Page 16 of The Dragon’s Captive

“Thank you,” she mumbled resentfully. He knew she wasn’t grateful. She was resistant and pissed off. He’d seen that a thousand times before. She needed some time to cool off, which suited him because he needed some time to prepare.

“You lie there,” he said. “And I know you’re going to be thinking about how to get out of here, but try to spend a little time thinking about why you’re tied to the bed with your bottom marked with my lash. Try learning something from this, Kate, so I don’t have to do it again.”

She bit her lower lip angrily, but managed to keep her mouth shut. Maybe she had learned something.

CHAPTER 7

Kate was humiliated and so damn angry she wished she were a hundred feet tall and she could squash Vilka like a bug. But she wasn’t. She was 5′4 and she was totally at the mercy of the commanding dragon. She couldn’t do anything about her predicament this time either. Being tied spread-eagled on the bed left her totally vulnerable and made it impossible to escape.

She did not know how long he left her there, but it was long enough for her body to calm itself and her tension and struggles against the binds, even the small ones, to cease. She was caught. Totally and utterly and she couldn’t do anything about it.

The door creaked as it opened and her mood lifted as Vilka entered the room. She didn’t want to be happy to see him, she just was. She couldn’t help it, even though it made her feel like a chained-up puppy wagging its tail desperately upon her master’s return.

“You’re still here,” Vilka observed, wearing a triumphant smile. “Good. Simple ties can best your ability to disappear from a locked room. Fortunately for you, I have an alternative to having you tied to the bed for years.”

“I’m not feeling fortunate,” Kate said, squirming. She hated the way the position left her sex spread, the bright copper down covering her lips failing to hide the way her body responded to restraint. Just looking at him made her react, her clit tingling as she started to get wet. Her nipples were two taut little buds atop her breasts as well, her belly rising and falling with the faster breaths she couldn’t help but take in her aroused state.

His hands clasped behind his back, his body positioned so that he was facing her with every step, Vilka walked slowly around the bed, taking her in. He was wearing clothing for once, jet black leather armor constructed in heavy plates across his chest and torso and legs, curving over the broad lines of his shoulders and jointed with heavy studs at every point of articulation. She found her gaze drawn to the V-shaped plate that covered his groin and the thick, hard member that she knew lurked beneath. Her pussy quivered at the memory of him surging inside her, no small part of her wishing that he was not covered now. There was no denying that Vilka cut a much more intimidating figure clothed. It enhanced his size and made her feel much more vulnerable by comparison.

“This fortress is designed to deal with the most troublesome soldiers we have. Did you know that?”

She shook her head.

“I’ve had hundreds of soldiers under my command,” he said, speaking while walking in a semi-circle, back and forth, his eyes roaming her body in a way that made her almost feel as though she was being touched. He could make heat flash across her skin with a mere look. “I have men here who have been found guilty of every crime this realm has a name for. And not one of them has been as much trouble as you, Kate.”

She tried to stop a prideful little smile from rising to her lips, and failed.

“Oh, you like that fact, hmmm?”

“I didn’t come here to make your life easy,” she said. “And all I’m trying to do is get home. You’re making my life difficult, so I’m glad I’m doing the same to you. Makes this more fair.”

“Fair,” he said, raising a brow at her. “Fairness is a strange concept, isn’t it, Kate. It is always clung to so fiercely by people who have no ability to get what they want.”

He was toying with her, and there wasn’t anything she could do about it. She fell silent, waiting to see what he had in store for her. There was definitely something. She could feel it.

Vilka stepped to the foot of the bed and loosened the ties at her feet, then walked to her head and repeated the process. She sat up quickly, curling up on herself to hide some of her nude shame.

“I know you’re not going to tell me how you got out of my chambers…”

“Damn right I’m not,” she interrupted.

“That does not concern me,” Vilka said. “I do not know precisely how you opened a portal either, but I closed it anyway. I do not know how you escaped earlier, but I assure you that you will not have the same opportunity again. There are many ways of restraining a prisoner, ways I guarantee you will not find so easy to overcome.”

“I’m going to escape, no matter what you do,” Kate snarled. “There’s nothing that can stop me, no matter how long it takes.”

“I think differently,” Vilka said. “For starters, I have this, which will certainly pose more of a challenge than a locked door.” He took his hand from behind his back and revealed a slim round band of golden-hued metal shaped in a collar, open at a hinge. Attached to the collar was a chain of similar hue, stark and probably strong. Likely not actually gold, Kate figured, too soft for the purpose it was clearly intended for—taking her as a slave.

Vilka reached for her, kneeling on the bed, his large body looming over her naked form as he snapped the collar around her neck and ran his fingers over the seam so that, like her clothing that had fizzled away beneath his touch, the metal sealed into one continuous ring.

“You’re really going to have to show me how to do that sometime,” she said, trying to keep her tone light. In spite of her sore rear and the frustration of being captive once more, she couldn’t help but be fascinated by the ancillary abilities dragons had in their human forms.

“The way you’ve been behaving, you will not be shown anything at all besides the rod, the lash, and my bed,” Vilka growled. “I will keep you locked to my bed, straining on my leash and I will take every one of your sins out on your flesh. You will beg for clemency, human, and unless your attitude changes, you will not receive it.”

His threats made her stomach flutter as he tugged at the chain connected to the collar. She felt her neck move, and the rest of her body with it. He now had almost total control of her with the smallest of motions on his part. Wherever he chose to move the chain, that was where she would be.

“This suits you,” he murmured, running his hand down the length of the chain and wrapping it about his palm. “Almost as if you were made to be captive, but you’re too free-spirited and headstrong to be domesticated or obedient, aren’t you, Kate.”

“Are you trying to threaten me, or compliment me?”