Pure Vengeance

Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX

Natasha

The concrete was cold under my bare feet, and a breeze from the ocean I’d probably never see raised goosebumps on my exposed skin. In an effort to stay warm, I sat on the floor and leaned against the back wall, doing my best to keep my weight off the brand as I brought my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around my calves. It didn’t help much, but the coolness eased the pain.

Maybe I should have questioned the tall man who had locked me in a dog kennel, but I doubted I truly wanted to hear the answers about why I was here. Besides, I was pretty sure I already knew.

I was here because of my father. He wanted me gone, but he’d also want me to suffer. What better way than to force me into marriage with a man who would treat me like an animal? For all I knew, our marriage wasn’t even legal. The document we signed looked like a marriage certificate, but it could have been fake. I wouldn’t have known the difference.

At least no one had hit me—yet—and the tall man had unfastened my cuffs from behind my back. They were probably just waiting for all the piercings to heal up before they hurt me again. The thought didn’t bring me much comfort, but it was all I had.

Tears burned and I lowered my face to my knees as I wondered if I’d ever be free of people who wanted to hurt me.

I heard voices that grew louder as Lachlan and the tall man walked toward me. God, I was stupid. I almost opened my mouth to beg them to let me go.

“Bath first?” the tall man asked. He was older, maybe around my father’s age, with thick gray hair and hazel eyes. He wore jeans with a leather belt, a plaid flannel shirt, and thick-soled brown boots.

“Yes. I want her prepped when I take her out for her walk,” Lachlan replied without looking at me. “Do you have everything you need?”

“Her tail is in my office. If you don’t mind getting it, I’ll put her in the wash bay.”

“No problem.”

Wash bay? Tail? I peeked up through my lashes, trying to understand, but all I saw was the tall man unlocking the door to my kennel. As if he didn’t have a care in the world, he strode inside, then hauled me to my feet before attaching a chain leash to the ring on my collar.

“Let’s go, pet.”

When I didn’t move, he scowled and spun me around before pushing me against the wall. I heard a crack a split second before a pinprick burst of flame erupted on the back of my left thigh. The pain nearly dropped me to my knees, and I cried out when he jerked on the leash, forcing me to remain on my feet.

“I said, let’s go, pet. Don’t make me tell you again.”

Shivering, I scurried after him, not daring to disobey.

Except…

Compared to what my father would have done, that single blow was negligible. Although I knew it was yet more evidence of a continued too stupid to live moment, maybe whatever Lachlan planned for me wouldn’t be so bad.

I wasn’t about to press my luck though.

He grunted and led me further into the kennel to what looked like a bathing area for animals. A hose was on a reel next to a rack with long-handled brushes and pump bottles of what I assumed was soap. Rubber matting covered the floor, but the rough surface wasn’t any easier on my bare feet.

Lachlan lounged in a chair well out of reach of the bathing area. Strangely, he held something furry in his lap and smirked wickedly at me as he petted it. I took no comfort from the expression as the last bit of my hope faded.

I hadn’t even realized there was any left, and losing it hurt more than all my bruises combined. Maybe it was better to give it up. After all, if I didn’t have anything left to lose, Lachlan couldn’t hurt me again—at least not mentally. I was sure he’d do plenty to my body, but I was used to that already.

The tall man grabbed my right wrist and shackled me in a cuff chained to the ceiling above our heads, before repeating the process with the left. I twisted and tried to free myself, but the cuffs were too tight.

“Bath time,” he announced as he picked up the hose nozzle.

Cold water hit me in the chest, and I bit back a scream. He paid me no mind, and after donning nitrile gloves, proceeded to wash me with a rough sponge and unscented soap. Although his touch was impersonal, he was strangely gentle with my piercings and covered the fresh brand with a towel to keep the dressing dry.

After rinsing the soap from my body, again with icy cold water, he pinched my chin between two beefy fingers and made me look at him. “I’m Jerome, your kennel master. You will call me sir when I tell you to speak. Be good and you won’t be hurt. Misbehave, and that will change.”

I swallowed hard and tried to nod.

“Good puppy.”

I stilled with horror as everything clicked into place in my mind. Lachlan treated me like an animal because, to him, I was. And now he was going to make me act like one too.

Why did he hate me so much?

Before I could react, Jerome loosened the cuffs from the chains attaching me to the ceiling, then pointed at a strange metal bench across the bathing area from Lachlan. It looked like a sawhorse with an extra crossmember about knee-high. “Bend over that bench. Knees spread as far as you can on the bottom bar, and your arms down in front of you. I’ll give you a treat if you don’t make me tie you down.”

Still smirking, Lachlan watched me as I trudged across the wet floor. Gingerly, I rested my knees on the cold steel and bent over the top bar. It pressed into my stomach, making me glad I’d already lost my breakfast. As soon as I dropped my arms in front of me, something cold touched my ass and I clenched as it prodded my back passage.

Jerome slapped the back of my thigh, then said, “Relax, puppy. Breathe in, then let it out.”

I blinked back tears as he pushed something hard and unyielding into me, then swallowed a moan when warm water filled my bowels to bursting.

My belly swelled uncomfortably, and I squirmed, trying to decide if it hurt or felt good. Maybe the pulsing fullness was a disconcerting mixture of both, but my pussy clenched and released with filthy need I didn’t dare reveal.

Why?

God. Why was I getting aroused by being treated like an animal? I might have been able to handle my father’s physical abuse, but this…

This broke my very psyche.

I… God help me, I liked it. I especially liked the way Lachlan watched.

“Good puppy.” Jerome patted my hip. “Now, after I take out the enema nozzle, you will walk to that toilet and sit before you relieve yourself. I suggest you do your best to keep everything inside until then.”

The praise shifted something inside me, breaking me into tiny pieces I wasn’t sure would ever fit together again. I tried to ignore the flood of warmth growing in my chest. This was wrong. So, so wrong.

I staggered to the toilet and sat, not a moment too soon. Fouled water rushed from my body and ignoring the constant thrum in my pussy, I breathed an imperceptible sigh of relief as my bowels emptied.

Hopefully, I could remember how wrong this was if… no, when Lachlan decided to let me go.

Lachlan

Natasha wouldn’t believe me if I told her, but she was absolutely perfect. I’d never seen anyone take so well to pet training. If I hadn’t known better, I’d have said she was a fully consenting slave who had enjoyed daily enemas for years.

Hell, she didn’t even protest the thick, bushy tail attached to a larger than average butt plug. Fuck, she barely winced when Jerome shoved it in her ass and tightened the harness around her hips to keep it in place.

A dark thought intruded into my attempt to understand what I was seeing. What did I truly know about her?

Nothing, aside from rumors and gossip. For all I knew, someone else had been training her. Maybe it was the person who gave her all those bruises.

I shook the thoughts away. If she’d been in training, she sure as fuck wouldn’t have been a virgin.

As much as I wanted to see how far I could take her, I needed her to hurt. I needed Steve Ashland to see empty desolation in her eyes and know it came from me, and for that, I needed her broken.

And I had six weeks to do it.

She stood docilely and looked at the floor as Jerome fitted her hands with mitts, but twitched her left shoulder until her long hair covered her breasts.

“Oh, puppy,” I murmured softly. “You don’t get to hide.”

Before Jerome could section her silky tresses for the ponytails that would resemble floppy dog ears, I rose to my feet and went to the supply cupboard for a clipper motor. Without letting her see, I handed it to him.

“Sir?”

“Shave her,” I ordered. “I want her head as bald as her cunt.”

To my delight, she was already crying when I positioned my chair where I could watch her face. I even got to hear a tiny sob over the sound of the clippers.

Mission accomplished. I leaned back and smiled as hair fell to the floor around her trembling body. Disappointingly, she stopped crying long before Jerome finished. In place of sorrow, her face was an expressionless mask of placidity, which wouldn’t do at all.

Jerome shook his head and used a towel to brush off the last bits of hair from her body. “Will that be all, sir?”

“Yes. Thank you.”

The click of the chain leash on her collar garnered nothing more than a faint flinch, making me frown. Breaking her had been too easy, but I had plenty of other ways to make her soul bleed.

Smiling brightly, I tugged on her leash. “Ready for walkies, puppy?”

She followed but didn’t look at me until I led her to the garden, where several of my men waited. Her chest flushed a brilliant red, but the bruises covered the blush on her cheeks.

Such a pity.

“Time to do your business,” I said.

“I—” She peeked up at me and licked her lips. “I don’t understand.”

I pointed at the ground, then snapped my fingers. “Puppies pee in the grass. Squat and tinkle like a good girl. Make sure to hold your tail out of the way.”

“But I…” She bit her lip and glanced at my men, who watched her impassively. “I don’t have to go.”

“Then I guess you’ll squat until you do.” I held up a waste collection baggie containing a wipe and a nitrile glove. “Don’t keep me waiting.”

Tears dripped from her chin as she obeyed, holding her tail up behind her. After several minutes, a small trickle of urine finally fell to the grass.

“Who’s my good girl?” I called as I clapped my hands. My men joined the applause as I put on the glove and cleaned her with the wipe. “Such a good girl to tinkle for Master.”

Tears clumping her thick eyelashes, she looked up at me. “You lied to me.”

“Oh? When did that happen?”

“You said I wouldn’t regret marrying you.”

“I said you wouldn’t regret marrying me for a single moment,” I corrected. “You’re going to regret it every moment of every day.”