The Alpha's Captive by Loki Renard

them all if you don’t learn your lesson.”
    Bubbling and foaming at the mouth, Hannah made a defiant sound. So she was facing a corner, so what. It didn’t mean anything.
    His hand left the soap for a moment. Immediately, she spat it out. It was a brief victory, because he was using his spare hand to yank her jeans and panties down to her knees, baring her bottom in that cold Victorian washroom.
    Before she could say anything, Lorcan’s hand swung against her rear again in a hard slap that would have brought her to her toes if she were not already on them. The bastard! He was spanking her standing up! It didn’t put any pressure on her ribs, not really unless she squirmed about to avoid the slaps. Which meant that she couldn’t squirm, and she couldn’t avoid any of the punishment.
    He spanked her with hard fast swats, each one designed to leave a distinct impression. Perhaps because of her still somewhat injured state, he only delivered twelve slaps, but by the time he was done her ass was burning and she had tears of pain and frustration running down her face.
    She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror as she turned around. She looked an utter mess, her bottom marked with bright red handprints, soapy bubbles running down her chin, and tears streaming from her eyes.
    She must have looked just as pathetic to Lorcan, for he made a sighing sound and drew her against his body, hugging her close. “Why must you make this so difficult?”
    “I hate you and I’m not sorry,” she cried into his chest, still tasting the soap strongly with every word.
    “I’m sure,” he said, rubbing her back in a slow circular motion.
    She pulled away from him and moved to rinse her mouth out in the sink. That temporarily made things worse as the soap was literally washed around her mouth, coating her tongue in the gross substance that caused her taste buds to rebel furiously. She spat the soap out over and over, rinsing until there was nothing but the faintest aftertaste.
    When she was satisfied that was as good as she was going to get, she wiped her mouth on the back of her sleeve and turned to scowl at Lorcan’s elegantly masculine form. “How dare you,” she growled.
    “It’s not a matter of daring, it’s a matter of discipline. You seem to think you can do as you please without consequences. You know better now.”
    Still scowling, Hannah crouched down and pulled her pants and panties back up. Doing so under Lorcan’s amused gaze was another embarrassment in itself. She hated how composed and even kind he could be while simultaneously handing out humiliating punishments.
    “You’re such a… a…” A vast array of words came to mind, but she didn’t want to risk another bar of soap to express them. He might have thought it was discipline that stopped her cursing, but Hannah swore a silent vow to herself that she would never bow to his discipline except for when she absolutely had to. All he had done was drive her rebellion into the shadows.
    “I think it’s time you took one of your painkillers and had a nap,” Lorcan suggested. “You’re particularly temperamental today.”
    She allowed herself to be taken to the bed and given one of the pills the doctor had prescribed for the pain. It probably wouldn’t work on homesickness or wounded pride, but at least it would make her zone out for a little while.
    Lorcan watched over her as she took her pill with a sip of water that tasted unpleasantly soapy.
    “You’re such an asshole,” she growled at him. “And I’m going to escape. I am.”
    “At least give yourself a few days to recover before you try your grand escape,” he said with a wink. “May as well give yourself the best chance of success, because if I catch you, you can bet you won’t sit for a very long time.”
    “Don’t threaten me, Lorcan,” she snarled.
    “I’m not threatening you, I’m telling you that if you set foot out of the manor I will take a cane to your bottom and leave you in no