by Delta James
“Catch up that horse and be ready to ride,” said Gareth as he leapt off his own mount and rushed to the door. “Sloan, no,” he cried as he spied her crumpled and contorted body on the floor. “No, beloved, you must not die.”
He breathed a sigh of relief as he reached her and saw that she yet lived. Her breathing was irregular and labored. Her body was racked with pain and showed evidence of chills and sweat. Gareth gathered her into his arms and left the hut. Edan had caught the roan warhorse and took Sloan as Gareth handed her to him so he could mount. Once he was in the saddle, Edan returned Sloan to him and then quickly mounted his own horse before turning to gallop back the way they had come. As they ducked tree limbs and made for open ground, Edan reached back into his saddlebag and withdrew a horn, blowing on it to alert the men with the dogs that they had Sloan and were riding back toward the path where they could find help for Gareth’s mate.
Once they had cleared the woods, both Gareth and Edan urged their horses on at an even faster pace. Every time Sloan moaned or her body writhed in pain, Gareth’s heart clutched in his chest. They charged across the hills headed back toward Calon Onest. Every so often, Edan blew the horn. Gareth hoped that if those who rushed to rendezvous with them heard it, they would begin to set up the makeshift camp that would serve as Sloan’s place of transitioning.
As they crested the hill, they saw people moving rapidly to finish readying the tent and camp for the precious burden he carried. They brought their horses to a halt just outside the tent. The animals were breathing hard and were lathered in sweat. Edan reached for the reins of Gareth’s horse.
“I will see that your stallion is well cared for. My prayers that we weren’t too late.”
Gareth acknowledged the young man’s words and carried Sloan into the tent. He wondered how many times he had taken wounded men to be tended by Fallon’s skillful hands. He prayed that Edan was right and that once more his surgeon could pull someone from the abyss of death.
Fallon had set up his large bed. He smiled as he realized she had borrowed sheets from Calon Onest. The ones that normally accompanied him when he was using the tent were serviceable and stood up to the rigors of travel. These were luxurious and soft to the touch.
“Let me help you get her out of those things. I’d like to see if I can determine in what stage of transition she is. Then we can make her comfortable and see her through it.”
“You must save her, Fallon.”
“I will do everything in my power to do so, Alpha. I am told she is strong and healthy. That will help...”
“But you see a problem?”
“They say that you turned her without her consent. If she fights the virus, it will be more difficult for her. And I don’t like the way she’s breathing.”
“She was unconscious and curled up on the floor when I found her. We got her here as quickly as we could.”
Fallon smiled. “This may be part of the problem.”
She took one of her scalpels and turned back to Sloan. Gareth growled menacingly.
“I mean your mate no harm, Alpha. The stays on her corset are tight as they would be for anyone who has her figure. I believe they have restricted her breathing and just wanted to get the corset off quickly. We can unlace it if you like.”
“My apologies, Fallon. You know what you’re doing.”
Fallon smiled again. She quickly cut the lacing, freeing Sloan from the corset and her breathing immediately improved. “That’s much better.”
“She seems to be in pain.”
“She is, Alpha. If you could light the candles, they will help her relax and breathe easier. I will give her one of my pain tonics and then we’ll get her tucked up into bed.” She laid her hand on Gareth’s arm. “I do not believe you were too late. Your mate will be restored to you.”
“Once again, Fallon, I will be in your debt. We will name our firstborn daughter after you.”
“I would be honored, my lord.”
Gareth quickly walked around the tent and lit the candles that Fallon had placed within it. He could smell she had also put something on the coals that burned in the small heater. He wondered if the calming influence of the candles was just for Sloan or was meant for him as well. He watched as Fallon got the tonic into Sloan’s system.
They worked together to get Sloan out of her clothing and into the delicate gossamer nightgown Rowan had sent with Fallon. Gareth realized he had a lot to make up for where his brother’s mate was concerned... including, he supposed, the spanking he meant to give his own mate as soon as she was recovered.
“May I suggest that you get something to eat? She should rest more easily now until the virus takes hold.”
“You may suggest, but I will not leave my mate.”
Fallon smiled. “Your mate is a most fortunate woman to have earned your devotion so quickly. Ruari sent word back to Ravenscar to prepare for her coming. The men with us seem quite taken with the idea of you having found your fated mate and that she is, or rather was, human.”
Gareth watched over Sloan, never leaving her side except when absolutely necessary. As the virus took hold and he could feel her pain and fear, he sought to soothe her with sound and touch, speaking and purring at her as he stroked her body. Fallon administered several tonics that seemed to help quiet her.
He was holding Sloan during a particularly violent seizure-like episode when he looked at Fallon and said, “I did this to her...”
Fallon laid her hand on his. “She will be fine, Alpha. She is actually doing better than I had even hoped and will not have any memory of the way the virus ravaged her system. Even those who were the closest to death, and who we almost lost, report nothing but pleasant memories and feeling as though they drifted through time and space.”
“Come back to me, beloved,” he whispered to Sloan.
* * *
Three days later, Sloan’s eyes began to flutter as her body and mind ascended from the inky darkness. She could feel his presence even before his touch registered with her conscious brain. She moaned. He had found her. She could recall getting to the crofter’s cottage and getting inside. After that, she recalled nothing but peaceful, vivid dreams.
She had seen Gareth. She knew it to be him even though he did not look like the man who now held her in his arms, cradling her against his side and rocking her gently. A woman, unknown to her, was quickly at her side, urging her to drink something. Sloan shook her head and pushed at her hand in an effort to keep it away.
“Shh, Sloan, Fallon is just trying to help. Be a good girl and drink the tonic. It will help ease the pain,” Gareth crooned.
“You did this to me,” Sloan accused. “Bloody hell, I feel like shit.”
Gareth chuckled. “You might have felt better had you stayed at Calon Onest, but I assure you once you are recovered, I will make you forget the pain that clutched at you as you forced yourself to flee or that with which you woke. The only pain that you will be focused on is the welts I mean to lay across your backside once you have recovered.”
Gareth brought his hand up to brush the hair out of her face and took the vial from the woman he had called Fallon. As he brought it to her mouth, Sloan reached forward and bit his hand, causing him to drop it.
“Enough, Sloan. Fallon says you need to have the tonic. If you will not take it by mouth, there is another way to introduce it to your system.”
“No, there isn’t,” she snarled.
“I’m afraid, Mistress, there is...”
“Don’t call me that,” Sloan growled, finding her wolf voice. “The only way you can get me to drink something is via my mouth.”
“But that is not the only way to introduce it into your system. When someone is unconscious, we often insert an instrument into their bottom hole and gently squeeze the medicine out of the vial to be absorbed by the tissues there and into the body. In many ways, it is more efficient to do it that way.”
“There is no fucking way you are sticking something up my butt!�
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“Then, my beloved, I suggest you start cooperating. If you don’t drink the medicine Fallon wants you to take, I will hold you down so that she can administer it through your bottom hole.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” she growled, narrowing her eyes at him as they glowed with anger and defiance.
Gareth barked a short laugh. “And you thought I wouldn’t turn you without your consent—yet here we are. Will you consent to let Fallon help you or must I force that as well?”
Fallon brought another vial forward. Sloan struggled to break free of Gareth’s hold and snarled at the woman. She quickly found herself drawn over her mate’s hard thigh, her legs trapped between his, and her ass at the highest point of her body. Gareth pulled the delicate nightgown up over her rump, exposing it to the cool night air.
“Be thankful you are not yet sufficiently recovered for me to put you in this position to spank you for this foolishness,” he growled. “Fallon, get me the instrument. I will administer it to my mate under your supervision.”
“Yes, Alpha,” she said, moving to get what was needed and returning all too quickly.
“Last chance, Sloan, do you want to yield to me and take your medicine or must I give it to you this way?”
“You bastard,” she said, trying to bite his calf.
Gareth’s hand descended in one hard strike to her bare bottom, causing her to yowl. It hurt far worse than either of Tristan’s spankings. And what was worse was that it seemed to jolt her body into an advanced state of arousal. She could feel her nipples beading and her feminine dew gathering at the entrance to her core. She wanted to die of embarrassment when she heard Gareth scent the air and chuckle.
“Next time you try to bite, unless it is in passionate response to my fucking you, I’ll paddle your backside and then use that moisture between your legs to lubricate your bottom hole for my cock.”
“Begging your pardon, Alpha, but it would make the nozzle go in more easily if it was smeared with her slick. I have an oil I use on the men, but...”
Gareth slipped his hand between her legs and gathered the evidence of her arousal as Sloan lay helplessly prone over his knee. She glanced back over her shoulder to see him slathering it over the tip of the instrument. Sloan wanted to die from the embarrassment and renewed her struggles.
“Easy, mate. It will be easier if you relax and breathe through it. There will come a time I breach your bottom hole with my cock, and it will accommodate me. The nozzle is far smaller so it should not be an issue.”
Fallon handed Gareth the device with the vial and he pressed the tip against her tight rosebud.
“Gareth, no, I’ll drink it.”
“You may have that chance the next time it is offered. But this time, we will proceed the way we are.”
He continued to press gently, but firmly against her tight sphincter. Sloan tried to keep him from succeeding, but eventually, the ring of muscle gave way and she felt it slip in her back passage. It was uncomfortable and she wanted it removed. She was just getting used to the humiliation and discomfort when the fluid began to be released into her back passage. What had already felt full now became uncomfortably so. The sensation was unpleasant, and she wiggled, trying to get away, earning her a warning growl from Gareth.
“It’s all in there,” said Gareth to Fallon. “Do I just remove it or leave it or...”
“It needs to have time to absorb. It is best if she is on her belly, preferably with her bottom higher than the rest of her body and...”
Sloan couldn’t imagine what would cause Fallon to be so embarrassed she couldn’t speak.
“And what?” Gareth asked sharply.
“With the men, my lord, we have a small plug that gets inserted to keep the medicine from being expelled.”
“Then get me the plug and arrange these pillows for Sloan to lie on.”
“Yes, Alpha.”
Sloan watched silently as Fallon did as Gareth ordered and brought him the plug. He removed the device that had administered the medicine and quickly inserted it. It was bigger than the nozzle and had a flared base that pressed against her dark rosebud.
“I can see where this might be a useful thing to have when one has a naughty mate in need of humbling or correction. I may keep this one if you have others.”
“Of course, my lord,” Fallon stammered as she arranged the pillows.
“You and I will never be friends,” seethed Sloan and was rewarded by another harsh swat to her exposed backside. “Damn it, Gareth.” He landed another stinging blow.
“I suggest, beloved, that you start behaving before I deem you well enough to receive correction. Are you done?”
When she didn’t answer him, he spanked her again.
“Oww, Gareth. Yes, I’m done.”
“There’s a good mate,” he grumbled at her, still somewhat annoyed but definitely aroused.
He lifted her off his lap and placed her on the bed with the pillows under her hips to elevate her ass.
“Fallon, why don’t you go get something to eat and try to rest. I will remain here with my mate and have someone come get you if it appears Sloan is in distress.”
“I am in distress, you bastard. You bit me while you were fucking me in a tunnel and then you carried me through the damn keep with your cock up my cunt. You force me to take my vows to you nearly naked and on my knees in front of the ranking members of my pack and now you’ve spanked me while you have something stuck up my ass. I am the very definition of distress.”
Gareth barely managed to suppress a chuckle.
“First, little wolf, I didn’t spank you. I swatted you a few times to get your attention. I’ve always found it curious how much better females listen when you are communicating with them through their bottom. Second, yes, I marked my fated mate as mine,” he said, lovingly stroking the rapidly healing wound.
He smiled benignly as he continued, “Third, I carried you back to our bed in a way designed to let you and every other wolf in that keep know that you are now mine and will be for all time. Fourth, you refused to acknowledge my claim, so I forced it from you.”
He bent and brushed her lips with his. “And last, but not least, the plug is in your asshole because you refused to behave and drink your medicine. There it will remain until I decide it should be removed. Now unless you’d like me to add to the number of swats I’ve already given to you, I suggest you settle down.”
“May I have something delivered to you and your mate?” Fallon asked quietly.
Oh, lord, thought Sloan, she’d forgotten the woman was even here. She felt Gareth cover her naked back and ass with the nightgown.
“Thank you, Fallon, that would be appreciated. But after you tell someone else, I want you to go try and get some rest.”
“Do you like humiliating me in front of others?” Sloan whispered on the verge of tears she refused to shed after she heard Fallon depart.
“I did not humiliate you. I humbled you, but never think I would tolerate anyone speaking ill of you. You need a bit of humbling, mate. Rowan did you no favors by bringing you into a pack that had no structure or support for its females. I can assure you that you will have both with me at Ravenscar.”
“I don’t want to be your fated mate.”
Gareth rubbed her back and purred at her in a soothing, yet somewhat seductive way.
“But you are, beloved. As I am yours.”
“Did it ever occur to you to leave me be?”
“No, because I am your fated mate,” he said. “Do not fear, beloved; all will be well.”
Chapter Six
The next few days passed quietly. Sloan began to recover her strength. The first two days she spent refusing to drink Fallon’s tonics and/or growling at Fallon. All that earned her were a couple of swats from her mate before he would administer the medicine through her rear and plug her bottom far longer than she was sure it actually took for the medicine to absorb. Finally, on the third day, when Fallon offered the vial to her,
she took it and drank the contents.
After she left their tent, Gareth chuckled. “That’s a shame. I’d grown rather fond of seeing your pretty little bottom hole with a plug in it.”
“You didn’t tell me your medic was a woman.”
Gareth looked at her in confusion. “I suppose I didn’t. Fallon was born at Ravenscar. Her family have been our surgeons and nurses for as long as anyone can remember. It is said that it is through their efforts that our pack did not lose anyone during the great plague. Would you prefer she was a man?”
“No, not at all. I’m just a little shocked. I didn’t know women could practice medicine and I sure as hell didn’t think the surgeon that traveled with you would be female.”
Fallon reentered the tent and smiled. “It is rather unusual, but then our alpha does not concern himself with what others think...”
“Of that I am all too aware,” said Sloan.
“My brother was the last surgeon for the pack, and I was trained to be his assistant. When he fell in battle...” Fallon’s voice faltered.
“When he fell,” continued Gareth, “Fallon stepped in without even being asked and saved the lives of five of our men, one of whom was human and had to be turned in order to save him. After watching her work in such adverse circumstances, I asked her to take her brother’s place. She is also a skilled midwife; we are fortunate that of late her talents have most often been utilized in that capacity.”
“But in that I failed you...” Fallon said in a quiet, broken tone.
“No,” said Gareth emphatically. “You did not fail. Eloise was never meant to bear my children. Ours was a pairing that never should have been. If anyone was responsible for their deaths, it is me. The child was not conceived of a knot or even in love. I should never have agreed to the pairing and once I realized her unhappiness, I should have dissolved the union, and allowed her to find her true mate.”
