Hunted And Claimed (Wayward Mates Series Book 7)

by Delta James

  “I know, sweetheart. But it will be; I promise you.”

  He lifted her in his arms and shushed her when she started to protest. He carried her to their bed and set her on her feet, while he turned back the covers and then very carefully lifted her and laid her down. He turned away and she grabbed his hand.

  “Don’t leave me,” she said, hating the weakness within her that he seemed to be creating.

  He leaned down, sweeping her hair off her face as he kissed her forehead.

  “I’m not going anywhere, Riley. I want you to try and take a nap. I’m going to have Gabe come up so I can get some things lined out for them and arrange for Cook to bring us our supper up later.”

  “Aren’t you coming to bed?” she asked.

  She hated that his smile acknowledged he knew she needed to feel his embrace.

  “I am, sweetheart. If I’m not wrapped around you before you fall asleep, I promise I’ll be there before you wake. Close your eyes, Irish. You’ve had a big day.”

  She watched him speak briefly with his beta before removing his clothes and joining her under the covers. The last thing Riley felt before closing her eyes was Cameron spooning himself along the length of her back, his cock snuggled up to her punished backside.

  Chapter Nine

  Cameron was napping lightly and thinking to himself how absolutely right it felt to have Riley sleeping in his arms. She fussed and stirred restlessly several times as they rested. Usually all it took was a comforting rumble from him and she would instinctively try to get closer to him before settling back down more peacefully.

  He came awake as she began to struggle and tried to break free of him, crying out.

  “Riley, sweetheart, it’s okay. You’re here with me in our bed. I’ve got you. Easy,” he crooned to her as he held her close until she ceased to struggle.

  “I’m sorry. What time is it? I didn’t mean to wake you.”

  “It’s early evening and you have nothing to apologize for. What troubles you when you sleep?” he asked gently.

  “The things I’ve seen. The women. You have no idea. None of you do. You can’t possibly. For if you do, you’re even worse than I already believe you to be.”

  “What are you talking about? The girls you’ve set free?”

  “Yes. I set them free because all you big, tough alpha males were too busy kissing ass to do anything to help those women.”

  Cameron drew a deep breath. The temptress he’d fucked in the corner earlier and the sensual siren he’d held as she slept were both gone. In their place, the nasty–tempered, red-haired vixen had returned.

  “Enough, Riley. I agree that the Ruling Councils have got their heads buried in the sand. But if you know anything, you should know that there’s a small group of us doing everything we can to locate those women and help them.”

  “Not everything, Nichols. I’ve been the one actually helping them. I’ve gotten more of them to safety than the rest of you combined. Now leave off, I have work to do.”

  She tried to shrug out of his embrace. He held fast.

  “The only work you have to do, little wolf, is minding your mate and doing as you’re told.”

  “Fuck you!” she spat.

  “You did and quite spectacularly, I might add,” he said, smiling. “You climaxing as I mount you? That was an incredible feeling. I plan to make that a regular occurrence. Should make breaching you with my knot far more enjoyable for you.”

  “You keep that knot to yourself.”

  He rumbled at her quietly, allowing the sound and the alpha wave he pushed at her to wash over her and envelop her completely.

  “Stop that,” she cried.

  “Shh,” he said softly. “Settle down, Riley. Everything will be all right. There isn’t a man amongst any of the packs that have banded together to fight this evil that isn’t committed to getting every single woman back safe and sound.”

  “But what are they supposed to do while you plot and plan?” she accused. “And back to what? What you deem proper for them? Most would be trading one jail sentence for another.”

  “And what have you done with them? Taken them to packs you know won’t force them. Taken them where they will be safe.”

  “Safer than where I find them.”

  “But still within the pack system that you want to throw in my face. Regardless, your days of running around playing some kind of masked avenger are over.”

  “We’ll see,” she muttered.

  “Riley,” he growled. “I’ve warned you what would happen if you try to run again. Keep it in mind. I am not a man who makes idle threats.”

  “Nor am I,” she seethed.

  Riley brought her elbow back sharply into his ribcage, causing him to exhale and momentarily loosen his hold on her. That moment was all it took for Riley to escape their bed, land on her feet, and rush into the adjoining bath, slamming and locking the door behind her.

  She couldn’t hear him, but she could feel his presence on the other side of the door.

  “Unlock this door, come out, and go stand in the corner. Do it now and I won’t consider this latest little stunt as some kind of precursor to trying to run away.”

  She pressed her ear to the door and heard him step away and then a low growl with another of those damn alpha waves washing over her. She closed her eyes and cleared her mind. She would not yield.

  The sound of his fist punching a hole through the door right above the knob startled her. She watched as if in slow motion the hand opened, reached down to the lock, turned it and withdrew. She looked up to see the door open and Cameron fill the door frame. She missed the glowering look he gave her as her eyes were riveted on the object he held in the hand that had just shattered the door... a switch.

  She shook her head.

  “Then you’d best hightail it to the corner, little wolf.”

  The combination of panic at the sight of that switch, his menacing growl, and the angry energy he pushed her way was enough to overwhelm her. Just the one stripe he’d laid across her rump earlier was enough for her to know she wanted no part of that instrument of torment. Riley didn’t overwhelm easily, but Cameron seemed to have no trouble in making her feel as though she had no control over anything, including her own reactions to his presence.

  Riley rushed past him. Once again, the switch snaked out and laid another stripe of pain across her behind.

  “I hate you,” she wailed as she sought what she hoped was the safe refuge of the corner.

  Cameron closed on her and ran his hands down her body again—stroking, pinching, soothing, evoking all at the same time.

  “I think I might have the house staff bring up a nice vase filled with water and fresh switches and leave it in our room. I’m beginning to think I may have need of them more often than I thought.”

  “No, Cameron, please,” she pleaded, hating the sound of her own voice but hating him more.

  He lazily trailed a finger down her spine and between her cheeks before stopping at her forbidden ring of muscle. She started to try to duck away, but his other hand had come around her front and was cupping her mons as he pushed her back to where he could play with the entrance to her dark passage.

  “Please don’t. I don’t like that.”

  “From your reaction, I doubt it’s been done very often or if it has, not by someone who knows what he’s doing. You’ll learn to enjoy my touch there, sweetheart. More than that, you’ll learn to take pleasure from me however I offer it.”

  He turned her around and ran his hands up the front of her body so that he could capture and play with her breasts, tracing circles around her areolas and thumbing her nipples with a casual, possessive air.

  He brought his hands up to her shoulders and gently pushed downward. Riley sank to her knees so that her face was even with the fly of his jeans. She had a bird’s-eye view of just how hard the bulge was becoming and could see a knot was beginning to form. Just as earlier when he’d mounted her in the corner and it ha
d been her first time being mounted by a wolf, seeing his knot would be a new experience.

  “Open my fly and take my cock out. Careful how you handle me, mate, I’m having trouble getting this knot to go down.”

  As she opened his fly, his cock sprang free with its head pointed directly at her mouth. Riley was fascinated by the swelling at the base of his cock. It looked painful.

  “Has another breached you with his knot as a human?”

  She shook her head.

  “As a wolf?”

  “No, today was the first time I ever did it with one of our kind.”

  Riley looked up and saw the color drain from his face.

  “After I spanked you and took you in the corner, that was your first time?” Cameron asked incredulously.

  “With a wolf. I’ve had plenty of men,” she said defensively.

  “Jesus, Riley, why didn’t you tell me that?”

  Carefully he squatted down and then stood back up, drawing her with him. Ignoring his own need, he folded her into his arms and held her close. His gentle concern was her undoing; she began to cry.

  “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I had no idea.”

  “It’s not a big deal,” she snuffled.

  “Yes, it is and we both know it. Mating with our own kind is far more intimate and sensual. The feelings both physical and emotional are profoundly increased. You should have told me.”

  “You didn’t ask and didn’t seem all that interested in what I wanted.”

  Cameron winced as though she’d dealt him another physical blow, but then relaxed and said with a sultry tone, “I was very interested in what you wanted and needed but refused to acknowledge.”

  The smile changed from engaging to predatory.

  “If you were that responsive the first time fighting me with everything you had, I can only imagine what it will be like when you welcome my touch.”

  “Don’t hold your breath, cowboy.”

  The predatory smile turned to an impish one. “If I am the first of our kind you’ve mated with, then mine will be your first and only knot.”

  “I don’t want any part of that thing.”

  “Have you been frightened by what you’ve been told?”

  “No. I’ve seen the damage one of those things can do. You know those girls you think so little of?”

  He winced again.

  “You have a sharp tongue, mate. You’d better learn to keep it in check. It isn’t that we don’t think of those girls. What we’re afraid of is that if we go in with a full-on attack, the ones that aren’t at the locations we hit will be killed so the bastards that did this can get away.”

  “They haven’t done it yet...”

  “Because you only hit one place at a time and it’s sporadic and on no set schedule or pattern. Yes, we know that much about what you’ve been doing. We’re putting together information that I hope you will help us gather so that we can take them down. Right now, you are just a minor irritant to them. If we all go at once, we will become a threat and one to which they will have to react.”

  Riley started to respond, but was cut short as there was a knock on the door. Cameron leaned down and kissed her.

  “Go get back in bed, Riley. That’s probably just supper. We can eat in here or you can slip something on and we can have dinner on our balcony.”

  “I don’t want to get back into bed with you.”

  He ran his finger down the midline of her body and growled low. Her body quivered at his touch and she felt herself go weak at the knees.

  “Yes, you do,” he teased as he turned her toward the bed and gave her backside a light pat.

  She snarled at him, which he ignored, as she went back and crawled up in the high bed. Cameron opened the door. Riley could see it was his beta and he was concerned.

  Cameron brought in a tray heavily laden with food and set it on the nightstand next to her.

  “There’s been a small problem. I need to deal with it. You eat something and rest. If you want anything, just use the phone there and someone will bring whatever you need.”

  “I need to be gone from here and never lay eyes on you again,” she said, letting her anger come to the forefront.

  He took her face in his hands and kissed her, holding her until she quit struggling and gave herself over to the kiss.

  “That’s what you may want, little wolf. But you will not get it. Take care that I don’t decide that what you need is a repeat of what transpired this afternoon when I brought you in from the attic.”

  He kissed the tip of her nose and left her sitting there as he closed the door behind him. Riley crossed to the door and opened it. A large youthful cowboy tipped his hat to her. Before he could say a word, Riley shut the door in his face.

  She made her way stealthily to the balcony doors and looked out. Cameron had learned from his mistakes made earlier in the day. Two men now patrolled underneath and she could hear one overhead.

  If something was up, this might be her best chance to get away. Riley quickly redressed and waited until dusk started to descend on the landscape.

  She knocked over a table and smashed a lamp. The big cowboy from the hallway opened the door and charged in. She brought the small desk chair that had been there crashing down on his head and watched as he crumpled to the floor. She checked to ensure he was breathing, quickly tied him up using the window sash, stuffed several of Cameron’s handkerchiefs in his mouth and secured them with a bandana, and then glanced back out into the hallway.

  No one was there and apparently no one had heard anything. She turned toward the grand staircase.

  “Riley, not that way,” came a feminine whisper from the other end of the hall. “They’ll catch you for sure if you head down those stairs. There’s a hidden back staircase. I can get you out and past the guards. It’ll bring us up in the barn. Can you ride?”

  “Like the wind,” Riley said, running toward the woman standing at the end of the hall. She recognized her from the restaurant. This must be the beta’s mate. “Who are you?”

  The young woman pressed on a panel and the wall opened revealing a narrow staircase. She guided Riley in and then turned on a small electric torch, handing one to Riley as well. Riley followed her down the stairs.

  “I’m Heather, which will mean nothing to you, but Darby Gautier saved me from the same awful place she came from. We need to get you out of here. Are you really Cameron’s mate?”

  Riley nodded. “It appears so.”

  “Do you want to go?”

  “I have to go. Someone has to get to those girls.”

  Heather grinned. “Darby said fated mate or not, you wouldn’t give up your mission. She said you need to make your way to the port terminal you’ve used before. She’s got a small boat and supplies for your use. We’ve also located another pocket of women being held hostage... if you’re up to it?”

  “I’ve never been more up to anything in my life.”

  “The coordinates and everything you need will be in the boat.”

  They had reached the bottom of the stairs and ran along a narrow tunnel before ascending up into the dark barn.

  “I saddled Cameron’s horse. He’s the fastest one we have. Do you know where you are? Do you know how to get to Galveston?”

  Riley put her hand on Heather’s shoulder.

  “I do indeed. Thank you and send Darby and the rest my regards. I don’t think I’ll be back. Tell Darby I’ll establish a link with Bethan if I can. Marco is becoming too suspicious and I fear he’ll figure it out.”

  “Will I see you again?”

  “No. I don’t think so. Tell Cameron you heard tales about what a bitch I am and help him to see he should mate with another.”

  “What about you? Won’t you be lost without him?”

  Riley smiled. “All those who wander are not lost. My fate was always with the stars and it is with the stars that I shall find my destiny. Take care and thank you again.”

  Riley brought the big appaloosa
gelding out of his stall. He snorted at her, seemingly none too pleased at someone else thinking of riding him. Riley blew her warm breath in his nostril once and then again. As she did it a third time, the gelding’s body relaxed and he returned the greeting.

  “Good boy.”

  She swung up on his back and waited for Heather to open the back of the barn. She trotted quietly away from the ranch before urging the big horse into a gallop. She would leave him where he could be found and where she could borrow some kind of vehicle to speed her trip into Galveston.

  Chapter Ten

  The small brush fire had been put out. It had done some damage to one of the hay barns and to part of one of the pastures, but none of the livestock had been present so it was just property damage.

  Cameron went into his study and poured a drink. Gabe had followed him in.

  “What’s on your mind?” asked Gabe.

  “Riley.”

  “I don’t understand you. You seemed settled that she was your fated mate, laid claim to her with her brother, and now you come in here instead of rushing up to be with her.”

  Cameron’s face showed his resignation that Riley was going to be difficult to bring around to his way of doing things; he doubted she would ever truly submit.

  “Every ounce of my being wants to join her in our room, claim and mark her as my own, and drive my knot deep inside her.”

  “What’s stopping you? Is she still denying it?”

  “She is,” said Cameron. “But a lot of them do. She’s an alpha in her own right. They don’t take well to being forced to submit.”

  “But they get over it and settle down.”

  “They do and she will. I’m just torn.”

  “Torn? Good God, Cameron, I’ve never known you not to go directly after what you wanted. You had to have gotten after her for that little stunt she pulled.”

  Cameron nodded. “I did.”

  Somewhat at a loss for words and not wanting to make Cameron think he was challenging him, Gabe said cautiously, “Wasn’t her surrender what you’d hoped it would be?”

  Cameron laughed, but it was a bitter sound.