“You??” She laughed.

He hung his head. “Please don’t laugh. I try to hide it. Too hard. I drive off all the really good people like Ber and Demrath. I think if Ber would even say hello to me, I’d shine like the sun. But they all think I’m shallow and callous.” He drew near to her. “I’d give anything for a second chance. Please, Lenti, when you are a respectable married lady, you will speak to me once in a while, won’t you? Or maybe ask Demrath to let me hunt with him once in a while?”

“Why Gur’mekh, I had no idea!” She looked at him appraisingly. “I can’t promise anything, but I’ll bring it up. If you weren’t in trouble all the time, I’d have a much better chance of success.”

“I only do those things to fill the hole.”

“What hole?”

“Forget it. You’re just trying to be nice.”

“I’m just trying to understand. Stop speaking in riddles.”

Gur’mekh’s jaw quivered and his eyes misted up. “Lenti, there’s only one thing I’ve really wanted out of life, and that’s happiness. I’ve been denied happiness, so I seek my pleasure where I can find it. Someday it will catch up with me, but till then it gives me a reason to go on living.”

He looked away from her, but she walked around to face him. “Why Gur’mekh, you’re crying!”

“Don’t stare at me!” He turned again and burst into tears. “I don’t need your pity! Forget I said anything, OK??”

Before she could reply, Gur’mekh ran out. He scrambled up the ridge and into the small cave that served as his home. Balling up in the back corner, he began to sob brokenly.

A couple of minutes passed, then predictably Lenti’s quiet tread mixed with his crying. “Gur’mekh?” She nudged him. “Gur’mekh??”

“Oh, it’s you, Lenti.”

“I want you to understand that my heart belongs to Demrath. I don’t think of you as a lover, only him. But I see no reason why we can’t be friends. You, Ber, Demrath and I. Maybe I can even get my parents to meet you. IF you behave yourself for a while and stop these pranks.”

He looked up at her and wiped his eyes. A meek smile began to warm his features. “I’d like that. Don’t worry, I’ll be good.”

“And you could settle with being my friend? You’d understand where to draw the line in this relationship?”

He tapped his lower jaw with his paw. “Yeah. But it’s OK for me to be a LITTLE jealous of Demrath, isn’t it?”

“Well, just a little.” She smiled. “How do you feel?”

“Much, much better. Thanks, Lenti. You know, from now on, I’m just going to be myself. If my friends don’t like me for who I am, then they aren’t really my friends.”

“That’s the spirit! Make a clean break with the past, Gur’mekh. And someday you will find what you’re after. I just know it.”

She smiled, nodded, and trotted away to find Demrath. And as soon as she was out of hearing range, Gur’mekh’s mouth curled into a large grin. He chuckled.

“If Demrath wasn’t around, I’d be here to pick up the pieces, my darling little Lenti. He’d want some nice husband taking care of you after he was gone. Someone like--well--like me!”

Gur’mekh was determined to fulfill his great destiny. He saw Demrath as the largest obstacle in his way. He needed a way to overpower him so he could work on the Roh'mach herself and finally turn his gaze to Pride Rock. And standing by his side would be Lenti.

CHAPTER 12: BLISS BY PROXY

With crushing heartbreak, Gur’mekh watched as Demrath and Lenti pledged to each other in a public ceremony. Sildresh watched her only son take the vows, deeply stirred. Gur’mekh was also deeply stirred, but to bitterness.

The other hyenas, who all liked Demrath, felt they had just witnessed a beautiful event. Gur’mekh only saw that his chosen one--the one he would have made Grand Empress of Pride Rock--was marrying his most hated enemy! Clearly she did not deserve him or the empire, but it was too much for Gur’mekh to put behind him. He determined that one way or the other, he would take his share of happiness.

On the evening of their wedding, Gur'mekh followed the newlyweds to their private sanctuary. What he planned would have made Demrath to fight him to the death. For hiding out nearby where he could hear them, Gur’mekh laid down in the grass. Gur’mekh closed his eyes and quietly mouthed, "Lend me your thoughts, Demrath. Lend me your feelings, Demrath. Let me see through your eyes, Demrath. Let us be one, you and I."

He concentrated until he went into a deep trance. Though his eyes were closed, he could see Lenti’s face through Demrath’s eyes. She was gazing on her husband with mixed joy and shyness.

“Lenti!” Gur’mekh uttered. After a few moments, a smile came to his face. "Oh yes, Lenti!" He took in a deep breath and let it slowly out. With a grunt of pleasure, he rolled over on his back, shedding his own identity to feel more clearly the intoxication of the moment. He chuckled and said, "I bet your boyfriend Gur’mekh is biting his leg over this!"

“Shame on you!” she said. “I really feel a little sorry for him.”

“Sorry? For him?”

“Sure. He’s always wanted the one bak’ret he can’t have. There are a dozen others who’d give their whiskers to get him behind the bushes.”

A fleeting smile came to Gur’mekh’s face. “But not you?” he mouthed.

“No. I said I felt sorry for him, not that I loved him. I only want you. I’ve always wanted you. Now don’t stand there on your wedding night and talk about Gur’mekh! Come to me, darling! You’re my husband--make love to me!”

Gur’mekh pushed anger to the back of his mind as Demrath rubbed full length down Lenti’s side. He gasped, abandoning himself to a passion that made him drunk with joy. The corners of Gur’mekh’s mouth began to twitch, and his paws trembled. "I love you, Lenti!” he murmured.

“Beloved,” she sighed, swept away by a passion Gur’mekh had only dreamed of, a passion that he could sense but not possess.

“Oh gods, can you feel me tremble!” Gur’mekh shuddered and stifled a cry of passionate fulfillment. The episode felt like an eternity, but in moments it was over. Suddenly his eyes opened and he looked around, expecting to see her beautiful face and feel her lithe body next to his. But he was alone, terribly alone, looking up into the cold sky. He found himself mired in a deep abiding emptiness and, for the first time in his life, very ashamed of himself.

"Never again!” he hissed. “Someday I will have her to myself, but not this way! Oh Gods, I feel so awful!"

Gur’mekh slinked home, more determined than ever to settle his score with Demrath. “Bite my leg indeed! Pfah!! At least Lenti had the decency to pity me!”

But the more he thought about her pity, the more angry he became. “When I’m Emperor of Pride Rock and the world bows before me, she’ll BEG me to make love to her! She’ll beg me just to NOTICE her!” He sniffed in contempt. “And as for YOU, Demrath, we have an appointment to keep.”