Ghost barely made a noise when he got home. If it weren't for hearing him tell the help to put away his bags, I doubt I would've even heard him. He wasn't as happy as I thought he would be. I thought he'd be running for my arms the second he got through the door. Okay, maybe that's what I hoped for at least. It wasn't what I got in the least bit. I'm sure he's just tired from travel.

I met him in the hallway, setting my hand on his waist. Before even saying hello, I kissed him deeply. He reciprocated but there wasn't much passion in it. Again, I'm sure he's just tired. "I've missed my baby girl so much." I said as I caressed his cheek.

"Chris," He murmured, "I'm not in the mood."

My smile fell quicker than it ever has, "Is everything okay?"

Ghost pushed back from me coldly. He crossed his arms over his chest and avoided looking at me, "You know it's not... Look, you told me if I didn't want to keep doing DDlg, we could stop whenever I wanted to. I want to stop."

"Alright." I answered slowly. When he got like this, I tried my best to just take things at a reasonable pace. He can be a grenade when he wants to be.

"It's just," He huffed, "I feel like we were doing it as a way to ignore our problems. You needed me to forget or something and you got me to put myself in a state of mind where I did forget. Well, I remembered again and I don't want to just act like we don't have problems right now."

"Dev, what are you talking about?" I asked desperately.

Yeah, we did have tension, but there was no obvious problem. At least not one he knew about. He eventually learned to accept the slaves. To his knowledge, Angelo is the only slave I've bought since him. He was fine with that too, since I did it as a way of keeping Ange around. Ghost has no clue that I bought Ricky. He doesn't know that we slept together in our bed or that I made him my pet. He doesn't have a solid reason to be pissed at me.

He put his hands to his temples and groaned, "Don't play this fucking game! You think I'm a fucking idiot, don't you?"

"Devin-"

"I think you fucking forget that I was once one of them." He seethed as he pointed towards the basement, "I know how fast slaves get sold. You don't think I was going to figure it out? When you had slave after slave coming and going and Ricky wasn't going anywhere? There's nothing wrong with him. He obeys, he has a perfect body. There's no reason he should still be here except for one."

I narrowed my eyes at him, seething, "And what reason is that?"

He rolled his eyes with a scoff, "You fucking bought him, didn't you? After you swore to me you wouldn't keep a single one, you did, didn't you?" My only response was to sigh and look down. Ghost slapped me across the face, "Fucking say it out loud."

"Yes!" I snapped at him, "Yes, I bought him the night he came here. I made him my pet and I fucked him in our bed! Is that what you fucking wanted to hear?! And no, I don't forget all those years you spent as a slave. I don't forget what I did to you, what Mike did to you. I can't forget because at some point, I regretted it. When you act like this, though, I wonder why I ever set my worst slave free."

"You've got a lot of balls for someone that I could easily ruin. You constantly hold it over my fucking head how fucking noble it was of you to set me free! You never once consider that I could've turned you in but I didn't. I remembered your name, your phone number, where you lived. But no matter how many times those fucking cops tried to force me to remember, I lied straight to their faces. I lied under oath for you!"

"Alright, fine! We both put our necks on the line for each other. We did it because we loved each other! But I'm not sure you love me anymore." I replied somberly.

"Huh." He gawked as he turned back to look at me, "I don't love you? You're the one that was fucking your little pet in our bed. Well, your bed now."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I'm sleeping in my own room tonight. I... I don't know what I'm going to do... What we're going to do, but I just know I don't want to see your face or hear your voice right now." He said.

Despite our love falling apart, to hear the lips I've kissed so much speak those words to me broke my heart. I felt like an arrow had pierced my chest. As Ghost walked away, I grabbed his wrist. He glanced back at me. With pleading eyes, I was hoping he was soften even for a second. Instead, he raised his lip in disgust at me and shrugged away my hand.

| | |

Whatever happened between Ghost and I, looking back just twenty four hours before, it had become a blur. I know there was hitting and yelling. That's all I remember from our fights. This was the longest we've gone without a fight but it was bound to happen. I was thankful it was a little less violent than most. That's probably just because he was done with me.

He's been avoiding me since. Fine, be a fucking cunt. I still have work to do. Angelo is still assisting Ghost. I guess he's an assistant now instead of a babysitter. I don't really give a shit. Whatever makes him happy and keeps him from scratching out my eyes. I have a lot of work to tend to. Part of me worried about leaving Ricky home with Ghost. It was obvious he held some resentment towards my little pet. So, I brought him with me to Ben's house party.

Ricky followed behind me closely as I walked into the modern home. There were already a good amount of people. I found Nikki leaned back in the corner of a leather couch, sipping on some coffee and Bailey's. He didn't say anything with his mouth but plenty with his eyes. Nikki looked me up and down, seeing Ricky beside me. He seemed shocked I dared to bring my pet.

I sighed, speaking over the noise of chatter, "I'm going to go see Ben for a minute. Will you watch him?"

Nikki wordlessly nodded. At least someone's on my side for once. Ricky did have his proper collar on tonight. I had some faith no one would bother him. Most of Nikki's clients were respectful towards other Doms and what was there. Ben's friends, though? I'm not going to say that for them. They can be a little wild at times. He's much more of a partier than I ever have or ever will be.

Ben was in a different part of the house, secluded from the rest of his guests. It was a reading den type of area. A little more rustic than the rest of the place. Bottles of alcohol laid out on the coffee table. Only two of his friends were about but plenty of slaves of both genders were hanging off of them.

"There's a face I haven't seen in awhile." Denis muttered as he put his feet up on the table.

"I was hoping you'd finally show your face tonight." Ben responded, "I always send invites but you never come to our house parties."

I snubbed off the comment, "Eh, I train the slaves. I don't sell them. I only came tonight to see how these two are doing. May I?"

He gestured his hand outward, "By all means."

Walking around the table and mess of bodies, I came over to where Blake sat on his left. I placed my finger under his chin and titled his head up. He looked healthy and without much scratches. He was always a stubborn little fuck, even after I broke him. "Are you enjoying your new master?" I asked.

"Yes, Sir." He responded with a small smirk playing at his lips.

I released my grip on him, glancing at Ben, "How have they been for you? Behaving?"

"Blake can get a little bitchy at times, but nothing a good whipping doesn't fix. Alexander only ever gets the whip when I feel like hatefucking him. Otherwise, he's a doll." He said.

I stepped over him to get to the other side of him, where Alexander was sat on his knees. He was still so fucking tiny, smaller than Ricky even. Repeating the movements I had made on Blake, I titled his head up. "How've you been, slut?"

"Good, Sir. My Master makes sure I get lots of cock." He said with a wide smile. Fuck, he was such a little whore. I missed it.

"I'm glad to hear that." I replied.

"Sir," Blake timidly spoke, "May I ask, how are the others?"

Ah, that was a mixed bag of answers. I had no problem telling them. After he asked, I could see the look on Alexander's face meant he wanted to know as well. The only problem was that not all the answers were the best. I'll try to sugarcoat it the best I can.

"I bought Angelo and Ricky for myself. In fact, Ricky is here with me tonight. He's in the main room with Nikki right now. I made him my pet. Joy was bought by a very good friend of mine that treats her like a princess. Asher was sold to a slave owner who's... More or less a decent owner. He's decent enough I don't worry about him. Friday... Um, Kuza bought her." I sighed.

"He's not exactly mister nice guy with his toys." Ben commented.

"Trust me, I know. Friday doesn't derserve to be his punching bag. I'm going to try to find her a way out. We'll see how long my being a softy streak lasts."

He titled his drink to his mouth. Upon swallowing the bitter liquid, he said, "The others, they might see it as a bad thing. And true, you don't want to be a fucking Carebear if you're going to train slaves, but I think it's a good thing to have some sympathy. They may be slaves but they depend on us for everything, including their wellbeing and mental health."

"I truly wish the others could understand that." I sighed, "I'm going to head back into the party. I don't like leaving Ricky this long."

"I'll be in in a minute. Josh is coming tonight, by the way. Should be here any minute if he's not already." He replied.

Oh, really? That put an idea in my head and a kick in my step. Another one of my old friends from when I first started out in the business, Josh is a little different than some of the other slave owners I know. From the time I met him, he had a girlfriend, and now fiancé, that he loves dearly. They both, however, fight over dominance. Owning slaves is their way of keeping their relationship balanced. I guess he is in the market for a new cut.

Just my luck, he was sitting with Nikki when I returned. His girlfriend, Ryan-Ashley, was on the end of the couch with her long legs crossed. Josh stood up and hugged me, jabbering about how long it had been. I'm not the best at keeping up long term friendships, alright? I'm a busy man. Nikki got up and headed off to, presumably, prep the slaves. As I sat down, I let Ricky crawl into my lap.

"Never thought I'd set you with a pet." Josh teased me.

I ran my hand over Ricky's soft hair, which made him make the cutest face of contentment. Whenever he smiled, I smiled. "What can I say? I've gone a little soft. Speaking of me being a complete softie, I'm actually glad you're here."

He glanced over to Ryan-Ashley, then to me, "Where is this going?"

"Well, you know how you guys adopted Toronto because you didn't want Cas to be alone?" I asked and he hesitantly nodded, "How would you feel about doing that with two slaves?"

"Slaves? What, are they like brothers, or something?" He questioned.

"Yeah," Ryan-Ashley continued, "Why don't you want them to be separated?"

I sighed and stared at my little raccoon for a moment. He was so sweet, so delicate. Ever since my heart fell for him, I've started to view slaves differently. "Like I said, I've gone a little soft and well, I have two slaves I've been training for Nikki that are in love with each other. They have been for a long time. Of anyone I know, I think you two would understand the most how hard it is to be away from the person you love. I don't want them to be forced to be without each other for the rest of their life."

"Are they both here?" He asked.

"No. Only one is. The other is still at my house. Nikki wants to sell him privately. He's built a little bigger, so I'm sure you could get a good discount on him if you pushed Nikki for it."

Josh glanced back at her again. They were one of those couples that had been together so long that they could have conversations just with facial expressions. He looked back at me, replying, "We'll see how things go tonight."