Chapter 26 - Punishment (18+)

Hati kept stimulating her for a bit longer, extending her orgasm for as long as possible while she kept proclaiming her love for him. He wanted the pleasure to burn her love even deeper into her being.

It's not like Hati didn't care about Astrid. In fact, he cared quite a bit. She had been his constant companion and company for the last ten years. Sure, there were his mother and uncle, too, but they were family; it was different. 

He just didn't love her as much as he loved Luna, but as long as Astrid gave him her love, he would care for her. He just wouldn't marry her, at least for now.

Finally, Hati stopped stimulating her, and Astrid started coming down from her first orgasm, which was a big one. Her body was still spasming a little while she was panting, and her eyes were hazy. 

She had fully slumped down, and her knees were on the floor while her upper body rested on Hati's legs. Her mind was trying to drift to sleep, but her thoughts about what just happened kept swirling in her head. When she thought about how she declared her love for her master and how he didn't reject her, she got a silly smile. 

But it faded when she realised he hadn't actually said it back to her. What did he even mean when he said he permitted her love for him? 

So, fighting the embrace of the sandman, she asked with a shaky voice, "T- Thank you for the reward, Master. It really was as amazing as you promised. I should have trusted you straight away. But… Master? What did you mean with your words at the end?"

Giving her a strained smile while caressing her head, he said, "Exactly what it sounded like, Astrid. You have my permission to love me, your master, openly. I know that's probably not what you want to hear, but I'm afraid it's all I have for you right now. 

I care for you deeply, Astrid, but I don't love you in the same way you love me. The fact is that I already have someone out there that I love as my wife. 

Although I know she doesn't mind when I take more women in my life, I won't disrespect her by marking our reunion with an introduction to someone with whom she's supposed to stand on equal terms when it comes to the love she and I have for each other. 

At least not without having her meet you."

Because the disembodied voice had likely spoken the truth about his father being able to help him, since his mother seemed to have the same idea, he had decided to believe its words regarding Luna, too, which meant that she should be nearby. 

Obviously, this had driven his belief in her reincarnation into overdrive, and that finding her might not be as complex as previously believed, and since his feelings for Luna had not waned in the last fifteen years, he wanted to make sure their reunion went as smoothly as possible.

Astrid felt her heart ache at Hati's words, only slightly soothed by hearing that he cared for her. She completely ignored how he already had a wife he loved out there despite not yet even leaving this house. 

She just filed that under the many other things that made her master strange and mysterious. Asking him about it would just cause him to smile at her without saying anything until she dropped the matter. 

But she latched on to the slight hope present in his words and asked, "So there is still a chance? I just need to make you fall in love with me and receive your wife's acceptance?"

Chuckling, Hati answered, "Technically, yeah, but don't delude yourself into thinking it will be that easy. If you keep following me, there is a chance you will never receive the love you desire, and you will stay as my maid instead. A maid I will care for deeply and never neglect, but a maid nonetheless. Can you handle that?"

Astrid felt her determination rise as she nodded and said, "I can, Master. I will work hard to make my dreams come true, and if I can't, I will be content simply following you wherever you go." 

Having resolved her inner turmoil for now, she started to give in to the sleep that was trying to catch her. "I'm feeling very sleepy now, Master." Her eyes were closing, and she was drifting into sleep when she heard a chuckle. "Hehe"

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Astrid felt a hard slap on her shapely ass as her upper body shot up, and she had a tiny orgasm from the sudden assault on her sensitive body. "M- Master, what…?"

Smirking at her, Hati explained, "Don't tell me you forgot about your punishment? I rewarded you for caring about me, but now I still need to punish you for your earlier mistakes. Besides, you didn't trust me earlier, and this punishment will also be somewhat of a trust exercise. So get your legs under you!"

Looking very aggrieved, Astrid stood up shakily and pouted, saying, "Master is mean and a bully. Could you not let me slowly drift to sleep in your embrace after what just happened?" 

Still smirking, Hati responded, "Wouldn't be much of a punishment then, would it? Besides, you weren't exactly in my embrace as much as you were hugging my knees." Then, raising an eyebrow, he continued,  "Not that that isn't a more appropriate place for a maid."

Astrid stuck out her tongue and said, "Mean! Bully!"

Standing up and moving towards a closet, Hati said, "Yeah, yeah. Now, get naked! I mean, you basically already are with those flimsy clothes, but I want you completely exposed for this." 

While Hati retrieved some things from the closet, Astrid rolled her eyes, thinking she shouldn't have expected anything to change between them, while obediently removing the sticky lingerie from her sweaty body. 

Standing naked in the middle of the room, she could still feel the aftereffects from her earlier 'reward', but she actually felt somewhat excited at the prospect of a punishment from her master. Causing her to realise she would probably never be able to extricate herself from Hati willingly.

Hati returned, holding a piece of cloth and some rope while grinning evilly, "Now, hands behind your back and turn around." Having some idea of what was going to happen, Astrid couldn't help but feel somewhat anxious, but since she had failed to trust her master earlier, she decided to just do as he said. 

Reaching her, Hati covered her eyes with the cloth and tied her hands together, then he created a makeshift collar and leash with the rope and put it around her neck.

Feeling restrained and having lost one of her senses, Astrid felt anxious, but she trusted her master, so she didn't make a sound. Although she had started to walk the path of an Einherjar, causing her senses to be enhanced, it wasn't up to the point where she could see through the cloth or determine her surroundings based on sound.

She felt a tug on the leash, causing her to stumble forward and almost fall. In normal circumstances, something like that wouldn't force her to struggle, but her legs were still weak from earlier. 

She heard her master's voice, "Now, I will take you on a walk. Obviously, you can easily break free from those restraints as it's just regular rope, but the moment you do is when we both realise that you still don't trust me. And how can you think of loving me, or, for that matter, gaining my love if you don't trust me?"

"O- On a walk where exactly, Master? Through the room?" She asked with hope in her voice while slightly shaking. But Hati was quick to dash her hopes as he told her, "Nope! We'll be walking through the halls. 

Did you really think it would be that easy? This is supposed to be both a punishment and a trust exercise." Obviously, he wasn't counting on actually running into Leif or Sif as he knew that Sif had entered the library just before and Leif had left for a meeting with the elders. 

Both of those things usually involved hours of not seeing them, but Astrid didn't know that, as she was already in Hati's room when Leif and Sif went to do their own thing.

So he pulled out of the room and along the halls of the house while Astrid was shaking and anxious about letting either Sif or Leif see her this way. Especially Leif! But whenever she felt her master pull on her leash, she felt safer, and some of her anxiousness flowed away. 

Hati had turned her around quite a few times and made many detours to ensure Astrid had no idea where she was. It was a good thing this house was so large. Eventually, he came to a stop before he pulled Astrid into his embrace, placed one of her hands on a smooth, glass surface and whispered in her ear, "We are now in front of one of the windows on the western side of the second floor. Do you know what that means?" 

The western side of the house faced the rest of the compound, and although there was a bit of space between the front of the house and any passerby, it still wouldn't be hard to see her since they were on the second floor and many Fenrir clan members were Einherjar. This caused Astrid to panic as she said, "M- Master, you can't be serious?!"

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This caused her to receive a spank on her perky bottom as Hati told her, "Don't question me during your punishment! Now, wait here for a little while. I'll go get something. Don't you dare move, okay? Don't betray my trust." 

Astrid then heard his footsteps quickly receding. She wanted to yell after him, but she didn't dare to. So she simply stood there, shaking like a leaf, thinking the whole compound was staring at her through the window. 

In her head, she was repeating the words, 'Master cares for me. I need to trust my master. Master cares for me. I need to trust my master.' She sometimes heard footsteps near her, causing her to ask for her master, but she never got an answer, increasing her anxiety.

Obviously, this was all Hati, as he always stayed close to her while making her more anxious and immensely enjoying the look of her squirming body in front of the mirror he had pretended was a window.

After what seemed like an eternity, she suddenly felt some movement on the rope around her neck before getting tugged into the warm arms she longed for. Hati whispered in her ear, 

"You did well, little Astrid. Let me reward you now." With one hand, he grabbed one of her small but beautiful boobs as the other started teasing her pussy. Immediately, he noticed she was soaking wet. It was unknown whether this was from earlier or the current situation, but he liked it. 

Astrid was panicking, though, as she thought she was currently being played with while on full display in front of the Fenrir clan. But she couldn't resist her master as the blood seal was still in place, and she also wanted the reward he was giving her. 

So, despite her misgivings, she was moaning and shaking just like she had been before. Hati kept playing with her cave, teasing and pulling her nipples until she started coming close to another orgasm. 

When she was almost there, Hati ripped away the cloth covering her eyes, causing her to stare at her own filled expression, realising she was never in any danger of being spotted by the people outside and how she was right in trusting her master, she came hard. This time, sleep managed to claim her as she fainted in Hati's arms.