by Delta James
“You, my beloved, are to have a nice long soak in the tub. Rowan thought it might make you feel better and Fallon assures me it would be an excellent thing for you to indulge in.”
Within short order the tub was filled.
“If you would like, Alpha, I can attend to your mate’s needs,” offered Fallon.
“No. I will stay,” he growled.
Sloan grinned. “Fallon, as I remember, Rowan once tossed me out in favor of soaking with her new mate, perhaps mine would like the same opportunity.”
Sloan laughed as Fallon blushed and said, “I’ll be leaving now.”
“Do not embarrass Fallon,” Gareth scolded.
“So, you’re the only one who can embarrass anyone?”
Gareth growled.
“This fated mate thing?” she said. “It works both ways. You can growl all you like but I can tell if you’re really angry or just trying to get a rise out of me. I meant what I said to Fallon. Rowan and Alaric have shared that tub on more than one occasion, and both seem to enjoy its restorative powers.”
Gareth smiled and took the neckline of her gown in his hands before tearing it asunder.
Sloan shook her head. “You’re going to have to have a lot more gowns made for me if you keep ripping mine from my body.”
“Are you asking me to get naked with you and share your soak?” he asked, his eyes taking in every inch of her voluptuous body.
She smiled. “I am, my lord. I think I would like that. And if we don’t have a big soaking tub at Ravenscar, can we get one?”
“I don’t know if there is one at home or not. It doesn’t matter as we do now. Rowan wanted you to have it.”
He leaned down and swept her up in his arms. Sloan thought she didn’t mind being carried like this. He set her down in the hot water before removing his own clothes and joining her there.
* * *
Gareth watched her as he removed his boots and breeches. If he had thought his brother’s mate was a beauty when she had entered the great hall after the battle, his mate far surpassed her. Everything about Sloan called to him. Unlike Arielle’s pale, golden blonde mane or Rowan’s rich mahogany one, Sloan’s was the color of winter wheat that had ripened in the sun. Her figure invited a man to spend his time between her legs enjoying what she had to offer, and his children would be birthed easily and be well fed at their mother’s breast.
When he stood, his cock was completely erect, but he had no intention of fucking Sloan again until she’d had time to relax and soak in the scented water. He knew the past few days had been physically and emotionally draining for her. Even though Fallon believed Sloan was completely recovered from her transition, he wanted to ensure that she didn’t overtire herself.
“You weren’t just planning to ignore that, were you?” she asked in husky tone. Even if he had not been able to feel her arousal, he could have seen, heard, and smelled it.
She splashed water at him, laughing... not the giggle of a young, untried girl, but the full-throated laugh of a woman who has experienced life and is content within herself. The first was like a light white wine cut with fruit juice—refreshing and to be enjoyed on a summer evening. The second like a deep, complex and aged pinot noir—robust and multifaceted to keep a man warm through the fall and winter. He had always preferred the finessed taste of a good pinot.
“I would rather start tomorrow well sated from my mate’s ability to make me soar among the clouds as he strokes my pussy with his impressive cock. And why is there no knot?”
“Because an alpha can suppress the knot or not choose to breach his mate with it. When you are knotted to me, there is only so much movement the knot will allow, more of a rocking motion than thrusting. There are times I will want nothing more than to knot and tie you to me. Other times, I will wish to use you as I did earlier when I claimed you with more power and drive.”
“Rowan said it hurts to be knotted...”
Gareth growled, thinking his brother’s mate would never be allowed to be alone with his again.
“But only at first,” she continued. “She said that after that it was the most extraordinary sensation in the world and that she often falls asleep still tied to your brother.”
“Then my brother is almost as fortunate in his fated mate as I am.”
As he approached the tub, Sloan rose up out of the water on her knees. The water dripped from her body in a most provocative manner. It was almost as though the drops wished to caress her body for as long as possible. He wondered if any of the mermaids or sea nymphs that ever lured a sailor to his ruin had looked as erotically suggestive as his mate did at this moment.
Just as he was about to step into the tub, Sloan wrapped her hand around his cock before wrapping her lips around it. Gareth groaned in appreciation as she swirled her tongue around the head of his staff before licking the underside. Sloan took him deep in her mouth so that he touched the back of her throat. She wrapped her hand around the base of his rod and squeezed him gently.
Gareth quickly pushed aside any thought he had not to take the pleasure she was offering. He wound his fingers through her hair and stilled her head as he took control and began to surge in and out of her mouth, enjoying the way she used her tongue and mouth to maximize the carnal delight he was taking in having her service him this way.
Sloan continued to use her hand on the part of his shaft that could not be accommodated by her mouth. He almost lost control when she brought her other hand up to caress his balls. Gareth growled seductively and was pleased when she managed to bring forth an answering sound. He steadied her head and began to plunge more deeply and forcefully into her mouth. Whoever had taught her to pleasure a man’s cock had taught her well. She licked, nibbled, and sucked as he continued to enjoy her. Finally, he steadied her head as his cum rushed down the length of his shaft and he began to shoot down her throat and into her belly.
He looked down to see her looking up at him. She purred in the way that only a female alpha could call to her mate. He wondered if she realized the power of an alpha she-wolf. He stroked her hair and leaned down to kiss her, not minding the taste of his own seed when mixed with the heady taste of her mouth.
Turning her away from him, he slid into the tub behind her and pulled her back so that she sat between his legs with her back resting on his chest. He rumbled his gratification at her earlier actions and stroked her lightly and soothingly. After a while, the water began to cool, and Gareth leaned Sloan forward so that he could get out of the tub. He quickly dried himself and then helped Sloan up and out of the water.
The brief respite had allowed his cock to recover its rigidity and he pulled her to him, kissing her deeply before lifting her into his arms and carrying her to their bed. He smiled as he looked down at the woman with whom he would share his life. He stroked his fingers through the soft patch of hair that covered her mons, playing briefly with her pleasure nub and enjoying watching her body come alive with hedonistic response.
He smiled when his fingers probed her slit and found her wet and ready. Sloan moaned and grasped his other hand, bringing it to her breast. He fondled her, pinching and tugging at her nipple as she responded to him. Gareth’s fingers began to probe her opening and she cried out in need.
“Gareth, please...”
“Does my mate need to be mounted again and feel her alpha’s strength as he uses her pussy?”
“Yes, please. My whole body is on fire. It’s never been like this... I’m burning with need... please.”
Gareth stretched out beside her. He allowed his hands to roam and explore her body in a way that stoked her need and allowed her to see that he would not always use her as harshly as he had before. He leaned over her, sucking her nipple into his mouth and hearing her sigh. He kissed his way down her body until he was nuzzling her clit with his nose and licking her swollen labia. Her skin quivered in response wherever he touched or kissed.
“Gareth, no, I want you.”
“And you will hav
e me, but in our bed, as with everything else, you do not rule. I do. You will take the pleasure I choose to give you, including at some point being knotted and tied to me and having me sink my cock into your bottom hole.”
“No,” she cried.
“Yes. As with being knotted, I will most likely forego that pleasure until we are home, but you will surrender yourself to me in all ways.”
He wrapped his arms around her thighs and lifted her mons to his mouth as he began to use his tongue in the same way he had used his cock. He stroked and licked and nibbled on the swollen tissue that surrounded the entrance to her sheath. He reached up to gently play and tug at her nipples. Sloan’s hips seemed to move of their own accord, and she arched her pelvis into his face to give him easier access and to allow him to probe her pussy with his tongue more deeply.
* * *
Sloan could feel her orgasmic response beginning to build. Everything in her crackled to life. She clutched at his head, intending to try to pull him up her body so that he would mount her, but instead pulled him closer to taste his fill of the honey her body provided. Her body quaked at the sensual touch he provided. He curled his tongue to dart it into her sheath before flattening it out and licking the roof of her channel. His previous powerful claimings had driven her past the point of reason.
Sloan’s pussy began to vibrate throughout as it sought the large, hard reassurance that he provided. Her hips began to undulate as he continued his exquisite torture. She was about to tumble into the abyss when one of his thumbs pressed against her bottom hole and it gave way, allowing him to penetrate her forbidden channel. The taboo touch was all it took to set her free from her earthly bounds.
She knew it was wrong to feel pleasure from his fingering her there, but as the slight discomfort gave way to pleasure, Sloan couldn’t help but feel her both her pussy and her back entrance clamp down. The climax that burst forth shook her entire body and caused the proof of her desire to gush onto his waiting tongue as he continued to lightly pleasure her with his mouth. Nuzzling her one last time, he slowly worked his way back up her body, until his thighs parted hers and his cock probed for the opening to her wet channel. Her sheath continued to pulse in rhythm to the pounding of her blood.
Gareth repositioned his hands so that he could grasp her ass. Holding her steady, he gradually and inexorably took possession of her. Her pussy vibrated along his length as he sank into her until he was fully seated. Sloan’s breathy moans morphed into incoherent keening as he slowly stroked her from the tip of his cock to the base. The trembling in her pussy increased as she realized that her body was racing toward another climax faster than her mind could comprehend. Gareth relentlessly stroked her at the same pace as she cried out and orgasmed, her cunt trying to encourage him to find his release and flood her womb with his seed. He encouraged her legs to come up and hook around him as he continued to languidly thrust within her.
Sloan tossed her head and clawed at his back. She wanted more, faster, harder—she needed to feel the strength of his dominance and possession. She growled and began to nip his collarbone, but still he moved leisurely and deeply.
“Give yourself to me, Sloan. Feel every inch of my cock as it claims your sweet chasm gently and with great purpose.”
“What purpose?” she cried. “To drive me mad?”
His rumbling chuckle filled her mind and enveloped her in a shroud of desire where nothing mattered but this wolf, his cock, his purpose, his pleasure.
“Gareth,” she whimpered, her orgasm exploding without any preliminaries or warning and overloading all her senses—sight, sound, scent, taste, and touch.
She was learning that he did, in fact, have complete control over her response to him. Her body climaxed easily when he chose for it to, and their coupling wasn’t complete and she wasn’t fully sated until he spilled himself in her. Her pussy had become the perfect sheath for his sword and the vessel for his seed. Sloan had never experienced the intensity or frequency of orgasms that she did in Gareth’s embrace. He used her in a way that left her sore but wanting more. She reveled in his lovemaking and felt rewarded when he found his own release.
“Who is your mate and alpha?” he purred.
“You are,” she moaned.
“Do not forget it or deny us again, my fated mate,” he said, beginning to stroke her more fiercely.
Gareth stilled her hips as he began to drive more steadily into her. She called to him as he answered her need with one of his own. Her pussy trembled all along his length, encouraging him to plunge more intensely, claiming everything she had as his. He groaned in supreme pleasure and satisfaction as she felt his need to spill himself into her increase.
Sloan clawed again at his back in an attempt to urge him on. She knew he could feel her body preparing to orgasm again and he pistoned his hips against her body as he hammered her pussy with increasing passion. Just as she tipped over into the void where only feeling existing, he began to release his seed into her in a great gush. She could feel it fill her beyond capacity, but her sheath clamped down and milked every last drop from him. He grunted as the last of it passed from his body to hers and Sloan purred in her pleasure.
* * *
Slowly, Gareth withdrew from her despite her protests and rolled off, pulling her close so that she still lay in his embrace. She started to fuss and struggle and he landed a single blow to her ass.
“Enough,” he rumbled.
As he stroked her body, coaxing it to center itself once again, he could feel her upset returning. Gareth growled at her and felt her doubts and fears crumble beneath his gruff reassurance.
“What if someone comes in here? Oh, shit, what if they heard us?” she whispered.
He chuckled. “Sweetheart, I wasn’t the one filling our tent with the sounds of her pleasure. No one enters an alpha’s chambers, whether the walls are canvas or stone, without receiving permission to do so... especially when that alpha has just found and claimed his fated mate. I said I would keep you safe and I will.”
“But if they heard us... me?” she fretted.
“They will know that their alpha’s mate, and their mistress, is a wild, wanton she-wolf who makes others pale in comparison, that their alpha is the most fortunate of wolves and that he is well able to see to her needs.”
“Fuck, Gareth,” she snarled.
“We did, my beloved, most enjoyably,” he chuckled.
She stroked his chest with her fingers. As much joy and satisfaction as he had found between her legs, Gareth was finding that lying here with her, or soaking in the tub, brought him a different kind of peaceful bliss.
“How did you come to be at Calon Onest? I know Alaric said that Rowan caught you thieving. You are lucky that I was not alpha here.”
“Why? Would you have had me beaten from your territory?”
“No, I would have had you bent over something while I turned that ivory bottom of yours bright red before breaching your bottom hole and filling it with my cum. Then I’d have had you taken to my bed and tethered to it.”
Sloan arched her eyebrow at him. “So, either way, I’d have ended up as your bed slave?”
“Precisely,” he chuckled. “After all, you are my fated mate.”
“And you are entirely too arrogant and pleased with yourself.”
“Arrogant? I wouldn’t deny it. Pleased with myself? Absolutely, as I have my mate lying by my side after experiencing the heights of ecstasy with her. But more than that, happier than any wolf has a right to be, as despite my certainty that such a thing did not exist, I have found, marked, and claimed my fated mate. The future stretches out before me like a marvelous adventure that I intend to explore and enjoy with you. Do you know what I’m looking forward to the most?”
“Knotting and tying me repeatedly?” she teased.
It made him happy to hear the upset draining away from her tone. Perhaps he was able to provide her with that same sense of quiet joy.
“That too,” he said, smiling. �
��But I was thinking of watching our grandchildren playing in the surf along the coastline where our pack has lived as far back as memory exists... lots of grandchildren.”
Sloan rubbed her head on his chest. “I like that vision.”
“Then hold tight to it and all the love and rapture we will share in the years to come. Know that I will be here with you.”
“I have no intention of not being with you to hear the laughter of our grandchildren as they run and play. Maybe their grandfather, the great Alpha of Ravenscar of many, many decades, will break with convention and allow his mate to ride astride.”
“Never,” he rumbled. “From this day forward, I will be the only thing that ever gets between your legs again.”
“And my poetic warrior departs to be replaced by his arrogant doppelganger,” she said, laughing.
Chapter Ten
Sloan lay listening to Gareth’s strong, steady heartbeat. He drew himself up in the bed and brought her up to lay against him, exposing her breasts to his gaze and fondling. The deep rumble from his chest seemed to permeate every molecule in her body, suffusing her with a profound sense of well-being.
There was a part of her that knew she should still be angry with him for the seemingly cavalier way in which he had claimed and turned her without her consent. But Gareth’s assurances that they would live to see their grandchildren play in the surf at Ravenscar had all but banished any concerns she might have once had. Lying here within the comfort of his embrace, she felt not only filled with his cum but with a shared sense of memory, myth, and legend.
“That fated mate call is rather interesting. Does it only work one way?” she asked.
“No. I can feel what you project at me, and often what you try to hide so it is best that you do not try to keep things from me,” Gareth said as he stroked lazy circles around her areola and nipples.
“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about...” Sloan gasped as the sensual fondling became a sharp pinch. “What happened to taking care of me?”
