by Delta James
“God damn it,” said James. “She wasn’t in our room, was she?”
“No. Stefano swore she didn’t get past him.”
“I’m sure she didn’t. When we were tied last night I mentioned that there was a secret passage out of my room.”
“I’m sure she’s merely trying to make the point that she’s not going to be excluded,” offered Will.
“Yes, and I’m going to make the point that when I tell her something she’s going to obey me and when she doesn’t, I’m going to take her to task over it. Tony, see if you and a couple of others can’t locate her. When you do, let me know and I will deal with her.”
Tony inclined his head in a show of respect and understanding and withdrew.
“And things were going so well,” teased Will.
“I should have known she gave in too quickly.” He sighed. “I’m going to go check in with our people until they’ve located her.”
James and Will entered the great hall and began to mingle and greet people.
Chapter Thirty
Shannon watched him leave. If he thought she was just going to be kept safe in their room whenever he perceived any kind of threat, he had another thought coming. In the intimacy of the tie the night before, James had revealed that there was another way out of his room that didn’t involve the door to the hall. She began to methodically search for it.
It took her a while, but finally she was rewarded for her work. Figuring out how to trigger the opening mechanism was proving difficult until she realized it had to be operable and within reach of a small child. Finding it, she opened the door. It smelled musty and she was quite certain it had been many years since it had been used.
She wandered through the darkened passages using a flashlight she had found just inside the door. She heard voices up ahead and turned down a different branch of the tunnel, shutting off the light and flattening herself against the wall. When the voices got no closer, she ventured out into the main tunnel and listened before turning the light back on.
It sounded as though the voices were in the same area and it occurred to her they were most likely not in the passageway itself but in a room or area connected with it. She crept closer and directed the flashlight toward the ground and through her sweater, filtering and dimming the light.
Shannon knew the tunnel had sloped down; she figured she was now under the main floor. Shannon moved slowly toward the sound of the voices, careful not to make any noise. She overheard the last of James’ conversation with his father and Tony’s remarks to James as they walked away. She grinned at the idea that Tony had found his mate and wondered at what point had that become a normal thought.
She lingered as she wanted to hear how James’ father reacted to his son’s ultimatum.
“That young cock-of-the-walk thinks he can displace me?” Shannon heard his father say. “That little bastard will rue the day he thought to cross me.”
A voice she didn’t recognize replied, “Perhaps and perhaps not. I fear there are those who will welcome a change in leadership. Remember, I cautioned you about getting involved in deMoncada’s schemes.”
“Warned me perhaps, but were all too eager for the income it brought each of you. You know he offered me several of his girls over the years. I even sampled a few of them. Their fear and his method of training them to respond produced a rather enjoyable outcome. But it wasn’t until he showed me my son’s mate that I knew she needed to be here. I rather thought the boy might do as he was told and bring her home to breed. I would have enjoyed watching that. Pretty thing. Great tits and hips made to bear children.”
It was all Shannon could do to keep from retching. She turned away and started back to her room. She was just turning the corner to the tunnel that led to their room when she sensed his presence. Not only did she know he was there, she could tell he was pissed. What she couldn’t decide was whether to be angry or amused at her body’s reaction to that information—her nipples were becoming beaded and her pussy was beginning to secrete the lubrication necessary for him to bring both of them to repeated heights of passion. Her mind, however, was not as focused. Part of her brain enjoyed the mental stimuli of having James prove his dominance... the other part knew her ass was going to pay the price for her not having stayed in their room.
She walked through the open door, turning off the flashlight and smiling at him as he sat on their bed.
“Not a word, Shea. Not one God damned word. You get yourself over here and get across my knee... now!”
“Can I just say...”
Before she could finish what she wanted to say, James had crossed the room, taken hold of her upper arm, and propelled her across the room, swatting her backside with each step.
“I told you I didn’t want to hear a word out of your mouth.”
When he reached the bed, he sat back down, stripped down her pants and panties, exposing her from the waist below, and drew her across his knee. She barely had time to catch her breath before the first of many hard strikes landed on her bottom, causing her to yelp with each one. Again, Shannon found that she couldn’t separate herself from his punishment. She felt each and every blow as it landed, compounding those that had gone before.
“James, I’m sorry, I just...”
“I don’t care what your justification for disobeying me is. I might some other time, but there is no reason for your misbehaving other than you wanted to... is there?”
“Uhm, ouch, no.”
“No, what?” he growled low, ensuring that she felt the depth of his displeasure.
“No, sir. James, please, you’re right. I... it doesn’t matter, please stop, please?”
“Do I have your attention?”
“Yes, sir.”
This time as his hand came down, it did so lightly before delving between her legs. She eagerly spread them for him, which delighted him.
“Do not think, mate, that spreading your legs for me now will do anything to appease my anger at your blatant disobedience.” He plunged two fingers into her wet sheath without any warning, causing her to gasp in surprise and then sigh in pleasure. “You’re lucky that our omega believes it is important for our people to see you, else when I’m finished with you, you’d be confined to our room for at least the rest of the day. Despite how I treated him in the great hall, my father is not without his supporters and is dangerous when crossed. He wouldn’t think twice about using you against me.”
“I’m sorry, James. I am. And you’re right. My only thought was to show you I wasn’t going to be told what to do.”
He stopped stroking her pussy with his fingers and brought his hand back down hard on her bottom. Shannon yowled both from frustration as he hadn’t fingered her to climax and from the blow itself. He began to spank her again, ensuring her entire derriere was covered with his hand prints and he landed several on her sit spots and upper thighs.
Shannon finally quit struggling and fighting and gave in to the painful state of her ass. She started to cry and realized the tears weren’t false or just from the pain. She was sorry she had disappointed him and caused him concern.
He ceased spanking her and let her cry for a few moments before he began to rub her bottom in a far more comforting and then seductive way. She felt his hand slip back between her thighs and his finger played with her a clit a moment before tracing its way back to her now soaked pussy. He plunged two of his fingers back into her and pumped in and out, causing her to stop crying and her breath to quicken. She could feel her climax fast approaching when again he withdrew them.
Before she could cry out or protest he had her on her feet and kissed her with the fiery passion she had come to expect from him. She melted into his embrace and returned the feeling. She wasn’t nearly ready when he spun her away from him and swatted her ass one more time.
“You go strip and then stand in the corner.”
“What?” she stammered.
“You heard me, mate. It’s time you learned what happens when
you choose to disobey me. Now, I told you to get naked and stick your nose in that corner. If I have to help you do any of that, I’ll put you back over my knee and spank you until you think you can do as you’re told.”
Part of her wanted to argue, but a deeper, more insistent part wanted her to obey not so much to avoid being spanked but to put things right between them. She said nothing, but removed the remainder of her clothing and went to stand in the corner facing the wall.
“James?”
“What,” he growled.
“I am sorry. I would tell you that this is all new to me and that I wasn’t raised this way, but I know you know that and I suspect are mitigating my punishment with that in mind.” She heard him expel a breath. “Regardless, doing something just to prove you wrong isn’t the way I want to do things. So please accept my apology as sincere.”
Shannon was startled when he ran his hands down her sides. She felt him molding himself to her spine and reaching around to fondle her breasts and nipples. The growl he emitted still contained a note of anger, but there was also the tone she had grown used to hearing when he was seeking to seduce and arouse her.
“Apology accepted. The next time you use that passageway it had better be to escape something other than my wrath.” He nipped her earlobe. “Hmm, not nearly as satisfying as paddling your bottom.”
Despite herself she giggled and then sighed as he took hold of her hips and pulled her lower half away from the wall and into his pelvis and thighs where she could feel his hard cock. Keeping one hand wrapped around her middle, she felt him use the other to open his fly and release his cock. Kicking her legs apart, he guided his hard shaft into her soaked pussy and thrust home. His dominant show of possession as he mounted her caused her to orgasm and she leaned against the wall. Had he not been holding her in place, she was quite sure her knees would have given way.
James allowed her to catch herself before beginning to drive in and out of her. The strength with which he mastered her body made her want nothing more than to please him and accept his display of authority, both of her body and her person.
“You will not disobey me. Is that clear?” he said as he rammed into her repeatedly.
“Yes, my alpha,” she cried as another powerful climax shook her body as he growled at her, calling forth her arousal and her submission to him.
He hammered her through two more orgasms before he finally began to stroke her with enough speed and frenzy that she knew he was seeking his own release. But still he ensured that she would ascend to that height of ecstasy one last time. Shannon felt his cum being pumped into her and filling her. When at last his cock had given her all he had to give, James started to withdraw.
Shannon reached back for him. “Please?”
He stopped. “Please what?”
“Just stay in me for a bit.”
The quiet laughter came from a wolf well-pleasured by his mate.
“I think my mate enjoys having her pussy full of my cock... and my cum.”
Shannon nodded. “Yes,” she whispered.
“Then I will endeavor to keep her happy in that regard.”
She giggled and wrapped one of her arms around the one of his still encircling her midsection as he used the other to lean against the wall, covering her hand with his own. She smiled. Damn them, they’d been right. Being able to have him exact his punishment from her and then allow her to make amends put everything right again.
When finally he began to soften, he slipped from her body and turned her to face him.
“Don’t do it again.”
“Yes, sir.”
He took her by the hand and led her toward their bath. “Come on, we need to get cleaned up and get back downstairs.”
After they had showered together and as he was drying her off she said, “I don’t think your father is done.”
He shook his head. “I wish I disagreed with you, but I don’t. I don’t want to have to kill him, but I’m not sure I’ll have a choice.”
She took his face in her hands and kissed him deeply. “Whatever happens, I will always be with you.”
He smiled, watching her intently. “Then you’ve made your decision to stay... here with me?”
She ducked her head, not knowing if she could meet his eyes. He lifted her chin gently with his forefinger.
“Did I ever truly have a choice? I know you said you wouldn’t force me, and I know you would have kept your word. But you knew. Even at the auction in Montreal, you knew.”
“I did and prayed every day you would find the courage to believe it as well.”
“Luckily for me I have a mate with an abundance of courage who loaned me some of his until I could find the rest of my own.”
“Then you are settled to remain here?”
“Do you honestly think I’d have let you tear out a chunk of my neck if I wasn’t?” she teased. “And then there’s that whole knot thing.”
He grinned. “Yes, there is that... and don’t think I missed the part where you told me you loved me earlier today.”
“I wondered about that. I might be feeling a lot happier about that if I heard you tell me the same,” she said shyly.
“A critical error on my part. Forgive me. You, my beloved mate are going to get sick of hearing me say it. I love you. I have from the first moment I saw you and every moment since.”
“I’m not sure that first moment was about love... I think perhaps it was the other four-letter word—lust.”
“I won’t deny that there was a heavy dose of that. You smelled so incredibly sweet, but not nearly as intoxicating as you did last night when you offered yourself to me.”
“I suppose we have to go back downstairs...”
He eyed her appreciatively and ran his finger down the side of her breast. “Remind me why I wanted to be alpha?”
“I’m not sure you wanted to be. Your pack needed you to be and you are a most righteous and honorable wolf, which means you had no choice.”
“Wise and compassionate along with sexy as hell. You really are worth every dime I paid for you.”
Shannon had been nuzzling him and reached up to nip his ear, which only caused him to laugh. They got dressed and returned to the great hall where people had continued to mingle and start to build the kind of fellowship that existed in most packs.
“It seems Franco has been hard at work,” she said to him. The room had been arranged so that there was a large buffet set with an amazing display of food.
“Franco? What about me?” he teased.
“You were doing something you enjoyed.”
He grinned “So was Franco, although I doubt he got nearly the pleasure from it than I did from you.”
She rolled her eyes and greeted Will. “You know he’s impossible, right?”
“Only since he met you. In case he hasn’t told you yet, he’s quite mad about you.”
One of the men they had left to guard his father and the others joined them. “A moment, Alpha.”
“There is nothing you cannot say in front of my mate,” responded James.
“Your father has requested to be heard here in the main hall before taking his leave of us. He says he wants to give you his terms and wants plenty of witnesses to your agreement.”
“Bring him up. Get the rest of his men and form a circle around them. If they make a break for it or try to harm anyone, cut them down.”
“Yes, Alpha.” The man headed back to the dungeon and Tony, having overheard the conversation, began to gather their men.
James stood on the raised dais at one end of the room. His father and his retinue with him came in. As they approached James, the protective circle of his men at arms closed behind them.
“You wished to speak to me?”
“I wish I had never sired you.”
“That makes two of us. Anything else?”
“You think if you throw me out everything will be wine and roses? You’re wrong, boy, it takes strength and determination to rule ov
er a pack and to wield the power that is Ravenscar.”
“That’s where we differ. I have no desire to rule over anyone, save my beloved mate, who seems to enjoy having me do so. I do feel compelled to lead my pack out of the darkness where you have imprisoned them.” He looked up from his father and acknowledged his people. “I was fortunate enough just recently to spend a small amount of time with our beta’s birth pack. There I saw nothing but happiness and family. As I told Shannon, it was eye-opening for both of us as to what a well-functioning powerful pack should be. I plan to enlist the aid of our beta, Tony, who grew up in that place and solicit the advice of their leader. Ravenscar will take its rightful place as part of the Coalition and we will see the perversions created by men like my father swept away forever.” He looked back to his father. “How much do you want, old man, to go away and leave my people to heal?”
James stepped down off the dais and walked past his father. “What do all of you think? Should we pay him to leave us in peace or...”
The moment his back was turned on his father, the old man grabbed a knife proffered by one of those who were to be exiled with him. In the space of a heartbeat Shannon found herself moving forward past Tony and Will and withdrawing the stiletto Catherine had given to her.
Shannon reached James’ father before he could get close enough to his son to strike and before his son could turn to ward off his second attack.
“Not a second time,” she growled low as she drove the stiletto deep through his spine and deep into his heart.
Shannon watched him spin and look at her in surprise and dismay.
“You are a woman...” he gasped as his brain became aware that his life was ending.
“I am mate to the alpha of Ravenscar and you will never threaten him or our pack again.”
She watched as the light drained from his eyes and his life’s blood began to seep onto the floor.
James was beside her in an instant.
Before any of those they had brought with them could do much of anything, a male wolf was heard to say, “Come on, lads, let’s get this garbage out of here.”
