Taryn was still panting and vibrating with aftershocks when Trey kissed his way up her body and lay down beside her, gathering her against him. Although his eyes had darkened with lust he wasn’t making any moves on her. In fact, he seemed pretty content to just play with her hair. As much as she appreciated his selflessness, a part of her wanted him to be a little selfish right about now because she really wanted his cock inside her.
“Tell me about your mom.”
There went her arousal. When she hesitated answering he gave her a reprimanding look. He didn’t want to be frozen out again. “She was…this is going to sound mean. She was dizzy.”
“Dizzy?”
“Yeah,” she chuckled. “Wherever she went she’d leave something behind. The worst part was she wouldn’t even realize she’d left anything until someone asked her if it was hers. Common sense was something she lacked but it was one of the things that everyone loved about her because she could always make them laugh. Oddly enough, though, she was good with money. You’d have thought that her dopiness would have interfered with her money management skills, but no, she was great with numbers.”
“You two were close?”
She nodded. “I think one of the reasons she doted on me so much was that I was her only child. Her and my dad tried for more, but for whatever reason, she never got pregnant again. I knew she felt guilty about that, like she’d let my dad down.”
“Was your dad just as doting until he realized you were latent?”
“No. As a female, I was already a disappointment to him.”
Trey made a derogative snort. “That guy really is an asshole.” He gentled his voice as he asked, “How did she die?”
Again she hesitated and again he gave her that look. “My mom and Joey’s mom were close friends. Every Sunday they’d go to the market in town and take me and Joey with them. On this one day I couldn’t go because I was in the basement -”
“The basement?” There was something in the sound of her voice that had his hackles rising.
“It was my dad’s version of a punishment.”
“He used to confine you?” Hell that would be bad for any kid but for a shifter...
“It’s all part of that ‘him being an asshole’ thing. Anyway…On the way into town, some totally blitzed guy in a banged up Chevy crashed into them, sent them toppling over…It was thought that the three of them were unconscious when it went up in flames. The drunken bastard was fine.”
Trey held her tightly to him and kissed her hair. “It’s weird just how similar our situation is.”
Taryn pulled back to meet his gaze. “What do you mean?”
“Both of us lost our mom and true mate. Both of us were lumbered with assholes for fathers. Both of us have to deal with bold inner wolves.”
“How did they die?” When he just stared at her she growled. “Wait, I’m supposed to lay it all out but you get to remain a closed book? I don’t think so, Flinstone. Get talking.”
Not wanting to, but knowing she was right, he sighed and nodded. “There weren’t just the sixteen of us when I left the pack. My mom came. The separation from my dad…She wasn’t strong enough to deal with it and she turned rogue. Then I killed her. She’d attacked Marcus…”
When he paused midsentence and Taryn saw the pain in his eyes she couldn’t help but stroke his chest and snuggling closer. He shot her one of those macho ‘I don’t need comfort’ looks. “I’m not sympathising with you, I’m just cold.”
“As for my true mate…Her name was Summer.” That was the first time he’d spoken her name in a very long time. “She was two months old when she died in her sleep.”
Taryn’s heart clenched at the idea. “You said when we first met that you hadn’t acknowledged her?”
“I was fourteen, she was a baby…it felt weird and I acted like a dumb shit. Then when I heard she was dead…Let’s just say I didn’t take it too well and I made a mess of my room. My dad put two and two together and teased me about it.”
“Teased you?” Rage and protectiveness surged through her, making her wish the bastard was alive so she could kick his ass.
“He thought the whole thing was funny because something had finally gotten an emotional reaction from me, he wanted me to cry. See, I’d never cried no matter what he did to me, and he hated that. I’d always stay stoic and take every punch, refusing to give him the reaction he wanted. Even as he teased me about Summer I couldn’t cry, it’s just not in me to do that I guess.”
“You’re right, he was an asshole. So am I right in thinking that it was the teasing that made you lose it and beat him up so bad you almost killed him?”
He nodded. “I’d put up with his shit for years, but everyone has a limit, and that day he found mine and pushed it. I’m not sorry. Not even now that he’s dead. If he was here right now I’d do it all over again, and I’d enjoy it.” He wanted her to know who he was, what he was capable of. He wanted to know if she could handle it. She didn’t disappoint him.
“And I’d be cheering you on.”
Sliding his hand to her nape, he brought her face to his and kissed her hungrily, lashing her tongue with his and nibbling on her lips. The urge to plunge inside her and take her over was eating at him. Making it worse was that the scent of her arousal still flavoured the air. Shit he deserved a goddamn award for his restraint.
The sound of her stomach rumbling had Taryn chuckling into Trey’s mouth. “I need feeding.”
“I’ve already eaten,” he said with a wicked smirk. He tapped her bare ass lightly. “Come on, let’s get you some food.”
Five minutes later Taryn was fully clothed again and accepting a piggyback ride from Trey who rushed her into the kitchen. The entire pack was there other than Cam who was on guard duty. All were smiling with the exception of Greta, Kirk, Selma, and Hope. Taryn could only assume they had overheard her and Trey having some quality time together, or had guessed by the sight of his slashed t-shirt which he had purposely left on.
There was someone else who wasn’t smiling, she suddenly realized. Tao’s expression was carefully blank. Before she had the chance to wonder on that, Grace came and handed Taryn – who was sat on the counter with Trey standing beside her – a plate on which a few slices of watermelon sat, and also a candy bar just because she was an angel. “It’s good to have you back.”
She took the plate gratefully. Grace always took care of her. Then she topped it off by handing her a mug of coffee. “I think I love you.”
“So the hussy’s back, is she?” sneered Greta, glaring at Taryn like she was a giant turd.
Taryn only smiled. “Is there no way you could just pull your bottom lip over your head and swallow?”
Dante’s drink sprayed out of his mouth as he went into a fit of coughing.
“I’d have shoved this piece if watermelon in your mouth if I didn’t like it so much.” Taryn saw Dominic biting his bottom lip and just knew he was doing his best to bite back a dirty chat up line. Perv.
“While you and Taryn were, um, busy,” said Rhett to Trey, “I checked our pack web for messages. Turns out there’re a lot of alphas interesting in discussing an alliance with you, Trey. The new alpha of the Roscoe’s pack included.”
Taryn laughed. “I had a feeling he might get in touch through the pack web. He seemed too terrified of Trey to come back here.”
“There was someone else too.” He looked at Taryn then. “Your dad. Only he wants to set up a meeting to discuss it in person. Any idea why?”
“My dad likes to name-drop.”
“Name-drop?” echoed Trick.
“There are different levels to an alliance. Most simply want the association with that pack, want to build the number of associations to look impressive.”
“A little like people on social networks wanting to have a massive friends list?”
“Exactly. Others want an assurance that if they ever need to call on the pack in an emergency for back-up of some kind, they’ll get it. Then there are some who are a lot like people who enjoy boasting about all the important or influential people they know – like to drop names into conversations and claim that that person is a close acquaintance in order to look impressive to others.”
Trey folded his arms across his chest. “So, basically, your dad wants to be able to throw my name around to deter others from fucking with him, and maybe even call on me for protection?”
“Yep.”
“Cheeky bastard. A basic alliance, sure. But the right to use me on a protective level? Hell no.” After the way he’d treated Taryn, the man was lucky to still be breathing.
“The whole point of mating with me was to get an alliance with my dad. You can’t let the fact that he’s an asshole get in the way here of your big plan.”
Yeah, but Trey couldn’t agree to this alliance without feeling as though he was being disloyal to his mate. God knew he’d hurt her enough already. “Rhett said a number of other alphas are willing to discuss an alliance. Maybe I won’t need your dad.”
“You’ve never needed him, you’ve never needed this mating,” stated Kirk.
“Too right,” said Selma, crossing her arms over her chest, accentuating her cleavage. “She has no place here.”
“No Warner will ever have a place here.”
Taryn shook her head. “This stuff is getting real old.”
“Isn’t that right, Hope?” pressed Selma, ignoring Taryn.
Hope gulped and nodded. “You’ve no place here.”
“Why won’t you listen to us, Trey?” Kirk sounded genuinely confused. “Darryl will never go through with this challenge – you have to know that.”
“Son, why not just calm down,” said Brock.
“Are you telling me that you support her being here? Support having a Warner around?”
Brock sighed. “No, I don’t support it, and I don’t think we’ll get anything out of her being here. Nonetheless, we don’t question our Alpha, you know that.”
Sharply, Kirk stood and stalked out of the room. Selma and Hope followed closely behind him.
“Their lack of support isn’t exactly a shock,” said Dante, shrugging as if their input meant jack shit.
Trey nodded his agreement then stood between Taryn’s swinging legs and pulled her flush against him. “You’re sure you’ll be okay with me meeting up with your dad to sort an alliance?”
“Do you honestly think I’d keep my mouth shut if I wasn’t?”
He smiled. “Good point. Alright, Rhett, set a meeting up for this weekend at somewhere that’s neutral territory.”
“You do know I’m coming, right?” said Taryn. Seeing that he was about to argue she placed her index finger over his mouth. “I don’t mind if you want to start ranting just as long as you understand I’ll be ignoring every word and I fully intend to be there. Any Alpha pair would go together to a meeting with another Alpha, you know that.”
He nipped her finger, making her snatch it back and scowl. “This isn’t just any Alpha. This is the asshole who was a complete and utter bastard to you throughout your entire life.”
“I’m not sure why you’d want to be in the same room with him ever again after the way he just tossed you aside because of the latency,” said Ryan, clearly in protective mode.
Taking in the sympathetic faces, Taryn sighed. “I take it this means you all know about my relationship – or lack thereof – with my dad.”
Rhett pointed at Marcus. “It was him who told us all.”
“Only because you were all talking about her like she was Warner’s golden girl. His treatment was far from golden.”
“Which is why I don’t want you near him,” Trey said to Taryn. His wolf was in full agreement.
She smiled sweetly and scraped her nails lightly down the column of his throat. “As cute as that is, it doesn’t make an ounce of difference.”
Again he wanted to argue with her, wanted to protect her from harm just as his wolf did, but now that Trey had come to know more about Taryn, he understood that how he handled this now would be very important. Throughout her entire life, people had seen it as their right to undermine her and disrespect her. If the male she had mated did that, it would hurt her deeply. Even his wolf understood that part of his job as protector was to protect her emotionally – something he hadn’t been doing very well so far. So, groaning, he nodded and didn’t let it show that her beaming smile had any effect on him.
“It’s good to see you’re starting to understand that I have a will of iron.” Seeing Dominic’s face scrunched up in agony, indicating that it was obviously killing him to hold back, she sighed tiredly. “Whatever the dirty line is, get it out of your system now.”
Dominic shrugged innocently. “It was just that you said you liked watermelon. It got me wondering…If I was a watermelon, would you spit or swallow my seed?” Some chuckled, some groaned, and Trey scowled at him.
“Okay, okay, I got a better one. If your left leg is Thanksgiving, and your right leg is Christmas, can I visit you between the holidays?” More people chuckled than groaned at him this time. Trey, of course, growled.