by Delta James
Table of Contents
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Bonus: Extended Preview from Marked and Mated, Book Two of the Wayward Mates Series
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Brought to Heel
By
Delta James
Copyright © 2018 by Stormy Night Publications and Delta James
Copyright © 2018 by Stormy Night Publications and Delta James
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Published by Stormy Night Publications and Design, LLC.
www.StormyNightPublications.com
James, Delta
Brought to Heel
Cover Design by Korey Mae Johnson
Images by Period Images and Dreamstime/Sergey Khakimullin
This book is intended for adults only. Spanking and other sexual activities represented in this book are fantasies only, intended for adults.
Dedication
This book is dedicated to my friend Adaline Raine, whose books Marked by the Alpha and Rules of the Pack inspired this series. I am grateful to Adaline for sharing the world she created in that series, as well as her wit, wisdom, and friendship.
Prologue
It is said that shifters—those who shift between human and animal form—existed long before non-shifters. When the world was a far more dangerous place, the ability to shift from one form to another as needed was natural selection at its finest. It allowed those who could do so to thrive in environments in which a human would have trouble surviving. Their enhanced genetic immunity, rapid healing ability, and long life added to their leap to the top of the evolutionary ladder.
Many cultures and belief systems claim to be the birthplace of the shifters. Most believe that for wolf shifters, the large island now known as Great Britain has the greatest claim. It is said that the Druids were the keepers of their secrets and abilities that were handed down generation to generation. There are those who believe that the Druids themselves are shifters—some say dragon, but there is more evidence that they were the original wolf shifters.
The greatest and strongest clans have always been in England, Wales, and Scotland. The coastal village of Calon Onest or True Heart had been occupied and controlled by the wolf clan of the same name for hundreds of years. Many of the British wolf clans had immigrated to America along with their human counterparts. One such clan was the powerful Calon Gwyllt or Wild Heart Clan located on the coast of Southern Virginia. Some clan names had become lost in the mists of time, but those that originated in Wales not only retained their names, but their Welsh spelling and pronunciation.
Wars between the clans had left many of the surviving clans decimated and subject to extinction either by those of their own kind or by human hunters who knew of their existence and feared them. Most of the larger clans banded together, forming regional Ruling Councils that could settle disputes by arbitration if possible and by monitored single combat of the alphas of the pack if not. By banding together, the Ruling Councils were able to wield the power of the combined packs. One such Ruling Council governed the packs located in America, Canada, and the territorial islands off of each.
Chapter One
Dylan Grainger, alpha of Calon Gwyllt, watched as the debate on the floor of the Ruling Council’s chambers raged on. Mason Daniels, a long-time friend, was speaking passionately about respecting the sanctity of existing packs. It wasn’t that he believed that females should have a segregated pack without the protection of men, but he did believe the Council intervening in any way was the first step down a slippery slope.
There had been whispers for several years of an all-female pack, but they’d managed to keep a low profile and go undetected. An attack by a foreign pack of male shifters had shattered any doubt about the truth of their existence. The all-female pack had fought off their attackers, killing several and sending the survivors home with their tails tucked between their legs. Some members of the Council felt that the all-female pack was now a unique and universal threat to the Council and the clans that it represented.
It was rare for a meeting of the Council to be called. Packs of shifters had lived quietly among non-shifters for centuries. There were the occasional groups of humans that became hunters and tried to eradicate the shifters, but for the most part they were quietly dealt with and the packs continued to survive.
But survive was a relative term. Fewer and fewer female shifters were being born to ensure the continuation of their kind. Some rogue packs actively sought out human females and turned them either with or without their consent. Most of those turned without their consent came to understand the great gift they had been given and settled in as loving and loyal mates and pack members. But a few here and there never accepted their new reality and broke free. It had been rumored that one by one some of them had found their way to the island sanctuary and had formed the all-female pack.
Skylar Owen was said to be the head of the pack known as Bae Diogel or Safe Harbor. She was a rare female alpha and had once been mated to the alpha of a powerful pack in Wales—the celebrated Calon Onest pack—located on the rugged coast of Wales. The pack had enough size and strength that they had founded and held the small Welsh coastal town for centuries.
Micah Owen had led his pack for more than two decades. He had been killed by a group of hunters who wanted to claim the town with its rich farmland and thriving fishery for themselves. It was said that the males of his pack had pursued Skylar as she hunted down and killed those who had murdered her mate. They had arrived too late to stop or assist her. They had been regulated to cleaning up the devastation they found. Skylar had never returned to her home and had flown out of the airport at Cardiff the next day. She had lived in obscurity until the rumors of the female pack had begun. The attack on their home and the women therein had left no doubt as to the veracity of those rumors.
The Council had been called to consider how to resolve the problem of an all-female pack. The confirmation of its existence by the attack of the outsiders had a ripple effect throughout the member packs of the US and Canada. It had caused some female pack members to question the traditional hierarchy of a male-dominated pack system. It had also caused some saber rattling here at home as well as from across the Atlantic. Many packs were in dire need of females—especially those who were not close in bloodline. That there was a group of unmated females posed a singular threat and some felt a rare opportunity.
The argument both Mason and Dylan had proffered had been that the pack should be brought into the Council as it was currently formed. Unfortunately, that was the opinion of a small minority. One of the loudest voices had been that of Dylan Grainger, the alpha from Calon Gwyllt on the most southern coast of Virginia. At 6′
4″ Dylan tended to tower over most of the other wolves. Combined with a well-developed and muscular physique, his dark brown hair and pale blue eyes spoke of his Welsh and Scottish ancestry. His experience in Special Forces and level of intensity caused most alphas to avoid interacting with him. Many of the younger alphas liked Dylan and looked to him as a leader. They’d always found him to be reasonable and good company. There were also those, his friends Mason and Oliver Halsey of the Hamptons pack among them, who believed he needed to find an alpha female to take to mate.
The vast majority of those at the Council felt the Bae Diogel pack needed to be disbanded and its members absorbed by other packs that were in need of suitable females. Dylan believed that anyone who tried to force a female alpha to do anything could be risking his life—more so with one who had shown a propensity and aptitude for violence. Like their wild counterparts, werewolf shifters mated for life unless a mate was killed. Death severed the link and allowed the surviving member of the pair to be mated again. Dylan worried about the consequences of trying to force Skylar Owen into a pairing not of her choosing.
Dylan’s arguments at the Council had, for the most part, fallen on deaf ears. The Council had voted almost unanimously to request that the Bae Diogel pack disband voluntarily and its members be absorbed among member packs. If, however, the Bae Diogel pack refused to accept the ruling of the Council, then the members of the pack would have sanctions imposed, part of which would include being forced into various packs. The Council had chosen to remain moot on what would happen to the individual women once placed in a pack not of her choosing.
* * *
Skylar could feel him spooned against her. His hand moved up her torso to play with her breast. He took her nipple between his thumb and forefinger and rolled it lovingly.
“Good morning, Anwylyd. And how is my sweetheart this morning?” Micah said in his distinctive deep, heavily Welsh-accented voice.
Skylar purred, enjoying his attention. “She’d be a lot better if you’d roll her over and put that hard thing poking her ass in her pussy where it would do some good.”
Micah laughed and pulled her over on her back, sending his hand down to delve between her parted legs. He spent only a moment fingering her clit before probing her sheath with his fingers. Smiling at finding her wet, he kissed her deeply and then nibbled down her neck to her breast. He took her nipple in his mouth and sucked and nipped as he fingered her. When she began to produce even more moisture and bucked her hips in rhythm to his stroking, he chuckled as he removed his fingers and placed himself between her legs.
“Son of the wave,” he whispered as he brought his hands up to grasp both of hers above her head. He generally liked to remind her who the dominant partner was in their pairing. A fact that Skylar had a bad habit of choosing to either forget or acknowledge. Such choices most often resulted in his taking her across his knee for a spanking. The severity of the spanking was determined by the severity of her bad choices.
Skylar gasped as he surged forward.
She awoke from the dream as she usually did and cried out in anguish and frustration. She grabbed the other pillow and folded it within her grasp. She screamed into it. There was no reason to wake the other members of the household. She sat up and sobbed into the pillow. She wondered if she would ever truly move past the pain. She got up, slipped on her robe, and left her room to go into the communal kitchen.
“Jesus, Skylar, you look like shit,” said Roz Kincanon. Roz handed her the cup of Irish Breakfast tea she had just made for herself. “You need this more than I.”
Skylar said nothing but smiled and gratefully accepted the cup. She took a sip and savored the taste. “Thanks. Any news from your sister?”
Roz and her sister, Liza, had been not been born as shifters. Like others who had come and gone through Bae Diogel, they had been turned without their consent. They had been taken by a pack in serious need of females with the thought that they would be mated to members of the pack. The pack in question had made the mistake of hunting in another pack’s territory: that of the alpha of the Hamptons. The Hamptons pack had tried to stop the abduction and forced change, but had failed. In the aftermath of that failure, they had taken the girls back to their sanctuary and seen them through the change, offering them a place with them if they chose. Roz’s sister had been amenable to the idea. Roz had not; she had made her escape before a mate could be selected for her.
Not all of the members of the current Bae Diogel pack had been running from a forced mating. Some were born shifters and some had been turned willingly who chose not to live in the male-dominated packs. Still others, like Skylar, had once been happily mated but lost their mate and had no interest in either trying again or living with a lot of memories.
Roz and Liza had secretly maintained communication. Her sister’s mate had made it clear that any contact with Roz would result in Liza being disciplined. But their bond was strong and so they got each other messages when they could. Liza had reached out when word of the thwarted attack had spread. Roz had assured her that their community was safe and that they had only suffered minor injuries, had found the weakness in their security system and made changes to strengthen it.
The community resided on a small, isolated island in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. There was a large house that had once been the summer residence of a railroad baron. It had been abandoned for more than a century and in disrepair when Skylar had purchased it. Following the deaths of those who had taken Micah from her, Skylar needed something productive and positive to do. She had gone back to restoring homes and selling them until she’d come across this place. It was a grand old house with twelve bedrooms, twelve baths, and three powder rooms. She’d started on the ground floor restoring the solarium and adding a bath as her own private suite. Then she’d gutted and created a chef’s kitchen and began working on the other bedrooms. Once they were complete, she and the other two women who by that time had joined her went to work on restoring all of the common areas including the porch, the patio, and the gardens. In the end, they had brought the old girl back to her former glory.
Skylar knew that not all female wolf shifters found themselves as such because of birth or choice. She hoped she could create sanctuary for them either to find themselves and move on or to stay and create a new kind of pack. A pack made only of women and where no woman answered to any man. Skylar was an alpha and owned the island and house, but she thought of herself as a benign alpha. She didn’t want to make decisions for anyone but herself. The only real rule was no men—not even overnight. Any member was free to pursue sexual relationships; they just couldn’t bring a man to the sanctuary. Anyone violating the rule was asked to leave. So far, that had only happened once.
Roz frowned. “Unfortunately, you were right. There were a few members of the Council who spoke about inviting us in as equals, but they were voted down. Liza said they voted to break us up—either with or without our consent.”
“I had a bad feeling that might be their decision. We need to call everyone together. Anyone who wants to leave or doesn’t want to fight needs to gather her things and leave. But this is my home and no one will force me to share it with another pack or anyone who is not here by my invitation.”
Roz reached out and squeezed her arm. “I don’t know that anyone will leave. This is our home too and as with those marauders, we will fight to keep it and our family here safe.”
“Why don’t you start getting everyone awake and down in the dining room. I’ll start putting together a big brunch. We can eat, make decisions, and assign jobs. We have a lot of work ahead of us.”
Roz headed out of the kitchen but turned to look at her friend. “They know what happened, Sky… they’ll be prepared.”
She smiled at Roz. “So will we.”
Chapter Two
Dylan Grainger had returned from the Council in a foul mood. He’d gone out sailing to try to clear his head and figure out what he wanted to do. As Dylan’s estate wa
s in the closest geographical proximity to the Bae Diogel pack, he had been tasked with doing some initial surveillance. The Council did not want the women harmed. Dylan wished he believed they were being altruistic but knew better. They didn’t want the small pack of females harmed as they were too valuable to the future of their species.
He felt the wind take hold of the sails and guided the boat down the coast, weaving in and out of the barrier islands that made up the Outer Banks before heading home. He had called a meeting of the members of his pack for this afternoon.
The Council had concluded that although the women of Bae Diogel might not leave their sanctuary voluntarily, they would find themselves as the valued members of their new packs. And that they would be grateful they had been saved. He had laughed and shook his head. Obviously, they didn’t know much about the leader of Bae Diogel. Skylar Owen was a legend among British shifters. She had lived on her own for years and liked it that way.
Micah Owen had been the most eligible of the unmated alpha males in Great Britain and Europe. He had ruled his pack as alpha for more than fifteen years when he’d come across Skylar. The attraction had been immediate and profound, but Skylar chose to ignore and deny it. When Micah had tried to court her, she’d rejected him outright. He’d brought her under his protection and into his pack much to her dismay. He had given her the choice of his marking her as his own or the chance to run. She’d chosen to run and had led him on a merry chase. When they had returned three days later, it was obvious not only by the healing mark on her neck but in the way she behaved with Micah that the strong Welsh wolf had found and claimed his true life mate.