Hunted And Claimed (Wayward Mates Series Book 7)

by Delta James

  Hunted and Claimed

  By

  Delta James

  Copyright © 2019 by Stormy Night Publications and Delta James

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  Published by Stormy Night Publications and Design, LLC.

  www.StormyNightPublications.com

  James, Delta

  Hunted and Claimed

  Cover Design by Korey Mae Johnson

  Images by iStock/mammoth and iStock/Chris_Tefme

  This book is intended for adults only. Spanking and other sexual activities represented in this book are fantasies only, intended for adults.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Additional Books in the Wayward Mates Series

  More Stormy Night Books by Delta James

  Delta James Links

  Prologue

  It is said that shifters—those who shift between human and animal form—existed long before non-shifters. When the world was a far more dangerous place, the ability to shift from one form to another as needed was natural selection at its finest. It allowed those who could do so to thrive in environments in which a human would have trouble surviving. The shifter’s enhanced genetic immunity, rapid healing ability, and longer life added to their leap to the top of the evolutionary ladder.

  Now with the decline in female born-shifters, some desperate packs have taken to raiding weaker packs for their women as well as abducting human women and turning them without their consent. The Ruling Councils having chosen to play ostrich, refusing to even recognize there is a problem. A small group of concerned packs in Europe, the UK, and America have banded together to identify the extent of the problem and eradicate it.

  Chapter One

  Galway, Ireland

  “Colleen Riley Gentry Byrne, you come back here,” Aidan called to his sister as she strode from the room dressed in breeches, boots, and a lace shirt.

  “Fuck you, Aidan! I’m going for a ride.”

  Aidan looked at his beta, Liam, who had served his father before him.

  “My father should have worn out his strap on her when she came of age and started behaving this way,” he said, running his fingers through his jet-black hair.

  Liam laughed. “Your father never raised a hand to your sister. He always said she was a spirited lass, would outgrow her willful streak, and when the right alpha wolf came calling, she’d settle down.”

  “Just because our mother was willing to settle down, doesn’t mean they all are.”

  “Aye, lad. What are you going to do about the lovely Gianna DeMedici?”

  “I’m going to Italy and bring her home. And she will feel the sting of my strap once I’ve made her mine.”

  “Are you so sure you can do that? The DeMedici are a powerful pack and her oldest brother is not a man to be trifled with.”

  “No,” said Aidan with a grin, “but he’s a man who believes in fated mates and tradition. You saw her response when I called to her. I know I can convince Marco that she’s my fated mate and make her run. And when I’ve run her to ground, she’ll either submit and accept my claim or I’ll warm her backside in front of her alpha and ranking pack members until she does.”

  “She’ll nay thank you for that.”

  “Probably not. But once we’re alone and I have her knotted and tied to me, she’ll begin to see the error of her ways.”

  Liam laughed. “You alphas and your mighty knots. Do they really enjoy it that much more in human form?”

  Aidan’s eyes showed humor, love, and lust. “Not that I’d say this to her brother, but she did when I had my way with her when she was here. She’ll make a glorious mistress for the pack, don’t you think?”

  “Aye, lad. And she’s built for child-bearing.”

  Aidan smiled and felt his cock begin to stir at the thought of knotting his mate and putting a baby in her belly. “She is indeed. But more than that, I love her and I will not rest until she is back in my arms and calls me mate and alpha.”

  “But what do you plan to do with Colleen?”

  Aidan shook his head and picked up the house phone, calling down to the stable.

  “Rob, it’s Aidan. My sister is headed your way. She is not to be given a horse or allowed to leave the barn. Liam is on his way.”

  Liam looked at his alpha with affection. Aidan might have been more than a decade his junior, but he was a strong and capable leader. Their pack was in good hands. But Liam feared that Aidan’s sister, Colleen, was about to be taken to task for her behavior of late.

  “One too many times, Liam. From now on, she gets disciplined like any other unmated female in this pack.”

  “Do you want me to bring her back to her room to punish her?”

  “I’ll leave that up to you as well as the extent she’s to be punished. She needs to be showered and in appropriate clothing for our guests this evening. When they’ve left, I’ll give her until I return to decide on one of them.”

  “So, you mean to go after Gianna tonight?”

  Aidan nodded. “Yes. Once our guests are gone, I will leave for Italy and will return with Gia as my mate... with or without her brother’s blessing.”

  “I wondered about that...”

  “If Marco refuses my claim, I’ll mark and claim her as mine and bring her home. If the DeMedici want her back, they’ll have to try and take her from us.”

  “Yes, my alpha. I’ll leave you to deal with the DeMedici... and I’ll go deal with your sister.”

  Aidan laughed. “I think I have the easier task.”

  Liam joined his laughter and headed down to the barn. In the past Aidan had often stepped in and mitigated his sister’s punishment. Finding his own mate seemed to have settled a new way of thinking on the young alpha. Liam was sure he meant to put his house in order before bringing his mate home.

  He hoped that Aidan would be able to convince Marco DeMedici that Marco’s sister was fated to be with Aidan. But he knew Aidan well enough to know that if the powerful Italian wolf did not give the union his blessing then Aidan would bring her home and be prepared to fight to the death for her.

  Liam entered the barn to see Colleen surrounded by several of the men of their pack but fending them off with a pitchfork. He’d known Colleen all her life; she wasn’t bluffing.

  “Here now, Colleen. That’s enough.”

  “These bastards tried to stop me from going on a ride.”

  One of them took advantage of what he thought was a momentary lapse in her attention and rushed her. She speared his forea
rm with one of the tines of the pitchfork before drawing it back and warning off the others. It wasn’t a deep gash, just a shallow puncture. Still, she had drawn blood and that was enough to give the others pause in trying to disarm her.

  “That is enough. Your brother, our alpha, has said you are not to go for a ride and expects you back at the house.”

  “My brother expects me to play nice with several alphas who have come sniffing around my tail. He’s in for a nasty surprise, Liam. I have no interest in any of them.”

  “You’ve never met any of them. You might at least want to spend some time with them before you reject them.”

  “I don’t want to be anyone’s mate.”

  “That is not your choice. Now you put that pitchfork down and I’ll forego the spanking that is your due for your disrespect and for wounding a pack mate until after your guests have gone. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself seated on a pillow at dinner.”

  Liam walked forward and Colleen snaked the pitchfork in his direction. But Liam had been in far too many battles and barroom brawls in his lifetime. He caught the pitchfork and wrestled it away from her. Once he had disarmed her, he grabbed her by the forearm, sat down on a bale of hay, and pulled her over his lap.

  “No,” she cried, dismayed more at the thought of being subjected to a punishment spanking in front of others than the spanking itself.

  “Yes,” Liam said with calm authority.

  He raised his hand and began to pepper Colleen’s rump with hard swats, causing her to buck and fight to get away. The harder she fought, the harder he spanked. The men that she had been threatening stood back to enjoy the show.

  While not as painful as being spanked on her bare backside, the thin cotton breeches did little to protect her bottom from the force of Liam’s skilled paddling. She vowed to get even with each man who stood and watched her humiliation.

  Once Colleen ceased struggling, Liam let up and helped her to her feet.

  “Now, little wolf, you apologize to these men and then you and I will finish this up in your room.”

  “Mother fucker,” she hissed.

  Liam quickly bent her over one of the saddle stands and once again applied his hard palm to her backside, making her dance from the pain.

  “And you, little wolf, are going to stop cussing like a stable hand and will behave more like the sister to one of the most respected alphas in Ireland. Your brother has done more to bring this pack greater prosperity and power since he assumed the mantle of leadership than the last ten before him. You need to be a credit to his family and to his pack. You learning to act like a lady starts right now. Are you ready to apologize or should I take a riding crop to your backside?”

  Liam gave her time to decide. He’d known Colleen all her life. She had been a willful child and had grown into a headstrong, independent, and stubborn she-wolf. The fact that she too, like her brother, was an alpha did nothing to help her temperament... nor did the red hair that bespoke of her temper.

  “No. Let me up and I will apologize.”

  “Apologize and I will let you up,” said Liam.

  “Shit.”

  Liam landed another ten painful strikes to her bottom, which now felt as though it was on fire.

  “One more swear word, little wolf, and I’ll wash your mouth out with soap when we get up to your room. You apologize right now or I’ll have Rob bring me a crop.”

  “I apologize. I was angry at my brother and our beta. I should not have threatened or hurt any of you.”

  Liam let her up, but did not release his hold of her arm.

  “You have a choice; you can behave yourself and walk up to the house for the rest of your spanking or I can carry you slung over my shoulder. Which is it to be?”

  * * *

  Colleen searched his face. There was nothing there to indicate that he wouldn’t do precisely as he had threatened if she didn’t capitulate. She knew her time with her pack was drawing to a close. She understood that Aidan expected certain things of her and he had a right to expect them. But much as she loved her brother, she did not have it in her to simply fall into line and become a good mate to an alpha of another pack.

  She knew that Aidan had become convinced when Gianna DeMedici had visited them on an errand for her brother, Marco, that she was his fated mate. Colleen had formed a strong bond of friendship with the beautiful Italian she-wolf. They were both of the same opinion—that the time of women not being in complete charge of their own destinies needed to be coming to an end. Gianna had returned Aidan’s feelings and had shared his bed, but when he pressed her to speak with her brother, she had bolted.

  Colleen knew that Aidan planned to travel to Italy and hoped to obtain Marco’s blessing for a pairing with his sister. Aidan had vowed that if he didn’t receive it, he would bring Gianna home without it. Colleen knew that Gianna had heard her brother’s call. Gianna had admitted it to her. She didn’t envy Gianna the next several weeks. Aidan was a strong and capable alpha. He would not take no for an answer regardless of whether it came from Gianna or Marco.

  Colleen believed her best chance to escape her own birth pack was while Aidan was gone to Italy. She would have to make her way to an international airport. From there she planned to fly to Canada and then to make her way south to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. It was whispered among the younger women that an all-female pack had formed under the leadership of Skylar Owen. Colleen, who had obtained a passport in a new name planned to ask for sanctuary. When she left her home, her pack, and her brother, Colleen Riley Gentry Byrne would cease to exist. Riley Gentry would emerge, like a phoenix, to live a life on her own terms.

  By the time she had finished that last thought, Liam had guided her into the house and was headed up the stairs to her suite of rooms.

  “Aidan,” she called. “Aidan!”

  “Nay, little wolf, your brother won’t intervene this time. This time, I mean to finish and you can bloody well meet your potential mates with a well-spanked backside and seated on a pillow.”

  “Liam, no!” she cried. “I’ll behave. You spanked me in the barn, in front of the stable hands...”

  “That I did. You’re lucky I thought enough of your modesty not to bare your backside in front of them.”

  He opened the door to her room and propelled her forward.

  “Into the corner with you, little wolf,” he continued.

  Colleen whirled on him. “I won’t.”

  “You will, lass, or it’ll be my belt that finishes your punishment. I know you’ve never been subjected to a welting and it’s probably high time you were. Either you submit right now, or when I put you back over my knee, it’ll be my belt that connects with your bare bottom.”

  “I hate you.”

  Liam laughed. “As do all the females in our pack when they’ve done something to deserve a spanking. Corner. Now.”

  Colleen calculated her chances of getting by him and realized they were slim to none. She turned around and walked over to the corner. Maybe Aidan would come. He’d always come before when she’d been made to stand in the corner and exempted her from getting punished. But Aidan did not come and the bed creaked as Liam sat down on its edge.

  “All right, little wolf, let’s get this over with. You come out of the corner and come here to me to submit to your punishment.”

  “I am alpha...”

  “Which is a terrible burden for a woman, but it changes nothing. You are not alpha here. Here you are sister to our alpha and you’re a badly behaved one at that. You know you deserve to be spanked and I mean to see it done. Now, come here, Colleen.”

  Colleen approached him slowly and when he held out his hand to her, she took it, grateful that at least he would allow her the thought that she hadn’t placed herself over his knee. She stood between his legs and he turned her to her side. He reached up and unfastened her breeches, pulling them and her panties down over her rump and halfway down her thighs.

  “Please, Liam. My butt already hurt
s and I said I’d behave.”

  “Aye, I know you did. And you will behave. But you’ll behave with a properly paddled backside.”

  Gently he put her into position over his knee and patted her already sore bottom with affection. He raised his hand and commenced spanking her in a way she wouldn’t forget anytime soon. Colleen struggled and cried and Liam continued to spank her. He didn’t seem angry at her, but more resigned and disappointed that her behavior had led her to this.

  Liam covered her bare bottom repeatedly with hard swats that captured both of her lower cheeks, as well as her sit spots and upper thighs. Colleen tried to endure it without a sound but couldn’t do so. Liam had been beta to their pack for decades and knew far too well how to spank disobedient females so that they at least thought twice before misbehaving again.

  In the same way as he had down in the barn, the more she struggled, the harder he spanked. Once her rump felt on fire and she was certain it was starting to swell, Colleen lost her battle with her tears and began to cry.

  “Liam, I’m sorry,” she wailed. “I’m sorry. I’ll behave. Please stop, please?”

  He stopped and began to rub her bottom soothingly.

  “There now, that’s a good girl. I’m going to let you up and you will go back and stand in the corner.”

  “Can I pull my breeches up?”

  “Nay. I think they’re better left where they are for now. Up you get.”

  Colleen got up and without further prodding, went and stood in the corner. She knew better than to reach back, but it took every ounce of self-control not to do so.

  “Liam?”

  “Yes?”

  “Aidan won’t really force me into a pairing I don’t want, will he?”

  “Your brother means to see you mated, but no, I think he will search until he finds your fated mate. But he is under no obligation to do that. Best you show him some respect and gratitude.”

  Colleen sighed. “I’ll try.”

  Liam crossed over to her and kissed the side of her head.

  “Good girl. You’re not to leave your room until you come down for dinner. I expect you to shower and change into appropriate clothing and to be on your best behavior. If not, you and I will return to your room and you’ll get your first taste of my strap. Understood?”