But he would love him more.
And in the end, he would take Zai’s mouth with his tongue and lips as deeply and as thoroughly as he fucked Zai’s ass. He would pour his heart and soul into the male with every breath, until Zai felt what he felt, and he could no longer deny that he was Sin’s.
Mine. Mine. Mine!
He could do that, what he’d always done. What his instincts shouted at him to do, regardless of the boy’s presence.
Hell, he had been ready to mount the Hunter in front of the Beast King and all of Goya’s subjects a while back. He had no modesty, no inhibitions.
The only thing that stopped him was Zai’s pride.
And it was his understanding of the male’s pride that led Sin to consider the other choice.
He could go against his grain and be patient.
Let the male make his own decisions. And simply stay close to him as a constant reminder. And to protect what was Sin’s. That was nonnegotiable. Where the Hunter went, he would follow.
From here on out, he would follow Zai to the ends of the earth.
He stared at the stubborn warrior for a few heartbeats longer before making his choice.
“Stay, Ben,” he said quietly, suppressing his Beast instincts in favor of human sense.
“Let’s make as much progress as we can before dark.”
With that, he shifted into liger and bounded off ahead of them to scout the path they were following and to ensure that it was safe.
He could feel the Hunter’s confusion and the weight of the male’s eyes on his departing form.
Zai hadn’t expected that he would relent on the confrontation. He’d been braced for a fight.
Good. Sin wanted to keep the Dark One on his toes.
There was more than one way to corner and capture your prey. Especially if you wanted to keep it forever.
Later that night, after their usual fare of roasted meat (raw, in Sin’s case) and taking care of bodily needs, the three of them settled in a well-camouflaged copse of trees around the fluttering embers of a low fire.
Sin lay down, still in liger form, across the fire from Ben. The boy was sound asleep and snoring before his head touched ground. Zai sat next to him, poking at the ashes with a stick.
The Hunter had ignored Sin’s presence for the whole day. He didn’t say much to the human, and he certainly didn’t communicate to Sin through their link.
For his part, Sin stayed out of his way, always scouting ahead or lagging behind to cover their tracks. He didn’t try to engage the Hunter’s mind. He kept his thoughts to himself as well.
After a while, Sin slipped into a light doze. Only his whiskers twitched with awareness to alert him of any changes in the air.
He was half asleep, half awake, when he felt Zai approach and settle next to him, though their bodies didn’t touch.
In a dreamlike state, he thought he heard the Dark One murmur through their Bond,You should have stayed with the Tiger King.
You have the best chance of survival with your own clan. A lone liger by himself is ripe pickings for Hunters, for any Dark One who sees you for what you are even if you hide in human form.
So stupid.
This thought was growled in the Hunter’s mind in sheer frustration.
I go through all the trouble of breaking you free, giving you a second chance to reclaim what you lost, and you throw it all away!
He was silent in his thoughts for a while, probably fuming helplessly.