Kallie glared at her as she folded her hands in her lap. “I’m not sure this is something I’m willing to deal with.”
“What about this is a problem for you?”
“The part where you tell me what to do and say,” she snapped.
Sienna backed out of the parking lot and noticed a lanky man standing next to a truck. “The situation is highly charged, Kallie, with someone being after you,” she said. “It puts my spider on an even finer edge.”
“But Dina isn’t your anything and look how you treated her.”
“Respect,” she said. “It’s a lifestyle she chooses to live. She knows the rules, and you’ll learn them.”
Kallie looked out the window as she considered Sienna’s words. It was a lifestyle that she, too, was choosing by being with this woman. The butterfly wouldn’t walk away and the woman didn’t want to, but this discipline was something she’d never known. Her mother had been permissive and rarely lifted a hand to her let alone spoke harshly. She didn’t know if she could live the rest of her life this way.
She glanced at Sienna to tell her that and noticed the tension in her body. “Is someone following us?”
“No,” she murmured, looking into the rearview mirror. “He’s not. Once the mating is complete, I’ll ease up.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Have I ever been anything but kind to you?”
“No, but you didn’t want me in your bed then either,” she snapped.
“You have a point.” A smile tugged at Sienna’s lips. “But you’ll adjust and learn to understand me.”
“Spiders don’t mate for life,” she mused.
“More of them do than butterflies, Kallie darling.”
“Really? Your breed does?”
“I’m a mixed breed. Box-lady. We’re rare and there are only two of us here in town. We’re strongly sexual, more aggressive than a lady, more dangerous than a box spider, and two times more toxic than both. On the other hand, we’re just as faithful, and yes, we mate for life.”
Sienna was hers? Only hers?
Sienna reached across the seat and put her hand on Kallie’s thigh. “You used to wear dresses.”
“I still do.”
“I want you to wear them for me.”
“If I say no?” she asked as they pulled into the parking lot of the nearly empty grocery store.
Her hand slid up. “I’m extremely aroused by you, Kallie,” she murmured. “During mating, that arousal runs even higher than normal, but my sexual appetites will always be strong which means I will always want easy access to your body.”
“Sienna, I’m not wearing dresses so you can finger me like some horn dog with a perpetual hard-on.”
Sienna laughed as she cut the engine. “Baby, right now I am.”
Chapter Nine
It was still early so only a handful of people were milling around the only grocery store in town when they stepped inside. Some music played softly in the background and a few stockers were restocking shelves and produce.
Sienna pushed the cart and watched as a man strolled past them. He gave them a nod. She returned it but her spider picked up a ripple of danger. “Let’s hurry,” Sienna said.
“Fine.” Kallie took over the pushing when Sienna stopped to grab a loaf of bread.
“Hello, Kallie.” Lima stepped off an aisle. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”
Kallie eyed her coldly. “I’m sure.”
“Hello, Lima.” Sienna gave the other woman a cool smile. “Have you talked to Donald about your trip to Peru yet?”
She smiled. “I imagine he still has questions. Maggie was into something, but I’m not sure what. I looked for her computer and work files at the office, but I haven’t been able to find them. Are they at home, Kallie?”
“I don’t know,” she answered coldly. “I haven’t looked through any of her things yet. What makes you think my mother was into something?”
Lima shrugged small shoulders. “Maggie was always so secretive,” she answered nonchalantly. “But she was even more so in the last seven or eight months. That trip she took last year to Greece was when I first realized she was into something though.”
“And you told the sheriff this?” Sienna demanded.
“Of course, but the files will tell the real story. She kept two separate sets,” she said and glanced at her watch. “The files are the key to finding out which artifacts she’s smuggled in from Peru and Brazil might be the only way to catch her killer. She might even have smuggled some things in from Greece, too.”
“You’re such a liar,” Kallie said angrily. “My mother was not a smuggler. I bet you that was all you, bitch.”
Lima’s gaze chilled. “You really didn’t know your mother. Sienna.” She gave Sienna a nod and strolled away with her cart.
“B—”
“Stop with the foul language,” Sienna said with a frown.
They passed a couple arguing in the frozen foods and Sienna got an uneasy feeling. Kallie was getting a little antsy beside her and her emotions were like the prickly end of a cactus.
“I never really did like her,” she said.
“I know,” Sienna replied as she picked out a few items. “She thought you were a weakling.”
“Bitch.”
“Language.” Sienna’s tone was quiet as she scanned the store for signs of a threat.
“It’s true. I bet that cow just lied about my mother because she was the one who wanted to sell the crystals and my mother wouldn’t let her,” she said darkly. “I wouldn’t be surprised if she caused my mother to be killed so she could get the crystals. You saw how casual she tried to sound? Did she really think I’d tell her anything if I knew?”
“It’s worth mentioning to the sheriff even though they got along pretty well right up until your mother’s death.”
“I don’t care,” Kallie murmured and Sienna glanced at her. She could tell Kallie was picking up something that she didn’t feel. Something that her butterfly sensed as a threat.
“What is it, baby?”
“I’m just on edge,” Kallie answered.
“Stay close, Kal, and do as I say. I’m sensing danger.”
“So am I.”
After paying for the groceries, Kallie pushed the cart out to the parking lot with Sienna strolling along beside her, one hand in her pants pocket. The closer they got to her truck, the stronger the sense of danger became.
Kallie threw Sienna a look and found her beautiful features tense, the red spots of her eyes dark like the clouds of an approaching storm. She turned back and coldness scraped across her mind and then nothing. All of her emotions went blank.
“Sienna, something is wrong. I can’t feel anything.” Her voice held a frantic edge.
“Relax,” Sienna ordered tightly.
“I can’t,” she snapped. “It’s like being blind.”
“Try.” Sienna said as they came to a stop at her truck. “Let’s get these in fast.” Sienna unlocked the backdoor of the pick-up.
Kallie screamed and Sienna jerked around to find her lover standing next to the cart, shaking. “Kal, sweetheart, you’ve got to gain some control, so we can get out of here.”
“I see lots of blood and you on the ground dead.”
“Yeah, like that’s happening with you standing right there,” she muttered. “Get in. I’ll take care of the groceries.”
“Clicking like claws.”
“Down!” Sienna tried to pull Kallie out of the way, but a scorpion shifting in mid-air to human form landed right next to Kallie and grabbed her before she could reach her. Sienna almost screamed with rage, but held it in check as violence cycled through her.
The tall and pale, fully clothed man maintained a partial shift. His tail extended above his head, a smirk on his lips. Another scorpion leaped toward them and Kallie let out a scream as he leveled a punch at her face. She just narrowly avoided it and the loud screech of one pissed off spider filled the air followed
by the hiss of the scorpions.
Kallie winced as the low-pitched hiss grated over her nerves. “Let her go!” Sienna ordered in a deadly quiet tone.
“Or what?” The other scorpion, a bald man, was in a partial shift as well. His eerily black eyes were cold on her.
“She ends up dead like her mother?” the man who had Kallie in his grip taunted.
“Give us the spear and tell us where the curator hid the wand,” a female voice ordered as she came up behind Seinna. “We’ll leave you alone.”
Sienna gave the newcomer a brief look, but it was Kallie who said, “What spear?”
The scorpion restraining her shook her. “Don’t play dumb, bitch. We know you have them now that mommy dearest is dead.”
“Stop shaking her,” Sienna ordered coldly. “She doesn’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Then you do,” the female said calmly. “And you’ll get it for us.” She jerked her head toward the scorpion with his fingers digging into Kallie’s skin. “In the meantime, we’ll hold onto your girlfriend.”
“Kallie.”
Kallie’s gaze went to Sienna’s. The red spots were like fire now. She felt the rage that ran hot and thick through her blood as clearly as she felt her intent and ducked when the poison issued from Sienna’s mouth. The green liquid was dark and odorless. It splattered onto the scorpion’s face, and he let out scream. His grip loosened and Sienna moved with spider quickness going into a partial shift. Eight arms, long and spindly, extended from her body and one extended to slap the female scorpion with vicious force. Then, she moved forward as the other man moved to take control of Kallie.
The bald scorpion barely got a finger on her when Sienna drove a fist into his side. He let out a harsh cry, and a second long spider arm curled around his neck and dragged his head down to slam against her knee before jerking his head and snapping his neck. She shoved the lifeless body at his friend.
She grabbed Kallie’s arm, pulling her to her. She was pissed and horrified at herself for having reacted too slowly to prevent Kallie from being gabbed.
So she took it out on the man who’d grabbed Kallie by kicking him so hard his knee cracked. He was still writhing from the poison painfully killing him. His tail surged forward, stinger aimed at Kallie, and a spider arm caught the tail as Sienna lunged forward. She went for his exposed throat, cutting across it with her sharp claws.
She whipped around as the woman approached, two of her four arms tensed and ready to strike. Rage surged through her light as air. Their eyes met. “In the truck, Kallie.”
The female scorpion released a high-pitched sound and Kallie cried out while Sienna screeched. The woman lunged and Sienna stepped in front of Kallie and took a punch to the jaw that stung. She landed a punch of her own and shoved the scorpion back. She was going to kill her for daring to aim that stinger at Kallie.
Being a mutant, the black scorpion’s venom was deadly to Kallie, who had no antibodies to neutralize it.
“Get your ass in that damned truck!” Sienna snapped.
Kallie scurried into the truck and Sienna dodged the tail that came at her. With spider quickness she leaped forward and slashed the scorpion across the face before her fingers closed around her throat forcefully. “Retract the goddamned stinger,” she said in a hard tone. “If you want to live to try again.”
The woman glared at her, eyes cold. “Bitch.”
“Remember that while you’re staying away from my bitch,” she snapped. “Because the next time we face each other I’m going to kill you.” She punched her in the jaw. “Now, who are you working for?”
The scorpion spat at her and Sienna leaned to one side, but the poison grazed her cheek. It burned across her skin. Sienna punched her in the stomach and curled one spider arm around her neck.
“I am deadly serious, here, scorpo,” she said coldly. “I will decapitate your ass with my bare spider hands, but first I will infect you with my poison.”
“It won’t kill me.”
Sienna gave her a cold smile. “It will paralyze you, and I will slowly pull your head off. Now, tell him the name!”
“I don’t know,” she snapped. “But you and your bitch are going to die before this is over.”
Sienna punched her in the jaw again, knocking her out cold.
Sienna shoved her into the hood of the car next to her truck and then piled the rest of her groceries into the truck and slammed the door. She climbed in, giving Kallie a hard look. “Buckle up!” She punched in the sheriff’s number, intending on giving him an earful for not having eyes on Kallie.
“Get your ass over to the grocery story,” she snapped when he answered and then told him what had occurred. “We’ll see you later,” she muttered after he told her he’d send someone over to clean up the mess and then come over to take their statements soon.
* * * *
When they got back to Kallie’s, Sienna was still fuming. She’d remained silent on the drive to keep from lighting into Kallie and verbally wounding her. She was mostly pissed at herself for not getting them out of the store and not getting any answers before taking lives.
The scorpions were nasty and even though they couldn’t get into the house, they’d keep coming until they got the spear they were after. She assumed it had to be something valuable Maggie had brought back from Peru, which meant she must have met the person responsible for this mess in Peru.
“I can’t believe you killed them,” Kallie said after Sienna pulled into the garage and cut the engine. “Why didn’t you kill the woman?”
“I will next time.” She removed the key from the ignition. The woman had been a message to whoever had sent them. She wanted him or her to know she wasn’t some beta spider who couldn’t protect her own.
“Why just kick her ass and leave her there to come after us again?”
“Don’t use such foul language,” she said calmly. “Let’s go inside.”
“Stop telling me what to do,” she muttered and climbed from the truck.
Sienna followed suit and rounded the back of the truck just as Kallie pulled open the back passenger door. She gave her a shove onto the seat and moved up behind her pinning her down. “Extend your arms, now.”
Her tone was hard and full of command, but Kallie struggled trying to right herself. The spider was stronger. “Off me.” She yelped when a heavy hand landed on her backside.
“Do not make me say it again. I’ve already told you to move your ass one time more than I should have had to today.”
Kallie pushed her arms out and her hands touched the plastic of the bag on the seat.
“You know how dangerous this situation is, Kal!” she snapped. “Those were scorpions back there, and the bastards would have taken you and done only Goddess knows what to you while they held you.”
“Sienn—”
“I am your Mistress, Kallie,” she broke in quietly. “You will obey me.” Sienna removed her hand from Kallie’s and unbuttoned her pants. She dragged the zipper down and then straightened. “From now on you get ten to fifteen lashes for public disobedience but that is just until you learn the rules.” She peeled down her pants before tugging her panties over her small curves.
“Sie—Mistress—”
“No, Kallie.” She stroked her hand over one firm globe. She brought her hand down lightly at first. She smoothed away the sting then landed a heavier tap on the same cheek.
Kallie jumped. She tightened the muscles of her ass and cried out when Sienna’s landed a harder tap.
“There was danger in the store and in the parking lot, and your refusal to obey could have distracted me enough to get us both killed. That is unacceptable.” She landed another tap on the other cheek. Kallie gasped as the sting burned over soft skin offensively.
“The psychic blindness was real, and those scorpion noises caused me physical pain.”
“That is all the more reason you should have reacted more quickly.” Sienna landed another tap on her ass.
Kalllie closed her eyes as the pain scalded her skin. “Please,” she begged softly.
“Please what? Hmm? I’m a predatory creature, Kallie,” she snapped. “My spider will fight to the death to protect what it considers its own.” She struck her ass again. “Next time I say move.” Tap. “You move.” Tap. “Your.” Tap. Tap. Tap. “Pretty.” Tap.
“Ouch!” The last strike hurt even worse.
“Ass.” Tap. Tap. Tap. Sienna smoothed her hand over Kallie’s soft flesh. “Don’t push me publically again, Kallie, especially while there is danger. And watch your language.”
She was incensed, but her butterfly knew she was right. She could have gotten them killed.
“Up.” Sienna wrapped an arm around her waist and urged her up. “Next time I spank you, I hope it’s for pleasure, Kallie darling.” She kissed the side of her neck and then Sienna pulled up her panties and her pants. “I love you, Kallie, and losing you would be more than I can handle. Button your pants and go open the door.”
She buttoned her pants and turned to face Sienna as those words sank in. This woman was complicated and mysterious, and she loved her. “Mistress?”
“Yes, Kallie?”
Kallie touched Sienna’s arm. “I’m sorry I wasn’t any help, but I’m sorrier about the psychic stuff. I’ll work it out.”
“No, baby,” she murmured, cupping her face. “I had no problems protecting you, killing for you. I will always do all I can to keep you safe.” She kissed her softly. “You should talk to one of the elder butterflies about the clairvoyant stuff. She might have some answers.”
Kallie nodded. She rubbed a hand over her sore behind as she said, “I’ll be your sub, but I won’t allow you to push me beyond what I can handle.”
Sienna sighed deeply. “I will push you, but there is no way I can walk away from you. Don’t ask it. Don’t expect it. Go and open the door.”
Training an Unruly Submissive Page 6