“That sounds like a good idea.”
Tanner got up and disappeared into the bathroom, then returned with the meds before heading to the kitchen to get him a bottle of water. After Star downed the pills, he took a shower. When he got out and walked into the living room, he smiled, seeing the couch made up for him. Getting into bed, Star thought his mind wouldn’t settle, but he was surprised when he fell right to sleep. If there was anything he needed to figure out, it would have to wait until the morning.
Chapter Four
ANUBIS
Anubis sighed, irritatedly staring down at the bobbing blond head between his legs. The man’s pretty mouth surrounding the head of his cock should’ve been enticing and pleasurable to him, but it was pissing him off instead. As were the two beauties sucking on his neck and nipples. What made it worse was Anubis’s dick showed no interest in getting hard, even with the slurping and fake porn sounds from the three companions who’d been trying to arouse him for the past twenty minutes. They were hired submissives Anubis had signed a contract with for the night.
Anubis had shown up at the Hook & Collar, a private fetish club, wanting to release some stress by drowning his frustration in a sweet, supple, and willing submissives. He hadn’t expected to become even more annoyed. Anubis had been having an exhausting few days, and he would’ve loved to say it was because of the script he was working on, but everything was going fine on that end. He had just finished directing and producing a rom-com that he was proud of, despite not being an avid watcher of romantic comedies.
What had him in his feelings was the announcement of Pegasus and Valkyrie television and movie award nominations.
And although he was nominated for two Pegasus for directing four episodes ofThe Travelerstarring Blue Lennox and Azazel’s son, Kristoph DeVine, and one Valkyrie for his supporting role and directing in the action-packed movieDiamond Heart, Anubis knew he wasn’t going to win. He never fucking won. He had been at this game for a long time, and this wasn’t his first nomination. Anubis was proud of his work as a full-time director and part-time actor. He’d followed his brother into the entertainment field, but unlike Horus, who enjoyed being in front of the camera, Anubis found his joy behind it.
Anubis knew the academy hated him but didn’t know why. He’d entered the entertainment industry a little over ten years ago. As a god who’d reinvented himself many times throughout his life, Anubis liked to learn new things, and when he first found his love of directing, he leapt into it with his entire being.
He first attended the best schools in the country under assumed names, going from New York to Los Angeles. He interned under some of the most influential directors. Around his internship, Anubis thought about using his real name. Still, he held off because his brother, Horus Ahket, was coming into his own as an actor, and his father, Osiris, was making many influential investments in business, especially entertainment and politics.
Although his brother and father offered to help him, Anubis declined and somewhat distanced himself from them, hoping to stamp his name in stars in the entertainment industry. Now he was wondering if he had made a mistake on that front. Anubis couldn’t blame his father or his brother. Hollywood was ripe with money-making opportunities, especially in technology. In that regard, he wasn’t a fool and took advantage, silently made waves his own way, and invested in everything.
Like his father, he didn’t need the money, but why let good investment prospects slip through his fingers? Anubis was admittedly a selfish bastard regarding certain things, but not business. Although he was close to Horus and Azazel, he considered only two men his comrades: Sobek Ahket, his youngest cousin who had been with him through many life reinventions, and Thor Boroson, his best friend. Like him, they were gods who had been around for a long time.
Thor, who’d studied all aspects of law in the past decade or two but found he liked business law, took care of all Anubis’s business needs. Sobek became his business partner. He was the face of After Life. However, when the checks were signed, it said Anubis Ahket. He might not have been there for the day-to-day operation of running the company, but Anubis made sure to put in the groundwork in the research-and-development department. He took to learning and expanding his knowledge of technology, as he did with directing and producing. Later, Sobek hired his mother, Neith, the goddess of creation and wisdom, who later became Anubis’s godmother, to help run the company and many of Anubis’s other investments. At the same time, he went off to make it big in the entertainment industry, keeping his anonymity, using the pseudonym Michael Schultz.
Anubis had always wondered if Sobek felt slighted being given the responsibility of running his companies, but his cousin told him that he enjoyed seeing Anubis live out his dream. So, after years of working in Hollywood under an assumed name, he started After Life Productions, which had morphed into After Life Inc. with many corporations under its umbrella, from social media, such as Slategram, a social media platform and micro-blog used by millions to connect with family and friends worldwide, and now VikVok, a more popular social media application that took off faster than he’d expected. It started out as an application where people danced and cracked jokes but blew up into something more, surpassing Slategram in number of subscribers. He also invested in and created electronics, smartphones, smart homes, movie and television streaming platforms, fashion brands, and much more to come in the future.
Initially, Anubis simply wanted a place to direct and produce thought-provoking content; however, once Thor and Sobek started working together, things took off, working tirelessly to execute his vision and still leaving room in their own lives, fulfilling their personal desires. But even the success of his films drew much negative criticism, especially from the Academy Award members, who thought he was too over-dramatic in his depiction of history. After living for so long, Anubis was a history buff. As well as making action movies, he liked to combine the two genres in his work, not shying away from showing the truth. He did it because he felt guilty about his inability to intervene in human history, and there might’ve been some truth to that.
But even with his guilt and the negative feedback, Anubis still pushed things to the letter with his accuracy on historical events, which angered the award committee even more after producing one of his most controversial films to this day, about the influence of magic and its impact on historical wars, using real events and real magical beings. He had fooled the audience into thinking that the magic they saw was computer-generated imagery. To Anubis and anyone he knew who saw it, they thought it was a masterpiece deserving of an award. And even though he was nominated, his entire production crew and actors were overlooked.
Angry at their disrespect, Anubis had railed against the academy and was almost blacklisted.
Luckily, Thor and Sobek pulled him off the edge of killing every member of the academy, and instead they did what anyone with their kind of power would do—they paid each member off, not to give him an award but never to think about blacklisting Anubis. It also didn’t help that the academy received a scathing letter from the CEO of After Life Inc., one of their most influential investors, who said he would no longer invest in any projects the academy recommended if Michael Schultz was to be blacklisted. Although they did not oust him from the entertainment industry, Anubis was still punished and would be nominated but never win.
He always wondered if the members knew he was the CEO of After Life, that Anubis Ahket and Michael Schultz were one and the same, even though they did business with Sobek.
It was a ballsy move on Anubis's part, but it was the only way to vent his anger. However, things grew worse between him and the academy, and in frustration, Anubis moved his entire operation to Valleywood. He’d taken some time off from directing and producing and put more effort into his other business investments. But once he heard Azazel was buying Valleywood Studios, Anubis saw it as his chance to make the movies and TV shows he’d always wanted. Azazel, a good friend and often business rival, understood Anubis’s desires. Although Valleywood and Hollywood were two separate entities, the bad luck of only being nominated and not winning left an unpleasant taste in his mouth.
Speaking of mouth.Anubis growled, grabbed the back of the submissive’s head, and pulled him off his dick. He looked down at his wet cock, which still showed no sign of interest, and became more dissatisfied. Anubis raised the submissive’s head, admiring his beauty, with swollen lips and pink flushed cheeks, panting for breath.
How can a beautiful boy not ease my mind nor arouse me?He looked at the other two, who had gone from trying to gain his favor to kissing and rubbing on each other while his thoughts were a mile away.What’s the fucking point?He scoffed.
“All of you, fucking leave,” he yelled, letting go of the boy's hair. The other two scrambled to kneel before him with their heads down.
“Did we not please you, sir?” one of the three submissives asked softly with his head down, making his bangs cover his eyes from Anubis’s view.
What a brave idiot! Too bad you’re a terrible cocksucker.
Anubis was dominant, but he didn’t like when others hid their eyes from him. It was as if they were hiding their true intentions.
“Do I look or sound pleased to you?” Anubis snapped. He did not feel the need to censor his indifferent attitude and was only kind to his close friends and family. After living for so long, he didn’t deny the chip he had on his shoulder.
“Get out,” he ordered.
“Yes.” The sub asked no more questions, and the three rushed out of the private room with hunched shoulders.
Anubis supposed he should feel bad since it wasn’t their fault he couldn’t keep his mind from wandering.
