Captured And Claimed (Wayward Mates Series Book 8) Read online

  “Knock it off,” she hissed.

  It wasn’t that Shannon hadn’t experienced her fair share of sexual encounters. In fact, she had been bound and had control taken away from her by partners. But that had been done as part of a game and the loss of control had been titillating. What she didn’t like was being kidnapped and strung up in a dungeon by some aristocratic bastard for a game not of her choosing and any response it produced was fueled by her anger.

  “Never been breached there?” he chuckled. “That too will add to your price. Do you suck cock well?”

  “I’ve never had any complaints,” she replied.

  DeMoncada laughed. “All fire and spirit. Yes, this should be enjoyable. I will have you released and your supper brought to you. I expect you to eat all of it. If you do not, you will be punished. Best you start to learn to mind those who are dominant over you.”

  Shannon was still for a moment. There was something surreal about this whole thing. One minute she was in Florence, Italy, and the next some madman was fondling her and telling her she was to be auctioned off. But to who? And what did he mean by alpha?

  One of the thugs came in and released her. She found that her arms were more tired and sore than she thought they would be. He smiled as he gazed upon her nakedness.

  “I need my clothes,” she said disdainfully.

  The thug laughed. “If our alpha wanted you clothed, he’d have given you something to wear. He wants you naked. I don’t blame him. You’re a pretty thing.”

  Even though she knew she didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of escaping, she lunged at him, trying to knock him down and get past him. He easily deflected her blows. He said nothing more but tossed her onto the bed and left.

  Christ, what am I going to do? Catherine must be going insane. Her sister would have been expecting to hear from her months ago. Was it months? Weeks? At some point she’d lost track of time. She needed to find a way to keep it straight. She shook her head. She needed to think. There had to be a way out... and she would find it.

  Her food was brought by the old woman who said nothing, but put the tray on the bed beside her.

  “You have to help me. Helping him now makes you an accomplice after the fact. They can put you in jail for that.”

  The old woman looked back at her. She had perhaps the saddest eyes Shannon had ever seen. “There is no help for you. Learn to please them. Obey them in all things. It is the only way.”

  Catherine watched as the door closed and heard the lock click.

  “No!” she screamed as she threw the tray and its contents at the door, smashing all of the dishes.

  It didn’t take long for deMoncada to reappear. He had the old woman clean up the mess and without a word walked over to Shannon, sat down on the bed, and pulled her over his lap. Before she ever had a clue as to his intent, his hand cracked down on her backside in the first of many hard swats.

  She kicked and screamed but could not get away from him. He was too strong, had her legs trapped between his, her ass propped up on his thigh and held her upper body down with the hand that was not inflicting the spanking. Worse, she could feel his cock becoming more and more aroused the longer he spanked her.

  Shannon had never been spanked in her life and she didn’t like it. It hurt. Apparently, deMoncada was experienced at this sort of thing as he quickly covered her entire bottom with harsh blows before moving lower to the juncture of her butt and her legs and then lower still to the tops of her thighs. As he began to methodically move back up, Shannon ceased to struggle and began to plead and cry.

  “Please stop. I’m sorry I threw it. I won’t do it again. Please.”

  “When you are being punished you are to call me or the one who buys you sir, alpha, or master.” He stopped spanking her. “Do you understand?”

  “Yes...” a hard swat landed again on her well-punished backside, “...sir. Yes, sir. I’m sorry, sir. I won’t do it again.”

  DeMoncada let her up but did not allow her to move away. Instead, he pulled her onto his lap. The heat from the spanking was reinforced by having to sit on her painful bottom. He did not hold her close or offer any comfort. Instead, he fondled her breasts, causing her nipples to stiffen at his touch. Shannon wanted desperately to get away from him but feared he would go back to spanking her. He ran his hand down her torso and slipped it between her legs. He played with her swollen clit, and she moved her hand to stop him.

  “Naughty. You do not resist when I seek to pleasure you. If you do, I will assume you need to be punished instead. Do you wish to be punished?”

  “No, sir.” She used that term as it seemed the least offensive and objectionable of the things she’d been told she could call him.

  He stroked her labia. He ran his fingers around the outer rim of her pussy but did not insert his fingers into her. He picked up some of the lubrication that was a result of her forced arousal and brought it to his lips. He sucked on his fingers, which caused her to shut her eyes to keep from gagging. The man was a pig. He petted her between her legs and chuckled.

  “Much better. I will have more food brought to you. You will be watched to see that you eat all of it.”

  He let her stand. And then led her to the bed where he directed her to sit down. DeMoncada left and Shannon slowly exhaled the breath she didn’t even know she’d been holding. This bastard wasn’t playing with a full deck. Pissing him off could have serious and painful consequences, although she took heart in knowing he didn’t want to permanently damage her as it would lower her sale price. If nothing else, she could sense deMoncada was a greedy sonofabitch.

  One of the big male guards brought another tray of food. Dutifully she ate what was offered and never made eye contact. The guard picked up the tray and left her alone as the sun began to set and the light slowly faded from the windows.

  Tears started to well in her eyes and she forced them back. She would not cry. She would survive and she would get even. She was an excellent attorney. She would own this castle before it was over.

  What she couldn’t understand was why she was still being held captive. She might not know the exact time since she’d been taken but time had passed. Why hadn’t anyone come? Had they stopped searching for her? Had they ever started? Did Catherine even know she was missing?

  As time passed, Shannon found she couldn’t always control the way her body responded to deMoncada’s training but she could control her mind and she did so whenever possible. She had never known a hatred such as that which she felt for him and what he was doing. It was that hatred that allowed her to go to a place in her mind that he could never, ever reach.

  She knew there would come a day when someone would drop their guard—there would be an opening for her to make a bid for her freedom. On that day she would be gone. She would kill whatever bastard thought he could buy her. Then she would find and kill deMoncada. That was a vow she made and it was her hatred and that vow that kept her going. It made it possible for her to seem to be becoming what he wanted. In the same way she would call him sir, she would never let him suspect he had not killed her spirit.

  DeMoncada continued to indoctrinate her to her new way of life. He seemed pleased that she was intelligent and easily learned the things he wanted her to. Even more, he was pleased with how her body responded to both gentle and forceful fondling. Numerous times he taunted her with the fact that her highly evocative nature would increase her price.

  He informed her that only the wealthiest of alphas would be invited to the auction. To be a proper mate, Shannon would need to know things that had never been of interest to her. Things such as haute cuisine, wine, art, fashion were drilled into her until she could discuss them with expertise. He offered her nothing of substance and continually schooled her that her value lay not in her mind, but in her beauty and her ability to be a credit to her alpha in all ways as well as her alpha’s sexual plaything and broodmare.

  Shannon lost track of how much time had passed when one day the do
or to her cell opened and a man she hadn’t seen before entered. He was wearing a lab coat and pushing a medical cart.

  “Who are you?” she asked.

  The man looked up. “That is not your concern.”

  “I’m making it my concern.”

  The man laughed harshly. “You have yet to truly accept your place in your new life. Now go sit on the bed. You don’t want me to have to tell our alpha you were misbehaving again, do you? I would have thought your last punishment session would have cured you of that.”

  Shannon blushed with anger as much as shame but did as instructed. The last time deMoncada had punished her, not only did she receive the worst spanking she’d had to date, but afterwards he had introduced her to an additional punishment. Once he had finished spanking her, he held her in place and would not allow her to stand. Her bottom was on fire.

  “I have given great thought as to how to get a better handle on your unwillingness to accept your new life and to behave at all times. Remember, little one, once your alpha has purchased you, he may have no compunction about marring your beautiful body. I can tell you that had I purchased you, I would have broken this willful streak long ago.” He petted the place between her legs. “And I would have breached you repeatedly and had the first of many babies in your belly. It is time I gave you a little something else to reinforce your new status.”

  DeMoncada opened a tube of cream. It had a refreshing minty aroma as he put a small dab on his finger. Shannon felt him rub the cream on her anus before ever so slightly rubbing a little just inside the tight ring of muscle that guarded that orifice. She didn’t understand why he thought just pressing some cream into her back entrance would reinforce anything. And then it started to sting. Then the sting began to burn.

  Shannon began to struggle to try to get away from him, even though she was fairly sure he would spank her further. DeMoncada laughed—it was a harsh and ugly sound.

  “I thought that might get your attention. You will stop struggling and accept what has been done. Should you continue to fight, not only will I spank you harder, but I will find a small anal plug to be inserted and make you wear it while I fondle you. I do not think your new alpha could find an objection to his mate being shown the error of her ways with a small plug. And some may see it as the first step in training you to take their cock up your ass.”

  “All right,” she said through gritted teeth. “I’ll behave.”

  She forced herself to go still and to endure the burning sensation that now existed both internally and externally. DeMoncada reached between her legs and stroked her clit and labia in order to soothe and arouse. Shannon had to use every mental trick she had learned to detach from what he was doing to her and find a small, dark place in which to hide from the nightmare that had become her life. Why wasn’t someone looking for her?

  The doctor broke into her memories as he lifted her head by holding it up with his hand under her chin.

  “Open your eyes,” he directed.

  Shannon did so.

  “Good girl. Your eyes are clear.”

  He ran a temperature-taking device across her forehead and seemed pleased with the reading. He proceeded to take the rest of her vitals.

  DeMoncada entered with what Shannon assumed was a nurse and the two thugs.

  “Is she ready?” he asked the doctor.

  “Yes, my alpha. She appears to be very healthy and I think will make the transition well.”

  “Then see it done,” he said to the doctor before turning to Shannon. “Now your new life will really begin, little one.”

  He stepped back as the two thugs pushed her onto her bed and held her in place while the doctor put her in restraints to keep her from moving. They immobilized one arm and the nurse inserted an IV needle. The doctor then injected something into it.

  “What are you doing to me?” she cried as she felt the fluid enter her system.

  “We are making you better, stronger...”

  “Good,” she hissed. “As long as you make me strong enough to kill all of you.”

  DeMoncada laughed. “It’s a good thing you’re about to go into the transition, little one. Otherwise threatening me would earn you another punishment session. Remember, Shannon, I told you last time. If I had to discipline you again, I would coat a small anal plug with the cream and force you to wear it for several hours.”

  He ran his hand down her body, pinching both of her nipples and her clit and smiling as her body responded.

  Shannon cried out. Whatever they had injected her with burned within her body. It was as though she could feel it flowing throughout... searing her veins, arteries, muscles. It spread like a fire completely out of control. The pain was intense and when she thought she could take no more, blackness descended.

  Chapter Three

  She wasn’t aware of how long she had floated free of her earthly bounds. Shannon only knew in the inky darkness there was mostly peace. Within that blackness was a feeling of tranquility and reassurance. She could hear a deep, throbbing sound that while definitely human, sounded like a cross between a cello and a growl. As she floated, Shannon wondered idly why the sound brought her so much comfort.

  Images flashed before her like an old movie stored on film. Many were either of happier times in her past mostly spent with her sister, Catherine, or feeling as though she were surrounded by people she loved but whose faces she didn’t recognize. One of those faces was a well-built man with a devastating smile to whom she was inexplicably drawn.

  DeMoncada and his group of thugs only occasionally disturbed her dreams. She was able to push the intruders aside. Most often those who had held her against her will were banished when the man with the reassuring presence returned to her to offer his soothing specter.

  Was he the Angel of Death? Was the solace he offered the end of her existence on the physical plane? Shannon prayed that it was—prayed that even if those who had caused her so much pain and sorrow tried, they would be unable to revive her.

  Shannon could feel the dark receding like the tide does at the behest of the moon and chased after it in order to rejoin it. She did not want to lose its consolation.

  She saw Catherine a last time. “Survive,” her sister whispered.

  A tall redheaded woman appeared. “We will come for you. You have not been lost to us.”

  And lastly, the one she thought would save her from waking brushed away the silent tear that leaked from her eye. He leaned forward and gently kissed her. “It will be all right, beloved. All will be well,” he whispered as his image began to fade with the receding darkness.

  Shannon opened her eyes. The light was painful.

  She heard the doctor say, “She’s coming around, Alpha.”

  DeMoncada spoke. “I’m sure you are relieved. Had she not, you would be dead.” Shannon felt his fingers trail down her throat to swirl around and then pinch each of her nipples.

  “You’re a sadistic bastard,” she hissed.

  DeMoncada laughed and clapped his hands together. “And you even returned to us with your spirit intact.” He leaned down close to her ear and whispered, “You are going to make me a fortune.” Standing back up, he continued. “Rest now, little wolf. You have so much more to learn.”

  Shannon heard a growl fill the room. It took her a moment to realize the sound had come from her.

  If Shannon had thought her life before the transition had been the doorway to hell on earth, she was now confronted with a new reality that she could never have imagined. It had become a regular habit for deMoncada to have her strung up in her cell. He would often play with her that way but was careful never to injure her in a way that would cause permanent damage. He liked having her naked with her arms overhead, unable to escape his touching, petting, pinching, and fondling in whatever way suited him. He often pontificated on subjects that he felt Shannon needed to understand but this time what he told her was something so fantastic that it was unbelievable at first.

  He told her s
he was no longer human. Shannon tried to dismiss his rambling about her being a wolf as that of madman until he himself had shifted into an enormous black wolf and had those who served him do the same. She had watched with fascination, which quickly turned to horror as she watched them do it several times. And now he said she too was one of them? She shuddered at the thought.

  “Do you not feel your senses to be more acute? Can you not see better in the dark?”

  “I’ve just grown accustomed to not having any light other than that provided by the sun.”

  DeMoncada had laughed. “You are so much more, little wolf. Your new alpha will be able to enjoy you both in wolf and human form. Many of us like to fuck and breed our mates in both. The need to knot one’s mate is strong in our kind. If one does not have several hours and does not wish to risk damaging his mate, he may decide to knot you as a wolf. The tie is shorter and not as fulfilling for the woman, but is almost as sexually gratifying for her mate and generally gets the job done.”

  “What the hell is this stupid knot that you go on and on about?”

  He had smiled—a very feral smile. “It is what sets those like me, the alpha males, apart and makes us superior not only to humans but to other males of our kind.”

  He had then proceeded to spin a fantastical tale comparing a human penis to a canine one. The man was completely off his rocker... as were those he kept around him. He released her from the overhead constraints and pointed to her bed, indicating he wanted her to sit. As with most other things, he had a very specific way she was to sit—legs spread, chest out with her hands clasping the edge of the bed on either side of her. She didn’t like it, which was part of what he liked, but it was far from the worst things he could and had done to her. She was learning to pick her fights.

  “It is time you learned to shift to your wolf form. You need to empty your mind and call to your inner wolf. Ask her to come forward and take over your being.”