The Alpha's Captive (11 page)

Having come upon a small side door, she stepped out of it. Simply feeling the elements on her skin was refreshing, her feet on the earth. Just being outside under a sky that was expansive and rarely for England, bright, raised her spirits.

The heath around Darkwood Manor extended as far as the eye could see. She knew the village was fifty miles or so down the road. And she knew there was a bus that connected the village to the rest of the world. It would not be all that difficult to walk. It would probably take a day or so to walk it, but she could manage that if she got some food and water from the kitchen.

She took a few steps away from the house, just to see if anyone would notice. Nothing happened. She kept going, right out to the back fence, which was merely a low hedge separating lawn from heath. Still nothing happened. Then she climbed the fence and wandered a few steps onto the heath. It was starting to become apparent that Lorcan’s dire promises of punishment aside, there was no real way for him to enforce his will.

It was nice to feel free and to spend some time on her own, so she kept walking through the craggy, tussock-y terrain, bright heather bushes growing among the long grasses. It was a strange landscape, vaguely alien in a way she found hard to define. It was beautiful, but in a somewhat solemn, somber way, especially when the sky became overcast.

A sound in the distance made her turn her head. She turned to see Lorcan standing by the manor fence, gesturing at her, wanting her to come back. She took a step toward him, then stopped. What if she didn’t go to him? What then? She was far enough away that she could not properly hear what he was saying, there was some plausible deniability to be had in pretending she couldn’t hear him.

She waved at Lorcan, then turned and kept walking in the direction she had originally chosen. It wasn’t as if getting lost was a possibility; the manor was a monolith in the middle of all the tussock, easily seen for many miles around.

She didn’t dare glance back over her shoulder right away, but when she did she saw that not just Lorcan, but two of his pack mates were following after her. She kept walking, increasing her pace in the hopeless hope that she could perhaps lose them on open ground.

They were still thirty or so paces away when Hannah realized Lorcan was holding a long thin, whippy branch in his hand. It was almost two feet long and it looked serious. She did not want him to catch her while he still had that with him.

“Hannah! C’mere!” Lorcan called the order in dominant tones that almost made her feet stop simply by their resonance.

She pushed through the impulse to obey and sped up a little more. Intellectually she knew she couldn’t outrun Lorcan, let alone the two men he had with him. They were coming for her like a small pack. What she didn’t understand is why he hadn’t overtaken her yet. He could have. He could have sent his men to get her, and yet he didn’t. He let her keep moving…

Suddenly, Hannah understood what was happening. He was letting her tire herself out. He and his men were following her to make sure she did not break left or right, did not have any chance of escape. This would only end when she stopped running and submitted willingly, or when she was too tired to do anything but submit.

It was a bad situation, but Hannah had an idea. She started looping around to her left, making a wide enough circle that maybe they wouldn’t notice that they were turning. With any luck, she could work her way back toward the manor and find somewhere to hide before her lackadaisical pursuers caught up with her. It was a bold plan, but the only one possible.

For a few minutes, she thought it was working. She was still far out in front enough to feel secure, and they were all beginning to turn in a slow formation behind her. Perfect. Maybe their animal instincts would lead them astray. Maybe she could outsmart the wolves who were also men.

A few more steps and she realized that the man to Lorcan’s right was now closer to him, the other was sliding out further. Dammit. They weren’t falling for it at all. They were herding her further and further out onto the heath, and with every step the manor was beginning to dwindle into the distance. Soon enough she would not know where she was, she would be lost and entirely at their mercy to find her way back.

She was starting to get tired too. A week’s worth of down time recovering from injuries and the general stress of travel and the strangeness of the situation she found herself in had taken a toll on her energy reserves. Her heart had been racing since Lorcan’s first appearance, the prolonged stress of the slow chase taking its toll.

“Okay, fine!” She threw her hands in the air and yelled back at him. “You got me!”

Hannah stood still and waited for Lorcan to reach her. He seemed taller than ever with every step he took, until finally he was looming over her, switch still firmly in hand.

“I’m not sure what your plan was, whelp,” he said as his men flanked her. “But it was a bad idea.”

“I was just going for a walk,” she said, putting her hands on her hips. “You told me to get some exercise.”

“I didn’t tell you to walk halfway across the heath and ignore me when I told you to come back.”

Hannah backed away from him the moment she saw his hand moving toward her. She might have been caught, but she did not wish to be actually caught. She got maybe three steps back before the two men with Lorcan walked around behind her and cut off any possible escape route.

“What,” she said, looking around. “Three on one? That’s not fair.”

“This is how a pack operates, Hannah,” Lorcan said without any shame at all. “Expect to be pulled up by any one of us if you are disobeying me.”

Hannah shot looks at the men. She had not been introduced; one was a few years older than her, cute with a sort of skinny awkwardness that she did not believe for a second would translate to weakness. The other was broader, older, bearded. He looked at her with a gruff, somewhat paternal air, which she did not appreciate in the slightest.

“Okay, well, you got me,” she said. “They can go.”

“Oh, I don’t think so,” Lorcan replied as the two men reached for her at the same time. Before Hannah could properly react she found each of her arms held firmly. This was not good.

“Do I at least get read my rights before you take me away, officers?” She smirked the question in an effort not to seem as scared as she was. Squirming between the two men, she could feel their strength, and Lorcan did not look amused at all. He looked every inch the stern, unyielding alpha.

“I told you I expected obedience,” he said. “And I warned you there would be consequences if you were to try to run away.”

“I wasn’t even running, Lorcan, God!” She rolled her eyes. “You’re so dramatic about everything. Oh, nobody can know I’m a werewolf, waah. You sound like a big baby.”

Lorcan’s glower made her innards quiver, but she was not going to apologize. If he thought she would be some quiet, sweet little prisoner, he had another think coming. She was going to make his life a torment until he finally realized it was easier to let her go than keep her around.

“Bite yer tongue, lass,” the bigger of her captors advised. “Yer making this much worse.”

“Thanks for the advice, Lurch,” she snapped back. Unable to physically fight, she was left with nothing but her smart mouth.

“You were already in trouble, whelp,” Lorcan growled. “You’re only making it worse.”

“Yeah? Make this worse,” Hannah said, flipping him off with the middle finger of both hands. She thought she saw the younger man smirk briefly before Lorcan’s growl made everyone fall silent.

He reached out, grabbed her by the front of her sweater, and pulled her out of the hands of her captors. It was no merciful rescue however; he sat down on a nearby rock and tossed her over his lap as if she weighed nothing at all.

“No! Lorcan, not here!”

Her squealed plea came too late and went unheeded as the alpha hauled her pants and panties down in one rough tug, baring the twin rounds of her bare bottom to his gaze and the gaze of his pack mates. Hit with a sudden rush of humiliation, Hannah immediately regretted all the actions that had led her to that point.

“I’m sorry!”

“It’s a bit too late to be sorry, whelp,” Lorcan rumbled down at her.

Hannah squealed as Lorcan’s switch met her cheeks with swift strokes that welted as soon as they landed. It hurt as much as she thought it would when she read it described in Honoraria’s diary, each stroke landing like fire.

There was no mercy in the punishment. Lorcan whipped the switch against her rear more times than she could count, some of the strokes landing over previous ones to create a new crescendo of sensation. She flailed, she screeched, she grasped at the legs of his pants, and she tried her best to buck off his lap, but nothing allowed her to avoid the alpha’s wrath.

She could feel three sets of eyes on her fast reddening bottom, three sets of eyes witness to her humiliation. Tears were springing to her eyes, fueled by pain and regret. Lorcan’s forgiveness seemed unlikely as he continued to spank her, dropping the lash to slap her bottom with the flat of his palm. The change in stimulation did not give much in the way of respite. Instead of stinging there was a deeper heat that ignited responses in her body, a warmth rippling through her abdomen and her loins.

With a cry of desire, she realized that she was starting to become aroused. A response completely out of her control, a need that rose like a tidal wave inside her in spite of the fact that she was displayed so brazenly to Lorcan’s men. They could see her bare bottom, they could see her red cheeks, and in all likelihood they could see the glistening along the lips of her pussy too. Nothing was private anymore. And Hannah no longer cared. Her clit was grazing Lorcan’s thigh with each and every slap and her pussy was brimming with need. He had taken her pride, but in its place pure lust was unleashed as she arched her hips and put herself on display even more.

“Easy,” Lorcan said, his palm splaying over her bottom, perhaps to shield her modesty. He leaned down and growled in her ear. “This is supposed to be a punishment, brat.”

“Then make it one,” she shot back defiantly. So the alpha did not like his mate displaying herself sexually to the pack. Once again, Lorcan had underestimated her. Hannah grinned to herself as she felt him reach down and pull her panties up over her wet pussy.

She was not entirely released from his grasp, or restored to modesty. He stood up and swung her over his shoulder, her jeans still around her knees as he began carrying her back to the manor. Hannah’s pink cheeks were visible around the hem of her panties, the gusset showing signs of moistening with a little damp patch right in the center of the soft ridges of her lips.

Lorcan’s men were silent on the walk back, but Hannah was sure they too were hiding smirks, and perhaps more. Lorcan dismissed them at the manor door and carried Hannah up to his bedroom, with her giggling all the way in spite of the hard slaps he intermittently landed on her whipped cheeks.

“You are such a brat,” he growled, tossing her on the bed. Hannah laughed with glee as he pulled her shoes, socks, and jeans off, leaving her in her sweater and panties. She should probably have been more chastised, more careful around the large alpha whose expression was stern in the extreme, but she was so pleased with having made him abandon his plan to spank her in front of others that she was starting to think she could perhaps outmaneuver him in other ways.

“Spanking alone is not going to get through to you, is it,” he said grimly. “You need a sterner reminder.”

Hannah laughed as he hooked his fingers in her panties, not just pulling them down but actually tearing them from her body.

She stopped laughing abruptly when he opened a bedside drawer and produced what could only be described as a big butt plug. Black rubber towered at least four inches, the plug as thick as three or four fingers.

“That’s not going in my ass,” she said firmly, covering her welted cheeks.

“Oh, but it is,” Lorcan replied. “And it’s staying there until you make an apology that isn’t glib or disrespectful.”

Sitting on a sore bottom was not pleasant, but it was Hannah’s only way of trying to protect her anus from what seemed to her to be an impossibly large plug. She rolled onto her cheeks and gave him what she very much hoped was a contrite look.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m sorry for teasing you.”

“Go on…”

“I’m sorry I didn’t realize you don’t have a sense of humor… oowwww!”

Her howls filled the room as Lorcan flipped her onto her belly and applied his palm hard and fast to her already reddened cheeks.

“You are going to learn, whelp,” he promised her.

Pinned on the bed face down, Hannah wasn’t able to see much, but she could feel everything. She could feel her cheeks being spread by Lorcan’s powerful hand. She could feel the cool dabbing of lubricating gel being applied between her cheeks, and then the pad of his thumb rubbing it against her anus.

Little noises of protest went unheeded by the alpha as he prepared her naughty bottom for a punishment she had not experienced before. Squirming did her no good either; he was on top of her every movement before she made it.

“Ooh!” She let out an exclamation as the thumb that had been massaging her anal bud began to press harder at that little hole, slowly penetrating her virginal bottom. Hannah found herself grasping at her sheets, clenching her muscles in an effort to try to avoid further insertion.

“It will hurt if you fight it,” Lorcan informed her, his refined tones so incongruous compared to the base actions his thumb was involved in. “It’s best to relax, and submit if you’re capable of such a thing, you little brat.”

There was affection in his tone, but the affection meant little compared to the thick thumb in her anus. Hannah had persevered through the switching, and the public spanking, but having her bottom taken was something she could not giggle her way through and ignore. Though he was little more than an inch inside her bottom, she felt stretched and taken and possessed. Her earlier hubris melted under the impact of that simple act that demonstrated undeniable dominion over her body.