“Yes.”
Lions were stronger than humans.If Marrick had learnt one thing about them over the last few weeks, it was that.The knowledge still didn’t stop him being as shocked as hell when Blaine picked him up and tossed him up in the air as if he was as light as a toddler, just for the sheer pleasure of catching him as he fell back into his arms.
“Ceilings.Light fittings,” Arslan reminded them in a long-suffering tone of voice, just as Luther took Marrick directly from Blaine’s arms without ever letting his feet touch the hearthrug.
Luther might have been listening to the leader of their pride.It might have merely been coincidence that meant he decided to spin Marrick around rather than throw him up toward the ceiling, as well.
Luther brought their lips together as they stilled.“Promise,” he demanded into the kiss.
“Promise.”
When Blaine guided him around for another kiss, he whispered the same word against his lips.It might not have been as formal or as fancily phrased as their offer to him, but he couldn’t deny that he meant it just as much.
“I just got…married, didn’t I?”
Ryland nodded as he smiled across at them from his place at Arslan’s side.“Pretty much.”
Marrick took a deep breath and let it out again.“Okay.”Another deep breath failed to help him wrap his mind around the fact, but he couldn’t ignore the way he felt more at peace than he’d ever believed possible.It was as if something inside him had registered that he wasn’t going to be separated from Luther and Blaine again, and that made everything okay.
“What happens now?”he asked, eventually.
“Now, you go home,” Arslan said.
Marrick hesitated.
“Pets live with their masters, in their masters’ homes.There’s no need for the three of you to stay here in the guest room any longer,” Arslan added.He didn’t exactly sound heartbroken about him and Ryland having the house to themselves again.
Marrick couldn’t help but laugh.“I guess I should get my things,” he said, his mind spinning in a dozen different directions, possibly not least because Luther still hadn’t got around to putting him entirely back down onto solid ground.
When Marrick made his way back down the stairs, backpack in hand, a few minutes later, the sacrifice and all the other lions who’d visited the house that day were gone.There weren’t any extended goodbyes.Everything happened so seamlessly.By the time they’d driven across town, complete with Marrick’s bike bundled into the boot of Luther and Blaine’s car, Marrick still didn’t really know which way was up.
When Blaine stopped the car outside a block of flats, Marrick swallowed.
“You have no regrets?”Luther asked.
Marrick shook his head.“I don’t do regrets.”
“Or fear,” Blaine reminded him.
“The idea is to feel the fear and do it anyway.That’s what makes you feel alive,” Marrick corrected, automatically.He opened the car door and stepped out onto the pavement.Looking up at the building, he definitely felt very, very alive.
By the time they’d reached the lions’ flat, butterflies were bungee jumping in his stomach.
“We’ll make sure you don’t have a chance to feel anything other than completely alive,” Blaine said, sliding his arms around Marrick.He was already hard; the way he pressed himself against Marrick’s back made it very difficult to ignore that fact.
Marrick was pretty sure that one of them should be sensible and practical.Seeing the look in Luther’s eyes, he was equally sure he was the only one who thought so.“Shouldn’t we unpack?”Except he only actually had a backpack’s worth of stuff with him.“Or, um…”
Luther put his hand over Marrick’s lips, not just a fingertip, his whole hand covered Marrick’s mouth, completely silencing him.“We want to mark you properly.”He let Marrick think about that in silence for a few seconds before he took his hand away.
“Properly?”Marrick asked, looking from one lion to the other and back.
“Not just little scratches,” Luther clarified.“Real ones.”
“Where?”Marrick asked, as if that would make any difference to his answer.
Blaine’s fingertips ran down his back.“It will hurt.”
Marrick nodded his understanding.
