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The den lightened and then darkened as the thick furs that hung to create a barrier between the dark red den and the rest of the pride were pushed aside as one of the Brothers Grei returned home. Tay had no idea what they did with themselves when they left the den. Before Master Solvslips had taken her away from the thralls' den she had never heard of the trio, and now that she knew of them, she still knew very little of them. The brothers really kept to themselves a great deal. They did not even sleep where their subs slept.

She looked up quickly, vainly hoping that she would be able to catch a glimpse of the shade of grey the brother's coat was. In the den it was nearly impossible to tell them apart. Their shades of grey all blended into one and their voices were virtually identical. Even their scents were identical. It truly was difficult to know which brother was demanding her submission, and that sometimes bothered Tay, because she had never before believed that people could be so exactly interchangeable.

For Slips it had been a rough day. He had spent most of it negotiating with a frustrating old reaver who really should have had the decency to fling himself off a cliff a few seasons ago. It was necessary though. Slips was a good negotiator, patient and persistent and even-tempered most of the time. It wasn't how most Stormborn were used to doing business and his refusal to get upset or show any emotion put them off enough to unsettle some of them. It worked for him, but it was exhausting. After all, he wasn't made of stone. He just had to wear a mask that was.

When he came home he was not really in the mood to deal with subs. It could be just as tiring to have to constantly give orders and come up with things for others to do as it was to do his work and some days he just didn't feel like dealing with people. But he knew he would have to because it was impossible to get to where he slept in the den without passing by where the subs whiled their days away. He could see one of them already.

"Master," Tay greeted the lion as he entered, moving to assume the position the brothers preferred their subs take. It was just a basic display of submission, not an actual invitation to sex, although if one of the brothers decided he wanted that none of the lionesses would think of refusing.

At first when she had been brought to the den by Solvslips she had constantly been asking what she could do to please her masters, to ease their tensions and relieve their stress, but gradually she had learned that her questions were unnecessary and inappropriate. They were presumptuous. All she needed to do was what they instructed her to do. No more, and no less. If she wanted to go above and beyond, she could do so by perfecting her obedience and interpretation of the orders she was given. She had found that she did that best with Solvslips. Perhaps it was because she secretly preferred him over the others, even though she knew she wasn't supposed to have preferences.

The greeting murmured so lightly in the darkness of the den could only have come from one sub, the one Slips himself had brought into the fold, as it were. Hiimatayt. Tay. In the nearly nonexistent light, he knew she could not see his expression, and so he allowed himself to smile. He was glad that it was her, and not one of the others today.

"Tay." He returned her greeting and strode over to touch his nose to the nape of her neck, indicating that she could rise and stand before him, rather than present herself in the submissive pose she had been taught. She was getting very good at that pose. He imagined her practicing it when she was alone, striving to be better to please him and his brothers. The thought did please him immensely.

"Come with me." He did not wonder if she would obey. He knew that she would, even as he heard her falling into step behind him.

Tay wondered where she was being led, and by whom, but she did not ask any questions. Asking questions was certainly not forbidden, but it was a point of pride for Tay to get things right without having to ask, when it came to following orders. It also, she felt, demonstrated more trust in her masters when she didn't ask them questions about what they had planned. She just waited for them to tell her. It was liberating in a way she really couldn't articulate.

It didn't take long for her to figure out where they were going. It was Solvslips' private den. The space was not large, given the restrictions imposed by the number of lions inhabiting the brothers' den, but it was private and sacrosanct. Without express permission, no sub went in there, and the brothers did not violate each other's privacy, either. Whatever it was he wanted from her, he wanted complete privacy. That was interesting. Tay couldn't help but wonder, and be just a little thrilled that it was Solvslips who was singling her out. Or maybe he wasn't singling her out, but she felt singled out and special, and that was what counted.

In his own, private den Slips felt he could relax and be at ease more than anywhere else. Ordinarily he would have retreated there in solitude after a day like today, but it had been Tay who first greeted him and of all the brothers' current subs she was his favorite. He would not mind sharing his space with her for a short while. It wasn't as if he was growing overly attached to her. He just wanted her company in his den. Nothing strange about that.

Okay, it was a little strange and if his brothers found out they would probably be more than a little confused by his behavior, but they wouldn't find out. He knew that Tay would say nothing of it to them. She understood the rules about nondisclosure, and how they applied to everyone. It was one of the few times a sub could deny one of the brothers, was to refuse to tell him about something done by or with one of the others.

Slips stretched out on a pale antelope pelt and told Tay to join him. He could smell her excitement and was not unaffected by it.

Her heartbeat had quickened once she realized that she was with Solvslips and deep inside her heat pooled in sensual anticipation of what was surely to follow. Typically he would take her to the red den of pain, but perhaps he had something different in mind. That thought, too, excited her. Still, she was confused when he stretched out on a skin and then directed her to lie beside him. Not that she asked any questions or said anything other than "yes master."

Lying beside him, keeping very still until she received further instructions, Tay felt like her heart might burst from her chest. What did he want from her? Was he going to touch her, or just lie beside her? Was she being singled out because she'd done something wrong or done something right? She assumed that he knew how he affected her because he had to be used to having that effect on lionesses, so was this proximity just some new test of her obedience? Gods, she wanted to touch him.

There was a small part of Slips that wanted to pull Tay close and tell her about his day and how tired he was and just confess his weakness to her and have her soothe it all away with her good cheer, but he couldn't do that. It would ruin her as a sub to be granted that kind of power over him. He might order her to give him a massage or to pleasure him in other ways, but he could not reveal his thoughts and feelings to her.

Instead he made do with just pulling her close and tucking his nose against her so that he could breathe through her short, thin fur. She must be cold much of the time, he thought to himself. Her coat was completely inadequate for the Stormborn climate. Perhaps he would have a pelt fashioned for her to keep her warm. Even now she was trembling, although he was not so naive as to think it was because she was cold. She wanted him, but all he wanted from her at the moment was companionship.

"Relax," he told her. "We aren't going to do anything more than we are now."

Well, that answered that, Tay supposed. But it still left her with a host of other questions which she would never ask and so would never have answered. Still, if all he wanted to do was, well, cuddle Tay could happily oblige. She had missed this kind of affectionate contact more than she could say. Her family had been very affectionate growing up, and she had always been demonstrative. It helped that Solvslips was very warm.

Unconsciously she snuggled closer to him even though she knew he didn't care for that. She closed her eyes and breathed, doing her best to steady herself. If nothing more was going to happen and he wanted her to relax, she had to to try to relax. It wasn't easy with him right there, holding her close, but she was determined to please him. Shockingly, she did find herself relaxing after a time, and even drifted off into pleasant dreams of a different life had things gone the way she planned.

Slips relaxed as Tay did. She was the right sub for this particular task. From what he knew of her past, she had once been a minder of cubs and she had come from a large, affectionate family. If anyone would understand the need for unquestioned physical contact, it would be her. So once she convinced herself to relax, Slips was able to do the same. Not to the same degree, but to an extent.

He was aware of the moment when she fell asleep and he allowed her to sleep. Even when he felt her muscles moving in dreams, he let her sleep on although he, himself, was in no way inclined to sleep while someone else occupied his den. It wasn't so bad watching her sleep and wondering what she dreamed of. She made some very cute noises as she slept.

The tender moment grew tiresome after a while though. About the time when Tay began actually talking in her sleep, explaining to her mother how much she loved a lion named Sutekh. That didn't please Slips at all. He made a mental note to ask her about it later.