Ryland's Sacrifice

by Kim Dare

  Sleep snuck into the corners of his mind. Ryland found himself too lethargic to push the instinct away again. He took the chance to rest until something more was required from him.

  “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. Some of his peace deserted him. He focused in on the conversation.

  “Type?” the professor echoed.

  “Every shifter knows there are three types of humans who want to be thrown to the lions.” Ryland placed the speaker as Blaine. “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 echoed through his entire body. The atmosphere in the room changed. Ryland sensed a change in the other lions too. Every one of them froze in place as they waited for the professor’s reaction.

  “He’s 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. When it reached the center of his brain and collided with the fact Arslan was actually wrong to stand up for him that way right then, the idea of ever taking another breath was suddenly impossible.

  He might not have come there looking for a thrill or the chance to screw as many men as possible, but he wouldn’t have set foot through the door if he hadn’t lost his scholarship and found his every other option destroyed.

  Even if he hadn’t thought about that payment since he set eyes on Arslan, it still existed, and it was suddenly obvious that its existence would still have to be explained to the professor at some point.

  Arslan rose from his chair, 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 center of the room. Not sure what else to do, Ryland remained on the floor by the base of the chair.

  Degrees, money, the rest of the world—as Ryland stared up at the professor, it all became irrelevant. Suddenly, only two things were important—working out how to tell Arslan he’d been wrong to stand up for him and believe he wouldn’t whore himself out for the right price, and finding a way to convince the professor to forgive him for it. Nothing else mattered.

  Inch by inch, Ryland dragged his gaze up the professor’s body. The older man’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 to Ryland, he 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 the professor glared at him. He was back to being the human who’d agreed to be thrown to the lions in exchange for his tuition fees.

  He wasn’t sure his knees would hold him when he finally pulled himself up to his full height. By some miracle, they did.

  “Come here.”

  Ryland took a step forward.

  Arslan stared down at his new pet.

  Ryland’s nerves had apparently come back full force. The shifter wasn’t entirely surprised that being called to stand before the pride should make him wary. Even if he did have very fine instincts, it wouldn’t be fair to the younger man to forget that this was his first time among lions.

  As Arslan watched, his pet swallowed rapidly, fighting to keep control of his emotions. If he’d caught Blaine’s words, that couldn’t have helped him realize he was safe with his new master. It couldn’t have helped him believe that being taken under a lion’s protection was anything more than an insult either.

  Reaching out, Arslan stroked his fingers through the smaller man’s hair, encouraging Ryland to lift his gaze and look him in the eye.

  A noise floated across from Blaine and Luther’s part of the sofa as one of the two idiots fidgeted. Ryland’s gaze didn’t falter. Whatever interest he’d displayed in the other lions during the meal appeared to have drained away now that he had something more important to focus upon.

  Arslan nodded his approval. He was tempted to believe his lover already had the sense to recognize the other lions’ nonsense for what it was. Even so, he wasn’t willing to let even the slightest doubt about his opinion of human men, nor his intentions towards Ryland in particular, linger in anyone’s minds.

  He’d been very patient for a very long time while Ryland sat quietly in the back of his lecture hall, but the idea that they could go back to that now was laughable.

  “Focus now, pet, this is important.” He took great care to keep the words tender and between them, in spite of the other lions listening in.

  Ryland nodded.

  “You will answer every question I ask you, completely and honestly.”

  Ryland’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he made another attempt to swallow down his nerves. He nodded again. “Yes, sir.”

  He wasn’t sure what any of it meant, Arslan could see it in his eyes. The answer was little more than a leap of faith in his direction. If it proved anything at all, it was merely that he trusted his new master enough to believe he wouldn’t ask him an unfair question.

  Arslan nodded his approval, content to let the details wait for a more private moment, when he could explain the pride and Ryland’s rightful place in it to him properly, without any interruptions from the others. For now, a public answer given to a simple offer was all that was actually required. He stroked his fingers through the other man’s hair one last time.

  “If you come to us willingly and of your own free will, with no thought for your own gain and only wishing to add to the pride, then you are welcome.”

  The words slipped off his tongue as if they had been practiced for hours. They were familiar, in that he had known the form the questions should take for as long as he could remember. At the same time, he couldn’t help but be intensely aware that this was both the first and the last time he’d say them—the first and last time he’d need to say them.

  “If you wish to belong to the pride, to take your rightful place in the pride, you are welcome.”

  Ryland stared up at him with far too many emotions swirling in his eyes for Arslan to have any idea what he was actually thinking.

  “If you come to us without lies or secrets, you are welcome.”

  Arslan could feel the gaze of the younger lions intensify against his skin as they finally seemed to realize that he was inviting the younger man to join the pride, not just as a temporary pet, but his permanent mate. Taking a deep breath, he pushed forward through the last part of the offering.

  “If you are who we believe you to be, say that you wish to take your rightful place in the pride, and you will be welcomed.”

  Ryland’s lips moved. They began to form a yes. Arslan had no doubt about that. Then, he stopped short. His lips closed. His gaze lost both its focus and its certainty. He looked down.

  Silence.

  “Ryland?” Arslan prompted.

  The younger man’s rib cage rose and fell as he took a deep breath and let it out very slowly. He closed his eyes. A movement at Ryland’s side drew Arslan’s attention. The younger man’s right hand had formed into a fist.

  Any indication that Ryland was more capable of trusting his instincts than all the other humans Arslan had ever known, was long gone—if it had even existed to begin with.

  The shifter held his breath, but no words came. The only answer he received was a rapid little shake of the head.

  “Ryland?”

  The younger man finally looked up and met his gaze, pain filling his deep blue eyes. “I’m sorry, sir.”

  It took the hearing of a lion to make out the words.

  Arslan stared down at him
, desperately trying to work out what had gone wrong. No one could have accepted the touch of a lion more easily or more naturally. No human could have shown better instincts or such a strong desire to follow them. No man had ever felt so right against his skin.

  A frown gathered on Arslan’s brow as he realized that was all Ryland intended to say. He dropped his hand away from Ryland’s hair and took a step back from him. His head swirled with just as much confusion as he saw in Ryland’s eyes.

  If he hadn’t been right about anything else that night, he’d been right when he said Ryland was different to all the other humans who’d been thrown to them over the years. No other human could have ever inspired him to make such an impossibly rash offer.

  Anger at his own stupidity flared inside Arslan. He was old enough to know that there was no such thing as a human who was that good at following his instincts. Forgetting that when he was with the only human who would ever actually matter to him, was inexcusable.

  “Sir, I—”

  “No explanation is necessary,” Arslan cut in. A moment’s foolishness didn’t mean he needed the details of his error explained to him as if he was a cub who didn’t know better.

  The other lions were still watching them. Even if he’d made a spectacular fool of himself, he was still the leader of the pride. He was still responsible for what happened to any human who was thrown to them. The most important thing, the only thing now, was to get Ryland out of there while he still had retained enough of his human side to remember that was the only acceptable thing to do with him.

  “The car will be waiting for you outside.” His voice came out calm and level, as if the world hadn’t suddenly fallen down around him.

  Ryland stayed exactly where he was.

  It didn’t seem like refusal to obey as much as a temporary inability to do anything it all. Seeing no other option, Arslan led the way, walking out of the room ahead of him.

  It worked. Ryland snapped back into reality. He followed the professor into the hallway. Then he stopped in the middle of the room, his arms wrapped around his torso in some effort to keep himself warm in the cooler space. Arslan paused by the front door and turned back to him.

  “Sir, if I could just—”

  Arslan silenced him with a shake of his head.

  Ryland took a step forward—towards the door, towards him, Arslan wasn’t sure which.

  “I believe the humans have some arrangement where they return you to wherever you left your clothes.” Arslan had never really thought about it before. That was between the humans. His responsibility for the men who came to them ended when they were returned to the vehicle. He forced himself to pretend the same standard still applied to Ryland.

  The younger man looked past him to the car. He didn’t look enthusiastic about leaving the house with whoever was driving it.

  If he didn’t want to be in the car with the man, he wasn’t going to be in the car with him. Arslan didn’t need to think about it—all the decisions he needed to make were made long before the thinking part of his brain had even processed the facts of the matter.

  The traditions surrounding being thrown to the lions were all well and good for other men, but Arslan would be damned before he saw Ryland thrown back into the hands of a human who made him even the least bit uncomfortable.

  Striding out into the darkness, he watched the driver’s look of boredom turned to one of horror as Arslan pulled open the driver side door and glared down at him.

  “Your presence is no longer required.”

  “Kershaw said I was to stay here and take the kid home when you were finished with him.”

  “And I’m telling you to leave. Kershaw isn’t here. I am. Who do you wish to obey?” He made no attempt to keep the snarl out of his voice.

  The man backed away so far, he was half way into the passenger seat. “Right. No problem. Leaving right now.”

  Arslan stood in the driveway until the car navigated the corner at the end of the road. When he turned back to the house, Ryland was waiting in the doorway. Arslan caught hold of his wrist as he stepped past him into the hallway. Ryland made no objection to being led to the seat next to the coat rack. “Sit there. Don’t move.”

  Resisting the temptation to take the stairs three at a time, he left Ryland alone in the hall and made his way to his bedroom on the floor above. Alone for a moment, he closed his eyes.

  He’d watched Ryland so patiently, for so long. Somehow, he’d allowed himself to start believing that meant he knew the boy. But he didn’t—not on a human level—not in any way that might allow him to predict how Ryland would react to the instincts that being with a lion had raised inside him.

  Arslan’s nails morphed into claws as he gripped the edge of the old-fashioned dresser. The lion inside him didn’t care if it was realistic to expect the younger man to trust his instincts the way a lion would, to agree to join the pride after bare a few hours in their presence.

  Ryland was his mate. Arslan didn’t just know him—he owned a part of him that no man would ever catch sight of. The pull toward Ryland was so strong, so undeniable, it was almost impossible for him to feel patient toward the younger man’s…toward his what exactly? Arslan had no idea. His sudden loss of confidence in his burgeoning instincts?

  Arslan’s inner lion roared, demanding to be freed and allowed to call his mate back to him properly, snarling against the pain of doing the ‘right thing’ for his human lover when all he wanted was to be close to his mate.

  His claws bit into the wood, not pretty little scratches like those he’d left on Ryland’s back, deep gouges appeared in edge of the dresser, marks that would never be polished away, no matter how much wood filler and varnish were applied.

  Arslan snatched his hands away from the marred wood. Those sorts of scars would never heal from human skin either.

  Gathering up his clothes, Arslan pulled them on, trying not to tear the fabric, trying to remember that he should care about being in control enough of his lion side to keep the garments whole as he pulled them over his skin. By some miracle, they remained intact.

  Forcing his inner human to the fore, Arslan turned toward the bedroom door. He’d already spent too long feeling sorry for himself. He didn’t have any more time to waste. The only important thing was to take his pet home, safely out of the way of his new master’s impatience.

  Back in the hall, he found Ryland sitting exactly where he’d left him. He’d pulled his feet up onto the seat of the chair and wrapped his arms around his legs in some effort to keep warm. Arslan frowned at his own lack of foresight. Grabbing his coat off the rack, he tossed it to the younger man.

  “I thought…” Ryland looked from the coat to Arslan’s clothes, then to the room where the rest of the pride was waiting.

  If he thought his temporary refusal of his new master’s offer meant Arslan was willing to stand around and watch the other lions take their turns with him, as if he was no more important than the other men who had been thrown to them over the years, he had even less understanding of the situation than Arslan could have ever guessed.

  “I’m taking you home. It makes no difference to me if you prefer to undertake the journey nude.” It was a barefaced lie, but Arslan wasn’t about to admit that the sight of Ryland’s naked skin had any effect on him right then. The other lions weren’t his only form of pride.

  Ryland hurriedly pulled the coat on. “Thank you, sir. I—”

  “Come on.” Arslan strode out of the house. Ryland scurried after him, but the gravel in the drive way seemed to slow him down. By the time Arslan reached his car, Ryland was several yards behind him. The older man waited by the side of the car until his new pet reached the passenger side door.

  It had been so many years since he’d taken anything other than a feline lover, he’d forgotten how fragile humans were. For several long moments, he stared at the gravel to the side of the car and watched the scene they had played out in front of the fire repeated itself on the rough surface
.

  He’d been careful with him, kept his strength to himself. He hadn’t hurt him. Arslan let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.

  “Sir?”

  Arslan pulled his mind back to the present and got into the car. Ryland hesitated for a second before he got into the passenger seat. He didn’t try to speak again, except to give directions to a shared student house situated close to the center of the university.

  Thrown to the lions…

  Arslan shook his head at himself. He’d had more sense than to play silly games like that for what felt like a lifetime. It had been more than long enough to forget that humans usually saw it differently. He couldn’t help but wonder what it was supposed to have been for Ryland, why the younger man had agreed to take part in the tradition in the first place.

  It certainly hadn’t been because he knew his master would be there waiting for him. His shock when the blindfold had been removed was proof enough of that. Arslan’s grip on the steering wheel tightened as he moved on to far less palatable options.

  Ryland had never struck him as an adrenaline junkie, so that was unlikely to be what brought him to the pride. He wasn’t as formal as the human who had been trained to a human version of submission tended to be—so he hadn’t come to them seeking a lion for a human-style master. He certainly wasn’t the kind of human who would take a lover for money, Arslan dismissed that idea the moment it entered his head.

  Curiosity? He’d certainly been fascinated with watching the younger lions playing together. Arslan held back a sigh. Better than any of the other reasons, he supposed. He glanced at the other man from the corner of his eye, wondering if he regretted indulging his curiosity now.

  He’d enjoyed himself at the time, Arslan harbored no doubts about that. But it was never that simple with a human. If nothing else, Arslan remembered that clearly enough from his experiments with them when he was younger. It was never simple with humans.

  When Arslan stopped outside the house Ryland indicated, the younger man didn’t make any move to get out of the car. The professor leaned over and pushed the door open himself. The moment his hand left the door handle, he forced himself to straighten up and retreat to his own side of the car.