Ryland's Sacrifice

by Kim Dare

  “Your housemate mentioned that you’re not on easy terms with your family.”

  “Bit of an understatement, sir,” Ryland muttered.

  “Lions have never considered which gender a man is attracted to important. It’s not…” he trailed off as he felt Ryland tense.

  “That’s what everyone thinks,” the younger man whispered after a while. “That they chucked me out when they found out I was gay.”

  Arslan stroked his palm up and down his lover’s spine and waited.

  “They threw me out when they found out I was applying for math rather than medicine.”

  Arslan tried to follow. He failed.

  Ryland glanced up at him. “In 1518, a small group of doctors petitioned Henry VIII to set up the Royal College of Physicians. One of the group was Harold Gilford. Since then, every single sodding Gilford knew what he was going to be when he grew up—the daughters too, for the last hundred years or so.”

  “And when they found out you weren’t intending to…” Arslan realized.

  Ryland gave a bitter little laugh. “I’d guessed they’d be furious. I never thought they’d actually cut me out of their lives.” For a few seconds, he was silent. “They said I’d come crawling back once I was broke and had to drop out. But I won’t—whatever it takes, I won’t do that.”

  Arslan put his arm around the younger man and guided him to rest against him.

  Ryland took a deep breath. His shoulders trembled as he made an obvious effort not to let it out as a sigh. “I should have known how it would be. That’s the way it works, isn’t it? You have to fit in. I get that now. You don’t step out of line. You do what’s expected of you, and you don’t ask anyone to make allowances. I won’t make the same mistake again, sir.”

  Arslan pressed a kiss onto the top of his head.

  “I won’t lose this too,” Ryland whispered. “I won’t.”

  Wrapping him completely in his embrace, Arslan held him as tightly as he dared and tried not to let on just how irresponsible for his actions he’d be if he set eyes on any member of his pet’s family right then. The closeness seemed to help the younger man find the courage to speak.

  “You want to know what they said when I finally worked out the courage to tell them I was gay?” Ryland whispered.

  Arslan didn’t trust himself to speak. He made an encouraging little noise in the back of his throat. That seemed to be enough.

  “There’s still plenty of work to be done in the field of HIV research.” Ryland gave another of those bitter little laughs. “A gay doctor would have been fine with them. It’s just easier to let people think that…”

  Arslan pressed another kiss to the top of his head.

  “I never did learn how to fit in with them. I was always the cuckoo in the nest. This time, it’ll be different, sir.”

  Arslan closed his eyes for a moment, as he began to understand just how terrifying it had to be for Ryland to find himself thrown into the middle of another family that he didn’t quite fit into yet. Even if his disappearance still wasn’t acceptable, he could see why he’d thought fixing everything before he came back to his mate was the only way to keep himself safe.

  “You’re safe now,” he whispered to his pet.

  Ryland nodded. He seemed to make some sort of effort to pull himself together. “And you were right about my instincts, I’ll work on them, sir.”

  “We’ll do that,” Arslan agreed. He stroked the back of his knuckles down the younger man’s cheek. “What do your instincts tell you to do right now?”

  Ryland tilted his head back, offering his lips up to be kissed. It was a beautiful invitation, a plea for reassurance and acceptance as much as anything else. Arslan didn’t hesitate to bring their lips together.

  As one kiss turned into another and another, he felt Ryland relax and forget about all his worries. Very cautiously, the younger man began to return the kiss. His actions were impossibly tentative at if he expected his master to pull away at any moment, and he was determined to have his apology ready as soon as that happened. As the minutes passed, his confidence seemed to grow. He leaned into the kiss, his hands sought his master’s skin.

  As Ryland gained the courage to run his hands up his shoulders and thread his fingers into his hair, Arslan began to turn them, so he could guide his lover to lie back on the mattress. When Arslan finally broke the kiss, Ryland, stared up at him, wide eyed and with his lips slightly reddened. When his pet’s tongue flickered out to steal a taste of his master from Ryland’s lips, Arslan couldn’t help but think back to the feel of that impossibly soft tongue as it explored his shaft back in the office at the university.

  Kneeling on the mattress, Arslan leaned over the smaller man and kissed him again. At the same time, his hands found Ryland’s wrists and pinned them to the sheet, wondering if he’d like that as much as some of the other human pets had in the past.

  The action only increased Ryland’s attempts to wriggle and rub his body against him as he finally let go of his worries and gave in to his instinct to deepen the kiss. Ryland’s shaft nudged against his leg as he hardened. Yes, in some ways he was just like other pets.

  Pressed so intimately against his lover, Arslan sensed every little change in the younger man’s body as Ryland lost himself in pleasure and forgot to worry about anything at all.

  Guiding his pet to bring his hands together above his head, Arslan covered both his wrists with one of his own hands. His free hand pushed Ryland’s hair back from his face and traced down his neck.

  Desire to possess rushed through him. And even more than that, was the desire to have Ryland acknowledge who he belonged to, for his pet to know that he had found where he belonged and that he was safe and accepted there.

  “Mine,” he whispered in Ryland’s ear.

  Ryland nodded. “Yes.”

  “Forever.”

  “Yes, sir.” The word was whispered in that same slightly awestruck tone of voice, as if he still had trouble wrapping his mind around everything that meant.

  Arslan brushed their lips together once more before leaning back and putting some space between their bodies so he could look at him properly. Even after he let go of Ryland’s wrists, his pet didn’t try to move. He lay there and let his master look his fill.

  “Please?”

  The word had left Ryland’s lips before he’d even known he wanted to say it. He wasn’t even sure what he was asking for. Arslan tore his gaze away from his body and looked up to meet Ryland’s eyes.

  Possession and desire filled his expression. Now that he wasn’t afraid to make a fool of himself by looking for it, it was easy to imagine he could see a deeper, more tender emotion mixed in with them.

  Arslan didn’t strike him as the sort of man who said something unless he was sure of it. If he said he wouldn’t ask a man to join his pride unless he was in love with him, Ryland had no reason to believe that was anything less than the absolute truth.

  Leaning down, Arslan offered him his lips for another brief kiss. Before Ryland had a chance to appreciate it, his mouth was gone, tracing a line down his neck. Arslan nipped at the sensitive bit of skin just above his collarbone. From there, he trailed his lips down his body, his tongue rasping against his right nipple on the way past.

  It didn’t just make it easy to think only of that moment and not worry about what a lion would do in his place, it made it damn near impossible for Ryland to think of anything but the scrape of Arslan’s tongue and the softness of his lips against his skin.

  He gasped as he felt Arslan begin to trace a line straight down the center of his body. Forcing his eyes open, Ryland watched as Arslan reached his cock and took the tip of the shaft between his lips as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

  If the sensation of Arslan’s mouth on his body had kept him happily frozen in place, the first touch of the lion’s tongue on his erection made it impossible to stay still for a moment longer. His hands went to Arslan’s hair. He couldn’t stop him
self tangling his fingers in the long dark strands.

  He’d apologize for that later. And he’d apologize for not being able to keep his hips still too. He was quite happy to apologize for everything in the world and beg the other man’s forgiveness later. But right then, it was impossible to think clearly about manners or control or anything else, because his entire brain was devoted to processing every single sensation of Arslan’s mouth wrapped around his shaft.

  The older man sucked around the head as his tongue played with the very tip of his cock, coaxing him to moan and toss his head back against the bed. His fingers tightened in Arslan’s hair, and he tugged as gently as he could at the long strands, pulling his lover’s mouth away from him.

  Arslan let Ryland’s cock slip from between his lips as he looked up and met his eyes.

  “Come if you don’t stop,” Ryland managed to explain. And he knew he couldn’t come right then, because he wanted to come when his master was buried deep inside him. He wanted to be wrapped in Arslan the way he had been in front of the fire when the whole world had stopped existing, all except for that very perfect bit of it that contained them.

  Arslan didn’t question any of it, he just nodded as if he understood it all without needing information that could be broken down into letters and words. Ryland watched as the other man retrieved a tube of lube from his bedside drawer. He slicked his fingers but shook his head when Ryland would have rolled over onto his hands and knees.

  Ryland thought he saw what the other man wanted in his eyes, but it was impossible to be sure. Not sure what else to do, he gave his instincts full reign. Lying back again, he pulled his knees back towards his chest. For a few seconds at least, his instincts seemed to have held him in good stead. Within seconds, Arslan had two slicked fingers working inside him. Ryland bit his lip in the hopes he could keep the sounds of his enjoyment to himself.

  A look from the shifter was all it took to inform him that he was mistaken in the belief that quieter was better. The instinct to please the other man came back full force and everything else became irrelevant. Ryland released his tooth hold on his lip and let Arslan hear his whimpering responses as the professor’s fingers found his prostate. When he saw pleasure flare in the older man’s eyes, it was suddenly impossible to care if he was acting like a human or a lion or anything else. His master was pleased with him, and nothing else mattered.

  As much as he wanted to just let go and let Arslan do as he wished with him, and as much as he wanted to show that he could follow the other man’s lead and not question his decisions—it was impossible to do that forever. Eventually, he had to face the very real possibility that, if he let Arslan’s fingers continue to play inside him much longer, he wouldn’t just come too soon, he might actually lose his mind all together.

  “Need,” he managed to whisper. “Need. Now. Please, sir.”

  Arslan leaned over him and touched their lips together as he took his fingers away. A moment later, his body covered Ryland’s. The tip of the professor’s slicked cock brush against his hole.

  “Please,” was the only word left in Ryland’s head. If he had any of those instincts that Arslan wanted him to trust, every one of them was screaming at him that he needed the other man inside him. He reached out and caught hold of Arslan’s shoulders, tugging at him, trying to show him what he needed so badly.

  As he looked up and met the lion’s eyes, Arslan pushed into him, slow and steady, filling him, stretching him and taking over his whole world. His hands tightened around Arslan’s shoulders. His nails bit into the older man’s skin as if some part of Ryland really thought he could mark his lover just as Arslan’s claws had claimed ownership of him.

  All too soon, Ryland felt himself rush to the edge. He scrambled to hold onto any sort of control, but it was impossible. He bucked underneath the other man’s body as Arslan thrust into him, and came untouched, between their bodies.

  Just like in the den a lifetime ago, Arslan thrust into him, through his orgasm, until Ryland finally fell still. Blinking his eyes open, he gazed up at the other man, mesmerized by the expression on his face.

  One more thrust. Another. Arslan tossed back his head and roared his own pleasure up to the ceiling. When the sound died away, Arslan stilled, bowing his head to look down at Ryland.

  Ryland stared up at him for a few seconds before he let his eyes drop closed so he could fix every detail in his head before they slipped away. Leaning over him, Arslan brushed his lips across the closed lids as if in praise for giving in to the instinct to do that.

  The younger man smiled up at the professor as the older man moved away—just far enough to let Ryland to roll onto his side facing him. They both lay there, still and silent for a long time, just catching their breaths. Finally, the shifter leaned forward and brought their lips together. A second later, he nodded to the door that seemed to lead into a little en-suite, inviting Ryland to make use of it before they settled to sleep.

  When he came back into the room, Ryland was left entirely alone as Arslan took his turn in the bathroom. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he looked around the room. It looked like a perfectly normal room, kept by a person who liked order and neatness, but still, a perfectly normal human room. There wasn’t a trace of lion in it. His eyes fell on the door that led out into the hallway. There was a large old-fashioned lock just below the handle. There wasn’t a key in it.

  “Yes, it’s locked.”

  Looking back to the door leading into the en-suite, Ryland saw Arslan standing in the doorway. “Is it wrong that part of me likes knowing that, sir?”

  “Knowing that your master cares for you, that he wants to keep you close? It seems to be a very sensible thing for a pet to like.”

  Ryland dropped his gaze to the rug by the side of the bed.

  “That’s what a pet is,” Arslan said. “A man who likes to be looked after by his master, who likes to be kept close and safe, to know there’s someone looking after him, watching over him.”

  “It’s not…it’s not someone who…” Ryland dropped his gaze, not sure what the right words were.

  “It’s not an insult. I wouldn’t use the term with you if it were.” There was no room for argument in the professor’s tone.

  “You said you would show me what you look like when you’re a…” Ryland blurted out. It was the wrong time. Part of him knew that, but the part that might be an instinct wanted to be able to tell his master that he accepted every part of him, just as the other man had so carefully accepted his mistakes, his humanity, just as carefully as the other man accepted every part of him.

  Arslan made no reply, he merely shifted into his lion form, right there in front of him, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Ryland held his breath as a fully-grown lion padded across the bedroom carpet and stopped in front of him.

  Ryland watched as his hand reached out and his fingers ran lightly over the dark main that surround the lion’s face. Swallowing his nerves, he cautiously touched the lion’s cheek. As he stared down at him, the lion turned his head and licked his fingertips.

  Frozen in place, Ryland just continued to stare and run his fingers over the mane until he managed to scrape together some words. “Thank you, sir.”

  Under his touch, Arslan became a man once more. Ryland’s hand settled into human hair. He couldn’t help but reach out and touch the other man’s cheek again, comparing the human side of him with the lion side of him.

  “Your eyes are always the same,” he blurted out.

  Right then, Arslan’s eyes looked quite amused. He turned his head and licked Ryland’s hand, just as the lion had.

  Leaning down from his seat on the edge of the bed, Ryland brushed their lips together.

  Arslan smiled into the kiss, as if just slightly amused with his clumsy attempts to show he wasn’t the least bit freaked out about anything at all. When he pulled back, Arslan nodded at the mattress. Ryland got the hint and shuffled back along the sheet so the professor could join hi
m in the bed.

  The professor very gently, very patiently nudged him into a position that pleased him, curled up close against his master’s side. The lion’s skin was wonderfully hot in the slight chill of the room. Ryland found himself automatically snuggling into his lover’s side under the blankets.

  “I love you too, sir.”

  Arslan pulled back a fraction, to look down at him.

  “You said earlier,” Ryland reminded him.

  “Yes, I did,” Arslan agreed.

  “I just thought… It seemed wrong not to tell you that I do love you too—the lion bit as well as the professor bit. I thought you should know.”

  “It’s a good instinct,” Arslan agreed.

  Ryland nodded.

  Arslan guided him to rest his head back against his shoulder.

  “Trust your other instincts too. What do they tell you to do right now?”

  Ryland smiled slightly against the other man’s shoulder before he curled a little more snugly into his master’s embrace and let his eyes drop closed.

  His only instinct right then was simply relax and drift into sleep, secure in the knowledge that his master was right there, and for the first time he could remember, he was safe, accepted and exactly where he belonged.

  The older man pressed a final kiss onto his temple before reaching out switching off the light. It was all the praise Ryland needed in order to believe his master was right—he really did have good instincts.

  About the Author

  26 years old, from Wales, UK, Kim writes about kink, love and happy endings. If a story doesn’t have those three things, it's not going to be written—at least not by this writer!

  Apart from that, Kim likes to write a little bit of everything. So far that list includes Male/Male, Male/Female, a few different varies of ménage, shifters, vampires, fairytales, time-travel and ghosts. It’s anyone’s guess what will come next…

  A firm believer that there is no “One True Way” for people to kink, Kim likes to let the characters in each book pick their own ways to dominate and submit to each other. As long as they stay safe, sane and consensual—Kim’s happy to let them live their lifestyle 24/7, or just open the toy box on weekends—whatever’s right for them.