His Most Important

Okay, so, before anything - let it be known that all three of those ladies are grown adults, I just kinda fucked up when drawing Mbadala, I was trying a couple things differently. Now I know. She's supposed to be short and plump, not,,,, chibified :'3 So I'm just trusting that no one's gonna make that weird lmao.

But, here's my version of Kiros, his three ladies(?), and his heir. Ehioze and Kiros have eight cubs just on their own, so no, I wasn't gonna draw the entire fucken lineage lmao. They're all important, but Shaju's, like. The important-est.

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[ Itty bitty warning for what's probably Stockholm Syndrome to some degree; but don't feel too bad. Not a single one of these lions is a good person. ]

Bhala, the lioness nuzzling him, was the first of Kiros' mates. She was a survivor from one of the groups the Mizimu Pride ["ghosts," my name for the white lions because naming them after their colour seemed a bit questionable-] slaughtered in Kiros' conquest.

While Bhala would have just been killed as well, not only did she not really fight back, she just seemed so.. well, nonchalant about the whole thing. Young, healthy, strong, apparently no resentment whatsoever.. the ridiculousness of it all amused Kiros, and out of curiosity, he allowed Bhala to come with them.

While there, she settled in surprisingly fast, treating the whole situation like just your average pride-takeover. She regarded the white lionesses like pride-sisters she'd known for years, and before long, she expressed some surprise that Kiros hadn't approached her with intents on having cubs yet. Bhala hadn't been a mother before, but her last leader hadn't exactly been young anymore. For his part, so early in his plans, Kiros just.. well, the thought hadn't really occurred to him yet.

Shaju would be born in a single litter before too long, and the pair grew surprisingly close. Love would be a strong word, but Bhala offered affection without fear or force, and Kiros enjoyed that more than he'd have expected.

Ehioze, the dark one, came next. An odd little stray, born as a female but presenting male, it just seemed like luck that he happened to have a partial mane to go with it. He was near starved when he approached the Mizimu pride with a fresh kill, clearly on his last legs and pleading for mercy. Kiros, typically, was not one to give it, and his sisters would've mauled him right then if not called off.

Again, Kiros was curious. It was strange enough for anyone to approach a group like theirs just like that, but them specifically? Who, across the whole Savannah, didn't know who he was by now?

Of course, Ehioze knew very well who Kiros was, but uh.. I've talked about the self-aware nature of his enough, probably.

His presence was far less welcome in the pride than Bhala's had been. Seemed a little odd to have him among them, didn't it? A bit off-brand? But Kiros enjoyed him. And it didn't take long to see that Ehioze was obsessed with him in turn. Hell, he took to the Mizimu pride's violent ways with gusto.

Lastly, Mbadala, the peachy one. Similarly to Bhala, she was found when the Mizimu pride attacked her small family group. Unlike Bhala, she did not take things lightly in the slightest.

At first, she tried to offer herself up in return for her family being spared. This, naturally, was laughed at; but after it was all over, and her pride lay slaughtered, Mbadala survived. Entertained by her attempts however, she was taken back with the pride as a trophy, presumably a temporary one.

Bhala and Ehioze were her only friends for a good, long while, as she snapped at any of the white lions who came near, fought to outright attack Kiros when his mates weren't holding her back in bemusement.

After a while, her resentment shifted more into frustration than anything. Frankly, Mbadala hadn't been close with her family, and she couldn't say she missed them much. These lions were, annoyingly, much more her speed.. and Kiros? What pissed her off the most was that she liked him. A lot. That lion was just straight up her type.

The very second Kiros noticed this, he got cocky about it, and Mbadala fell hard and fast. Now, her adoration rivals Ehioze's.

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In case anyone's curious, none of them have any issue with the dynamic.

To Bhala, it's as natural as can be, she couldn't possibly be less bothered by sharing her mate.

Ehioze and Mbadala have a bit of a rivalry going on, but it's an entirely playful one.

As for the darker aspects of Kiros and his pride's actions; again, Bhala doesn't exactly like it per say, and doesn't tend to partake, but that's all. The eating-other-lions thing, she'll actively avoid and pretend it isn't a thing, though.

Ehioze took to it all ecstatically, he's a vicious little thing to say the very least.

It took Mbadala a little bit longer to warm up to, but she can get particularly gruesome when it comes to impressing Kiros.

Kinda curious to see if anyone has thoughts on who they like best lmao. This is kinda an AU, because generally all these pairings are separate for me, but I wanted to draw them together and now I figured... yeah, why not, he deserves three lovers and a trillion babies lmao.

The little background thingy was taken from the Mufasa movie itself.