Chapter 16
Lily wanted to answer Sailor’s questions but doing so would get her kicked out of Bratburg, and everyone here would hate her. And Sailor would no longer want to be her Daddy. Or her mate. And the last thing in the world she wanted was for him to walk away from her.
Taking a slow deep breath, she dropped her gaze from his face to the middle of his chest as tears filled her eyes.
The bruises that covered his body when she’d first seen him were already growing smaller and lighter, proving his superior shifter healing abilities.
She wondered if they worked on broken hearts as well.
“Lily? Talk to me, little flower.” Sailor took her hand in his and squeezed it gently.
“I can’t tell you,” she whispered as hot tears escaped and raced down her face.
“Lily, you have to tell me what’s going on,” Sailor said, his voice deepening and now carrying the thread of Daddy power that usually turned her will to jelly.
But she had to remain silent. If she wanted to stay here at Bratburg, stay with her Daddy, she had to keep her secrets to herself.
Shaking her head, she took a step back and pulled her hand from his. Lifting her gaze back to his, she repeated, “I can’t tell you.”
Sailor nodded at her, then looked beyond her to the door. “Kodiak,” he called loud enough for anyone in the processing center to hear.
Immediately the door opened. Only it wasn’t Kodiak standing there; it was Lonergan.
“He’s gone to do some research on our intruder. Will I do?”
Sailor nodded though he continued looking into Lily’s eyes. “I need to break through Lily’s wall of silence. Will Talia mind if you stand in for a spanking?”
Lonergan shook his head as he moved the wooden armless chair to the center of the room. “No. She understands that as the director there are times I need to punish one of the trainees, though usually I leave that up to their guardians. How do you want to do this?”
“Hard and fast, ten at a time, until she gives up her secrets,” Sailor said, gingerly rolling to his side so he could watch.
“Now wait a minute,” Lily said just before she made a break for the door.
Lonergan caught her before she took three steps. Wrapping a thick arm around her middle, he lifted her from the floor and carried her back to the chair. She tried to fight, to wiggle out of his hold, but he was too strong.
He held her with one arm trapped against his body until she grew tired. Only then did he sit down and position her so she was face down over his lap. When she kicked her legs, he shifted her, trapping them between his thick thighs.
With one arm across her back, his hand wrapped around her side, and her legs caught between his, she knew she wasn’t going anywhere.
Dropping her head, she stared upside down at her feet as she tried to figure out how to convince these men that her secrets were unimportant, even though they weren’t.
“Look at me, Lily,” Sailor’s voice was low, rough, and sounded like he was speaking through a clenched jaw.
Turning her head, she looked up at him, surprised that he did not look angry or frustrated. He looked concerned.
Meeting his gaze, she fought to keep her eyes open when Lonergan started spanking her.
His huge hand covered a lot of her ass, inflicting a great deal of pain in only ten swats.
He smacked one side and then the other, moving almost too fast for her to keep up with where the next strike would land.
When he paused, she blinked and tears began to fall, but she rolled her lips over her teeth to keep from screaming with the pain.
“Tell us,” Sailor said in the silence.
She shook her head and took a breath to prepare for the next round.
She could not tell her secrets. The danger to her and to Bratburg was too great.
She could not imagine what the governor would do to her when he found out she’d broken her silence.
Or maybe he’d already acted, sending the dead man in the next room to take her out since she had yet to fulfill his demand for information.
The next round of ten went a bit slower, though each smack was harder. Her ass burned hot, and she was breathing heavy to keep from screaming with the building pain.
This time when the spanking paused, she looked into Sailor’s eyes and whispered, “I can’t.”
He didn’t speak, just looked to Lonergan and nodded.
It was the fifth round that broke her. Lonergan pulled her leggings and panties down and began spanking her on her bare ass.
While Sailor did not object, he looked like he was eating ground glass and fighting with everything in him not to jump across the room and take the director apart for what he was doing.
This time when Lonergan stopped, Lily closed her eyes and dropped her head, her words coming between sobbing breaths. “All right, I’ll talk,” she screamed.
Instead of more smacks, she felt her panties and pants being pulled back into place.
“All right, girl, talk,” Lonergan said, resting his spanking hand on the center of her hot, throbbing ass.
It took every bit of control for Sailor to remain on the table and not jump off, grab Lily, and run for the hills.
But the safety of Bratburg was more important than him protecting his mate.
And if her secrets had something to do with the institute, they needed to come out so they could deal with them.
Then Lily could return to being his sweet Little mate who’d effectively dismantled the walls he’d built around his heart and soul over the years.
She did not immediately begin to explain. She lay over Lonergan’s thigh, looking like a woman on her way to the guillotine.
“Lily, you need to tell us now,” Lonergan said gently.
Taking a deep breath, she decided it was past time to share her secrets. She only hoped the day wouldn’t end up with her either dead or exiled from Bratburg.
“I lied about why I’m here. While I am hiding from an ex-boss who threatened my life from my last assignment, the truth is I was sent to find something on the Institute that could be used to close it down.”
The two men remained silent as if waiting for her to continue speaking. But she’d learned in her first foster home to only answer the question asked and not give any more information than absolutely necessary.
The silence stretched out until she was sure it would shatter before Lonergan spoke, his tone controlled, but icy-cold. “Who sent you?”
“Governor Bowersox. I’m supposed to find something that he could use to shut the Institute down. He says he wants his daughter back. I’m supposed to return to the capital on Friday.”
Sailor was tempted to rise and pull his mate away from the dragon shifter when Lonergan reacted to the latest bit of information Lily shared. His roar filled the room, deafening him and had several other staff members running into the doorway.
Lily looked at him, and the stark fear in her expression had him pushing to sit up. He needed to get to her and protect her.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Kevin asked as he swiftly crossed the room and stepped between him and his mate.
“Bring Lily to me,” he said into the medic’s ear as Lonergan’s roar continued at a deafening decibel.
Kevin nodded and after getting him situated in an upright position, turned and slowly approached Lonergan. The dragon shifter looked like he was fighting to remain in his human form as he continued the loud angry rumble.
“Let me have her,” Kevin said in his no-nonsense medical-professional tone.
Lonergan lifted his hands and spread his legs, allowing the medic to lift Lily from his lap. He then carried her to Sailor. She hissed with the pain in her ass as he set her on the table beside the still-naked man.
Lily remained pale and wide-eyed as she shifted closer, pressing herself against his side, clearly scared out of her mind. Sailor wrapped both arms around her to hold her close and keep her safe from the other shifters in the area.
Finally Lonergan took a breath, the silence startling after the roar that had lasted nearly two minutes.
“Feeling better?” Kodiak asked from the doorway where he was keeping the rest of the staff from entering the room.
Lonergan took a breath and nodded. “Yes, as a matter of fact, I am. But I’ll feel even better once we do something about the monster sitting in the governor’s chair. Lily, did you know the intruder?”
Lily shook her head. “He’s no one I know from work. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t work for the governor in another office. I doubt my ex-boss sent him since he doesn’t know where I am.”
Lonergan nodded. “All right. You’re going to go with Sailor back to his apartment to help him recover while we deal with the governor. Then we’ll look into this ex-boss of yours and make sure he knows to leave you alone, now and in the future.”
“That it?” Kodiak asked from the doorway.
Lonergan looked at the chief of security and said, “Yes, that’s it.
Sailor and I will deal with the governor.
In the meantime, you need to identify the man in the other room and why he was up on my mountain.
Was he a government agent, or was he a hired killer? Or was he here for some other purpose?”
Kodiak swept the room before turning and pushing his way through the crowd in the hallway that had grown to include the Littles. His grumbling could be heard as he stormed down the hall and out of the processing center.
Sailor relaxed minimally as the tension in the room dropped several degrees. “If someone could get me some clothes, I’ll be happy to take Lily and head home.”
“Home being the apartment in the dormitory, right?” Kevin asked as he handed the man his red bag that now had some darker red stains on it.
“Yeah. Sure. Whatever you say,” Sailor agreed, though he’d meant the log cabin in the woods where he could protect his mate from anyone who might show up on the doorstep.
“You’re not going back to the cabin,” Lonergan stated. “You’ll stay at the apartment until your house is ready. That way we can help keep Lily safe if need be.”