Mated to the Warriors(44)

With no warning, Zane lifted my hips and slid some kind of hard cushion beneath them that lifted me enough to take most of the weight off my knees. I wouldn’t be able to lie flat or pull away from him. I tried to bend my knees, to lift my feet a bit, but discovered that they were tied down.

I’d never been this vulnerable before. Ever. My heart raced as panic started to form in a cold, dark pit in my gut. What if he hurt me? What if I wanted to get up, needed to get away, and he wouldn’t allow it? What if he fucked me and left me here for hours, or days? Would the alien technology in my body keep me alive if he left me here?

They were stupid thoughts. Zane had never been anything but courteous and caring. Demanding and curt, but never cruel. But that didn’t matter right now, not to my heart or my body, both of which were working themselves into a full on panic.

God, what was my safeword? The word that would make it all stop?

Lemonade. Did I want to stop him now? I’d asked for this and he hadn’t hurt me, not yet. If I stopped him, then what? Then what?

I wanted him to—God, I didn’t know. I didn’t know. I didn’t know what to do or think or feel. I squirmed on the cushion, tried to roll over so I could move. I needed—

“Do not move, mate. Not one inch, or you will feel the sting of my crop.”

And just that fast the panic left me and I froze in place, grateful that he had taken the choice from me. He placed one huge hand on my hip and traced the curve of my ass and hip, my waist and shoulder as he made his way to my hands. With a soft tug he secured them a couple of inches above my spine, forcing my shoulders down into the bedding if I didn’t want to wrench my shoulders out of place. I could stay like this for a long time, but not if I fought, not if I tried to lift up off the bed.

I was well and truly trapped now, and so fucking hot for him I could barely think. The dildo stretching my pussy was big, but it wasn’t moving, just torturing me with what I didn’t have—his cock pounding in and out of me.

He took his time running his hands over my skin, making me tingle and want. I let him pet me, my body completely his as I reveled in his exploration. He could take whatever he wanted now, do whatever he wanted to my body, hurt me, fuck me, love me, make me scream with pleasure—and that scared the shit out of me. But it also made me hotter than I’d ever been in my life.

“Now, Hannah, tell me what you want.”

I shook my head as his fingers circled my virgin ass. I wanted everything, but I was too afraid to admit it. What if he thought I was a freak for liking a little pain with my pleasure? What if he was like my ex-boyfriend on Earth, the man who’d smacked my bare ass and then laughed as if my need to feel safe and restrained by my lover’s command was some kind of joke? I couldn’t stand it if Zane laughed at me, or thought I was sick, or some kind of freak. I couldn’t.

“Hannah, answer me now.”

“I don’t know, master.”

His sigh made my pussy walls clench and I squeezed my eyes shut behind the blindfold, afraid I’d made him angry.

“Lying to me isn’t allowed, little one. Now you must be punished.”

I heard soft footsteps as he made his way to the table lined with sexual apparatus, then came back to me. The only warning I had was his command. “You will count, Hannah. One to ten as I strike. If you do not count, I will continue until you remember to do so. Do you understand?”

Oh, shit. Count what?

A soft whistle sound filled the air just as a hard object struck me on the bare bottom, driving the dildo deeper into my pussy and making fire spread over my bare cheeks in a fierce burn. I bit my lower lip and clenched my jaw as raw heat spread over my ass, down my thighs, and around to my clit.

He struck again and I whimpered. Again. Crack.

My ass was on fire before I remembered to count.

“Five.”

“No, love. That’s not the number I told you to start with.” Crack.

I whimpered as he hit the back of first one thigh, then the other; the pain took me over and spread through my body like warm honey in my bloodstream. This was what I’d feared, this feeling of floating, of existing for his pleasure, of being lost in sensation. Of opening the door to the darkest parts of my soul with a mate who didn’t want me, didn’t understand—

“Count, mate.” His rough voice dragged me back to the room, to him. I wanted to please him. I needed to please him. I needed to be what he wanted me to be. I needed to be his. I needed—

Crack.

“One, master.” I counted to seven as he struck again and again, all over my ass and thighs. It was some kind of paddle, hard and unforgiving. Tears soaked my blindfold but I didn’t feel them. They were from a secret place inside me that I kept locked, a dark reservoir of pain and fear that I held inside me all the time like a cancer. My needs ate at me because I tried to lock them away, hold them down, and smother them like a beast. I was the monster. This darkness in me was what I didn’t trust anyone to see, what I didn’t trust Zane to see. I needed the pain he was giving me to unlock the monster’s cage. I needed him to break me so I could let the darkness out, so I could stop fighting it and let go.