When No Doesn't Cut It (17 page)

For a moment
, all he could see was swirling black and grey smoke.  Above him, he could hear the sounds of timbers falling and crashing, and he wondered how long the ceiling to the basement would hold.  Standing up, he held his arms out and cautiously moved around the space.  Feeling his arm hit a metal object, he peered through the smoke and could see a cage with a small person inside.

“Fucking hell,” Scott swore
, as he felt around the cage bars looking for a door.  Finding the catch, he wrenched the door open and pulled on the little figure inside.  Another little boy, painfully thin, and dressed in rags.  Bright blue eyes shone out of a dirty face as the boy looked up at Scott.

“I’m the Alpha Mate,” Scott said, trying not to frighten the little guy.  “How many others are there?”

The boy looked startled and then held up one hand, with all five fingers spread.

“Five?” Scott checked.  “There are five more in here?”

The boy nodded.

“Okay little one.  I am going to put you out of the window and then you are to move away from the house.  Can you walk?”

The boy shook his head as Scott felt his way to the window.

Damien, I need some help here,
he yelled through their mind link.

“Already here mate,” Damien’s deep voice came from the window.  “I can’t get through.  What have you got?”

Scott handed the small boy to the Alpha through the window and pulled his makeshift mouth mask from his face enough to mutter, “Five more,” before heading back into the smoke, tugging his shirt over his mouth and nose again.  Damien holding the window open helped move the smoke out a bit, but the draft was also causing the flames to move through the ceiling of the basement.  It was getting hotter than Hades in the small room, and Scott could feel his lungs bursting as he tried to get more air.

Finding two more cages, he managed to get them open and pulled out two more boys, both unconscious, probably from the smoke.   As he pushed them through the window to Damien
, he could hear his mate urging him to get out - that the ceiling wouldn’t hold much longer, but Scott ignored him and went back for the others.  Flames were roaring across the ceiling now and Scott knew he had only minutes before the whole ceiling collapsed.  Working quickly, Scott found the next two cages and got their inhabitants - two more boys, out of the window.

This time Damien grabbed his arm as he passed up the unconscious boys.

“You’ve got to get out,” his mate said.  “I can’t lose you.”

“One more,” Scott promised
, as he wrenched his arm free and started exploring the corners of the room.  The heat was making him sweat something fierce and he could feel the top of his head start to hurt.  For a moment he swayed on his feet, worried the combination of heat and smoke would cause him to pass out, but that was when he heard a tiny whimper coming from the far corner of the room.

Dropping to the ground, even as he heard Damien yell behind him, Scott crawled along the dirt towards the sound he heard.
  Through the gloom he could see one more cage - a bit bigger than the others but then the occupant was older than his other rescues.  But the look of fear on the young man’s face was just the same as the boy who had staggered out onto the grass.

Without thinking, Scott pulled off his makeshift mask to show his face.  “You don’t have anything to fear from me.  I’m going to get you out,” he said trying to keep his voice calm as he wrestled with the cage door.  This one was locked with a padlock and chain.  Damn it.  Scott had nothing to break the lock with.  Thinking quickly
, he turned his attention to the hinges on the other side of the door.  Maybe he could pry them open somehow. 

“I am a nothing,” he heard a
thin voice say.  “I’m not worth saving now the Alpha has a mate.”

Shocked
, Scott looked up to see the young man in the cage staring at him.

“What the hell are you talking about,” he said as he used all of the strength in his fingers to pry open the first hinge.  The door sagged
, but it wasn’t open enough to get the young man out.

“We’re meant to be Alpha subs, so that one of us could be his mate,” the boy explained as though it was the most logical explanation in the world.
“Now he has you, we were told we weren’t wanted.  He left us here to die.”

“Who left you?” Scott gasped
, as he wrestled with the last bottom hinge.  The damn thing was partially rusted making it hard to move and Scott started tugging on it with all of his strength.  The door was partially open, but Scott didn’t think it would be enough.  

Above him a large crash sounded
, and Scott instinctively ducked as he felt some burning timbers fall to the floor.  The room’s heat was almost unbearable and the smoke was getting thicker. 

Although Scott knew the room could go up in a matter of seconds
, he wasn’t leaving this last boy here to die alone.  Using his feet, Scott stomped on the door to make the opening that bit larger, and reached through to tug the young man out.  The boy’s rags caught on the snapped hinge, but Scott didn’t have time to care about that now.  More debris was falling and he still had to get them both back to the window.  Slinging the young man over his shoulder, Scott hunched down and made his way back to the window; just a huge timber fell on the cage he had been working on.

Thanking the Fates, Scott pushed his charge through the window and then hauled himself up.  He felt two strong arms lift him out from the window frame and take him to where the air was a lot cleaner.  Scott was laid out on the grass and he quickly removed the mask from his face, coughing as his lungs sought out the fresh air.  He looked up to see the worried face of his mate staring down at him.

“Are the kids okay?” Scott asked.

In answer, Damien swept Scott up into his arms and hugged him so tight that Scott thought he would pass out from lack of air.
  Scott allowed his mate to reassure himself that he was okay and then pulled away a bit so he could look Damien in the face.

“Are the kids okay?”  He asked again.

“Yes,” Damien said.  “They have all been taken to my pack house along with the one who made it out on his own.  We’ve got a bit a problem.”

“A bit of a problem?” Scot could hardly believe his ears.  “Those kids were being kept in cages.  They
’re skinny, dirty and God knows how long they have been kept down there in that dark basement.  What’s going on Damien?”

“The kids aren’t from our pack,” Damien said.  “They’re wolf shifters, but they don’t belong to anyone here.  Someone
, looks like Jacob, has stolen them from other packs.”

Chapter Twenty

Scott moaned appreciatively as he ran his head under the fast running water of the shower.  He knew he stank - what with the smoke
, and the soot, and the BO from the poor boys he had rescued.  He just wanted to stay under the water until all he could smell was good, clean air again.   Scott felt a huge hulking presence behind him and smiled as the scent of his mate wafted through the steam of the shower. Okay, he would settle for the scent of his mate over clean air any day.

Damien took the soap from him and started rubbing it over Scott’s back in methodical sweeps.  Scott wanted nothing more than to relax under the touch, but he could tell through their mating bond that Damien was a little terse and he braced himself for what was probably going to be quite a bollocking.  So when Damien did start to speak, his first words surprised Scott.

“You know, you did a really brave thing there today.  Saving those boys.  I am proud of you, Alpha Mate.”

“Anyone would have done the same thing if they had known the boys were in that basement,” Scott said.  Compliments made him feel uneasy - they always had.

“Yes, you’re right,” Damien replied, as his hands continued down Scott’s back and onto his ass.  “But you didn’t tell anybody else did you, mate of mine.  No, you had to go running into a burning building and save those boys yourself.”

“Everyone else seemed a little distracted and busy,” Scott said, trying to defend himself.  “I didn’t know who else to call and face it, none of your big enforcers would have gotten through that window.”

“Maybe not,” Damien said evenly. “But you had to go running in there with no thought to your safety, putting yourself in grave danger.  Damn it, Scott, if that ceiling had collapsed then you could’ve been killed.”  Damien’s tone of voice didn’t change, but Scott knew his mate was really upset.  Scott turned around so he was facing his mate and slipped his arms around Damien’s neck - pleased when Damien buried his head into Scott’s neck.  The big guy was shaken and Scott knew his scent, now thankfully uncluttered with smoke and BO, would soothe the wolf.

“I can’t change who I am Damien,” Scott said carefully as he loved being so close to his naked mate.  He didn’t want to make the
Damien angry.  “If I see people in trouble, or if there is something I can do to make a wrong situation right, then I will do it.  It’s just who I am.”

“I’m not trying to change who you are, mate,” Damien mumbled against his neck.  “I’m trying to get you to take better care of yourself.  In the short time I have known you, you have run off after killer bear shifters, walked off into
a strange town by yourself with no protection, and today you crowned it all, with the burning building episode.  If my wolf had its way, you would be tied to my bed and you would stay there, full time, permanently.”

Scott laughed.  “I don’t mind being tied up every now and then, my lover, but there is no way I am going to be under your control 24/7.  I told you I am not your sub. I am your mate
, and as such I will do things that you might not expect from time to time.  You can’t stop me being me.”  He rubbed himself against his mate’s deliciously hard body and felt Damien’s erection grow against his stomach.  Hmm, he knew how he could distract his mate’s bad mood.  He rubbed himself up against Damien again and started nipping at the man’s nipples.

“You
’re doing a good job of distracting me mate,” Damien mumbled, clasping his arms more firmly around Scott’s hips and pulling the man even closer.  As Scott dropped his hand and encircled Damien’s cock, the big man moaned. 

“A very good job of distracting me.”  Damien reached behind Scott and turned off the water in the shower.  As he tugged Scott out of the shower behind him and wrapped him up in a towel, he continued, “but not enough of a distraction that I haven’t thought of your punishment.  I think a spanking is long overdue.”

“You have got to be kidding me,” Scott spluttered.  “I told you I am not a sub! You can’t just spank me because you think I have been bad or something.”

“I know you’re not a sub,” Damien said calmly
, as he refused to release Scott from his towel.  The way Scott was wrapped up he couldn’t get his arms free and Damien’s grip on him was strong and unrelenting.

“However,” he said, “you are my mate and just as you can’t stop being who you are, I can’t stop who I am either.  I’m a Dom and an Alpha.  You have consistently put yourself in danger
since we met.  As your mate and your Alpha, I need you to think a bit more before you go rushing into unsafe situations.  The Dom in me thinks that a good hard spanking might help you remember that fact.”

“You can’t spank me,” Scott yelled
.  “I am not an errant child who needs to be reminded of their wrong doing.  In case you’ve forgotten, I did do some good today.  I did save those boys.”

Damien dropped his head and licked up Scott’s exposed neck, taking with it the drops of water that still clung to his skin.  Scott shivered, and his erection that had drooped slightly at the thought of being spanked like a child, rose up again and took notice.

“Uh huh, I know you did well today, my mate, but you still put yourself in danger.” Now Damien was nipping at his neck and Scott just wanted to rip off his towel and bend over - for a fucking that is, not a spanking.

“Damien, honey, come on,” Scott tried wheedling
and wriggling.  He had a feeling he wasn’t going to get anywhere with either tactic, which meant he should probably stop it, because quite frankly it made him feel like a girl.  “You don’t need to spank me.  Wouldn’t you rather do something else to my ass instead?”

“Oh, I intend to,” and damn it all if the promise in Damien’s
deep voice didn’t make Scott tingle all over.  “But I’m going to redden that delectable ass of yours before I fuck it.” 

Damien picked Scott up, who was still trapped in his towel, and took him into the bedroom.  The two men were staying at Damien’s pack house until the business with the boys and the fire had been sorted.  But Damien clearly wasn’t thinking about those issues at the moment.

Scott tried one last time, even as Damien unwrapped him from the towel and was in the process of settling Scott’s body over his long muscled legs.  Scott, refusing to make it any easier for Damien, wriggled and squirmed and pushed and kicked, but Damien’s huge hands didn’t release their grasp on Scott’s back and neck.  There was a part of Scott that absolutely thrilled at the strength in Damien’s grasp.  Power had always been an arousal trigger for Scott and he loved how Damien had that in spades.

But the other side of Scott, the one that absolutely would not be a submissive wolf, rebelled against the idea of Damien spanking him.  Sure, he knew a lot of people who loved the whole idea of being spanked.  He just wasn’t one of them.  Claude used to spank him quite often, when the two men were in private.  Scott figured Claude liked it
, and probably got off on doing it, because the sex afterwards was always explosive on Claude’s side.

Oh well, he figured, maybe for Damien it would be the same.  Scott could feel how aroused Damien was, just having Scott over his thighs. 
Scott was aroused too, but not because of his impending spanking.  He loved being close to his mate, especially naked and this time was no exception.

“I know you can take the pain,” Damien said as he ran his hand down Scott’s compliant back and over his ass.  “You told me you’ve taken a whipping before.”

“Yes, but I was the one doing the fucking afterwards.”  Shit, Scott cursed his smartass mouth.  He knew any talk about Damien submitting to Scott would cause tension.  Sure enough, Damien stilled his hands for a moment, but then his caresses continued.

“You will get to fuck me soon, mate.  I promise you that.  But not now, not today. And when it does happen I won’t even
expect to whip you beforehand.” 

Damien raised
one hand and seconds later Scott felt it connect with the muscles of his left ass cheek.  The slap stung, but it wasn’t unbearable and Scott made a conscious effort to relax in his rather awkward position, draped over Damien’s legs.  He knew if he relaxed, his body would adapt better, the pain wouldn’t be as intense and it would hopefully be over a lot faster.

Keeping up a steady rhythm, Damien placed
solid, deliberate slaps all over Scott’s ass cheeks and upper thighs. Once Scott had gotten used to the infliction of pain, it really wasn’t that bad, he opened his mind link with his mate and tried to focus on what it was that Damien was getting out of the experience.  He knew that if he was a sub, then he personally would be getting a lot out of being spanked - not only would he probably enjoy it for the pain value, but there was something special that flowed between a spanker and the one receiving the treatment.  It was a question of trust and the fact that the person delivering the spanking cared enough about the sub to do it - usually for the subs enjoyment, or if it was a genuine punishment, then to reinforce the intimate bond between two people.

The first thing Scott picked up on right away was that Damien wasn’t angry with him
, and he felt a surge of relief at that realization.  Scott knew enough about the BDSM lifestyle to know that no Dom should ever ‘punish’ their sub if they are genuinely angry with the other person.  That is when mistakes are made and people can get hurt.

But what was Damien getting out of this?
  As Scott tried to filter through Damien’s thought process, which was almost 100% focused on the job at hand rather than anything else, another relief he noted to himself, Scott looked deeper and could see the pain and worry that Damien had gone through when Scott disappeared into the burning house.

And then it clicked for Scott.  He had run into the house without thinking about Damien
, or anything else apart from finding those children.  He should have thought of Damien for just a few minutes first.  Damien’s response was to revert to his typical pre-mate behavior, which was being a Dom, and he was doing it in the least painful and least humiliating manner he could.  Damien wasn’t a sadist - he didn’t get off on hurting someone else.  But he was making a point - Scott should have thought about Damien, and this spanking was designed to hopefully help imprint that thought on Scott’s psyche.

It was working.  Scott’s ass was now tingly red all over, he could feel it.  But he could also sense that Damien was winding down.  The frequency of slaps was getting less and Damien had gone back to lightly caressing the tingling flesh in between slaps.  Now it was becoming more sensual rather than punishment.
  When he felt Damien’s fingers slip between his butt cheeks, he pushed his ass up to give his mate more access.  The resulting groan he got gave Scott hope the spanking was over.

“Your ass is a gorgeous shade of pink, my mate,” Damien said huskily
, as he dipped the tip of one finger into Scott’s hole.  Scott looked over his shoulder at Damien who was looking at him with nothing but lust and approval in his eyes. He smiled, not because he was a submissive who had pleased his Dom, but because Damien, his mate, was now highly aroused and that was something that worked for both of them. 

“Are you going to let me get up?”  He asked as Damien continued to tease the muscles on the inside of his ass.  Damien removed his fingers and helped Scott to get upright again, but then tugged him forward
, so Scott was sitting straddled across his lap.  Damien’s cock was dark red and hard; Scott’s was only half way there and Damien noticed.

“It really doesn’t do anything for you, does it?” Damien said curiously
as he ran a finger up Scott’s cock, which understandably started to perk up at the attention.  Given what Scott knew about Damien’s past he supposed someone like him, who didn’t get off on being spanked, was an oddity for Damien, rather than the norm.

“No, Damien, I did explain that it does nothing for me,” Scott said quietly.  “But I did get your point and I will try and consider how my actions might make you feel from now on.”

“Is it so bad that your mate wants you to be safe and cared for?” Damien asked, staring at him with those gorgeous silver eyes of his.  Scott shook his head and ran his hand down Damien’s solid torso until he reached the leaking cock below. Pressing hard against the swollen flesh, Scott leaned forward and murmured, “you did promise to fuck me too, so don’t leave out the best bit.”

/~/~/~/~/

Damien groaned under Scott’s lips.  The man was both insufferable, and amazing, all tied up in one brilliant package.  While there might have been a tiny part of Damien’s brain that hoped that Scott might get off on being spanked by his mate, in truth it really didn’t matter.  Damien was coming to appreciate just how wonderful it could be to make love to someone who didn’t just present a hole and await instructions.  Even the making love aspect was so different from the bulk of what Damien had enjoyed before.

Scott was an amazing lover, and while it annoyed Damien to think about how he might have developed his techniques, Damien wasn’t stupid enough to bring up that topic of conversation.
Neither man was a virgin when they met and at least Damien wasn’t faced with Scott’s previous lovers, like Scott had to put up with at the subs meeting.

In the meantime
, there was something to be appreciated in the way Scott almost worshipped his body.  From his position on Damien’s lap there wasn’t a lot Scott could reach, but his hands felt amazing on Damien’s cock and Scott’s lips were tracing a path around the edge of Damien’s ear.  Having only been a neck down lover in the past, Damien had no idea how many areas above the neck could be considered erogenous zones. But thanks to Scott he learned that his neck itself was one, his ears, his chin, his mouth of course, hell, it even felt sexy when Scott kissed across his eyebrows.  All undiscovered thrill zones until Scott got his hands on him.