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ChapterFive
Neil
Icouldn’t believe it had only been a dozen or so hours since I’d woken up in bed with Peter in our tiny cabin on the boat. A week’s worth of things had happened since those glorious moments of pleasure. It felt like the fate of the frontier had changed within that time—although nothing had actually changed, I just had more information.
Worse than that, I felt like Peter had gone from being excited and confident to being angry and, well, he would never admit it, but scared.
We’d all eaten the supper Sai had sent from the palace in Sebald’s back garden, even though darkness had settled in quickly, bringing a chill to the air with it. Ox and Katrina had returned from their day of poking around Hedeon by then as well. They did most of the talking as the rest of us ate, rested, and as Peter glared at Sebald across the torch-lit space of the garden. I would have paid more attention to what the two women had to say, but I was too busy fighting off the literal and figurative chill.
The chill and the tension might have been some of the reasons why we all rushed through the meal. The other reason we rushed through was because the Sons still wanted to have their meeting before everyone was too exhausted and fed up with each other to speak.
“We should meet inside,” Sebald said as Avenel—and Gennadi, which I thought was interesting—jumped up to clear away the remains of our food from the palace and the dishes we’d eaten off of. “We can light a fire in there to make the main room warmer so…er…you know.”
I grinned and exchanged a look with Magnus. I wasn’t sure if we would actually all end up fucking as part of our meeting—not in the mood we were all in—but we did have a tendency to strip naked when we were together. Peter insisted it made us all honest with each other, and I agreed with him.
“That sounds like an excellent idea,” Magnus said, rising and glancing across the patio to Olympus. “Olympus, would you care to join me for a drink in my, Peter’s, and Neil’s cottage so that we might pick Ox and Katrina’s brains for more information about our host city?”
Ox laughed humorlessly. “I’m not sure how much more we have to tell you. Hedeon is limping. People are too exhausted to be up to any intrigue.”
“I won’t say no to the drink, though,” Katrina added, striding over to Magnus. “And I’m interested in learning more about Good Port.”
Instead of looking to Olympus, she grinned at Ox. Ox was originally from Good Port, and during the short time we’d been in the city before coming to Hedeon, she had gone out of her way to avoid her family or anything having to do with her old life.
“Yes,” Olympus said as the four of them headed off to the other cottage, “I’ve been meaning to ask you more about your father. Ivor Lobe and your entire family have been the Hakobyan family’s greatest rivals for years now. But honestly, I think someone once brought up the idea that I should marry Ivor Lobe’s daughter. Was that you?”
They walked just out of earshot before Ox could answer the question. I wished I could have heard the answer.
Lefric squeaked slightly as he watched them step into the other cottage. “God, what I wouldn’t give to find out what Ox knows about the Lobe family, and to learn whether she was supposed to marry Olympus!”
“You could always go with them and skip the Sons meeting,” I said, pretending it was a serious suggestion.
Lefric snapped back to stare at me with wide eyes. “Are you joking? We’re about to talk about some really important things here. And actually, I have a whole other thing I want to talk about with you all.”
“Is it pupdom?” Jace asked, a little too loudly, as if he were rubbing the salt in Peter’s wounds right from the start. “Because something tells me we’re going to spend most of our time talking about pupdom.”
We started into Sebald’s house, the air between all of us sizzling. I stepped quickly to Peter’s side and took his hand to slow him down. He looked as though he was about to race after Jace and possibly punch him in the face.
“You have to keep your temper in check, Peter,” I told him firmly, even though I kept my voice low.
Everyone else had gone inside, but Peter turned just outside the door to stare at me.
“So help me, Neil, if you take their side, I…I don’t even know what I’ll do,” Peter growled.
“I don’t think there are sides, exactly,” I said, raising a hand and cradling the side of Peter’s already hot face. “I think we all just need to calmly discuss the situations we’re all in. You need to give Sebald a chance to explain.”
“What kind of explanation is there for enslaving a young man as a sex toy?” Peter demanded.
I sighed. He was already upset and discussion hadn’t even started yet.
“Take a breath, Peter,” I told him. It was sort of an order. I wasn’t very good at playing the dominant role with Peter, although I’d learned how to do it a lot better since the way I’d done it at first.
Grudgingly, Peter took a breath. He stared at me with iron in his eyes.
“You’ve watched Sebald with his pup, Avenel—and yes, I’m going to refer to the young man as Sebald’s pup, because that’s what the man wants,” I said.
“It’s wrong,” Peter growled in protest. “Sebald knows how it feels to be enslaved. How can he force that on someone else?”
“Peter, stop,” I said, sounding a lot like Magnus, really. I put both hands on his face and held him there, looking at me. “I know you’re upset. I know what pupdom means to you. I know how trapped you felt when you were Sascha’s pup. And I know how hard you are fighting now. But you have to listen to what Sebald has to say. You have to listen to what Avenel has to say. Really listen. If you really want to fight for pup freedom, you have to understand every side of the argument.”
