Page 29 of Claimed

He laughs, a short sound, and picks something up from one of the many side tables and surfaces in this room. He’s now holding a thick paddle in his hand, leather I think, but intimidating inappearance. I know he’s going to spank me with it. I know he’s going to do that and a whole lot of other things. I’m smelling more than anger now. There’s arousal in the air.

The realization makes my stomach do little flips of excitement. This is going to hurt, but maybe I want it to. I knew when I ran out of the restaurant, I was inviting trouble. I think I wanted this response. I think I was tired of being his good little mate. I wanted to be bad, and he has always known how to handle me when I am bad.

“You will never run from me again, Anya,” he says, approaching me sternly.

“I won’t?” I try to stop myself from grinning, but it is practically impossible.

I know that this is bad. I know that I am in trouble. But I don’t know… something changed inside me that day in Prague. I feel stronger. I did what I wanted to do. I defended myself. I turned people who were trying to victimize me into my victims.

“I’m not sorry for what I did to them,” I say. “But I am sorry for the first part. I should have asked.”

“Asked? To leave lunch and go and get drunk?”

“Yes,” I nod. “Or not asked, maybe.”

“Because that is obviously unacceptable…”

“I should have told you I was going to get a drink somewhere more interesting.”

“That’s it,” he says, growling at me. “Turn over, present your ass. You’ll soon learn to be respectful when you’re in trouble. I don’t want attitude right now, Anya. I want you to be sorry.”

“But I’m not sorry. I mean, I am, but I’m also kind of not. First of all, I didn’t need to be rescued. I saved myself. Easily. It wasn’t even hard. I’m a fucking wolf, Alexei. I can kill things.”

“Yes, and other things can kill you,” he reminds me, glowering at me for the attitude I know he doesn’t appreciate. “When I discipline you, you won’t take that tone with me. Understand? You’ll submit, like you’re supposed to.”

“Haven’t you worked it out yet? I don’t do anything I am supposed to.”

“You will once I am done with you.”

He puts the paddle down and picks up a rod of some kind, a sort of short cane. It’s black and looks like it’s going to hurt. I know it’s way too late to ask him not to punish me. I’ve been practically begging him to hurt me, I guess, pushing his buttons, refusing to just apologize.

The truth is, I am proud of myself. I did defend myself. I did save myself. I don’t need to be treated like some kind of weak little pup. I am dangerous as hell in my own right.

Alexei grabs me by the back of the neck, pins me down on the bed, and starts whipping my ass. The second the first stroke lands on my skin, I realize that I have fucked up kind of spectacularly. It hurts like hell; even I, a big bad she-wolf, don’t have thick enough skin to soak up this punishment.

I start yowling almost immediately, because being thrashed by my mate is not the same as being drunk and in wolf form and just going feral on some vampires or whatever. This feels like being a very soft, very sore, very kind of sorry human girl being spanked by someone old enough to be her father.

Sometimes I like that Alexei is older than me. Other times it just serves to make me feel small and vulnerable and a little like I’m making a lot of mistakes. This is one of those times.

“You think you’re untouchable now, huh?” He makes the switch dance across my ass again, multiple times in quick succession; every single time it lands it burns badly enough to make me shriek in pain.

“You’re not untouchable. You’re not a big, bad wolf,” he growls down at me. “You’re my mate. You’re my female. And you will submit to me.”

I howl as he intensifies the punishment even more, hoping he’ll stop, but he shows no mercy whatsoever.

Alexei

She needs this.

Her pretty ass is covered in blushing red marks, and there are many more to come. I have no intention of letting this lesson go unlearned.

She is full of herself. A lot of newly shifted females are. The power that comes from being suddenly able to do real damage is a heady thing. She is far from the first she-wolf to take revenge in her wolf form. It’s practically a rite of passage. What’s surprising about what Anya did is eating them. Killing men who wronged them? Very normal. Eating them? Not normal.

I’ve decided not to put too much emphasis on the latter part. It is making some of the pack who know about it freak out, and she’s been told it’s not what we do. I’m putting it down to a newbie mistake.

“I’m sorry!” She wails the apology, and I can hear in her voice that she means it. I’ve stripped away the ego and found the soft, small part of her that knows very well she will never be allowed to disobey me that way. I will punish her for disobedience, and for putting herself in danger.

“You could have been violated and killed,” I remind her. “You could have been too drunk to shift. You could have been the body I found in that room.”

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