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There’ll be plenty of fuel added soon, regardless. I keep trying to push it out of my mind, but I know what’s coming.

Brennan said he’d punish me – and just because he’s now kissed me, it doesn’t mean he’s going to go any easier on me. In fact, if the incident back at that luxurious hotel taught me anything, it’s that Brennanlikesdelivering a certain sort of punishment.

I remember how powerless and small I’d felt when he first picked me up. I tingle at the memory of that terrifyingly sweet shame – the moment his hand came cracking down across my ass.

I take a quick shower. Just like the night before, the water is ice-cold – and it instantly shocks my body and mind until I can think of only one thing, and one thing only.

Just like the night before, a sharp blast of cold air dries me off – leaving me shivering, with puckered nipples and skin rippled with goosebumps.

Like a robot, I wash my mouth out with a peppermint-tasting substance that dispenses from the little sink. Then, I spit it out and stare at the inner walls of the tent – knowing what awaits me outside.

I’m not assuming Brennan was making an idle threat. The leader of this Aurelian triad clearly doesn’t say things lightly. There’s a cruel streak to him – and it was obvious that he’d got painfully aroused when he’d punished me the day before.

I can tell Brennan enjoys taking charge of me. He might even have an edge to that deliciously sadistic side that truly scares me.

The other two are just as intense. Lazar is a closed book – his eyes like mirrors. What lurks beneath that glare of his? What emotions ripple beneath the surface? I can’t read his face – but it doesn’t take more than one glance at him to know that the depth of an ocean lies within that man.

Otho, meanwhile, shares more in common with an animal than a man. His nature is truly beast-like – a killer, predator, and hunter.

Lazar and Otho will watch, I presume – their slate-grey eyes locked on me as the leader of their triad enacts my punishment. This much is certain.

Only the method of my punishment remains in question.

I have a feeling Brennan’s going to use his bare hands on me – spanking my ass like he did the night before, only without restraint this time. He’d warned me he’d gone easy on me last time. I can expect no such mercy now.

Nor, I’m ashamed to admit, would I want it. My nipples are hard already from the cold shower, but they stiffen even further in shameful lust as I imagine what awaits me when I step through the flap of this tent.

I hate that I ache for Brennan to punish me. I hate what that makes me – a shameful, slutty masochist.

I shake my head, wondering whether mere seconds have passed since I stepped from the shower – or hours. I’d lost track of time completely as I considered what awaited me – and now I have butterflies in my stomach and a throbbing heat between my thighs.

Taking a deep breath, I put my hands beneath the sink dispenser and receive another palm-full of the peppermint substance. It worked as mouthwash, but perhaps I could use it as body lotion – with a very specific purpose in mind.

I rub the lotion over my neck and body. It tingles with the delicious burn of menthol, but it’s the crisp scent that I’m more interested in. I need it to mask my scent.

The Aurelians can handle the way I look – they’re not about to tear my clothes off because of that. In fact, with a bittersweet certainty, I realize those three Aurelians probably have a hundred women waiting for them in their harem back on Colossus – and no doubt each and every one of them are more beautiful than I am.

But my scent… That’s what I’m worried about.

I saw the way the Aurelians breathed in my scent – tasting it, like it was nectar. Their muscles flexed when they did so – the veins on those thick, muscular necks swelling with barely-controlled desire.

The combination of them punishing me – and the scent of my body betraying me as they do so, flooding me with wild arousal – might be too much for even Brennan to resist. Otho had been on the brink of snapping when he’d handcuffed me. I can’t even imagine how aroused he’ll be watching me get punished.

With luck, the peppermint scent will cover my own – at least enough for the Aurelians to maintain their discipline.

To bolster that, I pull on one of the ridiculous dresses the Aurelians picked out for me. It’s a little too large, but my nipples nevertheless poke out through the sheer material – to the point that it’s clear it wasn’t merely the cold shower that made them so hard.

But I’d anticipated this – and I rip the second dress I’d brought into the tent with me to shreds. I take a long strip of fabric to cover my body. The end result is equally as absurd as the dress I’d assembled the evening before – but at least it maintains some semblance of modesty.

Those three Aurelians mightwantto dress me up like a little pleasure slave – but nobody said that I’d have to cooperate…

…unless theymademe.

I gulp dryly.

How would that feel? To be completely owned by them – to be made to submit to them. To have all three of those towering, magnificent warriors lose control completely, and succumb to the mating rage of their species.

What would it be like if they didn’t hold back at all?