Captured And Claimed (Wayward Mates Series Book 8)

by Delta James

  “Does he know he’s in for a fight? With your father I mean.”

  “He does and in fact Will is going to be leaving for England today to do some recon work up at Ravenscar and Tony will be contacting some men in his former pack who have indicated they would like to join us as well. And I’ve given him the name of others I’ve talked to that also said they would like to belong.”

  “And what will you be doing?”

  “As Will so aptly put it, I will be wooing our mistress to our cause.”

  Shannon found herself laughing. “You are relentless; charming, but relentless.”

  “That’s me. The most charmingly relentless alpha you will ever know... well, except for Jean-Michel.”

  “Darby’s mate?”

  “One and the same. Someone recently said my charisma was second only to his. I was flattered beyond belief. I can only hope to bring the same kind of prosperity and happiness to those I lead and to my mate.”

  “She does seem crazy about him.”

  “That she is. Do you know she traded herself for the safety of the women of her pack? The bastard that she was mated to first kidnapped her and had her returned to him.”

  “I can’t imagine Jean-Michel let that go unanswered.”

  “Most assuredly he did not. He got her back, burned the house to the ground, and killed the man for having abused her. Most male wolves aren’t much on women being abused and react really badly when it is our mate who was the victim.”

  “You meant to kill deMoncada, didn’t you?”

  “If Skylar hadn’t dealt with him, I would have. I owe her for keeping that burden off of you and Catherine. And if it hadn’t been me, it would have been Marco. There was no way that miserable cur was going to continue to breathe.”

  Shannon could see that he was angry, but not at her or at Skylar, but at what had happened to her.

  “Okay, that’s enough of that. I’m not sure talking of murder and mayhem is good first-date conversation.”

  “Is that what this is?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Don’t be coy. It doesn’t suit you.”

  James laughed.

  “Somehow I don’t think you’d have had clothes and a nice light breakfast waiting up here if it had been you and Will going on a run.”

  “You’re right. But I have to tell you the clothes were Tony’s idea. I wouldn’t have minded seeing you naked again.”

  In spite of herself, Shannon giggled.

  “Not on a first date, buddy.”

  “I’m a patient man, Shea. The fact that you invited me to call you by a family nickname and wanted to take your first run as a free wolf with me makes me far happier than it should. I enjoy being with you.”

  “And I you,” she said quietly, not trusting herself to look at him as she said it.

  She looked at him accusingly as the now familiar wave of soothing peacefulness washed over her. He was infuriating. Every time she worked herself up to be righteously angry with him, he would call to her. It took every ounce of her will power to withstand the desire to succumb to the feelings of love and security that seemed to be wrapped up in that sound.

  “You need to stop that. Thinking about getting to know you better is one thing, but you just reaching out to me or calling to me is quite another.”

  “It works partially because you know it’s true. When I call to you when I sense your distress, or when I call to you to bring forth your arousal as I did at the auction, you feel it as a soothing rumble.”

  “I haven’t quite decided how I feel about that.”

  “You felt spectacular.”

  “Don’t be an asshole. First you spanked me.”

  “I spanked you because I needed you to behave. I needed you to mind me. At that time, I didn’t know anyone else was planning to rescue you.”

  “And when you fucked me afterwards?” she said archly.

  He smiled. “That, my beautiful mate, is the way a wolf always restores balance between himself and his mate.”

  “Spanks her, then fingers her to the point she’d fuck anything? Keep in mind deMoncada groped me daily and brought me to orgasm whenever he liked but never with anything in my pussy. I just wanted to fuck and you were handy.”

  “I wasn’t just handy and you know it.”

  “No, I’ll grant you, you’re hung and you know what you’re doing with that thing, but seriously, I was so horny from not getting any for over a year...”

  “Shannon, enough.” James could feel his anger rising. She was being deliberately confrontational.

  “And that’s the thing. You don’t get to tell me what to do and you sure as hell don’t get to spank me when I do something you don’t like.”

  “Not true. And if you don’t settle down, I’ll prove that to you and put you back over my knee. I’m not sure what’s suddenly got you so riled up and unsettled, but I guarantee you, a good discipline session will fix whatever has put you out of sorts.”

  “Out of sorts? Jesus, do you hear yourself? You think I’m out of sorts? I know everybody wants us to have a happily ever after, but I don’t know that you’re my idea of a storybook hero. After all, you did hit me and then force yourself...”

  James laughed out loud. “I didn’t hit you, I spanked you. Something I’m prepared to do again if you aren’t careful...”

  “Yes, but I now have the backing of one of the most powerful alphas in the world. You lay a hand on me...”

  “And make you writhe underneath that hand, either as it gets applied to your cute little butt or as it delves between your feminine folds and makes you cry out in ecstasy as you come for me before I mount you and make you call my name.”

  She brought back her arm as if to strike him. “You unmitigated, arrogant, chauvinistic mother fucker...”

  He caught her by the wrist as her hand came down. “You nasty, ill-tempered brat. If you continue to use bad language and behave toward me the way your sister does toward Marco, I assure you I will use the same method of quelling your bad behavior that he uses with her.”

  “What the fuck does that mean?”

  Once again instinct took over. He growled at her and instead of backing down as most she-wolves of his acquaintance would do, she growled back and not in a provocative way to call forth his arousal, but as a direct challenge. She needed to get cured of her tendency to challenge alpha males.

  As he had yet to release her wrist, James dragged her across his lap. She tried to resist, but he was far too strong. She had thought her increased strength by becoming a wolf would help, but apparently not against a male alpha wolf. He pulled her over his knee seemingly able to completely disregard that she was fighting him. James pulled the loose trousers down to her knees, baring her bottom.

  “If you settle down and accept my dominance, I will leave you with a bottom only showing a little bit of color as opposed to a deep red one. You will surrender yourself to me for my safekeeping.”

  Shannon started to make a scathing retort, but it was cut short as his hand delivered a sharp blow to her exposed backside. She yelped as his hand connected even more sharply for the second swat. Each time he spanked her she moaned, cursing his name under her breath. James could hear her and merely struck her bottom that much harder. Shannon could feel that he wasn’t truly angry with her, but was making the point that she needed to resolve and own her feelings towards him and capitulate.

  “James, stop.”

  He did not.

  “Please?”

  He paused. “And does my mate recognize that she is my mate and who is dominant between us?”

  “Yes.”

  James landed three more blows on her quickly coloring bottom. “Yes, what?”

  “Yes, you bastard!”

  “Have it your way, Shea.”

  James began to lay down a rhythmic pattern of swats to her backside. She squirmed and wriggled trying to avoid his punishment but he seemed more than able to inflict the amount of discipline he saw was necessary.


  “Stop it!” she wailed.

  “Not until you settle down and accept that I’m going to spank you until you do. And that this won’t be an isolated incident. You know very little of our kind, but I assure you, sweetheart, there is more than one way to claim you as my mate, which by the way I’m sure my father has already done.”

  “Marco will fight him,” she cried.

  “Maybe, and maybe not. Once I get you sufficiently chastised, I can easily get you to take your vows in front of the alpha of the DeMedici. Combine that with my father filing my claim as your fated mate, there are few, if any, who would take up your cause.”

  “My sister...”

  James continued to spank her as he scolded her.

  “Came to your brother-in-law’s bed much the same way, I’ve been told. A loud, unseemly argument in the lobby of a hotel and was taken upstairs, put over his knee, and once she’d been forced to admit he was alpha between them, taken to his bed. She-wolves, the best ones at least, can be notoriously ill-tempered. But their mates find a judicious application of their hand or belt to their bare bottoms combined with a lot of good, hard fucking before, after, and in between helps them to be their best. Now are you done?”

  He had heard her break into real, cathartic tears of distress, not just pent-up rage.

  “Yes,” she cried softly.

  “Yes, what?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “That’s better,” he crooned.

  James continued to hold her in place but slipped the hand that had been paddling her between her legs to stroke and caress her clit that had already responded to his discipline in the way he had hoped—it was engorged.

  “Please?” she cried.

  “There’s my good mate. You give yourself to me. Would you like me to stroke your pussy?”

  “Yes,” she sighed.

  James chuckled and began to plunge his fingers in and out of her. Shannon began to writhe on his lap as he pleasured her. He could feel her excitement starting to peak when he suddenly withdrew his hand from between her legs.

  “Just a few more hard swats, sweetheart.”

  “No,” she cried, both in frustration and the knowledge that he seemed somehow to know what she needed regardless of whether or not she wanted to admit it.

  As much as she disliked being spanked and denied the climax that had been just out of her reach, she knew he was right. She needed to feel him assert his dominance as much as he needed to do so. His hand descended on her bare bottom five more times, causing her to yelp with each one.

  Once he stopped, he helped her to her feet and dried her tears. He brought her in front of him and grasped both of her arms behind her back. This had the effect of making her bend at the waist. He nudged her legs apart with his own. He opened his fly and steadied her with his hands as he drove himself into her core, growling with satisfaction and glorying in her growled and groaned responses.

  James began pummeling her pussy as she came hard, her sheath clamping down on him, causing him to roar in primitive male satisfaction and pound into her. Finally, as she came again, he allowed himself to spill within her, grunting as he did so.

  He released and spun her around into his arms. His mouth claimed hers with the same fire and passion as he had coupled with her. James’ tongue thrust in and out of her mouth, mimicking precisely what his cock had done to her now well-used cunt. Even if she had not given herself over to his passion and wrapped her arms around his neck, Shannon would have been unable to move as James had both of her tender globes within his strong grasp.

  “One more display of that temper of yours, and I’m going to lay claim to you in front of Marco and when you decry me, I’ll put you back over my knee and paddle your ass until you agree to take your vows as my mate then and there. Understood?”

  Shannon searched his face. He was clearly annoyed with her, but he hadn’t lost his temper. If she was forced to admit it, he’d simply put the kibosh on her temper and the tantrum it was starting to cause.

  He squeezed her painful bottom—not unkindly but to remind her that she would answer to his authority. There was something about the way he did so that Shannon found reassuring and comforting.

  “Yes, sir,” she said softly, allowing her body to lose its rigidity and melt into his, nuzzling his neck as she did so.

  Shannon heard the deep rumble from within him. She was beginning to recognize it was a sound he made when he wanted to pacify or offer her some kind of solace and when he was deeply satisfied. She rather imagined the source of the sound at the moment was a combination of all three.

  “You don’t have to do that,” she chided gently.

  “Not my fault,” he said, moving his hands from off of her ass to encircle her waist. “I swear it is purely reactive instinct.”

  She cocked her head. “You know, I actually believe you. I really don’t think it’s something you think about doing to further your cause. You feel me out of sorts, and just respond.”

  They nibbled on the light meal Tony had left for them and enjoyed pointing out various things on the estate. Shannon knew far more about it than James. When he questioned her, she admitted she’d read the website.

  “I see Tony left a Vespa up here. Do you want to run or ride back to the house?”

  “I’m not sure I can be very comfortable riding,” she admitted, embarrassed.

  He lifted her chin with his fingers. “Nothing to be embarrassed about. It was only you and me. We had an argument, you got disciplined for your bad behavior, and then we hit the reset button. That’s all. Don’t you feel better?”

  “Oddly enough and as much as I hate to admit it, I do. But as good as the food was, I’m starving. What do you say we ride back down and join the others for breakfast? But could you try to avoid as many of the bumps as you can?”

  “Are you all right with what happened up here?” he asked solicitously.

  “I don’t get it yet, but the rest of you see it as the most normal thing in the world. And I don’t like being spanked.”

  James chuckled. “Two things. First, don’t do something to get spanked for. And second, considering how wet you were when I got done, I’m not so sure I’m inclined to believe that.”

  “God,” she wailed dramatically. “Does that make me some kind of pain slut?”

  He laughed out loud. “No, Shea, it simply makes you my mate.”

  “To be completely honest with you, I’m not the least bit submissive and I don’t think I will ever willingly submit.”

  “The two aren’t the same thing,” he said gently. “One doesn’t have to be submissive by nature to choose to yield or submit to her mate. Ask Marco. He will tell you that no one will ever accuse your sister of being submissive in the least, and yet she chooses to defer to Marco. A gift he treasures as he knows it is not her normal state of being.”

  “Hmm. I hadn’t thought of it that way.”

  “It’s just a different way of looking at it. Come on, let’s head back to the villa.”

  They gathered what they could, disposing of the fruit and breaking up the pastries for the local wildlife to enjoy. Once they were sitting on the Vespa, James turned to look at her over his shoulder.

  “I was hoping to get back between your legs in the near future, but this wasn’t exactly the way I envisioned it.”

  Shannon laughed and felt herself relax even more as she wrapped her arms around his waist and snuggled up to his back.

  They rode down to the villa and parked the Vespa back with the other vehicles. As they started toward the house, James offered her his hand. Before he could pull it back, Shannon had taken it and walked close to his side.

  They entered the dining hall to be greeted with various good mornings and well wishes. James shook his head.

  Shannon leaned closer to him. “What?”

  “As different as all of this is to you? The idea of a pack enjoying a meal together, greeting people as they walk in... such a love of life and sheer happiness is just as fo
reign to me.”

  Shannon giggled.

  “What?” he said, obviously delighted to hear her at ease and happy.

  “The table where we all sat last night... the designated alpha or ranked member table? It’s empty. Valentina said she doubted I’d see Catherine until tonight. I guess that holds true for the others.” She grew reflective for a moment. “I feel bad that they all got in trouble because of me.”

  “No, Shea. They earned themselves their mates’ displeasure when they disobeyed and put themselves in danger. Doing either of those will most likely result in a she-wolf feeling the aftermath of her mate’s annoyance the next day.”

  “You’re going to spank me whenever you feel like it, aren’t you?” she asked.

  “And things had been going so well,” he said with a sigh. “I hate to tell you this, but I am. If you deliberately disobey me or put yourself in harm’s way, you will find yourself face down over my knee.”

  Shannon stood beside him processing what he’d said. On the one hand, she was adamantly opposed to any kind of corporal punishment. But standing next to him, she didn’t feel any fear whatsoever and, truth be told, she could feel the embers of her arousal spark back into being in response to both his honesty and his naturally dominant nature.

  “Are you so sure we are fated mates?” she asked in a far more provocative and teasing voice than she ever could have imagined.

  He looked over at her and smiled broadly.

  “I am indeed. And I’m beginning to think that you may be beginning to lose your abhorrence to the idea.”

  “Maybe...”

  James squeezed her hand reassuringly. “I can be happy with maybe... for now.”

  “Good morning Alpha, Mist... Shannon,” said Will, stumbling over the title.

  “Okay, pal, you and I need to get something straight. I’m not at all comfortable with the title of mistress. I’m not saying that it might not be accurate someday, but it isn’t yet, and even if and when it is, I don’t know that I’ll like it.”

  Will reached down, brought her hand to his lips, and kissed it. “Then I shall endeavor not to use it except when absolutely imperative.”

  James growled low in his throat.