“So…you were kidding?”
“Oh, hell no. If there’s no bedclothes handed out…well, it’s never happened. The pack would question my virility. I probably couldn’t be Alpha any more. I’d never be able to start my own pack.” His face had taken on a mock tragic expression.
Oh, wow. No pressure at all.
“Uh…But what if the marriage ended in three weeks? How would that look? Wouldn’t that also make people question your virility?”
“Let’s worry about that then, shall we?”
Before I had a chance to argue, he swept me off my feet with his shifter strength, and carried me down the hall and to the bedroom. He dropped me on to the bed.
“By the way, I don’t know how you do things where you’re from, but tradition says that in the bedroom, the Alpha always takes the lead. I am the boss in the bedroom. End of story, period.”
While I was still spluttering with indignation, he grabbed the front of my shirt with his two hands and ripped it in half.
“Hey!” I squealed. “I don’t have another shirt!”
“Well then. I guess you’re trapped in the bedroom with me. Or, if you want me to get you another one, you’ll have to ask very, very nicely. I do accept sexual favors as bribes.”
He grabbed the waistband of my sweatpants and pulled them off before I could argue with him.
Then, he gestured at the table full of sex toys.
“You know what happens when a pack member disrespects an Alpha, don’t you?”
Yes, I must certainly did.
“Well, er, in California the Alphas tend to be very forgiving,” I lied. “They tend to give the offender a second chance.”
That was not true. Nowhere in the world was it a good idea to show disrespect, or in any way displease an Alpha.
“Really? If I called your pack to verify that, what would they say?”
My cheeks heated, and I stared at the ground.
“Oh, Josephine, you are getting yourself in deeper and deeper,” he said.
“I see that now,” I murmured. “Too late for a do-over?”
He laughed at that. “I’m going to let you pick your implement of punishment.” So, that would be a no.
I looked over the table hesitantly. “Um.”
“Or, I can pick.”
That sounded dangerous. I quickly pointed at a riding crop. He grabbed it, picked it up, and handled it lovingly.
“Lie face down on the bed,” he said sternly.
“By the way,” he added, “Your safe word is tomato. I would never take a woman who doesn’t want me. If you say the safe word, I will stop immediately, and go to sleep in my own bedroom.”
Meekly, I turned around and complied. The comforter was silky and soft, and smelled sweet, like pine needles.
I tensed, waiting for the blow, but instead he trailed his fingers lovingly along my buttocks. Everywhere that he touched, my skin lit up with pleasure.
“You like it when I do that?” he crooned.
“No,” I lied again.
He ran his fingers along my pussy lips, which were oozing with the juices of my arousal. I whimpered in pleasure, and squirmed at his touch.
Crack! The whip came down, and struck my buttocks, living a stinging stripe on my skin. I jerked and cried out.
“I’m your husband. I’m also the Alpha. You shouldn’t lie to me. Every time that you do, I will punish you. Now, let’s try that again. Do you like it?” He traced the red stinging line gently with his fingers.
“Yes,” I gasped, shuddering with pleasure.
So, the reputation of the Timber Valley pack was partly true. They were domineering and kinky. I’d just never realized how incredibly sexy it was to be dominated – if it was by the right man.
“You deceived me by wearing that charm,” he said. Crack! The riding crop came down, and I jumped again, and let out a squeal.
“You climbed out the window and ran away from me, your husband.” Crack!
Oh, mercy, I could feel those stinging lines. At the same time, I felt a heat flaring through my body that I’d never experienced before. I felt hollow and filled with liquid desire. Every inch of my body was exquisitely sensitive, craving Maxwell’s touch.
I’d dated a few guys in college, had sex with two of them. They were okay. I didn’t orgasm. I’d learned to take care of myself, after we were done. I even faked orgasms with them, just to be polite.
Right now, I was incredibly close to coming without Maxwell even entering me.
As if he read my mind, he slipped his fingers between my legs, and began rubbing the pad of his thumb on my clit. Lightning bolts of pleasure shot through my body.
“Oh,” I whimpered, and moved my legs wider apart. I never wanted him to stop.
“How does that feel?”
“S-so…good…” The heat was building, gathering in a point low in my groin. It was a pressure that was as painful as it was pleasurable. I needed release.
It seemed as if he could read me all too well. “You’re not allowed to come yet.” He pulled his hand away.
“Wh-what?”
“You heard me. You’re not allowed to come until I give you permission.” Crack! There was another stripe across my buttocks.
He ran his finger along the new stripe. “Every one of this is a mark of ownership. Do you understand?”
“Y-yes…” I gasped.
“Who do you belong to?”
It was foolish of me, but I was a stubborn woman.
“I belong to myself!”
Crack! Crack! Crack! I shrieked aloud, legs kicking up with each strike. I wasn’t going to say the safe word, though. No way. I would not give him the satisfaction. I would not show him weakness.
Also, to be honest, there was no way I was going to send him off to his own bedroom. I wanted him so badly that I was almost ready to cry. I wanted him to plunge into every orifice I had. I wanted to lick his well defined abs and take his cock in my mouth and…
“Who do you belong to?”
I wanted to be sassy again, but I was running out of skin that hadn’t been whipped.
“Y-you,” I choked out.
“Say it a little louder?” he taunted. “I’m a little hard of hearing sometimes.”
I gritted my teeth. Bastard.
“I belong to you!” I shouted.
“That’s right, baby. Don’t you ever forget it,” he said, running his hand gently over my stinging flesh.
His big, rough hand felt feather light as it moved over my skin. I bit my lip and swallowed tears of frustration. I wanted to scream “Fuck me now, damn it!” but I refused to beg.
He’d moved over to the table.
He came back with a bottle of lube and a plug.
“Has anyone ever taken you there?” he said.
“N-no,” I panted.
“Good. I’ll be your first. Since I’m a nice guy, sometimes, I’m going to go easy on you tonight. We’ll start with this.”
He dripped lubricant on my puckered, rosy hole, and massaged it in, slipping a finger inside. I squirmed at the unfamiliar sensation.
Then, he pressed the butt plug against my rectum, firmly. He pushed harder…harder…until he’d breached the resistance and it was inside me, filling me. It throbbed, but in a pleasurable way.
Then he flipped a switch and I felt it vibrate. The vibration hummed inside me and drove me nearly mad with frustration. I clutched at the comforter so tightly my knuckles turned white, and I blinked back tears as he lightly ran his fingers along my pussy lips again, with a soft, teasing touch.
“What do you want?” he crooned.
Forget pride. I was about ready to pass out with need. I felt as if I were burning up from the inside.
“You,” I begged. “I want you. I want you to fuck me. Please!”
“All you had to do was ask.”
He moved between my legs and thrust into me. He was huge, stretching me out almost painfully, and I could feel his cock and the vibrating
butt plug pressing against each other through the thin wall of flesh that separated him.
“Oh God,” he panted. “You are so fucking tight. Oh, yes, that’s it.” He pumped into me, his testicles slapping against me. His hips moved in a steady rhythm, each thrust sending pleasure twisting up inside me until I could barely stand it.
“Remember…” he gasped out. “You need my permission…to…come…”
“Please! I want it so bad! Please let me come!”
He began moving faster, slamming into me so hard that the bed moved with each thrust. I buried my face in the cloth and cried out.
“Come for me!” he barked, and I did, my body jerking, my muscles convulsing and clamping down on his cock. I felt the rippling waves travelling through me, and he held on to my hips so hard this fingers sank into my flesh. He let out a guttural cry, and his hot semen flooded me and leaked out onto my thighs, sticky and warm.
I came and came, waves of orgasm flooding me until I lay spent and shuddering and drenched in sweat.
He pulled out of me very slowly, and I crawled up onto the bed, breathing hard.
“I hope you realize that was just a preview of the coming attractions,” he growled, moving to lie on top of me. He was already hard again.
Chapter Seven
Maxwell wore a towel wrapped around his waist as he walked to the door and handed our used sheets over to his brother Lance. I thought Lance would just take the sheets and leave, but he gestured at Max to come out in the hallway to talk to him.
Max stepped out and talked to Lance a minute, then came back holding a dress for me. It was a tye-dyed rainbow cotton design, and it was the right size.
“Rise and shine, princess. We need to go run an errand,” he said.
“What?” I sat up in bed, scrubbing at my face with my hands. I was sticky and sore and dazed with exhaustion. “We need to go out? By the way, how did Lance know I’d need a dress?”
Max flashed me a wicked grin.
“It’s my wedding night. And he knows me.”
I found that last bit a little unsettling. It made me think of other women who Max had been with before me – so, obviously, I wasn’t the first woman whose clothes he’d ripped off.
Who were these other women? How many had they been? Were they prettier than me? Skinnier than me? Did he still talk to them? Were they from his pack?
I did my best to banish the thoughts from my mind. Fake marriage, I reminded myself. I can’t stake a claim here.
I went into the bathroom to take a quick shower, then ran a comb through my tangled hair and came out looking reasonably presentable, or at least less frightening.
Max met me with a steaming mug of coffee when I came out of the bathroom and kissed my lips. “You look beautiful,” he said, and bless him, he really sounded as if he meant it.
“You look sexy as hell, and I hate that you wake up looking like that,” I said sincerely.
“Life’s just not fair, is it?” He flashed that sexy smile at me and I wanted to drag him into bed and ravage him all over again.
Instead, I took the mug that he held out, and sucked down the coffee greedily. “Where are we going? Breakfast?”
“We will definitely get breakfast,” he said. “First, I thought you might want to go bail your friends out of jail.”
“My friends – Oh my God.”
I followed him out the door to his pickup truck, heart pounding in my chest. Bess and Corwin. I had totally forgotten to call or text Bess and tell her not to come get me at the Gas N Gulp. How could I have done that?
Because I’d let lust hormones fog my brain, that’s how.
“What happened? How did they end up in jail?” I said, as we drove out of the Timber Valley pack’s area and towards the town of Timber Valley.
I pulled out my phone and looked at it as we drove. I winced. 76 text messages, all from Bess and Corwin. Awesome.
“Your friends came to the front gate of our property and demanded to see you immediately, claiming that we’d kidnapped you.” Maxwell, thank God, looked amused rather than furious. “When the guard on duty refused, they pretended to leave, but they just drove up the road a ways and shifted and tried to sneak on to our property. They’re not very good at sneaking. They were apprehended and taken into town, and jailed for trespassing.”
“Oh. Dang it, why didn’t someone just come to our suite, and…I don’t know…”
“Interrupt the Alpha on his wedding night?” He barked out a laugh. “Because the shifters in this pack have a strong survival instinct.”
Timber Valley was a beautiful little town. It mostly consisted of a big circular road called Green Street, off the main road, with little shops and restaurants and a feed and grain store lining the circle. In the middle of the circle was a park with a gazebo and benches and trees. Couples strolled hand in hand, or lolled in the grass in animal form. Shifter cubs played in the trees; I saw a leopard cub chasing a wolf cub along the branches, with a shifter mother standing by the tree, hands on hips, yelling at them to get down.
“Does Kray’s pack hang out around here much?” I asked nervously.
“Not any more. They used to, but since Kray took over, they’ve gotten in so many fights that we told them to stay out of our territory. Now that we’re allied, Kray may want to change that, but for right now we don’t have to worry.”
We pulled up in front of the sheriff’s office, halfway round the circle. It was a red brick building with broad marble steps leading up to it; the jail was in the back of the building, Max told me.
As we walked in, we were greeted by the sheriff. The sheriff, if I do say so myself, was quite hot. He was also a Battle, according to the name tag on his broad chest.
Sheriff Steele Battle, to be specific. He was big and burly and had straight, close clipped black hair. If I hadn’t been with my husband, I would have been tempted to fan myself and simper at the sight of him.
He touched the brim of his cap and nodded politely to me. “Pleased to meet you, ma’am. Congratulations,” he said to me. “Sorry to interrupt your wedding weekend.”
“Oh, no problem at all. And thank you,” I said.
Steele flashed a grin at Max. “Let me know if you want to borrow my handcuffs.”
Argh! I blushed, but Max just laughed. “Please. I’ve got my own. Do come out here this weekend, though. Good times to be had. The band is still there, the feast’s going on. Hot women everywhere. Leave one of your deputies in charge for once, for God’s sake.”
“I may do that,” Sheriff Battle said. Then he led us through the building to the jail, where Bess and Corwin were locked in a small cell, sitting on a bench and glowering sullenly.
The sheriff grabbed a set of keys from his belt, unlocked the door and let Corwin and Bess out. Their clothes were wrinkled and both of them looked as if they hadn’t slept much.
I rushed to hug Bess. “I am so, so sorry!” I cried out. “I totally forgot to call you back. It’s a really long story, which I can’t fully explain, but…” I glanced around and lowered my voice. “I’m staying for three more weeks so that Camille has a chance to mate during the full moon. Then, her uncle won’t be able to force her to come back, even if he manages to track her down.”
“What? You’re staying?” Bess gasped. She and Corwin both looked shocked.
Corwin looked at my neck, then glared at Max. “You monster! You left bruises on her neck!”
“Those are hickeys!” I said hastily. Damn Max. He’d really taken that whole “marking his woman” thing way too seriously.
They both started growling at each other and bristling and turning hairy. Claws were springing from finger tips, ears were going pointy, jaws were lengthening.
“Stop!” I yelled at the top of my lungs.
I turned to Corwin. “He did not hurt me. I swear to God.” Well, he’d only hurt me in ways that caused me to beg for more and have multiple orgasms, but I wasn’t about to share that information with my friends.
> Corwin’s fur receded, but he was still glaring and growling.
“Corwin, be careful,” Bess pleaded, clutching at his arm.
The sheriff stood there, tense and watchful, but he didn’t make a move. Would he intercede if the two macho men decided to throw down? Possibly not. He was a Battle, so he had to back Max, and also, if Corwin challenged an Alpha, the Alpha was within his rights to smack Corwin down.
Corwin had grown up with a dad who’d beaten and abused his mother, so he tended to react strongly if he thought a woman was a victim of domestic violence. What was scary was that he might go too far. He might actually challenge Max, and then he’d die.
“Corwin, come on!” I said. “You know me. I would not put up with being abused by a guy. I’d literally fight to the death rather than put up with that.”
“This is not your affair,” Maxwell growled at him. “This is my wife. Stay away from her.”
“Your wife? Oh, you haven’t told him?” Corwin sneered.
That was too much for Max. He cuffed Corwin so hard that he knocked Corwin back several feet. Corwin bounced off a wall, and then fell on his ass, momentarily stunned. A trickle of blood ran from his split lip. Bess screamed.
“Stop, please!” I begged. “This is my fault. Let me just talk to them alone outside for five minutes.”
I helped Corwin up, and Sheriff Battle led us out the back door to the parking lot. Max followed us and stood watching us and glowering from a short distance.
“Come on, Corwin, that was stupid and uncalled for,” I said to him. “I appreciate your concern, but you all but challenged an Alpha back there. He would have had every legal right to kill you.”
“He’s holding you prisoner,” Bess protested.
“No, he really is not. I could leave any time I want. I thought about leaving yesterday, and I changed my mind and decided to stay. Voluntarily.”
“He’s standing there watching you to make sure you can’t escape!” Her voice went high and there were tears in her eyes.
“Listen up, both of you. You know I can handle myself. I’ve been taking care of myself since I was a cub.”
“You’re not alone. We’re like your family,” Bess said, tears glittering in her eyes.
Bride of the Alpha Page 5
