Mastering His Mate Read online

  Greg reached for her arm again. Liza snatched it away.

  “Don’t touch me.”

  “You’re upsetting her,” growled the man called Bash.

  Greg sighed. “I’m not upsetting her and you’re not helping. Would you mind leaving until I have a chance to examine my patient?”

  “She’s not just your patient; she’s my mate. I’m not going anywhere.” He walked around to the other side of the bed. His voice softened as he spoke to her. “It’s all right, sweetheart, Greg only wants to help.”

  “I’m not your sweetheart,” she said to Bash. Then she turned to Greg. “If you don’t tell me what’s going on, no one is touching me. Now, what the hell happened to me and my sister?”

  Bash took her hand in his. “Liza, please don’t upset yourself. You’re fine, in fact you’re better than fine. The change cured the cancer in your blood.”

  “What cancer? I don’t have cancer. I know my blood is kind of fucked up right now, but Roz said it will be fine. How the hell do you know my name?”

  “When we collected your things from the hotel, we got the information out of your wallets.”

  Liza’s attention was split between the compelling Bash and the doctor, Greg, who was really starting to annoy her. The latter tried putting a thermometer in her ear and she batted his hand away.

  “Liza, that’s enough. You need to let Greg take a look at you.” The soothing tone had been replaced by one with a bit more edge to it.

  Liza resisted the urge to just do what Bash was telling her. “I don’t want him or anyone else touching me until I know what’s going on.”

  Greg shook his head. “I need to get your vitals before I do anything else. Now either you cooperate or I’ll get your mate there to make you cooperate.”

  “He’s not my mate. For Christ’s sake, I don’t even know him. Get away from me.”

  Greg could see she was becoming agitated. He didn’t want to exacerbate the situation but needed to examine her before he could decide on the safest course of action.

  “Bash, do me a favor and hold your mate still while I get her temp, pulse, and blood pressure.”

  Bash gently pinned her to the bed. “Liza, behave.”

  “Behave? Who the hell are you to tell me to behave?”

  “I’m your mate and your beta. You will mind me…”

  “Or what? You’re going to hold me prisoner? Hot news flash… you already are.” Again Greg tried to see if he couldn’t get hold of her wrist long enough to take her pulse. “Jesus,” she said, jerking her hand away. “Knock it off.”

  Bash looked over Liza to Greg. “Am I going to harm her if I take her in hand and deal with her as my mate?”

  “I don’t think so, but how about you just give her a little taste of what she can expect when she doesn’t obey you.”

  “Obey him? Are you fucking kidding me?”

  Bash pulled Liza over onto her belly and delivered four hard swats to her backside, two to each cheek. He let her flip back over.

  “Now, little girl. I said enough. You keep misbehaving and you’ll get more of the same.”

  “You hit me again, you bastard, and I’ll call the cops.”

  Bash grinned. “Cops won’t help. They stay out of pack business. Always have; always will. Now do you want to be a good girl?”

  Again Greg tried to take her pulse. She jerked her arm away. Before she could do anything else, Bash had placed her back on her belly and delivered another set of stinging blows.

  “I said enough, and I meant it. Greg, why don’t you get her temperature while I have her in position.”

  “You wouldn’t dare,” Liza gasped.

  “Oh, I wouldn’t, but I’ll make damn sure Greg does. Naughty little girls get their temperature taken on their bellies with the thermometer in their bottoms. You want to do it, Greg, or should I?”

  “No, let me get the other thermometer,” said Greg, chuckling as he walked over to the cabinet. Liza was a bit mollified by hearing the sympathetic tone in Greg’s voice. She had no way of knowing that she was in for the shock of her life.

  Liza struggled and while she could tell Bash was being gentle, he was still too powerful for her to get away from. She heard Greg cross the room and come back. She felt him putting a bit of something thick and slippery on her anus and then sliding the thermometer in. She struggled but Bash held her in place.

  “Relax, Liza, it will only be a couple of minutes then it’ll be done.”

  “You bastard,” she snarled.

  “Liza, settle down or when Greg removes that thermometer, I’ll paddle you some more. Is that what you want?” He leaned down close to her and whispered in her ear. “Easy, sweetheart.” The soothing tone had returned. “No one wants to hurt you. Just behave and Greg can finish what he needs to do.”

  Greg removed the thermometer. “Her temp is running right about where I’d expect. It’s at the high end of normal and that’s with her agitated. If the rest of her vitals are good, I’d feel confident saying she’s made it through the change.”

  Liza struggled to turn back over. One more hard swat from Bash’s hand and she stopped. He rubbed her burning backside as he said, “Good girl. Remember that in the future. You stay where I put you until I say different. Do you understand me?”

  “Bastard.”

  He landed two more stinging slaps to her quickly reddening backside. He smiled. It was obvious to someone with more than a passing knowledge of the female derriere that his mate had never been spanked before or at least not in many, many years. “I asked you if you understood me. You have your choice of several answers. All of them start with yes and then are followed by your choice of Sir, Bash, or Beta. Now, do you understand that if you don’t settle down and behave yourself, I’m going to take you off the bed, put you over my knee, and give you a full-fledged spanking?”

  “Yes,” she said softly.

  He swatted her again and she yelped. “Yes, what?”

  “Yes, Bash.”

  Again, his hands began rubbing her backside soothingly. “Good girl. You can now flip over and behave yourself while Greg does whatever it is he needs to do. If you give him any more trouble, he’s going to have to do his exam with you standing in the corner after I’ve blistered your bottom. Clear?”

  Liza hated the fact that the spanking and his authoritative voice and words were causing her to become aroused. She hoped that neither of them had a clue as to how it was affecting her. That hope was taken away when she turned over and her hardened nipples could be clearly seen through the hospital gown.

  “Liza, I asked you a question. Are you going to behave for Greg or do you need me to spank you until you need a pillow to sit comfortably?”

  “I’ll behave,” she said with a surly tone.

  “Careful, little girl. Being disrespectful to a ranking member of the pack or your mate will get you spanked as well. Let’s try again. Are you going to behave?”

  “Yes, Bash,” she said in a neutral tone.

  Bash kissed the top of her head. He pulled up a chair on the side of the bed opposite Greg and sat down, taking her hand in his own. He turned her hand over and then rubbed the underside of her arm. She was so mesmerized by his delicate treatment of her, she barely noticed Greg completing her exam.

  “I have good news and bad news for you, Liza.”

  She turned away from Bash. “What’s the good news?”

  “Your bloodwork indicates there is no longer anything wrong with you. Your vital signs are well within the normal range and the bite mark is well on its way to being completely healed.”

  “I didn’t even feel you remove the bandage.”

  “I think your attention was elsewhere when I changed it,” he said, looking pointedly at Bash. “I would say you can resume your normal activities but you might not want to push it for a few days. If you like we can move you up to the main house.”

  “What’s the bad news? And when can I see my sister?”

  Greg
laughed. “The bad news is that with a clean bill of health, you’d better start minding Bash or that little taste of discipline he gave you earlier will only be an introduction to what he’ll do when you misbehave. As for your sister, if you want, you can go over and see her. You need to be prepared; she’s still going through the transition. Her body is fighting the virus, but I think it’s safe to say she’s out of the danger zone.”

  “What the hell is this change or transition everyone keeps talking about?”

  Greg briefly explained to her what had happened. The virus that had been introduced into her system by the other wolf shifter’s bite had caused a chemical reaction that had eradicated the cancer from her blood.

  “Are you trying to tell me I’m now a werewolf?”

  “Not really,” explained Bash. “Werewolves were a way of explaining what more primitive people could not understand. Shifters of all kinds have lived amongst and yet outside of human society as far back as history has been recorded. Our pack has occupied this island since the fifteenth century. We are strong and prosperous. We are fortunate to have a line of alpha males that stretch back that far as well. The mutts who turned you without your consent were looking for mates. Born female shifters are exceedingly rare. Human females have been turned for centuries. Only the lowest of the low turn a woman without her consent. We got word that someone was hunting in our territory and had targeted you and your sister. They moved against you before we could intervene and stop them. Once bitten, there was little we could do except bring you home and provide you with the medical support and attention you needed to transition successfully.”

  “And now what? We’re stuck here because we owe you?”

  “No. Roz is free to go once the doc has given her a clean bill of health.”

  “What about me?” she whispered, suddenly afraid to hear the answer.

  “You are my fated mate. I knew it the moment I saw you. You might have felt it when you were human, but I know you must feel it now. Didn’t you want to obey me when I told you what to do?”

  “No.”

  “Don’t lie to me, little girl. That’s disrespectful and I’ve already told you how I handle disrespectful females. Try again. You feel drawn to me in a way you’ve never felt before, don’t you?”

  When she wouldn’t look at him, Bash took her chin gently in his fingers and turned her face toward him. “Don’t you?” he asked softly.

  “Yes, Bash.”

  He leaned across and kissed her. “That wasn’t so bad, now was it?”

  “No, but I don’t even know you.”

  “But you do. Just listen to your heart and soul, they will tell you the truth. Now, do you want to see Roz?”

  “Yes, please.” Bash helped her out of the bed and walked with his arm around her to Roz’s room. It was obvious that her sister was not well. She looked feverish and she moaned as if in pain. There was a lovely blonde woman sitting not too far from her.

  “Liza, this is Sylvie, my nurse. She’s been helping me take care of you two. How’s Roz?”

  “She seems better. No change in her vitals, but she seems to be fighting less and less.”

  “That’s not like her, Roz will fight.”

  Bash hugged her close. “No, sweetheart, you don’t want her to fight at this stage. She needs to give in and let the virus work through her system. Then she’ll need to rest… probably even more than you did.”

  “How long have we been here?”

  “Not quite a week. Roz will probably be another week or so before she wakes up,” said Greg.

  “But she will wake up and be all right?” asked Liza anxiously.

  “I think so. As I said, she’s made it through the dangerous phase. Now we just need to give her supportive care to finish the transition.” He turned to Bash. “Do you want to take Liza up to the house?”

  “Yes. Should she rest up in our room or can she sit out in the sunshine or…”

  Greg laid his hand on Bash’s arm and Sylvie smiled. “Your mate will be fine. I’d like her to take it easy for a couple of days but she doesn’t need to be confined to your room. It might be best to give her a few days before you mark and claim her.”

  “Before he what?” asked Liza. Turning back to Bash, she asked, “And what did you mean about our room? I’m not sharing a room with you.”

  Bash smiled, leaned down and kissed her gently. “You’ll be sharing more than my room, sweetheart. You’ll be sharing my bed and the rest of your life with me.”

  “The hell I will,” she growled as she tried to pull away from him.

  Greg shook his head. Bash took Liza by the arm and walked her back to her room in the medical building. He ushered her in and closed the door behind them. He propelled her toward the bed and sat down, pulling her across his lap.

  “Now, I told you to behave and not only did you not do that, you growled at me again. It seems to me, little girl, that you have a greater need for a spanking than you do for sitting out in the sunshine.”

  Her hospital gown already exposed her buttocks enclosed in some lace panties. Liza realized he had already seen them when he’d swatted her when she had failed to do as Greg asked. This time he pulled them down past her knees, exposing her naked bottom. He trapped her legs between his and pinned her arms to the middle of her back. He rubbed his hand over her buttocks, savoring their soft, velvet feel. They were currently a lovely shade of ivory… they wouldn’t be when he was done.

  “You—do—not—growl—at—me.” He landed a blow to her backside to punctuate each word.

  “That hurts,” she cried.

  “It’s supposed to,” he said as he began to spank her with a medium level of heat but accurately landing swat after swat across her butt cheeks. “You may as well get it through that pretty blonde head of yours that you are my mate and you will mind me. When you don’t, like any other naughty girl in this pack, you’ll find yourself on the receiving end of a spanking.”

  Liza tried to squirm and get away from him. Even though she felt stronger than she ever had, she was no match for the beta wolf. “Stop it!”

  “I’ll stop when I think you’ve learned your lesson. Squirming and kicking don’t lead me to think that.”

  No one had ever spanked her before. She’d secretly read about women who got spanked and it sounded so sexy, but the reality was even though her arousal was increasing, it hurt and she wanted him to stop. Liza couldn’t decide which was worse—the pain he was inflicting on her bottom or the knowledge that she was incredibly aroused. What was worse was she could feel his arousal throbbing beneath her, and that too added to her excitement.

  “Please, Bash, I’ll behave.”

  “Will you?” he asked in that same silky tone of voice.

  He continued to paddle her backside, which was turning a deep shade of red.

  “Yes, please stop.”

  He stopped and waited for her to try to get up. He smiled when she remembered what he’d told her earlier. He started to stroke her bottom gently, almost lovingly. His hand slipped between her legs and he touched her in her most private space. His finger gently circled her clit, causing Liza to moan in response. She heard him chuckle and then growl in a low, seductive tone.

  Liza could feel the wetness gathering at the entrance of her sheath. She heard him inhale deeply and wondered if he could smell her arousal. He continued to rub the small bundle of nerves that had become the center of her existence in a way that was at once incredibly erotic and yet soothing at the same time. Liza felt her humiliation was now complete. She was soaked and he knew it.

  “Good girl. Who is your mate, Liza?”

  “You are,” she said, trying to stifle the tears that were starting to leak from her eyes.

  “And you are going to mind me or you’ll get a spanking, yes?”

  “Yes, Bash.”

  He let her up, but did not let her go. Instead he pulled her onto his lap. He took his handkerchief and wiped her eyes. He pulled her into his chest and s
troked her back as she softly cried and accepted his comforting embrace. Bash continued to hold Liza until she stopped crying and nuzzled his neck.

  He kissed her tenderly on her forehead. “Not the way I wanted to convince you that we are fated mates, but I suppose if it worked, I can’t complain.”

  Liza started to giggle in spite of herself. “That is so not funny.”

  Bash chuckled. “Oh, it was a little bit funny and a little bit truthful. Now would you like to go up to the house and see our room? If you think you can behave I’ll ask Greg if you need to be in bed or if lounging out by the pool would be all right as well.”

  “Don’t I get a say in where I’m spending my afternoon?”

  “Of course you do, sweetheart. If Greg says either is fine you have your choice.”

  “You’re missing the point,” she said, starting to become annoyed.

  “No, sweetheart, you are. But if you need me to, I can go over it again. Do I need to do that?”

  “No, Bash. I got it the first time.”

  “Good girl. Sylvie brought down some clothes for you. Why don’t you change out of this fetching hospital gown into something a little less revealing?”

  * * *

  Later than night, after a dinner for two on their private balcony, Bash claimed Liza as his mate. Her response had been everything he’d ever fantasized. As he’d marked her with his bite, she had cried out his name and climaxed as he held her neck in his teeth, her still tender bottom in his hands and drove himself repeatedly into her velvet sheath until he took his own release and emptied himself inside of her.

  As he rolled off of her, he pulled her close to him. “I’m sorry I had to hurt you when I marked you.”

  “Did you have to?”

  “Yes, male wolf shifters always mark their mates. It will fade but leave a subtle scar, but other male wolves will know you belong to another and will for the most part leave you alone. Do you forgive me?”

  “If I say I’ll forgive you if you promise not to ever spank me again, will you promise me?”

  He chuckled and kissed her. “No, but if you’re not careful, I’ll rewarm your backside for you.”