Waking up to Arron in his arms was a new but definitely welcome thing. He was turned so that his back was against Rylan's chest. He fits perfectly. He took the opportunity to begin running his fingers along his chest and down his belly softly. Sure, he wanted to go lower and grab what was his lion thought belonged to it, but the words from the darn book they'd read the previous evening flashed through his head again, reminding him that cheetah's didn't like that kind of thing. A female lion would be purring for him to take her if he started grabbing at her, but he'd bet that Arron would either scream, shift, or flat out run if he started trying.

Dammit, we really are opposites in almost every way. Well, at least they'd had that moment, and hopefully many more to come. If he got to have Arron, he would shove his lion back as much as he could.

Speaking of him, Arron began to stir a few minutes later, stretching out beneath Rylan's hand before turning onto his back. He could hear the faint sound of rumbling grow as his quiet purring snore started up.

Cute.

N... cute.

Rylan blinked, his eyes widening at the unfamiliar voice in his head.

Did he just?

Smirking, Rylan licked his lips, then thought toward Arron as loud as he could.

Spots!

Arron yelped in surprise as he sat up with a start, panting and looking around the dark room. Rylan probably should have told him that it was just him in his mind, but the guy looked so adorable all scared like that. He couldn't deny all of his lion's instincts. He liked watching prey squirm, but he was trying to get it into his head that Arron wasn't prey and shouldn't be treated like a female lion, either.

This is going to be tough.

Arron calmed down after a moment and flopped back onto the blankets when he realized that he was the one who had startled him.

Hey there, Spots.

His soft golden eyes blinked widened slightly as they stared up at him in the darkness.

Rylan?

Rylan smirked and leaned over, licking his cheek once before leaning back a little. He was completely naked but the navy blue comforter was covering the most important parts.It was probably for the best, though, his lion was already on edge with another male in his bed. It did know that Arron counted more as a female, but that just meant that it wanted to mate him right away.

Thank god he has that collar now.

His thoughts slowly wandered back to Arron's beautiful eyes, and that's when he realized what he was staring at. Rylan had taken his shirt off before they'd gone to bed the previous night but had kept his pants and boxers on. He didn't quite trust himself that much yet, especially with his lion nudging at his conscious. His cheetah seemed to want to push that boundary, too. It had Arron nuzzling against him with his cute little purr going.

Unable to resist, Rylan leaned over with own hum of pleasure and nuzzled his nose into Arron hair.

You smell good, Spots.

Rylan reached forward and gently tilted Arron's head so that he could press a kiss to his soft lips. Except, right as he did so, the guy's mouth got much smaller and fuzzier.

"You just had to shift right then, didn't you?" He grumbled.

A little cheetah with a tail flicking back and forth on the blankets was now sitting in Rylan's lap with a smug look on its face.

"Dork."

Mew.

"That's not gonna work. You owe me a kiss."

The little kitten mewed again, then put its front paws on his chest and leaned up to lick his lips.

"Not what I meant, fuzz face." He said as he reached for the kitten, just for it to jump away from him abruptly before he could grab it.

Since he was stuck in his kitten form for an unknown amount of time, Arron figured that he would have some fun and pounced on Rylan with a playful growl. Rylan swiped at him with a growl of his own but Arron easily jumped back, then pounced on his hand and tugged on it gently. He knew that his baby teeth were pretty sharp, so he didn't want to hurt him by playing too roughly and forcing his lion to come out.

Rylan tried to grab for him again but he jumped back and wiggled his backside, growling. His excessive amounts of energy and excitement were some of the unfortunate parts of having a kitten as a shift. It really liked to play and didn't usually listen to him when it got going.

"You little runt. I guess since I won't be catching you, I won't need to make a certain kitten pancakes before school?" Rylan said with a grin.

But... I really like pancakes.

Thankfully, his cheetah also liked them, and food in general. It considered his offer for a moment before bounding into Rylan's arms.

I am a proud pancake slut.

"Wow. Now I know what to say to get your attention."

Arron pawed at his chest with impatience while Rylan laughed and got up.

"Yeah yeah, I'll hold up my end of the deal." He said as he nonchalantly tossed him over his shoulder and carried him downstairs. Still not really a fan of being held, Arron flicked his tail back and forth a few times to smack the guy's nose.

"You're a brat, you know that?" Rylan stated blandly.

Absolutely.

Rylan chuckled and shook his head as he set Arron down on the counter a bit away from where they actually cooked, then began working on breakfast.

Why is the phone ringing this early in the morning?

"Hello?" Larro grumbled, clearly still out of it.

"Hello, Larro?"

His brow rose as he leaned back in his office chair, clearly having dozed off.

"This is him." He replied, a hint of authority in his voice.

The voice sounded familiar but he couldn't quite place it over the phone. Reception seemed to be bad on her end.

"This is Arron's mother."

Okay, that made sense. Wait, why is she calling me?

"What's up?" He asked, surprised that she'd actually contacted him on purpose.

"Have you spoken with Arron since that morning call?"

Was she mad at him for actually taking the kid's call?

"No. He fell asleep during that call and I thought that he'd eventually call back, or that you told him not to, but I've been so busy with the company that I had forgotten to check. Is something wrong?" He asked.

She was quiet for a moment before finally speaking.

"He hasn't picked up his phone since he came back. I called him last night and again this morning, but I think his phone is dead. I was about to go over and check on him."

That didn't really surprise him. He seemed like he wasn't too attached to the phone since he hardly used it when he had bought him a new one.

Maybe he had one before?

"When I took him from Marcus's house I didn't grab his phone." He said, hoping that it was a logical response. He really hadn't thought about it.

There was another pause on the other end of the line so he quickly continued.

"I bought him a new phone while we were out getting clothes, since I didn't take those either. I had to get him to the hospital and didn't want go back to that asshole's place." He said before giving her Arron's new number.

She gave a loud sigh of relief that he couldn't help but cackle at.

Bad timing, you dumb hyena!

"Are you laughing at me?" She growled quietly.

"No! Of course not." He said, trying to bite his tongue on another cackle from his darn animal side.

"You are a terrible liar, Larro." She replied.

Was it bad that that she sounded almost sexy calling him out? No one really did that.

I wouldn't mind being punished by her. Shit, where did that come from?

"I wasn't laughing, really. Just, uh, busy..." He said.

"Doing what, exactly?" She asked, making him quickly glance around his office, trying to think of something that he had been doing besides taking an impromptu nap. All of his paperwork was done and the place was somewhat decorated. The building in general was new and would be the second location for his consulting and investment business, but darn it, he couldn't find anything to tell her and he hated lying, especially when he easily got caught.

With a grim grin he quickly stuck one of his new pencils in the electric sharpener on his desk and then set it aside.

"I was sharpening my pencils."

If that didn't sound stupid, he wasn't sure what would. The abrupt laughter from the other end of the line let him know just how stupid. It sounded like she was laughing right into the receiver.

"Jerk." He grumbled.

The laughing quieted abruptly, but then turned into snickering.

"Did you just call me a jerk?"

"Yes, because uh... pencils are important. And they need to be sharpened to be of any use." He said as he ran a hand along the back of his neck, wanting to smack his head into the desk in front of him.

Now she was just laughing harder. Women. Sure, he was most likely blushing and grinning like an idiot, but still. He could never understand them. Well, at least the ones that had been in his pack before he'd left.

They were both quiet for a long moment after she'd finished her laugh before he blurted out something amazingly stupid, even for himself.

"So, want to um, go get some coffee or something after you call Arron?" He asked nervously.

There was another long silence on the other end and after a few moments he was tapping his forehead against his desk quietly. Why had he said such a stupid thing? Of course she was going to say no. He'd killed damned kittens. Not to mention she definitely seemed to hate his guts when she'd first met him. He was prepared for her to tell him to literally go to hell when she finally responded.

"Alright."

What?

"What?" He replied out loud.

"I'll meet you at The Coffee Lounge in twenty minutes."

"Oh. Okay." He said, clearly shocked.

The phone beeped to signal that she'd ended the call, but he was still trying to figure out what the hell had just happened.

Twenty minutes later Larro was panting heavily and stumbling into the coffee shop they were supposed to be meeting at. Running in a suit when it was seventy-five degrees out really sucked. He was about to step up to the counter and order something when he noticed Arron's mother waving at him.

Pursing his lips, he swallowed his nerves and turned to head over to the table she was sitting at in the far corner. He noticed right away that she was staring at him, but it didn't seem like it was entirely bad? He guessed that she just didn't expect him to show up in a suit?

"Um, good morning." He said as he slid into the seat across from her.

There's an extra coffee on the table... 

His eyes rose from the coffee cup in front of him to look her over briefly. He knew that staring was rude, but she was really cute. Even in her normal white sweater and jeans she was wearing, she was beautiful.

"Alright, start talking." She said.

"Huh?"

Talk about what?

"Tell me what happened. Tell me why my son thinks that you deserve a second chance after what you had done." She said.

That's why she wanted to talk. I guess I'm glad that she's at least letting me explain things to her. But first...

"Did you get a hold of Arron? Is everything okay?" He asked.

She smiled and nodded.

"Yes. He's with Rylan and they are heading to school now." She replied.

"Rylan?"

"He's a lion shifter and the son of a person who's been fostering Arron while I've had to go out of town for work." She said.

He didn't like knowing that his kitten was staying with a pride of lions, but he supposed that it was much safer than putting him with humans considering Marcus could technically come back at any time.

Good enough for now. Story time.

"When I was growing up I had really wealthy parents. At the beginning it was awesome and we were a happy family, but then my parents delved into drugs and got so into that, among other things, that they just stopped raising me.

After a few years I began puberty. That was the time I needed my parents most, to show me how to control my hyena. Well, they weren't there and weren't interested in ever being there. I managed for awhile on my own and even went to soup kitchens on the nights that they forgot to buy food, but people just thought that I was being rude by asking for food when my parents were well known and clearly rich. I even begged when my hyena's cravings got bad enough for meat that I began to drool at other shifters."

Larro sighed and took a few sips from the coffee in front of him before continuing.

"The day the incident happened I had asked my parents for some money to go get food, but they didn't think that I needed it and that I just wanted to waste it on worthless things. I left to try and find something to eat when I came across the cheetah kittens in the park."

His shoulders sagged as they always did at this part of the story. He wished that he didn't have to keep recounting it, but he guessed that it was his punishment for what he had done.

"My hyena saw prey and my stomach was starving. I couldn't control myself. I didn't know how."

They were both silent for a long while before she finally spoke.

"Can you control yourself now?"

He blinked up at her and pursed his lips.

"For the most part. I'm fine in my human form, but when I shift I sometimes have trouble telling my hyena what to do. He listens most times, but if he's hungry he may run after something. I have two good friends who have stayed with me over the past few years that have offered to help keep him in line when I shift... but ever since I got out of prison, I've only shifted once."

Her eyes narrowed.

"And when was that?"

Of course.

"When we were heading down here to drop Arron off. We were at a hotel for the night and I don't know why, but my hyena took over while I was sleeping. It had never happened before but when I awoke I was on the inside, looking out."

A small smile slipped onto his lips when he lifted his gaze up to meet hers again.

"But your son helped me take control back. My hyena went after him at first, but with my friend's help Arron was able to tame my animal after a few short moments. he's important to me because of what I've always wanted, but he's also a great kid that I'm glad I could save." He said.

She sat silently, seemingly thinking through everything that he had said so he took another drink from his cooling coffee as he waited for a response. Hopefully she wouldn't fault him for accidentally going after Arron. He knew that it was stupid to tell her that, but he wasn't going to lie.

"If you would like to visit with Arron you can go see him at the Leo's house." She finally said.

What?

Larro's head jerked up, nearly spilling coffee on himself from the abrupt motion. He quickly set the cup down before speaking. "What?"

"You may visit with my son if the Leo's alpha is home. His name is Jordan. If I find out that you were there when he wasn't, though..."

She didn't need to finish that sentence, because as she stood up, he was already there and hugging her tightly.

"Thank you!" He said, a slight laugh from his hyena slipping into his words.

People were staring at them, but he didn't care. It had been hard to just up and leave the kid, and now he was getting a chance to go see him. He couldn't wait!