Life of a Nomad

Chapter 18 - Time to love?

---Christina’s POV---

Waking up outside, I remembered us playing with the cubs and relieving a lot of build up stress. So I wasn’t surprised when I opened my eyes to find a fuzzy bum a few inches away from my muzzle, or the fact that I was half buried with sleeping cubs, twitching in their sleep.

What surprised me was that on one side, Collin had snuggled up in the middle of the night, resting his head on my neck. He was still deeply asleep, his larger form curled around my smaller frame in a rather protective way. What was annoying me, is that on my other side, there was an adolescent male lion grooming my paws.

It sniffed at my fur with a scrunched up nose before grumbling deeply and continued to groom me. I let out an annoyed meow and pulled my paw back, only getting an equally annoyed glare in response as the lion instantly pinned my paw down and continued grooming.

I hissed, turning on my side as my tail slapped on the ground with an annoyed thump. The lion huffed slightly as it licked his lips while I flattened my ears and let out another annoyed sound.

The motion woke up Collin, who seemed confused at first, until the male lion let out a threatening growl as the leopard behind me moved. Soon after I had two males snarling and spitting at the other, trying to intimidate the other into submission.

The cubs were all slowly retreating, some even crawling away with their belly scraping over the floor. They all looked terrified. Clicking with my teeth, I stayed down and grumbled as the two males above me seemed at an impasse. Neither of them was willing to take a step back but they weren’t about to stop either.

“What the hell is wrong with these guys?” I wondered, catching movement out of the corner of my eye. Several other adults were observing from the sidelines, sniffing the air with interest.

“Testosterone must’ve shot to their heads.” My own thoughts were amusing me as I rolled on my paws and twitched my whiskers before stalking away A big paw swiped at my hind paws, making me yowl in surprise before I whirled around and smacked the offender in the face.

“That wasn’t a playful pawing, that was claiming and possessive!” I hissed to my cat, only hearing a low threatening sound of disgust as an answer. She didn’t like it either and judging from the surprised look in the lion’s eyes, he hadn’t expected us to publicly reject his advances.

He quickly recovered though, judging by the growing roar that shuddered through the air. Collin took a stand beside me, eying the lion warily while he kept a close eye on me. Some of the lions shifted, mumbling and pointing before a few youngsters raced off.

A few minutes later, one of the cubs came back with the king and an unknown male in tow. Leander seemed very surprised at first but a look of understanding and slight amusement crossed over his eyes before a smile pulled at the corner of his lips.

“Ah, that was to be expected.” Leander muttered under his breath, gaining Collin’s attention. He shifted, but I wasn’t paying close attention to them. Seeing that the lion wasn’t about to attack, I simply laid down again with a sigh. Why was I feeling so weird?