A low growl trickled from Jamil's human throat. The sound alone raised the hair on my arms. "I am Skoll, and you have no name among the lukoi. Your voice is only the wind outside our cave."
Jason took a few steps closer. "The trees themselves bow before the wind," he said. It sounded way too formal for Jason.
"Good," Jamil said, "you do know some lukoi phrases."
"We were afraid to touch each other," Jason said, "not to talk to each other."
Zane pushed away from the wall, moving between them, standing close to me. "The moon is rising. Time is passing."
I frowned at all of them. "I feel like you're speaking in code and I don't know how to crack it."
"Apparently, we have some phrases in common," Jamil said, "between the lukoi and the pard."
"Great, the wolves and the leopards share some common ground. Now what?"
"Greet me," Jamil said.
"Uh-uh," I said, "I'm lupa. You're just the Skoll, the muscle. I outrank you, so you offer me your face and throat first."
"She is your lupa, and our Nimir-ra, which is an equivalent rank to your Ulfric, she has the right to ask," Zane said.
Jamil growled at him.
Zane moved behind me, as if using me for a shield. It would have worked better if he hadn't been nearly ten inches taller than me.
"She refuses you," Jamil said. "You stand alone before me."
"No way," I said. "Zane is mine. You aren't going to use him for some macho dominant crap."
Jamil shook his head. "He moved into you, but you didn't touch him."
I frowned up at him. "So?"
Jamil sighed. "All your reading has told you nothing about us."
"Then explain it to me," I said.
Jason said, "When Zane moved in close to you, he was asking for your protection, but you didn't touch him. That's seen as a rejection of his petition for protection."
Cherry was still sitting very still on the bed, hands clasped in her lap. "It's one of the rules that works the same for the wolves and for us."
I glanced behind me at them. "How do the two of you know all this?"
"With Raina and Marcus in charge, we all got to do a lot of petitioning for protection," Jason said.
"Gabriel spent a lot of time with Raina," Cherry said. "We, the wereleopards, got to spend a lot of time with the wolves."
"So when Zane moved up close, what was I supposed to do?"
"Do you want to protect him against me?" Jamil said.
I stared up at that tall, muscular body. Even if he hadn't been a lycanthrope, he'd have scared me in a fair fight. Of course, nature had made sure there would be no fair fight. Jamil outweighed me by a hundred pounds or more. His reach was twice mine. His upper body strength ... well, enough said. There was no such thing as a fair fight between the two of us. That was why I felt perfectly comfortable using weapons.
"Yeah," I said, "I want to protect Zane against you. If that's what it takes."
"Then touch him," Jamil said.
I frowned again. "Can you be a little more specific?"