Free A Lion's Heart by Kracken

eyes. Then he opened them again and they were harder. He ordered Lormar briskly, “Accompany us out of the city after nightfall. I doubt that we can keep everyone from knowing that Tamarind is leaving, but we will try to keep it from happening. Tell no one, not even Shang.”
    Lormar nodded. Kyrill looked distressed.
    “Tamarind! You can't mean to go?” Kyrill reached out and touched Tamarind's arm boldly. “I don't understand why you would risk yourself when Shakra is offering you protection until we leave here for my home.”
    “Being free is more important than being safe,” Tamarind replied, and then he went to a window and looked out, waiting for nightfall.

 
    Chapter Seven
    Shakra crouched beside Tamarind, staring around them nervously and ears cocked for any sound. Lormar was crouched low behind them, a sword held ready, and Tamarind was looking confused already, ears down, and tail twitching.
    “We can go back,” Shakra almost begged. “You don't have to do this.”
    “I'll... get used to it,” Tamarind replied, but his assurance wasn't wholly steady. “I feel better already, being out of that place.”
    “We'll meet here, tomorrow, at midday,” Shakra promised. “I'll bring food.”
    Tamarind snarled. “I can hunt!”
    Shakra's hackles rose, but he willed them down in the next instant. He wasn't going to part in anger. “I know you can,” he decided to agree. “But it may be a few days before you learn how to hunt here.”
    “Nothing is his equal, here,” Lormar grumbled. “Leave him and let's go back. I feel danger in the air. I'm certain we were followed. The sooner he goes into the ferns and the darkness, the better.”
    Shakra felt hesitant, but determined. He could barely make out Tamarind in the dappled moonlight. It made it harder to say, “I feel that we've become friends. I don't want you to suffer... to go hungry.”
    “Friends?” Tamarind sounded surprised and then thoughtful as he replied, “Yes, I think... All right. I'll be here... midday.”
    Shakra was relieved, but it took very little away from his anxiousness for Tamarind's safety.
    “I'll have fresh meat,” Shakra promised.
    “Warm?” Tamarind asked.
    “Warm,” Shakra promised, though he didn't know how he was going to accomplish that. He would have given Tamarind the moon, just then, for his promise to meet with him.
    “I need a lot of meat,” Tamarind worried. “You'll bring enough?”
    “What happened to, I can hunt ?” Lormar wondered under his breath.
    Tamarind growled, “If he is determined to meet, he might as well bring what I need!”
    “Of course,” Lormar snorted sarcastically.
    Tamarind crouched as if he were about to spring. Lormar gripped his sword tightly and backed up a few, wary paces.
    “That's enough!” Shakra ordered sharply. He stepped between Lormar and Tamarind and inadvertently brushed against Tamarind's soft, warm fur. That touch caused a rush of heat to flood Shakra's body.
    “You... smell,” Tamarind said suddenly.
    Lormar snickered. Shakra glared and blushed.
    “What... What is that?” Tamarind wondered.
    “Love,” Lormar laughed and Shakra felt like murder.
    “I don't understand. It smells like...” Tamarind trailed off and Shakra heard an audible swallow. Tamarind was suddenly moving off into the woods. “I have to go. I need to find a den.”
    He was gone into the night then, like a shadow, without a leaf crunching under his paws. Shakra stood, ears cocked, trying to catch a sound or a scent on the wind blowing back to him. He smelled it then... like... warm milk... spices... heat... sizzling vanilla...
    Lormar smelled it too. “It seems that your werelion isn't a cub any longer either.”
    Shakra wanted to follow Tamarind, follow that incredible scent that was sending every hormone in his body into overdrive. The hard tug on his ruff made him snarl and whirl on Lormar. Lormar backed up a pace, but his expression was stern.
    “We must go, prince,” Lormar