The Tiger – Betrayal

Spike frowned at the text on his vid, he´d just been sent Xander´s weekly report and the news was less than stellar:

Slave has mastered all pleasuring techniques as presented, save one. His reluctance to submit is becoming problematic. He constantly fights his very obvious desire to relinquish control to dominant in every session. If his reluctance and disobedience continues, we will be forced to....

He turned away from the screen when the door chimed. Tara was here; ready to make her first report. Spike had hoped to hear something much sooner, but her training as a healer had kept her busy for much longer than he´d expected. He buzzed her in.

"Hello, pet. Have a seat." Spike gestured to her pet chair.

Tara sat down and looked at Spike, her gaze a mixture of wariness and apprehension.

Spike swiveled his chair around to face her. "Settling in okay?"

Tara nodded. "Yes, thank you."

"You been by to see your brother, yeah?" he asked casually, putting his feet up on the desk. "How´s he doing?"

"He´s...okay," she replied honestly.

"Happy?" Spike asked.

Tara reluctantly shook her head. "Not, really. But he´s t–trying. He wants to please you."

Spike perked up at this. "How´d you know? He tell you that?"

Tara frowned. "No, but I know him. He´s..." she broke off.

"Go on, he´s what?"

"Did s–something happen? Between the two of you?" she asked cautiously.

"Lotta stuff happened: nothing to concern yourself with." Spike waved a hand, dismissing her question and decided to change tactics. "How about this: tell me about his past. He ever have a lover?"

Tara closed her eyes, briefly. She did not want to be having this conversation with Spike. "Yes, one, that I know of."

"Guessing by your reaction, it didn´t end well. What happened, they get sold off?"

"Jesse...died," Tara replied cautiously.

Spike narrowed his eyes and tilted his head, examining Tara´s uncomfortable demeanor. "Didn´t happen fall on the end of a pointy bit of wood, did he?"

Tara´s heart sped up in fright. Spike seemed to already know about what happened. Obviously not the specifics, but he knew enough to guess the truth. "Not the first time," Tara whispered, "Jesse was killed by a vampire the first time."

Spike smiled at her hair–splitting. "Point."

"Please, don´t hurt him." Tara´s voice wavered.

"I´m not gonna hurt him, pet," Spike assured her. "Just want him to be mine. You can help with that, can´t you?"

Tara nodded slowly.

"Tell me what I want to know," he persuaded in a low voice. "Help me. What can I do to make it easier for him?"

Tara thought for long moment. She knew if Xander knew that she even considering telling Spike the truth, he would think she betrayed him. But she had to do something; Xander was tearing himself apart fighting Spike. Finally, she said simply, "Just...be kind to him."

"Thank you, pet."

"You wanted to see me?" Xander asked. He tried to keep his respectful demeanor. His trainer had brought him to Spike´s this evening. Adara had been very clear that this was something that was not done, but Spike had insisted upon seeing him.

Spike was lounging back on his couch, wearing only a pair of loose lounging pants.

"Yeah, I did. Come sit with me, pet." Spike waved him over to the couch.

Xander did as he was told, sitting next to Spike. He kept his body language casual, as he´d been taught, but he was still nervous and resentful of his master.

"This is nice." Spike fingered the soft collar of Xander´s transparent blue robe. It was standard gear for the pleasure slaves as they wandered about visiting clients. Only the trainees were kept fully nude all the time.

"It´s nice to not be naked." Xander could tell his tone was a little clipped. He´d have to work on that.

"I like seeing you naked," Spike´s said lightly. He didn´t want to ruffle his boy´s feathers. His fingers traveled to the nape of Xander´s neck, stroking gently.

"Why am I here?" Xander asked quietly. "My trainer says you´re not supposed to see me until I´m done."

Spike sighed. "Things have been tough for you, yeah?"

"I´m doing my best," Xander whispered defensively.

"I know that, pet. Doesn´t make it easy, though, does it?" Spike began fingering the sable strands of Xander´s hair.

Xander panicked at this. "Please don´t hurt, Tara."

"Shh," Spike soothed. "We´re not talking about her. Don´t worry. This is between you and me."

Xander relaxed a tiny bit when he heard this. "What do you want from me?" he asked, hating the desperate whine in his voice.

Spike leaned in close to Xander. "A kiss."

Xander frowned. "You broke me out of training so I could kiss you?"

Spike nodded. "Just a kiss, pet. After that, if you want, you can leave."

Xander raised his eyebrows in disbelief.

"Please?" Spike asked softly.

Xander hesitated for a moment: this was probably the only thing they hadn´t done in training. But if a kiss was what it took to keep Spike happy, he could do that.

He leaned forward, keeping his eyes on Spike until the last moment.

Their lips met tentatively and Xander felt a sharp spark sting his mouth. He jerked away and touched his bottom lip. "Ouch."

Spike was touching his own mouth and his eyes were wide. The vampire looked almost comically concerned. "You okay?"

"Yeah, sorry. Must be static." Xander´s head felt a little strange for a second, like he´d accidentally caught a whiff of Bliss gas, but then everything seemed to clear up.

Spike studied Xander´s face for a moment and then he reached out to stroke his bottom lip with his thumb. "You´re so bloody beautiful."

Xander was surprised by the sincerity in Spike´s eyes and tone. "I – Thanks."

"You brave enough to finish that kiss, pet?" Spike asked softly.

"You gonna shock me again?" Xander asked, with a small grin. It was nice being with Spike like this. The vampire seemed so relaxed, like he didn´t want anything from Xander.

Spike smiled slowly. "Maybe."

Xander laughed and leaned close, pressing his lips against Spike´s once again. It was weird, like all the tension that they had between them was finally gone. The burning resentment that he´d felt since their first kiss had vanished.

Spike parted his lips slightly but he didn´t do anything more until Xander tentatively slipped his tongue inside the vampire´s mouth. Spike made a soft, approving sound and Xander deepened the kiss.

When Xander finally pulled back, he was a little breathless.

"So, nice, Xander, thank you." Spike´s reached out to cup the boy´s cheek, his thumb stroking Xander´s skin lightly. "You can go, if you want."

"You mean that?" Xander was surprised Spike was keeping his word.

"Yeah," Spike replied earnestly. "You held up your end of things. I´ll hold up mine."

Xander mulled over this a moment. Spike hadn´t moved his hand; he was still stroking Xander´s face softly. Xander basked in the gentle touches, something noticeably absent in his training thus far.

Finally, he asked softly, "Do you want me to go?"

Spike shook his head. "No."

"What do you want?" Xander asked, cautiously.

Spike´s blue eyes deepened with lust. "You. Want you to trust me to take care of you."

"I´m afraid," the words slipped out before Xander could stop them.

"I know, pet. But part of you wants that too, doesn´t it? Wants to give up control."

"Sometimes," Xander whispered, looking away.

"Look at me, Xander," Spike commanded gently.

When Xander complied, Spike saw the desire and fear warring in the boy´s eyes.

"We got off to a bad start. Happens that way sometimes, let me try to make it right."

Xander was breathing faster now as his heart rate increased. That was what he wanted; he was so tired of fighting that part of himself. "What do you want me to do...Master?" The last word was whispered in a hopeful, reverent tone.

Spike leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on Xander´s lips, before he withdrew and dropped his hand. "Thank you."

Xander nodded, the movement jerky because of nerves.

Spike hardened his tone so it was firm but not cold. "Strip and kneel on the bench at the end of the bed."

Xander rose off of the couch and slipped out of his robe; his thick cock was already hard from their kiss, jutting out from the pretty thatch of fur between his legs. He reached the bench at the foot of Spike´s bed and knelt as he´d been ordered.

Spike stood up and slid out of his pants. The vampire picked up the item he´d stashed under the couch earlier and walked up behind the boy. He put his lips to Xander´s ear and whispered, "Hands on the bed."

Xander shivered and bent forward, putting his lovely ass on display, showing off the thick black plug nestled between his cheeks.

Spike ran a cool hand over the perfect flesh before pressing the base of the plug. Xander choked off a gasp.

"No, pet, don´t be quiet. I want to hear your sweet music." Spike pressed on the plug again and this time Xander let out a delicious low moan.

Spike gently ran the tails of the flogger along the backs of Xander´s thighs.

"Got a lovely new flogger, pet, just for you. Want to watch your pretty skin pink up for me. All you need to do is ask."

"I –" Xander hesitated, words sticking in his throat.

Spike continued to caress his skin with the toy, letting the boy find his voice. This time it had to be his choice.

Xander hovered on the brink, wanting so desperately for Spike to do this, feel what it would be like to for once give in without begin forced. Finally, he relented. "Please, Master. I want you to use it o–on me." His voice shook and he couldn´t speak above a whisper.

Spike ran a soothing hand along Xander´s trembling flank. "Such a brave boy. I´ll make this so good for you."

Spike drew his hand back and struck the boy for the first time, loving how Xander gasped at the contact.

He worked the flogger steadily, watching the skin pink up first and then deepen to a pretty red. Xander was moaning continuously now, arching into Spike´s blows, making his heavy cock sway.

Spike ran a cool hand over Xander´s sensitive flesh, the boy was shaking from his pent up need. "You want to come, don´t you?"

Xander nodded, begging nearly incoherently. "Please, Master, yes!"

"Not until I´m inside you, pet."

Xander shuddered and then with great effort stilled himself.

Spike slipped fingers under the edge of the plug and worked it out of Xander. He set it aside and began to stroking the sensitive, slick flesh around the boy´s stretched anus. He took the handle of the flogger and pressed the ball end of it against Xander´s hole, not breeching him, only stimulating the already hyper–sensitive nerves.

Xander groaned.

"You´d let me push this inside you, pet, wouldn´t you? Let me give you a pretty leather tail." With every word, Spike rhythmically rotated the ball at the end of the handle, pressing it against the boy, but not pushing it inside.

"Yes, Master. I´m yours." Xander voice shook.

"Hmmm, such a lovely thing to say. And what about me? You want me inside you, pet?"

"Oh, god, yes," came the anguished reply. "It´s all I think about."

Spike paused at this. "You think about me?"

"All the time. I always wish it were you taking me," Xander whispered truthfully.

Spike growled at this admission and tossed the flogger aside. "Gonna feel it now, pet, hold on."

Spike lined himself up and slid inside Xander in one hard thrust, the cradle of his hips smacking hard against Xander´s abused backside. Xander clawed at the comforter as Spike rode him hard.

"You like me filling you up?" Spike panted, as he slammed into Xander over and over.

Xander nodded frantically, pushing himself back into Spike´s punishing thrusts. He was keening continuously; it was music to Spike´s ears.

Spike changed angles, searching for just the right one...

Xander screamed and reared up, pushing Spike impossibly deeper. The vampire wrapped his arms around the boy´s chest, holding him in place as he hammered the sensitive bundle of nerves inside his pet.

"Such a pretty boy, so responsive. Gonna fuck you ´til you come, Xander. Wanna feel you tighten around me before I fill you with my spunk."

"Oh, god!" Xander choked. "Please, please, please, I need..." he let out an anguished sob.

Spike was close to the edge himself. He shifted his grip, hooking his hands over the boy´s shoulders and pressing him down hard onto his cock. They were flush against each other now, and Spike´s lips were level with the boy´s ear. His lips brushed against the sensitive cartilage as he whispered, "Come."

Xander cried out in relief and reached behind himself, gripping the backs of Spike´s thighs, needing to ground himself as he bucked, shuddered and came.

Watching the boy ride out his pleasure and feeling his muscles clamp incredibly tight around his aching cock was enough to send Spike crashing over the edge.

"So good, pet." Spike breathed in the boy´s ear when he finally found his voice again.

"Mmmmhmmm," Xander replied foggily, leaning back and resting his head against Spike´s shoulder.

They stayed there, joined and holding each other close for a several long moments.

Finally Spike whispered, "Should get you cleaned up before we go to bed."

"Mmm, okay," Xander replied, and then asked in a soft, hopeful voice, "You want me to stay?"

"Yeah, pet, I would."

Xander woke up, comfortable, Spike wrapped around him. He was warm and his ass ached pleasantly from their activities last night. It was...nice

He frowned at this. Nice? Since when was being with Spike nice? Xander couldn´t believe some of the things he´d said to Spike last night. Even if they were true, he would never have said them to the vampire. Something wasn´t right.

His stomach clenched and he reached up and touched his bottom lip, remembering the shock he´d gotten last night the first time he and Spike kissed.

"You okay, pet?" Spike asked sleepily.

"You put a spell on me," he whispered in sudden disgust. Xander tried to pull away, but Spike held him tightly.

Spike looked at him, all vestiges of sleep gone. "Yeah, a bit. To loosen your inhibitions."

"Why would you do that?"

"Wanted you to like it: like being with me," Spike replied softly, sounding a little concerned and perplexed.

"So you took away my will. Again." Xander´s tone was bitter.

Spike frowned, this was not going at all like he´d expected. "No, it´s not like that. Just wanted you to stop fighting me, fighting this, ´s all. I wanted this thing to be good between us."

"God, Spike, how could you?" Xander struggled and tried to pull away again.

Spike tightened his grip and said coldly, "Seems like you´re forgetting your place again, pet. You´re mine and I´ll do what I like with you. ´Sides, I wanted to see how you felt about me."

"That´s easy – I hate you."

"You say that now, but your body says different." Spike´s tone was smug. "You were screaming for me, pet."

"It was the spell," Xander insisted.

"It was you and if you just stop bloody fighting, it could be like that all the time," Spike said, getting angry.

Xander shook his head. "I´ll never stop fighting you."

"We´ll see about that," Spike said coldly.

They glared at each other for a few moments, until the door chimed and broke the moment.

Spike released Xander and the boy slid out of bed, moving as far away from Spike as he could.

Spike sighed and sat up, propping himself against the pillows. "Looks like your escort´s here." He tilted his head toward the door. "Go ahead and get your kit on."

Xander slipped his robe on and left with his trainer without saying another word.

Spike stormed into Narella´s office. He´d received a terse summons from the head of the pleasure house insisting he show up immediately. Not like he wasn´t gonna go there anyway, things were not going well with his pet and he wanted that resolved now.

"Sit," she said coldly, pointing to a chair.

"I´m not one of your pets; don´t bloody order me around, poppet." Spike crossed his arms and leaned against the wall.

Narella looked like she was going to object to this, but finally nodded. "I think we can both agree that last night was a serious miscalculation."

"Don´t know about that, it was a bit of all right in the middle." Spike smirked.

Narella grew angry. "You, sir, quite frankly are not suited to sponsor a slave of Xander´s caliber. Your actions have set his training back weeks. He is much more hostile. I warned you that this would happen."

"You said he needed the spell." Spike said defensively. "I wasn´t gonna use one."

"There was nothing wrong with the spell, Sir," she said tersely. "Perhaps the implementation of it was where you went astray."

Spike bristled at her tone. "Boy´s mine and I´ll treat him as I see fit."

Narella eyes flashed angrily. "That´s where you are wrong. You´ve tasked us with his training and we take this very seriously, even if you do not.

"However, because he is yours, I will not be reassigning him to another pleasure house as I would with any other slave. He is going to be sent out for specialized training locally, and you are to be banned from seeing him."

Spike frowned. "Specialized training? Where´s he going?"

"Halsstarrig" she stated simply.

Spike clenched his jaw and narrowed his eyes. Halsstarrig was infamous; they were the specialized pleasure slaves for the warriors. Truth was, those on the Council used the stables sometimes, too. You could pretty much do anything to the slaves there, make them hurt, make them bleed as you fucked them and they´d scream for more. It was one of the Council perks, ´cept now it was his boy that would be there.

"How long?"

"One hundred days. During that time you will not be afforded any contact with your pet. Perhaps by then he will have gotten over his reluctance to service customers."

Spike was silent for a moment. "Fine. I wanna be the one to tell him."

Narella shook her head and lied glibly, "I´m sorry, it´s done. He has already been transferred."

Spike´s eyes narrowed, all the pieces falling into place: Xander´s exceedingly poor review, the ease in which he´d convinced them to allow Xander to visit, the spell that they´d insisted he use. "You set me up."

Narella didn´t reply, but she didn´t have to, the small smirk at the corner of her lips said everything.

Fuck.

"You´ll pay for this."

"Lord Angelus assures me that this is an entirely legal maneuver." Narella looked much too pleased with herself.

What a complete surprise that Angelus had a hand in this, the bastard. Payback for Gen, he supposed.

She held his gaze, and gestured toward the door. "I believe we are finished. Have a lovely day, Sir."

Spike pushed off from the wall and headed toward the door, it opened as he approached. He turned to look at Narella and said coldly, "Whatever deal you got going with Angelus, it won´t protect you from me."

Narella didn´t even blink; she simply added, matter–of–factly, "Do not forget, Master Spike, we have a contract. You will respect it, or your pet will belong to us permanently."

Spike seethed but left Narella´s office without saying anything more.

Once he was through the door, he reluctantly dialed a number on his pocket vid, barking an order as soon as he made the connection, "Gen, get me a copy of Xander´s contract."

As soon as the door closed behind Master Spike, Narella dialed Angelus number. "It´s done. The boy will join the Halsstarrig stables this evening. You have him for one hundred days. "

Angelus smirked. "I´m sending payment now. And Narella?"

"Yes?"

"Tell him the new training was Spike´s idea."

Narella barely surpressed a sigh. Vampires and their mind games. "Of course."

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