Leona as the shadow king of the badlands, aka a more responsible version of Scar.
Getting way was easy...none of them thought the kid they took was smart enough to know how to escape on his own, or have the courage to do it.
The tiny lion cub looked at the world around him with confusion. The scents were all wrong, the people were very different from what he remembered, and if he had been anyone else, he would have been terrified.
But the boy was a lion through and through, and deep down he had the blood of kings in him.
The cub know as Leona looked at the world around him, and took his first step away from everything he knew.
One year later...
Ruggie took one whiff of the weird cub's scent and knew he was important. And that he would go places. So naturally, she followed her pack instincts and went to him.
Leona didn't belong in the slums, but at the same time he had earned his place here by blood and claw. That meant he was one of them regardless. There was a fire in his eyes that made something inside her tingle in pleasant ways, though she couldn't describe what it was.
She would not regret following her instincts.
Leona had learned quick not to be trusting, and had good predator instincts. Rather than pick pocket and end up in a gang like some of the other cubs, he hunted for his food. He might go hungry occasionally, but he was more successful than the other kids in earning his keep.
Ruggie was more than happy to show him where to take his extra kills, not that there were many, to be cut up and shared with the other kids. Leona generally didn't care who got his scraps, so long as he got first pick.
In no time at all, Leona ended up with a gang of his own. While the other kids did small errands to earn their keep, Leona hunted game and brought it back. They all looked to Leona as their leader, because despite being ridiculously lazy, Leona was the first one in to defend them and the last one out.
They all instinctively knew who the 'boss' was, regardless of his age.
When a leak developed in the cheap room that Leona called his 'den', Ruggie's first instinct was to bring him to her house, because no way was their boss staying in that place. Not while the cheap ass landlord tried to gouge Leona out of every coin he had for a place that would only make him sick.
Granny took one look at the kid and then looked at her granddaughter. Leona was a bit of a brat, but he also understood he did owe them for letting him stay. He kept his space clean and helped out with small errands, all while earning his keep. The extra income made it easier to keep food on the table, and Ruggie would never say no to extra meat.
It took Leona two more years to find a new apartment that became his den...and the first thing he did was give Ruggie the spare key, because obviously his right hand would need full access to his apartment. He was only twelve, and yet none of the adults gave a damn. After all, Leona had already proven he could care for himself, and what was one more orphan in the slums?
Leona was pissed. At fourteen, the local gangs knew not to touch his kids. Apparently, some of the parents needed that lesson too.
Nari didn't cry over his sprained arm and bruised face. Ruggie was already at work bandaging him up, since his arm wasn't too badly busted to need a doctor. The local clinic knew that the King's Roar gang (locals usually called them "Leona's kids") were good kids that wouldn't cause mischief. They gave Leona a discount, since the nobs outside the slums usually didn't try to chase him off when he did a resupply run for the clinic like they would anyone else.
"He do this to you?" said Leona, growling.
He being Nari's useless drunkard of a father. Leona knew this for a fact, because he worked part time as a bartender as he was tall enough to reach the higher shelves where the good liquor was and was quick to learn the recipes.
No one was going to comment on a fourteen year old serving alcohol to adults in the slums.
Nari said nothing, but nodded slightly. That was enough for Leona, and honestly he had enough of that useless bastard's handiwork. Anyone who didn't treat cubs as family didn't deserve to keep them.
"Ruggie," said Leona.
"I got it. I'll get extra groceries and get the bed ready," said Ruggie without looking up. She finished binding Nari's arm.
This wasn't the first time Nari had stayed at Leona's house, which he only allowed certain members of his gang to access without him there.
Those who had less than stellar homes knew Leona's apartment was safe, as Ruggie was his mate (or would be once she was older). Leona usually didn't care as long as they didn't make a mess or cause trouble.
Nari had been a more frequent visitor than most lately, and his father had been in the bar Leona worked almost every night getting sloshed rather than buying groceries.
Leona did not let any of the kids in his pack go hungry. Even if he had to hunt some extra meat himself to feed them.
This though...Leona was tired of seeing the kid come to the hideout with bruises. If that useless bastard was going to drink himself to death, he was not dragging one of Leona's with him.
"Get him fed up at Granny's," said Leona. "I'm going to be away for a few hours at the least."
Ruggie gave him a wave, and Nari followed her. Granny's being Ruggie's grandmother, who tolerated Leona on a good day.
Leona knew she feared he'd up and leave her granddaughter once she was old enough to start having kids...especially if his nob family ever found him again. After all, since when had the nobs ever kept their promises to a slum rat?
In Leona's apartment, several hours later...
Ruggie was starting to get a little worried. Leona had was gone for over six hours, and Nari was sleeping off the cheap over the counter pain medicine on his couch. The cub was barely nine and didn't deserve such a crappy dad.
The door slowly opened, and both hyenas looked up.
Leona looked exhausted, still slightly pissed off, but with a darkly satisfied expression on his face.
"What happened?" asked Ruggie.
Leona looked at Nari, who could sense something had changed.
"Your useless dad isn't going to bother you anymore," said Leona.
"You didn't kill him did you?" asked Nari.
"Hell no. Like I'd waste time dealing with the enforcers over that," said Leona. "Even if he did deserve it."
Nari and Ruggie looked confused, then shock filled their features when Leona pulled out some official looking forms. Nari recognized his dad's signature immediately on the bottom of the first one.
"Here, you can read while I get something to eat. I'm starving and that paperwork was a bitch and a half to fill out, even if the stupid case worker was willing to take a bribe and fudge a few details."
Ruggie and Nari looked at the paperwork, before cold shock hit as they realized what it was.
One was an official document basically stating Nari's dad absolved himself of all parental responsibilities and ties to him as his father. The second however was the reason why the hyenas were in absolute shock...as it named Leona as Nari's new legal guardian.
"What...how?" said Ruggie.
"The useless bastard was all too happy to dump Nari on someone willing to adopt him and take him in. It took us ages to find a case worker willing to take a bribe to help fudge my age long enough to get it filed. So long as Nari is in good condition and still attending school, they'll look the other way about the arrangement since it means they can close his case file," said Leona gruffly.
Nari looked at Leona wide eyed.
"You...you adopted me?"
"I'm not going to be your new dad, but as far as the case workers are concerned I'm your 'older brother'," said Leona gently. "Like hell am I letting that useless bastard take you down with him like that. You're one of mine after all."
Nari's father had been getting worse, not better, since his wife died from the sickness that had gone around three years back. Leona was simply tired of seeing the hyena come to him all bruised up, and he did have an extra room Nari could live in.
Nari was still in shock the next morning, but once it began to hit that Leona was dead serious, he hugged the lion the best he could considering his broken arm.
Leona helped him pack the few things he could claim of his own, and a few sentimental keepsakes of his mother that his father hadn't gotten rid of the next afternoon. Tellingly, his father didn't try to stop them or even look at his now former son.
He disappeared from the slums entirely two months later, and was declared dead in three. Nari didn't miss him much.
On a related note, Ruggie's granny looked at Leona a bit more favorably for what he did.
A few days later...
It quickly became obvious Nari had magic, because he woke up one morning and his eyes were the same shade of green as Leona's own.
Everyone knew Leona had magic, and would likely get picked up by a magical college if he was lucky. He was already looking into going to Night Raven College which did allow for scholarship students, and he was strong enough to get into the school. Ruggie planned to follow him, because Night Raven allowed for female students...so long as they agreed to a special magical contract.
It wasn't anything sexist, just that the staff did not want to deal with the female students becoming pregnant on their watch or for them to come to the school and try to poach a rich/famous/powerful husband rather than learn magic.
For Nari's eyes to change from a golden color to a vibrant green meant that magic had accepted Leona's claim as his family and was marking him in a subtle way as the lion's own.
Nari had no issue with the fact that magic had marked him as Leona's little brother. He also didn't mind being made to take extra lessons from Leona after his usual classes, so that he could tap into the power properly.
A few of the kids in their pack had magic too, but not as strong as Leona and Ruggie. Nari's magic was still too new to measure, but once it settled they would have it checked professionally.
Nari brushed his hair which had started to take on darker tints as well. He was also fine with this...it wasn't like he cared about having dark blond hair.
Leona stalked into the hideout, his face positively thunderous.
Ruggie looked equally pissed, but not at him.
"How many?"
"Three more down. Whoever this bastard is, they're clearly trying for a takeover. Probably some nob who wants to insure the gangs know not to argue with them," said Ruggie.
Leona growled.
Nearby two of the kids were laying on the beds, desperately trying to stay alive. Three more were starting to go on the mend, but were still in critical condition.
"What's the status of our stock?" he asked.
"We're almost out of medical herbs...this bastard wiped out our stock and no one's got any," said Ruggie. "Kateth might not make it through the night unless we get more herbs...her fever is running dangerously high as it is."
"Make a list. I'll make a run to the nobs territory to get the herbs," said Leona with a growl.
Left unsaid was that he'd pay for it all with his own money, as there was no way he'd charge his kids for medicine after they were deliberately poisoned by some rich bastard.
Whoever was doing this was slick...he went after the exposed pipes and was only able to poison small sections at a time because the enforcers caught wind someone was up to major mischief.
It was one of the rare times that the gangs and the enforcers agreed on something. Whoever was doing this needed to be caught because they were doing entirely too much harm to the people that lived in the slums. The bastard would be lucky if the enforcers caught them... if the culprit was found they had an immediate death sentence by all the gangs in the slums.
Leona headed to the nobs territory, where all the 'polite, upstanding' folks lived. It always gave him a weird feeling going there, especially with the way people stared at him.
This was why he limited his runs to the nobs territory to the night...most people rarely paid any notice to him and he was usually in a hoodie to hide his ears and his tail wrapped around his waist.
It took him three hours to get everything on the list and a few things he hoped would help. He got them in bulk, because even if the other children weren't part of his gang, it wouldn't sit right with him if he let them die because of it.
Besides, it earned favors from the others. Most of them had a pact of mutual respect/nonaggression because Leona went out of his way to keep all the slum inhabitants alive, not just his own.
He returned as quickly as he could, and gave Ruggie the medicine. Fortunately it started to work quickly, but he was still pissed.
As Leona made the rounds to the other gang's hideouts, he took notice of a peculiar scent in the air. It was off, and had a chemical tint that made his hackles raise.
Once he made the last delivery, he made a beeline to the source of the scent which had only gotten worse.
It was there that he saw someone that made his hackles raise to full alert.
Seeing someone pour a vial into one of the exposed drains, Leona let out a loud, vicious roar that made the man jump and drop the vial. It shattered on the poorly paved streets, well over half full.
Leona's roar alerted the residents that something was up. He went to attack, only to have something shoved into his mouth. He attempted to spit it out, but some of it went down his throat.
He knew immediately he had been poisoned...likely with the same thing that everyone else had been getting sick from. However because he charged, he had gotten a good luck at the prick's face.
The second he was up, he was going hunt the bastard down and rip his throat out.