediently took a slice of cake and promptly found themselves with one more thing to try to balance.
“You said you live in a pride?”Mrs Powell asked.
“Yes,” Blaine said.
Luther merely nodded, not sure what else could be added to the answer.
“That must be…nice.”
“Arslan is a good leader,” Luther offered, keen to show the pride to its best advantage.
“And he’d be your…father?”
Luther shook his head.“Most lions leave their parents’ pride when they come of age.”He glanced across at Marrick.It seemed to be as good a time as any to raise the topic.A glance at Blaine confirmed that he agreed.“At Marrick’s age, most lions would have already left their parents’ pride and joined a new pride.”
“To join Arslan’s pride, for instance?”Mrs Powell asked, glancing toward her son.
“Would anyone like another piece of cake?”Marrick cut in, rushing the words out so quickly, they blurred together.
His mother hushed him in an absent-minded way.
“Yes,” Blaine said, with a confused look in Marrick’s direction.“To join Arslan’s pride, our pride.”
“Do humans do that?”Mr Powell asked.
“There’s already a human in our pride.”Luther said, not quite able to hide how pleased they both were to be able to report that, sure that it would reassure Marrick’s current pride a great deal.“He’s Arslan’s mate.”
“And is he the only human you know?”
Luther frowned slightly.
“You talk about him as if he is,” she added, not entirely unkindly.
“He’s the only human in the pride.”Luther was silent for a few seconds as he thought about that.“I don’t think Marrick and Ryland are very alike,” he forced himself to admit.
“Marrick’s always been inclined to do things his own way,” Mrs Powell said, smiling across the room at her son.
Marrick didn’t smile back.He was watching him and Blaine the same way Luther thought a man might watch an unexploded bomb.
“The longer he stays with us the better we’ll understand him,” Luther offered, not so much to her but to Marrick himself.
When Arslan had come back to the den after driving him home, he hadn’t been willing to discuss what Marrick might have said to him, but that piece of advice had been delivered very seriously.Talk.Listen.It was a master’s responsibility to find out what his pet needed from his mate and to make sure he received it.
“So, it was you boys he was staying with this last while?”Marrick’s father asked.
Luther titled his head to one side.“He didn’t tell you that?”
Marrick met his eyes.“No, I didn’t.”
“You shouldn’t disappear without telling your pride where you are,” Blaine chided.“You’ll worry them.”
