“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 a**hole 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 cl**vage. “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 a**hole 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.

“Where do you hear these lines?”

“Some I’ve heard from other guys. Some I’ve read on the internet or heard on T.V.”

Trey glared at him. “Well you can stop using them on my mate.”

Dominic gave him an apologetic look that couldn’t have been more false. “I can’t help it, she’s like a dictionary – she brings meaning into my life.” This time everyone groaned. “Oh come on, that wasn’t that bad.”

The next few hours went as usual for the pack of an evening – they ate together in the kitchen, they watched T.V. together, Taryn and Greta exchanged more insults. But there were two major differences. One, Trey stayed with Taryn as opposed to closing himself in his office. Two, for some unknown reason, Tao didn’t appear to be talking to her.

It wasn’t until just before she was ready to head to her room that she managed to catch a moment alone with Tao in the living area. “Would you like to tell me why you won’t even look at me?”

As if she hadn’t spoken, he rose from his seat on the sofa and started to leave the room.

She jumped up and placed herself in front of him. “Oh no, there’ll be no walking away. You tell me what it is I’ve done.”

Sighing, he ran his hand through his hair. She didn’t think he was going to answer but then he abruptly snapped, “You shut me out, Taryn.” Gentling his tone, he continued. “I thought we were close. Close friends, I mean. And you totally shut me out. What’s worse is that the person you opened up to is the one person who didn’t deserve to have you confide in him like that.”

She could understand why he might feel a little hurt. They had become good friends. Her wolf wasn’t so understanding about his tone and was growling inside Taryn’s head. “Today is my deceased mom’s birthday.” His mouth dropped open. “I actually hadn’t told Trey. He found my box of memories and realized for himself.”

“But he was still the person who brought you out of that daze. Him. Or do you just like being eaten out so much?”

Hands on her h*ps she invaded his personal space. “Who do you think you are speaking to me that way?

He stepped back and raised his hands. “I’m sorry. I just don’t understand why you’d let him use you. All he’s done since the beginning is brush you off and now that he’s decided he’ll treat you like a mate you’re just going to give in to him just like that? You deserve better than that.”

“You’re making him sound cruel, Tao. He was trying to avoid imprinting -”

“Yeah I know but I still think you deserve better. I’d never have hurt you like that, Taryn. Never.”

As the meaning of his words registered it was her mouth that dropped open as her hands slipped down from her hips.

“Yeah, that’s right. Don’t worry, I’d never poach – that’s not who I am. Maybe once the battle’s over and you’re leaving” – he paused, shrugging – “maybe you’ll think more about me then.”

This time she didn’t try to stop him from leaving the room. She didn’t do anything, just stood there frozen with shock. Should she have known this was how Tao felt? Sure she’d noticed he was always around her a lot but he was her bodyguard, he was supposed to be. And yeah, okay, he touched her a lot, but Marcus gave her shoulders a massage every single day and there was nothing going on there.

Why did it have to mean something if a guy was friendly? Couldn’t platonic friendships between a male and a female exist anymore? This was so shit.

The sound of soft footsteps had her turning to see Dante entering the room. His expression was sympathetic. “You heard that.” He nodded. There was no surprise on his face. “You already knew.” He nodded again. “Everybody knows.” Another nod. “Even Trey?”

“I’m not sure if he knows that Tao is prepared to leave the pack with you, but he knows Tao wants you.”

“It hasn’t caused any bad feelings between them, has it?” She’d leave before she came between two close friends. Her wolf growled at the idea of her leaving, but Taryn ignored her.

“No. Like Tao said, he’d never poach and Trey knows that.” He cocked his head and pursed his lips. “Would Tao have a chance with you if you left here?”

“There’s no ‘if I left here’ about it, Dante. Trey only wants this to be short-term, you know that.”

“I’m not so sure about that. I’ve seen Trey with women. Never has he ever treated any of them the way he treats you.”

She snickered. “What, you mean totally shoving them aside?”

“As much as Trey’s tough, we’re all scared of something. And he’s terrified of imprinting, Taryn. He saw first-hand what happens when a wolf turns rogue, he had to kill that wolf. For as long as you don’t imprint on each other there’s no chance of that happening to either of you if you separate.”

She noticed he had again used the word ‘if’ but she didn’t comment.

“When he made that deal with you, he hadn’t considered that he might just come to like you in more than a physical sense. You brought out things in him that he wasn’t prepared for and it knocked him for a loop.”

She shook her head. “That’s just his wolf, Dante. Just his mating instincts. It’s not Trey.”

“He knew in advance that his wolf would be possessive, he knew his instincts would ride him hard – he’d been ready for all that. He hadn’t been ready for how it would be if he himself felt those same things.”

“You’re wrong.” The denial was automatic. Automatic because she’d come to the conclusion a long time ago that she could only ever rely on herself, that she would never have that total acceptance that came from a mate. She was defiant, sarcastic, snappy, contrary, stubborn and strong-willed – not an attractive combination for male wolves in her opinion. When she’d lost Joey she’d also lost that one chance of being cared for exactly as she was, latency and all. Besides this was Trey they were talking about for God’s sake! “There’s no danger of us imprinting.”

“I agree. There’s something a lot bigger than that going on here.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“That’s something you both need to figure out on your own, but I’m not convinced either of you are ready to accept it yet.”

Not liking that smug, all-knowing look on his face, she pushed passed him and jogged to her room. In under a minute she was stripped of her clothes and stood under the soothing hot spray of the shower. There was no denying that this day had been one of the strangest of her life. On the plus side, at least it wasn’t possible that it could get any stranger. But she didn’t want to think on anything. Not her mom, not Joey, not Tao’s confession, not Dante’s dumb theory. All she wanted was to just forget about it all, just for a little while. She would decide what to do about Tao tomorrow, she really would, but right now she just needed to relax.

Finished in his office and ready to head to his room, Trey swung the office door open and frowned at the sight of Dante stood there with his hand ready to knock.

“Hey,” said his Beta, dropping his hand. “I’m just passing on a message from Rhett. The meeting with Warner is scheduled for next Saturday morning at Mo’s Diner, 10 A.M.”

“Good.”

“You don’t sound all that excited.”

“I don’t?” asked Trey, hoping to sound aloof, as he stepped out of the office and closed the door behind him. In truth, the idea of making any kind of agreement with Lance Warner irritated both him and his wolf.

Dante sighed, rubbing his nape. “I don’t like it either. Taryn might say it doesn’t bother her, but it’s got to piss her off a little.”

“She’s always known I wanted the alliance, she’s never forgotten why she’s here,” said Trey a little defensively.

“Yeah. Would have been a lot easier using her like this if she was an evil heifer though.” As Trey shrugged passed him Dante added, “I wouldn’t expect her to be in a great mood when you see her.”

Trey swerved. “Why’s that?”

“Tao just dropped a bomb on her.”

He didn’t have to say anything more for Trey to understand. “I didn’t think he’d tell her. Little f**ker.”

“Trey, come on, he’s just overheard her screaming from an orgasm you were giving her and he feels like you’re treating her like a toy you can pick up when you feel like.”

“A toy? She’s my mate.” He would admit he’d been an ass to her, but never had he thought of her as a toy, never had he disrespected her in his thoughts like that.