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)
“Ava, you are going to have to trust me when I tell you that I need you to obey me. And you’re going to have to get used to discipline if you decide not to obey. This was going to be an issue sooner or later. I could afford to let you act as you wanted before their arrival, but I no longer have that luxury.”
Ava
My ass hurts. But my pride hurts more. I’ve never been spanked in my life. I was raised to work on this farm, and I was basically an equal participant from as early as I can remember. Nobody ever had to punish me, because I was responsible, dammit.
Being over Azlan’s knee makes me feel a lot more than pain and pride. It makes me feel small. And it makes me feel warm. There’s a certain safety enveloping me even as I lie here with my ass exposed and aching.
He’s treating me like I’m someone to protect, someone to guide. He’s treating me like I am small.
And I kind of like it.
I don’t like the pain. And my pride still makes the embarrassment sting as much as the belt did, so it’s not like I’m absolutely loving this experience, but it is more nuanced than I’d ever admit.
There’s another feeling too. A feeling I’ve often experienced around Azlan, but not in this way.
I am turned the fuck on.
“Can you behave yourself for the next few days? It will not be easy dealing with them. I will need your help, Ava. Please.”
He is super dominant, and incredibly powerful. He could beat me to the point of no return and now he’s basically begging me to be good. It feels like I’m the most badly behaved brat in the universe.
“Alright,” I relent, more out of pity for him having to deal with me than out of any sense of submission or self-preservation. “I’ll help you.”
“Thank you,” he says, smoothing his palm over my upturned ass. “I would appreciate that.”
There’s a moment in which neither one of us talks. I feel him rubbing my butt better, though I am pretty sure that it is never going to be the same. He really whipped my ass.
There is a soft snarl of amusement above me. “You are absolutely incorrigible,” he says. “And you are not entirely wrong. Kain would have deserved it if you had shot him.”
“Why are they here?”
“I am the alpha of my pride.” He says it as if that is explanation enough.
“Are you going to leave?”
“Yes,” he reassures me. “I would like to take you with me. Your company has become a great pleasure to me, and being without you would be painful. Would you come with me?”
Go with an alpha Leonid to his world and face his murderous pride as his mate. It’s not exactly the world’s best vacation, but it is more than I have here now. There aren’t enough stored crops to last winter, and the frosts have already begun. I’m looking at having to bring in supplies, and I can’t afford to do that.
“They’ve ruined my crops, so the least they can do is make up for it by feeding me for the winter.”
“True,” he agrees. “And you will need good nutrition for what your body will be undergoing.”
“Oh. Right. We’re still doing the baby thing, are we?”
“Don’t be so flippant.”
“If I’m not flippant, I will freak the fuck out.”
At that point, the front door opens, and Kain walks in without knocking. I feel Ava cringe slightly in my arms, pushing her gown down hurriedly.
“Are you done beating the human?” Kain smirks the question at me, ignoring her completely. “Could hear her screaming from inside the ship.”
“I told you to wait.”
“We don’t have time to wait, Azlan. War has come to the pride lands.”
“War? From what quarter?”
“From our father.”
Ava looks up at me. “You’re at war with your father?”
Her expression implies that there’s no way she can understand a world where a father would wage war against his sons. Leonidas’ aggression is the cement that bonds our fraternity. We are all so very different, and left to our own devices, would probably wage war against one another.
“It sounds as though we are now.”
“Why?”
Her question holds an innocence that is almost painful to behold.
“He wants to unite the prides. He wants to become a king. But that is not how we live our lives.”
“He wants to fuck every female on the planet, you mean,” Kain says. “We need to go. Now. The armies won’t stand without you. They’ll submit to him. They need their alpha.”
He is right.
“We have to go. Ava, pack your belongings.”
“I have to bring Buttface. I won’t leave him here alone.”
“Bring what you need.”
6
Ava
I’ve never locked the door of my house in my entire life, but for some reason I feel compelled to today. The sun has risen and there’s a melancholy to the wasted broken crops, ruined fences, and astral skies visible at the verge of the sun’s halo. I have a very strange feeling in my belly. It’s not sadness. It’s just the deep sensation that I have suddenly and unexpectedly come to an end of an era.