by Jana Downs
Giotto spat. “Or what? Are you going to sic your cat on us?”
“What is this about, Giotto?” Tobias demanded, glaring. He’d had about enough of them looking at him like he was scum on the bottom of their shoes. A muscle in his jaw twitched. They called me a fucking meat-whore.
“We know you actually mated the cat,” Giotto said. “The Ludus servants were all too eager to share about your little exploits.”
“It’s none of your business, cousin.” Tobias hoped by invoking their blood relation that Giotto would back off. If his mama heard about Giotto basically getting a gang together to kick Tobias’s ass, Giotto would get it from Tobias’s uncle. They were a tight-knit family group, despite Giotto’s apparent break with sanity.
Giotto sighed. “It is our business. I told you about the trouble you were causing in the hierarchy.”
“Who gives a damn about the hierarchy?” Tobias snapped. “Maybe if we stop putting one another in boxes and lines of hierarchy we wouldn’t be slaves!”
The whole group of shifters paled. Tobias swallowed hard, realizing what he’d said. He was talking about disrupting their entire way of life.
“God, listen to you, cuz,” Giotto whispered. “You’re buying into this.”
“Into what?” Tobias asked, eyeing the other house servants. He could smell the nervousness coming off them in waves. If he didn’t calm them down, they were going to beat him and the last thing he wanted to do was cause an uproar in the house. It wasn’t even about the pain that would inevitably follow being the subject of a beat down.
The falcon crossed his arms over his chest. “You really believe you’re as good as the predators and humans.”
Tobias opened his mouth to protest but then reconsidered it. “I do. I don’t think there is any real difference between us. We’re men. Nothing more. Nothing less.”
“We’re not really men though, are we?” the falcon asked, looking perplexed.
“We’re nonpredatory shifters,” Giotto said, looking uneasy. “We’re below humans and predators.”
Tobias shrugged. “Whatever. Giotto, get out of my way. I’m late.”
“Say we’re not above them, Tobias,” Giotto demanded. “You can’t just say stuff like that.”
He shrugged. “Fine. I’m wrong. Get out of my way.”
Giotto took a menacing step in his direction, but the falcon put a restraining hand on his shoulder. “No,” the falcon said. “We’ve delivered our warning sufficiently enough. If we attack him, Master Flavius will punish us.”
Giotto glared. “We haven’t delivered anything.” He jerked his hand out of the falcon’s grip and stepped toe to toe with Tobias. Tobias looked up and glared, refusing to be intimidated by his cousin. If his huge predatory mate wasn’t going to intimidate him, his fellow mouse sure as fuck wasn’t. “Tobias, this is your warning. Break it off with the cat and get back in your place.”
Tobias pursed his lips. “I’m not going against Flavius’s wishes, nor am I going against my own instincts to deny my mate.”
Giotto looked like he’d been slapped. “Do you see how he calls the master by his first name like an equal? It seems my cousin has picked up arrogance from his cat as well.”
One of the other men cracked his knuckles. “Then you need to find somewhere else to sleep and eat, man. If you’re not one of us, you can’t take shelter with us.”
“You’ve got to be kidding. There is no way the older house servants are okay with this,” Tobias said. There was just no way.
The one who had spoken snorted. “Who do you think asked us to speak with you?”
Tobias’s jaw flexed. “Fine. Then I’ll find accommodations elsewhere.” Bastards. He had the urge to rub the center of his chest as a dull ache formed there. He’d never dealt well with rejection, and this was rejection of the most profound type. “So I’m exiled then?”
“You can appeal the decision to the matrons. I’d speak to your mother for a meeting, but as of this moment, no one in the house will acknowledge you as anything other than a stranger from this moment on,” Giotto said. “Until you come to your senses and ask for readmittance into the group, we’re done with you.”
A impolite “Fuck you” was poised on the tip of his tongue, but the other men chose that moment to turn around and head back down the corridor the way they’d come. The falcon hesitated before he went through the doorway.
“You mean it when you say that you think we’re equals to any predator?” he asked.
Tobias nodded. “My mate is a predator, and he says I am his equal.”
The falcon nodded but said nothing else, leaving the way he’d come.
Tobias breathed out, his anxiety leaving him shaking. Why was this so important? It seemed bizarre to him. They were all slaves in the end. Didn’t that bond trump all others?
He turned down the hallway that led to Flavius’s study. It was high time that he got to his job. He’d be lucky if Flavius wasn’t pissed at him for making him wait so long. There were a million things to get accomplished before his afternoon meetings. He deliberately turned his mind to his job and away from heavier topics like freedom and equality.
* * * *
Cassisus’s mind was not on task for most of the morning, though he thought that Corbin forgave his lapse in concentration. The knowing looks the lanista kept throwing his way let him know what Cass had guessed at before. Corbin knew what it was like after the first night with his mate.
“Break time, boys,” Corbin announced as the clock on the far wall displayed lunch hour. Cass stretched out his muscles, which were cramped from Faustus throwing him to the sands for the past three hours. He hated throwing drills. Corbin looked up as he approached. “Not hungry, Cass?”
Cass shifted from foot to foot. He usually had more leverage than “please” when asking a favor. “Starving actually. I just wanted to ask you if it would be possible to get a full-size mattress in my cell if I win New Orleans? Tobias has agreed to live together, and I’d like for him to have more comfortable accommodations if I could manage it.”
Corbin crossed his massive arms over his chest. “I don’t know, Cass. I can check the budget and see what we can do. If you win in New Orleans, I imagine the master will be more inclined to grant your request. However, you need to realize that the mouse might not be staying with you full time. He’s a house servant after all.”
Cass nodded. “The new mattress request will of course be contingent on the master’s approval of Tobias moving in with me.” He gave him a knowing look. “You seemed to have sway over the master’s decisions when it comes to matings, so I figured you could talk to him about it for me.”
Corbin’s eyebrows shot skyward. “Uh-huh. You want to explain to me exactly what you’re getting at?”
Cass glanced around and made sure everyone was well out of hearing range before he spoke. “I know he’s your mate, Corbin. I understand the need for secrecy, but I know you understand why I want to stay with Tobias.”
Corbin looked furious, his entire face turning bright red. “You don’t get to come in here and ask me for favors while talking about my mate. What? Did you think you’d drop the knowledge and I’d cave to your requests? I won’t be blackmailed, Cassisus.”
“No, no, that’s not what I was getting at!” Cass said in protest, backpedaling. “I only mentioned it because I figured you’d understand my need to be close to him. That’s all. Jeez, Lanista, switch to decaf, man.”
Corbin took a deep breath, reigning in his temper. “Sorry about biting your head off, Cassisus. My mating is…complicated. I’ll see what I can do about the mattress. Though I’m surprised that you are asking for one now. After Tobias is granted the cottage, I figured you’d have a laundry list of things to ask for. If that’s the case, just wait until after you get a full list complete. The paperwork is a pain to fill out for a whole laundry list of items. I’d rather just fill out one.”
Cassisus frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Well, the master’s promise to Tobias to give him a cottage at the edge of the estate if he allowed you to court him until after New Orleans. I assumed from this morning’s display that you two are past the need for forced comingling. I thought Tobias might’ve been planning to ask Flavius to let you move with him when it’s completed.”
Everything in Cassisus froze. “He promised Tobias a cottage to talk to me?”
Corbin nodded. “Of course. Did you think he just changed his mind all of a sudden? He needed a little prompting to seek out the companionship of a predator. No worries, though. Now that you’re bonded, I’m sure all that is forgotten. I’m surprised he didn’t mention it, though.”
What are you getting out of this? The question had been simple enough. Tobias’s reply had been perfect. “You. Just you.” Anger rocketed through Cass’s chest and dove into the pit of his stomach. “He didn’t.” It was all he could manage to say as his emotions fluctuated wildly. He was never really mine at all.
“Anyway, I’ll put in this request for you. I hope that Master Flavius gives you the space, though. It would be good to see someone in this life with a happy independent mating. Flavius is a romantic at heart. It was probably why he gave Tobias the cottage to begin with.” Corbin shook his head and grinned, oblivious to Cass’s rioting emotions. “Go eat, gladiator. These happy tidings need to be discussed with your mate at a later date. Go.”
Oh, this definitely will be discussed with my mate later. He clenched his fists, betrayal making his stomach roil. We will discuss it in great detail, especially the bit about Tobias being a two-faced liar.
* * * *
Tobias was having the worst day of his life. He’d underestimated the ability of the house staff to make his life miserable. After the confrontation in the hallway, he’d assumed he’d at least have until Flavius went to bed before any of the household tried to make him miserable. Emil from the kitchen had “accidentally” spilled Flavius’s steaming-hot mug of coffee down Tobias’s back, necessitating a return to the hall he shared with his family to get new clothes and an angry red burn down his spine.
When he’d arrived at the quarters he’d shared with the rest of the mice, he found a duffel bag of his things in the hallway with a note that said he wasn’t allowed there until after he appealed to the elders of the house for readmittance into the fold. He’d changed in the downstairs guest bathroom and had stashed his bag in a spare closet until he figured out what to do with it.
If the house had turned against him, he couldn’t get anything washed, get himself some food from the kitchen, or even take a bath in the communal showers. He could ask Flavius to interfere, but that would only incite the ire of the shifters who had voted against him. There wasn’t a doubt in his mind that Giotto and his goons had called a meeting when Tobias hadn’t come home last night.
“Everything all right, Tobias?” Flavius asked from his desk. “If that burn is too bad I can get a medic here to look at it.”
Tobias sighed but didn’t look up from the spreadsheet for the Europe budget he was working on. “I’m fine, Flavius. No thank you. Is it okay if I travel with you all to Europe? Cassisus wants us to stay together.”
“And how do you feel about it?”
“I want it as well.” Cass seemed to be the only bright spot in his life right that second. Of course, he was the reason that they were turned against him to begin with. He pictured Cass’s warm embrace and took a measure of comfort from that. It wouldn’t be long before he was able to escape reality in the gladiator’s arms.
“Then I see nothing wrong with it. However, I want you to know that I can’t approve him living outside the Ludus, so get that out of your mind.” Flavius’s words were unexpected. Tobias raised his head and looked at Flavius. This was the part where he lowered his eyes and said, “Yes, Master,” but that wasn’t happening.
“Why?” he asked before he could stop himself.
Flavius looked up, a surprised expression on his face. “Isn’t it obvious? He’s a gladiator, a predator. If I show him such marked favoritism, the others will demand it. I need the Ludus to be a unit and all of one mind.”
“He’s my mate,” Tobias said. “We want to be together.”
Flavius sighed. “Trust me when I say it’s better this way. I mean, this is a vastly different tune to be singing after only a week’s difference to sway your opinion. Besides, the cottage was your compensation for keeping him company until we left for Europe. Now that you’re happily mated, it’s not much an incentive, is it? You’d do it regardless.”
Tobias was shocked. Was he wearing a sign that said “Be an asshole to me” on his forehead today? “Flavius, you are a liar.” The words were out of its mouth before he could think of the thousand reasons why he shouldn’t say them.
“I beg your pardon?” Flavius asked.
“You. Are. A. Liar.” Each word was forced through clenched teeth. Anger unlike anything he’d experienced before twisted his insides into knots. “You say I’m your friend and that you want us to be on the same level when we’re alone, but you don’t mean it. You promised me a cottage if I did as you asked, but now I’m actually enjoying the task given me, and you’re punishing me for it.”
“I hardly think that’s the case—”
“Well, it certainly feels that way,” Tobias interrupted, shoving to his feet. “I’m done for the day, Master. I’ll take my leave now.”
Flavius’s eyes widened. “But, I didn’t say you could go!”
“So punish me, Master. Otherwise I’m walking out the door. I’m done.”
He turned from the astonished gaze of his master and took a step toward the door.
“Tobias,” Flavius said. “Wait. Let’s talk about this.”
Tobias whipped around, the anger inside him swarming over him like ants on a dying insect. He wanted to hurt something. The violent impulse wasn’t like him, but damn if he could help it. In the entire time he’d been alive, he’d never felt more like a slave. He remembered now why he had been so determined to keep from experiencing any type of emotion when it came to his captivity.
“What?” he asked, trying to keep his voice even. He’d been insane the past few weeks to feel like things could finally be different for him. It had started with a dream about having his own space. All his problems stemmed from the need to have just a little something for himself, just a little something. He hadn’t thought it was too much at the time considering he was still going to be doing his duties for Flavius, but apparently he’d been mistaken. It was better not to hope for any form of elevation of status.
“We are friends. We are. I know I didn’t talk to you like one just now. But I understand your dilemma. Please, understand my position, though. I have a dozen gladiators who want their own space and who already feel like I give Cassisus too much sway when it comes to getting his way. I thought you’d want to take a few of your family to live with you at the cottage. I thought it would help with the backlash with the servants. You think I didn’t notice how everyone is treating you like you don’t exist? I’ve never seen someone of your nest who snubbed anyone so hard as they did you today. So, stop getting all bent out of shape and come compromise with me. I’m willing to listen.” Flavius smiled a little self-deprecatingly. “It is easy to fall back on our familiar roles. At least it’s easy for me. You, on the other hand, have been given a little measure of freedom, and you’re not letting it go, are you?”
Tobias shook his head. He couldn’t. Now that he had tasted a little equality, it was hard to suppress his needs. “I have enjoyed the leeway I’ve been given, Flavius. My mate treats me like I’m his equal and so do you. I think that is significant, don’t you? I mean, if I can be your equal and the world didn’t fall apart, why can’t we be that way all the time?”
Flavius shrugged. “I’m one man, Tobias. I can’t change the world, but I agree with you that the current system is broken. However, we can’t change the fabric of society overnight. Let’s talk it out and see i
f we can come up with a compromise so that you and Cassisus can live comfortably with one another, hm?”
Tobias wasn’t entirely sure that this solution was the one he wanted, but he was willing to listen to Flavius’s compromises. If nothing else, they would at least be able upgrade to a space big enough for Cass and Tobias to not fall over one another. He needed a new place to sleep anyway.
He nodded and sat back down, exhaling loudly. “Sorry I freaked out. I’ve seen people exiled before, but it feels significantly less pleasant than it looks.”
“I’m sorry that they’re doing this to you. May I ask why?”
Tobias swallowed. “They think it’s unnatural for me to be with Cass because he’s a predator. It violates the hierarchy that we’re taught from a young age. They think I’m whoring myself out to get more out of my position in life.”
Flavius frowned. “What the hell? He’s your mate. Don’t your kind believe in destiny or something like that? The gladiators seem to be accepting of your joining.”
“They are to a certain extent. It’s just that they feel like fate is mistaken in this instance for whatever reason. It all goes back to the system. All servants are taught from an early age our ‘place,’ as you well remember. Violating that seems very threatening to them,” Tobias explained. He sighed and rubbed his temples at the headache forming there. “I don’t want to talk about it anymore. What are your counter terms?”
Flavius’s business expression slid neatly into place. “Very well. I think it would be fair to give you two a cell roughly double the square footage Cass’s cell is now. It would still be in the Ludus, but you won’t be tripping over yourselves, and I’ll upgrade the furniture accordingly.”
It didn’t make Tobias happy, but it was at least something beyond the firm “No” that Flavius had offered the moment before. “You know, it wouldn’t kill you to let us make our own decisions, Flavius.”
