“Hi,” Ethan said softly . “Is it okay if I get up for a while, sir? I hope you don’t mind that I put on your shirt when I got up. II’m a little hungry, and I smelled the food.”

“Since you’re already up, I wonder why you bothered to ask,” Konnor said, more sternly than he’d meant to. He was still struggling to find the right tone to take with his mate. On the one hand he wanted to show him how silly this idea of being his slave was, and make him want to embrace his role as his mate. On the other, what he really wanted to do was throw him down on the floor right damn now and fuck him till he screamed his name. He knew Ethan didn’t love him…he’d been quite clear about that fact. But Konnor had increasingly strong feelings for Ethan. At first it had been a strong sense of possessiveness and a need to protect him, but with every passing hour he was with him, he could feel his love and attraction for the boy growing stronger.

If he could get him to admit he wanted to be Konnor’s mate, then he hoped that with time, Ethan might grow to love him. In the meantime, Konnor had to admit, making Ethan submit to him was hot. He didn’t want to live that way all the time, but in their most intimate moments, it was exciting and what he’d always needed with his lovers. As a matter of fact, he owed his boy a little punishment for all he’d put him through. He decided he’d had enough of this stupid game. It was time to push his boy to his limits so they could end this shit and have the relationship he thought they both really wanted. He needed to get Ethan to the point where he could admit what he really wanted and take his place as Konnor’s mate, albeit his submissive mate. He wanted to pamper him and take care of him and spank his round ass until it was bright pink. Konnor squared his shoulders and prepared to do battle.

“I’m sorry,” Ethan said softly, interrupting his thoughts. “I thought maybe you wouldn’t mind if I had something to eat…”

“You thought…” Konnor turned back around to glare at him. “That’s the problem with you, Blondie, you try to think too much. It’s what gets you in trouble. I know what you need, and your only job should be to trust me to give it to you. On my own schedule, not yours. Do you understand that?”

Ethan shuffled his feet and stared at the floor. “Yes, sir.”

“Do you? I wonder. Maybe this love slave idea is too hard? I seem to remember a lot of bold promises made to me not too long ago. Maybe you’re not quite so ready to be a slave, after all. Is that it, Ethan?”

Ethan surprised him by shaking his head firmly. “No! ” His voice rang out loud in the quiet kitchen. “I can’t go back to Mistress Katya. I can’t!” He fell on his knees and looked up at Konnor through a curtain of blond hair falling in his eyes. “Please, master. Let me stay with you.”

Konnor was horrified. Scaring his mate was the last thing he’d intended. He went to him and pulled him up into his arms, holding him tightly against him until the trembling began to ease. Drawing him over to a chair in the living area, he pulled him onto his lap and settled him there before he trusted himself to speak again. “Ethan, honey, you’ll never have to go back to Katya. I didn’t realize until just now that I never told you that I had her arrested. She and her whole operation are officially out of business and that includes that bitch Doma Helga, who sold you to her in the first place. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. There’s been so much going on in my mind since then…but it’s no excuse. There’s no question of you going someplace else. You’re mine, and I take care of what’s mine, understand?”

Ethan nodded against his shirt. “All right,” Konnor said. “But that doesn’t mean you get away with bad behavior. Running from me, for example, will get you a spanking if you ever do it again, and I mean it. You won’t sit down for a week, understand?”

Ethan nodded again, but more slowly this time. “As for your other bad behavior, like making decisions on your own, I have ways of dealing with that too. Tonight, for example, since you can’t seem to stay still on your own, I’ll help you to remember how. Now sit down at the table and eat your dinner. Then go to the bathroom and back to bed. Got it?”

He pushed Ethan up and pointed toward the table. Ethan went over and sat down quickly, attacking his food with gusto when Konnor placed the food packet in front of him. When he finished, he realized Konnor was staring at him, and he wiped his mouth and started to ask a question before thinking it would probably get him in more trouble. Konnor would tell him whatever he wanted him to know. He closed his mouth quickly and lowered his gaze.

“Bathroom,” Konnor said and Ethan got up and went unhesitatingly to the room he’d passed in the hallway. After relieving himself, he walked to the door and found Konnor waiting for him. He jerked his head toward the bedroom, and Ethan dragged his feet slowly inside the room, feeling apprehensive about what was about to happen. Konnor said he’d remind him how to be still. Did that mean the cuffs again? Last time when he’d cuffed him, it hadn’t been so bad, but Konnor had been with him the whole time. He wondered if he’d be alone this time.

“Face down on the bed,” Konnor said, and Ethan complied, glancing up nervously at him. “What part of face down do I need to explain to you, Blondie?” Ethan turned his nose toward the mattress and closed his eyes until he heard Konnor take something from the drawer beside the bed. He moved his eyes desperately to the side, trying to see out of his peripheral vision, but he couldn’t see a thing. Then Konnor pulled Ethan’s hands behind his back and snapped a pair of handcuffs on his wrists. Ethan gasped, and raised his head, only to get a resounding slap on his ass.

“Apparently you’re having trouble understanding.” Ethan put his face back down. A tug on his ankles told him that something was happening at the foot of the bed, and soon he felt tightness around his ankles and managed to look over his shoulder in time to catch sight of a long strap. Another tug and he could only guess that his ankles had been cuffed and then the cuffs strapped to the bed frame. He ducked his head back down to avoid another reprimand and missed seeing Konnor hook a chain to the platinum collar still around his neck and then attach the other end to the head of the bed.

“Maybe this will help keep your head still,” Konnor said softly. “Do you need a blindfold too? ”

Ethan shook his head. “No, sir.”

Konnor wasn’t through with him yet, however. He felt a sudden wet coolness on his ass, and Konnor’s fingers slipping inside him. “Relax for me. That’s it. Blondie, I’m going to put a small plug inside. Hold still and push back against it.” Instinct made Ethan pull sharply away, but the plug was sliding in, stretching him open and burning his muscles. He cried out and instantly, he felt Konnor’s free hand on his hip, caressing it and rubbing a slow circle over the skin. “Shhh…it’s not very large. You need to get used to wearing one for me. Relax.”

Ethan tried hard to do as Konnor told him, but just when he was beginning to calm down and his body was beginning to adjust to this invasion and feeling of being stuffed full, the plug gave off a gentle vibration. He moaned aloud, and again Konnor put a hand on his hip. “Quiet now and try to relax. I’m right here.” He got up off the bed though, and moved away. Ethan immediately started to panic, his breathing getting harsh and fast, but he heard Konnor’s voice from the chair beside the bed. “Hush. I’m here, and you have one hour of punishment coming to you. Don’t whine,and it’ll be over soon.”

The next half hour was torturous because not only could he not move, but the damn plug in his ass was pushed up against that spot inside him that made him feel so excited. The gentle vibration against it was driving him crazy. It was enough to make him excited, but not enough to get him off. Soon he began to rub his cock into the blanket beneath him to try to get some relief. He tried not to be noticeable about it, but a heavy hand soon popped his ass again. “Be. Still.”

Ethan whimpered and held himself as still as he possibly could, but this was torture. Nothing Mistress Katya had done to him even came close, not even the beating with the cane that one time. He’d passed out after the first four strokes of the cane, so he only really had the bruises to contend with after he woke up. But this…this was agonizing and truly evil. Yet some perverse part of him didn’t want to miss a minute of it.

It wasn’t the pain…there was very little of that. It was the sense of being completely subjugated and controlled. Why this made him so hard and aching for release, he wasn’t sure. Maybe it was the idea that his whole world was dominated by Konnor. He was owned by him, in every sense of the word, and Ethan found to his surprise that he wanted it that way. He’d fought so hard against the idea that he was a submissive, but why, really?

For the first time, he had to look the idea squarely in the face, and found that it wasn’t so scary after all. He trusted Konnor to know what was best for him, so why did he keep secondguessing him? Was it the concept that all Lycans had to be dominant and powerful? That it was somehow an integral part of their nature, and if they weren’t then they were defective? It was what he’d been taught all his life, and old habits die hard. But what if these ideas were wrong?

As the plug continued its vibrations, Ethan could feel the pressure building in his balls, and they rose up tightly in protest. His dick was aching and hard, and he longed for just a tiny bit of friction on it. There was no doubt in his head that he would mind Konnor’s orders in the future. No way could he go through this again, and Konnor seemed to know what was best for him in the long run. If he followed his orders, he wouldn’t keep getting himself in trouble. Why did he keep trying to make decisions for himself even after he’d told Konnor he would submit?

The pressure in his balls continued. Ethan tensed as his body began to give in to the instinct to panic. Then Konnor made a little noise as he shifted in his chair and Ethan felt the tension drain from his shoulders. Konnor was here, and he’d take care of him. The knowledge that he wasn’t in control of anything…that he would stay right where he was until his master decided to let him out of this rushed to his cock with a vengeance. To his horror, he felt himself coming, and could not stop the jerking motion of his hips. He cried out, overcome with humiliation and the knowledge that he’d failed yet another test of his submission. When it was finally over, he lay still, gasping for breath, his tears falling to make the mattress even wetter beneath him.