Page 183 of Vampire Kings Box Set

“What you did was very naughty,” Gideon growled. Lorien trembled. He had no idea what Gideon was going to do to him. This position seemed to imply one thing, but surely the Maker was not going to punish him with a simple spanking. Gideon had just got done ripping Maddox’s throat out.

Before Gideon so much as touched him, Lorien sobbed out of sheer fear. He felt Gideon palm his ass and braced for unspeakable pain.

“Relax,” Gideon said. “I am not going to do to you what I did to Maddox. He has had thousands of years to learn to obey. You are just an undisciplined baby,” Gideon purred. “And so I will show you mercy by disciplining you appropriately.”

The Maker’s hand rose and fell, landing with a harsh slap. It was not painless, but it did not hurt as much as having his throat ripped out completely. He felt good about that for about a dozen slaps of the Maker’s palm, at which point the feeling of relative mercy started to fade. It disappeared completely when the Maker shredded his pants without bothering to take them down, just ran his fingers over the seat of Lorien’s pants, turning them to shreds.

He started to spank harder then, and sharper, using his eternal palm to punish Lorien with slaps that stung and ached, and made Lorien writhe over the Maker’s thighs. It was such a simple punishment, one that should not have had any real impact on a vampire, and yet Lorien felt himself flushing with intense shame and increasing pain.

“Do not ever cross me,” Gideon warned. “And do not ever make the mistake of deciding to defend Maddox from me. I give him what he deserves and what he needs, whether he or you understand it. This is a merciful reminder of your place. If you push me again, it will be the worse, and the worse again. Maddox is no longer your ruler. I am.”

“I understand,” Lorien submitted. He wanted this to stop. The pain. The embarrassment. The closeness to a creature of such intense evil that even this relatively gentle treatment was too much to bear. He could feel Gideon’s influence wrapping around him, sinking into him. He could feel himself starting to become weak in a very dangerous way.

The slaps lightened a little, as if Gideon knew precisely when the moment was right. He lifted Lorien’s head up by his hair and looked into his eyes.

“Where. Are. The. Wolves?”

“I can’t tell you.”

Gideon reached down and parted Lorien’s thighs. He ran his hand up the inside of Lorien’s leg, reaching the tender part of Lorien’s anatomy with his fingers and claws. Lorien’s balls shrank away from the Maker’s touch as if sensing his intent.

“Do you want to deny me the truth, baby vampire? Are you sure? Would you like to grow these parts of your anatomy back? Now. Where are the wolves?”

“In the forest,” Lorien whimpered. “They’re in the forest.”

15

“How will you find a wolf in an almost endless forest? It’s one thing to find your own fledglings, but it is almost impossible to find a wolf,” Lorien said.

“I suppose we will have to find some good wolf bait.” Gideon glanced over his shoulder. “Oh. Yes. There we go.”

Bound in silver and still mostly unable to speak, Maddox lay on the moldering forest floor in every type of possible agony. The physical discomfort was the least of his concerns. The notion that he would be used to hurt Will was absolutely unthinkable. He loathed Gideon in this moment more than he had ever hated anybody, including the villagers who had once tortured him to the brink of death.

“It didn’t have to be this way,” Gideon reminded him. “You could have chosen to obey me. Instead you tried to hide the wolf and orchestrate a small animal coup behind my back. I know why you freed the father and informed the mother. You were seeking allies. It is truly pitiful the scant numbers who come to your call. By now, an army should rise at your bidding.”

“Don’t… need… an army,” Maddox hissed through his slowly healing voice box. “Just… need… Will.”

“I hope he is as delusionally attached to you as you are to him,” Gideon said. “That will make my task that much easier.”

Will was on the hunt with Henry when he caught the scent of his lover. It was not possible for Maddox to be out here in the wild. And yet the scent was his, and it spurred Will into a mad dash toward the source before he had a moment to think about it.

Henry was by his side, the pack master slightly smaller than him, but still dominant in every way. If not for Henry, Will would have rushed headlong toward the scent, which grew richer and more disturbing with every bounding step.

He was paying no attention to Henry whatsoever, but the pack master had ample practice in the art of handling runaway whelps. Henry put on a burst of speed and lunged at Will, gripping him by the scruff of the neck, teeth digging into the loose skin there. Henry dragged Will down the same way he’d take down prey, forcing him out of his animal shape and back to his stark-naked human form. They shifted at speed; two rolling, scuffling wolves turning into two tumbling naked men sliding across the forest floor.

“NO!”

In his human form, Henry was unmistakably dominant. Larger, older, more practiced at handling trouble. Will was trouble, and so was that scent that had caused him to spook the prey and run off half a mile in the wrong direction.

“STOP!” He shouted the word down at Will, the order explosive and intense.

Will didn’t really have any choice. He was on his back with Henry right on top of him, pinning him to the ground.

“It’s a trap,” Henry said.

Will’s pretty blue eyes were wild. “It’s Maddox! He’s hurt. There’s Maddox, and there’s blood.”

“Yes, but it’s not just Maddox. Don’t you smell the other scents?”