Marked by the Alpha (3 page)

She opened the door slowly and stifled a gasp.
Mason
was dressed in a simple pair of black jeans and a dark teal
-
colored shirt that fit his arms perfectly. She stared for a moment before she
got ahold of herself and greeted him.
“Please, come in
,” she said, and then
moved back
to let him step inside
.

He stepped inside and handed her the bottle of wine. “It goes well with steak
,
”
he said matter-of-factly.

Dani
accepted it and smirked in spite of herself. “I am sure that it goes well with almost anything.”
She set the dining room table and again pondered how long it had been since she
had
had
company
in the room. She kept herself busy pouring the wine and removing the foil from the meat
, but after a while she spoke up.
“How did you find me?”

“You gave me directions.” He took the wine glasses and set them on the table.

Dani
sat down and took a sip. It was deep and rich with the smoothest aftertaste she had ever
experienced
. She nodded approvingly at the wine and then folded her hands in front of her. “I’m talking about my store.”

“You
advertise
well?” Mason
grinned and then
sat down across from her.

Dani
waited as he served himself and then accepted the platter. She had made the steak the way that she enjoyed it
—
just seared
—
and hoped for the briefest moment that he would like it as well. She took a small portion from each dish and then looked back at him. “Do you have wolf GPS or something?”

“What are you afraid of?” Mason
asked with a slight frown, before taking
a large sip
of
the wine.

Dani
looked down at her plate and
fed herself a few
spoonfuls
of potatoes. She was not going to give in so easily. If he was there for other purposes then her mention
ing
him claiming her would just give him the idea that it was something she wanted.
“I do not frighten easily, Mr. Daniels.”

Mason reached over and touched her chin so that she was looking back up at him. “Something has you on edge and I want to know what it is.”

“Right now the only thing that has me on edge is you showing up
at
my store!”
Dani
snapped as she pulled away and stood up.
Part of her was worried that he would
try to
claim her and
another part was
equally scared that he would not.

Mason blinked up at her. “Do you think I’m here to claim you,
Dani
?”

Dani
blinked
back an
uninvited sheen of
tears and glared. “I am sure that you have thought of it or you would not have mentioned it just now!” She was breathing
heav
ily
as he moved the chair back.

Mason stood slowly. “That is not really my style
,
though by the end of the night you will
learn to treat me with respect
.”

Dani
huffed and sat down. She drained her glass of wine and focused on eating her steak. That damn feeling of wanting to just roll all over him was really messing with her head. She continued to devour the meat and said nothing.

“Tell me about the threats then.” Mason began to eat but kept those eyes on her.

Dani
took a deep breath. “
They are just like
the ones
your pack gets, I’m sure
.
I’ve
had some occasional dead animals in the entryway to my store,” she said with a shrug, trying to sound casual.

“
Nothing like that is happening to anyone in my pack,
” Mason
said, then
took another sip of
wine.

Dani
frowned and dropped her fork. “I thought those sort of things were happening everywhere.” She licked her lips. “You think that someone is actually after me?”

“You are
a dominant female
and one of the only red-haired wolves in the entire country
.
I would say that you would be highly sought
-
after
by hunters.
”

“And you think offering me your protection will stop the threats?”
Dani
asked as she
poured another glass of wine. Was he trying to scare her into his protection
,
or
were hunters
really after
her in particular
?

“If you become part of my pack
,
I will guarantee your protection.” Mason motioned for her to fill his glass as well.

“I will not be forced into a pack
,
”
Dani
huffed.
She noticed that her
hand w
as
trembling
as she
held the glass
.

Mason took the bottle from her and filled his own glass. “I am not here to force you to do anything
,
unless you prove that your independence has made you
foolish
.”

Dani
stood up again.
She hated
appearing vulnerable and
weak. After all the years of being on her own
,
the last thing that she needed was some alpha male
busting
into her life like
a
knight on a white horse. “You will speak kindly to me in my own house, Mr. Daniels.”

Mason smiled. “I have spoken to you with more kindness than most would
have,
M
iss
Dixon.”

Dani
took a step towards him and he mirrored her immediately. She was fuming for the second time that day. There was something about this man that made her want to
either
curl up on his chest and stay there or tear him to pieces. It was infuriating.

“Are you like this with everyone you meet,
Dani
?”

Dani
growled. “I let you in
to
my house
,
but it does not mean that I am letting you into my life.”

“If you growl at me again I will show you right now just how this is going to play out.” Mason’s words came out cool and collected and it just poked at
Dani
more.

“I am not yours to command
,
”
Dani
said fiercely, feeling
more
off
-
balance than ever before.
O
ne minute she was ready to impress him and please him
,
and in the next she was ready to force him to claim her in every sense of the word. She took a step towards him.

Mason grabbed her hair and pulled her the rest of the way.
She stumbled and wound up on her knees. “You may be dominant
, but not with me
,
”
he warned her.
He let go of her hair
a
nd
she glared up at him. “You are going to respect
me
,
Dani
, no matter how long it takes
,
”
Mason
said, and then
reached down, pulled her up into his arms
,
and set her on the edge of the table. “You should be warned that you will not like how
alpha males
teach
their females
respect
.”

Dani
slid off the table and sat back in her seat while she glared daggers at him. “If it involves bowing down and letting you walk all over me
,
then you and your pack can go and
—”

Mason grabbed her chin. “I tried being reasonable
,
but now I am going to
teach you to respect me
.”

“You get your hands off me!”
Dani
growled.
She was done being rational. She wanted Mason Daniels out of her house and out of her business!

Mason shook his head. “I warned you about that
,
”
he said firmly, then
picked her up and threw her over his shoulder before she could react.

“Mason Daniels you put me down or so help me
—”

SMACK!

Dani
jumped. He had smacked her ass
!
What the hell? She was too shocked to comprehend what he had just done
, let alone
what he
might mean to do next
.
While she
was trying to
remember
what he had said
earlier
in the store about respect
, he carried her across the room, then set her on her feet in front of him and
sat down upon her couch
, all the while keeping a tight hold around her waist
.
Dani
tried
to
escape
from his grasp, but
she was suddenly
yanked over his lap and then
pinned by one of his legs. She bucked but had nowhere to go. “I will never forgive you for this
,
”
s
he
spat between her teeth
as
he
grabbed her arm and held it
behind her back.

“I am not going to stop until
you have learned a good lesson,
” Mason whispered as he rested his other hand on
Dani’s
back.

The nerve of him!
Dani
had never been in this position before in her life! She bucked up against his
palm. “My
pain tolerance is epic, Mr. Daniels.”

“I’m not going to spank you because I want you to hurt you, I’m going to spank you
because you need it,
” Mason
said, then
lifted her skirt and lowered her panties. He began to smack one cheek and then the other
, over and over, harder and harder, turning her bare bottom quickly from pale to pink to bright red.

Dani
bit her lip. Though her tolerance was indeed high she was growing more nervous about being held in such a manner. She had never been spanked as a child. Hell, she had been on her own since age ten.
When s
he heard him undo his belt she
fought anew to get free, and she really began to squirm and struggle when
his belt began to sting her upper thighs.

“You let me go!”
she yelled in pain and fury.

Mason continued to rain the belt down
on
both
of her exposed
cheeks. “
Are you going to start treating me with some respect?
”
he asked calmly.

Dani
kept squirming
as the spanking continued. “I hate you!”
s
he
finally yelled out as the tears began to flow. True to his word it did not feel like he was trying to bruise her but
the intense sting and the humiliation were
ebbing away at the wall that she had so firmly kept in place.

Mason
finally tossed the
belt
aside
. “Tell me,
Dani
,
why have you been behaving so rudely toward me
?”

Dani
continued to cry but said nothing. How could she possibly tell him that part of her was secretly hoping that he was here to claim her
, and that another part of her hated him for making her think that way.

Mason let out a sigh and began to spank with his hand. “I want the answer
. There has to be some reason that you have been so disrespectful to me.
”
After several moments
Dani
heard him pick the belt up again.

“Is this what men like you do to your females?”
Dani
spat the words. Her mood had turned sour and she was deeply confused at the rush of emotions running through her.