Free The Bid by Jax

bluff…
    Wheyn flicked his eyes to Najir. The slave had stood passive the entire time, although he had been close enough to catch some of the exchange. The slave would pay with his life if he attacked a free man of any rank without permission to protect his Master’s life, but the big bastard looked as though he didn’t much care. Najir clearly wanted to rip Wheyn’s head from his body.
    Impressive. If Majum hadn’t hated the bitch with such a passion, he’d ask her how she managed to control the brute, even when it was obvious he did not wish to be in control of himself. Whatever her technique, he was beginning to think that she might even be able to break in her new confection as well one day. As he watched her walk off, Najir in tow, he forced himself to master the furious scream of jealousy the idea sent ripping through him.

6
    S unshine on this planet had a distinctive rose-colored hue.
    It was Vejhon’s first thought as he woke only to wince at the brilliance of the sun reflecting from the imaging windows. His next realization was that he wasn’t alone.
    He was damn slow, in his opinion, as he rocketed to his feet and struck the target lurking beside his bed with full impact. Apparently not all that slow, because Najir took the hit without so much as an attempt to block. Jhon had rammed a knee and shin into the other man’s chest as he had come out of bed on a single pivoting foot, but Najir was a big, solid bastard, and he only staggered back a step or two before digging his balance back in. Still, it gave Jhon time to reapproach.
    Yeah , he thought grimly, I’m slower than sludge . Too many days in stasis had taken their toll. The result was Najir’s smooth ability to strike him right underneath his next attack. Both men moved with full power and total commitment, Jhon’s strike only glancing off Najir as the slave countered with a fast, mean maneuver that hauled Jhon off his feet and sent him tumbling off his opponent’s back. Jhon discovered the burn of friction against his skin as he hit the stone floor sliding.
    Using the momentum for advantage out of pure habit, Jhon rolled right back up onto his feet, and he tried to regain his balance as Najir approached looking mightily pissed off.
    “Don’t be an idiot!” Najir snapped, coming to an unexpected halt and discontinuing the altercation, something Vejhon would never have expected or done himself if he’d been attacked. “I know how you feel and what you are thinking, Colonel, but your temper and outrage at others does not belong in this House! This House is your salvation. My Lady is your precious savior, your guide into a life of unimaginable wonder, and all you want to do is fight it?”
    “I’m a warrior,” Vejhon sneered. “It’s in the job description. And I highly doubt that your leash holder is anybody’s savior. If I hadn’t promised my mother not to use certain words in reference to a female, I’d tell you exactly what she is.”
    It was actually amusing to watch the color of fury that climbed the other man’s neck. Najir curled his hands into fists and used what appeared to be extraordinary restraint to keep his feet firmly in place and his fists out of Jhon’s face. Vejhon had to give the man his due. In his top shape, it was likely that he would have wiped the floor up with Najir, but he had never had that kind of control over his emotions and impulses. He had adapted to the weakness, using it to make himself a better fighter and leader in the long run, but he’d always been notorious for his temper.
    “I know everything you’re feeling right now,” Najir announced. “Ten years ago, had I been faced with a man of our power and strength behaving docilely and respecting to someone of this society, I would also have been as disgusted by him as you are by me. We are not so different, you and I, and yet…we are just different enough to make you the luckier man.” Najir obviously had no plans to explain that remark as he