by Delta James
“If you like,” said Sloan, “I can check with the seal-shifter who brought me across about helping get us back to Britannia and can then lead your men to Ravenscar...”
“And I can go and help...” piped up Arielle, causing Sloan to look at her with astonishment.
Ruari shook his head. “You, little wolf, will be going nowhere but home to Calon Onest once I am sure that’s what Alaric wants. If I were you, I’d be working on coming up with an explanation and apology that will persuade him from having a strap used on your pretty little backside.”
“No,” said Arielle with enough vehemence that it surprised all those in the room.
“Yes,” growled Ruari, plainly exasperated. “As for you, Mistress of Ravenscar, I meant what I said, you will remain here. I will not have you further endangered due to your foolishness. If your mate has not seen fit to take a strap to your backside yet, he may well make up for lost time.”
“You are not my alpha, Ruari. I answer only to Gareth.”
“And in his absence to the alpha who is taking you under his protection.”
“I’m not asking for, nor do I want or need, your protection...”
“But I am extending it, nonetheless. Be careful, Sloan, or I will decide you are in need of my correction in Gareth’s absence,” Ruari growled, taking hold of her upper arm. “I will escort you to one of my guest rooms. You will remain here until Gareth either comes for you or sends an escort.”
As he started toward the main stairs dragging a reluctant Sloan with him, Arielle launched herself at him.
“Let her go,” she cried, batting at his hands.
“Enough,” Ruari shouted, catching her by the upper arm as well. “I have had my fill with belligerent she-wolves who either don’t know or have forgotten their place. The two of you can spend the rest of the day in your rooms. I will have a guard outside each of your doors. If you need something, they will arrange to have it brought to you. Otherwise, you will remain there until I send for you at dinner. I would suggest you give some thought to your misbehavior. My guess is that both of you will find yourself on the receiving end of a punishment spanking before this is all over.”
He called to two of his men to take up a post outside the rooms of Arielle and Sloan. He placed Arielle in her room first and then thrust Sloan into hers.
“He won’t take kindly to your manhandling of me,” threatened Sloan.
“He’ll thank me for keeping you safe and take a strap to you before he reminds you in a more visceral way just which of you is alpha.”
Sloan heard the lock being engaged from the other side. She pounded her fist against the solid wood door and growled in frustrated fury.
Who does he think he is? How dare he treat me in such a manner? The answer came to her clearly and succinctly. He thought he was Alpha of Dundalk and Gareth’s close friend, and like Gareth, he would see her safe whether she liked it or not. Frustrated, she growled again before sitting on the bed.
Sloan vacillated between stalking around the room and sitting quietly. She knew that the best way to deal with Ruari would be to adopt a respectful demeanor, but that was foreign to her nature. She had done what she needed to do and was sure that Ruari would get word to Calon Onest.
She was contemplating the best way to approach Ruari to get him to agree to let her return home, when the door opened and Arielle stepped in.
“Can I keep you company? I asked Ruari for his permission,” she said quietly.
“Of course.” Sloan patted the bed beside her. “Come and sit here with me.”
“I know it hasn’t been very long, but I’ve missed you,” Arielle said as she joined her.
“I’ve missed you and Ro too.”
Sloan shuddered. The pain of being parted from her mate had lessened, but it lay dormant only for so long before it seized her in its grip, reminding her that her other half was far away.
“Are you all right?” asked Arielle.
“I’m fine; just missing Gareth. It’s part of that whole fated mates thing. I’ll be fine as soon as I get back home.”
“Has it been awful for you being mated to Gareth? Is he mean to you? Sometimes I think Alaric is mean to Rowan.”
Sloan was taken aback. “Gareth isn’t mean to me. And I’m sure that Alaric doesn’t mistreat your sister.”
“But he has. Remember when he brought her home from the standing stones? You could see how hard he had beaten her.”
“He didn’t beat her, Ari. He spanked her, and yes, that hurts, but when it is your mate it leads to a lot of very intense feelings of pleasure and sort of resets things between the two of you.”
“I don’t believe you,” said Arielle emphatically.
“Why would I lie to you?”
“I don’t know, but Rowan lied as well. Tristan spanked me because I disobeyed Alaric and I didn’t feel anything but pain.”
“That’s the difference between being disciplined by the pack’s beta and by your mate. What are you doing up here anyway?”
“I didn’t like being spanked at all, so I decided to leave home for a while to teach them not to do that to me.”
Sloan laughed and hugged her close. “I hate to tell you this, but my guess is all you’ve done is made Alaric angrier and he will have Tristan take a strap to you and confine you to your room.”
“He wouldn’t. Rowan wouldn’t let him...”
“Rowan won’t be able to stop him and might not even be inclined to try. You running away from home was an incredibly bad idea.”
“You and Rowan thought it was a good idea for you...”
“Rowan is a skilled warrior and I was a successful thief and had lived on my own for a number of years. We had skills you don’t possess. You could have been badly hurt or even killed. Promise me you won’t do that again. If you feel like you need to get away, go and hide in the tunnels or somewhere else in the castle where you’ll be safe.”
“That’s what Rowan said... but I don’t want to be spanked.”
Sloan laughed. “Me either. Gareth would say that the way to avoid it is to avoid doing anything that would get me spanked, but I’ll never be able to pull that off. But sometimes whatever it is that I want to do is worth it. Knowing I have additional men headed to fight for my pack is worth the spanking I’ll get when Gareth gets ahold of me.”
“But you will have done the right thing. That’s not fair.”
“I don’t disagree. But I also know that in Gareth’s opinion, it was not worth the risk I took.”
“So, then you’ll stay here because you know that he would want you to?”
Sloan laughed again. “Probably not. But as Gareth likes to remind me, I can be difficult. Keep in mind that it isn’t what I did that will have his palm itching to connect with my ass in a decidedly unfriendly manner. It’s the fact that, in his opinion, I put myself in danger.”
“But you’re all right with his spanking you?”
“I don’t know that I’d say that, but I knew he’d punish me when I made the decision to go.”
“What will you do?”
“Try to slip out and get home to stand and fight with my pack. In my mind, being mistress isn’t just about being the best hostess, it’s about caring for those in my pack... including my mate.”
Chapter Sixteen
When Ruari visited Arielle, Sloan played the contrite mate with enough of an edge to be convincing. Ruari invited them to join his pack for the evening meal. They were shown to a large dining hall where they were both greeted and given the deference given to guests of importance.
She watched as Arielle seamlessly engaged with Ruari’s new pack. Her heart broke for his brother’s widow. Clearly, she was grieving his loss, but trying her best to help Ruari by acting as mistress. Sloan was impressed as Arielle unobtrusively lifted that burden from her and allowed Bridget to focus on her young daughter and be comforted by her pack. She was fascinated as the young girl that Arielle had always been began to transform into a young w
oman ready to step into the role of mistress.
Sloan ate her meal and intermingled with Ruari’s new pack. It was obvious that the pack at Dundalk had accepted him as their alpha and that he had taken on that role with quiet authority. She also asked pointed questions and gathered information that allowed her to formulate a plan.
As the evening began to break up, Sloan bid Ruari and Arielle a good night and left the dining hall. Instead of turning to the left to head up the stairs to her room, she veered to the right and raced down the short hall to a side exit into the back bailey. Secreting her movements behind various things, Sloan made her way to the stables and her trusted bay roan. She saddled and bridled her horse and quietly made her way along the back wall, looking for a rarely used and even more rarely guarded way out. Closing the gate behind her, she mounted her stallion and galloped toward the port, hoping that the seal-shifter had waited to take her back across the Irish Sea.
As she approached the town, she reined the roan back to a more sedate trot. She doubted she’d ever been happier to see anything than she was to see the small fishing trawler tied up at the dock. Sloan managed to avoid the harbor patrol and load herself and her horse onto the boat. She held her breath as they quietly pulled away. They made their way back to Britannia. Sloan watched with tears in her eyes as the horizon began to shed its inky darkness and pale streaks of pink and lavender announced the dawning of a new day.
Turning to the captain, she said, “You once told me you owed my mate a debt of some kind. I will tell you that you have discharged that debt and that we are now the ones that owe you. You and yours are welcome at our hearth anytime.”
“The honor has been mine, Milady. I wish you well for the rest of your journey. You should make haste as the small warship that was tied up at dock has been spotted on the far horizon. I think that your escape has been noted and they are after you.”
“No harm will come to you. He was planning to send aid to Gareth and I’m sure the ship carries those troops. I will see that my mate knows of your kindness and assistance.”
Sloan swung up on the charger as soon as he was off-loaded from the fishing boat. So as to not garner undue attention, she trotted through Blackpool. Once outside the city limits, she urged her horse to a gallop and made for Ravenscar with all due haste.
The next two days Sloan rode like a woman possessed. She alternated bouts of galloping with rest periods of walking, but she was always on the move. The roan stallion never flagged, never failed to give her everything she asked for and then some. As she crested the hill and laid eyes on her home, she felt the now familiar clutch of pain release as his anger washed over her and she heard the pounding hoof-beats of their border guards bearing down on her.
“You had best be ready to explain yourself, Mistress. I fear your mate is in as foul a mood as I’ve ever seen him.”
“He’ll have to forego the pleasure of beating my ass as Ruari’s men are not far behind me and we must make ready for their arrival.”
Before the guard could reach for her horse’s reins, she surprised him by offering them and allowing him to take control of her mount.
“If you wouldn’t mind, could we take it easy going the rest of the way and could you see that someone sees to my horse’s needs. He has been a superb mount and deserves to be treated kindly.”
“I would be happy to do so, Milady.”
Sloan hid her smile but didn’t fail to recognize his change from the formal title of Mistress to that of the more informal, and generally more affectionate, Milady.
She felt his approach before she could see him. Sloan knew she should be frightened or at least dreading her reunion with Gareth. Instead, she could feel her heart expanding as her soul reached out to him. He galloped straight at her, not even beginning to slow his speed. As he made to pass her, his arm snaked out and he plucked her from her horse’s back pulling her onto his horse in front of him so that she was sitting sidesaddle.
Wrapping her close in his embrace, he made a wide circle and thundered back toward the manor house. She could feel the waves of anger and lust crashing all around her like the sea did all along their shoreline. Sloan knew there was nothing she could say that would lessen his fury and fear and so laid her head against his chest, listening to his heart as she purred at him.
“That will do you no good, Sloan. I mean to ease my lust between your legs and knot you hard enough that you’ll have trouble walking by the time I welt your ass.”
“I’m doing nothing other than allowing you to feel my joy at being once more in your arms,” she said, knowing it was true.
He slid his horse to a stop in front of the manor and dismounted, pulling her off and into his arms, seizing her mouth with his for a punishing kiss she knew was meant to intimidate and reestablish his dominance over her. It did neither. Instead of recoiling, Sloan wrapped her arms around his neck and reveled in his passionate fury. As he began to relinquish her mouth, Sloan bit his lower lip, surprising him to the point he released her.
Laughing, she spun away from him and dashed into the house, racing for the stairs as Gareth pursued her.
“Milady?” called Winifred with concern in her voice.
“Everything will be fine, Winifred,” she called over her shoulder, managing to stay just ahead of Gareth’s reach. “If you could bring up a tray in three or four hours and leave it outside the door, it would be most appreciated.”
“As you like, Milady,” Winifred called, now trying to suppress her amusement.
Sloan made it to their bedroom, slamming the door behind her and ripping her clothes off while making a beeline for their bed. Gareth entered, closing the door and locking it securely. He turned to find her naked in their bed—her skin flushed with desire, her nipples stiff, and her legs spread not only to allow him to scent her arousal more easily but to let him see her swollen labia and the glistening nectar at the entrance to her sheath.
Gareth growled in primal arousal and dominance. His eyes riveted to her body’s blatant invitation for his possession, Gareth stalked to the end of their bed, unfastening the front of his breeches and allowing his rampant cock to burst forth. Sloan was fascinated by Gareth’s ability to suppress his knot. Even without it, his phallus was impressive, and she longed to feel it rammed home into her wet heat. She had hoped for a knot, but figured he was more inclined to lay claim to her with long, hard strokes before offering her the more intimate possession of the knot and resulting tie.
He stopped at the end of bed, grabbed her behind the knees, and dragged her on her back toward him, slipping his hands further up her legs and raising the lower portion of her body so that it was in line and on a level with his shaft. Finally, he had her by her thighs, his cock poised at the entrance to her sheath.
“You are mine, Mistress of Ravenscar... mine!” he said as he thrust into her with incredible strength and force.
His possession was neither gentle nor unwelcome. Sloan hadn’t realized the depth of her own arousal and was shocked as she howled with the power of her orgasm that left her trembling all along his length, shaking with passion and needing him more than ever.
“Aye, Alpha of Ravenscar, that I am,” she whispered as soon as she could speak.
His smile was feral and predatory, and Sloan gloried in knowing that she could provoke such primitive emotions in him. Grasping her by the hips but allowing his hands to encompass her ass, he began to hammer her pussy with a fury she had never experienced. Sloan wrapped her legs around his body. Gareth held her steady while he stroked her forcefully, closing his eyes in carnal bliss as he savored her response.
The small, rational part of her brain knew that she should protest his treatment of her. There had been no foreplay, no seductive words, no sensual growling; just her need being met by his, the rejoining of their entire beings and her unspoken capitulation to his mastery of their senses. In and out he pistoned as her pussy contracted all along his cock. His staff was engorged due in equal parts from his arousal, the
ir separation, and from the suppression of his knot.
Sloan could feel his entire length scraping along the insides of her most feminine channel as he drove her to another climax. Her body arched into the air as she screamed in pure pleasure and surrender. She reached for his hands and covered them with her own, caressing them in syncopated rhythm to his pummeling that seemed to know no end.
All her nerve endings seemed to be alive and sparking one after the other as she felt every vein and ridge of his cock as he drove into her repeatedly. Sloan knew there would never be another mate for her. Everything in her being cried out for him. She pulsed with the lifeblood that flowed within her and that echoed her mate’s. She climaxed for him repeatedly, her pussy molding itself to him so that it urged his cock to release his seed.
Gareth picked up the tempo of his thrusting as he prepared to empty himself into her. She felt him strive to wring one more measure of her sexual pleasure from her so that his own orgasm coincided with hers and her pussy could milk him dry as he found his release in her. Harder and faster he rammed himself into her as he watched the suspended portion of her body twitch in anticipation of their mutual climax. Just as she began to tip over the precipice of her completion, she felt his cum being jettisoned toward the very end of her channel.
“Gareth,” she called, clinging desperately to his forearms as he continued the release of his creamy essence. She heard him grunt and groan as he finished and finally withdrew from her and let her fall to her back.
He crossed to the door and unlatched the bolt. Before stepping out into the hall, he placed his cock back in his breeches and fastened them.
“Winifred,” he shouted.
Sloan heard the head of their household staff scurrying up the stairs to him.
“Yes, Milord?”
“Bring your mistress and me a tray of food as soon as possible. Once I have her knotted and tied to me, I will see her fed. And I will knot her as soon as she understands the depths of my anger.”