Marked by the Alpha (8 page)

“What if I don’t want all that?”
Dani
was close to tears again and it angered her.

“
With most alphas, you wouldn’t even have a choice.
He could have just carried you off and we wouldn’t be having this argument right now,
but for some reason
Mason
wants
to be diplomatic.”

Dani
growled. She could not keep her thoughts and feelings at bay right now!

Phil growled back, low and threatening. “Do
n'
t growl at me again. You need to hear this whether you like it or not.”

“You do not have any authority over me!”
Dani
sneered down at him. She was taller and that should have been intimidating
to him…
It usually worked
with other men she had met in her life.

Phil’s eyes began to glow a deep shade of orange as he studied her and
Dani
promptly sat down on the window seat. “I will tell Mason exactly the way that you have talked to me and I assure you that whether he has claimed you or not you will have a very hard time sleeping comfortably tonight.”

His words only
caused
the anger to flair again and she struggled to stay sitting down. “You are such an arrogant piece of shit!”
Dani
growled again.

Phil leaned down. “You should
be thankful
that you do not belong to me because I would
deal with you right now
.”

Dani
bit her lip. “I
'
m not afraid of you.”

“I don’t want you to be afraid of me,
Dani
. I wanted you to listen.
I can see that isn’t going to happen, though, so Mason will have to deal with you himself.
” Phil’s eyes faded back to
their normal
blue.

Dani
said nothing as
Phil
turned and grabbed the food
he had brought and set it down next to her.

“Eat. The drugs they gave you will wear off faster if you get something in your stomach.” He set the tray down.
“No one here
wants anything but the best for you.
”

“Yeah
,
but now you’re off
to go tell
Mason that I didn’t like what you had to say
,
so that he
’ll
come up here and
…”
Dani
trailed off and her face flushed.

Phil cocked his head to the side. “You
know very well that deep down you
want Mason’s attention
,
or you wouldn’t be acting this way.”

Dani
snarled. “Leave me alone!”

Phil shook his head. “Mason sure has his work cut out with you.
”
With that
,
he turned and left the room.

Dani
got up and started to pace as she picked at the food. The last thing that she wanted to do was eat but Phil was right.
The drugs would wear off sooner with a meal.
Dani
ate a bit of everything and continued to pace.

If Phil told Mason how she
had
acted he would surely come up here and spank her again.
Last time
,
t
he welts had faded in hours but the gesture of him putting her over his knee and
smacking
her butt
had been
horribly embarrassing. Despite her high pain tolerance
,
it actually
had stung, and i
t was not a feeling that she was used to. She could handle herself in a fist fight
,
but the same piece of leather striking her butt and thighs for several minutes while she was held over
an alpha’s
lap was different.
She was
had not been
in control of the situation
—s
he
had been
stuck over Mason’s knees until he decided to let her up. She had never let anyone treat her in such a manner and
it had been
oddly satisfying.
Satisfying?
Dani
fretted and flopped down on the window seat.

The door opened and slammed
,
causing
Dani
to jump. “Do you have any idea what I went through to find you last night? What the rest of the pack went through? Do you?” Mason’s power filled the room and
Dani
immediately regretting speaking to Phil in such a fashion.

Dani
shook her head. “No one has ever looked out for me before.”

Mason ran his hand through his hair. “Get over here
,” he ordered, then
sat down on the bed.

“I don’t want to come over there.”
Dani
glanced out the window. It was just getting dark outside. Where would she be right now if he and his pack had not found her?

“You have already tried my patience today. Come here,
Dani
, now.” Mason’s power began to prickle along her spine.

Dani
stood stiffly and walked towards the bed. “I did
n'
t do anything wrong.”

“You disrespected my secon
d-
in
-
command
, after h
e went and sat with Alisha
for hours
while she was freaking out
.
”

Dani
stood there watching him. She did like his attention. Phil had been right about that but she dreaded the idea of him spanking her. She did not like submitting to him. “I don’t want you to spank me again.”

“Then you should have thought about that before growling at a man who put your needs ahead of his own.” Mason held his hand out to her.

“I didn’t ask you to come and rescue me!”
Dani
yelled at him. “I didn’t ask you to come to my store! I’ve been on my own for years!”

“If your best friend
had
n'
t called
me you would be dead in the woods with a bunch of hunters
jacking off on your corpse.” Mason’s words painted a grisly picture of what could have happened.

Dani
took his hand and he pulled her over his lap. “I am afraid
,
”
Dani
said softly as she
felt him pull down her leggings. “I am afraid of my feelings.”

“You can tell me all about your feelings after I teach you what I will do every time you disrespect me or my second.”
Mason
gave her bare bottom a hard spank, then another, and quickly
increased the
tempo
. “You will be a part of
th
is
pack even if you wind up
over my knee with your bare bottom bright red
every day.”

Dani
yelped and squirmed
as the sting of the spanking continued to build.
“Is this what you do to all the females in your pack?”

“I would not give any other female this much of my time.”

“What?”
she asked, breathing
heavily.

Mason kept right on spanking.
“For starters,
all the
female
s
in my pack already respect me. If
one
does get out of line
,
then it is up to her mate to take care of that. If she has no mate then I have
a loyal second-in-command who is
more than happy to do some attitude adjusting
,” he told her, and punctuated his words with several particularly hard smacks to her sit-spot.

Mason continued to rain his hand down upon her
bare
cheeks.
The clink of Mason's belt buckle being undone came next, followed by the leather kissing the top of her thighs r
ight where they met her bottom.
For several minutes only the sound of Mason’s belt
striking
her flesh was heard.
Dani
tried to wiggle forward
, but
his other hand moved across her lower back
and held her in place.

Mason continued for another minute or so
, then finally stopped spanking and asked,
“Are you ready to have a real conversation now?”

Dani
said nothing as she lay limply against his legs and nodded. She felt him fix her pants and she was now lying on the bed. He had sat on the edge and was fixing his belt.
“What does it really mean if you claim me?”
Dani
asked softly. She
was sniff
ling and trying to stay still; h
er butt was burning.
“I need to know before I submit to something like that
,
”
s
he
whispered.

Mason lay back on the bed and propped himself up with an elbow. “You would have the pack’s protection at all times. You would support my decision in all matters.
”

“And babies?”
Dani
whispered as she looked into those damn brown eyes again.

“Yes
,
we would make pups.” Mason touched her face. “But I will not force myself upon you. Once I claim you, it is permanent and I will not have you hate me for the rest of your life.”

“I’m having a hard time with this,”
Dani
whispered as she tried to stop the thoughts flying through her head.
She
let out a long sigh and decided to get off the bed.

Mason reached down and offered his hand. She took it and stood slowly.

“I’m still not sure I want to join
your pack, Ma
son. S
ince it seems I have no choice,
however,
I can
try to
learn
how to function in a pack
.
I just have no idea how to let others watch out for me
without feeling defensive
,” she admitted at last.

“Then I will have to teach you,
” Mason stated simply.

Dani
was
curled up in bed
trying to sleep, but h
er stomach was in knots and no
sleeping
position
seemed to be
working
.

“Shit
,
”
s
he
murmured under her breath. All she wanted to do was rest and it was already well after two in the morning. Suddenly
Dani
was met with a sharp, stabbing pain in her stomach
, and she
barely made it to the bathroom
in time to throw
up in the toilet. She let out a string of curses and let her head lean on the edge
of the bowl.

“Are you okay?”

Dani
was mortified. There was a female wolf standing over
her
.
Dani
shook her head and motioned for her to leave.

The woman touched her hand to
Dani’s
head. “Have you been like this
for
long?”

Dani
began to retch again and she frantically waved her hand. She did not need to be taken care of for an upset stomach.

“If it’s the drugs
the hunters gave you
,
Dani
, this won’t stop.”

Dani
groaned and continued to throw up. She could not recall a time in her life that her stomach
had
hurt this much.
She continued to get sick.
“Please
leave
,
”
Dani
groaned again.
It literally felt like her stomach was trying to escape her body via her mouth.

“Is she okay?”
she heard
Phil’s voice
ask from over her head.

Why couldn’t she be left alone to be sick in private? She laid her head against the bowl
, then
looked down
a
t
her hands
and saw that
they were shaking. “I just need to go to bed
,
”
s
he groaned.