登入BRAMMON'S POVFenric carried Anwen back to her chambers, her small frame curled against his chest—frustrated, exhausted, and sobbing inconsolably.I'd given her the strongest sleeping draught I could prepare as soon as she and Fenric had settled into bed. Now she lay fast asleep, cradled securely in Fenric's arms as he held her close.After what we'd put her through today—the punishment, the torment of denial, the way we'd driven her body past its limits—she needed long, uninterrupted rest.Yet even in sleep, her shoulders trembled from time to time, a quiet sniffle escaping her as though her body still remembered the ordeal, even if her mind had drifted far from it.And every time it happened, Fenric would press gentle kisses to her brow, her temple, and the tip of her nose. So impossibly tender for someone who had been utterly ruthless only moments before.Across the room, Rhydan remained where he'd stationed himself against the stone wall, his arms folded across his broad chest. Hi
ANWEN'S POVMy bottom still throbbed.Brammon's twenty strikes layered beneath Fenric's fresh ones, merging into a relentless, burning ache that made even the smallest movement unbearable. It was too much.Three punishments for a single mistake.And the third still loomed like a storm on the horizon."Please." My voice cracked with desperation. "I've been punished enough."Fenric's thumb drifted up to trace the bridge of my nose. A gesture that should have felt comforting now felt like a second collar tightening around my throat."You went into the forbidden section, Anwen," he said quietly. "And you touched a forbidden book."His hand slid down to cup my jaw, his fingers firm. "If anyone else had caught you," he said, "the punishment would have been far more severe."Something inside me snapped.I slapped his hand away.The crack of skin against skin echoed through the hall, and I was already speaking—reckless, furious—the words tumbling out before fear could silence them."This isn'
ANWEN'S POVThe movement above my head, at the shackles securing my wrists to the headboard, stirred me.I heard a click, then my wrists were free.I woke fully—instantly—the way you do when you sense danger already in the room. My arms dropped from the headboard, heavy and tingling as blood rushed back into them. I clutched them to my chest as I sat up.Brammon stood beside the bed, watching me.I grabbed at my neckline, yanking the fabric up to cover what he'd left exposed hours ago. The dress was wrinkled, damp in places, a humiliating reminder of everything that had happened. I curled in on myself, drawing my knees to my chest, making myself as small as possible, wishing I could disappear into the mattress."Please." My voice cracks, raw from earlier screaming. "No more."I couldn't take any more of his punishments.Not merely the spanking—that had only been the beginning. It was everything that followed: the calculated teasing, the humiliation, the merciless way he used my body.
BRAMMON'S POVI lowered Anwen's hips back to the table and unsealed her. My release spilled out immediately, trickling down her thighs in thick, wasted ribbons.I stared at her for a moment—sprawled there like an offering, her face tear-streaked and discontented, her body still aching with need. Beautiful. Always so fucking beautiful, even when she was miserable.I reached for her. I didn't bother righting her bodice or pulling her sleeves up to cover those ample breasts. She'd lost that privilege. Instead, I hauled her up and over my shoulder, her torso dangling down my back, her warmth pressed against my chest.She didn't resist. Not a single squirm as I carried her. I hiked her skirt up again, exposing her bottom so close to my face I could see every mark I'd left. Raw. Tender. Angry red. My handiwork.I ran my palm across the heated flesh.She hissed, her body jerking against me.I climbed the stairs with her still draped over my shoulder, each step deliberate. When I reached her
ANWEN'S POVBrammon finally let go of my hair. The sudden release sent my head pitching forward, my cheek slamming into the cold wood.Before I could draw a proper breath, his hands were on my hips, flipping me onto my back. The wooden table bit into my shoulder blades, my punished bottom smarting against the hard surface.I lifted my head just enough to peek at him, my vision swimming.He was already working the laces of his trousers.My mouth went dry as he pulled them down. His erection sprang free, heavy and veined, jutting toward his stomach. I swallowed convulsively, suddenly reminded of just how enormous Brammon was. Thick and long and impossibly hard, already weeping at the tip.He wrapped his hand around himself, positioning the broad head at my entrance.My heart lurched, a sudden spike of terror cutting through the haze of pain and arousal. He hadn't prepared me. Not really. One interrupted release didn't ready me for that—and I could feel it, the inadequate slickness, the
ANWEN'S POVI felt Brammon's hand, shoving my skirt up over my hips, gathering the fabric in rough folds around my waist. Then his fingers hooked into the edge of my undergarment and dragged it down, the air hitting my exposed skin like a slap before he'd even struck me. I shivered, mortified, the chill raising gooseflesh across my bare bottom.Through the tangle of hair half-obscuring my vision, I caught a glimpse of him in my peripheral vision. Brammon was raising his hand, and my breath hitched in frozen terror. It was enormous, that hand, thick and broad and heavy.If I hadn't been panicking, I might have laughed at the absurdity. His palm looked larger than my entire ass, a span of callused flesh and hard bone that promised nothing but pain."No," I shouted, my voice cracking, desperate to stop the inevitable descent of that terrible hand. "Please. I won't do it again. I promise."A sound rumbled from him—not quite laughter, nothing so warm as that. A humorless chuckle, dry and
BRAMMON'S POVI heard him before I saw him.The crack of wings split the air above my labyrinth, sharp enough to shiver through the stone beneath my feet. A heartbeat later came the reckless dive, ending in a heavy thud on the balcony overhead.I already knew—he was in a foul mood.Either Galenor h
ANWEN’S POVArlo was already moving around the room, grabbing things—my thick scarf, the small pouch of medicinal herbs for my fever and cough, an extra pair of socks. He stuffed them into a rough sack with hurried hands.“Where are we going?” I asked, pushing the blankets aside and climbing to my
ANWEN'S POVTwenty years later.Monsters rule the world now.They don’t hide in shadows or lurk beneath beds. They sit in councils. They wear crowns. They walk our roads in broad daylight as if the world belongs to them.Because it does.They call themselves the Scions—magic wielders, shifters, and
It hurt.A sharp, tearing brilliance bloomed beneath Azara’s skin as though her own light had turned against her.Radiants like her were not meant to bleed, nor to know agony such as this. Pain belonged to mortal flesh, to bone and blood and fragile breath. Not to beings wrought from pure illuminat







