Fated Mate Conquered - Luna Voss Page 0,33
take off.”
“Clearly,” he replies. “I’ll make sure that gets done in the future.”
I give him a smile. “Of course, I can’t really blame you this time. It sounds like you had to leave the villa in a hurry.”
“Kora,” he says, and I can tell by his tone that he’s changing topics, “when you were out there on the ship after your tether broke, I told you to stay put. I said I would come out and get you. But you traveled back to the airlock anyway, without your tether.”
Ah. So that’s why he’s acting weird.
“I know,” I say, trying to sound casual, “but I made it back fine, didn’t I? It wasn’t really a big deal.”
“When you disobey an order from me that puts your safety in danger, it’s always a big deal,” he replies, his tone firm.
Suddenly, I can feel my cheeks going hot. I have that awful feeling that I’m in trouble again. And truth be told, I can understand why he’s upset. I did disobey him, and I did take an unnecessary risk. But I don’t see why he has to make a whole thing about it. Nothing actually happened to me.
“I’m sorry,” I apologize quickly. “I didn’t mean to disobey you. I just thought it seemed like the easiest option.”
He raises his eyebrows. “Which one is it? You didn’t mean to disobey me, or you thought it seemed like the easiest option? It certainly wasn’t both, because if you didn’t mean to disobey me, you would have stayed where you were and waited for me to come and get you with another tether cable.”
“I— I guess I just didn’t feel like it was necessary,” I stutter. “I knew I could make it back to the ship just fine.”
“But if you were wrong, you would have ended up drifting through space, and we might not have been able to find you,” says Turan. “You took a major risk, and for what? To save a little time?”
I decide not to mention to him what happened with the cable when I almost got lost. He knows I slipped for a moment, but I don’t think he knows the extent of it. I don’t need to risk making things worse.
“When you disobey an order from me like that, it tells me you don’t respect my authority,” Turan continues, his voice low. “That is unacceptable, and it needs to be corrected.”
“I won’t do it again,” I assure him, trying to calm him down. But the truth is, Turan already is calm. His tone is stern, but controlled. Not angry.
“I’m sure you won’t,” he says, standing up. I gulp. He reaches out his hand and I take it, allowing him to help me up from the bed. “ Kora, now that we’re mated, I’d like to develop a little more of a routine for when I discipline you. So that we’re both on the same page.”
“You don’t need to discipline me,” I protest automatically.
“Yes, I do, and we both know it. I’m your protector. I can’t very well protect you if you keep putting yourself at risk despite my instructions. I gave you a direct order, and you disobeyed. That can’t happen. If I don’t discipline you for that, you’ll learn that you can disobey me the next time and get away with it.”
I can barely look at him. My mouth is dry. He isn’t wrong that I disobeyed him, and maybe it was a stupid decision, but I can’t get past how vulnerable it makes me feel that he thinks it’s his right to discipline me.
“When you’re being punished,” says Turan, “I do not have any tolerance for talking back or disobedience. Any hint of that will make your punishment worse. You will respect me at all times, and respect yourself by managing your behavior. Do we understand each other?”
I open my mouth to argue, filled with indignation. His eyes flash. I pause, considering whether or not I want to fight him on this.
“… Yes,” I finally mumble, staring at the floor. I may not like it, but it just feels easier to go along with him at this point.
He nods approvingly. “Good. When I tell you to get into punishment position, that means you are to go into our room, remove whatever you’re wearing on your lower body, bend yourself over the bed, and wait for me. You can keep your panties on. I’ll decide if I need to remove them based on your behavior and the severity of the