I owe you a debt.
“You owe me nothing,” Zai finally ground out.
“And I owe you nothing. We just happen to breathe the same air in the same place at the same time. After this temporary truce, as you say, we will go our separate ways.”
The liger seemed to consider this, his ears perked forward.
You are an outlaw.
Where will you go? Will the new Queen hunt you for past crimes?
“Not your concern,” Zai muttered.
More silence.
And thinking so loud Zai could almost hear it.
You could…
The liger started the string of thought before trailing off. Then, he started again.
We could…
When he trailed off again, Zai didn’t prompt him to continue. But just when he thought the male wouldn’t finish, Sin communicated:
We could hunt together.
We make a good team.
Zai couldn’t help a disbelieving huff at that.
“I am not a Beast,” he pointed out the bald fact.
“You do not know me. We are not friends.”
The liger silently digested this along with his food.
But you are…
Sin went silent once more, cutting off the thought.
Still, Zai thought he heard, not in his head but in his heart—
Mine.
~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~* ~ *~ * ~
After supper and quiet digestion, they went into the woods separately to answer the call of nature.
Sin went after Zai on purpose. He traced the Hunter’s steps and sprayed his own mark over the scents that the other male had left behind. Owning the territory the way he wanted to own the man.
When he returned, still in his liger form, he padded to Zai who was lying upon a grassy bank beside the pool. He lay down right next to the Hunter so that his furred back was flush with the other male’s smooth one.
He wasn’t smooth all over, Sin was pleased to note. He admired the Hunter’s dark hair, thick on his head and full beard, but merely a light smattering over his chest, arrowing down his torso to fan out a bit more over his hard abdomen, thickening again around his big cock, then dusting his long, muscular legs.
Hairy Dark Ones were rare, and based on what Sin knew about that Kind, it was considered unattractive amongst their own. Imperfection of any kind was frowned upon.
But this was not so amongst animal spirits.