Both of them feeling the need to sleep for a bit, they decided to take a nap. They hadn’t had nearly enough time to feel fully rested when they were woken up by several of the lionesses who came over to talk to them – Isis and Simbi in particular wanted to give and receive more detail about what had happened while they were away. They had also heard that at least Dominic would be leaving again soon and wanted to know more about that too.

  Then there were the lionesses who were in heat who wanted another round – and Leo was determined to fulfil their need. Dominic took a bit of a back seat for those ones, taking advantage of the time to nap in their shared space. When he surfaced after his nap, Leo was still occupied, switching between three lionesses: Amber, Kiera, and Nova. Although he wasn’t attracted to them as he was with Sekhmet, he no longer felt uncomfortable when he accidentally reconnected with his body while Leo was busy. Frankly, he was more embarrassed by Leo’s attempts to show off and demonstrate how a ‘real’ male did things. According to him, anyway, which didn’t say much either.

  Then Jenkins, who in her opinion had already waited way too long, wanted to have her round with Dominic, which was interesting for them both. For Dominic it had been a different experience with Jenkins than with Sekhmet. It was hard to say why, but…they had a different relationship. With Jenkins it had felt more awkward where with Sekhmet it had felt like just taking the next step in an inevitable process. But it had been pleasant nonetheless. Just…less pleasant than with Sekhmet.

  For Jenkins, it had also been different to be with Dominic than with Leo.

  ‘You different than other,’ she commented thoughtfully afterwards once she’d had enough time to calm down again after her rush of aggression. ‘You less…rushed.’ Which, honestly, was unexpected. Dominic had been far more rushed than any human woman would be happy with. On the other hand, he’d observed that Leo didn’t spend any time on foreplay so perhaps that’s why. Still, he enjoyed it and his partner seemed to enjoy it too, so why not do it?

  ‘Because we can get far more rounds in if we don’t spend too much time on each one,’ Leo told him as if it should be obvious.

  ‘Yeah, but we have Enhanced Fertility now – that increases the chance that our partner will become pregnant so we don’t need to do it as often anyway,’ Dominic pointed out, though still not entirely sure how he felt about the idea of any of the lionesses getting pregnant with his…cubs – even if there wasn’t anything he could do to stop it. Because even if it had been Leo who did the deed, they would still be Dominic’s offspring. Which also was the main reason why Leo didn’t mind sharing the ‘females’ with Dominic.

  ‘But it’s fun,’ Leo pointed out.

  ‘Well, I find it more fun to take my time,’ Dominic argued back. Then, unable to stop himself, he asked Jenkins the taboo question. ‘So, which of us do you prefer?’

  It felt like both he and Leo were on tenterhooks. Jenkins didn’t seem to notice.

  ‘I don’t know,’ she replied, clearly still deep in thoughts about it. ‘Both good at different times. Today, happy to take it slow. Yesterday, happy to take it fast. Both good.’ She bounded over to him and nuzzled his head. ‘Was good. Will come back for more when ready. Ask for male when in right mood.’ Then she bounced off before he could say anything.

  Not that he knew what to say.

  ‘Did she just say that she’d ask for whichever of us she was in the mood for?’ Dominic asked Leo.

  ‘Seems like it,’ the lion replied, sounding just as off-balance as Dominic felt.

  ‘Well,’ Dominic said after a few more moments to gather his thoughts. ‘I suppose that it’s fair enough for them to be able to choose between us, considering that we choose between them.’ Though he wasn’t sure how he really felt about it – his experience so far had told him that he personally wasn’t necessarily down for having a massive orgy with just any lioness in heat. Then again, he said to himself, being able to say ‘no’ goes both ways, right? If I don’t want to mate, I don’t have to.

  ‘Why wouldn’t you want to mate?’ Leo asked, sounding even more baffled than he did earlier. ‘Now that you have got past your primate prudishness.’

  ‘Hey,’ Dominic objected mildly. ‘From what I learned about primates, they’re actually pretty sexed-up most of the time.’

  ‘Then maybe it’s just you who’s so prudish,’ Leo responded impatiently, ‘Anyway, my point still stands,’

  Dominic was quickly distracted from his conversation with Leo when Sekhmet was the next to come over, rubbing herself all over him and displaying the fact that she was very much still in heat.

  And unlike the other lionesses, there was no way he was going to say ‘no’ to her.

  *****

  By the time they left the clearing, it wasn’t all that long before the sun got high enough for the first of its rays to reach the ground of the clearing. They’d definitely not got enough rest so Dominic, for one, was eager to get things done so he’d be able to get a bit more sleep in. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been properly rested – they’d slept in the dungeon when they could, but it wasn’t exactly a safe place where he could fully let down his guard. Back home with his Pride all around him, he should be able to do so – as long as the lionesses let him.

  But first he needed to speak to the Kesh.

  ‘You’re still determined to bring some of the kesh into the Pride?’ Leo asked with disapproving resignation.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  ‘I am,’ Dominic told him firmly. ‘For multiple reasons. First, there’s the immediate need for Pride Points to get the Prey Points Enhancement-’

  ‘Which isn’t a good reason to permanently offer a group of primates the benefits of our Pride,’ Leo said, interrupting Dominic.

  ‘Not by itself, but it’s a benefit which would help us,’ Dominic told him. ‘If you’d let me finish, I’d have told you the more important reasons.’

  ‘Fine, get on with it,’ Leo told him as if Dominic was the one dragging his feet. Dominic sent his companion a mental glare and the lion subsided a little bit. ‘Please,’ he added begrudgingly.

  ‘You remember what Selessa said?’ Dominic continued, deciding to take the olive branch Leo had offered. ‘Affiliated denizens have the biggest impact on the Place of Power’s progress of all the denizens. And we want the Place of Power to progress for obvious reasons.’

  ‘But to bring the kesh in? They have proven to be untrustworthy in the past – why do you wish to trust them now?’

  Dominic huffed out a slow breath in something like a sigh.

  ‘Just because their former leader was untrustworthy and arrogant, trying to bite off more than he could chew doesn’t mean that all of them are. You heard what Nyx said – how, as far as she can tell, they’ve stuck to the agreement we forced on them and stayed in their designated area. At least until she asked them to help defend the place, that is. And since then, they haven’t attacked any of the Pride even if they did interpret ‘keep watch’ as ‘guard’. Maybe…maybe they just had a bad leader, and now they have a better one. And if that’s the case, then we want to be on better relations with the creatures on our doorstep who are three times our number.’

  ‘And you think inviting them to join the Pride will do that?’ asked Leo dubiously.

  ‘Yes,’ Dominic said firmly. ‘Because if they’re part of the Pride, benefiting from it and becoming stronger, then they will work to increase its strength too. A win-win scenario.’ He noticed Leo’s continued hesitation. ‘And it might encourage those who join the Pride to keep an eye on their own kind and warn us if popular sentiment is turning towards an attack on us – they would have as much to lose in that case as we would.’

  ‘Very well,’ Leo gave in with bad grace after a period of thoughtful silence. ‘But be careful,’ he warned. ‘There have been many new additions to the Pride – none of them lions.’

  ‘We’ve seen the benefits of having more than just lions in the Pride,’ Dominic remarked.

  ‘When they listen to us,’ Leo replied pointedly. ‘We still need to deal with the issue of the winged canines not listening to anyone but the young female.’

  ‘I know,’ Dominic sighed. ‘Though it’s good that they at least listen to someone, and Jenkins listens to us. I suppose it’s the consequence of assigning her temporary command. At least we won’t have that issue with the kesh.’

  They’d been a bit too distracted with Jenkins earlier to remember then and it hadn’t been such an issue since returning to the forest anyway. But when they headed out again, Dominic needed to know that everyone present would follow his commands.

  In agreement, they padded through the forest towards where the kesh had their main nests.

  Hooting met Dominic’s ears as he crossed the area he’d marked as being the kesh’s dedicated zone. He kept trotting forwards, though – this was his forest even if he’d let the kesh stay in it. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t keep an eye on the branches above just in case a kesh decided to object to his presence – getting a rock to the cranium was never what he’d consider to be a good time.

  His wariness proved to be a little unnecessary as they made it into the heart of the kesh’s territory without incident. Above his head he saw the relatively crude shelters built into the branches. If he’d been in his human form, he would have raised his eyebrows – though they were very primitive, they were definitely more advanced than when he’d been here before.

  Previously, they’d been more like cartoon birds’ nests – a platform on which the kesh slept with what looked like their immediate family. Now, though, Dominic could see that they had put effort into making roofs for their platforms. The roofs weren’t exactly a miracle of engineering themselves – they looked like they would fall apart under the first heavy rainfall, but the fact that they were there at all showed how much the kesh had advanced in such a short time. And that was both impressive – and worrying.

  ‘We need to get these creatures on our side,’ Dominic told Leo firmly. ‘Either that or wipe them out. Otherwise they’ll be developing better weapons next and then it will be like facing primitive humans.’

  ‘We could still take them out,’ Leo replied confidently.

  ‘Maybe, but remember who ended up as the apex creature on Earth before, despite not having sharp claws and teeth and being weaker and less muscled than most of the big predators?’ Dominic pointed out. Leo didn’t answer which, for him, was answer enough.

  A kesh dropped warily down to the lowest branch above them and eyed Dominic. It was hard to tell the creatures apart, but he was pretty sure he recognised this one – his improved sense of smell certainly indicated familiarity beyond just the scent of kesh in general. If he was right, this one was the new main leader who had emerged from the group after he’d killed most of the ones who had come to talk with him following his success over the amesheks.

  ‘You have returned,’ the kesh said to Dominic. At this angle, he was able to spot that the kesh was male. Though he didn’t look much bigger than the last time they had talked, Dominic was pretty sure the glint of intelligence in his eyes had become stronger. His mental presence also felt more…solid as Dominic reached out to him with his own Telepathy. He also felt very, very uneasy. And as Dominic spared a properly searching look upwards, he saw that his kesh interlocutor wasn’t the only one.

  ‘I have,’ Dominic agreed, carefully neutral. Healthy caution among this group was a good thing as it reduced the chances that they’d attack him, but he didn’t want it to tip into actual fear. ‘I hear that you lost a large contingent of your number. Why?’

  The kesh flinched a little and Dominic almost felt bad at asking. Almost.

  ‘We did,’ the kesh agreed slowly, reluctantly. ‘Some did not agree to your requirement. Others… they…felt a call. A summoning. And they decided that they did not have enough here to keep them. So they left.’

  ‘But you didn’t?’ Dominic asked, again taking care to not reveal any sort of emotion.

  ‘No.’ The kesh hesitated, glancing up at the others of his kind above him. ‘I…we…the forest is now our home. Good food, some progress for our weakest even if we do not fight intruders. Material for shelter. We do not want to leave. Not even for the power promised by the call.’

  ‘I see.’ Dominic eyed the kesh thoughtfully. ‘Come down here. I promise I will not attack you as long as you and your people offer the same guarantee.’

  here!