The Lion King's Reluctant Mate novel · Chapter 23 of 24
Chapter 23: The Grass at Night
The thaw came on the thirty-ninth night of the cubs' lives, and Jory could not stand the den another minute.
He had been indoors for five weeks, and a kill had lain on the flat rock outside every morning of it.
The custom was the Cub Forty, and Lucan had not missed one night.
He loved every inch of it, the cradle and the fire and the sound of three small mouths working at once.
But his legs had begun to twitch, and he had stopped sleeping, and that evening he stood in the doorway sniffing the warm wind.
"Lucan," he said.
"Yes?"
"I want to hunt."
The king looked up from the floor.
He was sitting cross-legged with Wren asleep on one thigh and Ember glaring at the world from the crook of his elbow.
"You want to what?" Lucan said.
"Hunt," Jory said. "On the grass. At night, with you. Like we did before."
"You have three cubs."
"I have a lion with two arms and a pride that's been begging for a turn." Jory crossed his arms. "I've been in this den for thirty-nine nights. I'm going to scream."
"Sabra!" Lucan called, not taking his eyes off Jory.
Sabra, who had been listening from the flat rock the entire time, came in with Kiri.
Her brother and the old healer came in a row behind her.
"We've got them," she said.
"All of you?"
"Kiri's been practising for a week. Bix says he'll guard the door with his stick."
"Bix will bite," said Bix.
"That's the plan," said Sabra. "Go."
The grass was soft and damp and smelled of the first green.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of The Lion King's Reluctant Mate are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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