Chapter 6 #2
If she had not been so very upset, she might have realized that she was being allowed enough rope to hang herself with many times over. As it was, she was too full of righteous indignation to consider anything other than the absolute certainty that she was right and he was wrong.
* * *
He shouldn’t have been surprised, Vilka thought to himself.
She had never indicated any intent to obey him, and she was obviously inventive.
Manipulating one of his own men into almost helping her escape was impressive.
He didn’t have any time to stop to be impressed though; she was literally crying out for discipline—and she was going to get it.
Taking hold of his disobedient and reckless young mate, Vilka tore the sheet dress from her, leaving her naked before not just him, but all the men.
She let out a shriek of outrage and tried to cover herself, one hand cupping her sex, the other arm wrapped over her breasts.
It did little to provide her with modesty, and if anything, only served to increase the shame she seemed to feel.
Her face was flushed so bright red she would likely have glowed in the dark, her eyes filled with outrage and the glimmer of tears too.
“Give that back,” she demanded. “You freakin’ pervert!”
“You use your powers of speech badly, human,” Vilka informed her in those dominant, calm tones that were far more scary than his anger ever could be. “I told you before that you were spoiled, and I punished you then, but obviously it had little lasting effect. Perhaps a more public reminder will.”
He tore a strip from the sheet and used it to gag her, wrapping it around her head and settling it between her teeth several times so that she could not use her tongue to hurl any more insults.
Kate squirmed and wriggled, fighting his bindings, but he made them secure and she could not find a way to escape them, especially when he pulled her hands behind her back and tied them with a second strip of sheet, which left her completely vulnerable to his touch—and utterly bared to all the dragon men, who were now watching with open interest. Kate tried to avert her eyes from the group, but Vilka was smart enough to make sure that she was unable to look at the ground and hide her shame that way.
He held her chin and lifted it until she looked him in the eyes, her nostrils flaring with each angry breath she took.
“You have behaved very poorly,” Vilka lectured.
“Screeching like a whelpling will not get you what you want in this world. It will only earn you punishment and pain.” He turned his head and looked toward one of the slimmer, darker dragon men.
“Erias! Cut me a switch. This human needs a taste of wood.”
A series of what he was sure were curse words were emitted through the gag. Her struggles had quietened a little now that she was totally restrained, but he could see the hellfire in her spitting eyes.
Vilka understood the human’s rage. She was shaking with it, but she had to learn the same lesson every rebellious dragon that came to his fortress did—that she was not in control and that she could be punished if she crossed him.
Her shyness would make a public punishment all the more effective, he was sure of that. Her blush consumed her skin from head to toe, and he could see glimmering tears of frustration as she looked at him.
In short order, Erias had cut three switches, long whippy lengths of wood thinner than Vilka’s little finger, but strong enough to stand being brought down across a disobedient behind. He handed one to Vilka, who thanked him even as Kate struggled in his grasp.
She had made it impossible to be kind. There was no way he could allow an outburst like that to stand in front of his men. Discipline was the only thing holding his fleet of unruly dragons together, and Kate could not, would not, be an exception.
Vilka propped his knee up on the trebuchet device and put his naked mate over his thigh, pinning her in place by her bound wrists. Her bottom was nice and high, her pale, full cheeks making an ample target for his discipline.
Without further lecturing, Vilka laid the switch across her cheeks with a rapid fire lashing that left red line after red line blooming on her bottom. Kate’s squeals cut through the gag without any trouble, and she kicked her legs both furiously and to no avail.
He wasn’t getting any satisfaction out of doing this to her.
He wished he’d been able to settle her earlier in the day and help her to see his point of view, but Kate didn’t seem to care about any point of view other than her own.
Urging her to see that she was putting potentially thousands of lives at risk had had precisely zero effect, so he was reduced to spanking her long and hard, whipping the tender skin of her bottom so she considered her pain, even if not the potential pain of others.