Ellery’s Duty
As a well established dom, Ellery has been watching subs from the local leather scene disappear into the lions’ den for years, but he’s not convinced that everything is as fine as they all claim it is.He’s determined to find out what is really going on.And, if the only way he can do that is to volunteer to be thrown to the lions himself, so be it.
Kefir’s never worked out what the other lions find so interesting about the human sacrifices who visit their den, but this new man is unlike any other human he’s ever met, and Kefir’s captivated.Can the smallest lion in the pride claim a man like Ellery as his pet—and is that even the way Kefir wants to think of his human mate?
Chapter One
“Mr Ellery!”
Marlin Ellery turned his face toward the voice, as if that might make the leather blindfold covering eyes conveniently disappear.Of course, it didn’t.Ellery remained surrounded by darkness and an unknown number of men.
Rough hands pressed against his shoulders, forcing him down onto his knees.
A thick rug softened his landing.A second pair of hands caught hold of his arm and stopped him from falling flat on his face.Neither of those facts provided a great deal of consolation.
Ellery was bound, blindfolded, naked, and now, he was on his knees in a room full of men.The realisation that all the men weren’t strangers to him didn’t particularly feel like a blessing.
Eventually, the voice who’d saidMr Ellerymatched itself with a name in the back of Ellery’s mind.“Marrick?”
“You know him?”one of the men who’d led Ellery into the room, the one standing to his left, asked, but he wasn’t talking to Ellery.
“Yeah, kind of.From the clubs.He’s a…dom?”That was Marrick’s voice again.And the fact that the boy stumbled over the word dom immediately set Ellery’s hackles up.
After so many visits to those local clubs, the boy really should have more sense by now.But, even if Marrick was far more clueless than he had any had real right to be, at least his presence confirmed that Ellery was in the right place.This was definitely the lions’ den that the local subs kept disappearing into.All Ellery had to do now was keep his cool and keep to the game plan.
“He’s a what?How do you know him?”the man to Ellery’s left demanded.His voice was louder now.He sounded jealous.If he wasn’t Marrick’s boyfriend, he definitely wanted to be.
“Um…are you two sure you got the right guy?”someone cut in from the far side of the room.
“How many men do you think land on our doorstep dressed like this by accident?”Marrick’s friend snarled.
“He’s just not very like the other sacrifices…” That was Mr Worried from the corner again.
And, suddenly, everyone was talking at once.Voices chased each other back and forth above Ellery’s head.He did his best to build some sort of mental map of the room, but there were too many people, and they moved around too damn much.It was impossible for him to even be sure how many men were present, let alone calculate which were human men and how many were werelions.
“He’s not very like most of the other sacrifices…
“Older…”
“Bigger…”
“Stronger…”
“Not very pet-like…”
“He’s beautiful…”
The last two words were softly spoken, yet they seemed to catch the attention of everyone present.Silence fell over the room, broken only when a log crackled in the fire.
In the hush, Ellery got the distinct impression that someone was creeping cautiously closer to him.
Fingers stroked very softly down his cheek, caressing Ellery’s skin more gently than he’d imagined possible.And he found himself remaining still and simply accepting the person’s touch.
“Kefir?”
All the man in front of Ellery managed in response to the query was a hesitant little “I…”, but it was enough to confirm a name at least.
Kefir hesitated; his fingers left Ellery’s face.Ellery sensed him retreat a little but thought perhaps he could still sense him lingering just a few inches away.
