Page 9 of Imperfect Gifts

No one bothered to say anything to him about the futility of trying to take control of the situation. He wasn’t in control and they all knew it.

Dev didn’t try to telepath Brooke. Odds were, she’d shunted anything coming from him straight to Julien or Remy. Dev was often the person telepathically dealing with the people who wanted to beg Brooke for mercy, and there wasn’t a damnedthing Dev could do to help them. Most often, he wasn’t interested in helping them get out of whatever trouble they’d gotten themselves into, but even when he didn’t agree with whatever was happening to them, he still followed Brooke’s orders.

A coterie is not a democracy. If you’re a vampire and you don’t like the way it’s run, and you aren’t strong enough to fight and win it, then you can always find another coterie to accept you, but it won’t be a democracy there, either.

But Dev had blood-bonded to Brooke because he loved and respected her. He’d let her down by putting the owl shifter at risk. His negligence had created a situation that put her guarantees of safety in doubt, and vampires took that seriously. He deserved whatever Brooke decreed.

Aldrich stood before the assembled audience and told them, “Dev failed in his duties, and someone with a guarantee of safety was frightened, and could’ve been harmed by prisoners who were supposed to be under Dev’s control. Our benevolent mistress has ordered one hundred and forty-four lashes, all but the final twelve to be given with a leather whip, eight feet in length. The final dozen will be given with the steel-barbed whip.”

Aldrich glanced around the room before continuing. “Before he is whipped, he is to be fucked in the ass by Daniel. After he is whipped, he will be bent over the rack’s crossbar and will be available to fuck in the ass for two hours by anyone presently in this room. If you leave the room, you will not be admitted back into it. Women who wish to fuck him must use one of the provided dildos and harnesses at the side of the room.”

Chapter Seven

Friday evening, Genie changed outfits five times before settling on her favorite little black dress. It came to mid-thigh, it had complicated straps on the back, and best of all, it had a built-in bra that prominently displayed the girls and about a half-mile of cleavage. She wore her sky-high leopard print shoes with them, and straightened her hair so it hung sleek and straight.

Normally, she’d have needed a coat over the top of this dress a few days before the end of November, but it was unseasonably warm: seventy-four now, and only supposed to go into the mid-sixties tonight. Assuming he hadn’t planned an outdoor activity, she’d be fine.

And then she stared at her tubes and pots of makeup. She’d recently seen a makeup tutorial that said in any work of art, there should be a primary focal point. Women with tiny boobs should draw attention to their eyes, but when showing off big breasts, one shouldn’t divide the focus. She didn’t know if that were true, but she decided to use her contour colors as her eyeshadow. She went heavy on the eyeliner and mascara, but mostly, someone who didn’t understand makeup wouldn’t think she was wearing much, though she was.

A nice peach lipstick, rather than red, and when she looked at herself in the mirror, evenhereyes went straight to her boobs, so maybe there was something to the theory.

A Dom hawk-shifter boyfriend, years earlier, had worked to plump up her nipples, and they were still larger than normal, so they showed ever-so-slightly through the dress’s integrated bra. He’d cut little slices into the sides of them with a knife,all around the perimeter from base to tip, and then he’d run a needle through them a dozen times from all directions, inserting and removing, inserting and removing. Finally, he’d put a pump on them to make them bigger, and left it forhours, so the nipples had healed while plumped and swollen. The little cuts on the sides had filled in since they couldn’t shrink back and heal as they’d started, and she supposed the tunnels inside had done the same. The knife and needles had a tiny amount of silver in them, enough so achangewouldn’t revert the damage, but not so much she couldn’t heal before shechanged.

It’d hurt like a bitch, but it’d been hot, too. Permanently altered because that was the way he wanted her. He’d done it dozens of times, and it’d been hot every damned time. Mega orgasms while she was tied down andaltered.

She hadn’t stopped him because she liked having them bigger, too. She’d have never been okay with it otherwise. Huge tits looked better with bigger nipples, she thought.

Genie pulled her small black purse from the suitcase, since she hadn’t used it since she’d been in Birmingham. She put her knife in the side where she could quickly get to it, and then her phone, wallet, chapstick, peach lipstick, and a zippered baggie with a clean pair of underwear. She didn’t mind wearing the same clothes home, but she hated putting dirty undies back on. She hoped they went back to his place, if they decided to have sex, but she had clean sheets on her bed in case he preferred to come back here. She didn’t have enough to feed him, though. They’d have to go somewhere for breakfast if he stayed.

Though, both were used to staying up all night and sleeping during the day, so it wasn’t likely they’d go to sleep after having sex.

* * * *

It was finally Friday, and Dev’s week had been crazy. The bracelet that kept him fromchanginghadn’t been removed until sunrise that morning, so he’d hurt all week and still been required to keep up with his duties. He’dchangedthree times this morning, before he’d come back with all damage from the fucking and whipping gone. Daniel hadn’t taken it easy on him, and neither had Claire with the whip, but he hadn’t expected them to. If they’d carelessly risked alienating an ally and put in doubt that Brooke’s word was honorable, he wouldn’t have taken it easy on them, either.

He had some faded scars on his back where he’d been whipped with silver barbs in the past, but there were no new scars from this punishment, since the barbs were steel. As consequences went, it could’ve been much worse. By rights, his life could’ve been forfeit. The rules of hospitality and safe passage are among some of the most important laws in supernatural society, and he’d very nearly completely blown it. The bikers could’ve called for him to be punished worse, and he was worried, at first, that they would. One of the bikers, someone named Khan, had been one of the people to fuck his already-torn ass after he was whipped, but neither Mad Dog nor Frost had chosen to do so.

The short-lived often have odd ideas about fucking other men, though. Mad Doghaddelivered two dozen of the lashes, when the opportunity was presented to him mid-way through.

Brooke had not been present for his punishment, nor had he seen her since. That, more than anything, told him how disappointed she was in him. He knew better than to apologize, though. She didn’t like having to punish the people she was close to. It pissed her off, and an apology wouldn’t go over well. In her mind, it was over and behind them, and she wouldn’t appreciate him pulling it back into the present.

He’d put in for personal time as soon as Julien had told him the bikers would allow him to pursue a relationship with Genie. No restrictions other than making certain that consent was given, and that he’d do his best to protect her while she was in his presence.

She was the cutest little thing ever in the black dress that hugged every curve and framed her breasts beautifully. And those tall leopard fuck-me shoes made him want to bend her over and jackhammer her ass so deep she could taste him before they left her apartment, but he managed to control his urges and ask her how her week had been.

And then he put her into the SUV and the scent of lust and desire and tiny-adorable-owl saturated the interior. He locked down his own reactions as best he could, and he managed casual conversation with the little owlet on the drive to the Brazilian steak house, one of those all-you-can-eat places, and they ate and talked for two hours. It wasn’t possible to get too intimate in this environment because the gauchos showed up at their table with more meat every so often, and carved it and served it upon request.

He learned her father hadchangedto owl and had never come home when she was around seven. Her mother was human, but she had a grandfather who handled teaching her and her sister about their owls, and making sure they had control.

Her mom had dated a lot of men, once her father died, and hadn’t had much time to keep her teenage daughters in line, between her job as wedding planner and her active social life. She and her mother got along fine when they spent time together, they just didn’t have much in common, so they didn’t talk terribly often. Her sister had gone into the party planning business and joined forces with their mom, who still stuck mostly to weddings. The two of them got along great, and she was happy for them, but planning social events wasn’t for her.

He was about to ask her if she was volunteering so much of her background because he’d shared his, but she kept talking, and told him she’d known from a young age she wanted to be either a nurse or a physical therapist. One of her close friends in middle and high school had been in a terrible car wreck, and Genie had pretty much moved in with them for a few months to help her family take care of her.

“I’ve asked you twice now about the fallout from my visit,” Genie told him, “and you’re quite good at sidestepping questions. I know Frost watched whatever happened, but I purposefully didn’t ask him what was done.”

“The concepts of hospitality and safe passage are considered some of the most important laws amongst supernaturals. The floor you were on has excellent locks, and steel doors with heavy-duty hardware, so I assumed they would be contained in their suite. Placing them on the same hallway as you, when they were brand new to us, was a bad decision on my part, and I deserved the consequences.”

She sat back in her chair. “Telling me what happened makes you uncomfortable. I’m sorry I pushed, and I’m sorry for whatever happened. If I’d kept the door closed as you’d instructed, I’d have been fine.”

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