Chapter 6 #3
Vilka delivered a total of twelve strokes, enough to leave a dozen red lines across her buttocks, not enough to seriously harm her in any way, though by the way she squealed and carried on anyone would have been forgiven for thinking she was dying.
He stood her up and turned her around, using a firm grip at the back of her head to keep her eyes on him.
“Don’t you ever disobey a direct order from me again, girl,” he growled at her, keeping his face stern, his tone harsh like he was gargling rocks.
It was a technique he’d perfected in the process of dressing down damn near every dragon in his command at one time or another, and it was just as effective on Kate as it was on a three-hundred-pound dragon soldier.
“You want to mouth off, you’ll lose the privilege of speech.
You want to try to undermine my orders, subvert my command, and use my men against me?
You’ll find yourself in the deepest dungeon I’ve got, girl. I make the law here, understand?”
She let out a little whimper behind the gag.
Vilka thought for a second about taking it off and making her apologize in front of the men, but there was every chance she’d mouth off again more or less right away and force him to punish her further, which he did not want to do in that moment.
He’d finish dealing with her privately, where he could let himself be fully affected by the sight of her gorgeous hips and full butt squirming against his body.
“Move on out, men,” he said, addressing the dragons whose eyes were locked on them. “We’re done here. Good work.”
The dragons took flight, and Vilka and Kate with them. He didn’t know how it felt for her to be carried through the air with her bottom blazing bright red and he didn’t bother to ask because she was still gagged. A little silence from the mouthy human wasn’t a bad thing.
As soon as they returned to the fortress, he took Kate to his chambers.
The doors were still closed, much to his surprise, and bolted.
He’d half expected to find the doors hanging off on their hinges or something equally dramatic.
Instead, they looked entirely untouched.
Vilka stood there for a second, trying to figure it out.
The windows in his rooms were not possible to escape through, and the drop beneath them was deadly. How had she done it?
Kate was managing to smirk through the gag, quite an achievement.
“Okay,” he said. “You’re going to have to tell me how you did that.”
He unwound the gag from her mouth to allow her to speak, and immediately regretted it.
“Magic,” Kate answered bitterly. “Abraca-fucking-dabra, motherfucker.”
The public thrashing hadn’t broken her spirit, obviously.
“You want another dose of discipline, girl?”
She fell into a disgruntled silence as he opened the doors and led her back into his chambers. Once again, aside from the missing sheet she’d decided to wear, nothing had been disturbed. It was almost as if she’d managed to walk through the wall.
“I didn’t think so,” he said, opening the doors and walking her back through.
It was pretty obvious that doors alone couldn’t hold his mate, so he was going to have to take extra precautions to secure her.
First things first, he took her to the bed, got her to lie down on her back—which wasn’t the most comfortable position for her to be in.
It made her sore bottom press against the bedding, but the ties at the corners of the bed were still there and it was the work of a minute to secure her the same way he had the previous day, spread-eagled and blushing beneath him.
“I reckon this might be the only way to keep you in one place,” he said, standing over her. “What do you think?”
“You lack the education and intellect to understand what I think,” she shot back, arrogant and angry. “How fucking dare you.”
“Easy there,” Vilka said. “Don’t let that temper of yours get the better of you, Kate. You got punished like anyone else would be punished. I don’t tolerate disrespect among my ranks, and I will not have my mate disrupt my plans and disrespect me in front of my men. You got lucky.”
“How exactly did I get lucky?”
“I could have done a lot more than whip your butt in front of them,” he said. “I could have had you service me with your mouth, your pussy, or even that tight little hole between your cheeks.”
Kate’s eyes went wide.
“That’s right,” he said. “There’s no limit to what I could do with you, so you’d better thank me now for being so lenient—before I change my mind.”
“Thank you,” she mumbled resentfully. He knew she wasn’t grateful. She was resistant and pissed off. He’d seen that a thousand times before. She needed some time to cool off, which suited him because he needed some time to prepare.
“You lie there,” he said. “And I know you’re going to be thinking about how to get out of here, but try to spend a little time thinking about why you’re tied to the bed with your bottom marked with my lash. Try learning something from this, Kate, so I don’t have to do it again.”
She bit her lower lip angrily, but managed to keep her mouth shut. Maybe she had learned something.