Total pages in book: 50
Estimated words: 46078 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46078 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
“Buttface got your tongue?” She’s sassy now. She thinks she can argue her way out of this spanking. She has so little understanding of the dynamics at play, and that is my fault. I have spoiled her. I have tried to live a human life, and now she must learn to live a Leonid one.
I carry her into the chamber we shared aboard the ship. Buttface is sleeping on the bed when we enter. He lets out a long yawn, takes one look at my face and stands up, stretched in an arch, before strolling away. The cat can read the room. It is a pity Ava cannot.
“You are going to be spanked, Ava.”
“Fuck off, I am not.”
“Yes, you are.”
“I spent this entire fucking day saving your people, helping your cubs survive, and the reward for that is a fucking spanking?” Her voice hits a high pitch of outrage.
“Yes. Because it does not matter what you do, if you do not listen to me.”
She gives me a stunned, horrified look. “No,” she says. “You can fuck off.”
I get the sense that she thinks the cursing is going to make her argument more impactful. All it in fact does is make her sound petulant and demonstrate her lack of understanding.
“You did very well today,” I tell her. “You saved lives. I am proud of you and grateful to you. But you are my mate, and I am your alpha, and that means you obey me.”
“Apparently, it doesn’t.”
She’s tired and she needs food. My palm is practically itching with the need to contact her ass, but I put that aside for the moment.
“Stay here,” I tell her. “I am going to make dinner.”
She doesn’t say anything, and so I take my leave. Her vegetables are easily cooked in steam, which does not take long. I will have to talk to her about including more foods in her diet. Our world does not boast the same range of edible plants, and though she of course packed seeds, and my storage unit is full of sacks of human plant material, it will be some time before they are ready to harvest, if they can grow on our world at all.
I set about cooking her dinner, during which time I consider I may have been too harsh and too rash about this spanking. She has served the pride well today. Perhaps that deserves some lenience.
When I bring the food to our chamber, I announce my decision as I walk through the door. “I think perhaps we can treat today as… Ava?”
She is gone.
I put the plate of food down, cursing inwardly.
I should have followed my instincts. I should have pinned her over my lap and thrashed her insolent, disrespectful, and most of all, disobedient human ass until she understood the stakes.
It does not take a genius to work out where she has gone. I leave the ship and head back toward the pride fire where the cubs are being fed. Nyan has one, but of course Ava has relieved him of the other.
She gives me a defiant look as I approach, which does not soften my mood one bit. She thinks because she is feeding a cub, I will not intervene. She is right on that score, but the baby will not eat forever, and I am capable of great patience.
Eventually, the little guy has had his fill and falls asleep in her arms.
“Don’t you dare use that cub as a shield,” I tell her. “Give him to Nyan and come with me.”
She narrows her eyes at me. She knows she is in trouble now. I can hear her stomach growling audibly, and I know for a fact it has been more than ten hours since she ate.
Ava
I am in trouble, but I don’t care. I wanted to make sure that the cubs were being fed properly. It’s not always easy to feed a baby, and Nyan, sweet as he is, has never fed one before, let alone two at the same time.
I slide the sleeping cub over and into Nyan’s lap and sigh. “Fine.”
Azlan looks seriously pissed right now. When he first took me into the ship, he had a slight gentleness to his demeanor. He doesn’t have that anymore. He is entirely grim and absolutely serious.
“Come with me,” he says, curt.
I really don’t want to, but the energy has shifted and it feels like disobeying him in any way would be an incredibly bad idea right now. So why is there some part of my mind that just wants to lean into it?
“Where are we going?”
He stops and turns around to look at me.
I cross my arms over my chest, an old defensive stance. It’s not going to help me one bit against Azlan.
He seems to think for a moment, or perhaps not think. Maybe it’s more that he’s fighting down several instincts, none of which would be good for me.