The King & the Stable Boy

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Evan

After the dinner was completed, I stormed away from the dining hall to the more reserved east commons, not bothering to help my peers clean up. There was something especially malicious about making a guard a server, knowing full well that the residing king knows the significance of the demotion. Had I known that King Noah used to be a servant in these walls, I would've let Roman take care of it.

I couldn't help but feel a bit irritated by it all. It didn't matter when or how the rest of this castle found out, I would always be labeled an outsider, an addition to Roman and Malick's relationship, never truly apart of it. Which, quite frankly, is some bullshit. I'm not like those second chance tramps who get passed around by the village elite, nor am I anything like those kept second chances. Gods above, how I hated their kind. The kept seconds always thought they were above everyone else for being chosen by some mating couple who could afford it. They don't realize that their just glorified pets at the end of it all. If push came to shove, they would be replaced fast enough to give anyone whiplash.

Yet, I couldn't help but acknowledge how I am an outsider. It was death that bounded me to Malick, and divine intervention that bound me to Roman. If that oracle is to be trusted, I'm nothing more than the mate that Mason left behind. Had he not died would I have ever met Malick? Would we have even been friends? Would I have been on more than civil terms than Roman?

I knew what it would be like for them. Roman and Malick wouldn't have this rumor swirling through the palace. They'd be a force to reckon with, stable enough to adopt their own little tike and grow old and bitter together. I put a wrench in their plans. They wanted to sort things out with me as a new variable in their lives before returning to normality.

At night, when they think I'm asleep, I hear their soft whispers of what could've been, their goals, their aspirations on hold as they solve what to do in the present situation.  They've got an entire crowd control plan, yet they never once included me in it. Was that how it was to be for the rest of my days here? Being apart of plans I had no part in making?

I lean against the counter, allowing my thoughts to consume me.

What would I say to the people back home? How could I explain this? Would my chief even give this mating a blessing? Gods, what if he didn't? All of my efforts here would've been for nothing. I would've had Roman and Malick make space for me for nothing.

I put a hand to my forehead. Stupid, stupid. How had I not thought of this sooner? This doesn't constitute as a typical pairing, and as a second chance, I knew my place within the tribe. My heart was still spoken for by the tribe leader. The confusion with their being a bond to Malick made me assume this would be okay. What if it wasn't?

My mind raced itself into a panic, and I felt like I would faint or puke or both. Two arms turned me around and I looked up at Roman, concern washed over his features.

"Evan? Evan! Calm down. Please, hun. Take a deep breath. In and out. In and out." He chanted those three words like they were a mantra, until I was calm enough to function.

"I don't know if I can do this, anymore." I whispered.

I felt him tense, and I expected him to say something, but instead I was being dragged by my arm to his office, just two corridors away. He shut the door behind us and then asked me to explain myself as he thought things were going rather well. So I explained my thought to him.

"Without the blessing of my chief, we can't mark one another."

"Who gives a rats ass what some snooty official says? We're adults, we can consent just fine."

"I care! If I don't get his blessing then I'll be exiled from my tribe."

"So if you'd rather lose what we've all worked towards, what we all have, for your tribe why are you here?" Roman asked, getting angry.

•••

Just a tease.

Wed. and Fri.

11/21/18