by Delta James
Raegan stabbed him in the eye with her burning weapon and sent her would-be attacker plunging to his death. Another came up and she dispatched him as well. At the death of the third one, the others began to retreat. Raegan set fire to the nest itself and the surrounding branches and watched as it began to burn, using the brittle tree beneath it to increase the size of its flame. She leaped to one of the trees beside her and began to climb down to the floor below. If she was to die, she would die at Drake’s side.
As she made to drop to the ground, one of the mutants charged her. She speared him, causing a mortal wound and his clothes to begin to burn. He screamed and ran, thus increasing the oxygen to the flames that consumed him and lighting more of the dry underbrush as he ran. Raegan ran toward Drake, brandishing her makeshift torch as though it were a flaming sword. Having seen the damage she could do, the mutants became more interested in living than trying to rape her.
She made it to Drake’s side and leapt onto his back. He quickly spun around and used the opening she had made to gain enough speed to become airborne. Raegan threw the still burning torch into another stand of trees and smiled as they too caught fire. She felt Drake’s great wings beat as they gained altitude and he banked toward the safety of the Needle.
Chapter Fourteen
Raegan did not begin to breathe easily until they had reached the protection of their home and the panel that kept the deck secure was locked into place. She slid off Drake’s back and stepped away, giving him room to shift.
As he turned to look at her, his face, body posture, and the glow of his amber eyes all told her he was furious. She knew that his anger was being fueled by the bloodlust born of the fight and the adrenaline from their escape, but a part of her knew that his fear for her safety was the major contributor to his rage. It did not escape her notice that his cock was completely engorged and throbbing, the sight of which led to her nipples beading and desire swirling in her nether regions.
“What were you thinking?” he roared. “Do you have some warped desire to be raped to death?”
“Well, we both know there weren’t enough to them to get that done. After all, I survived the rut with you, didn’t I?” she countered angrily.
“You will obey me and you will keep yourself safe!”
“I didn’t go looking for those bastards, they climbed the tree you put me in to try to get to me.”
“Only after you alerted them to your presence! Put yourself in position, now!” he thundered at her.
She thought about defying him but realized it would do her no good and that she too needed to feel a connection to him... to know that he was truly safe. She started toward the bench but was stopped as Drake fisted her hair and dragged her over to it. She knew he would not be gentle with her and acknowledged to herself that she didn’t want him to be.
Raegan leaned over, bracing herself on the bench as Drake ripped her pants from her and with no preliminaries or even feeling to see if she was wet, gored her with his hard cock. Raegan shrieked, not from pain but from the intensity of her climax. As much of a need as he had to dominate and possess her, her need to be possessed and dominated was just as great.
Drake began hammering her pussy with his hard staff, the barbs scraped her walls and she climaxed again. He didn’t let up; he continued to buck his hips into her bottom faster and harder as she responded to him in erotic abandon. He roared and she answered with a growl of her own. He was her mate and she knew it. Finally, she felt the barbs take hold and screamed as she orgasmed again and felt Drake’s cum flood her pussy.
He collapsed over her back and panted in her ear, “Down in front, Raegan.”
She felt his barbs release their hold as he withdrew and pushed her down. She did as she was told and felt the sharp sting of his hand as he slapped her buttocks several times in rapid fashion before swatting her between her legs where she was still overly sensitive from the intensity of their coupling.
“You stay here until I return. You will be safe.”
Drake opened the panel and shifted. She watched out of the corner of her eye as he hovered outside their home until the panel was back in place. She saw him bank sharply and heard the beating of his wings. She didn’t have long to wait before he returned. Even though she knew she was safe in the Needle, she breathed a sigh of relief when he returned and once again their home was secure.
He said nothing but scooped her up in his arms, tossing her over his shoulder. She could hear him stab the button to open the elevator doors and felt the cool recirculated air as it swirled around her exposed sex.
“Drake?”
His only answer was to swat her behind twice more. Raegan wisely decided to hold her tongue.
They entered the bedroom and Drake carried her over to the closet where he opened the door and removed the long, thick, leather strap from the wall before taking her over to the bed, setting her on her feet, sitting down and yanking her across his knee, neatly trapping her legs between his.
“Drake, please! No!”
“Yes, Raegan. I told you if you didn’t obey me, I’d take my strap to your bottom and lay welts across it and I intend to do just that. By God, Chosen One, you will learn to obey me!”
He laid the strap down where she could see it and began to spank her bottom hard. There were no preliminary, light swats to warm her backside, just the hard application of his hand to ensure she realized just how angry he was.
Raegan felt her backside heating up quickly. The discomfort she was feeling from the spanking was compounded by her own anger at his being angry with her. How dare he punish her—it did cross her mind that she no longer thought of it as beating her—for saving his miserable life?
“Goddamn it, Drake!”
Her yelling at him didn’t seem to be making much of an impression and the pain that was radiating across her backside was beginning to make her lose the ability to have rational thoughts. She had used her own anger at him and her residual fear about what could have happened as a kind of shield to the sting he was inflicting. As those two emotions began to collapse under the fury of his spanking, Raegan realized Drake too was feeling rage and fear about what might have happened. She didn’t think she necessarily deserved to be welted, but she couldn’t deny that perhaps he could have fought them off on his own. After all, he had been the Protector for a very long time.
Raegan let herself go limp and surrendered to the wrath of his dominance. Quietly she began to cry. She would later recall that the moment she submitted to him, Drake stopped spanking her and simply let her cry. It took him a few more minutes to quell his own emotions before he began to rub her backside.
“The rut was nothing compared to what they would have done to you.”
She began to sob. “I know. That was an awful, bitchy thing for me to say to you. The rut wasn’t something you did to me,” she said quietly, “it was something we did, and reveled in, together.”
“It is one thing for you to disobey me or choose to follow your own instincts as opposed to trusting that I will keep you safe.”
“But you didn’t have room to take off. And that creature just happened to spot me when I glanced over the edge to see if you were winning.”
“I know. But I would have been able to leap over them when they got close enough, take flight, and pluck you out of that nest.”
Raegan was stunned. “So, you knew they were circling you to close in?”
He chuckled. “Yes, Raegan, mutants like that don’t fight fair. They were planning to do what they do with large prey animals—tire them out, surround them, and then attack. In my beast form I could easily have jumped up and over them and had the space I needed.”
“Oh, I didn’t know.”
“Yes, but I did. It’s not my first fight with a band of mutants.”
“I suppose I did know that as you once fought the same kind at the Sanctuary.”
“Yes, when they denied me my tribute. And now this time, my tribute almost got both of us killed be
cause she refuses to obey. What did I tell you would happen if you disobeyed me, Raegan?”
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “That you would welt my backside with your strap.”
“Have I ever made an idle threat or not followed through on a promised punishment?”
“No, Drake, but...”
“And I have no intention of doing so now. I had planned to lay at least seven welts across your bottom to remind you to behave. I have learned over the past two centuries that generally five is enough to ensure proper behavior afterwards, but you are more stubborn than anyone I have ever known. I will not be returning you so I need to ensure that if I have cause to welt you that it will leave a memorable impression.”
“Drake, please?” She hated pleading but she didn’t think her poor bottom could take seven strikes with that nasty-looking strap.
“How about you ask, Drake, please will you use your strap until you believe I have been disciplined sufficiently to ensure my good behavior in the future?”
“This is like when you made me ask you to fuck my ass the first time, isn’t it?”
“No, Raegan, I assure you this will be far more painful and you will find no pleasure in it. But if you show me that you have already been punished enough to do as you’re told, I might consider reducing the number of stripes I leave behind.”
She knew there was no getting out of his using the strap. She took a deep breath.
“I’m sorry, Drake. Will you please use your strap so that I at least think twice before disobeying you?”
“Yes, Raegan, I will.”
He reached past her and picked up the strap. He doubled it in his hand and brought it crashing down on her already painful bottom. She yowled in response but did not fight him. Drake laid down two more strikes, both of which caused her to cry out. As painful as his spankings had been in the past, they were nothing compared to what he was now inflicting. She held her breath and waited for the next strike. Instead she saw him put the strap back down and begin to rub her bottom.
“So, you reveled in the rut?” he said in a voice laced with amusement as she felt his cock begin to swell underneath her.
“Yes, and you can’t pretend you didn’t know... any more than I can. In fact, isn’t it about time you started trying to bring me back into estrous?”
He laughed out loud. “Why, yes, Chosen One, I should probably start working on bringing you into heat again so I can breed you while I have you in the throes of the rut. As I recall you are a far more obedient concubine when I keep you focused on serving my need.”
She reached her hand back for him and was gratified when he took it. “Our need.”
He leaned down and kissed her painful bottom. “Yes, Raegan, our need.”
Drake moved the leg that was trapping hers and then helped her to stand. He stood with her and she reached up to bring his mouth to hers to kiss.
“I’m sorry, Drake. I was so scared I was going to lose you.”
“Never fear that, Raegan. I would fight my way through the gates of hell to be at your side... and between your thighs.”
She laughed and kissed him again as he lifted her and strode into the bath, taking her into the shower with him and washing her clean. Once they were clean, Drake seemed disinclined for her to have anything to wear. He pulled on a pair of baggy pants, but stated she would remain naked for a while.
“Why don’t you start dinner, and I’ll go store what we have in the satchel. I hate to have gone through all that we did and then have nothing to show for it.”
As he turned to leave her, she said, “Why the shower? Generally, you like it when you have scent marked me and I smell of having had sex with you recently.”
“It is my second most favorite smell in the world. But you also smelled of whatever it is you got to burn up there and fear... neither of which I find overly appealing on my mate.”
He turned again.
“Drake? What’s your favorite scent?” she asked, genuinely curious.
“The one I am just beginning to be able to discern... the perfume of my mate’s arousal. When combined with bearing my scent marking and just having had sex with me, it is the most heady fragrance on earth.”
She rolled her eyes and laughed.
The next week was both incredibly arousing and a bit unsatisfying. Raegan could not help but feel that somehow, she was doing something wrong. It hadn’t taken Drake long to bring her into high estrous the first time. Even though she was easily aroused and gloried in being bred by him frequently and repeatedly, she had yet to feel the fire in her veins that she had felt the first time.
She was sleeping soundly when the pinprick of a needle woke her. Drowsily she looked at Drake. He should have been as tired as she was as he was the reason for her exhaustion. Even though she didn’t feel as though she were coming into heat, his work to bring her in was pushing him into the rut. She had no concerns about accommodating his need as she enjoyed it as much as he, but worried at her failure to achieve the status she needed to conceive. He kissed the spot where he withdrew the needle and then her mouth, whispering to her to close her eyes and he would join her shortly.
When she next woke, she was wrapped in Drake’s arms and could feel his hard cock poking at her back and his hands fondling her. She smiled and purred her contentment before trying to roll up onto her knees so that she could offer herself to him for breeding. He pulled her onto her back, parted her legs, and mounted her from the front, groaning as he slid his hard length to the depths of her wet core.
Drake fucked her leisurely through several orgasms before finally succumbing to his own need and driving home until his barbs caught and he spurted his cum, bathing the walls of her pussy with his singular essence.
“Good morning, Chosen One.”
She giggled. “Good morning, oh mighty Protector. As lovely as that was, that isn’t going to help bring me into estrous.”
“There will be no bringing you into heat for some time.”
“Why not?” she said, concerned.
He laughed and kissed her eyelids, the tip of her nose, and then her mouth.
“Because pregnant women do not come into estrous until after they have delivered their child.”
“Until when? No, wait! What did you say?” she asked expectantly.
He nodded. “You heard me. You will not be able to conceive for about nine or ten months, although that will not keep me from rutting you regularly and often.”
“I’m pregnant? Are you sure?”
“I confirmed it this morning with the blood test. My guess is that you took either the first night of the rut or perhaps even before that. You carry our child within your womb.”
“Then there’s hope that you can someday reverse the virus? That your work will not have been in vain?”
“My work was never in vain,” he said softly, pushing the hair off of her face. “It brought me you. Regardless of what happens in the future, that is prize enough for anyone—man or beast.”
Epilogue
Raegan felt the kick of their second child again and smiled. Their first son had been born only ten months previously and was contentedly asleep in the covered bassinette next to her.
“What makes you so happy?” asked Drake as he joined her at the small table he had found and restored for her to use out on the deck. “And what did I tell you about your feet?”
“That they were to be elevated. But I thought that’s only when you wanted to part my legs and fuck me again.”
He laughed and leaned forward, running his hand up under the sweater that she wore. “Who are you, Raegan?” he whispered as he rubbed her rounded belly with his hand before stroking upward to play with her nipples.
“I am the Chosen One given to the Protector as tribute and concubine.”
He pinched her very tender nipples. “I shall have to spank you if you do not learn to answer me correctly,” he said sternly.
“But... that’s always been the correct answer.�
�
“But it is no longer true. You are the Chosen One. She who brought light back to the world and through whose children mankind will have a chance to rise again.”
“Is that what I am—the woman who provided the link you needed for the cure?”
“No,” he admitted. “You started as such, but long before you gifted me with our firstborn son you redeemed my soul. You are no longer tribute or concubine, but the most beloved mate of the Protector. I love you, Raegan.”
“You expect me to remember all that?” she teased.
“I shall give you focused and special tutoring so that you learn.”
Raegan laughed. Focused and special tutoring was how Drake often referred to punishing her with a spanking and anal sex.
“How about if I just answer I am Raegan, no longer a virgin or tribute but the beloved mate to Drake? Much easier to remember.”
He nodded as he pulled her out of the chair and brought her into his lap to hold close as he whispered his love and devotion to her.
Drake had been successful in synthesizing a virus that had rapidly destroyed the original malady that had decimated mankind. The new virus was beginning to take hold and little by little mutants were either dying or mutating back to their original human form. While the serum did not alter Drake’s DNA and he was still a human/shifter hybrid, it had restarted his ability to age.
At the birth of their son, Drake had gifted Raegan with a painting he’d found in an artist’s loft showing two basset hound puppies playing in the foreground, a sundial in the middle, and in the upper corner, the same two dogs as they neared the end of their lives. It was inscribed with the words, “Come and grow old with me... the best is yet to be.”
The End
Stormy Night Publications would like to thank you for your interest in our books.
If you liked this book (or even if you didn’t), we would really appreciate you leaving a review on the site where you purchased it. Reviews provide useful feedback for us and our authors, and this feedback (both positive comments and constructive criticism) allows us to work even harder to make sure we provide the content our customers want to read.