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This was going to suck. This was going to suck long and hard.
Somehow, I kept eye contact with the king as the lashes continued. His expression remained neutral, no more flinching from him.
Behind me, Soren had way too much fun inflicting his punishment. I think he grew disappointed in my lack of sound, however. He had to start taunting me, as well.
Quietly, so Caulder couldn’t hear, of course.
“You will never have her,” he promised. Slap, sting, burn. “Never taste her.” Crack, gouge, flay. “Never fuck her.”
My vision wavered, and my back screamed in agony.
“But don’t worry, fair prince,” Soren cooed. “She’s quite a frigid lay, anyway. So stiff and unresponsive. Cracking her legs apart is like prying a chicken wing from the breast bone.”
I growled out my anger, his words actually muting the pain as he incited my fury.
After another strike, he leaned in close. “I’m sorry. Were you trying to say something?”
“Yes,” I hissed. “I wanted to say a true lover is the one responsible for inspiring the passion in his partner. So if you failed to inspire her, I can only assume you’re the one who’s frigid.”
The next lash came high, so high it wrapped around my head, smacking the end of the flogger against my mouth. I instantly tasted blood as my ears rang while my vision dimmed. Pain tore through my face and the back of my head.
“Soren!” I vaguely heard Caulder censure. “No more of that.”
“Sorry, Cousin. It slipped.”
“Well, if it slips again, you’ll receive the rest of his lashes for him.”
Soren didn’t slip again. But the pain was still intense because he put a new fury behind his punishment, beating me with a speed and savageness that made me black out. When I came to, Caulder was commanding him to stop. At this point, I wasn’t sure if I’d received the full punishment or not.
“Twenty lashes, Soren. I said twenty.”
“I did give him twenty,” Soren argued, only to mutter for my ears alone. “And then some.”
“Your numbers must be off,” Caulder muttered. “Because I counted twenty-six.”
“Did you? Well then, apologies, Your Majesty.” Soren bowed low before him. I caught sight of the flogger dangling from his hand. It dripped with blood and torn flesh. “My mistake.”
“Untie him,” Caulder said on a sigh, motioning two of his guards forward. “And get him back to his room. See if one of the healers can make time for him.”
I slid my dizzy gaze his way, realizing I wasn’t sure when I’d lost eye contact with him in the first place.
He glanced at me and nodded once, apology thick in his gaze. “All is well between us now, Prince.”
Turning my face away, I winced when one of the guards loosened my bonds. I didn’t realize how much the wrist guards had been keeping me on my feet until my knees buckled as soon as I was free. But one guard hooked an arm through one of my elbows and the other guard caught my other. They half dragged, half walked me toward an exit.
I glanced over and met Soren’s gaze.
He smirked and waved his bloody flogger cheerfully at me. “Have fun recuperating.”
Chapter 19
Vienne
My first week of motherhood was frankly a blur. When I wasn’t nursing or changing nappies, I was sleeping, healing, and experiencing the strangest dreams.
The two healers who’d been present through the birthing process kept me barely lucid with medicines they constantly poured down my throat. And every other word out of their mouths related to how much of a miracle I was. I shouldn’t have survived what I had. It wasn’t natural, wasn’t anything they’d ever seen or dealt with before. I think they expected me to drop dead again at any given moment.
They even had a wet nurse brought in to take over the care of my child. But I wouldn’t let anyone else near her. She was mine. My little Anniston Rose.
