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Paulo had been about to start on more of the oat cakes. Asterion took another slow sip of wine and simply waited for Paulo to obey. Paulo's fingers trembled as they undid his loincloth. The white loincloth of his slavery.

Warm chamber air touched his red erection. Then so did the thick knuckle of the minotaur's finger, a gentle stroke up the underside. Paulo stiffened.

"Do you know why I chose you first, Paulo?" Asterion asked.

"W...why, kyrios?"

"Your smell. Your scent changes each time you hear my voice. It becomes laced with pheromones that a bull could not mistake for anything but the signs of rut in the air."

"You mean I was the easiest target. The weakest of the pack," Paulo said.

A finger traced along his ear, sending goosebumps down Paulo's back.

"You will forget about the pack in time."

Asterion's thumb rubbed between his balls.

"No," Paulo whimpered.

"It has already begun. Any other of your pack would have pulled away by now. You are leaning forward. Into my caresses."

Paulo jerked in surprise. Asterion chuckled.

"It is flattering, in a way. And refreshing not to force myself upon a slave for once."

"You mean you've raped-"

"I take what is mine by right, dog. As lord of this island," Asterion's thunder cut Paulo off. "None can resist my strength, and that is arousing to me."

"Then why do you dote on me?" Paulo demanded. "Why not take what you want and be done with me?"

"I will if I must, slave," Asterion rumbled ominously. "I had hoped you might be honest enough to admit your desire."

"My honor-" Paulo began.

"What honor does a slave have?" Asterion snapped.

Paulo had no answer to that. Asterion jerked his head away, his dark eyes smoldering at the wall.

"Look to your left and you will see a stairway. Follow it and make three right turns. You will find yourself back in the hall with your blessed packmates."

Paulo blinked. He hesitated. The bull grabbed the wine pitcher and hurled it against Paulo. Red wine splattered across his white fur.

"Get out!" Asterion roared.

Paulo cringed to avoid the blow of the pitcher, but underneath it his mind raced. Here, now, was a chance to make a difference. For his brothers. For Thesesus. It was only a tiny crack, but it was a weakness. Asterion had a weakness, one Paulo could almost grasp with his mind, if not yet articulate aloud.

Paulo remained where he was.

"I...I don't want to leave."

The bull turned his huge head and those dark eyes narrowed to slits.

"Your leader is cleverer than I thought. Did he see how I fondled you before in the corridor and instruct you to grow close to me if you could?"

"Yes," Paulo said. He kept his eyes averted. Eyes told too much. And the best lies were half woven from the truth.

"But you were also right, my lord," Paulo said. "I...do desire you."

"And what of your honor? Or do your loyalties always change so easily?" Asterion asked.

"I do not know who to be loyal to any more," Paulo muttered. "It's true I love Theseus. All of us do. He alone gives us hope. We cannot help but love him for that."

"No," Asterion said softly. "I suppose you cannot."

Paulo dared a glance at the minotaur. Asterion was still looking at the relief of his divine father, studying it. Or searching that stone face for something.

"What is it you want, Asterion?" Paulo asked.

The bull's thick lips parted. But then shut again firmly.

"I do not trust you, Paulo. You are not the first I have sought to bed who hid a dagger amid the sheets."

"You said you hoped I was different. That I would give myself to you willingly. How could I give myself to you if you do not open yourself to me, Asterion? I suspect you know there is more to making love than the animal rutting you've always had, and you hoped to touch it with me."

Paulo reached out with his paw, covering the bull's mighty hand.

"You will never know that sort of intimacy if you do not lower your guard."

For the first time, Paulo saw the bull struggling to decide.

Asterion shifted his heavy bulk and leaned closer to Paulo. Those dark bovine eyes locked with his.

The bull did not answer Paulo's question. Nor did he force himself onto the husky. He simple waited. He did not need to give the order, Paulo knew his expected role. No intimacy, then. Nothing to bind them but lust. Willing lust, perhaps, but only that. The bull would not yield.

One of Asterion's great hands was resting on the cushion between Paulo's thighs, fingers less than an inch from the husky's still-erect member.

There was no choice for Paulo. He, far more than Theseus and, he suspected, many of the other huskies, could accept the idea of slavery. Cretan slaves were treated well, he knew that much.

Even if Asterion had insisted Paulo leave, Paulo would not have moved. Because half of what Paulo had told Asterion was the truth. And Paulo could no more deny the truth than he could deny this magnificent creature what the treaty between Crete and Athens said was his due.

"No," Asterion said when Paulo bent forward to kiss him. Paulo's ears flicked in confusion.

"We are not lovers, dog," Asterion said, but he said it gently. "You must not think yourself my equal in this."

Paulo changed the course of his lips. He grasped Asterion's thick wrist and raised the bull's hand to his lips. He closed his eyes. His lips cupped around each of the powerful knuckles.

Paulo turned the hand over and rolled his tongue against the palm. He tasted sweat, rich and salty. Beneath it lay the flavor of Asterion. The flavor of male, so heady and earthen, so undeniable that Paulo could not help the soft hum that rose in his throat.

Asterion's other hand rose, covering Paulo's genitals. The bull caressed Paulo's balls and his shaft like a warrior testing a blade. He grunted.

"No wonder you Athenians lost the war. You are hung like pubescent Cretan boys."

Paulo opened his mouth for an angry protest, but Asterion moved before he spoke, and what came out instead was a short gasp followed by a quick chain of high pitched moans that rose in pitch and volume. Because Asterion was kissing him. Or rather, consuming him.

Lips thicker and fuller than any Paulo had ever known latched onto his neck. They kissed up to the sweet spot directly behind and under Paulo's ear and then parted to emit the very tip of that massive bovine tongue. But Paulo's loudest voice was for Asterion's hand. The hand not gripping his shaft.

"Louder, slave," Asterion sneered in his ear.

He pushed in deeper, and Paulo nearly came as the blunt thick tip of the minotaur's finger plunged against his prostate. That diabolical finger stroked him like a kitten until Paulo was mewling like one.

"Now," boomed Asterion, "you will look upon TRUE manhood."

Asterion's hands grabbed Paulo's shoulders and shoved him back onto the pillows. The massive bull straddled his body, spreading thighs thicker than the full grown trunk of the chestnut tree that had shaded Paulo's bedroom window as a boy. Paulo was cupped into the palm of the bull's scent. It swirled into his nostrils - an intoxicating brew of smells Paulo knew well. There was the scent of hot cow hide, and of dried sweat, and a faint whiff of urine. Barn smells. Farm smells. Yet laced with them was royal scented oil from Asterion's most recent bath.

Paulo looked down at the source of the bull's musk. The distant glimpse he'd had of Asterion's shaft before was frightening enough. Up close there was no other word for it but monstrous.

Asterion's swollen head was easily the size of Paulo's fist. He could see the way the thick lips of the urethra seemed to yawn at him like a hungry mouth. Veins criss crossed the length of it like vines around the column of the Temple of Zeus. Asterion's meat throbbed at a span equal to a grown man's arm, and very nearly as thick. Bellow them hung the testicles. They were like melons. Paulo could have gripped a single one in his paw and not been able to squeeze it. The thing was obscene. A faint part of Paulo's mind thought perhaps Poseidon had given such a thing to his son as a joke.

"This is the killer of men," Asterion proclaimed in pride. "Now. Honor the greatest phallus of the Aegean."

Paulo slid his paws into the deep furrows of the bull's waist. He was amazed at the smooth texture of the skin, the soft and supple way Asterion's hide seemed to caress his fingers in return.

Paulo used his grip to pull himself forward and kiss that puckered cum slit. No stranger to pleasuring other males, Paulo expected the head to have the bland, very slightly salty flavor he attributed to such things. But no, THIS manhood tasted as rich as seasoned beef sausage before the salt is added to cure it. And it left a film of flavor like a skin on Paulo's tongue.

Paulo's mind deserted him. He reached down and grabbed the massive shaft with both paws behind the head and began to cram bovine head into his muzzle like a starving man. He breath shook like a man in a fever.

Asterion gave no words, but the sounds he did grace Paulo with reminded the husky more of whale song than the rutting grunts of a mere bull. Paulo responded in kind. His head spun. He opened his mouth and drug his tongue across the bull's cum slit. Merciful Fates, Dionysus himself had possessed him!

Paulo slid himself downward and rammed his face into the obscene, heavy scrotum.

"Ohh!" Asterion bellowed.

Paulo snarled. He dug his blunt claws into the flesh of that hard, huge bovine rump. Asterion's mighty hands clenched in the pillows and with a loud bellow he sank his bulk down onto his slave.

Paulo was pinned beneath those huge sex orbs. The bull kept his genitals shaved as was the custom among Cretan royalty. Paulo had never had a man who shaved that particular area. But he very quickly made a vow to Pan, Dionysus, and Aphrodite Herself that if ever he lived to breathe free air again, he would insist all his lovers shave theirs.

With nothing but smooth skin and musk and a building film of sweat, Paulo's lips and tongue glided with the smooth grace of a knife spreading butter. It felt like acres of ball sac, the heavy warm mounds sandwiching his muzzle between them as Asterion began to grind and hump his face.

They moved together, grunting, rocking, swaying in the pillows. At some point there was a loud clatter as Asterion's shifting weight knocked over the plates.

Paulo caught flashes of firelight, glimpses of the white bull on the wall of the room, looming massive, towering over him from his close perspective.

Then there was nothing but sensation, rising from the depths of his sex. Paulo passed the point of no return. He could not stop. Dared not stop. He wanted it. Gods of light and darkness, holy or obscene how he WANTED it!

Paulo's air was forced from his lungs when Asterion hugged the husky to his gigantic body. Paulo sucked in a tiny gulp of precious air as if drinking a reservoir of it from the cuts of Asterion's heaving, flexing muscles.

They came together. Paulo never heard his own scream. Asterion's bellow drowned out all else.

The next thing Paulo was aware of, he was lying in a bruised and exhausted, panting heap amid scattered pillows. Something hot and wet soaked his fur from neck to knees. Paulo tried to move.

He winced and groaned. A soft, deep chuckle rumbled next to his ear.

"So. Perhaps you Greeks are made of sterner stuff than I thought," Asterion said. He gave Paulo a slow, tender lick over his neck.

"Mmmmmmrrrrr..." Paulo shivered.

Paulo turned his head. He stared at Asterion.

Asterion was smiling at him. They lay together, side by side, very much as if they were lovers, though Asterion had denied Paulo that honor. But Paulo stared at the expression on the minotaur's face.

If the midsummer's morning sun could have smiled at the Earth as He rose, Paulo could not imagine a more fitting smile than Asterion's. A lump rose in Paulo's throat.

Asterion reached across and cupped his cheek. He still said nothing. Then he rose.

Paulo again tried to get up. His ears caught the sound of water being poured. Asterion knelt beside him and dabbed a soft linen cloth over Paulo's belly.

"What...?" Paulo asked.

Asterion chuckled again.

"It would not do to have you return to your companions dripping in seed."

***

As promised, Ariadne returned that night. The first Paulo knew of her presence was a female hand over his muzzle.

Paulo padded among the huskies until he reached Thesesus. Ariadne stood over him. Paulo watched her brilliant aquamarine eyes roam over his nearly nude form. Theseus jerked in his sleep. Fighting Asterion, Paulo thought. Ares was training Theseus in his dreams for the confrontation to come.

Ariadne bent and planted a gentle kiss on Thesesus's brow. Theseus opened his eyes. He sat up without a sound and glanced at Paulo, who nodded.

Ariadne beckoned the two huskies follow her. They walked down the corridor to the nearest patch of torch light. Ariadne drew back her hood. Theseus's eyes widened slightly. Paulo did not blame him. The she-wolf sorceress was even more beautiful now than she had been. Her fur was groomed to an ebony sheen, and she wore a circlet of silver on her brow.

Theseus spoke without preamble.

"You may be a servant of Hecate, but you are also a daughter of Crete. Why would you betray your kinsman to help us?"

Ariadne's smile was sly.

"Look at me, Theseus. Look at my eyes. Hear my voice. You have seen me before."

Theseus's brow knit. Ariadne gave a slow nod. For the first time in his life, Paulo saw a look of true fear cross the face of his prince.

"You!" Theseus whispered. "But...that was a dream!"

"A pleasant dream if you recall," Ariadne said with a touch of admonishment. "I gave myself to you that night, in spirit if not in flesh. And you did not deny me then."

"Theseus, what is this?" Paulo demanded.

Ariadne cut him off.

"I have watched your prince from the seeing pool of Hecate's temple. I saw him first many years ago, during my initiation into the sisterhood. Even as I grew into my powers, I watched him grow into his role as the leader of Greek's most powerful city-state. A man of destiny. There is no mistaking the golden thread woven into his Fate. Theseus is to be a man of greatness. Immortal. His name spoken by men for a thousand years and beyond."

"And so you stole into my dreams like a succubus?" Theseus hissed.

Ariadne looked slapped.

"Not everything I do is calculated, Theseus," she said. "And there were more dreams than that. Many more dreams. And always you welcomed me. I stole into your phantom arms on the nights of my trials, after the lashes of the Furies scoured my naked flesh and gave my blood to Hecate, binding me to her service at ever deepening levels. Don't you remember?"

Theseus slowly started to nod.

"Yes. Yes, I remember now. You came to me on my first campaign against Thebes. On the night I lost my best friend. And again when the news came of Athens' loss to Knossus when...when my mother ended her life in shame."

"Your lips know mine. Your paws know my fur and your muzzle knows my scent," Ariadne said, tears unshed but shining there in her eyes. "How is it that when you see me in the flesh you speak to me so?"

"But this is witchcraft," Theseus snarled.

"No," Ariadne said, "this is love."

"Theseus?" Paulo said.

Theseus did not look at Paulo as he spoke.

"Leave us, Paulo. Make sure the men are asleep. Ariadne and I have much to discuss."

Make sure the men still slept. Easy enough to say. But Paulo got no more sleep that night. He stared down the corridor to the distant torch, flickering like a star. Would Theseus and Ariadne do more than talk? Would she take off his slave cloth and he take off her robes, caress her breasts, draw her down onto his manhood and...

Paulo turned away. He could not blame Theseus if he did. By Zeus, none of the pack would blame him. They were only mortal. And Ariadne was so lovely it was unearthly. She was as heavenly in her beauty as Asterion was hellish in his own.

The irony made Paulo chuckle in the dark. Sex seemed to be the key to everything in this Labyrinth. Both he and Theseus worked for the same goal, out of the same urges. Love, lust and duty wove both of them together with their respective partners as knotted as the corridors that entrapped them.

Paulo heard the familiar sound of stone move on stone. He was not surprised when he turned and found a platter of fish and clams waiting for their breakfast. He hunched over it and ate a few bites.

It would take direct intervention from the gods for Theseus to survive a fight with Asterion. Paulo was convinced of that. Even if Theseus somehow won them their freedom, Paulo could not imagine how such a mighty creature as the minotaur could ever be killed. There would be more tributes. More virgin males sacrificed to the insatiable lust of Poseidon's bastard child.

Paulo threw down the empty clam shell and rubbed behind his ears. Think, dog. Think! There HAD been something there, in the room where he and Asterion had mated. For one brief moment, Paulo had almost understood it. What was it Ariadne had said? That Asterion was as horrified of himself as the Greeks were.

In his mind's eyes, Paulo saw again how Asterion had searched the face of the bull Poseidon. Paulo knew that look, now that he thought deeper on it. And it was the look of a man searching for answers. The look of a man asking the gods why such curses had been laid upon him.

Paulo growled in frustration. What did that get him? Crete had a monster prince pretending to be royalty in order to stave off the horror of his own existence. How tragic and theatrical. But what by Athena was the USE of knowing that? How could Paulo make it a weapon?

"Mother of Wisdom, what am I missing?" Paulo whispered.

A torch approached. Theseus held it. He was alone, but he carried a cloth satchel over one shoulder. Paulo tried to read his expression.

"Still awake?" Theseus asked.

Paulo nodded.

"Just as well," Theseus said and slowly smiled. "I hoped you would be the first to hear how we will escape."

"Escape?" Paulo cried, careful to keep it soft.

Theseus grinned.

"Ariadne's been preparing for this for some time, bless dark Hecate. She used her arts to give me this."

Theseus reached down to the satchel. He pulled out what looked like a massive spider's egg sac. It glittered faint silver under the torch light.

"With this thread, we can find our way to any of the Labyrinth's servants' entrances. We must find the one nearest the wharf. Ariadne will meet us there with a ship ready to sail."

"And...the bull?" Paulo asked.

Theseus's smile grew iron hard. He slit the ball of thread back into the satchel and drew out a sword and scabbard.

"I need no magic to deal with him."

"Then you still mean to go through with this challenge?"

"Even if all I had were Ariadne's thread, I would not leave this accursed place until it's lord lay dead at my feet. The honor of all Greece cries out for that abomination's head."

"When?" Paulo asked.

"Three days from now. But by Ares and Zeus himself, if Asterion moves to pluck one of us again, I will make my challenge then," Theseus vowed.

Paulo fell silent. His jaw worked. His fists clenched at his sides.

Theseus put a paw on his shoulder.

"Paulo, what troubles you?"

Paulo shut his eyes.

"When Asterion took me, I thought I saw a weakness in him. Nothing physical, of course. But a weakness in the MAN within the monster. There is something he desperately wants, Theseus. If only I could put it into words!"

Theseus's paw tightened.

"Do not think on it too hard, Paulo. Inspiration flees the harder you try to capture it. If it be the gods will, you will know it in time. For now, I will have to rely on my swordsmanship."

Paulo put his paw on Theseus's shoulder.

"Ariadne was right. You are a great man. The bravest, most noble man I have ever known."

Paulo bent and kissed Theseus on the lips. Theseus smiled back at him and patted his shoulder.

"The nightmare is almost ended, dear Paulo," he said.

***

Paulo woke to the sounds of screams. Someone tripped over him. Paulo heard deep laughter above the terrified yowls and whines.

Paulo scrabbled to his feet. He looked around wildly for Theseus, but the prince was missing, and so was Ariadne. Without their leader, the rest of the pack cowered in each other's arms under the immense shadow of the minotaur.

Asterion's reek rose from him like steam. The bull's immense muscles looked even larger, if that were possible. Bloated and tight to the skin. Paulo could see sweat shine off the dark hide of Asterion's huge chest.

If Asterion were a husky, Paulo would have guessed him a warrior returned fresh from the training field. Paulo could also guess what that meant for the massive bull's mood. Paulo often felt a rush of desire after a vigorous sparring match, especially if he'd won.

Asterion's shaft was already bucking free of the loincloth. Paulo heard several of his packmates swear in terror. Asterion looked at all of them with nothing short of hunger. The bull wanted all of them, and he'd arranged to split the pack away from Theseus in order to get it. Paulo had no doubt the bull was willing and able to spear each and every one of them before being satisfied.

"So," Asterion boomed, nostrils flaring. "Who first?"

There was nowhere to run. What had been an ordinary corridor when Paulo went to sleep was now a dead end, with sheer rock behind the huskies and a wall of heaving, sweaty lustful muscle in front.

The huskies moaned and hid their eyes. Paulo glanced back at them with a sudden wave of disgust. Gods, if their fellow Athenians could see them now!

Asterion grabbed one husky around the ruff and drug him, shrieking, back down the corridor. The husky's claws scraped long thin lines on the stone as he begged for help.

Paulo ran after him.

"Asterion! Stop this!"

The minotaur laughed.

"It is sport I want, slave. And this little delicacy is going to give it to me!"

"Your Highness. Kyrios. Please."

Asterion paused. He looked back over one huge shoulder at Paulo.

"Then you must take his place."

"Only if you swear to leave the others as well," Paulo said.

"Bah! One willing slave for four unwilling ones? You think that a fair bargain, do you?" Asterion teased.

Paulo forced himself to sidle toward the huge bull and run a paw up one sweaty flank.

"I can make it one. You know I can."

Asterion dropped his captive. The husky ran back the way he'd been drug almost on all fours.

"Done."

"Where is Theseus? What have you done with him?" Paulo demanded.

"That slave is more trouble than he is worth," Asterion snarled. "I had to shift the Labyrinth so quickly the counter weights nearly shattered. Your pack will find him soon enough. At least he makes a good shepherd for you. I know where to find any of you I wish just by tracing his scent."

Asterion snorted, slapping at his crotch.

"Now see what you've done! I've gone soft again!"

"Theseus was right. You are a beast."

Asterion slapped him. Paulo spun in a full circle and crashed to the hard stone. He saw stars and fought for breath. When his lungs could work again, he tasted the blood from his slip lip.

Paulo started to rise and froze when he felt a heavy hoof press into his spine.

"I swear by Poseidon the next one of you to call me that will be crushed in my bare hands. For the last time, I AM A PRINCE!"

Asterion's growl was enough to flatten Paulo to the ground again and make his ears ring. Paulo jerked his head back and glared up at the bull.

"Then act like one, Asterion! What kind of prince terrorizes and rapes helpless palace slaves?"

The hoof retreated. Asterion seemed to see Paulo's bloody lip for the first time. He looked down at his massive hand and clenched it. His eyes shut and his ears flattened to the sides of his great head.

"Paulo it is you! What have I done?" he whispered.

Paulo used the nearby wall to stand. His feet were still unsteady from the blow.

"Of course it is me. Who else would volunteer himself to you?"

Asterion shook his head. His eyes were still shut.

"I did not know who you were. I did not care."

"What do you mean?" Paulo asked.

Paulo stared as Asterion slumped against the far wall. One hand clutched at the stone while the other covered the bull's eyes. The minotaur, the Bull of Crete, was weeping.

"You cannot know," Asterion sobbed. "You cannot imagine what it is to have these urges! To be so consumed by lust or rage that you cannot think, and can only NEED, can only CRAVE. Three decades I have tried to master the bull within me, and always it returns to consume me!"

Asterion turned a tear-stained face to look at Paulo.

"You at least see a man within this body instead of an abomination."

Paulo went to the minotaur. He held both enormous hands in his paws and when Asterion slid down the wall to sit on the floor, he held Asterion's horned head against his chest and stroked the massive neck.

"I never wanted to harm anyone," Asterion whispered.

"This Labyrinth is more than just a cage for your sex slaves, isn't it?" Paulo said. "This is your exile."

Asterion gave a single nod.

"Until I can master my own instincts, I cannot face King Minos and demand he recognize my royal birthright."

"Minos has an heir?" Paulo asked.

Asterion huffed.

"A simpering, scheming wretch. Born to some palace whore he took as a surrogate mother in lieu of his queen. Her passage was destroyed by my birth. She will never bear again."

"So. Poseidon used you and your mother to punish Minos for his arrogance, and then discarded you both."

"The gods' will is what it is," Asterion said.

"That does not make it just," Paulo answered.

He winced when a gentle finger touched his lip.

"We must see to that," Asterion said.

Asterion gathered himself and stood. He held Paulo's paw in his great hand, but Paulo could not help feeling it was he who held Asterion, now. The massive bull still looked shaken by what he had done.

This time, after a series of turns, Asterion guided Paulo into a torch lit bath chamber. Steaming water waited, silent and mirror still. A tiled border design ringed the large square pool. Paulo noticed a carved bronze box resting beside the pool.

"Remove your cloth and get into the water," Asterion ordered.

Paulo blushed but took off the white linen from around his waist. He could feel Asterion's eyes watching his bare, sculpted rump and back as he slid in.

The pool was built for someone twice his size. Paulo had to tread water. He swam to the far side in a few strokes and held on to the pool's lip with one paw.

The water rose and almost overflowed the basin when Asterion stepped in. It licked at the thick blunt nipples of the bull. Asterion filled the pool, resting his thick, muscular arms to either side.

Asterion opened the box. He took out a cloth and dipped it in the water. One big hand gently held Paulo by the chin while he dabbed at Paulo's cut lip. Paulo winced. There would be a nasty bruise over one half of his face in a few hours.

Paulo found himself panting. The air was hot as midsummer in the chamber. More small rivers of sweat rolled down the minotaur's neck.

"I often come here to relax after training," Asterion said.

"I would be frightened to see the size of the equipment you must use," Paulo said.

Asterion chuckled.

"When one has as much time on his hands as I do, one tends to take the few diversions he has very seriously."

He turned to the side and curled a huge fist. Paulo's eyes widened. He ran a paw over the gargantuan mountain of Asterion's hard bicep in disbelief.

"What do you think?" Asterion asked.

"It is hard to judge in this light."

"Well," Asterion smiled. "That will not do."

Asterion climbed out of the water. His footsteps thudded toward the wall. Paulo blinked at the sudden flare of light. Asterion lit a second ring of torches. The light felt painful to Paulo's eyes, accustomed as they were now to the dim corridors. He rubbed some tears away.

Asterion slid back into the water and took a bronze razor from the box.

"Here."

Paulo gave a soft laugh.

"You have no beard, bull. What am I supposed to shave?"

Asterion smiled.

"All the rest, dog."

Paulo worked with care. He could feel the immense power in those tense, hard muscles under his paws as he slid the blade over Asterion's enormous chest. He remembered Ariadne's talk of how valuable the minotaur's hair was. Asterion was wasting a fortune with this indulgence.

"You have a practiced paw for a furred creature," Asterion noted.

Paulo blushed.

"I was raised on a farm. I know shearing and shaving."

"Would I be worth much to a buyer, do you think?"

Asterion's grin told Paulo it was a joke. Paulo chuckled.

"Your belly is a tricky spot. I need to concentrate."

Paulo worked the blade over the ridges of Asterion's abs in short scrapes. He tapped Asterion on his side. Asterion turned around to present that enormous back. The skin under the fur was as soft as new bed sheets. Paulo felt a rising urge to caress those bulging contours. He revealed Asterion's body bit by bit like a sculptor scraping the last bits of clay from his masterpiece.

"Raise your arms," Paulo murmured.

Asterion cupped the back of his head with both hands, elbows to the ceiling. Water dripped down the deep curves of his triceps and his abs flexed into sharp relief.

The stench from Asterion's arm pits sent Paulo reeling. He could see why it was turned into such an effective male perfume. His mouth watered for more. It was the silent roaring boast of a virile, healthy male. The promise of a sire of strong calves.

"What would you do if you met a female minotaur?" Paulo asked.

Asterion smirked.

"Invite her to dine with me."

"Oh I'm sure. And would steak be the main course or the dessert?"

Asterion rumbled with laughter.

"Perhaps she would not have me."

"Impossible."

Asterion raised an eyebrow.

"Is that flattery in your voice, Paulo?"

"Just the honey to ease the poison I'll drip in your ear when you sleep. Right before I cut off your head," Paulo said.

Asterion raised his muzzle and bellowed laughter to the ceiling. Paulo laughed with him.

Asterion turned around and eased his bulk against the side of the pool and used the water's buoyancy to raise his rump within range of the blade. The razor whispered as Paulo shaved those twin voluptuous mounds.

Little else was said while Paulo shaved Asterion's sculpted thighs. Now, only the crotch remained. A dense black carpet of wet fur surrounded the base of Asterion's heavy sheath. It was coarse to the touch, like the hair of a true bull.

Asterion held Paulo's wrist. Paulo dropped the razor back into the box and his paws cupped Asterions' heavy balls. Paulo shut his eyes. Once again, he buried his face in the bull's sex.

Asterion let out a soft moo when Paulo' s tongue found his hidden cock head, still swathed inside the folds of protective skin.

Paulo had been erect through most of the shaving. Now that he was at last tasting the bull, he began to leak clear precum into the water. Asterion let him suckle between his enormous thighs just long enough for the husky to loose himself in his desire, then he pushed his head away.

Paulo almost bawled in protest. Asterion chuckled and tapped his nose.

"Soon enough, my little dog. Soon enough. But first I want you to appreciate your master."

Paulo looked up and beheld Asterion's body. Now shaved and smooth, there was nothing to hide those incredible muscles. On a human or a husky, they would have been obscene, so massive as to be deformed. Only the bull's thick bones allowed such size to be feasible.

"Asterion," Paulo whispered. "Oh...kyrios...you are beautiful!"

Paulo drew out the word into an exhalation. Asterion looked as if he had been waiting all his life to hear those words, spoken that way. The engorged python of his penis rocketed outward.

Asterion lunged for Paulo. They slammed into each other and this time there was no holding back. The bull's hard, deep, demanding snarls and snorts made Paulo shudder while he gave back bleating little moans, whines, yowls, almost vulpine yiffing barks.

Asterion smeared Paulo into his bulk like a salve. Paulo could only shut his eyes and move his lips, his tongue, letting the bull guide him where he wished. He tasted the minotaur's nipples while Asterion bellowed and gripped the back of his head. He ate out the cleft between his chest muscles and rolled his tongue up and down the abs.

A drop of saliva fell from Paulo's panting tongue as he beheld Asterion's throbbing meat.

"Yes, dog," Asterion hissed. "Come. Taste me!"

Paulo slowly smirked and eyed him.

"A slave like me should taste something else, kyrios. Turn around."

He half expected Asterion to become enraged, but the bull just groaned and rolled over, almost humping the edge of the pool in need. Paulo gripped the sides of his smooth, bulging thighs.

His lips puckered against Asterion's rump cheeks. He left soft, slow kisses across both of them and felt the great bull begin to shudder.

"Deeper," Asterion mooed.

Paulo smiled and spread those luscious mounds, revealing a dark brown star, clean as a baby's skin, and twitching in anticipation.

He kissed it. He kissed the minotaur's ass. He slurped it like candy and tried to drive his muzzle into the thing, but even relaxed, it was far too strong for him to penetrate. But it didn't matter. Asterion bellowed and mooed to shake the ceiling.

"Paaauuulo!"

Paulo gasped. He hugged Asterion's huge back, humping him, groaning.

"Asterion! Ohhh cruel fates, why can't I take you? I want you inside me! I want you, kyrios! I want you to mate me!"

"Perhaps not all of me," Asterion grated. "But you SHALL have what you can."

The bull's big hands held Paulo under his arms. Paulo was turned around. He automatically spread his legs wide, raised his tail. He panted hard and tried to relax.

Full. So wonderfully full. So warm. Paulo had taken men before, but never had a phallus so utterly satisfied him. Paulo came with the first thrust, fouling the clear water with milky white and letting loose a half scream that ripped through the air.

Asterion crushed Paulo against him, his lips pressed behind Paulo's ear and his blunt teeth sinking into the dog's neck.

"Say it again! Say it again!"

"Asterion, you're beautiful!"

"Ohhhh GODS! Unnnnh!"

Asterion's climax sounded like the wrath of all Olympus. Within seconds his milky seed was splattering out from Paulo's anus wherever it could, unable to be contained in such a small orifice. Paulo writhed on the head, wincing hard as the pressure built. It was like receiving an enema, but he endured it. He endured it for Asterion.

* * *

Paulo woke with a soft hum of remembered pleasure. He rolled over. The hard stone grating on his back made him blink and sit up. The pack of huskies slept around him under one of the torches.

Paulo blinked rapidly. He raised a paw to his face and felt his fingers come away wet. Weeping? For what? This was his life, now. It had been for the gods knew how many days and nights.

But to be used and then sent back to the Labyrinth like...like a sex toy. Paulo hugged himself and struggled for control. Too close. Too intimate. He was becoming too involved with Asterion. Loosing perspective. After all, he only played the whore in order to learn more about the bull's weakness. Didn't he?

Paulo walked off on his own into the darkness. He no longer feared being lost. He half fancied certain corridors he passed were familiar. Something twinged under his slave cloth. Paulo found a torch and pulled his loincloth away.

A gleaming golden ring encircled the base of his sheath.

Paulo melted against the side of the corridor and wept. He was not even sure why he did. For shame, for rage, for love, were they one and the same thing? He only knew that now he was lost in more than one maze. And in the second, there would be no magic thread to lead him out again.

"Paulo? Are you all right? Paulo!"

Paulo hastily wrapped his loincloth back in place as Theseus came running out of the dark. The pack was behind him with torches. Theseus put a paw on his shoulder.

"Did he hurt you?"

Paulo shook his head.

"I followed Ariadne's advice. He had no need to beat me into submission."

Theseus nodded, but he pursed his lips and pulled Paulo into a tight embrace.

"You are a true brother in arms, Paulo," he whispered. "No man should have to sacrifice his dignity as you did. I would honor you."

Paulo stepped back, ears splayed to the sides.

"Honor me?"

"I spoke to the rest of the pack, and they told me you volunteered yourself to the bull rather than let him ravage the entire pack. Your will was strong enough to bear the beast's attentions and not surrender."

Paulo blushed.

"There's no need to honor me for that."

Theseus stroked his ruff.

"All the same, I insist you take your share and half of mine of whatever food we are left tonight. Ariadne met with me while you were absent. It will not be long now, and this nightmare will be over."

Paulo quivered again. Theseus turned away for a moment, and the light dimmed as the pack moved some distance away.

"Paulo," Theseus whispered tenderly. "Brother. How can I help you?"

Paulo sniffed and wiped his eyes again.

"Promise me you will free the rest of them, Theseus. No matter what happens to me, you must swear you will see the others home!"

Theseus drew him forward. He kissed Paulo. Kissed him firmly on the mouth, stroking his ruff and ears. Paulo moaned and melted into it, weeping afresh.

He felt tears wet his cheeks, and realized they were not his own. Theseus kissed him again, pushing him against the wall with gentle pressure and passion.

"I..I thought Ariadne.." Paulo stammered.

"Yes. But I love her because she is a beautiful woman. I love the pack because they are my kinsman. But with you, Paulo, dear Paulo, I can be more than a prince. I can simply be a man," Theseus said. "And you are such a dear, selfless, brave man!"

They embraced and kissed again. They both wept. Theseus was afraid. It came to Paulo with a shock. Prepared, yes, but still terrified of facing the minotaur in mortal combat. And so the Prince of Athens was reaching out to Paulo, to comfort Paulo and so be comforted himself.

Paulo hugged Theseus around the waist and nuzzled his neck. He felt Theseus gently lick him behind the ear. He could feel the firm throbbing heat of Theseus against him, still hidden by the white slave cloth they both wore.

"You know," Paulo confessed with a shy smile, "I have fantasized about this ever since the dock in Greece."

Theseus chuckled.

"Along with a few others of our company, I have no doubt."

He smiled into Paulo's eyes and caressed his cheek.

"I am yours tonight, Paulo. If you desire me. If it will heal you and show you how much you have helped me be the prince I must be."

The offer hung in the dim air between them. Paulo knew his own shaft was stirring to life, and as it did, he felt the gold ring constrict around his sheath.

Paulo turned his eyes away.

"The offer is honor enough, Theseus. Eat your full ration as well."

"Are you certain?"

Paulo straightened and gave a soft nod. He bent and slowly, softly kissed Theseus on the lips one last time.

"If the offer still stands, perhaps you and I will celebrate our freedom together."

Theseus stroked a few fingers down Paulo's thigh.

"Yes. If we live, I vow to Aphrodite Herself, I will take you on the good dark Grecian shores."

"Food for us, Theseus," called one of the huskies.

Paulo and Theseus walked back together, paws over each other's shoulders. The rest of the pack embraced them as well. Paulo felt a few other kisses on his cheek, whispered thanks for what he had spared them. They were brothers, now. A true band of brothers.