Page 18 of Shifted Existence

Talon flexed his fingers, beckoning her as he rumbled softly, trying to reassure her that this was as it should be and that in the end, she would find happiness in his arms. He had been so focused on trying to entreat her, he had failed to notice the dirt and pebbles she was gathering into her fist before she flung them at him, aiming for and hitting his face and eyes.

As he stepped back and raised his hand to ward off injury, Bailey leapt to her feet and was charging off into the forest. So much for patience and understanding. His mate was in need of a heavy dose of discipline before he claimed her thoroughly. He was stronger and faster than she was, even in his human form, so he took off after her. This time when he caught her, he meant to let his more primitive emotions and actions show her the proper way to respond.

CHAPTER11

Even as Bailey threw the rocks and dirt at him… even as she ran… she knew he spoke the truth. She may have found herself a reality that was less polluted but that was all that had changed. Females were still valued only for their ability to reproduce and were used as pieces on a chessboard in a game in which they had no standing. Why couldn’t she just live free? Why did someone else get to make her choices? Why had the reflection in the river, the Mirror, told Talon of her existence?

As she ran, she could hear him charging after her. There was no way to defeat him. She knew that, but still she had to try. If she continued running through the trees, she most likely would trip, but if she turned to run along the river on the sandy bank, she would be far easier to catch. There had to be some way to get away from him. Could wolves climb? He hadn’t seemed inclined to come up after her. Maybe she could shimmy up a tree before he could get to her and make her escape among the treetops. Even as she thought it, she knew that was nonsensical.

Maybe… As strong fingers grasped the tendrils of her hair that trailed down her back, she knew her maybes were through. Feeling him close his fist around her long mane, she stopped before he had to tug on it. Bailey had never liked having her hair pulled, but something about the way Talon used it to slow her progress and bring her back to him had a decided effect on her libido. There was no denying that she found Talon desirable—he was the stuff fantasies were made of—but that didn’t mean she meant to give into them.

She shortened and slowed her stride so that they both came to a halt. He tugged on her hair to bring her back to him. She turned quickly, stomped on his instep, and punched him in the nose. When he released her and staggered back, Bailey made a sharp right and headed deeper into the forest. Given a little lead time, perhaps she could elude him and hide.

Talon quickly abused her of that notion. This time when he caught up with her, he fisted her mane and ran past her, forcing her to run behind him with her head at an odd angle. When he slowed and came to a stop, he wasted no time in binding her hands together before hoisting her up over his shoulder and delivering a stinging swat to her backside.

“To hell with waiting to publicly punish you. You have lashed out at me or anyone else in our pack for the last time without being made to pay the consequences.”

He strode back the way he had come, and she wondered about the distance between his village and the river. She’d had an opportunity to observe the wolf-shifters when they had hunted in the Conquered Realm. They were in peak condition, seemingly tireless predators as they moved over the land, rarely stopping to rest.

As he approached the clearing by the river where she’d sat between the boulder and the ferns, it never occurred to her that he was headed for the bench. As he entered the clearing, Talon growled, and the small animals gathered by the river scattered and scampered away.

“Do you always bully poor defenseless creatures?” asked Bailey, not bothering to hide the sarcasm in her voice.Do they understand sarcasm?“Oh wait, I know the answer to that. Yes. You and your kind have been doing that to those in the Conquered Realm for years.”

Talon stood her on her feet, fisting her hair again, tugging it back, and sending lightning bolts of arousal surging through her veins. She could feel her nipples bead up and desire begin to swirl in her nether region as her sex softened and prepared—prepared for what? It had been more than three years since she’d felt the touch of a man, more than a year since she’d even tried to pleasure herself. The last time had ended up in a frustrated crying jag as she had failed to even come close to climax. Before the war she had enjoyed sex, and now it seemed it had become a weapon to be used against her in one way or another.

Talon’s eyes searched her face only for a moment before he growled as he lowered his head to hers to capture her mouth in a fiery kiss. He never released her hair but wrapped his other arm around her waist, drawing her close, allowing it to drift down to cup her ass and press her sex into the hard outline of his erection. There was no doubt in her mind that Talon believed her to be his and meant to claim her as his mate. When the angry growl somehow morphed into a more seductive rumble, her body trembled, not from fear, but from desire.

His tongue pushed past her teeth to tangle and dance with hers. Bailey remembered what it had been like to kiss before her reality had come crashing down around them, but it had been nothing like this. It wasn’t merely Talon’s lips being fused to hers, but a portent of things to come. He meant to conquer her in the same way his kind had invaded and conquered her domain.

“No,” she whispered when he finally lifted his head.

“Yes,” he answered in a low, guttural voice.

He backed up until he was standing next to the bench. He released her waist as he sat with his legs spread, his hard cock pressing against his fly. Talon reached up and stripped her breeches down past her knees so they were folded over her boots. He used her fisted mane to guide her over one hard, muscular thigh as the other closed behind her legs, trapping her between them. He released her hair, resting that hand between her shoulder blades, trapping her in a position where her ass was the highest point of her body.

Before she could process that information and what it might mean, without a word, Talon’s hand came down and smacked her ass with considerable force, causing heat and pain to bloom. Over and over again, he landed swat after swat, covering the entirety of her vulnerable backside. Bailey had never been spanked before. She didn’t like it one bit, but nothing she did—kicking her legs or flailing her bound arms—seemed to provide any kind of deterrent to him.

As the heat became an uncomfortable burn, she could feel another fire being sparked into life. If Talon’s kiss and show of dominance had caused desire to begin to flow through her veins, the spanking caused it to engulf her entire being. She didn’t understand it and it was confusing and painful. How could her body be preparing for and demanding this beast that was spanking her with a grim determination to possess her body in a far more primal and sexual manner?

The blows to her backside stung and ached and sent all of her senses, including her libido, into overdrive. It was as if she had been living in a kind of softly shrouded veil and it was being ripped away so she could hear, see, and feel everything in a far more visceral way. All the sounds and smells of the forest seem to intensify and the rhythmic slapping of Talon’s hand against her bare buttocks made her clit and labia swell and rampant desire pool at the opening to her core.

Given his enhanced senses, Bailey was certain that Talon could smell her increasing arousal. She fought against the rising tide of her desire as his cock throbbed in perfect harmonic rhythm to the heated slaps to her buttocks that had reduced them to nothing more than two hot, painful globes. At first, she had managed to remain quiet while he inflicted his discipline on her, but the longer she stoically held out, the harder the swats to her backside became.

When the first gasp escaped her lips, it was as if someone had pulled a cork from a dike, allowing the water to cascade through the floodgates. Only this wasn’t water, not unless her tears counted as such. What came out was wailing that became louder and more intense with each smack.

* * *

Talon felt her anger and defiance in every part of her body. She might not realize it, but he was being lenient. By tradition, she should have had to endure her punishment in front of the witnesses she had harmed, if not the entire pack. He supposed he could almost as easily have carried her back to the village, but he had wanted this to be between them.

What had started out as cool, ivory skin had given way to a blushing pink, deepening now into a stark, glowing red. Each time his hand landed, she moaned, and her skin quivered in response. And yet she refused to yield. He knew that the females of the Conquered Realm where not accustomed to being disciplined, but she needed to learn to submit and to give over, especially when she was being punished.

How had he ever thought that most of the females from the Conquered Realm weren’t worth having? He’d long ago decided that those brought back by his warriors were more than worthy, but then they had always hunted the ferals. Bailey was strong and proud and brave. He knew she was afraid, but it was of things she didn’t know and not of him. Each time he inhaled he was glad she couldn’t see his face as he smiled. Talon could easily scent her growing arousal. Those who had thought to bear witness to her punishment would have to settle for seeing her carried through the village, slung over his shoulder like a prize with her red bottom on display as well as his cum dripping down her thighs.

Talon marveled at her body—strong and fit, yet it retained the softness of a woman. Her bottom was the embodiment of that—not an ounce of fat, but with a give and suppleness that was most appealing. Her body offered the promise of great pleasure as well as easy conception and delivery of their offspring.

“You are my fated mate and you will obey me. Do you understand?”

“I won’t,” she snarled.

---