Hunted And Claimed (Wayward Mates Series Book 7)

by Delta James

  “You wouldn’t!”

  “I would. Certainly it would make things easier and more clear cut for me, for you, and for our pack. You behave yourself and make nice with your big brother who was very relieved to hear you had been located and I may reconsider just how and when you get claimed.”

  He took her by the arm, propelled her toward the door, and walked up into the house and into his study. He initiated a video chat with Aidan.

  “Colleen! Thank God you’re safe. Do you know how worried we were? Where the hell have you been?”

  “Riley. I prefer Riley. And I’m sorry you were worried. You shouldn’t have been. If you’d been paying attention, you’d have known I am quite capable of taking care of myself.”

  Cameron growled low at her. She shivered in response. Cameron leaned back against his desk, once again crossing his legs and placing his hands on the tabletop.

  Aidan grinned. “So, I see your mate was correct when he said you were fated.”

  “I’m not!”

  “Keep telling yourself that, little sister. Ask Gia how well that worked for her. Just so you know, Cameron, my Gia didn’t like the idea of being mated either. They’re ever so much more fun to tame when they start out all snarly and resentful. Makes the purr they give when they’re sated and tied to you so much more satisfying.”

  “And you wonder why I left, asshole?”

  “You didn’t leave, little sister, you ran away from home. I rather suspect your Cameron there will deal far more harshly with you than I allowed Liam to do. My apologies for that, Cameron. I fear my father and I both found curbing some of her more aggressive and naughty tendencies to be more difficult than it should have been.”

  “No need for apologies, Aidan. I have a younger sister as well. Her new mate is just now learning that he’s going to have to take her in hand. It’s tough when you watched them learn to walk and would do anything for a smile from them.”

  Aidan nodded. “You do understand. I think you and I will get along fine as brothers. I’m glad she’s with you, Cameron. I turn her protection and care over to you as her fated mate.”

  “Aidan, no! You can’t do that. I barely know this jackass and he... he spanked me this morning.”

  “Given that you’ve been without any structure or guidance for the past few years, I’ve no doubt you needed it. I love you. I hope you and Cameron can come visit. I know Gia would love to see you again and you have yet to meet your nephews.”

  The camera blinked off and Riley stared at the blank screen.

  “That bastard,” she hissed.

  Cameron swatted her backside with enough force that she could feel it through her leggings and she yelped. She whirled on him and threw a vicious punch that he was only barely able to manage to avoid. He used the inertia of her movement to bring her over his knee, pulling her leggings down past her rump and halfway down her thighs in one fell swoop.

  He began to spank her hard, causing her to yowl.

  “Damn you, Nichols!”

  “Not the way to get me to stop and take you upstairs to finish this, mate. But you are going to learn to speak respectfully to your brother or any other alpha male. If they’ve done something to warrant the sharp side of your tongue, you tell me and I will deal with it. But you do not challenge an alpha male. That is dangerous behavior and that stops now.”

  Cameron punctuated the last sentence with several hard smacks to her backside. He watched the imprints of his hand begin to blend one into the other. Riley struggled but strong as she was, she was no match for his strength or determination.

  He acknowledged to himself that she had only been disrespectful to him and to her brother, but she needed to stop before it got her into real trouble. He hated to admit it even to himself but her struggling was increasing his arousal by leaps and bounds. He doubted she realized that by struggling she was actually rubbing her mons against his hard cock straining against his jeans. His cock wasn’t going to remain uncomfortably tucked away much longer. While he might not mark or claim her fully tonight, he was certain that before her punishment was done, his mate would succumb to his seductive call and know what it felt like to have him claim what was his. The idea of sinking his length into her made him groan.

  Cameron continued to spank her until she finally gave up the fight. He admired the tenacity it had taken to withstand the harsh spanking. Granted, it had only been his hand and not his belt or a switch, but she had stoically withstood her punishment until only at the very end when she began to silently cry.

  He understood that she needed to cry. She needed to be pushed past her anger and fear to the understanding that she would submit to his authority whether she liked it or not. It was the only way he could keep her safe. Cameron knew Riley would fit in well with his pack. The women of Wolf Meadow were not a bunch of shrinking violets. They were all crackerjack shots and most could ride and rope with the best of the men. But each in turn had learned to yield to her mate. His pack was a close-knit, harmonious one.

  Cameron released her and helped her to her feet as he stood alongside her. Before she could get herself into more trouble his mouth descended on hers in a scalding kiss. He held her close and punished her mouth with the same passion with which he had spanked her and with which he intended to plunder her pussy before they were finished. He continued to explore her mouth, enjoying her sweet taste and breathing in her scent.

  When Cameron lifted his head, Riley’s eyes blazed. This time not with anger or defiance, but with lust and passion. He leaned into her and lifted her over his shoulder. Her leggings were still down around her knees. Her backside was covered by the long tail of the shirt she had on, but even the most casual observer would know her bottom was bare and bore the mark of her mate’s hand.

  “Cameron, no, please. Not like this.”

  “Yes, mate. When you choose to misbehave in public you should know I may well punish you in the same manner.”

  Once again Cameron exited his study and started up the stairs, carrying Riley like a sack of grain... a very naughty sack of grain.

  Chapter Eight

  He entered their bedroom and deposited her unceremoniously in the middle of their bed. He smiled as she grimaced when her punished behind made contact. He closed the door to their bedroom before turning to her.

  “What do you have to say for yourself?”

  Riley’s eyes locked with his. He rumbled at her and though he could see her body involuntarily react, she didn’t flinch. Slowly she lifted her hand to her mouth and wiped it across her lips as if to remove all traces of the searing kiss they had shared downstairs.

  Cameron surprised her by laughing softly.

  “You are a piece of work, Irish, but wiping your hand across your mouth does little to deflect the fact that you kissed me back with as much passion as I kissed you.”

  “You mistake rage for passion.”

  “Either/or—it’s the depth of feeling that’s the most telling. Now answer me, little wolf. Do you have anything to excuse your behavior this afternoon?”

  Riley shook her head. “Shouldn’t be too hard to figure out, cowboy. You kidnapped me and dragged me here against my expressed wishes and then thought to lock me in your bedroom. I didn’t want to stay so I left. You caught me—this time—proved to me that my brother is as big an ass as you are, and then spanked me again before bringing me up here and throwing me on your bed.”

  “Let’s clear a few things up, mate. Yes, I brought you home even though you say you don’t want to be here. You are my fated mate. We both know that. The men of our kind have been bringing reluctant mates to heel by bringing them home for ages. So far for the most part, it seems to work. I put you in our,” he emphasized the last word, “room to keep you out of trouble while I made some inquiries about your identity. Having confirmed that with your brother and alleviating his concern about the state of your well-being, I discovered you’d tried to run away by climbing onto the roof and hiding yourself away in the attic. Despi
te calling to you in the way the males of our species have called to their mates for millennia, you chose to ignore me. That took a lot of doing on your part, I’ll give you that. Then I let you speak to your brother where you proceeded to prove just how much you need a mate who can teach you to behave and keep you out of trouble. After you tried to punch me, I put you over my knee and rewarmed your backside before bringing you back to our room, which I might point out is where you started.”

  “I despise you.”

  He chuckled and then growled seductively at her, enjoying her discomfiture at her reaction. He turned back toward the antique dresser and lifted a switch left there by Gabriel at his request. Riley’s eyes widened, but she refused to acknowledge her concern.

  “I might point out to you, mate, that you are no better off than you were originally except that you had to sit in a hot, dark attic for the most of the afternoon before getting spanked for a second time today. You accomplished nothing to your benefit.”

  “I showed you that I won’t be contained.”

  “What you showed me is that I need to keep you on a short leash and burden my men with keeping an eye on you when I can’t do it myself.”

  “I won’t be collared.”

  “Let’s you and I get a few things straight, Irish. You are my mate. You will mind me. When you don’t, I will spank that pretty ass of yours as hard as I need to so that you quit misbehaving. The next time you speak to any alpha male the way you did to your brother, I will remove you from the situation, give your mouth a good soaping and your backside a good paddling, and put you in the corner to think about why that’s a bad idea.”

  He started toward her; Riley refused to back away from him.

  “And if you choose to take it into that pretty red head of yours to try and run away from home, I will find you just like I did today. And when I do, I’ll cut a switch and use it on the back of your legs until we get back to our room before I strip you naked and use that switch on your rump before you stand in the corner. When I decide you’re ready, I’ll put you over my knee, give you a good warmup with my hand, and then take my belt to your very fetching behind and lay welts across it before you go back to the corner to wait for me to mount you and make you yield to me in that fashion as well. Clear?”

  Riley swallowed hard. She hated when he rumbled at her. Hated that she could feel his anger rolling off of him and washing over her. But worse yet was her reaction to it. She wasn’t afraid, she was aroused—more so than she had ever been in her life. She only hoped he couldn’t scent her arousal. As he savored her sweet aroma, the look on his face told her that hope was in vain.

  “Now you get your ass off our bed, get out of those clothes, and go stand in the corner.”

  “No. I don’t do corners. I am alpha,” she said, raising her chin in defiance.

  “You are my mate and will learn that it is better to do as you’re told without some childish display of temper that will do you no good. I’m going to count to three and if you aren’t naked in that corner by the fireplace, I’ll strip you naked, put you there, and take this switch to you while I do it. One... two...”

  “Fine,” Riley said, rising with the grace and bearing of a queen and discarding her clothes.

  She walked past him and cried out when the switch he held in his hand snaked out and laid a line of fire across her naked bottom. It was far more painful than she had thought one small branch from a bush could be.

  Riley stood in the corner. Despite what she’d said to Cameron, she’d spent her fair share of time in the corner. Liam was a big stickler on tradition and protocol... and he knew she hated it.

  Cameron approached her and ran his hands down her naked body, savoring the feel of her skin. She had to bite the inside of her lip to keep from moaning. His large, callused hands on her soft skin felt more right than anything she’d ever known. He caressed her bottom softly, thoughtfully, more to arouse than to soothe or punish. He trailed his index finger between her butt cheeks and softly fingered her back entrance.

  She tucked her tail to get away from the caress. She’d never cared for anyone playing with her there. He pulled her into his body, chuckling as she recoiled from the feeling of her naked bottom being pulled into his fly and the large bulge it contained. He leaned against the wall on one hand, his powerful forearm bulging with muscle. His other hand wrapped around her middle only for a moment before coming up to cup her breast as though weighing it.

  It had been a long time since she’d last laid with a man and a human man at that. For some reason Riley had always avoided having sex with her own kind. She’d had plenty of offers, but she’d always reserved that part of herself just for herself... or so she thought.

  Cameron’s hand moved over her silky flesh until he found the hard, pebbled center he’d been seeking. Again, Riley bit her lip but not before the soft sigh escaped her. Cameron nuzzled her neck underneath her hair.

  “Like that, Irish? Me too. I think your skin may be the softest thing I’ve ever touched,” he said in a quiet, deep voice before lightly pinching her nipple, causing her to moan. “But this little raspberry needs some serious attention from my mouth.”

  She started to breathe a sigh of relief that he had released her nipple until his hand skated down over her abdomen and wove its way through the soft red patch of hair at the juncture of her thighs. Riley’s knees threatened to buckle and she cursed the power this man seemed to have over her body.

  His arm wrapped back around her waist to steady her.

  “Don’t worry, Irish. I’ve got you. I won’t let you fall,” he murmured.

  Riley summoned the strength to try to get away from his captive embrace. Her efforts were cut short when he ran his hand back down her torso and between her legs, clasping her clit and playing with it as it began to swell.

  The arm that he had used to lean against the wall, now came down and wrapped around her middle as the other hand left her pleasure nub to go between her legs and find her most shameful secret. She wasn’t just aroused... not just wet... she was drenched and she could feel her pussy pulsating with need.

  Cameron gently parted her labia to allow his hand to have more direct contact with her sex and to plunge not one but two fingers up into her waiting pussy.

  “No,” she cried.

  “No? No as in stop?” he said, nuzzling her once again. “Or no as in mount me instead? Hmm, isn’t that what you want, mate? To feel my cock breach your pussy for the first time? To feel me stroke you long and hard, making you come repeatedly?”

  Riley shook her head, no longer trusting that the right words would come out of her mouth. Words that would tell him she wanted no part of his coupling.

  “Yes,” he whispered, turning the last of the word into a quiet, devastatingly sensual rumble she could feel seeping through the pores of her skin and entering her entire being. “Brace your hands on the wall, mate.”

  He wrapped his arm around her in such a way that he kept her pressed against him and steadied her. She felt his other hand reach between them and unfasten his fly, freeing his cock. She could feel its strength and power as well as its size. The smooth head probed between her legs, leaking bits of pre-cum as it did.

  Cameron grasped her hips, making ready to hold her still to be mounted. She shook her head; she knew to yield would be to give him her tacit approval to be claimed.

  One hand left her hip and went down between her legs to play with her clit—rubbing and stroking it so that even though she tried to dance away from him, she ended up pushing her mons into his hand.

  “Yes, Riley,” he purred.

  “God, yes,” she said, spreading her legs for him and bracing to allow him to easily claim her pussy as his.

  Riley had always been responsive and enjoyed sex, but nothing in her past prepared her for the intensity of her climax as he drove himself balls deep into her. Cameron held her and rumbled low in her ear as she pulsed around him, lost in the power of her own orgasm.

  “Good
girl,” he crooned. “You feel...” he searched for the words, “you feel right. I’ve never felt anything more right than this.”

  Cameron held her tight as he began to thrust deeply into her. His size stretched her, and while not uncomfortable, she was certain she could feel every ridge, every vein and inch of him as he laid claim to her.

  Riley could feel him strain as he plunged in and out of her. She heard him groan with effort and excitement and felt her body ramp up to pulse along his length with the strength of her response. She tried to move with him but the tightening of his hands and the warning growl quickly squashed any hope she had of this ever being anything other than what it was—his taking dominant possession of her body and her surrender.

  Cameron continued to fuck her in the corner. She could do nothing other than yield to his demands. Finally, his thrusting started to become more frenzied and powerful. As her own body raced to find its pinnacle of pleasure again, she felt his cock unleash a torrent of cum into her. She cried out in ecstasy as again and again she felt him pump his seed, filling her with its warmth.

  He took hold of the nape of her neck with his teeth and bit lightly. Riley knew that had they been face to face, Cameron would have marked her as his. What she feared was that his doing so was a mere formality. He had already laid claim to her, body and soul.

  Cameron stayed coupled to her until his cock began to lose some of its rigidity. Regretfully she felt him withdraw and her emotions threatened to spin out of control. Somehow, he knew. He knew she needed his comfort and his strength. He gently drew her into his arms and held her, rocking her quietly and stroking her hair while she tried to gather herself.

  “It’s all right, Riley. I’ve got you. Everything will be fine. You’ll see.”

  “I don’t want everything to be fine,” she wailed.

  She pushed ineffectively at his chest, trying to get away from him.