Cael knocked Kael's hand off Neve's before Neve even processed what was happening.
His arm came around Neve's shoulders and he glared at Kael.
"Lead the way," Cael said flatly.
Kael raised both hands with a small smile, tail swaying behind him, and turned to walk. Like none of that had bothered him at all.
Neve exhaled slowly.
Quietly, deeply grateful that Cael had moved first because he had absolutely no idea what he would have said to that proposal standing in a dark street.
"We're here," Kael said.
Neve looked up.
It wasn't a palace the way he had been imagining. No towers, no gates, no marble anything. But it was large and clearly intentional, built with more care than anything he had seen in the leopard tribe. Gardens around the outside. Flowers climbing the walls. Torches burning at the entrance.
Four separate structures sat close together.
"My mother's palace," Kael said, pointing. "My older brother's. My father's. Mine."
Neve looked toward the first one. A group of men stood outside it with their arms full of things. Gifts, clearly. Waiting.
"Why are they all there?" Neve asked.
"They want to be my mother's mate," Kael said. Like it was the most ordinary thing.
"And if she says no?"
"She takes the gifts and says no. Some try again. Most don't."
Neve looked at the men standing there holding expensive things and hoping for a chance and felt a complicated sympathy for them.
"Here," Kael said, stopping at the last structure. "We've finally reached mine."
It had flowers and weapons carved into the walls side by side.
"Come in!"
Cael and Neve looked at each other.
They went in.
.
.
It was spacious inside. Wide and open, with high walls and animal skins layered across most surfaces. A collection of bones and carved weapons along one wall. Water vessel in the corner. A smell that Neve politely decided not to investigate.
He breathed through his mouth and told himself he had dealt with worse in years of zoo work.
Cael was already gathering fresh straw into a pile in the cleanest corner.
"Is this okay?" he asked Neve.
"Yes. Thank you."
"Where will you two sleep?" Neve asked, looking at the space.
Kael pointed at his usual spot near the far wall.
Cael looked around and looked at the straw pile he had just made. He looked back at Neve.
"I'll sleep beside you," he said.
Neve's face went warm. He covered it with one hand. "What do you mean beside me?"
"Would you prefer I didn't?"
Neve looked at him.
He had slept beside people before. Shared small spaces, shared single beds, it was a normal thing that happened in normal life. Nothing complicated about it.
But that was before. And this was Cael, who was standing there with an animal skin wrapped loosely around his body and absolutely nothing else. There was just the damn skin between him and Cael's huge dick.
He cleared his throat.
"Fine," he said, looking at Cael with one eye. "You can stay. But do not touch me."
Cael's face did something that wasn't quite a smile but something smaller. "I can't promise I won't move in my sleep. But I'll try."
"Ah," Neve said quietly.
"What about me?" Kael pointed at himself. "Can I sleep close to you?"
"No," Neve said immediately.
Kael pouted and stood up. "I'll get the servant to bring meat." He moved toward the entrance.
"Fruit is fine for me," Neve said.
Kael stopped to look at him. Then looked at Cael like he needed confirmation that Neve had just said that.
"Fruit is for females," Kael said slowly.
"Why," Neve said. "Why the hell are fruits just for females?"
Kael opened his mouth.
"Just get him the fruit," Cael said.
Kael left.
.
.
Neve finished the entire pile Kael brought back.
Every single piece. He ate steadily for two hours.
When he was done he washed his hands and face, lay down on the straw and looked at the ceiling.
Cael had his back to him, facing the wall.
Kael was wherever he was.
Neve smiled quietly at nothing.
'Everyone's asleep,' he thought. 'I can actually rest.'
He closed his eyes.
'Ding.'
He opened them.
{Warning: Mild heat commencing in 5:00}
Neve sat up and looked around. Nobody had moved.
He looked back at the timer.
'Mild heat?'
He knew pandas had heat cycles. He knew that. Winter or early spring, that was the normal window. But it wasn't even winter yet and his pheromones had been at sixty percent but he didn't know that was enough for mild.
'If this was mild,' he thought, 'What was a full one like?'
{4:12}
He pressed his knees together.
'Fuck! I'll be fine. Mild meant light. Mild meant manageable. I'm a person with self-control and common sense and...,'
{3:30}
Something shifted low in his stomach.
He looked down at himself.
"...Why," he whispered. "Why is it hard?"
His hands were shaking. The sensation in his stomach moved downward and Neve pressed his forehead to the straw mat and tried to breathe through it, but it didn't help at all.
{2:01}
He was sweating. Genuinely sweating, which should not have been possible for how little he had done in the last ten minutes. The white linen felt like it was made of fire. He didn't know when it slipped off his body
He bit his lower lip hard and got to his feet because he could not be on the floor in here with two people who had already decided they wanted him.
He got outside.
The night air hit him and it helped for exactly two seconds before it didn't.
He stood outside the entrance with one hand pressed to his chest and the other wrapped around his dick and his breathing was embarrassingly loud in the dark.
"Fuck," he whispered. Then louder. "Fuck..."
An arm came around him from behind.
Solid and warm, pulling him back against a warmer chest.
Lips brushed the side of his ear.
"Do you need help?"
Neve's eyes were already closing. His whole body was leaning back without asking him first.
He was too far gone to care who it was.
"Yes," he breathed. "Help me."