Page 31 of Brutally Mated
“Next stop isn’t for hours. She’ll be used to it by then. Stop coddling her,” Krall says.
Oh, perfect. He’s going to alienate the girl and Thorn.
“I’ll coddle her if I want,” Thorn says. The discord is delicious. I can see how this will play out. Krall will become increasingly authoritarian, because that is how he knows how to exert control. Thorn will become annoyed, because every instinct in his body is telling him to protect his mate. “She deserves to be looked after.”
“She needs to face her fears,” Krall says. “Giving her attention when she’s scared only rewards her for fear.”
“She’s the most fearless person I’ve ever met!” Thorn snaps back. “She stood between us and certain death two nights ago, and now you have the nerve to say she needs to be more brave? You cowered behind her, as did we all!”
I have to work incredibly hard to hide my grin. Thorn is correct, but he’s the kind of correct that agitates Krall. The sort of correct that undermines the old man’s vision of himself. He was busy calling our mate cowardly, and now Thorn has thrown it back at him. Beautiful work.
“Don’t you talk to me like that, whelp. You’ll respect me, even in disagreement.”
“Not if you keep saying stupid shit like that,” Thorn shoots back. “I don’t respect anybody who doesn’t respect my mate.”
“Ourmate.”
“Stop arguing!” Tabby shouts quite suddenly. Her ire is raised to the extent there is a loud, snapping, booming sound in the cabin, and a small bolt of electricity grounds itself between us, setting the carpet on fire. I casually step on the conflagration, and open the top window for a little fresh air.
“Now look what you’ve done,” Thorn says. “You’ve agitated her.”
Tabby
I hate this train. But I hate bickering even more. They’re fighting over me like I have absolutely no free will, no brain of my own whatsoever. When I snap, I call down an accidental spell, but of course the old man doesn’t consider the possibility that it’s an accident.
“I told you no more magic,” Krall growls. “You’re going to be punished for that.”
I look at Thorn. A moment ago I didn’t want them to argue, now I want him to argue on my behalf. “Are you going to let him hit me?”
“No,” Thorn says, practically snorting with rage. “I have no intention of allowing that.”
“You’ll get out of the way, boy, and you’ll let me punish her. We all agreed, no magic. She got away with it last night, but she just set the fucking cabin on fire. She’s getting her ass warmed, and that’s all there is to it.”
Thorn stands up. Krall pushes him to the side roughly and grabs me.
“Don’t,” Skor says, grabbing Thorn by both arms. “She’ll get hurt in the fray.”
“Asshole!” Thorn curses. “Let her go!”
“Go cool off,” Skor says, pushing him out of the cabin door. “Go outside, boy.”
Thorn takes a swing at Skor. It never makes contact. It stops midair, as if he lost the nerve to do it—or as if something stopped him.
“What the fuck?” He sounds confused for a second, then Skor pushes him back again.
“Go,” he says, his voice deep and authoritative. “It’s best for everyone you don’t see this.”
Thorn wants back in the room. I know that. But he doesn’t come back. I think I hear his feet retreating down the hall as he does as he is told. Is he afraid of these two, that they would be able tohurt him in a fight if it were to come to it? Or did Skor just pull some shit?
I don’t have time to think about everything I’ve just seen. Krall sits down on the lower bunk, throws me over his lap, yanks my dress up over my hips, and starts spanking me with rough, hard swats that make me yowl from the very first one that lands.
“When I say no magic, I mean. No. Magic,” he growls, punctuating every one of his words with another of those harsh slaps designed to make me whine and cringe.
“You can’t stop me!”
“I can,” he says. “I can do so many things to you that you don’t even realize I can do. Like this.”
He spanks me again, but this time the slap doesn’t land on my cheeks, or my thighs, but directly across my pussy. I gasp in shock and outrage, and try to escape, but there’s no way out of his grip. He is so much stronger than I am, and I truly hate that fact. I deserve to feel something other than completely helpless in his arms.
