Chapter Two
Looking stunned, Olivia didn’t fight as Wes led her into the water, the warm liquid enveloping her quivering muscles. Kneeling beside her, he gently helped her to submerge her achy body in the hot bath. Taking her hair in his hands, he assisted her as she leaned back, wetting every single strand. She sighed softly as he began to work shampoo into her hair, the suds dripping down her shoulders and down onto the curves of her breasts. He was careful to be gentle with her, especially after everything she had just experienced under his hands.
Wes watched her eyes close in what looked like ecstasy. She clearly adored his touch, and he was enjoying her as well. There was something about this tiny woman that drew him to her, and he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. It could be the manner that she carried herself, the way she demurely dropped her eyes the moment he threatened to dominate her, or the second he noticed just how much her body had relished being over his knee. Honestly, he wasn’t sure what it was. The vision of her reddened bottom dancing over his thighs was a heady one, and when his fingers had brushed against her arousal, he had to remember to breathe again. She had been so utterly responsive to his touch.
He massaged the shampoo into her pretty blond waves, and her lips opened a fraction of an inch, a gentle sigh of pleasure meeting his ears. He smiled softly at her, even though she wasn’t looking at him.
Hungrily, his gaze stole up and down her body. Her figure was long and limber, yet soft in all the right places. Full breasts topped with little rosy pink nipples hardened into tight peaks the moment his thumb brushed against them. He knew exactly how aroused she was by the flush touching her cheeks, and the fact that her own hands kept stealing to touch her thighs, hips, anywhere but between her legs. Her heart-shaped bottom, still pink from her recent punishment, was the part of her body that arrested his attention the most. He wanted to hold each cheek with his hands, press her body against the wall, and take her hard, first her pussy, and then her ass. Her body begged for him to own it.
He gazed down at the tiny body before him, the light blond hair, her pale skin, her lidded eyes that hid irises the color of a deep forest, and he remembered one thing that nearly tore his heart in two, reminding him of his loss not so long ago.
This wasn’t Emma. This was Olivia.
His Emma, his delightful submissive, had been murdered by Lord Nero, stolen from him in the dead of the night. It hurt just thinking about her, even though it was a year after the fact. He could just see her sweet face now, staring up at him with desire and a hint of fear, every time he threatened to spank her or to tie her to his bed so that he could make her come over and over again. She had always reacted with such pleasure to his dominating ways, and had loved every second of pleasure and pain he had given her.
He had never had a natural submissive quite like her in his life. She had been so sweet and docile, and so eager to please him. Things had been so easy between them.
Wes clenched his jaw. Lord Nero had taken her from him, and he would see to it that he paid for it. No matter what. A whimper met his ears and broke him out of his thoughts. He had clenched Olivia’s hair in his fist and pulled her head back. Gently, he released his grip, remembering where he was and what he was doing.
He was bathing Olivia, cleaning her for her examination to follow. Soothingly, he guided her head back into the water and rinsed the shampoo from her hair. Next, he began soaping up her body, and massaging oils into her hair to keep it soft and supple. Taking a pitcher full of hot water, he doused her body, so that any dirt or grime from her time in the human cells was washed away for good. Her skin, slightly pink from the warmth of the bath, begged for him to touch it, to run his fingers over her, to make her sing with pleasure and cry out when his palm itched to spank her.
But this was Olivia. It wasn’t Emma. He couldn’t do that to her; his revenge on Lord Nero had to come first before anything else. He wasn’t in the right place to take on a new submissive, especially one who had already arrested his attention in so little time. And especially one like her who reacted the way she did to his dominance. There was no way he could afford that distraction right now.
She opened her eyes and looked back at his; he saw a pale vision with green eyes. Her cheeks blushed and her full pink lips pouted softly. She crossed an arm over her chest, her body language telling him that she was nervous. Reaching out, he took her hand and helped her to step out of the bath, effectively stopping her from covering up her beautiful body from his view.
His cock hardened painfully as he watched water droplets trickle off her body, dripping from the stiff tips of her nipples, rolling down the taut muscles of her stomach and over her shaved and very bare pussy. Swallowing past the lump in his throat, he tore his attention away and picked up a towel that an attendant had brought over to him while he was bathing Olivia.
Shaking out the fluffy material, he wrapped it around her shoulders and she gripped it tight. She looked relieved at being covered at last. He smirked, imagining what was to come next for her. Thinking about how still she had gotten after he had touched her bottom hole, he had to guess that no one had ever ventured there before, not even to give her an enema.
Trying to shake his sadness and anger revolving around the loss of Emma, he focused on the job at hand. He had a human girl to train. The moment he had seen her, he knew that she would fetch a high price, and even higher in auction if she was trained in the ways of pleasing a man. He would do his job, teach her everything he knew, and that was it. In a short while, Olivia would be up for bidding, and he would go back to planning Lord Nero’s downfall. That was all he would do.
He turned to a human woman beside him, one of the older slaves who helped to handle new arrivals. Her gray eyes met his for a second before they dropped to the floor as she curtsied.
“See to it that Olivia is brought to the cleansing room. I will administer her treatment myself. I have a meeting to attend right now, but I expect everything prepared for my arrival.”
“Of course, commander. She will be waiting for you in the examination room. Shall I bind her as well?”
“No. She will submit to me when I ask her to,” he responded, watching through his peripheral vision while Olivia’s eyes widened in surprise. He smirked back at her. He was going to enjoy this very much, so much in fact, that it was the only thing he could think about as he moved away from her.
Glancing back, he saw the attendant motion toward Olivia as he walked out of the bathing room. Had he not had a meeting with King Dante and the alpha wolf of the Blood Rose Pack, Kade, he would have brought Olivia to the medical area himself. But, there were more important matters to discuss, such as the impending plan to destroy Lord Nero and his evil ways. Even as he thought of his revenge on such a wretched man, he couldn’t keep the little blonde with forest green eyes out of his head.
Before he knew it, he had made it to the conference room, a large stone chamber, with a massive wooden table at the center of it. Dante, Kade, Morgana, and Lana had already found seats, and they all looked up as he made his entrance.
Both Morgana and Lana were now powerful sorceresses in the kingdom of Legeari. Morgana was the king’s sorceress, while Lana was the king’s betrothed. The two of them were due to be married very soon, and she would be crowned queen. In her time since he had taken her from Earth, Lana had grown into a feisty young woman, almost as sassy as Morgana was. The two of them liked to cause trouble from time to time, and their mates weren’t afraid to take them in hand, no matter where they were in the castle. Smirking, he thought about how he had just spanked Olivia in the middle of the bathing room, where all the human girls, attendants, and fellow Erassans had seen every second of it.
Why did she keep intruding into his thoughts? He shook his head, trying to get rid of the odd feelings coursing under his skin.
Morgana’s violet irises followed him as he took a seat across from her, next to the king. Her eyebrows rose as she stared back at him, clearly suspicious of what he was thinking.
“Well, what new information do we have this time?” he asked, leaning back in the heavy oak chair and crossing his legs. He did his best to ignore Morgana’s silent inquiry. The two of them knew each other very well, having worked with each other for years with King Dante leading them.
“We are aware of a surge in dark matter deliveries to Drentine. We have also been informed of increased activities on the borders of D’Lormere, including kidnapping of human slaves, both male and female, and a concerning rise in Erassan deaths, specifically, many of our scouts who watch over the border areas.”
“If our scouts are being murdered, how do we know this information?” Wes asked.
“Kade’s pack has been monitoring border activities as well. As far as we know, Lord Nero and his men are not aware of the existence of his wolves. Max, one of his most trusted members, has been traveling back and forth to inform us of changes occurring there,” the king answered, his eyes smoldering a slight red color.
“Has anyone seen Lord Nero recently?” Wes continued to press, his curiosity getting the best of his impatience. It had been months without any word about the Soul Eater, an evil entity that could enter the mind of humans and Erassans alike. Lana had been subject to his cruel powers, and it had taken Dante’s dominant hand to bring her back from the brink. Morgana too, had been victim to the evil man’s manipulations, but had come out of it with Kade by her side.
Morgana’s eyes flashed at the mention of the evil king, her mouth set in a firm line. She glanced at Wes before quickly looking away. The poor girl had blamed herself for Emma’s loss, for bringing Lord Nero into the city, and had never forgiven herself for thinking the magical bracelet that had kept her powers at bay would keep his locked away too. Wes held no hard feelings for the girl. Lord Nero was at fault, not Morgana.
Kade spoke up, his chestnut brown messy hair framing his intense yellow eyes.
“From whispers in Drentine and around the wall, Lord Nero has been seen only once or twice in the past few weeks, almost always in his shadow form. He must be stocking up on memories and storing power away for later use. Whatever he’s planning, it’s going to happen soon. I suggest we amp up patrols around the perimeter of Legeari, and here throughout the city of Eridell. I don’t trust we can protect our people in its current state.”
“I agree. I also suggest we send out more convoys on dark matter expeditions immediately, my king. We may find need for our arsenal sooner, rather than later,” Morgana offered.
“Already done. I sent out the order weeks ago, when we first started receiving reports of suspicious activity from the southern kingdom of D’Lormere. I want to be ready to put forth our most powerful defense, should an attack come, no matter the cost. I have also ordered that the city maintain lower usage for the imminent future, at least until the situation has been taken care of.”
“My king, should we decide to take the offensive, my spies tell me the weak spot along the walls surrounding Drentine still stands, and has not been fixed. It is a nick in their heavy fortification that I think we should take advantage of,” Kade replied.
“Not just yet. I want to see all of Lord Nero’s cards before we attack blindly. Now is not the right time to attack. We need more numbers for that. We need the humans on our side. If they defect and support us, we will be all the more powerful.”
“We also do not fully understand Nero’s abilities,” Lana said, her voice strong and sure. Since she had taken her rightful place at Dante’s side, she had grown into a force to be reckoned with. “Morgana and I are searching deep in the depths of the Hall of Magic. We have yet to find much literature on everything a Soul Eater is capable of, but we will not give up until we find it.”
“Lana is right. We can’t attack him until we are sure of what he can do, and what his weaknesses are. There has to be something we aren’t aware of that will cripple him. And the answer has to be somewhere in the Hall of Magic,” Morgana responded, a hint of anger and determination quite apparent in her tone.
Wes watched as Kade took her hand into his. He whispered into her ear, and her face calmed. She nodded softly before pressing the side of her head into his shoulder. Kade had been really good for her. He kept her level-headed and that made her all the more dangerous. He’d seen her at her best long ago, using her magic to defend her people, and he knew she was strong then. Now? He had an even higher respect for her than ever.
He turned to watch Lana and saw a similar exchange happening between her and Dante, the king. To this day, Lana was still an enigma to him. He had seen her face on the beach in Mexico, and had known something was amiss. When he had gotten the chance to study her that night, he had realized what it was that had gripped him with a start. He had seen her face before, only it had been on a picture that the king had kept close to his heart. Lana had the same face as Julia, a former love of Dante’s. Julia had been killed at the command of Lord Nero long ago in the days of the Roman Coliseum, when the king had first come to Terranovum. He had been forced to leave her behind at the command of the ancients, and Nero had killed her because of it. Dante had a painting commissioned not long after he arrived on the planet, putting Julia’s face to canvas so that he would remember her each and every day for the rest of his life.
Wes knew that Dante had stored that painting away the night he had presented Lana to him. Ever since that moment in the throne room, the king’s eyes had been bright and full of love for his human, and it made Wes happy to know that. He had known Dante for a long time, having been assigned to the man not long after he had been brought here. Both of them were very old, having been the product of genetic engineering meant to extend their lives for a very long time. They hadn’t aged a day since leaving the lab together. Until a child was born to carry on their bloodlines, they would remain this way, leading the kingdom under a kind, but firm rule.
Wes was an Erassan male from the planet Terranovum. Chosen for his sound mind, strength, and unwavering loyalty, he was appointed the role of the king’s hand and known to many as the commander of the Legearian army. To all, he was second in command, and was powerful in his own right. His second role was overseeing the import of human slaves, so that the Erassan population could maintain its numbers. For some reason unknown even to their advanced science, when an Erassan male and female mated and produced children, the daughters were nearly always infertile. In order for the Erassan population to survive, a steady stream of human females was needed to keep the race going. As a result, the planet of Terranovum relied heavily on the human workforce, and had enslaved them for several thousand years.
Wes observed the group, as a few other details came to light, but nothing he considered of real importance. He had learned what he had come for. Lord Nero was prepping for something, what he wasn’t quite sure, but he would find out so that his people would stay safe.
The group of them talked for a while longer about strategy before the mood finally changed to a lighter topic. Lana blushed when Dante began to talk about their upcoming wedding. It was only days away, and he wanted to make sure everything was planned and organized so that the safety of all was accounted for on their special day.
Lana interceded and discussed some of the food plans, and the massive celebration that was to follow the official ceremony. The entire city was abuzz with excitement over the king finally taking a wife. Even Wes, who only ventured out of the castle to check in with his soldiers from time to time, had heard side conversations all about the wedding from people on the streets.
He tried to pay attention to the details, but quickly began to think about the small human female awaiting him in the medical bay. He smirked as he thought about the way she had responded to him, how shocked she had been at the mere touch of her naughty bottom hole, and how wet she had become after he spanked her so soundly.
His pants tightened at the thought of her, down on all fours, looking back at him, and waiting for him to press a fresh enema deep into her tight little pucker.
Someone in the room cleared his throat, and Wes dipped his head when he realized it was Dante.
“Sorry, boss, I was thinking about some of the things I still have to get done today.”
“I asked you how the current stock of humans is looking. Will they be ready for auction very soon?”
“Yes. Most are ready. They are being prepped now for examination, and will be ready in the next few days. There is one though, I bet we can fetch a very high price for. I am seeing to her training myself.”
“Hmmm. Are you now…?”
“We can always use more money for matters of the crown, your majesty.”
“Of course. Keep me updated on her training then.”
As soon as he mentioned a female, both Morgana and Lana looked at him, their eyes narrowed slightly in curiosity. He didn’t usually take on human slave training personally. He was mainly involved with day-to-day operations and keeping a defined number of women and men ready for auction.
Wes smirked as both men moved in on their women, whispering into their ears and causing their eyes to widen in surprise.
“If I catch either of you near the medical bay or my chambers in the next few days, I will most definitely inform your mates. Then I will bring this human forward to watch as both your bottoms are bared and spanked publically in the dining hall. Is that clear?” Wes warned.
Both Dante and Kade smiled. Neither of them were offended at his threat; instead, they looked rather amenable to the idea.
“Lana, I won’t hesitate to spank you in public. Understand?” the king warned.
“Yes, sir,” she said, her voice suddenly soft.
“You too, Morgana. And, just in case you were wondering, it will most definitely be on the bare bottom, so that everyone can see how I can match the shade of your naughty cheeks to your fiery red hair.” Kade looked at the sorceress expectantly.
“Kade!”
The two men looked at each other and smiled mischievously. Dante was the first to speak.
“I think we should give our women a reminder of what should happen if they are caught sneaking around the castle. Shall we?”
Lana’s and Morgana’s mouths dropped open in surprise as their men pulled back their chairs and firmly placed their women over their knees. It took seconds for the men to toss up the girl’s skirts, pull down their panties, and begin to paddle bare cheeks with their palms. White bottoms quickly turned from pink, then to red as the girls kicked and squirmed over their mates’ laps.
“But Kade! I haven’t done anything wrong!”
“Not yet, my naughty redhead, but you were thinking about it.”
“Not true!”
“What did I tell you about lying to me? I should make you fetch your hairbrush!”
Wes smiled and shook his head at the sight.
“With that, I’ll take my leave, gentleman. I have a female waiting to receive the same attention in one of our examination rooms.”
He laughed as he stood and excited the room, the sounds of spanking music to his ears. If he knew those girls, they would be snooping before long, and once they got caught, he would make sure Olivia was there to see what happened to naughty girls who disobeyed in the king’s castle. His palm itched, and he had a sudden want to put her back over his knee and spank her bottom till it was a rosy red. He hoped that she would attempt to defy him, since he knew that every exam room kept a small wooden paddle tucked away in a drawer, especially for disobedient human females who needed to be taught a lesson.