Rough Page 9

  I screamed and cried, but he welted my breasts too. My nipples burned hot and the pain escalated with every strike. I tried not to scream, but it was useless. It hurt and I pulled on the ropes that held me captive even though I knew I wouldn’t get away.

  The belt whipped in between my thighs next and I writhed on the bed. The pain was so much more intense, and it took everything in me to handle it.

  He punished my breasts and my pussy with that belt until he decided it was enough. It didn’t matter how much I squirmed and begged him to stop.

  “I will keep you safe, omega. There’s no one else here that will. You are mine to protect and if I have to punish you every night until you learn that, I won’t hesitate, do you understand me?” he asked firmly.

  “Yes, Alpha,” I cried, and he threw the belt to the side. He spanked my pussy hard with his hand several more times and I sobbed. His palm felt so much more personal and I found that even though it hurt, I wanted that kind of personal touch.

  “Will you run from me again?”

  He pressed his palm firmly against my pussy, sending a clear message that he would punish me endlessly until I submitted to him completely.

  “No, Alpha,” I whispered hoarsely.

  “Who do you belong to?”

  “You, Alpha,” I sobbed.

  Swiftly, he released my bonds and gathered me in his arms. He sat down on the bed and pulled me into his lap. I lay against him as my tears continued to fall, pressing the side of my head against his chest. For a while, he just held me. Neither of us said anything at all as I shivered against him. He wiped away my tears and in time, my cries quieted to nothing. My ass and thighs ached from his belt. My nipples and my pussy throbbed with stinging fire, but as I lay there something else began to throb to life.

  My core started to twist with blazing arousal, tighter and tighter until it was a little ball of agony inside me. At first, I tried to ignore it, but before long my slick was dripping down my thighs. I anxiously realized that it was likely leaving a wet spot on his pants and I went to climb off of him, but he didn’t let me.

  Instead, he made me stay for a while longer and I finally gave in.

  Even though it had hurt far more than I thought it would, I understood why he’d been so harsh. He’d needed to be. If the Cult thought he was being too gentle with me, they could have him killed. They could decide to deal with me themselves and I wasn’t sure that I would survive that.

  “I’m sorry, Alpha,” I whispered when I finally found my voice.

  “I know, omega. I know,” he replied gently. With a hard sigh, he eventually pulled away. “Stand in front of me.”

  I obeyed and climbed off his lap. He maneuvered me to stand in between his thighs. He reached to my nightstand and took the hairbrush I’d left there. I tensed, but then he began to tame my unruly hair with it. Slowly, he eased out the tangles and when he was finished, he wiped my cheeks free of every last tear with his thumbs.

  “Come now. I’ve punished you as hard as necessary, but now we must attend dinner,” he explained softly.

  “I’ll get dressed,” I answered quietly, and he shook his head.

  “No. The Cult expects to see that you’ve been punished. You’ll be attending dinner with your bright red bottom on display so that my advisors can see that I properly punished my disobedient omega,” he continued.

  I shivered and my nipples hardened into tight little peaks.

  “Naked?” I whimpered.

  “Yes, omega,” he replied. My eyes ticked up to meet his. He was entirely serious.

  I chewed my lip, trying to figure out what to say.

  “They would have shown you far more cruelty than I, my sweet omega. You will be welted from my belt for a few days, but those will fade. Their marks would have been branded onto your skin for a lifetime,” he said softly.

  Why was he being so kind? I should hate him for punishing me so harshly, but I couldn’t. Not when I knew that every single word that he said was true.

  “After dinner, you and I are going to talk about what you were doing in Neegan’s study. Until then, you will stay by my side. You will be silent unless I ask something of you. If someone asks you a question, you will look to me for permission to answer,” he warned, and I nodded my head.

  “This isn’t for me. I would never silence you like that. It’s for your own safety. If you forget and speak out of turn, they could call for even more retribution for you. They could demand that I brand you or cut out your tongue or whip with for your insolence. It is very important you remember this. My world is a hard one, but you’re stuck in it with me now and I do not wish to see you hurt,” he continued.

  “Yes, Alpha. I understand,” I whispered. I meant every word.

  “Thank you, Ariana. We’re a team now and we have to work together for both our sakes,” he replied.

  “Alpha?”

  “Yes, little one?”

  “Thank you for punishing me. I appreciate that it was you and not them,” I said quietly, unable to meet his eyes.

  “It was my pleasure, omega. I very much enjoyed punishing you for the first time,” he replied. My pussy tightened reflexively, and my breath rushed out of my mouth. My core tightened even further and the fire that consumed all my sensitive places seemed to spread out across the rest of my body.

  He stood up and reached for his belt. I flinched just a little as I moved out of the way, watching as he slid it back through the loops of his pants. He smiled when he saw me looking at him with trepidation and reached for my chin.

  “I always wear a thick leather belt, omega. Keep that in mind the next time you think about doing something that might put either of us in danger,” he warned, and I shivered hard.

  He knelt down beside me and picked up my slippers. I lifted a foot as he slid one on and then the other, looking at him quizzically.

  “The rock floor is cold in places and your slippers with protect you from that chill,” he explained.

  His unexpected thoughtfulness was unnerving, and I found that I couldn’t think of anything to say other than to thank him. He just smiled and brushed a stray lock of hair out of my face.

  “You took your punishment very well, omega. Know that I’m so very proud of you,” he said, and my heart pulsed heavily in my chest.

  He took my head and led me from the room. With every step, I could feel the stinging aftereffects of my punishment. I was so very sore and when I paused just long enough to glance at the backs of my thighs, I saw that they were striped red from his belt. They were a vivid scarlet against the paleness of the rest of my skin.

  Magnar cleared his throat and I quickly rushed to follow. He gripped my upper arm and pulled me close enough so that he could whisper in my ear.

  “You look beautiful with my welts all over your bare little bottom,” he whispered possessively, and I gasped with reluctant desire.

  I shivered and my core tightened impossibly harder. Another drop of slick seeped down my inner thigh and I pressed my legs together to try to make it stop. My entire body was beginning to feel warm and a heated buzzing was gathering just beneath my skin. I’d never felt anything like it before in my life.

  If he sensed my disquiet, he said nothing. He led me carefully through the halls of the castle until we reached an extravagantly decorated small dining hall with room enough for a dozen people. All the seats were taken. I recognized several faces of his council including Neegan. He glared at me with extremely hateful judgment and I bit the inside of my cheek hard enough to remind myself not to say anything at all.

  Magnar strode to the end of the table and gripped the heavy wooden chair on either side. He moved it backwards.

  “Come here, omega,” he commanded, and I hesitantly obeyed him. “Climb up onto the chair,” he said next while offering me a hand.

  “Turn around and show them your punished backside,” he directed. “Bend over and spread yourself so that they can see just how thorough your alpha was with you.”

&n
bsp; I whimpered softly and stared back at him. His gaze narrowed slightly in warning and I did as he asked, knowing that I didn’t really have a choice in the matter.

  I bent over and traced my fingers over the raised welts that crisscrossed all over my backside. With extreme trepidation, I gripped my bottom cheeks and spread them for everyone watching. I could hear a few of them remark on the redness of my backside and how the marks went all the way down my thighs. Others murmured about the wetness that soaked my thighs and then I heard Neegan’s voice above them all.

  “Did you spank her pussy too? It’s bright red, just like her bottom,” Neegan observed and I cringed silently with shame.

  “Her pretty little cunt was thrashed with my belt,” Magnar answered.

  “Next time, you should punish that tight asshole of hers with it too,” Neegan declared and my face heated so much that it felt like I was in front of an open flame.

  I felt Magnar’s fingers trace my skin. Slowly, his fingertips made their way up my thighs and in between my cheeks to settle directly on my bottom hole. My eyes opened wide and I was thankful that I was facing away from those who sat at the table. None of them could see just how much his touch was driving me crazy with an insane sense of arousal and an even stronger feeling of abject shame.

  “She needed a very thorough punishment over my knee and with my belt. It took quite a bit of time to properly remind her of her place, but I’m not finished with her. She was given a very hard spanking and an even harder belting already. I left her wet and needy so that I could finish the lesson when we return to my chambers after our dinner is concluded, gentlemen,” Magnar answered.

  My face flushed even more deeply.

  “I heard. I walked by your chambers and I could hear how firm you were with her, Magnar. An omega like her needs an alpha like that,” Neegan replied. I wasn’t sure, but the way he answered raised the hair on the back of my neck. I didn’t like him one bit and I trusted him even less than that.

  “I’ve punished my omega as I saw fit. The matter of her disappearance has been dealt with,” Magnar continued. He took my hand and helped me climb down off the chair. He took a pillow from a nearby chaise and placed it on the floor. He pointed to the pillow and I knelt down onto it. It was soft against my knees and I was thankful for his kindness.

  He sat down next to me and I tentatively leaned against his leg. I touched him hesitantly at first and he didn’t stop me. In fact, he seemed to encourage it because his fingers petted the top of my head. He scratched my scalp with a certain tenderness, and I pressed back against him a bit more firmly. Hidden as I was by the table, no one else could see him touching me.

  It was hard to kneel because my bottom and thighs were so sore, but I did anyway because that’s what I had to do. Magnar talked with his advisors about some of the things that had happened in the city over the week. They talked about Brogan’s death for a period of time, as well as the rumors that continued to spread around the city.

  “Some are saying it was poison,” Neegan offered. I narrowed my eyes in his direction, watching as his foot tapped against the floor.

  “It will do us no favors if that kind of gossip continues to spread. Do something about it,” Magnar growled.

  “Yes, my king,” Neegan replied a bit too cheerily. His answer raised my suspicions.

  The conversation turned more mundane after that. They discussed things of a financial nature for a long while, before they talked about the recruitment of more men to join the army. I did my best to listen to every detail, but the scent of Magnar surrounded me like a heavy cloud and my body wouldn’t stop responding to it.

  Earlier, my slick had dripped down my thighs. Now there was enough of it beneath me to stain the cloth fabric of the pillow under my knees.

  My nipples never relaxed. They stayed so hard that they hurt. I wanted to touch them, but I was almost afraid to. I pressed my palms against my thighs, trying my best to ignore the pulsing heat in my body, but it only grew stronger until I felt like I was boiling from the inside out.

  I tried to focus on my breath, but that felt hot too, and it only got worse.

  This was suffering of the highest magnitude.

  I looked up at Magnar and I could see the tension rippling across his chest. Casually, he glanced down at me and met my eyes for a long moment before he cleared his throat.

  He could sense something was different.

  “I hate to cut this short, but I need to finish dealing with my omega. See to it that you take care of what we discussed,” he said, his voice stern.

  He didn’t wait for his council to answer. He just reached down and lifted me straight off the floor. Tossing me over his shoulder, he strode purposely out of the room and returned the way we had come. He’d left too quickly for the council to even protest his exit.

  With my bottom and wet pussy on complete display for everyone passing by to see, I couldn’t control my arousal. I was so wet that it hurt. Every nerve in my body felt overly sensitive, as if just a single caress would be enough to hurtle me straight into orgasm.

  “The scent of your slick is entirely too distracting,” Magnar snarled and my core contracted painfully tight. He carried me all the way back to my chambers, where he deposited me on the bed. He stared at me for what felt like forever before he turned around and left, locking the door behind him without looking back. He left me all alone.

  One hour passed and then another. My aroused misery continued to grow.

  I began to grow desperate. I slipped my fingers in between my thighs and anxiously circled my clit. Within seconds, I was on the edge of orgasm and when I pressed even more firmly, I screamed with my release.

  But it wasn’t enough.

  I came again.

  I made myself come again and again, but it only seemed to make things even worse. My skin grew hotter, my core tighter, and I wailed quietly with pain.

  Finally, I withdrew my fingers and came to a terrifying conclusion.

  This wasn’t just arousal nor was it just me being needy. I was going into heat. I was experiencing the beginnings of an omega’s estrous for the very first time.

  Magnar’s presence near me had started it. The punishment over his knees had forced it to a head. His touch had been the catalyst. I knew that now.

  I rushed to make myself get up. I gathered all the pillows in the room and piled them in the corner, rearranging them again and again until I was happy with the placement of each one. With a sob, I gathered every soft blanket that I could find and positioned them amongst the pillows too. It was soothing for me.

  I knew what I was doing, but I couldn’t make myself stop. I was nesting. As an omega in the beginnings of her heat, I was simply following instinct. I didn’t stop until it felt perfect. It felt like it took hours, but in reality, it was probably only about thirty minutes.

  I curled up in my nest and pressed my face into the softest pillow.

  My hips rolled of their own volition. I started to sob.

  Soon, even the passing of seconds felt like torture. Just drawing the heated air into my lungs felt like breathing in shards of glass. I cried into the pillow, suffering in abject misery.

  I called out for Magnar and he didn’t answer. I pled for his mercy, but soon enough speaking became just as painful as breathing.

  I begged and pleaded for him as my slick soaked my thighs. It came from my body in waves, practically pouring down my thighs to soak the blankets beneath me.

  “Please, Magnar. Help me,” I begged.

  I was no longer thinking rationally. I knew he was close. I could smell him, and I just wanted his cock. I needed it.

  I suffered all alone for a long while. My fingers dug into the floorboards beneath me, my nails scouring into the wooden planks. I tried to claw my way out, but the wild beast within me demanded to be set free. My omega was in heat and the only thing that would make it stop was an alpha’s cock.

  It was how things were, the natural order of the world, and there was
nothing that could fight against that.

  I was helpless to the urges inside me. My arousal shackled me, and I knew there was only one way out.

  The lock finally grated, and the door flung open so hard that it slammed into the wall with a loud clatter. I turned my face only to see him scrutinizing me, a wild look on his face that both frightened and aroused me at the same time.

  “Omega,” he growled.

  My core shuddered and a rush of wetness flooded beneath me onto the blankets.

  “Your slick calls to me,” he continued, and I shook there on the floor before him.

  There was only one thing to say, so I said it.

  Chapter 8

  Magnar

  “Please, give me your cock, alpha.”

  Her words were like music to my ears, her voice a soft desperate melody that rushed through my veins with vivid intensity and I couldn’t make it stop. To this point, it had taken everything in me to keep myself from touching her. Last night, I hadn’t been able to come to her room because I wanted to claim her. I had been angry with her that she’d run from me, but I wanted her all the same.

  I closed my eyes and the picture of her naked body over my knee flashed before them. My cock was already hard as iron, but as I flexed my palm and remembered how it felt to redden her backside, I grew even harder.

  I’d enjoyed spanking her. I wanted to do it again.

  I’d taken pleasure in marking her bare little bottom with my belt and I’d relished the moment I’d discovered how my cruelty had left her soaking wet and needy for more. She’d wanted my belt and I’d given it to her.

  I’d be more than willing to give it to her again.

  Right now, though, there were bigger concerns on the table.

  I stared at her in her little nest. She was entirely naked. Her skin was flushed pink and the blankets beneath her were sopping wet with her slick. Her thighs were glistening with it. She was trembling, not from her fear of me, but from the power of what was happening inside her. Her hips rocked back and forth. Her fingers dug into her own flesh as she tried to grapple with what was likely the first bout of estrous in her life.