Stepping into her pit, armored boots distorting the cushions, Sergeant Uriel towered over her. “You were ordered to sleep.”
She blinked, silent and victorious.
“And yet you spend your hours slotted for rest making that.” He gestured to her garment, brow furrowing, and displeasure growing obvious. “Did you think I’d allow you to keep it? That I would not see through this little rebellion?”
Meeting his stone cold gaze, she held her covering all the tighter.
“Now you shall have no dress when Corporal Esin arrives to see to your grooming.”
For such a small exhausted thing, she was remarkably fast in scrambling out from under his legs and fleeing across the room.
“You will unknot every last piece of fur you damaged with your antics.” He made a dash after her, boots loud yet voice unnervingly mellow. “Every last piece, Morgaine.”
Rounding the table, fur skirt caught up in her hands, she evaded again.
No breath was wasted on argument, not when her legs were wobbling and her arms tired from hours of labor. She just continued to run.
But he was so much larger, a hunter, a soldier, and she was only a frightened… child. A child far from her settlement with absolutely no way of ever returning, who wanted nothing more in the world than her mother.
It was her own garment that brought an end to the game of cat and mouse. She tripped on the long skirt and went sprawling, chin hitting the floor with enough force to knock her senseless.
Stars still spun in her vision when Sergeant Uriel turned her over, cursing loudly. He pinned her to the frosty floor, though she was too senseless to properly struggle. Whether it was lack of air from the weight of his boot that sent her spiraling into unconsciousness, or just too many hours of unconscionable anxiety, Morgaine fell into a painful sleep that brought with it no rest.
When she woke, she was back in the sleeping pit, Corporal Esin half-dressed at her side—the man unknotting her dress one bit at a time.
Chest bare, he didn’t seem at all happy with the task of stripping her. In fact, he met her eyes and let her see a man full of heartache. “You shouldn’t have done it, renegade.”
She tried to flop away, to give him her back, but found her leg was caught under a heavy thigh.
“Silence will not make this any easier.”
Jaw aching, she parted her teeth and grimaced at the sharp sting of pain. Hand to her face, testing the bone, she found the slip of medicinal unguent coated her chin.
“You’re lucky your jaw is intact.”
What an outrageous concept. “Lucky?”
Attempting to brush a tangle of hair from her forehead, Esin seemed surprised when she jumped and shoved his hand away. “I’m not here to hurt you.”
The building pressure behind her eyes, the constant throb in her skull, were made all the worse from simple movement. Groaning, she sank back into the pillows, glaring at her tormentor.
He tried again, hand moving slowly, to lift the tangled lock and tuck it behind her ear. “As I said, I have no wish to hurt you. Ever. I bore the brunt of your punishment myself, because I cannot bear to see you in pain.”
He turned at the waist so she might look upon the damage done to his back. Crusted lines of open skin still oozed. “Three stripes.”
Her actions had caused him pain? This was a victory indeed. “I hope it hurts a great deal.”
Smiling as if her callousness was cute, Esin tried to cuddle closer. It did not go as he would have hoped. She tore at her furs, at him, at the bedding in a useless attempt to be free.
And was easily caught.
Whispering a secret, he ignored her thrashing and began picking at a new knot. “I was taken from my mother too, you know. It was a long time ago, but I do remember missing her. That is our way of life, our laws… our
tenets that lead to fulfilment and happiness. We all have our place. Yours is with your Alpha, where you will be loved and spoiled.”
“And when that Alpha fills me with a child, how long before it’s taken from me?”
He paused to consider, weighing his reply in a way that prompted Morgaine’s suspicion. “Your offspring would reside and train on this ship. I could do that for you if it would make you happy.”