by Jana Downs
“There was a time we were friends, wasn’t there? Back when we were young?” Flavius asked.
Tobias lowered his eyes. “Yes, Master Flavius. But, we were children and knew no better. Your father corrected any notions of equality long ago.”
Flavius turned from him and made a noise of exasperation. “Damn my father and this entire world for what it has become! Anddamnme for having to put up this…this façade!”
“I…I don’t understand, Master,” Tobias stammered. He’d never seen Flavius so flustered, not since they’d been in their early teens anyway.
“Don’t you, Tobias? I remember a time when you told me exactly what was on your mind when you came in to change my sheets. I remember talking with your cousins about life and what the world was before humans decided that they couldn’t trust your kind. I remember the gladiators had been so damn proud of what they did. They were shifters, but they were alsomenof renown instead of animals bred to fight like dogs or cocks.”
“I don’t remember that, Flavius,” Tobias said, dropping his title for the first time in more than ten years. “I don’t remember a time when your kind respected mine that much.” Flavius looked like Tobias had slapped him. Tobias pressed on. “Master, you are kind to us, more so than any human I’ve ever met. Your family has given mine sanctuary from people who would exploit us in the worst ways, and for that I am supremely grateful. But, even you don’t see us as people. So, please, don’t demand that I address you with familiarity and converse with you on subjects that bother you. I am your slave, Master. Not your friend.”
He was scared that Flavius was going to strike him then. He looked damn close to doing so. But just as quickly as the look came over him, Flavius relaxed and looked weary instead. “You’re right, Tobias. Sometimes I let the stresses I’m under get to me. I didn’t mean to shout.” He gave a sheepish smile that looked forced. “You’ve had an exciting day already.” The evocation of Cassisus’s memory once again had Tobias instantly distracted. “I don’t think I’ll need you for a while. Why don’t you go on back to the kitchens and get yourself a bite to eat? Come down to my office in an hour and I’ll give you something to do.”
Tobias recognized a dismissal when he heard one. “Of course, Master Flavius. Thank you.”
* * * *
Flavius went into his room and shut the door quietly behind him. His nerves were so bad at this point he knew that he would fall apart at the least provocation. Playing master had never been his strong point. His father had made it clear from an early age what his responsibilities would be. So Flavius had built an empire out of the gladiators his father had given him, much more vast than his father’s before him. It was all a lie. He swallowed hard and crossed to his bedside dresser to extricate one of the numerous pill bottles therein. Anxiety medicine had been his best friend since beginning this farce. He tossed the tiny white pieces of mind into the back of his throat and swallowed without water.
The knock to his door nearly had him jumping out of his skin. His heart constricted. What would it take to just be left alone for one hour in this house?
“Come in,” he called out. What he really wanted to say was “go away,” but he doubted his staff would survive the heart attack it would give them if he did. They were very sensitive to his moods, especially Tobias. He sighed at the thought of his personal servant. They’d been thick as thieves once, like brothers in everything but blood. Father had certainly put a stop to that, though. “You can be friends with the shifters the same way you can be friends with a dog. Anything else is obscene and unnatural,” Flavius repeated the phrase that had been drilled into his head after his father had walked in on Tobias and Flavius playing together on the floor of Flavius’s bedroom. They’d been seven and nine, respectively. If his father only knew how he was interacting with his shifters now…
“Master Flavius?” Corbin’s voice sent a spear of desire through his gut.Oh God, please, have a little mercy. Begging God had never accomplished much for him, but he tried it all the same.
Flavius turned slowly toward the shifter in his doorway. “Is it midnight already?” He meant the words to come out jokingly. They sounded breathless instead. Corbin’s deep brown eyes regarded him with no small amount of heat. Flavius felt his cheeks warming at that look. “What is it, Corbin?”
“I wish it was midnight.” The throaty rumble of the bear’s voice sent chills down Flavius’s spine. “It was midnight in Flav’s room, and all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.”
“That’s not funny, Corbin. What do you want?” Flavius trembled at the look Corbin was giving him.No. He wouldn’t lose control.Not again.
“I wantyoualways, cub.”
The words had their desired effect, Flavius hardened behind his slacks.Motherfucker. Can’t he just leave me alone? “I told you the rendezvous would have to stop.” Was his voice shaking?
“Yes. And I told you to lock me in my cage if you really want them to stop. If you think youcanstop.” Corbin took a step in his direction, and Flavius nearly lost it. The urge to throw himself into Corbin’s arms was almost irresistible. He wanted nothing more than to let the bear take him to bed and rub against him, marking him with his scent inside and out. The image had him throbbing. What he wouldn’t give to be able to just forget the world and let Corbin do what he had been oh so good at doing for the past year now.
Flavius balled his hands into fists to keep from reaching out. “I can’t.” His weakness disgusted him. His father would have a vapor fit if he knew.
Corbin nodded as if Flavius’s words were expected. “I didn’t come here for that. I will get that later tonight when everyone is in bed. I came here to discuss something else with you, Flavius.”
Flavius crossed his arms over his chest, the urge to run to Corbin still thrumming inside him. “Oh? The incident with Cassisus earlier?”
“Yes. Your servant is Cassisus’s mate.”
Flavius’s head snapped up, and he searched Corbin’s expression for some kind of joke. “But he’s a mouse.”
“Yes.”
“And Cassisus is a cat.”
“Yes.”
“How the hell is that supposed to work?”
Corbin gave him a wry smile. “I imagine the same way it works between a bear and his human cub.”
“We’re not mates.” It was the only thing that helped Flavius retain his sanity. Everything was okay so long as he didn’t admit to being mated to the other man. Mating implied something uniquely shifter and uniquely animal, and Flavius just couldn’t deal with that yet.
Corbin shrugged. “If you say so, cub. I didn’t come to debate. I came to tell you that if you don’t let Cass have at least some access to your little Tobias, there will be trouble of epic proportions.”
“How do you mean? Cassisus would rebel?” It was a fear that every gladiator master had. A school full of shape-shifting warriors was difficult to control on the best of days. In a time of rebellion, a lot of people could get hurt or killed.
Again Corbin shrugged. “I don’t know if he even realizes the lengths his cat would go to get to his mate. You have such a young group of gladiators, it’s no wonder that they don’t even fully recognize their animal impulse to mate. Cass has always been possessive with his things. This will be no different. You don’t want to have him restless and annoyed for the rest of the season. It’ll make for terrible fighting and even more terrible temper tantrums.”
“What do you suggest I do?” Flavius asked, pushing a hand through his hair in frustration. “I can’t give Tobias over like some damn chew toy.”
“The gladiators have an after-meal snack before bed. Usually servants bring them in to the gladiators. They’re given the food through the bars, so no worries when it comes to Tobias’s safety. Let Cass at least get that much access to Tobias, and it should keep the cat mostly in check.” As always, Corbin’s arguments were sound. “I’ve already seen how big of a distraction the mouse is going to be after
we made Cass drop him. Cassisus will be useless for fighting if we don’t sate some of his instinctual cravings.”
“Is that what I am to you? An instinctual craving?” Flavius immediately wanted to snatch back the words as they escaped.Very good. You sound like a Grade-A psycho.
“You’re mine, Flavius. Bears are patient by nature. You’ll come to me in your own time. I’m not worried about that.” Corbin’s eyes took on that hooded look they usually did when he was about to say something that would make Flavius melt like a hot stick of butter. “And when you come to me of your own accord, the way we come together will make all the stars align for you, and you’ll never doubt again that you’re my cub.”
He was so close now that Flavius could smell the Irish Spring soap that Corbin was addicted to. He licked his lips. “Corbin,” he whispered. It was a request.
The bear leaned down and claimed his lips in a kiss.
Chapter Four
Cassisus paced his cell after a long day of practice, rubbing the towel over his head to dispel the last bit of water left over from the showers. It had been three days since he’d spoken with Corbin in the cells, and he’d not heard anything else about either Master Flavius’s answer or Tobias’s whereabouts. Though he’d tried to bring it up a few times, Corbin had managed to redirect his attention every time. It was beginning to piss him off.
He crossed the floor to where the bed and the rug, which he’d put down so he wouldn’t have to put his feet down on a cold floor when he got out of it in the morning, was. His toes dug into the plush material, luxuriating in it for a moment. Like the cat he was, there was nothing he loved better than digging his claws into the cloth and stretching out. He picked up the remote and flipped on the TV. What was on didn’t matter. He just liked the background noise to drown out the sounds of other televisions, game systems, and people chatting.
Why hadn’t Tobias sought him out? Surely he’d felt the bond flare between them. That meant Cass was entitled to the little mouse now, didn’t it? He sighed. There was so much he was unsure of when it came to mate stuff. He’d learned from other gladiators that some masters refused to let shifters get their own mates because of the very strong bond that formed between them. The possessiveness was usually the part that masters found abhorrent. After all, shifters were slaves, possessions.
He growled at the thought. Tobias washis. Something for him and him alone. In a world where he was allowed to own nothing, even the possibility of having something for himself left him dizzy with giddiness. Though it did beg the question of whether or not he wanted Tobias because he was his mate or because of the measure of freedom Tobias represented.Now that’s a strange thought. Did he even want a mate?
“Cassisus?” Corbin’s voice snapped him out of his spiraling contemplations.
“Yeah?”
“Do you still want to see Tobias?” the bear asked, leaning against the bars of his cell.
Cass nodded.
“Good. He’ll come serve you the after-meal snack in a bit. Put some clothes on and don’t scare him. And, Cass?”
“What?”
“No means no. If he doesn’t so much as want to look at you, you are to leave him alone.”
The words rankled. “And if I tell you to fuck off?”
Corbin’s normally laid-back expression turned to steel. “Then you will never see him again, and I will personally beat you bloody well senseless. Got it?”
Cass hissed at him, feeling his cat pushing against the inside of his skin, wanting out to wipe that superior look off his trainer’s face.
“Cass…” The word was a warning.
“Yeah. Yeah. I got it. Send him to me.”
He settled back into his bed as Corbin turned away and walked down the hall away from his cell.
“Bastard,” he whispered. He was so confused. What had he done to label himself a person who took advantage of those smaller than him? He wiped a hand over his face and sighed.I almost wish I didn’t have a mate. All these feelings are a pain in the ass to deal with.It wasn’t that he cared for the little mouse. He was intensely attracted and possessive, but as far from emotionally connected as could be. The only thing he really knew about the other man was that he was a mouse shifter and worked closely with Flavius. But still, the desire to touch and be touched in return, to be wanted and surrendered to, were feelings that he wasn’t used to. They called him vain because of his confidence in all areas of his life. He always had the prettiest men in his bed, had always been the strongest, fastest, most beloved by the crowds. This…uncertainty was throwing him off his game in a big way. He didn’t like it in the least.
A sullenness settled over him like a wool blanket, abrasive against his skin. He rolled out of bed and padded over to the armoire and dragged out a fresh shirt and a pair of jeans from the closet. He left off his shoes. The mirror offered him no comment, but he nodded at the reflection. He was good looking, toned, a gladiator. The mouse should be grateful that he was even putting this much effort into looking good for him.
“Um, C–C–Cassisus?” The squeaking question had Cass reaching for the remote to flick his television off. He mentally prepared himself for the impact of seeing Tobias before he turned. He might as well have been fighting the rising sun for all the good that preparation did. The impact of the smaller brown-haired, brown-eyed man was like a punch in the gut from Gregori.Mine. His cat insisted on the fact.
“Hello, little one,” Cass greeted, crossing the cell to stand before the bars. The mouse shrank back.Right. Cass was much taller and probably looked imposing as hell. He glanced around the room until his eyes lit on a pillow shoved in the corner. The pillow was thrown to the floor in front of the cell, and Cass sat on it, folding his legs so that he sat Indian style before the mouse. The tray that Tobias was carrying was shaking, and Cass half expected him to drop the thing before he was served his meal.
“Come. Sit,” Cass encouraged, motioning to the floor beyond his bars. He didn’t understand why Corbin had warned him about keeping his hands to himself if Tobias wasn’t even going to come inside. Annoyance began to ripple, only to be cleared away by pleasure as the tray was placed carefully on the ground and Tobias sat in a similar position to Cass on the other side.
Tobias refused to meet his eyes as Cass stared a hole into him. “Master Flavius was leery of letting me come here.”
“I won’t hurt you,” Cass promised. It was a promise easily made. The last thing his cat wanted to do was hurt Tobias. Rub against him? Yes. Fuck him? Most definitely. But hurt? Hell no.
Tobias reached for the tray and picked up Cass’s standard box of Oreo cookies. “These things aren’t very good for you.” His eyes finally raised up enough so that Cass felt like his attention was fully on him for the first time.
“I like sweets,” Cass offered by way of explanation.
Tobias shrugged. “It’s your body.”
Awkward silence descended over them.
Well this is comfortable. Maybe he’d been wrong about the mate thing. Wasn’t it supposed to be easy conversation and hot sex or something?
“Why did you ask for me?” Tobias asked suddenly, offering the Oreos through the bars. Cass reached out and took the wrist attached and pulled Tobias forward so that they were separated by only a few inches of air and iron.
“How can you ask that? You feel the pull as much as I do.” Cass was sure about that. The little mouse had reacted to him. As reluctant as it had been, he’d most definitely reacted to him. The scent of fear perfumed the air.Damn. He hadn’t meant to scare him. Immediately he let the other man’s hand go and sat back with his cookies. When Tobias, shaking now, extended the glass of milk, Cass took it slowly and didn’t try to touch the mouse again. He was so used to the other gladiators who reacted positively to his rougher nature that he didn’t know what to do to express himself with someone as gentle as Tobias.
The mouse seemed to gather his courage. “We’re mates. So what? It doesn’t mean anything anymore. It’
s an outdated instinct from a freer time. I don’t want to be involved with a gladiator.”
It would’ve been less shocking if Tobias had slapped him. “What? How can you say that? Fate, instinct, whatever it is, has given us an opportunity to make a real connection to someone. Doesn’t that mean anything?”
“Connections are for people who have the ability to choose. If I could’ve chosen, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now. Master Flavius said I had to go, so I did.” Cass snarled, and Tobias’s trembling increased, though he pressed on. “I−I will not be pressured into a relationship with you.”
“Relationship?” Cass sputtered. Since when they were in a relationship?
“I’ve never been in one, and I have sort of resolved myself to not being in one because of the situation we’re in. I won’t risk someone I love being sold off or made to breed with someone else or something horrible like that.”
“Love?” Cass echoed stupidly.
Tobias waved his hand like he was dismissing him. “I know you probably don’t believe in love being a big tough gladiator, but I don’t even want the possibility to occur.”
Cass cleared his throat. “Aren’t you putting the cart before the horse? How about you just get to know me and stop worrying about what might or might not happen?”
“I can’t do that,” the little mouse said softly. “I’m sorry, but you’re a risk I’m not willing to take.”
A very feline growl sounded. “Don’t patronize me, boy. I’m not someone to be shrugged off. We’re mates whether you like it or not.”
“I choose not to act on that knowledge,” Tobias said stubbornly, standing.
“Where are you going?”
“I’ve delivered your meal. That’s all I was told to do.”
“Wait!” Cass called as Tobias turned toward the exits and started to walk away. The mouse paused. “You can’t just walk away from this and ignore it.”
“I’ve lived my whole life without my mate. I can continue to do so.”