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His steps faltered and he moved his hand to the back of her leg. “You dare to threaten me,again?” He pulled her down off his shoulders and set her, none too gently, on her feet. “You are still adjusting to our customs, so I was prepared to be lenient. Apologize right now or the rest of this night is going to be very unpleasant for you.”
She had done nothing but give in since leaving Earth. She accepted every one of their customs, no matter how strange they seemed to her. She had always felt protective of her sisters. She didn’t give a damn if Raina was only her cousin. No one was going to auction off a member of her family.
“My threats didn’t empress those guards. Would they have released her if you’d ordered them to?” she persisted, staring right into Draven’s eyes.
“That is not the point. You will not punish me by withholding access to your body. That is not an acceptable way to express your—”
“You do it to me all the time!” The hypocrisy in his attitude made her even more determined to follow through with her threat.
Confusion brought his brows together, but his gaze remained cold. “I have never refused to fuck you when you needed me.”
“No, you just fuck me fast and hard without letting me come!” She hadn’t meant to yell at him, but this conversation was making her angrier with each exchange.
“The only time you are left wanting is when your behavior has earned you punishment.” Draven wrapped his hand around her arm and half-led, half-dragged her down the corridor and into the waiting elevator. All the apartments were on the upper ring, two levels up from where they were now.
“Why are you unescorted?” Noratu wanted to know as the elevator headed upward. “Where is your mentor?”
What an irrelevant detail! Flora was almost too irritated to answer, but she was already in so much trouble that she decided not to add to it. “We finished early. I was too restless to just wait around, so I went to the observation lounge.” The lounge was on the same ring as the arrival bays. “Imagine my surprise when I run into my sister and learn that she is about to be sold to the highest bidder.”
The door slid open and Draven pulled her out into the corridor.
“Auctions are a fast and effective means of negotiation,” Noratu told her as he hurried along behind them. “When multiple parties are involved, the negotiation can drag on for months.”
“Or the female can choose which triad to join,” she countered, anger rising again. “Or if she wants to participate at all.”
“You are Altorian, not human,” Draven growled out the reminder. “I thought we were beyond this.” They finally reached their apartment.
The door barely closed behind Noratu when Draven ripped Flora’s dress off her struggling body. Her kicking made it easier for him to rid her of her sandals. He pulled her to the middle of the living room floor and urged her to her knees.
“You can spank me until my ass is beet red then fuck me over and over. It will not change how I feel about this. Auctioning anyone is wrong!” Draven didn’t react to her impassioned statements, so she looked at Noratu. “Do you agree with this?”
He looked as if he were about to speak, then his features tensed and his gaze shifted to Draven. Apparently, her controller just told her source to butt out.
As if to confirm her conclusion, Draven began, “It is customary to immediately break the will of a conduit. The power we command is dangerous, even deadly. It requires a disciplined mind and complete control over our emotions. I have allowed your spirit to smolder because your upbringing was unique and we enjoy your feistiness. Regardless of their personalities, conduits must be strictly controlled. They must submit or the fire will not flow, or worse, it rages out of control. Now that you can manifest Altorian fire, allowing your defiance is no longer an option. You must be broken or someone could die.”
“I just wanted the guards to let Raina go,” Flora objected. “I wouldn’t have hurt them.”
“Not intentionally, but you were not in control of your emotions. Did you consciously summon the fire or did it spontaneously form?”
She averted her gaze, knowing he would see her guilt. “I was protecting my sister.”
“Your sister’s situation does not excuse your behavior,” Draven stressed. “You broke one of our fundamental laws. You were rude and disrespectful. You threatened me, then repeated the threat even after you had been warned that you would be punished for the first threat. You have not been so badly behaved since your first night with us.”
She glared at him. “I haven’t been this pissed off since then.”
His features locked into an expressionless mask and his tone was frustratingly calm. “You know the rules, Flora. I have made sure of it. You know what happens when you choose to break them. Are you ready to accept responsibility for your choices?”
He was putting all of this on her and that wasn’t fair! She hadn’t set out to break the rules. She had been provoked beyond rationality. “How would you react if you found out Noratu was going to be sold as a slave?”
“That is not Raina’s situation,” Noratu told her.
Perfect. Now they were ganging up on her.
“Your reaction to her situation is the focus of this lesson,” Draven stressed once more. “Your behavior must be addressed before we discuss what, if anything, we are going to do regarding your family members.”
Her anger wavered, decreasing in intensity without going out. Draven and Noratu had protected her grandmother. Iris was supervised, but she was living comfortably at one of Noratu’s estates. Flora was allowed to comm her whenever she liked and Iris seemed happy. Her mates had intervened without Flora saying a word. Why hadn’t she trusted them to protect her sisters?
“I reacted without thinking,” she admitted. “I saw Raina in restraints and just lost it.”
