The annoying sound of his cell phone ringing nonstop made Larro reach across the seat and grab it. He really didn't want to talk to anyone, but after a quick glance at the screen, he sighed and pressed the device to his ear.

"Hello?" He mumbled.

"Larro, Tayn locked himself in the bathroom." Pascal said abruptly on the other end of the phone, his voice a little breathless.

That's not surprising considering I left him alone with you.

"Okay? Just leave him be then." He said.

"But I didn't do anything, I swear. We were actually laying next to each other in the forest near the apartment, but then he started getting a little closer, and then he just flipped out and ran back inside."

Larro sighed out a tired breath as he stopped at a red light. He really didn't want to deal with the situation right then, and definitely not over the phone, but he was worried that Pascal might do something stupid.

"Alright Pask, listen. I highly doubt that Tayn knows it, but he's a cross shifter." He said as he continued to drive.

There was a quiet whimper of surprise on the other side of the phone and Larro could hear him pacing.

"Pask! Don't you dare touch him right now, do you understand me?" Larro warned, a growl to his words.

"His pheromones hit you pretty hard and I was hoping to just let him handle it how he wishes, but I'll pick up a collar for him on the way home. Now I want you to go walk to the Chinese take out restaurant down the street and pick us up some dinner, okay?" Larro said as calmly as he could, but with as much authority as he could muster over the phone.

Pascal whimpered a few more times in response, but after another minute Larro heard him shut the front door and head down the stairs.

"Good boy. I'll be home when you get back." He said.

"Okay..."

Larro hurried to the collar shop after doing a quick search on his GPS for one. It was pretty close. Thankfully, he got there right as the owner was leaving, having stayed really late to work on some things in the store. He managed to grab a nice black collar for four hundred in cash.

About forty minutes later he was pulling into the parking lot of their new apartment complex. Pask was just starting up the stairs with his arms full of Chinese food, allowing Larro to give a big sigh of relief and quickly jump out of the car. He was about to close the door and run up to meet Pascal when something caught his eye. Squished underneath the dashboard on the passenger's side of the car was Arron's bear from the arcade.

Looking up at Pask, Larro called out to him. "Set the food on the counter and yell to Tayn that we're leaving for about two hours, then come down here."

He could see the hesitation in the young man to leave again, but he wouldn't ever argue with Larro about a direct order. After a moment he nodded and did as told, shutting the door behind himself before joining Larro in the car.

"What's up, Larro?" He asked.

"Forgot to give Arron his bear."

Pascal raised a brow at him, but when Larro didn't respond he seemed to think better of pushing the matter.

When they got back to Arron's house Larro could see the living room lights still on, as well as one on the porch. He knew that he should just have Pask run the bear up to the porch, but he couldn't. With a quiet sigh he grabbed the stuffed animal and quickly made his way up the steps. He set the bear down next to the door before knocking twice fast, then turning to run back to his car.

Unfortunately, he wasn't the most coordinated hyena and tripped going down the stairs, taking a good hit to his face on the pavement leading up to the porch. Ouch. When he managed to shake himself out of it, he heard someone running down the stairs and quickly turned, lifting an arm to shield his face from being hit.

"I was just bringing back the toy!" He said quickly.

Suddenly, he was tackled by Arron, the force sending them both falling back into the grass with grunts.

"Arron, what are you doing?"

Larro could already hear his purr going and smiled, but he really couldn't stay. His mother stepped out onto the porch with a quiet growl starting in her own throat and her cheetah was definitely waiting to be unleashed.

"Kid, I was just dropping off your bear. I forgot it earlier." He said calmly, trying to keep the situation from escalating.

Carefully, Larro lifted Arron off of his chest and set him aside so that he could get up, only to have Arron wrap himself around his leg.

This really isn't a good time, kiddo.

"Arron, come on. This isn't the time to misbehave." He said.

It was ridiculously late, or really, early, and Larro was definitely glad that the lion was at least gone.

"Arron. Come here right now, you know you aren't allowed to see him." His mother said, a hint of worry in her upset tone.

"Why? You haven't even given him a chance, mom!" Arron yelled.

He knew that she was stressed since he had been with a murderer the whole time, but Larro wasn't the same man. If he had wanted to kill him, he could have just left him on Marcus's floor.

"He doesn't deserve a chance for what he did. Now get back inside, right now!"

Larro tensed at his mother's words. He didn't deserve to be yelled at like that. He had made a mistake years ago and had paid the price. He'd also worked to better himself while doing time in jail. It was so much more than most people would do in such a situation.

Arron could hear his mother running over and quickly wrapped himself tighter around Larro's leg. She pulled at him, but he wasn't budging.

"No! I'm not going anywhere without him. He's been like a father to me!" Arron yelled as he squeezed his eyes shut.

Everything went dead silent.

After a minute he hesitantly blinked them back open to see what was going on. Her face looked shocked and torn... and Larro's eyes were wide with close to the same expression.

"What... did you just call him?" She asked.

Swallowing hard, Arron tried to blink back tears.

"Father."

Her eyes slowly rose to Larro's, but while he looked humbled and slightly scared, she looked furious and confused.

"After everything you've done." She hissed.

Arron could feel Larro tensing again for a blow he'd likely felt several times since that incident from different people.

"How dare you even consider wanting to be a parent!"

The words obviously hurt him, but Larro didn't lash out or even try to defend himself. "I understand." He said quietly.

That answer actually seemed to catch Arron's mother by surprise. He even caught Arron off guard when he gently undid his arms from around his legs.

"You need to go inside, Arron. I'll come visit you some time."

Arron's heart constricted at his depressed tone.

"Liar."

That got a tired cackle out of him.

"Just pretend I'm not lying, kid." He replied.

Arron refastened his grip on Larro's leg when he managed to slip from his grasp. He knew, however, that he was out numbered and likely to lose any chance of seeing Larro again if he didn't think of something fast.

"Mom?"

She sighed but replied. "Yes, Arron?"

"Do you have his phone number?" He asked.

She actually smiled slightly at that before looking up at Larro.

"Yes. You may call him once in awhile, Arron."

Finally, something!

"Okay."

He slowly let go of Larro's leg, only to tackle him back into the grass with a strong hug. At first Larro was hesitant to return it since Arron's mother definitely didn't like him, but after a moment he sat up and wrapped his arms tightly around him in goodbye.

"Call me whenever you'd like. I'll always answer." He said.

Arron lifted his eyes slowly to his.

"You promise?"

There wasn't a second of hesitation with Larro's response. "I promise."

After a soft kiss to Arron's hair, Larro lifted him back up to his feet and turned him toward his mother before nudging his body forward.

"Go inside, Arron. It's late."

Arron turned back around immediately, but didn't make a move to grab him again. Instead, he pursed his lips and tried to smile.

"I'm going to call you tomorrow." He said with determination.

Larro chuckled and replied with a lopsided grin.

"I suppose I'll be answering my phone tomorrow, then."

"At six in the morning! You promised that you'd answer, so at six!" Arron said.

Larro smirked and laughed lightly.

"It's a date, but you better get to bed soon, because it's getting close to six already." Larro said as he stuck out his tongue the slightest bit.

Arron's mouth dropped open at that, drawing another laugh from Larro before the man gave him and his mother a wave, then headed back down to his car to head home.

When they got back, Pascal couldn't help but run up the stairs to check on Tayn. He might be obsessed with getting into the guy's pants, but he wasn't a heartless ass. He knew that he was upset about something related to being a cross shifter.

"Tayn?"

There was a quiet cackle over by the sofa and when Pask looked, he couldn't help but roll his eyes.

"I should have known not to leave Chinese food alone with you." He said, his voice chiding but not really angry.

There was vegetable lo mein, General Tso, and egg rolls everywhere. Pask had no idea what Chinese had ever done to Tayn, but the guy always tore the packaging to hell before he even considered eating any part of the actual food. Thank god he knew better than to get the chicken on the carpet where it could stain, but still.

With a shake of his head, Pask started collecting up the egg rolls so that they could at least salvage them with a good wash. Larro chuckled and went about picking up the noddles and chicken to toss out as Tayn watched them from the far side behind the sofa.

When Pask began washing the eggrolls he noticed Larro going over to kneel beside Tayn with the collar he'd bought in his hand.

Huh?

"Hey sweetie, can you shift for a moment please?" Larro said, his voice gentle.

Tayn immediately looked over at him, making Pask quickly avert his eyes, pretending to just be washing off the eggrolls. When he heard Larro say "There we go," he quickly glanced back over at them. That collar looks adorable on him... Setting aside the clean eggrolls, Pask wiped his hands on a dish towel and walked over to kneel beside Larro.

"Huh?"

Larro glanced at him with a grin as he stood up.

"I... where's your scent? I mean, it's still there, but no where near as strong as it was." Pascal said, clearly shocked.

"Because he's wearing a pheromone collar. The herb in the bell on it masks most pheromones the wearer gives off."

"Oh."

Sitting down, Pascal tilted his head as he stared at a slightly-cowering Tayn.

"I don't feel nearly as, I don't know. I guess, horny? As I had been before." He said.

Larro laughed and patted his and Tayn's heads.

"You were affected because his body gives off pheromones to not just attract females, but also males. Cross shifters also tend to have much stronger scents... and they often end up causing some males to become possessive or even worse."

Pask flinched, but he would have been a liar if he hadn't thought about pinning Tayn a few times just to have him at least once.

"I'm surprised that it has such a strong affect. I don't feel like jumping him at all now."

Larro chuckled and headed toward the kitchen to warm up the egg rolls.

"Now play nice while I heat up what's left of our food."

Tayn didn't trust him. Collar or not. When Larro got up he really wanted to follow him, but he'd made it clear that he wanted them to stay where they were for the moment. Thus, he scrunched himself back into the corner near the sofa to try and keep Pask as far away as possible. He even bared his teeth to blatantly show that he wasn't interested in playing any kind of nice.

Normally in such a situation Tayn would expect Pascal to start doing something perverted after blushing and licking his lips, but instead he just cackled and flopped onto his back to stretch.

Eh?

That definitely wasn't the Paskal he knew.

"Ah, man. It feels so good to not be so horny! I knew that I wasn't normally that bad. It was his darn pheromones messing with my mind. Couldn't even get it up for those people I met at the club all those times. No wonder." Pascal said, clearly relieved.

Wait, so he never even slept with any of those people?

When Pask didn't move for over a minute Tayn decided to get up and walk over. The guy saw him coming, but just yawned and flopped over onto his belly, resting his chin on his folded arms to watch the quiet television.

Wow. I don't even know how to respond.

Tayn's eyes rose to Larro in the kitchen, who just grinned at him and raised his brows jokingly. He was so used to being cautious around Pask, but that he didn't even seem interested. Deciding to be a bit of a rebel and test him on his new attitude, Tayn shifted and tugged on his pants, but left his shirt off. Pask had never been able to stay in the same room with him when he'd had his shirt off for more than a few minutes. When Tayn looked back down at him to gauge his reaction, he was just raising a brow and grinning.

"So now I get to enjoy a strip tease?" Pascal said as his eyes ran over Tayn's body.

Gross.

"Guys, food!" Larro called. He had made some microwavable rice to go with the egg rolls so they at least had a decent dinner. Since his place had already come with a huge TV and two sofas they all sat on the coaches and enjoyed the rerun of the football game from earlier in the day. Tayn stretched out next to Larro after eating but as it got closer to four in the morning, he began to doze until he finally passed out during a commercial break.

Pascal had to wait until Larro went to bed around three-forty before he could turn the TV off and walk over to Tayn. He was out cold on his side, using the armrest as a pillow while he quietly snored, if you could even call it that. It sounded more like cute little quiet breaths.

With a slight smirk Pask leaned over him, his left hand on the armrest just above Tayn's head to support his own weight, allowing him to tilt his head just enough to press his firm lips to Tayn's soft ones.

"That collar may help calm me down, but that doesn't mean you should flaunt that beautiful body in front of a hungry hyena." He whispered.

Pascal kissed him again as soon as he was done speaking, then again, and again. Each time he tried to pull himself away Tayn's deliciously moist lips drew him back in.

"You still belong to me, but I'll be a good boy and wait until you figure that out yourself." He said as he leaned back, needing to catch his breath.

When he finally managed to calm down, he carefully scooped Tayn up into his arms and carried him to his room. Pask desperately wanted to get in bed with him, but Larro would kill him for it, even if he didn't touch. So, with one final kiss, this time on the cheek, he left Tayn to go pass out in his own room down the hall.