Page 22 of The Alpha's Punishment
He considered. He’d wanted her scared, but having her too terrified to speak wouldn’t work. Walking around the front of her, he pulled out his knife. Her eyes rolled back when he lifted the blade. He cut her down just as her eyelids fluttered and she fainted.
Damn.
He caught her limp form as it tumbled down and carried her to the bed where he sat with her cradled in his arms.
Within a few seconds her eyes opened and she blinked, looking up at his face.
He brushed the hair back from her big blue eyes and they looked at each other. Propping her up on his knee, he said, “Okay, we’re going to try this again. I need answers from you and you’re going to give them to me.”
She immediately began to struggle, twisting in his arms as if to dive off his lap. He used it to his advantage, pulling her face down over his knees. Her panties were still tangled around her thighs. His hand slapped down on her bare ass with a satisfying smack. She had a perfect bottom for spanking—plump and round, muscled globes that led into shapely thighs.
He slapped one side, then the other, over and over again. He’d just wanted to make her talk without actually harming her, but as he spanked her, his anger over her betrayal ebbed, turning to sympathy as she kicked and wriggled and her beautiful ass turned rosy and then a darker shade of pink. He held her snugly against his body and took care not to slap too hard. Shifters had superhuman strength, and the idea of bruising or actually harming his little assistant didn’t sit well with him. Even if she had tried to kill him.
“How much did you get paid for killing me?”
“I didn’t?—”
He spanked the back of her thigh, causing her to yelp and kick. “How much?”
“Ow… ah… I wasn’t trying to kill you. All I had to do was take your laptop,” she gasped in a rush.
“And leave the one with the explosives in it.”
She went still for a moment, her head lifting.
His heart skipped a beat. She hadn’t known about the bomb. Satisfaction warmed his blood. He rested his hand on her blazing cheeks.
“Who gave you the laptop?”
“I don’t know.”
He resumed spanking. “Who hired you?”
“No one hired me.”
He spanked harder.
“Wait!” she cried. “It’s true—no one hired me. They kidnapped my sister!”
He froze, his hand mid-air.
“They said they would bring her tonight, but she wasn’t there.” Ashley’s voice sounded strangled.
Ashley abruptly found herself lifted upright and plopped on Ben’s knee, his green eyes boring through her.
“It’s true,” she whispered, seeing he was searching for something in her face.
“You should have come to me,” he said, his voice hard like steel.
Her bottom throbbed, his jeans rough against her bare skin. She swallowed. “They said they’d kill her,” she croaked.
He pursed his lips. The intensity with which he regarded her had an animal-like quality—as if he was a hunter and she his prey.
The memory of the huge wolf leaping over her car flashed in her mind. “What are you?” she whispered.
Abruptly, he stood, shoving her to her feet. “Go stand in the corner with your panties down,” he said, pointing to the juncture of two walls, his expression dangerous.
She didn’t even think of not obeying—he had her so cowed, she would have dropped to her knees and licked his shoe if he’d ordered it.
