Dream of Me/Believe in Me

to be the slave to your will? I am no thrall,
husband.
The very existence of such poor creatures disgusts me. So does the suffering I see around me that sometimes could be readily eased or avoided altogether. I understand what you said about this being a harsh land but I don't see why the harshness must be added to. It is no weakness to seek to make life better.”
    Several thoughts occurred to Wolf. Despite the fair— and more than fair—warning she had received, his wife was still defying him. She was actually angry at his dictate while seemingly unaware of the magnitude of the concession he was making by not punishing her at once.
    “This life you hold so precious depends for its very existence on order.” His hands tightened further on her shoulders and, for good measure, he gave her a little shake. “Transgress again and you will be punished, this I promise you.”
    Her lovely face tightened. Distantly, he realized that she was afraid, and he regretted that, but far more he saw her courage and admired it. “What will you do,
husband?”
    She said the word again, every bit as challengingly as before, but then everything about her was a challenge. “Tie me to the punishment post, whip me as you did that poor man?”
    The very thought made Wolf feel as though he had plunged into the coldest sea. He wanted to shout his denial, gather her to him, comfort and reassure her. But he was a man and she a woman. The balance of power between them had to be maintained.
    Slowly, he forced himself to smile. His hands slid down her arms, no longer cruelly demanding but caressing her. His smile became real when he saw the startled look in her eyes.
    “How dramatic you are,” he said. One hand held her firmly around the waist, the other slid lower. Withoutwarning, he squeezed her buttocks hard. At her little yelp, he laughed.
    “I would merely apply correction where it would do the most good. You might have trouble sitting down for a day or two, but you wouldn't suffer any permanent damage.” He couldn't resist adding, “Except perhaps to your dignity.”
    He was going to drown in those eyes, so wide had they become. “You wouldn't dare!”
    “Wouldn't I?” He softened his hold a little, deliberately stroking her. Had they not been in so public a place, he would have done much more. Briefly, he considered taking her the short distance to the stables.
    They were deserted at this hour. His prideful wife might benefit from a swift, sweaty tumble in a hay-filled stall. The temptation was great but he stopped himself. That she would end by yielding to him fully he did not doubt. But at the same time he would be yielding to her and he could not do that, not now, if he had any hope of controlling her.
    Instead, he gave her bottom a sharp swat. “Return to your duties,
wife.
My men and I labor hard this day. We expect a good meal at table tonight. See to it.”
    If the glare she gave him was anything to judge by, he would need the services of a food taster before he supped. He watched her go, then turned away only to stop abruptly at the sight that confronted him.
    Dragon lounged against a wall nearby, arms crossed over his chest and a broad grin wreathing his face. He had the air of a man who has been well entertained.
    “You waste yourself teaching the arts of war,” he said as he walked over to join his brother. “You should be instructing the rest of us poor, benighted males in the proper management of the fair sex.”
    A lesser man would have quaked at the look the Wolfshot him and the lip-curling snarl that accompanied it. “I trust your leg fares better than your wits.”
    Dragon made a show of flexing the limb and nodded pleasantly. “It fares well indeed, thanks to the ministrations of your gentle,
docile”
—the word made him choke with laughter—“wife.”
    “It isn't funny,” Wolf said, shaking his head. “She en-dangers herself and doesn't even realize it.”
    “Does she? She's right, you know, no one in Sciringesheal would dare so much as to look at her wrong.”
    They walked some little distance back toward the training field before Wolf replied. “Men of all sorts come and go here. Not all of them are loyal to me.”
    “True enough, but none would rush to embrace the kind of death you would mete out. It isn't really
their
loyalty that worries you, is it?”
    Wolf's face hardened. “Do you think to read my thoughts, brother?”
    Dragon laughed. “A blind man could read them. It is the