Chapter 6

Chapter

Six

T he first time he woke she was lying next to him, watching him.

He traced the line of her jaw with his forefinger.

"I am here, ma choue . Let me prove it to you," he said as he pulled her beneath him and proceeded to do just that.

The next time he woke, he was lying on his back with her cuddled next to him—one leg between his and her arm thrown across his body.

"Claudine brought us a tray. Let me get you something to eat," she said, reaching for a small plate on the tray next to the bed.

He gently took her arm in his hand and brought her close, removing the space between them and drawing her underneath him.

"We can eat later. For now, I mean to taste you," he said seductively.

"You're not the only one who missed the taste of their mate."

She moved eagerly, gracefully settling herself on his prone torso, straddling his head as she positioned her mouth above his swollen cock. The sight and smell of her ripe pussy was a treat for his senses. She was so ready for him, and he intended to make sure she didn't have long to wait. He used his thumbs to spread her labia, licking the sensitive flesh that was revealed. She groaned in response as his tongue slipped into her wet heat.

Darby responded by licking along the length of his hard staff, swirling around the head, and reminding him that his mate gave as good as she got. It took enormous effort on his part not to come apart and spill himself as she took him into her mouth, lightly sucking his length as she swallowed him down.

Nuzzling her, he decided turnabout was fair play and began to thrust his tongue up into her in an imitation of what he would do to her later with his cock. He drew her sweet cream from her pussy, before returning to the petals of her sex to suck them individually. He laved her roughly with his tongue, covering her entire sex, leaving nothing untouched by his mouth and nose. He had forgotten how sweet she smelled and tasted.

He felt the knot beginning to grow at the base of his cock.

"There you are," she purred. "I've missed you. I wondered if the Alpha of New Orleans would allow you to come out to play."

He bit his lower lip and emitted a low growl from deep within his chest. Darby was deliberately provoking his more feral side with her play. She only wanted his knot about half as much as he wanted to penetrate her with it. She licked down the length of his cock before taking the head back in her mouth, her hand wrapping gently around the engorged knot.

Two could play at this game. He eased two fingers deep inside her and then pressed against her clit. Darby moaned and had to release his staff from the warmth of her mouth. Her inner walls clamped down on his fingers as she came. He ran his hand down the seam of her ass, pressing against her dark rosebud and feeling it give to the pleasure.

"I will have this as well my beloved, but not tonight. Tonight is for revelry and celebration of my return. I will have you beneath me again, writhing in my embrace as I breach you with my knot."

Before she could respond, Jean-Michel fisted her golden curls and drew her off his cock before flipping her onto her back.

"You misbegotten pirate," she hissed. "I wasn't done."

"I see I have been too long from our bed and from between your thighs. I'll remedy that tonight and will never leave your side again. Best you have a care as to how you behave. Once I have you tied to me and roll to my back with you, your beautiful backside will be most vulnerable. You've no idea how I have missed its delightful bounce when I spank you."

Jean-Michel took hold of her and locked his thumbs onto her hip bones while his hands cupped her ass, holding her steady. He surged up into her, his hard knot opening her with ease and causing her to cry out. Her pussy drew him in, and he groaned as his knot began to swell. It blissfully sealed her to him as it dropped into place.

She wrapped herself around him and dug her claws into his back. Everything about her and her response to him called to his most primal side.

Holding her close, he began to rock within her, barely giving her time or space to breathe. Harder and harder he moved against her, Darby's eyes rolling back in her head as she began to experience almost simultaneous multiple orgasms. He varied the pacing of his thrusts. He wanted her off balance and riding the rim until he finally flooded her cunt with his seed and tied her to him.

"Jean-Michel, please, tie me to you," she moaned as he sent her—mind, heart, body, and soul—flying.

He pressed himself hard against her, going as deep as the knot would allow before giving her what she wanted. As he began to spill, her pussy contracted all along his length, including the knot, and drew forth all he had to give. Spent and exhausted, he collapsed on her.

Fusing his mouth to hers, he rolled to his back, holding her close and crooning his love and need for her.

D arby had fallen into a deep and peaceful sleep while tied to him the second time. Jean-Michel wondered if anyone knew how exhausted she was. Most likely not. His mate could be very proud and very stubborn if she had a mind to be. He slipped from their bed, pulled on a pair of jeans, and eased open the door.

"Alpha?" said JD

"Is there a need to stand guard outside my door?" he asked.

"I don't know Jean-Michel, you tell me. Perhaps you think me incapable of performing even that service to you."

He knew his decision to tell no one that he'd survived the final assault on DeMoncada's stronghold would have repercussions far beyond those of his family.

"JD, I have nothing to offer you."

"Do you have another…"

" Mon dieu ," he sighed.

Jean-Michel had been about to say more when a dagger imbedded itself in the door frame beside his head. Darby was awake and spoiling for a fight.

He grinned at JD "It would seem explanations will need to wait until later. Will you do me the greatest of favors and for the moment just forgive me? And then see if Claudine will bring my beloved some of her lemon ricotta pancakes and coffee?"

A second dagger joined the other—this one even closer to his head. Despite what he was feeling, JD grinned.

" Je suis désolé. I fear even being tied to me for several hours has not improved my mate's temper."

"You're damn right it hasn't," she called from their bed.

"It was necessary and there is an explanation. Forgive me."

JD searched his face and laughed as a third dagger was embedded in the door frame.

"I won't add to your troubles, Alpha," said JD

"And this is why you're my most valued and trusted friend and beta. Let me see if I can't soothe my mate's temper."

"There will be no soothing going on in here, you brigand!" she snarled.

"If there is no imminent danger, I'll step back our security and leave you to deal with your mate while I seek my own bed. Will you be down later today, or should I announce our Alpha has gone into seclusion?"

"He will not be going into seclusion," called Darby. "In fact, have Mrs. Hastings prepare a separate room for that rat bastard you call an alpha."

"I'll have Claudine bring the pancakes, and I wish you the best of luck," JD grinned and turned to leave.

Jean-Michel closed the door and turned to face his wrathful mate, who had slipped on his shirt and was preparing to launch another dagger at him. "Enough, Darby. JD has gone to get your favorite lemon pancakes. When they arrive, you'll sit in my lap out on the balcony while I feed and reassure you."

"I'm not getting anywhere near that lethal weapon you keep between your legs ever again. You can take your lemon pancakes and return to whatever ring of hell you've been hiding in for more than a year. Your pack and your family have managed to survive without you and will continue to do so. I've held this pack for my son against all comers and that includes you."

"Darby, I am aware my absence has been a cause of distress for you..."

"Cause of distress?" she said, vaulting off their bed and attacking him with her fists. "You let me think you were dead, you slimy bilge rat! Do you have any idea what believing you dead did to all of us who love you?"

He grabbed her wrists and held on. God, she was magnificent, especially when righteously angry. " Oui , beloved, and you should know I would never have put you or any of the others through that had there been any other way."

Her hands were immobilized, but that didn't stop her from kicking him in the shins, which would have been more effective had she been wearing shoes. It hadn't been overly painful, yet it made him turn her loose and she backed away, putting distance between them.

"There is always another way. If you couldn't figure it out, you could have asked for help. You had a whole fucking pack who would have helped. But no, you were so arrogant that you believed only the great Jean-Michel Gautier would have the answer."

"Darby, I haven't been gone so long that you could have forgotten you are not allowed to use foul language."

"You've been gone more than a fucking year, leaving me and everyone who for some reason loves you, thinking you were dead. You waltz back in here, haul me off to your bed, repeatedly fuck and knot me without any explanation, and then expect me to sit in your lap while you feed me pancakes?"

"I think, ma choue, that I did what was necessary to keep our pack and our kind safe," he said, fighting his own rising temper and lust. She had always had that effect on him. "I've returned, and you will behave yourself lest I add a bright red bottom to your list of reasons to be upset with me."

"If you think I'll let you spank me..."

"I am alpha," he growled, ducking as she launched another projectile at him. "I am also your lord, master, and fated mate. You are not in a position to allow me anything."

"That's where you're wrong, you picaroon!"

Jean-Michel rushed forward, catching her up in his arms and spinning her around so that her back was flush with his front. "Sweetheart, please calm down."

Her answer to his request was to stomp on his instep and before he could recover, she jerked her head back, smashing his nose. The second he released her, she moved out of his grasp.

"Get out!" she shouted, looking for something to use as a weapon.

He'd expected her to be angry, but this was a bit more than he had planned on. It was obvious that she was beyond the reach of soothing words or romantic gestures. His mate had always responded best when furious with him, to a show of strength and authority. He'd been looking forward to getting his hands on her ass—in more ways than one. He grinned at her.

"Wipe that stupid smile off your face and forget whatever you have in mind. I want you out. And if you won't leave and all the male fuckers in this place choose to fall in line behind you, so be it. I will move to the townhouse in the French Quarter. You can bring whatever strumpet you've been fucking for the past year and install her here."

"That is enough," he roared.

How dare she accuse him of infidelity, and of lying to her? Of causing her grief and pain? Yes, of those he was guilty. But from the moment he'd first caught scent of her at Calon Gwyllt, he had never even thought of another woman.

She was on one side of the bed, and he was on the other. He stepped up onto the matress and crossed over to her before she could react. Fisting her hair, he jumped off the bed, sat down and tossed her over his knee. He held her down with one hand and pinned her in place with her legs between his.

"If you touch me…" she snarled.

"I plan to do more than touch you, mon amour . It would seem that once again you need the reassurance of my love for you, as you did some two decades ago at Calon Gwyllt. As always, I am forever at your service."

D arby screamed as his hand connected with her ass and pain flashed through her system. It had been a long time since he'd had to truly punish her. Apparently, he was angry and meant to display the depth of his displeasure by tattooing her backside. Well, two could play at that game. She opened her mouth and sank her teeth into his leg. He merely inhaled sharply, and she realized it would have been more effective had he not been wearing Levi's.

"You nasty-tempered she-wolf. You know better than to lash out at me when you're being spanked."

He began to rain hellfire all across her ass. It hurt. She'd honestly forgotten the level of pain he could inflict when he was of a mind to. She squirmed and swore, but Jean-Michel paid her no mind and continued to spank her soundly. Pain flared again and again every place his hand landed and then rippled outward so that she felt his discipline in every fiber of her being. She'd been so caught up in her own anger that she never questioned why he might have kept her and everyone else in the dark.

Jean-Michel swatted her ass with no sign of letting up anytime soon. He spanked her in a pattern and rhythm meant to ensure he covered every square inch of her bottom. He peppered her flesh with stinging blows meant to communicate his ire. It hurt and angered her, yet as the tears began to silently fall, she realized that as much as they had reconnected through their lovemaking, through the knot and the tie, this was the last piece that needed to fall into place.

When they'd told her he was dead, she hadn't cried. Her grief had been too deep, the loss too devastating. It was as if someone had torn out her heart, and with it all of her emotions. But now in this moment, she could feel his anger and love, as well as his grief for the time they had lost and the pain he had caused them too. She, her children, and their pack had been without the love and support of their alpha, but he had been alone without them.

She wasn't the only one who grieved, who needed to feel his love and discipline as he spanked her. As much as she needed it, he perhaps needed it more. Darby felt every blow he landed on her upturned rump. There was pain, but behind the pain there was peace. She lost count of the times his hand landed and of how much time had passed, but she felt the world collapse until it was only the two of them.

At last, she could feel peace flowing from him as well—peace and love. He stopped spanking her and began to caress her heated backside. Her ass was on fire, but she didn't care. Jean-Michel was alive, and he was home.

"Have I spanked you long and hard enough, mon amour ?"

"I believe so," she answered softly.

He released her legs and allowed her to stand. Then he took the hem of the shirt she was wearing in his hands and raised it up and over her head, removing the garment from her body.

"You go stand in the corner," he commanded.

She started to protest but thought better of it. He needed to reassert his dominance, needed to know she would comply. She turned and walked to the corner like she had so many times before. That corner held many memories of the years they had spent together. Her mate was a traditionalist at heart. He demanded that she surrender her will to his, but in return made her life far sweeter than she ever could have dreamed. He believed in male dominance, but in a way that came with the responsibility of caring for those who answered to his authority. And for his fated mate, there was forgiveness after discipline—a way to reestablish their loving relationship.

They didn't need words to communicate what came next, but she knew that once he had taken her in the corner, making her capitulate to him, there would be time enough for explanations. He had asked that she have faith in him until this morning. She shivered as his fingers skimmed lightly over her skin, leaving goosebumps in their wake.

"You accused me of infidelity, ma choue . Tell me that was your temper talking and not your true feelings."

"You would never be unfaithful to me in thought or in deed. I've spent the last year in anger and in grief. I mourned what we had and the future I thought we had lost. I've wanted nothing more in this life than to grow old with you and I realized when you were spanking me that I wasn't alone in my loss. I saw that you had lost all of that too and done so without our children or our pack." She reached back to touch him. "Forgive me, my beloved."

One of his hands slid down to her hip while the other slid between their bodies, unbuttoning his fly. As that hand took hold of her other hip, the head of his cock nudged between her legs, parting her labia for his possession.

He leaned forward, nipping her earlobe as he whispered, "Forgiven," and surged into her in one long, hard thrust.

Darby thought she had only missed the lovemaking, the sensual domination of the knot and the intimacy of the tie. But no, she'd missed this too—the storm of his discipline and the spanking, followed by the fierce lovemaking that washed away all the storm had wrought. Her body shuddered and her pussy contracted around him as he took possession of her body as well as her heart and soul. She cried out as ecstasy and orgasm overwhelmed her.

"There's my beautiful mate," he crooned as he began to plunge in and out of her, his hips slamming into her punished ass. He fucked her just as soundly as he'd spanked her.

He pounded into her, his cock hammering her pussy as she climaxed again. He continued to drive into her over and over again as she writhed in his embrace. Jean-Michel wrapped one arm around her middle while his other hand snaked up her body and grasped her throat.

As the third orgasm began to start, causing her pussy to spasm all along his hard staff, he leaned in and hissed, "Who is your lord and master?"

"You are," she wailed.

"Who am I, Darby?"

"You are Jean-Michel Gautier, Alpha of New Orleans and my beloved fated mate," she cried, echoing the words she had first spoken so very long ago.

He drove into her until he pushed her over the abyss into a place where time and space no longer existed, where there was no pack, no children—only him. He gave a last, brutal thrust and spilled deep inside her, his warmth filling his body as he too found his release.

Leaning heavily against her, he withdrew. There was a knock on the door. He reached out and grasped the shirt he had removed from her body, tossing it to her and pointing to the corner. She smiled slyly but did as he wanted. Jean-Michel went to the door and opened it. She glanced back over her shoulder and saw JD smiling at her.

"Has your mate decided to forgive you, Alpha?"

"She has. Haven't you, ma choue ?"

"Yes, Alpha," she purred. Darby realized as JD chuckled, that it had been a long time since she had heard him do that. "So, Beta, do you still want me to punch him in the mouth for you?"

"No, Mistress, I'm sure you made him aware of the keen loss we all felt."

"I did," she agreed with a laugh.

"And my beautiful mate's backside shows the depth of my displeasure with the way she did that," teased Jean-Michel. "Tell the pack we'll be down in about an hour. I want to sit on the balcony with my mate for a bit."

"I'll let them know. You should be aware that Jean-Edouard has called his sister to tell her of your return. You should be proud of him, Jean-Michel."

"I am. I'm the most undeserving mate, father, friend and alpha, but also the most appreciative. We'll be down shortly."

The door closed behind JD and as he left, Darby said, "May I turn around now?"

" Oui . Remove the shirt and join me on the balcony."

She followed him outside and cuddled into his lap as though he'd never been away. She had so many questions but knew he would answer them all, in time. There was no need to press. It would be easiest on him to tell everyone his tale when they were all together, but there was one thing she had to know. She feared she knew the answer, but she needed to hear it from him. He fed her Claudine's lemon ricotta pancakes and sipped coffee, munching on the biscuits with sweet butter and jam Claudine had sent up for him.

"Is he dead?" she asked quietly.

He nodded. "How did you know?"

"It was the only thing that made sense. Cameron said you all feared he'd escaped. The only reason you would have allowed me to suffer was to ensure he died and stayed dead this time. I swear, that bastard has more lives than a cat-shifter."

"The only thing that saved him when Skylar Grainger pushed him over Niagara Falls was that he'd shifted and could avoid the worst of the swirling waters at the base of the falls. It almost killed him, but he survived."

"But you're sure he's dead now?"

"I am. I was injured getting out of his fortress. I laid low as a wolf for several weeks, not knowing who or what I was. By the time I regained my strength and my wits, everyone believed I was dead, including DeMoncada. But I still wanted him gone. I needed to know that his evil had been snuffed out with his life, so I hunted down those who had helped him, and one by one I made them pay. When I finally confronted DeMoncada, he'd figured out it was me and asked that I end his life with a mercy he had never shown others. I forced him to kneel at Carnac, using one of the stones there as an executioner's block. I beheaded him, burying his body deep within one of the dolmens and sending his head to the Ruling Council."

Darby laughed. "I'd actually forgotten what a melodramatic pirate you can be. But now you're home to stay."

"Oui, mon amour, je suis à la maison pour rester."

" Bien," she replied.