His expression sharpened as he gestured to the omega, willing me to proceed.
Eager for a show.
Eager—like we all were.Needhummed through our coven bond, but I stamped it down when I faced her again, knowing that if I didn’t want to be like all those useless mouth-breather alphas who brandished the Dom title without ever earning it, I needed tofocus.
“Keep your arms at your sides, Hollis,” I instructed, twirling the flogger tails, gearing up for the first strike. “If you try to block me, you’ll get two for flinching. Do you understand?”
She lifted those watery eyes to mine, just miles and miles of ancient green pines glistening like diamonds.
Like my cock could get any harder.
Then, with a dainty sniff, she offered the tiniest nod of consent.
“Good girl.” My fist tightened around the flogger’s braided leather handle when her cheeks flushed. I tipped my head, assessing her, enamored with the plume of rouge streaked across her flesh. “Goodomega.” It plunged down to her neck, her chest, her nipples tightening to stiffer peaks, begging for my attention—for my praise. Another purr rattled around my rib cage, and I resisted the urge topounce. “We’re so impressed with you already, little one, and we’ve barely started.”
My bonds rumbled in agreement, like they saw precisely what I did: this gorgeous sprig of yuletide holly thrived on praise.
Hardly out of the ordinary for omegas, especially if it was an alpha doling out the compliments, but I’d never felt such unhinged jubilation at giving them before.Good girlwas a standard turn of phrase in places like this, assurance for whomever we had that night that she pleased us—even if her performance was mediocre. My bonds and I preferred to keep the mood light and seductive. Fear had its place, of course, in small, subtle doses, but our shared lover always needed to know she satisfied us, one way or another.
Frankly, I’d grown numb to it.Good girl. It rolled off my tongue without a thought—but the way Hollis responded to it, her blushes beautiful and her toes wiggling into the carpet so godsdamnprecious, the phrase finally had meaning again.
Strange.
Less than ideal, really.
Squaring my shoulders, I meandered in front of her, Kane’s and Laszlo’s respective views still open to this goddess in her raw form. “Prepare yourself.” Two words that sucked the air out of the room. Hollis stilled, her eyes wide, her ruby-red lips so full and sumptuous onlyjustparted. “One… Two—”
I slashed the flogger’s supple tassels across her left breast beforethree, and she yelped, all that rosy color gone in a flash, then leapt off the carpet. Scampering back, she kept going until she hit the wall, both arms up to cover her breasts, fear misting her snowdrop perfume.
Technically, she hadn’t flinched during the hit itself, which meant she hadn’t earned an additional two. Some alphas may have balked at that, striding across the room and hauling her back. Throwing her on the floor. Barking for her to stay put—makingher stay.
I simply pursed my lips and waited, flogger in a loose grip at my side. Kane and Laszlo said nothing either, but my ears twitched at the shifting behind me, the movement in the chairs, the soft clearing of throats, the grinding of teeth, and the barely audiblehissover exposed fangs.
Like she had grown roots, Hollis held her ground, and I pointed to her spot on the rug, to the indents left by her delicate feet.
And still, I waited.
In the corner of my right eye, Laszlo perched at the edge of his seat, elbows on his knees, tensed and silent. Pain wasn’t his game, even if he loved the way blood tasted after it was delivered. Youngest in our coven but equal as a bond, all of us wearing each other’s bites on our wrists, Laszlo rarely got his hands dirty at this point, and usually his hovering drove me up the godsdamn wall.
But…
For once, his protective nature allied with mine, and I almost preferred this raven-haired omega having a hyperalert, overly focused guardian watching her every move, ready and willing to jump in if necessary.
To bark back if anyone lost control.
A tremor skittered down my hand, tingling at the tips of my fingers. I held the flogger tighter, unimpressed, a loss of control unheard of for a coven head.
Finally, with a gust of warm air from the club heating system, Hollis tiptoed back to the rug and resumed her previous position. It took a few beats longer for her to lower her arms again, her breast a dull pink from the strike; I needn’t ask how it felt. From the look of it, the heft behind my swing, it likely felt warm andvaguelysore, but nothing horrific.
Nothing to scar her, mind, body, and soul. Pain wasn’t Laszlo’s game, and permanent damage wasn’t mine.
Kane, on the other hand, if given the chance…
If you pried off his muzzle and let the monster loose…
Well, never mind. He knew better. Over the centuries, my bond had learned when and where to free the beast.
I watched this omega with a gaze kissed by the ancients take a deep breath, and we closed our eyes together on her exhale. Lost in the darkness, I zeroed in on her racing heart, on the thunder of her pulse, the flood of her scent filling the room and lashing at my cock like a very different kind of flogger.