Overlord: A Dark Shifter Romance

by Delta James

  Sloan knew that conventional wisdom said that her best chance at soothing his ire was to show repentance and submission in equal measure. She also knew that Gareth was not a typical alpha. He was in many ways a most uncommon mate, and she was certain that he had no doubt about the she-wolf he had claimed as his own.

  “I might point out to you that taking out your anger with me on others is beneath you. I might also point out that you have no cause to be angry with me in the first place...”

  “No cause?” he bellowed. “You run off while I am sleeping, put yourself in danger...”

  Sloan rolled up from her supine position and crawled provocatively toward him, growling seductively. “And returned to you as I said I would.”

  “Do not think you will cajole or seduce your way out of the welting I promised you if you ever ran away from me again...”

  Sloan couldn’t help but laugh as he stood at the end of the bed and allowed her to slither up his body as she intertwined her arms around his neck. “Nor should you think that it hasn’t occurred to me that you and Tyler worked in concert to send me to Ruari, who was closer and offered a safer route for me to take. You, my lord, are a most devious mate and I recognize that I have been outplayed.”

  Gareth chuckled in spite of himself, pulling her close and allowing her to feel his knot beginning to form. “As well as you know me, I know and understand you. It was not in your nature to sit back and further weaken our defenses by even one warrior if you could accomplish the task yourself.”

  They were interrupted by a gentle knock on the door.

  “Enter,” he called.

  The door barely opened, and Winifred said, “I have your tray, Alpha.”

  “Bring it in and set it on my desk,” he growled as he began nibbling on Sloan’s neck.

  The housekeeper entered with the tray.

  “Growl at me all you like, but Winifred has done nothing to deserve your displeasure,” scolded Sloan.

  Gareth brought his hand down hard on her rump, making her yelp.

  “My mate speaks the truth and you have my apologies, Winifred.”

  Sloan nuzzled his neck. “There’s a good mate,” she purred, causing Gareth to swat her again. “Ouch! That hurts, Gareth.”

  “Not as much as it’s going to before I’m through with you,” he growled seductively.

  Sloan felt her pussy clench in anticipation of what she knew was to come.

  She saw Winifred grinning out of the corner of her eye as she did as instructed, before leaving their room.

  “Nicely done, mate. Winifred will spread the word that while I am still angry, harmony has once again been restored to Ravenscar as their mistress is well able to deal with my temper.”

  Gareth pushed her back onto the bed and crossed over to his desk. Sitting in the chair, he pulled off his boots and then undressed, placing his belt next to the plate of food. Standing nude, he picked up the tray of meats, cheeses, bread, and fruit and returned to their bed, sitting on the edge and placing the tray beside him.

  He reached for her and gently pulled her across his lap and into position to be spanked and, Sloan feared, welted. She had promised herself to endure whatever punishment he meted out in stoic acceptance but found that now that it was about to commence, her ability to do so was quickly eroding.

  “Gareth, please? You admitted that you set me up with Tyler...”

  “Which would only have been necessary if you chose to disobey me, which you did. I warned you the last time you ran off that if I had to come after you again...”

  “But you didn’t have to come after me, I came home. I came back to you.”

  “While that is true, it does not negate the fact, my beloved, that you disobeyed me, but more than that, put yourself in danger. I will not allow you to do either without finding yourself face down over my knee getting your bottom spanked.”

  Before she could mount any kind of effective argument in her defense, Gareth raised his hand and brought it down on her ass with enough force that she yowled in response. Sloan’s last fleeting thought, before being completely enveloped by the emotion and pain of Gareth’s punishment, was that perhaps he might forego welting her as she could feel his erection and knot throbbing underneath her. It was disconcerting that alongside the trepidation that was building at the thought of being spanked, that her body was ratcheting up its arousal from the knowledge that she was to feel again the physical and emotional enormity that was being knotted and tied by her mate.

  Gareth began to lay down a series of punishing strikes all over her backside. The steady, staccato rhythm of his hand served not only to inflict a level of pain she had not felt before, but to remind her that he was her mate and alpha and that disobeying him would have consequences... painful ones. The cadence of the blows served to establish the throbbing of her blood in response to the waves of lust she could feel quickly replacing those of anger.

  His hand bounced off her butt cheeks in an ever-increasing tempo of pain. Gareth laid down the sharp swats evenly all over her buttocks. Sloan felt as though her entire behind was on fire and was certain it was coloring and beginning to swell. When it felt like there was nothing more he could do to the fleshy part of her ass, he moved down to spank her upper thighs and deliver punishing blows to her sit spots. She yowled and fought, but he was too strong for it to do her any good.

  “Gareth, please stop. I’m sorry.”

  “Are you?” he growled.

  “I am. Please don’t spank me anymore. I won’t disobey you or put myself in danger again.”

  Gareth snorted as he reached for his belt. “I doubt that.”

  “No,” she cried, increasing the intensity of her struggles.

  Sloan heard the distinctive swoosh of the belt slicing through the air before it landed the first line of fire across the fullest portion of her bottom.

  “Gareth,” she screamed.

  His belt descended again and again, causing her to thrash around on his lap, trying to get away from the torturous weapon. Sloan wailed and cried as Gareth laid down five stripes of raised welts. He was meticulous in their placement so as to not crisscross them, but the pain from each seemed to work together with the others to increase the agony she was experiencing.

  He rubbed her bottom softly, careful to avoid the weals that now decorated her backside. His touch was sensual and seductive, but painful nonetheless. Gareth traced his finger down between her butt cheeks past the opening to her core to the swollen nub at the juncture of her thighs. Softly he rubbed it until she sighed and let the tension flow from her body.

  Sloan experienced, physically and audibly, the soothing rumble from deep within his chest, which brought forth an answering purr from her. She could feel arousal swirling deep within her. The pain from the spanking morphed and fed her need to be one with him. He continued to play with her clit, moving her ever closer to climax.

  “If you ever try to leave me or deliberately put yourself in harm’s way again, I will double the number and size of your welts. Do you understand me?”

  “Yes, Gareth. Can you please be done being angry and ease the ache I feel for you?”

  He helped her up off his lap and tossed a fluffy pillow into the general vicinity of where she supposed her ass would land when he placed her on her back. Gareth kneeled on their bed and drew her onto it, placing her where he would be able to knot and tie her to him.

  The sound that reverberated from him was profoundly rich and evocative. Sloan felt herself responding to him in an intense and highly sexualized manner. She lay back and watched as he rolled atop her, parting her thighs with his own. She could feel the head of his cock seeking the entrance to her sheath as well as his knot throbbing in expectation of being buried inside her.

  “Mine. Do you hear me? Mine,” he whispered in her ear as he clutched her sore buttocks in his hands and surged forward, breaching her opening and burying his knot deep within her.

  “Yes,” she screamed as her body arched up into his and
orgasmed in welcome and recognition of his possession.

  Silent tears began to leak from her eyes. She wasn’t sure as to their meaning. She felt Gareth nuzzle and kiss them away as he held her tight. Sloan wrapped her arms around him seeking to become as much a part of him as she could. Her pussy continued to spasm all up and down the length of his shaft but most intently around the knot that began to swell and seal her to him.

  The physical and emotional intensity that resulted from the breaching paled in comparison to the heights of passion she would ascend with him when he began to rock within her, exacting numerous orgasms. Steadying her with his hands, she felt him roll his hips forward and begin the dance of subtle and overpowering rocking movements. Sloan began to become undone—her nipples were so stiff they bordered on painful as the fur on his chest raked against them. His pubic bone rubbed against her mons in a way she felt acutely. Her pussy pulsated in harmonic rhythm to the steady rocking of his cock.

  Sloan lost touch with reality and soared in a haze where time and place had no meaning. All that existed was this moment of exquisite sensation with Gareth. She wailed as she came hard against him only to recognize he still rocked strong and steady. He kissed the scar that had resulted from the place he had marked her and turned her from human to wolf. It no longer mattered that he had done so without her consent. Sloan raked his back with her nails, drawing long furrows down its length.

  Gareth lazily rocked her through two more powerful climaxes before she felt the tempo become more frenzied. His canines extended once more, and he seized the side of her neck where it joined the top of the shoulder in a savage bite, which called forth another dramatic orgasm that seemed to be wrenched from the depths of her soul. She keened not in pain but in absolute surrender to her mate.

  “Gareth,” she cried, digging her nails into his back.

  Gareth roared as she felt his cock begin to surge within her, releasing a torrent of his seed into the fertile ground that was her womb. His orgasm was prolonged, and she climaxed a final time as he spent himself in her. Once the intensity of their coupling began to subside, Gareth kissed her deeply as he rolled to his back, bringing her atop him.

  He began to lightly stroke her back and sides as if to coax her soul to return to the confines of her body. Sloan rubbed her cheek on his softly furred chest and snuggled close to his warmth.

  “Everything will be all right, won’t it?” she asked quietly, afraid for the first time.

  “Aye, beloved, it will. While you were off being a very naughty mate, we were able to get a better idea of the advancing army’s strength and capabilities. We will have no trouble keeping them at bay until the rest of our men have returned with those of Ruari’s. Then we will learn their objectives and formulate a plan to annihilate them. If I am correct, Edwyn will have created the means to his own end.”

  “What do you mean?”

  He chuckled, “My brother and I may have the only mates that one discusses battle strategy with while tied to her.”

  “Pillow talk was never your forte,” she teased. “What did you mean about Edwyn?”

  “I will fill you in on everything later tonight but suffice it to say that while he intended to divide Britannia, he is going to find himself caught in the middle of a triangulated trap between Calon Onest, Dundalk, and Ravenscar. Edan has joined us as our beta. Alaric sent him as part of an envoy with news he had gathered from the dam-builders. He also sent a group to Ruari with the same information and proposing a three-way alliance based on common goals, friendship, and blood.”

  “But Ruari isn’t related to you or Alaric.”

  “No, but his mate is related to Rowan and you might as well be blood kin to the two of them,” he said, smiling at her confusion.

  “Rowan’s only blood kin is...” Gareth nodded as realization dawned. “But Alaric swore he wouldn’t force Arielle into a pairing for the sake of an alliance.”

  “He did, and he won’t... unless she was his fated mate.”

  “But Ruari wasn’t called to Arielle or her to him.”

  “He was, but as my beta, he didn’t feel he was the one to fulfill her destiny. Now as Alpha of Dundalk, he can make her the mistress of a great pack.”

  “So that’s what you and Alaric were plotting. Arielle was at Dundalk while I was there.”

  “She was?”

  Sloan nodded. “Apparently she got her first taste of discipline at Calon Onest and ran away.”

  “Ruari was effective as my beta. She’ll find her mate more than able to correct her misbehavior. I daresay Ruari will be far less understanding and indulgent than Alaric or me, but then Arielle is far less headstrong than you or Rowan.”

  Sloan didn’t necessarily agree with him but decided to keep her opinion to herself. Instead she cupped her mate’s face in her hands and kissed him with a depth of feeling that was intense and reassuring. She almost felt sympathetic toward Edwyn of Chepstow. He was about to find himself up against a triumvirate that she was quite sure could rule the world... all of whom were paired with their fated alpha mates.

  The End

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