“There are laws, Brenya, and he broke none. Do not presume to know better than your leadership. Do not presume to think you know what is best for Annette. Would you have her languish away the rest of her days watching her husband adore another? He has shown her a mercy in this.”
If it was possible for the Alpha to grow rougher, he did. Rapid jerks of his hips punished her from behind. It was domination, pure and simple, and she could do nothing.
Meaner still, he reached under her body and began to patiently circle her clit.
Brenya found that, in fact, she was capable of making a noise. A single cry, the single chirp of a dying bird.
He compelled her climax and knotted her right there in the antechamber of the dining hall where servants might walk by with trays of food.
Everything, every grunt, every shout—every last thing he’d done had been heard by those inside.
When he began to spurt, the male changed tactics to draw out the pleasure he’d forced on her.
Face twisted up, eyes scrunched close, Brenya tried to shut it out, but she was full of him, unable to escape. In the blink of an eye, he became another person entirely, cooing at her, petting her back, soothing her buttocks with a kneading grip.
Strong arms came around her sore middle, Jacques gathering her back, pulling her until he’d found a seat and could settle her, joined as they were, facing forward on his lap. At her ear he whispered, “Now calm yourself, mon chou. We will take this time to gather our thoughts before we return to our friends.”
He was still pulsating in her belly, and she had yet to come down from the high. Should she catch her reflection, her pupils would be blown, her eyes almost completely black.
As black as the Commodore’s heart. As black as her hate for Ancil.
Brenya refused to speak, no matter how Jacques cooed of her beauty, how much he claimed to adore her, how it was his duty to keep her safe… even from herself. Staring forward, she felt his hands caress where they would, felt the soft kisses on her neck and under her ear, and fantasized about deconstructing the air filtration in Ancil’s room. It would take her less than five minutes to alter the mechanism so it pumped carbon dioxide over the sleeping Alpha.
He would die weak and gasping.
When the knot began to subside, Jacques reached for a swath of lace laying over the polished mahogany table at his elbow. He brought it between her spread legs, using that delicate thing to mop up the rush of fluid at his retreat, dabbing at her sore labia before tossing it aside as if it were disposable.
Exactly how Ancil had tossed Annette away.
Jacques drew her to stand, bending down to right her skirts and make sure all signs of their coupling were covered. Yet she reeked of him, of Alpha musk, and of her failures. Her torn undergarments were gathered from the floor and stuffed in his pocket.
When Jacques took her face in his hands and turned it to look down upon her, her eyes spurned his.
He spoke anyway. “I accept that you will most likely refuse to speak to me for the remainder of the evening. But we will speak on this later. You think to play at games you do not understand, and must learn such things can be deadly.” He dared to press a lingering kiss to her slack lips. “I know you’re angry, but you took your punishment well. I suggest you do not put me in the position of having to do it again.”
Taking her elbow, he led her back into the dining hall, pulled out her chair before all the staring faces, and sat her down. They had missed a course, and she had yet to eat, but when the soup arrived Brenya continued to stare forward at nothing, prompting Jacques to lean over and warn her. “Eat.”
It was mechanical, spoon to mouth, tasteless cold green sludge sliding down her throat. Several more courses arrived, talk around the table having picked up as if nothing had happened. If Ancil was staring at her and gloating, she did not see. If he was fawning over his new, pregnant mate, she never knew. Her eyes were boring a hole into the wall.
It was the only way to keep from breaking things.Chapter 16When dinner ended, there was still more entertainment to be had—more guests set to join the festivities. Jacques stood to announce, “In the adjacent room companions of the female and Omega variety await our attention,” to the raucous applause of the room.
The Commodore grinned, offering his hand to the brooding Omega so they might make their way into the adjacent chamber. “Your place is at my side, Brenya.”