Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 88010 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88010 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
The people in cages distract me enough for a massive claw to pluck me out of the air. Ornix has finally understood how to catch me, and now he has me right where he wants me.
He lands almost immediately on the field and the next thing I know, I am snatched up in his dragonkin form, wrestled over his knee that he has propped up on a rock, and spanked so hard my cries come in a continuous wail.
“You little brat,” he growls. “I’m not going to let you get away with these tantrums, or your disobedience. You can go down into the dungeons with the rest of your kind. You can enjoy being caged. You can learn what it means to be really disciplined.”
His scaled palm keeps whipping against my ass as he spanks me like a spoiled whelp, treating me like I’m some baby throwing a tantrum, not his mate who just had her wings clipped so she cannot escape him or make her own decisions.
“I hate you!” The words escape me before I can catch them, spurred by pain and humiliation and the sheer frustration of it all.
“Well, I love you. And I intend to keep you safe, even if that means keeping you sore, sorry, and caged. Jumping out the window like that was reckless, and proves you haven’t learned anything yet. But you will. I am going to teach you how to behave if it’s the last thing I do.”
Ornix
I do not know what has gotten into my mate. She has gone from adorably undisciplined to an absolutely nightmarish little rebel who rejects all attempts to contain her. I blame the wings.
That’s probably a mistake, however. I have a horrid feeling that even if I were to have somehow removed them entirely, she still would have walked out the damn window.
My mate’s desire for freedom outweighs her sense of self-preservation several fold, and putting her in a cage is not going to change that. Pinning her down doesn’t stop her, caging her does not contain her.
“Explain yourself,” I finally sigh. “Why are you making it so completely impossible to keep you safe?”
“Why are you making it so fucking hard,” she swears back. “They want you fucking dead. They came here to kill you. The kobolds died because they want to kill you. I’m trying to save your fucking life.”
I stare at her for a long moment, and then mirth overtakes me.
“Fuck you,” she curses as I roar with laughter, unable to stop myself.
“Sweet little human mate, there is no world in which those humans could beat me. Not in a hundred thousand years. Not if there were ten thousand of them. Not if they had every artifact in the land. Not if they brought the most horrific technology from your world, the nuclear kind, and deployed it against me. I am ancient in a way you cannot yet fathom, and they will never understand. It is sweet that you are trying to protect me, but I assure you, it is entirely unnecessary.”
“You don’t understand how strong they are,” she whimpers.
“No. You don’t understand my strength. And that is understandable because humans have made themselves the measure of all things. But I can assure you…” I sigh, because I know she will not understand. “Equinox’s little game has made you believe in the power of people. Believe me, brat. Humans have very little power except the power to ruin what little they have.”
“Harsh,” she mumbles, rubbing her ass. She must be so sore. I have thrashed her and fucked her and lectured her to the point of very nearly breaking her. Yet still she stands defiant in front of me.
I soften, I draw her into an embrace, I kiss her deeply and with passion.
“I love you, but you have to start trusting me. I am not going to be defeated. Not by my nephew, not by a human army, and certainly not by a few dozen humans. There is no way.”
“You’re too proud, and that’s how they’ll get you. They’ll come for you.”
“They’re not coming for me. And if they do, they will rue the day. Now, let’s get you to the dungeon.”
“To the dungeon? Why?”
“After all you’ve done? You’re lucky I am not having them make a whole new dungeon just for you. You’ve behaved incredibly terribly. You are going to spend some time in confinement to think about what you’ve done.”
CHAPTER 20
Melissa
“So he put you down here, huh? You’re like his sex slave?”
“I’m his mate. He’s trying to make me have his baby.”
“That’s fucked up.”
“Yeah.”
“We should just kill him. What’s the worst that can happen?”
“We all die?”
“What did they do with our gear?”
“I bet they put it in the guard room.”
“We can take them.”
I listen to the conversation, knowing that they are going to break out and kill Ornix, and knowing that he won’t see it coming because no matter how many times I warn him, he just doesn’t believe it’s possible.