by Delta James
There was agreement as several men came forward to lift the former alpha of Ravenscar’s corpse off the floor.
“You’re all right? Shea?”
She looked up at him and smiled. “I’m fine. I’ll sleep better knowing he will never be able to harm you or our pack in the future.”
James looked at his people. “Tony, see my father’s retainers to our border. I admonish those of you who followed him never to darken our door again or meet the same fate as the one who led you. Will, see the rest of the pack into the dining hall and get someone in here to clean up the mess.”
“Tony?” she called to their beta.
“Yes, Mistress?”
“Can you see that the stiletto my sister gave to me is returned to me?”
“I will clean and polish it myself,” he said, smiling at her.
Gwen came forward. “Are you all right, Mistress?”
Shannon smiled ruefully at James, who merely grinned at her. “You’re on your own for this one,” he said.
He knew full well that she had yet to accept that as mate to the alpha of their pack she would most often be referred to as Mistress and would be treated with deference. What he found even more amusing was the belief that she would find a way to make them yield to her desire to not be set above them... at least not openly.
“Do I have a snowball’s chance in hell?” she asked.
Their pack was looking at them questioningly.
“Doubtful,” he said, “but let me ask.” He turned to engage their pack. “Your mistress seems to think she is not due your respect or admiration...”
People made disapproving or negating sounds and called to her, reassuring her that they felt nothing but an abundance of both of those emotions.
Shannon took a deep sigh. “I think I’ll save that fight for another day.”
“Wise move. Would you like to go upstairs?”
“No. I’d like to go join people outside and try to salvage the rest of this wretched day into something people can remember with fondness and not horror.”
Gwen smiled at her. “The only horror was what we feared was about to happen when the old man thought to strike our alpha down. What will be remembered most of all is that his mate, the woman he loves above all else, delivered the death blow any of us would have gladly made.”
“Then let’s all head outside and let them get this cleaned up,” said Will, ushering people through the great doors.
She’d have to remember to thank Franco. The little chef was a miracle worker.
“Are you sure you’re all right?” James asked her solicitously.
“Asks the man who not two hours ago was beating my ass?”
“The very same,” he chuckled. He dropped his voice to a whisper. “I fear as much as I would like to do so, I don’t think I can take you into seclusion.”
“We have time for that, James—all the time in the world. I fear you have captured my heart and claimed me for all time.”
“I have indeed, my love, as you have captured and claimed mine. But so long as we are together... there is nothing to fear.”
Epilogue
Skylar stood on the rocky shore of Bae Diogel watching the ocean as she had so many years ago. She pondered at the passage of time and her part in it. She turned to look at the old lighthouse and its attached residence. Maddie and Griffin had made a home here. Their pack had grown quickly in the two decades since her world had been turned upside down by her beloved mate, Dylan. She had sat on this very beach and bid goodbye to her first mate the night before Dylan had come at the behest of the now defunct Ruling Council to disband her pack of rogue females.
There were those that still believed she and her women had been the cause of the downfall of the heavily patriarchal wolf-shifter community. It wasn’t that the structures of most of the packs weren’t still heavily male dominated, but little by little, she had lived to see more of her kind embrace the thinking of those originally known as the Coalition. Alpha males still might rule, but the women in their midst were cherished and not just for their ability to produce offspring.
The original members of the Coalition led by her mate, Dylan Grainger, along with Oliver Halsey, Jean-Michel Gautier, Marco DeMedici, Aidan Byrne, Ioan Smith-Davies, Declan Collins, Cameron Nichols, and James Norris, had offered their packs as safe havens for women trying to escape a destiny not of their choosing. Skylar shook her head. It wasn’t that women couldn’t still be forced to run by a fated mate, but it took a lot of persuading to convince one of these men that you were entitled to call yourself such and claim a woman who might, at first, be reluctant to acknowledge your claim.
She reflected that the years had been wonderful though not always easy. Some of the old guard did not give up their ways without a fight and even some of the older women were uncomfortable with the freedoms now available to them. The Ruling Council had not gone down without a fight, but they had been no match for the Coalition and its enlightened way of being. The last of deMoncada’s she-wolf trafficking had been destroyed and those still alive brought to justice.
“Mother!” called her and Dylan’s first-born son. A boy Dylan had insisted they call Micah. Wrapping his arm around his mother’s waist, he hugged her close. “They’re all arriving. Father says you should quit trying to figure out how you might have bested him and finally admit you’re glad he claimed you,” he said, laughing.
“Oh, I quit doing that years ago, but I swear if you tell your father, I will tell your mate and then there will be hell to pay.”
“Don’t remind me. Why couldn’t I have fallen for a nice, quiet omega? Life would be so much simpler.”
She laughed. “I fear, my son, your Abriana will never be that girl. She is the perfect combination of her mother and father, with just a dash of her Auntie Shea.”
He smiled and led his mother back toward the house. He was a striking boy and like his namesake was destined to lead the pack at Calon Onest. Ioan and Bethan’s son had not been an alpha. Knowing that Skylar and Dylan had more than one son born as alpha, Ioan had proposed that Micah take over the leadership of their pack.
The women who had once been of the original Bae Diogel—Roz, Darby, and Riley—met each year with those who had helped bring down the old system—Ava, Catherine, Maddie, and Shannon—to gather by the old bonfire to, as they laughingly put it, smoke cigars, drink brandy, and talk about things that might distress their mates. The men for the most part took it as the jab it was intended to be but stayed away to let them reconnect each year.
This year, though, plans had been circumvented by their mates. A far larger party had been planned in celebration and recognition of the passage of more than twenty years and to formally announce the betrothal of Micah to Abriana DeMedici and Ioan naming Micah as his successor.
As they crested the last dune to head to the expansive back patio, Dylan greeted them and took his mate into his embrace, walking back to the house as the others gathered. Micah turned and looked to a spot on a spit of sand not far from the shore. It was a place he was always drawn to. When he had been a small child, he had come with his parents to visit their friends, the Welsh wolf and his lady. He had been exploring the shoreline when he had spotted something. His six-year-old mind had fancied it as a dragon, but it was gone in the blink of an eye and his parents had been convinced it was just their son’s vivid imagination.
“Looking for your dragon?” came the voice of Abriana DeMedici.
He smiled, turning to her. Micah felt blessed to have found his fated mate so early in his life. He had known she was such even before he knew what it was to have a fated mate. “Yes. I know they say it was just the fancy of a child’s mind, but the image has haunted me all my life.”
“The dragon is the symbol of the Welsh. Perhaps it was merely a sign of your destiny.”
“Our destiny,” he corrected automatically. “Perhaps, and yet...”
The End
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Additional Books in the Wayward Mates Series
Brought to Heel
Skylar Owen is not used to taking orders from anyone and the last thing she wants in her life is an alpha who will demand her submission, but her world is turned upside down after a band of rogue wolves attacks her small, all-female pack. Ordered to disband her pack so that she can be matched with a mate, Skylar defies the Ruling Council, only to be hunted down and captured.
Though he can tell Skylar will be trouble the moment he sets eyes on her, Dylan Grainger knows how to tame a wayward woman, and it isn’t long before the beautiful, feisty redhead is tearfully promising obedience as her bare bottom is soundly spanked. But Dylan quickly realizes that Skylar is much more than just a headstrong female in need of an alpha’s firm-handed correction.
With each passing day, he grows more certain that she is his mate, and he knows that soon he must claim her, mark her, and take her hard and thoroughly. But will she resist her instincts, or will her body’s response to his bold dominance leave her in no doubt that she belongs to him?
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Marked and Mated
Darby Callan doesn’t want a mate, but it isn’t up to her. Her old pack has been disbanded, and when the powerful, handsome alpha of a well-established pack makes it clear that she belongs to him, her instincts reveal the truth of his words despite her furious protests and attempts to escape.
Jean-Michel Gautier knows that his new mate’s past makes her wary of him, but an alpha cannot tolerate disobedience, and when Darby defies him he strips her bare and spanks her until she is sore and sobbing. Her beautiful body’s response to his dominance is obvious, and his stern correction leaves her helplessly aroused, but before he claims her he plans to make her beg.
Naked and quivering with desperate, shameful need, Darby cannot help pleading with Jean-Michel for the climax she has been denied, and soon she is crying out with pleasure more intense than she would have ever thought possible as he makes her his. But when the vicious brute who once hurt her comes looking for Darby again, can she trust her new alpha to protect his mate?
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Mastering His Mate
After she was injured in an attack by a rogue band of wolves, Rosalyn Kincanon awoke to discover that her life had changed forever. Angry and distraught, she fled from those that nursed her back to health and found her own place in the world. But now the all-female pack she helped lead has been disbanded and the women are to be claimed as mates whether they like it or not.
The moment Oliver Halsey saw Rosalyn, he knew she was his mate. But she was born a human, and the vicious brutes who turned her did so against her will, so he set aside his rights as alpha and gave her the freedom she needed to come to terms with her new reality. Now her time is up.
Oliver knows what Rosalyn needs, even if she doesn’t. When she runs, he will catch her and bring her back. When she disobeys, he will bare her and punish her. He will take her harder and longer than she would have ever thought possible, and she will scream and beg as one climax after another is forced from her naked, quivering body. It is time for his mate to be mastered.
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Taking His Mate
Years ago, Madeline Stone was attacked by a rogue band of wolves. Now they are hunting her again, but to get to her, they’ll have to go through Griffen Owen. The ex-Special Forces operative is the rightful alpha of his pack, and the moment he sets eyes on Madeline he knows the beautiful, feisty human is his mate. But to keep her safe, he will need to teach her to obey.
Doing as she is told doesn’t come easily to Madeline, and it isn’t long before she finds herself naked, helpless, and tearfully promising to be good as her bare bottom is soundly spanked. Her mate’s mastery of her body is put on full display as Madeline is brought to a quivering, shameful climax while still over his knee, and soon she is begging to be taken hard and thoroughly.
Madeline’s need for Griffen only grows stronger as she is marked and claimed, and his savage lovemaking leaves her in no doubt that she belongs to him. But with war brewing between the packs, can Griffen protect his mate from both their enemies and her own headstrong defiance?
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Claimed and Mated
When Catherine Livingston travels to Italy to investigate her sister’s disappearance, it isn’t long before she crosses paths with the man who has been ravishing her almost every night in her dreams. More shocking still, the mysterious, darkly handsome stranger leaves her in no doubt that he is well aware of the connection between them and he has no intention of ignoring it.
Marco DeMedici seems to all but own the city of Florence, and it soon becomes clear that he will not rest until Catherine belongs to him, even if it means carrying her off, stripping her bare, and spanking her until she is sobbing, obedient, and begging him to take her hard and thoroughly.
Despite Catherine’s efforts to run from him, her body’s response to Marco’s stern dominance cannot be denied, and when he reveals that he is an alpha shifter it only makes it more obvious that her world will never be the same. She will be his mate, and the only thing left up to her will be how loudly she screams his name as he claims her as roughly and shamefully as he pleases.
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Claimed and Mastered
Ava Rhys has always chafed at submitting to the authority of her pack’s alpha, but when he tries to sell her body in return for money and influence, she decides she would be better off on her own. Ava’s plans to live as a lone wolf in the backwoods of Maine are thrown into turmoil, however, when the local game warden makes it his business to take her in hand, and the battle-hardened former Army Ranger soon proves to be just as fiercely dominant as any alpha shifter.
Declan Collins knows a woman in need of a man’s firm hand when he sees one, and it isn’t long before Ava is kneeling naked at his feet with her well-spanked bare bottom on display. Once he has taught her a better use for her sassy mouth, she quickly finds herself screaming her helpless, shameful submission into the bedsheets as he claims her so roughly and so thoroughly that she is left in no doubt that she belongs to him and there is nothing whatsoever she can do about it.
With each passing day he masters her body ever more completely, never hesitating to punish any hint of defiance before using and enjoying her in ways more humiliating than she could have ever imagined. But when instinct causes her to bite him in the throes of yet another intense, desperate climax, will she lose him forever or will she end up mated to an alpha shifter after all?
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Hunted and Claimed
Riley decided years ago that she would be better off on her own, but when the alpha of the local pack finds out there’s a lone wolf causing trouble on his turf he takes matters into his own hands.
As far as Cameron Nichols is concerned, Riley will be joining his pack whether she likes it or not. Her only choice will be whether to submit to his authority with or without needing to be stripped bare and spanked over his knee until she is kicking and crying and promising obedience. When she chooses the latter, the Navy SEAL turned cowboy is more than happy to oblige.
But Cameron knows instantly that Riley isn’t just a feisty female in need of an alpha’s firm hand. She is his mate, and she knows it too, despite her best efforts to deny it. No matter how many times she tries to run, he will always chase her down, puni
sh her thoroughly, and then mount and claim her so roughly that all she can do is scream her helpless, shamefully intense pleasure into the pillow as her body betrays her and surrenders ever more completely to his demands.
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More Stormy Night Books by Delta James
Taming His Cowgirl
When her father’s will leaves control of the family ranch to Ryder Malone, the very same man who once broke her heart, Sierra Morgan is more than a little upset. The last time she saw Ryder she shot his hat right off his head, earning herself a long, hard spanking on her bare bottom that left her sore yet helplessly, infuriatingly aroused, and she had hoped to never see him again.
Ryder has not gotten over Sierra, and this time he isn’t going to let her run off without giving him a chance to tell her how he feels, even if that means lassoing her and tying her to a chair.
If she wants to inherit the ranch she loves, Sierra will have to work alongside Ryder for a year and convince him she is ready to run it. Though she plans to spend that year making his life a living hell, when she pushes the stern, handsome cowboy too far she soon ends up over his knee again. But this time her body’s response to his dominance cannot be ignored, and when Ryder takes her in his arms and claims her thoroughly Sierra is left in no doubt that she belongs to him.
Sierra is not used to doing as she is told, however, and when she is reckless with her safety she quickly discovers that Ryder will not hesitate to punish her in ways that leave her cheeks blushing crimson and her bottom sore both inside and out. His stern, shameful correction merely increases her need for him, but once the ranch is finally hers, will she still want him by her side?
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Tamed on the Ranch
After she takes a job at the Crooked Creek ranch, Melody Jackson quickly hits it off with handsome cowboy Luc Girard, and it isn’t long before she is begging shamefully for more as the ridiculously sexy rodeo champion gives her the ride of her life. But Luc is the kind of man who expects to be obeyed, and when Melody’s disregard for his instructions puts her in danger, she soon learns the hard way that he will not hesitate to punish her bare bottom both inside and out.
