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I look up into Manik’s furious eyes. He must have followed me. He doesn’t look pleased.
“I thought…”
“Don’t think,” he says. “You are grounded until further notice. And don’t think about wandering without me. Do I need to put that collar back on you? Teach you your place all over again? Do not make any mistake, Lyssa. This world is as dangerous to you as the ice was, but you are less well equipped to see these dangers. You could be kidnapped by one of my enemies. You could be killed by someone who fancies you a source of exotic meat. You could be…”
He is dragging me back to his chambers, his big, royal, scaled hand in the back of my suit. This king spends more time carrying me about like a scruffed kitten than allowing me to walk on my own two feet.
I should be enraged by this treatment. After all, he’s not respecting my autonomy. But there’s a part of me that is just so pleased to be wanted that his scolding makes me feel cozy and loved. Lecturing and punishing is Manik’s love language.
“I thought you might not need me anymore now that you’re here. You’ll need a proper queen.”
“Oh, one like Enchante?”
“Maybe someone who is slightly less of a bitch?”
He laughs.
“You are my mate, Lyssa. I claimed you in the cold. I saved your life and claimed it. That does not change simply because we are here.”
“I thought you might not have time for me, or want me, or…”
“I am going to be busy here,” he says. “You will have to become accustomed to being at my feet when I conduct business. I will take you out for exercise from time to time, and we will see this world together, but you will always, and I do mean always, be by my side. Understand?”
I nod.
“I want to hear it.”
“I understand.”
“What do you understand?”
“Uhm. I understand that I am supposed to always be by your side.”
“And that wandering off without permission, being out of my sight in this traitorous nest of vipers will earn you great punishment.”
“Yes. I get that.”
“Good. I will not tell you again.”
Manik
I wonder if she knows how pleased she looks when I tell her off, how pink and squirmy and generally mischievously pleased she appears. This human is going to be mine forever. I decided that the moment I took her that I would always keep her. She is my pet, my lover, my one and my only.
“I get it,” she says, trying not to giggle because she thinks I don’t want to see her being so terribly pleased at her own subjugation.
My lust is rising, but before I can act upon it, we are being interrupted by a bowing, scraping, useless fucking official whose name I refuse to remember.
“Your highness, I have great news.”
I grunt. A smart man would know that having entered my chamber without my permission is grounds for death, but this moron keeps talking.
“We have prepared a great feast in honor of your return, and we have declared a vacation across the nation.”
“Oh, I am sure the starving peasants whose homes and fields have been turned into factories will be absolutely thrilled to hear they’re getting a vacation from miserable starvation. Take the food you were going to serve at this dinner and give it to the people. Serve them. Not me. Now get the hell out of my sight.”
The noble scurries away. I make a mental note to have him sent to the poorest part of the country. Those who attempt to curry my favor will lose it. They cannot be trusted. None of them can be.
“You’re so fucking sexy when you’re being king,” Lyssa beams.
“Oh, you think so?” I gather her in my arms. “I think you just like to witness domination in the hopes it will come to you too.”
“Maybe,” she smiles.
“There’s something I need to do,” I tell her.
“Oh. Is it me?”
I chuckle. “Yes. But there’s a twist.”
Her eyes light up at the idea of a carnal twist. She is a kinky little thing, more capable of handling hardship and rough handling than most. She will need all her capacity for drawing pleasure from pain and satisfaction from humiliation in what I have planned.
