Setting the plate aside, their food barely touched, Kefir rested his head on Ellery’s shoulder again and watched his own fingers trace patterns over Ellery’s skin.There were a series of darker little marks on his collarbone, like freckles.Kefir explored them thoroughly.
There was no point in regretting that there was no way Ellery would wish to be his pet, let alone his mate.The only sensible thing to do was relish the time they would have together that night.
There was a pale scar on Ellery’s stomach, low down on the righthand side.
“You were hurt?”he whispered, quiet horror running through him at the thought, even though the scar was obviously old and had healed years before.
“Appendix.”
He said the word as if it explained everything.Kefir had already parted his lips to ask for more information when another voice cut through the world.
“Kefir, do you have anything to say?”
Looking up, Kefir met Arslan’s eyes across the room.
Arslan was studying him very carefully, and Kefir had no doubt that Arslan was well aware that he hadn’t been paying the least bit of attention while the other lions were telling the pride about their week.
Kefir took a deep breath and tried to pull details of his own life to the forefront of his mind.His work on recording the genealogy of all the lions in both the local and the not-so-local prides was going well.He’d made progress on some of the lines that he’d been struggling to untangle for months.None of that seemed to be significant enough to mention right then.
He shook his head, but Arslan didn’t immediately move on to speak to anyone else.Kefir dropped his gaze and waited, his pulse quickening as he became aware that the pride’s leader might not be entirely pleased with him.
Finally, Arslan’s attention moved away.Kefir remembered how to breathe.
“Are you scared of him?”
Kefir stared up at Ellery’s blindfolded face as he tried to make sense of the strange question.“Afraid of Arslan?”
“If that’s the leader of your pride, then yes—are you scared of Arslan?”
Kefir tilted his head to one side and considered the matter very carefully, trying to work out what Ellery might be trying to get at and failing.“Why would I be afraid of him?”he asked, eventually.
Ellery said nothing.He seemed to be listening to the conversation on the other side of the room now.
“The man Arslan’s talking to now is human?”he asked after a while.
Kefir nodded, rubbing his cheek against Ellery’s shoulder with the movement.“Yes.Ryland’s Arslan’s mate.”
“His submissive?”
“Lions call the humans that belong to them their pets.Would a sub be the same thing?”
“The sub is the person who does as he’s told, the dom is the one who does the telling.”
Kefir glanced up at him through his lashes.“You wouldn’t wish to be a lion’s sub or his pet,” he said.It wasn’t even a question.He might have only known him for half an evening, but he would have already been sure of his answer, even if he hadn’t heard Marrick call Ellery a dom.
Ellery tensed.“No, I wouldn’t want to be anyone’s pet.”
Kefir dropped his head back to rest on Ellery’s chest.His heartbeat was strong and steady beneath his cheek.Closing his eyes, Kefir let that become the only sound in his world.He had no idea how much time passed before he felt someone approach their sofa.
“It’s time the sacrifice was on his way, Kefir.”
When Kefir looked up, Arslan’s expression was very serious.There was no point arguing when he looked that way, Kefir knew that.
“The car will be waiting for you outside,” he whispered to Ellery.Forcing himself to pull away from his side, Kefir rose to his feet and guided Ellery, still bound and blindfolded, toward the door.
Until they stepped outside, some part of Kefir clung to a vague hope that the car simply wouldn’t have turned up, that he’d somehow be able to keep Ellery with him a little longer, even if that time would have been spent standing idle in the driveway.
But the car was there, black and shining in the second-hand light from the house.Kefir led Ellery toward it, moving even more slowly across the gravel than he needed to in order for a human to keep up.
