The last man the professor turned his attention to was the smallest, youngest lion, the one who had nodded to Ryland by the food tables.“And what do you have to say, Kefir?”
Kefir looked to Arslan first, but he soon dropped his attention to Ryland.Their eyes met.The younger lion smiled slightly before he looked away again.
“It’s going well,” he said very softly.His voice had more of a purr than a roar to it.Ryland’s hand itched with the desire to reach out and stroke him just as he would a kitten.
Looking back up at the professor, Ryland was just in time to see Arslan nod his approval to Kefir.Whatever was going well, it was obviously something that everyone present knew about, something that had no doubt been discussed on other nights when the pride met, perhaps while other human men sat at Arslan’s feet.
Swallowing down a sudden rush of uncertainty, Ryland stared at the empty plate resting on his lap.
Arslan’s fingers tugged gently at his hair, prompting him to look up.Ryland offered him a small smile, but Arslan didn’t look convinced by it.He seemed to sense something was wrong, but luck was on Ryland’s side, for once, and Arslan didn’t appear inclined to press the issue in front of the other members of his pride.
Ryland turned his attention back to the other lions.They sat just as close to each other as he sat to Arslan.Bare limbs crisscrossing each other as they sprawled together.Blaine and Luther were obviously lovers—the way they touched, the way they looked at each other, they couldn’t be anything else.But Ryland didn’t get that sense from any of the other lions.They just seemed very friendly and comfortable with each other with no understanding of personal space.
Like a sleep-heap of puppies, or perhaps like a litter of new-born kittens.They were big cats, after all… Ryland’s lips twitched as he imagined their reaction to the comparison.Blaine and Luther would probably be particularly furious with the label.They certainly hadn’t liked Arslan calling them to heel.They were all swagger and bravado or, at least, they seemed to be that way, whenever they weren’t casually stroking each other or gently butting their heads against each other’s bodies in demands for affection.
As Ryland watched, Blaine rubbed the top of his head against Luther’s shoulder.Luther responded by licking the other lion’s temple and squirming his way down the sofa to steal a kiss.
Ryland looked up at Arslan.The professor was studying him very carefully.His eyes flickered across to Blaine and Luther for a moment, as if he was tracing Ryland’s line of sight to see what he’d been staring at.Colour rushed to Ryland’s cheeks at the realisation he’d been pretty much spying on the other lions making out.
The fact that they’d watched him do far more than that didn’t matter.Bad manners were still bad manners.When Arslan looked back to him, Ryland tried to think of the right words to frame an apology, but there was no time.Arslan had already turned his attention back to the other lions.Ryland’s input obviously wasn’t required right then.
Closing his eyes, Ryland did his best to just relax and concentrate on Arslan’s fingers as they trailed through his hair over and over again.If he had a choice between panicking and feeling quietly content, there seemed to be little point clinging to his worries.He’d made his choice.He belonged to the lions until morning.
He belonged to Arslan until morning.That was an even better statement.Arslan would make sure everything was fine.Even if it turned out he was going to get screwed by the other lions, Ryland had complete confidence that, as long as Arslan was there, everything really would be fine.
Taking a deep breath, Ryland let it out very slowly and moved even closer to Arslan’s side, wanting to keep as much contact with him as possible.The sex, the food, the heat from the fire, the comfort of somehow accepting the fact that he didn’t have any decisions left to make all wrapped around him, snug and secure.
For the first time since he was eighteen years old and standing in the middle of his parents’ living room, confessing to the one sin he knew his family would never forgive him for, he felt perfectly at peace, perfectly at ease inside his own skin.
Sleep snuck into the corners of his mind, and he found himself too lethargic to push away the instinct again.He’d just take the chance to rest until something more was required from him, that was all.
“What type of human do you think he is?”
The words picked at the edges of Ryland’s mind, but he couldn’t quite shake off the sleepiness enough to focus in on them properly until he felt Arslan tense.This wasn’t casual small talk anymore, and Ryland quickly focused in on the conversation.
“Type?”Arslan echoed.
“Every shifter knows there are three types of humans who want to be thrown to the lions,” Blaine continued.“Adrenaline junkies looking for a quick thrill.Nymphos who don’t care who screws them.And whores who’ll do anything for a price.”
The snarl started low in the back of Arslan’s throat and reverberated through his entire body.The atmosphere in the room altered the moment the sound hit the air.Ryland sensed a change in the other lions, too.Every one of them froze in place as they waited for the professor’s reaction.
“Ryland is nothing like any of the other humans who have been thrown to us.”
The possession in Arslan’s voice, combined with the certainty that he was right in his assessment of him, was more than enough to take Ryland’s breath away.But, when those ideas reached the centre of his brain and collided with the fact Arslan wasn’t actually right to stand up for him that way, the idea of ever taking another breath became impossible.
He might not have come there looking for a thrill or the chance to screw as many men as possible, but Ryland knew he’d never have set foot through the door if he hadn’t been in desperate need of the money.
Even if he hadn’t thought about the cash since he’d set eyes on Arslan, it still existed, and it was suddenly obvious that the existence of that payment was going to have to be explained to the professor at some point.
Arslan rose, snatching away all the comfort Ryland had found sitting at his feet without even the slightest warning.He stepped past Ryland without a word and stood proud and tall in the centre of the room.Not sure what else to do, Ryland remained kneeling on the floor by the base of the sofa.
Doctorates, money, the rest of the world—as Ryland stared up at the professor, it all felt so irrelevant.Suddenly, there were only two important things in the world—working out how to tell Arslan that he’d been wrong believe that Ryland wouldn’t agree to screw in exchange for cash, and finding a way to convince Arslan to forgive him for it.Those two things were it.Nothing else mattered.
Inch by inch, Ryland dragged his gaze up the professor’s body.Arslan’s eyes flickered from one lion to the next.He seemed to wait for each lion to lower his gaze in response, before he moved on to the next shifter.When he looked towards Ryland, he followed their lead and lowered his eyes, too.
“Stand up, Ryland.”
He quickly stumbled to his feet, and, all at once, he wasn’t a naked man sitting in a room full of likewise naked men.He wasn’t just another student who didn’t step out of line when Professor Arslan glared at him.He was back to being the human who’d agreed to be thrown to the lions in exchange for money.He was back to being someone who Arslan didn’t know had been paid to be there.
