by Cara Adams
Ion set his empty ale mug down on the table and said, “For quite a long time now I’ve been attracted to Anastasia, but there’s never been any obvious way for me to get to know her. Our paths just don’t cross at all during the day and she mostly spends her evening in the old chapel house with the other human women. Also, I think she likes you. I’ve seen her look at you as if she does.”
“She likes me?” Evan was astounded. “Are you sure it’s not just that we work together? She’s never said anything at all to me.”
“Have you said anything to her?”
“Of course not.”
“Well, why would she open up about her feelings to you, if you’ve never told her you like her?”
Yeah, that made sense, he supposed. “I only made my mind up quite recently and there hasn’t really been any opportunity to say anything. I’m not really sure how, anyway. But you want her, too?”
“Yes, I want her and I’m prepared to share her with you. I think you and I are sufficiently alike to be able to make the situation a success. It seems as though right now is good timing, if you’ve just come to the conclusion you’re interested in her. Do either of you ever take days off? I know some of the Village Traders take Mondays off. We need to set a time when we can go out as a trio and get to know each other outside the castle.”
Evan shook his head. “If the castle is open I need to be in the kitchen cooking. Even when the castle is closed the rest of you wolves have a liking to eat, so there’s always a meal available, although not the kind of choices you get when the tourists are here. Anastasia finishes early on Tuesdays, Kady leaves early Wednesday, and the others can leave early on any day they wish as long as they check there aren’t too many of them away at once.”
“Could you both leave at, say, two in the afternoon, after the main rush is over one day?”
“I suppose we could. It’s just not something I’ve ever done before. Obviously if I broke my arm the others would run the kitchen, but I think I’d be too nervous to enjoy myself. All my energies would be back at the castle, worrying about what was happening. Besides, it’s Anastasia who I’d leave in charge if I wasn’t there. Kady is good. She’s been well trained and she’s smart but she’s never had to manage the staff.”
“This is going to be harder to arrange than I’d expected. Say we gave you a couple of days warning so you could stock up a few things for the wolves’ meals. You and Anastasia leave the kitchen at a little after two, have showers, get changed, and we meet in the outer courtyard before three. We could be in town a little after four. Have some time together. Maybe catch an early movie. Have a meal together at seven and be back here at ten. That way we’d have a good time together because we can talk quite freely as we drive there and back.”
“That should be long enough for us to work out if we want to go out together again. I just don’t know if I’d be able to switch off my cell phone and not think about the kitchen. I suppose I’m too egocentric and proud to imagine they could cope without me, when likely they won’t even notice I’m not there.”
Ion laughed. “Oh, I expect they’ll notice you’re not there, all right, but it’ll do them good to have to work things out for themselves. And if they spoil something it’ll only be the castle wolves who suffer, not the paying customers.”
“It won’t really hurt them if someone has to do a run to town and buy a dozen pizzas.” Evan relaxed. He could do this. He knew he should have given his staff more autonomy long ago. They were good people. It’s just that it was his kitchen and his good name at risk. But if he wanted a marriage, a family, a future, he was going to have to take some time off eventually, so it might as well be now.
“What would be the best day for you, then?” asked Ion.
“It may be just my imagination, but it always seems to me that Mondays are quieter. That’s why I was able to try out this recipe today. So perhaps Tuesday of next week? That gives me Monday to have some extra food prepared for the wolves’ meals on Tuesday, and it’s the day Anastasia would be leaving early anyway.”
“Let’s just hope she hasn’t already gotten something planned for that day. Shall we go ask her?”
“Now?” Evan hadn’t really expected anything to happen this fast. Well, he hadn’t expected anything to happen at all. But…
“Now.”
Evan stood up and carried their dishes over to the sink, rinsing them under the faucet and stacking them to the side. He ushered Ion out of the kitchen and locked the door. As they left the area and headed across the inner courtyard, he thought he saw Lev standing in a corner by the wall watching them. But when he looked back again a few moments later, Lev was just entering the castle itself. He must have just been passing by.
* * * *
Because Anastasia was working in the kitchens long before the first tourist arrived and was still there after the last tourist had departed, she seldom bothered to wear her medieval costume. She and Kady each kept one in Evan’s office off the kitchen in case they ever needed to go out front when the tourists were present, but Anastasia preferred to cook through these hot summer months in a T-shirt and shorts. As soon as she returned to the chapel house, she showered and changed into fresh clothing, then sat and visited with the other women, or whichever of them happened to be home at the time.
Even though men weren’t forbidden to enter the building, it was usual for a man to text the woman he wanted to talk to, and wait in the inner castle courtyard for her to come out to meet him there. Consequently, when she received a text from Evan she assumed it was going to be about the next day’s menus and hurried outside to see him. Ion was standing with him, which surprised her. She guessed both being wolves from this pack, they’d have known each other all their lives, but they’d never seemed to hang out together as far as she knew.
“Is there some problem about the banquets?” she asked. They had to be wanting her about the banquets because Ion was involved in the entertainment for them. He had nothing to do with their regular menus.
“No, no, no problems,” said Evan, shaking his head.
She looked from Evan to Ion and back to Evan again. But it was Ion who spoke next.
“We’re here to ask you to come to a movie and a meal with us. Evan thought next Tuesday—not tomorrow, Tuesday next week—might work for you both.”
Anastasia had to consciously make herself stand up straight. They were asking her out on a date? Evan and Ion? The two hottest men in the castle? Both of them? It was as if they’d been peering into her mind, and knew all her deepest, most secret thoughts. Well, if they did, she certainly wasn’t going to tell them to stop. And maybe…
“I’d like that very much indeed. Thank you. But may I ask something from you both in return?”
They looked at each other. Evan said, “Of course,” and Ion gave her a testing look before replying, “Yes.”
Surely they didn’t think she was some gold-digging bitch just out to get what she could from them? Well, maybe her question was a little bit off the wall. Oh well.
“Can you take me to see the dungeons, please? Not the tourist dungeons. I’ve seen them already. The wolves’ private dungeons.”
If she’d thought Ion’s blue eyes gaze was piercing before, it was penetrating into her very soul now. She wiggled a fraction under his stare and then straightened her spine and stared right back at him.
“Why?” Ion asked.
“I have three brothers, remember? I’ve heard plenty about the dungeons but I’ve never been there myself.”
“Have you engaged in those kinds of games?” Ion was still staring at her. She felt her face pinken slightly, then said, “Three older, very protective brothers.” It wasn’t a completely accurate reply. She’d managed to escape from their watch over her when she’d really wanted to, but she didn’t want Evan and Ion to think she knew all about the lifestyle. Hearing about it and doing it were probably going to be quite different. But she was as sure as she could be that it was something she wanted
to try for herself. It seemed that Ion was a Dom and that Evan was a sub as she’d suspected, though, so that was good. But nothing was going to be certain until they actually had a proper dungeon session together. And she was still waiting to see if Ion would even take her there.
“Your brothers won’t come after us with a baseball bat or anything if we take you there, will they?” She got the impression that Evan wasn’t completely joking with his question.
“If we go there right now they’ll never know. None of them is in the castle today.”
“Now?” echoed Evan.
“Yes, why not?” she challenged them.
Once again the men looked at each other and it was Ion who spoke. Ion was clearly the leader of their little group. “Okay.”
She turned and started walking across the inner courtyard to the castle entry, and hid her grin as the men fell in, one on either side of her. Oh, she was so excited. She’d wanted to see these dungeons ever since she’d first heard of their existence years and years ago, and now, finally, she was going there. If she could get them to play a few games with her there as well, it’d be even better. She was more than ready to be spanked until she orgasmed.
* * * *
Ion had not been expecting anything like this. He knew all about her older brothers, and he had no trouble guessing why they were so protective of their human little sister. They were wild wolves in every sense of the term. It seemed that their sister had a streak of wildness in her, too. Well, that suited him just fine. He was more than ready to chain her up and see what happened. Hell, the way her ass was wiggling in the abbreviated, tight, red shorts she was wearing, he was more than ready to fuck her right now. But likely that would be a really, really bad thing to do before they even got as far as the first date. Still, he could talk to her about some of the equipment in the dungeon and let her imagine how one day he might use it on her.
And on Evan as well. He’d noticed the way Evan was breathing a little heavier and it was unlikely from seeing Anastasia’s ass. He could look at her butt any day he wanted to in the kitchen.
The dungeons were in the most secure part of the castle, behind three layers of security, each one more stringent than the preceding one. The only rooms more difficult to get into than the dungeons were the wolves’ private apartments. Every wolf had a keycard, but it would only let them into certain areas. Most of the workers in the castle could enter the “Staff Only” door, and all the wolves could access the main east wing entry. But after that people were restricted to areas they needed to enter for their work or their own apartment.
Evan’s card wouldn’t open the dungeon as he was not a registered user of it, although undoubtedly he’d been brought down here any number of times by his friends and his previous Doms. If he’d even had a Dom/sub relationship. Ion wasn’t sure. Evan and he had never been close, and about the time Ion had been taking more of an interest in BDSM Evan had been perfecting his craft as a chef around Europe and away from the castle. Anyway, it was all immaterial, as he was soon to find out both of his about-to-be-subs’ reaction to the dungeons.
There were no elevators in the castle. Ion wasn’t sure whether it had been too difficult and expensive to add them into the centuries-old structure, or whether the Alpha had believed it’d be excellent exercise for the wolves to be constantly having to go up and down the stairs. There was one concession to age, though. The younger wolves’ apartments were on higher floors and the older wolves only on the next floor up. The dungeons, however, were, predictably, in the basement.
He pushed open the door to the east tower, moved half a dozen steps into the little landing area, and swiped his ID card on the door downstairs. He held it open and Anastasia and Evan preceded him down the stairs. At the foot of the stairs, they entered another hallway lined with doors. Ion pointed to the clipboards hanging on each door. It was very low tech indeed, but each page of the clipboard was a day and the wolves could book out a dungeon for as long as they wanted it.
He picked up the first clipboard and showed Anastasia. “See, this Dom has a booking for tomorrow from six until seven. And here it’s booked from eight until midnight.”
She nodded and he led them farther along the hallway, past several more doors, to the dungeon he’d been hoping to show them. Once again he picked up the clipboard, noting that there were no bookings for tonight. He crossed out from seven until ten, signed the clipboard, and hung it back up on the door, then opened the door and flicked on the light switch. Once inside, he bolted the door and almost held his breath, wondering if Anastasia would suddenly change her mind. Not that she seemed flighty to him, but then, he didn’t really know her all that well as yet.
Instead she was standing in the middle of the room, staring at everything. He cast a glance at Evan and he was clearly absorbing the sight of the equipment as well. Excellent. Things were looking good for a bit of an experimental session, even if they only talked about the toys.
“Do you know what everything is, Anastasia?” he asked.
“Probably not, but some things I can guess.” She pointed to the chains hanging from the ceiling and then the row of whips, canes, floggers, and paddles all neatly arrayed on a wall. “I assume that’s a St. Andrew’s Cross but I didn’t know they came double-sided, although I suppose I should have thought of that since the castle has been promoting ménages for years now. I must say I’ve never seen a coffee table quite like that one before, though.”
Ion smiled. It did look like a coffee table. Well, sort of. But the underside was a metal cage. The bars opened out to lock the sub inside, then the Dom could use the top of it to whip, paddle, or even fuck his other sub, while one sub remained inside the cage, hearing everything yet unable to see or participate in any way.
He turned to Evan. “Is there anything here you’d like to try out?”
The chef gulped, then nodded. “If Anastasia wouldn’t be upset?”
“Upset? I’ll only be upset if you don’t let me play as well. Should we get undressed or not?”
“That depends on how much you want to experiment. Are you wearing a thong? You could leave that and your bra on, if you like.”
“I don’t wear thongs. They aren’t comfortable to work fourteen-hour days in.” She looked around, then walked across to the corner of the room and pulled her T-shirt off. Ion wanted to watch her, but needed to pay equal attention to Evan. Evan just shrugged and began undressing where he stood.
Ion walked over to the rack and checked a couple of his favorite toys were still there, then stood at the St. Andrew’s Cross. “Why don’t you try this first?”
He deliberately tethered Evan to the cross first. He didn’t know if Evan had used one before, but he did know Evan would understand all about it and watching him be tied hand and foot would give Anastasia an idea of what to expect herself. Not that she seemed nervous at all. But the last thing he wanted to happen was for her to be scared or repulsed. Even though she’d asked to come here, being punished, no matter how gently, might be more than she’d expected. It could be very intense emotionally, even if nothing much happened physically. And this was all very new to her.
She offered her hands and feet to buckle into the straps with no fuss, so he went and got a whip. One suitable for beginners.
“Normally in a dungeon scene the sub is not permitted to speak. The Dom knows what is best for his sub and the sub remains silent, trusting their Dom. However, this isn’t a genuine dungeon scene and neither of you are officially my subs. Instead of choosing safe words you may speak as much as you wish tonight. Simply tell me if you want me stop or if you want to be unshackled. Be honest about your feelings and we’ll treat this as a pre-BDSM game. Okay?”
Evan nodded firmly and Anastasia more thoughtfully.
Once again he went to Evan first and whipped his ass three times. He used reasonable force, but it was a light whip and the strokes were quite mild. He then walked behind Anastasia and looked at her body critically. She didn’t seem tense or wo
rried, there were no taut muscles or little giveaway tics in her posture. He whipped her just once across her ass, then moved to the side to watch her face. She appeared thoughtful, but not distressed in any way, so he returned and whipped her twice more before moving to the other side of the cross and checking Evan’s ass. It was only the faintest bit pink so he gave Evan another six strokes, before gazing at his face. There was no sign of dislike on his sub’s visage, so once again he moved to the other side and checked Anastasia. This time he only stroked her ass twice, not wishing to spoil her introduction to the dungeon with too much too soon. What was that old stage-show saying? Leave them begging for more? Well that was his plan tonight.
He left them both chained there and went over to the cage. He raised the bars on one side of it, then crossed the dungeon again and unbuckled the restraints at Anastasia’s wrist and ankles. He looked at her skin carefully but there were no abrasions or even stress marks. He hadn’t noticed her pulling against the leather straps, and if she had resisted, she hadn’t marked herself in any way.
“Crawl inside,” he told her.
She wiggled into the space gracefully, then turned to face out and watch him as he locked the bars in place. Back he went to the cross and freed Evan.
“Go lie face down on the cage,” he ordered.
He picked a paddle off the equipment rack, making sure he did it in such a way that Anastasia couldn’t see what he was doing. All she would have been able to watch were his feet crossing the dungeon and back again. He stood at the end of the cage, again where she couldn’t see him, and paddled Evan’s ass firmly six times before changing his stroke and paddling Evan’s shoulders, thighs, and each foot, just once. Next he took a little break, marching around the dungeon, touching things, checking things, stopping unexpectedly, doing what he could to make both his brand-new subs wonder what would happen next. The sub’s imagination was equally important as what the Dom did in one of these scenes. The sub thought, planned, wondered, hoped, maybe even feared what might come next. Those thought processes cranked up the tension inside the sub, so when the Dom acted, his actions were enhanced by the sub’s thought processes, making each action much more powerful. Finally, he returned to the cage and paddled Evan half a dozen more times, before saying, “Stand up, sub.”