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“Rule number three—a woman must always show a proper respect towards her husband and towards all men—if she does not, it is her husband’s duty to punish her publicly and thoroughly and allow others to bear witness to her shame so that she will learn to curb her scolding tongue.”
“Herwhat?”Mia exclaimed. “And what kind of punishment are they talking about? Is he allowed to beat her or what?”
“Don’t know,” Sev growled and Mia thought he looked troubled.
The girl in the holo spoke again.
“Rule number four—a woman must thank her husband properly, on her knees, after he punishes her. She must suckle his shaft to show her gratitude for her punishement and to receive his seed and his wisdom, for this is proper and right.”
“What?”Mia exclaimed at the same time Sev growled,
“Oh,fuck.”
“Can you pause that thing?” Mia demanded, but her partner shook his head.
“Has to play to the end.”
But it seemed that the recording was almost over anyway because the girl on the holo said,
“And the fifth and final Rule of Conduct is this—that a woman must never deny her husband his rightful dues in bed. She must remember that her body is not her own—it belongs to her husband and he will do with it as he pleases. There—that’s all of them.”
She looked pleased with herself, Mia thought, with a sick feeling in her stomach.
“Enoc!” the girl exclaimed, jumping up. “Enoc, I know them all now by heart—just as you commanded, my husband! Come listen to me tell them—I think I can say them all so you don’t have to punish me this time.”
She jumped up as though to run to the unseen husband and the recording abruptly ended.
“What the hell was that?” Mia exclaimed, staring at the now inert metal disk still cupped in Sev’s palm.
“Those were the Rules of Conduct for this fucking place.” His deep voice was extremely grim. “Mia, I think we’re in way over our heads here.”
“Well…I mean…” She bit her lip, not sure what to say.
“Did you hear what she was saying?” Sev demanded. “We’re justpretendingto be a mated couple—but these bastards might really expect me topunishyou in some way!”
Mia was more concerned with the parts about the wife kneeling at her husband’s feet and “suckling his shaft” but she was too embarrassed to say so.
“Well…I guess I’ll just have to be careful not to do anything that would make you have to, uh, punish me,” she said at last.
Sev ran a hand over his horns.
“I knew this was a fucking bad idea,” he growled. “I don’t want to hurt you, Mia—I left my home world to get away from shit like this!”
“It’s the reason I left my sect, too,” Mia told him. “Well—the guilt and obeying men part—we didn’t do any kind of ‘punishments.’” She looked up at him earnestly. “But it’salsothe reason weneedto be here, doing this. We should save that coin-projection disk thing—it’s practically all the evidence we need that the PPP is a misogynistic cult.”
“I don’t like it.” Sev was shaking his head. “I’m afraid this isn’t going to end well.”
“We’re here now,” Mia pointed out. “So we’re going to have to make the best of it. Look at me, Sev…” Reaching up, she caught his face in her hands and looked into his eyes.
Her partner’s big body went abruptly still and he looked down at her intently. Mia had never touched him like this—so intimately. Had never even considered doing so before, but now it felt natural and right.
“We’re in this together,” she told him, holding those golden eyes with her own. “We’ve been in tight spots before—remember the robbery at the gas station on Busch Avenue?”
The two of them had unknowingly walked right into an armed robbery. If they had panicked when the robber turned his gun away from the clerk and towards them, they might both be dead now. But they had kept their heads. When the would-be robber had started to aim at Mia, Sev had growled,
“Hurt my partner and you’re fuckingdead,human.”
His enormous size and satanic appearance had apparently made the robber lose his nerve. He had thrown down his gun and put up his hands and Mia was cuffing him and shoving him into the back of their unmarked squad car before he knew what hit him.
