‘Stop, Leo!’ Dominic yelled, but his words were barely registered. Leo was in control of their body and was snarling angrily at Fang, crouched to spring. Red-hot rage was all Leo could feel and Dominic sensed that his companion hadn’t even heard his exclamation, so blind to anything else was he.

  Even as Dominic shouted a second time, Leo sprang forwards aiming straight for Fang’s throat.

  The younger lion managed to dodge out of the way – just. But Leo was far faster and Dominic knew that the young male would be dead in a very short time if he didn’t intervene. Seeing as Leo was beyond listening, Dominic tried to forcibly switch places with the lion.

  For a moment which seemed to stretch out practically into eternity, and yet was a fraction of a second at the same time, Dominic pressed against Leo. The lion resisted him, snarling mentally at the distraction which caused him to miss Fang a second time. The young male practically stumbled over his own paws, Leo’s sharp fangs clicking together a hair’s breadth away from his throat.

  Dominic redoubled his efforts. The original notification said that I’m in control, and that hasn’t changed, he said to himself with grim determination.

  Their balloons held…and then with a jerk unlike any Dominic had previously experienced, they switched places. He had to blink a couple of times as his senses swam. Then the taste of hot metallic blood in his mouth reminded him of the situation they were in. Leo had managed to press his attack and bite into Fang’s throat; if Dominic hadn’t succeeded in switching in the nick of time, Fang would now be choking and wheezing on his own life-fluid.

  Quickly opening his jaws, he released the young lion, leaping hurriedly back as Fang snapped at him. Around him, a chorus of growls faded into his awareness. Taking a quick look around, he noticed that the other Pride members had surrounded the two of them. Almost all of them appeared uncomfortable, but unsure of what to do. Lionel was crouched with his teeth bared and seemed to be a moment away from jumping at Dominic – perhaps he would have if he hadn’t released Fang.

  As the young lion in question pushed himself to his feet, his gaze anxious and angry in equal proportion, his lips and hackles raised, Dominic saw Lionel move to his side. Golden dust sparkled into the air and settled on the injuries Leo had caused. Clearly Dominic hadn’t come at the complete beginning of the fight as Fang had several deep gouges clearly made by claws and was obviously limping. Dominic himself felt the sting of a few scratches, but they were rapidly healing with his health regeneration.

  The only other Pride member who wasn’t standing in the circle around them was Sekhmet. She was growling furiously, crouched low to the ground, her teeth bared threateningly. Her eyes were fixed balefully on Fang.

  The moment hung in the air, a stillness which seemed to only need a small spark to explode in violence once more. In an effort to prevent that, Dominic forcibly relaxed a little, broadcasting his lack of intention to attack.

  ‘Right,’ he started in the Pride chat, making his voice as calm and firm as possible. He didn’t doubt that despite his efforts, everyone around would be able to feel his anger and disappointment that he couldn’t go away for even an hour without hell breaking loose. ‘What the hell happened here?’

  At his voice, Sekhmet immediately calmed, pushing herself up to pad over to Dominic and to rub herself against him, confusing him as she acted as if nothing had happened. At the same time, both Leo and Fang started speaking.

  ‘That male tried to mate with the female!’

  ‘You just attacked me for no reason!’

  Clearly both situations weren’t possible simultaneously. Well, only from an objective perspective, anyway.

  ‘Sekhmet?’ Dominic asked, not looking away from the still highly defensive Fang.

  ‘Fang smelled that I am in heat,’ Sekhmet answered, clearly making more of an effort than usual to be clear with her speech. ‘He thought I would be receptive. I was not. Leo did not like Fang attempting to mate with me and attacked.’

  Wonderful. Dominic abruptly regretted all his life’s choices. This was exactly the situation he had been desperately hoping could be avoided. Perhaps he had been overly optimistic to think that he could postpone it forever.

  ‘Right,’ he said again, at a loss. But he couldn’t be at a loss: he needed to deal with this right here and now. They were all paying the price both for Leo’s refusal to see the males as anything but rivals – and a young lion’s stupidity in doing the exact thing he knew he wasn’t allowed to do.

  If he let things play out as they were currently positioned, either Fang would attack him or Leo would attack Fang the next time he was in control – Dominic didn’t need to ask the lion to know that that was true. He could feel how much Leo was seething in the background, both at the ‘temerity’ of Fang to attempt to mate with Sekhmet and at Dominic for stopping what he felt was his rightful defence of someone he saw as his. Dominic had even felt Leo trying to press forward a few times to take over as Dominic had done. Fortunately, it hadn’t yet worked.

  ‘There are several issues here,’ Dominic announced, unconsciously starting to pace. Everyone watched him in silence. ‘You’ve been warned, Fang. Several times. While you’re in this Pride, the females are off limits! You can’t say that this attack was unprovoked when you knowingly did exactly what you know you shouldn’t have. And worse, you tried to force the mating on a lioness who wasn’t even receptive to you!’

  Though Leo had been in full agreement with the first part of his words, the last part was met with dumbfounded surprise from both Fang and Leo. Dominic felt a quiet pride that he was able to shock them both out of their respective furies. It hadn’t been his intention, but it was probably a good thing nevertheless.

  ‘How is that a problem?’ Fang asked in confusion as soon as he was able to verbalise his thoughts.

  ‘I hate to agree with the male but…he has a point. Females are not necessarily receptive, but if they are in heat, they owe us mating,’ Leo answered begrudgingly, not making an effort to send it in the Pride chat.

  Dominic shook his head violently, his mane ruffling around his ear.

  ‘No,’ he said to Leo privately, and then again in the Pride chat. ‘No. There is an end to the attitude that mating is owed to anyone,’ he told them all firmly, poking Leo mentally so the lion knew that his words were also for him. ‘Upon reaching Tier two, you have all shown the mental capacity to be able to verbalise your thoughts. That means you are also capable of doing more than just what your instincts say. Maybe prior to the System arriving life was about nothing more than finding food, sleeping, and then mating with any lioness you could find who was in heat. And maybe,’ he said more to Sekhmet and Jenkins, ‘your heat meant that you would automatically accept any male lion who came along. But that doesn’t have to be the case anymore.’

  ‘We’re not humans!’ Leo snarled at Dominic, this time intentionally projecting his words in the Pride chat so that they could all hear it.

  ‘No, you’re not,’ Dominic agreed. ‘But that doesn’t mean I’m going to allow a culture of rape to fester within my Pride.’

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  There was silence, but it felt more confused than anything else.

  ‘What is ‘rape’?’ Lionel asked carefully.

  Dominic paused for a moment. Of course they wouldn’t understand. Well, Leo did to an extent, though from the disapproval coming from his direction, he didn’t agree.

  ‘Rape is when one, two, or more parties come together to…mate, when one or more of the participants doesn’t agree with it. So in this case, Sekhmet said she didn’t want Fang to mate with her. Since you are both capable of making choices not entirely based on instinct, this means that it could be considered an attempt at rape even beyond any other considerations.’

  The following silence again felt more confused than anything else, though Sekhmet seemed rather satisfied, coming to rub once more against Dominic.

  ‘Females can…say no?’ Fang asked tentatively, as if this was a completely new concept to him. Which it probably was.

  ‘Yes,’ Dominic answered.

  ‘Then…how am I to mate?’

  Leo scoffed.

  ‘You’re not,’ he answered in the Pride chat before Dominic could stop him. ‘You are a weak male in my Pride who is only here because I cannot convince my brother to get rid of you. A shame that he realised what was happening before I could kill you,’ he answered mercilessly.

  Fang reacted by crouching once more and snarling at the larger male. Lionel, too, clearly took offence at Leo’s words.

  ‘Shut up, Leo,’ Dominic snapped at his leonine companion, choosing to say it in the Pride chat too – Leo had decided to stir the pot there, so he deserved to get slapped down in public too. ‘And that’s another issue. You have consistently failed to see the ways that these two have helped the Pride and been derisive about all other males in general. I’m putting my foot down. All members of the Pride are to treat each other as their behaviour deserves, not according to their species, or their sex. If a member of the Pride contributes equally to the Pride, they are to be considered as equals. I’m not putting up with your snide comments anymore, Leo. And unprovoked attacks are also out of the question. Unless it’s in defence of a Pride member who clearly needs it. Understand?’

  ‘Or what?’ the lion snarled back at him even as the others chimed in their understanding. Since this time he had chosen to ask it privately, Dominic responded in kind.

  ‘Or I will work out a way to pull our mane out and make ourselves completely repulsive for any of the females.’

  ‘You wouldn’t!’ Leo exclaimed.

  ‘You’re the one who likes mating,’ Dominic pointed out. ‘Sure I would. Especially if it makes us stronger or better in some way. What about growing spikes all over ourselves so that we can’t mate with a female, but would be protected from attacks from underneath? Or finding a way to get acid all over our fur as another defensive move? Or–

  ‘Stop!’ Leo exclaimed. ‘Fine, you win,’ he grumbled. ‘I’ll be less…accurate about the other males.’

  ‘You mean more accurate,’ Dominic warned. ‘Passive aggressiveness counts too.’

  ‘As long as there’s no mating from any other male in my Pride!’ Leo warned. ‘If I have to recognise that the males have some value, you have to recognise that they are also a threat.’

  ‘I know that that’s important to you,’ Dominic accepted, taking a more conciliatory tone now that Leo had unbent a little. ‘And I know that it’s something we need to deal with sooner rather than later.’

  Still emanating discontent, Leo withdrew a little, perhaps settling more into their mental space. Relieved of his constant pressure, Dominic returned his attention to the general conversation.

  His Pride members seemed to have realised that he was having an internal discussion as they were all waiting for him to finish – mostly patiently. Lionel and Fang looked a little happier at his defence of them, thankfully. Dominic just regretted not doing it sooner.

  ‘Right. Leo has promised to be more tolerant in the absence of clear provocation. In answer to ‘how you mate’, in theory, you find a way to become attractive to the lionesses. Sekhmet, can you give him some help here?’ Dominic answered. On the one hand, he wanted to settle the situation a little after Leo’s attempt to upset the applecart. On the other, he didn’t feel in any way equipped to offer a lion dating advice.

  ‘Be strong, good at fighting and hunting, have a dark mane, be bigger and more powerful than the other males around, and protect your pride,’ Sekhmet answered with a rumble that was almost a purr. As if demonstrating, she rubbed herself all over Dominic’s body, pressing her head against his shoulder, against his mane, pressing under his chin and almost forcing Dominic to rub all the way along her spine. As the root of her tail pressed against his jaw, Dominic got a noseful of the musky scent which he now knew meant she had gone fully into heat.

  It did funny things to him. His physical body reacted, shifting slightly as his lips drew back, instinctively breathing in the oddly tantalising scent. At the same time, he felt a tension grow between his back legs. It was similar, yet not the same as when he’d watched a shapely woman in a short skirt and heels bend over when he’d been human. It made him suddenly wonder whether his words to Leo about not being interested in mating had actually been truthful.

  However, mentally, as soon as he recognised what he was feeling, he backpedalled, his conscious mind shying away from the idea of ‘lion sex’. But at the same time…this was Sekhmet. And it…kind of… felt different from the last time lionesses had gone into heat around him.

  He pushed those thoughts to the side. Something to consider later.

  ‘There you go,’ Dominic told Fang, trying to sound more calm and collected than he actually felt. ‘That’s how to make a lioness want to mate with you.’

  The young lion eyed him in dismay and more than a little annoyance.

  ‘But how can I be more powerful than the other males around? I have grown significantly in power, but the female did not want me because you are here.’

  ‘That’s a good point,’ Dominic admitted, ‘and brings us onto the second issue. You shouldn’t be surprised when I say that Leo has never wanted to have you around.’

  ‘He has made that abundantly clear,’ Fang agreed grimly.

  ‘You think differently, it seems,’ Lionel pointed out as if asking Dominic to confirm or deny the statement.

  ‘I do,’ Dominic admitted. ‘Both of you have consistently demonstrated your value to the Pride, besides the time you started quibbling over loot,’ he said pointedly at Fang who looked away. ‘Lionel’s special Abilities have been particularly important in recent fights and I’ve valued having you there,’ he said directly to the young lion in question. ‘You might have been able to tell Leo and I don’t agree on that topic,’ he remarked wryly.

  ‘It did surprise us to hear how opposed you are,’ Procyon commented tentatively. ‘I, for one, had always thought that you agreed on everything.’

  Dominic huffed in amusement. ‘Hardly. We constantly argue with each other. Which isn’t always a bad thing, to be fair. But, frankly, the topic of other males is one we’ve revisited again and again. Leo has some lines that he refuses to cross, and I’m not going to jeopardise the future for two members of the Pride, no matter how useful they are. So Fang, you have a decision to make. Lionel, you too.’

  Dominic breathed in deeply. ‘If you want to stay in this Pride, I would welcome you both, but you will need to agree never to try to mate with any of the lionesses currently present in it. If you agree to that, I will be able to convince Leo that you are not threats to him or his interests.’ The young male looked mutinous. Dominic didn’t really blame him, but he also realised that there was only so far he could push his leonine companion, especially if he wanted to maintain their working relationship.

  ‘And if we do not agree?’ Lionel asked briskly.

  ‘Then you leave and find your own pride,’ Dominic answered with a tone of finality.

  here!