My jaw dropped at the same time Antonio chuckled hard.
“What?” Jack asked, pulling the cub back to his chest protectively. “It’s a good name.”
Antonio glanced at me, raising an eyebrow.
My gaze darted back and forth between Jack and Pearl as I sputtered, “Have you two never seen The Princess Bride?” It wasn’t completely the same, but it was close.
“No,” Jack answered slowly, his eyebrows coming together.
Pearl shrugged, shaking her head.
Antonio jerked his head toward me. “It was her favorite movie growing up.” He rubbed his forehead. “I think I can probably recite the whole damn thing, we watched it so many times.”
I continued looking back and forth between Jack and Pearl, but they were waiting for clarification, so I fluttered a hand. “Never mind. Probably a fluke.”
Antonio snorted, then his lips quickly thinned.
Or not. Oh, my. I was sure my eyebrows were almost in my hairline.
Jack’s eyes narrowed as he watched me.
Again. Oh, my. Now I understood what Jack had been saying this morning when helping me with my clothes. A quick glance at Pearl told me she had no clue yet. I swiftly averted my gaze to Ezra, who was staring at me with an arched eyebrow.
He murmured quietly, “I’ve seen the movie.”
I pressed my lips together as his head cocked to check out the other two.
Jack flipped his hair out of his eye and stared Ezra straight on when their eyes met.
“Interesting,” Ezra whispered.
“And shut up and butt the f**k out,” Jack whispered, just as quietly, fully comprehending that his little secret was no longer secret.
Ezra and I both nodded once.
“Jack, grab West before he attacks Buttercup,” Pearl blabbered quickly, her attention fully caught on West, who had snuck across the table and was lying on his belly with his head hanging over the side right in front of Pearl, staring avidly at Buttercup. He didn’t really appear like he was going to attack, just staring, but Pearl didn’t understand that they were ‘friendly’ yet.
And as I quickly snatched West up when Pearl started to squawk when he reached a paw out to Buttercup, Jack didn’t understand either. Jack’s jaw hung open in blatant shock as I set West next to Bonnie, who was staring across the table at Clyde, who was returning the favor. West bent and sniffed Bonnie, and she pulled her attention away from Clyde to sniff at him curiously.
Clyde didn’t like this so much.
I don’t think any of us anticipated the level of hostility Clyde had in him as he had behaved ever since Ezra had talked with him. West wasn’t a small lion cub, but he was about an inch shorter than Clyde and had a little less muscle definition. You wouldn’t think that would have been a big deal, but add in Clyde’s instant fury, and it made for a bad situation for West.
Clyde gave a furious hiss and pounced straight on West, using his big paws and claws against the cub’s chest to knock him onto his back, snarling and batting at him.
“Shit,” Ezra muttered, jumping to his feet.
“Stop him!” Jack shouted, smacking the back of his hand against Ezra’s chest. “West didn’t do anything wrong.” His chair fell over as he got to his feet.
“Now that’s more like it,” Elder Jacobs stated, watching as the cubs rolled and fought each other, not playfully at all.
“I got a hundred on Clyde,” King Venclaire stated instantly to King Kincaid, who shook his head, not taking the bet.
“Clyde,” Ezra yelled. “Stop that right now.”
Clyde paused, glancing up at Ezra. He had a dab of blood on his nose from a nasty bite to West’s ear. And that moment of distraction caused him to get raked across his face by West’s claws. Demanded or not by his owner to behave, Clyde still growled at West, his ears lowering.
“West, stop!” Jack ordered harshly.
West’s claws disappeared, but he bared his teeth at Clyde. Clyde huffed at him, but when no other attack came, his head began darting between Ezra and Bonnie, his huge paws pattering in place on the table. He appeared anxious, especially when he glanced away from them to West, then back to Bonnie, making a whimpering sound in his throat as he danced around.
“Oh, Jesus,” Ezra muttered under his breath quietly, then more loudly, “Just behave.”
Clyde’s chest heaved as he hopped to Bonnie. He flat out threw himself on top of her, lying on her haphazardly and nuzzling his head against hers when she grunted. He kept this up until she quieted, lying her paw on top of his head, their noses together. When her eyes closed, Clyde’s gaze left her face for a heartbeat to narrow at West before it found her face again, and closed peacefully.
“What in the world?” Pearl muttered in awe.
Ezra sat down slowly, reaching across the table to pet their now sleeping forms. “Our lions don’t hate each other. Or us.” He ran a finger over Bonnie’s small head. “They’re friends.” He paused, then said quickly, “I think Clyde was afraid West was going to hurt her.”
Um, yeah. I didn’t need to scent the air to know that was a blatant lie.
That was Clyde jealous.
“Well, at least the male’s…” King Nelson’s jaw gently shut as West bounded forward and butted his head against Ezra’s face.
Ezra froze, but all the cub did was nuzzle his head against Ezra’s cheek twice before bouncing to me and rubbing his furry back under my chin where I had leaned over to pet Clyde and Bonnie, then bounce to Pearl and flop down in front of her, again staring at Buttercup.
Jack blinked. Blinked again. Then snatched West off the table, saying, “I’m going to take him to the bathroom to clean his ear off.” I was pretty sure I had never seen him move so quickly without actually running.
Into the silence I cleared my throat. “Why didn’t the current Kings get an animal as Prodigies?”
Cahal answered, “Because it means you four will be the Rulers before the war technically begins.” His gaze traveled to King Venclaire as he raised a questioning eyebrow.
I swallowed hard. War wasn’t that far off.
King Venclaire stood and glanced at King Fergus. “Should we wait for Jack to return?”
King Fergus nodded.
King Venclaire began pacing at the far end of the table, ignoring how Buttercup growled at his movement, as he waited for Jack to return.
A quick peek at Ezra didn’t help, because his gaze was hooded and not on my face. He had rocked back onto two legs of his chair and was balancing effortlessly with his arms crossed as he stared covertly at my cle**age, my leaning position over the table giving him an excellent view. Too bad I hadn’t planned it that way, but maybe I should have. Well, at least right now I had gotten the outfit right.