Trey held up a hand. “Firstly, let me be clear on a few things. I might agree to an alliance with you, but I’ll never like you. You judged Taryn’s worth on whether she could shift – something that has to do with her genetics. Instead of protecting her as you should have, you threw her literally to the wolves and she spent her life fighting off a**holes. You were even prepared to force her into a mating, at which point I would have lost her. So, yeah, we can talk alliances, but I wouldn’t bother continuing this discussion if you’re hoping for my permission to use me as protection.”

Lance narrowed his eyes. “I won’t have your support in the event of a challenge being made against my pack by another alpha?”

“I didn’t say that. But, see, Taryn’s told me all about how you like to name-drop.” When Lance’s gaze moved to her she gave him the sweetest smile. “If there are incidences when you need to call on your alliances for back-up, well that’s one thing. What I won’t have is you throwing my name at people whenever you feel threatened. Understand?”

“If you’re going to restrict the alliance to such a degree, I’m not sure there’s any point to this conversation.”

Recognising that Lance was calling his bluff, Trey smirked. “Don’t play games with me, Warner. You want this alliance more than I do. If you don’t like my terms, feel free to go.”

“You have very few alliances. You would benefit more than from this than I would.”

“I didn’t say I wouldn’t benefit more from this than you, I just said I didn’t want it as much as you do. As my history shows, collecting alliances has never been a particular interest of mine.”

“Until now.”

“Until Taryn. Things change when you mate.”

“Yes, they do,” he allowed. “I have a condition of my own. I want to be able to call on Taryn whenever I need a healer.”

Uh-oh, thought Taryn as she felt Trey’s body tense.

Both incredulous and irate, Trey leaned forward. Whatever the males saw on his face made them lean back. “You honestly think I’ll agree to you using her the way you have been all these years?” Lance had spoken about her like she was an object or tool that he would like to pick up when he felt like – of course, that was how he had always seen her and treated her. A growl built in the back of Trey’s throat and sent vibrations down his chest.

Lance swallowed hard in a nervous movement. “She’s a powerful healer.”

“She’s also a person. My mate. No one uses Taryn like that. Not anymore.”

The appearance of a tall brunette halted the conversation. Trey heard Taryn groan and guessed this wasn’t a friend of hers. He couldn’t help noticing that everything about the female appeared to be false.

“Alpha,” she said respectfully to Lance with a nod by way of greeting.

Oscar cleared his throat. “We’re a little busy here, Brodie.”

She waved her hand. “That’s fine, I was just coming to say hi.” Then her eyes landed on Taryn and she smirked evilly. “I’m guessing you must be lost to be in this place.”

Taryn smiled though it wasn’t pleasant. “Hating me won’t make you pretty, Brodie.” Anyone else might have been very careful how they spoke to the mate of someone like Trey Coleman, but one thing Brodie always loved to do was make herself look the big strong female in front of big bad alphas. Well there were plenty of those in this place, and for some reason this woman still hadn’t realized that Taryn wasn’t quite the easy target that Brodie thought she was. “I see your nose healed a little crooked. Shame that.”

“You broke her nose, baby?” Although Trey really didn’t like that this female was confronting his mate, he knew not to interfere. To do that would be to undermine her own ability to take care of herself.

“She wouldn’t let me pass and then she called me a freak, what was I supposed to do? Yeah, okay, I suppose I could’ve just ignored her, but there wouldn’t have been any fun in that.”

Brodie snickered. “You only hurt me because I didn’t fight back,” she stated loudly, drawing the attention of everyone within the diner as they recognised her confrontational posture. “It would be like picking on a disabled person, and I was raised not to do that.”

Taryn glanced around at all the onlookers and sighed. “So you’ve decided to schedule some time to make a spectacle of yourself.”

“Honey, the person who should be embarrassed here is you. You’re nothing but vapour to people like us. It’s laughable that you even walked through the door.”

“You know, Brodie, you’re like an STD: No one wants you, everybody hates you, and you’re a reminder of the devastating consequences of not using protection during sex.”

Brodie’s over-tanned face flushed. “Very funny aren’t you, little freak.”

“As it happens, I have my moments.”

“Want to know what’s even funnier?”

“Not really.”

“The idea of you as an Alpha Female of a pack. I honestly don’t think I’ve heard anything as ridiculous as a latent running a pack. Except maybe for this rumor of you calming a feral wolf. We all know that was a nice little story you spread just to make others think your own strength matched that of your mate – if he even is your mate, which I’m not buying at all.”

A growl escaped Taryn which had Brodie jumping in surprise. “Frankly I couldn’t give a shit what you think, but disputing my claim to Trey – that I won’t tolerate.” Her wolf was in full agreement.

“Won’t tolerate?” said Brodie, sounding amused. “What’re you going to do? Insult me to death?”

“Too slow a method. Challenge me to a woman-to-woman fight, Brodie, I dare you.”

“You don’t know what you’re asking, latent. How about I give you a taste of what you’re dealing with.” She flung her alpha vibes at Taryn, intending for them to oppress and intimidate her. Instead of lowering her gaze submissively, Taryn retaliated by clotting the air with her own.

As Taryn’s alpha vibes smothered them all like humidity in summertime, Trey realized something. That night when she had hit his grandmother with them, she had held back. All she’d been doing was giving Greta a small demonstration of her strength just to shut the woman up. This demonstration here and now was different. She was unleashing the full force of her wolf’s alpha strength on Brodie, making it perfectly clear that although she couldn’t shift, her dominance, strength, speed, and power exceeded that of Brodie’s. In a woman-to-woman fight, Brodie would be overpowered within seconds. Shit if Trey wasn’t hard as a rock right now at her display of dominance.

“Come on, Brodie, challenge me,” urged Taryn. “You’ve always liked an audience. Shall I kick your ass in front of one?” The terribly fake female let loose a low whine as she ducked her head, averting her gaze as a gesture of submission. “No? Then it might be best if you back the f**k off and scarper, don’t you think?” Taryn’s wolf was extremely disappointed when Brodie did exactly that.

Trey kissed her temple and ran his hand through her hair, hoping to soothe her wolf. “I’m surprised you didn’t throw her at the wall like you did Selma.”

Reining in her alpha vibes, she smiled at Trey. “Brodie isn’t one of your mistakes so she gets to walk away without a cracked skull.”

“How did I miss it?” asked Lance.

Taryn arched a brow. “You mean the fact that the female you’ve been sleeping with is about as smart as your toenail?”

He cast an annoyed look in Brodie’s direction, obviously unhappy about her making their sex life common knowledge. “How did I miss how strong your wolf is? Or I suppose a better question would be…why did you hide it?”

“I didn’t hide it, I just didn’t care to show you.” He seemed genuinely confused that she hadn’t wanted to impress him. “I’m not interested in having the approval of people I don’t respect. And I’ll never beg for scraps from anyone’s table. You just never got that.”

For the first time ever, there was an element of respect in Lance’s eyes as he regarded her. “But you’re not going to fight this alliance?”

“This here and now isn’t about making friends or building bridges. This is politics, pure and simple. Us being related by blood has no relevance because, as unfortunate as it is, there’s just no emotional bond there.” It was a sad, simple truth delivered with a shrug. It hurt more than she would ever admit or ever let him see.

“I underestimated you quite a bit, it seems. Both of you suit well. You make a good Alpha pair.” After a heavy sigh he asked irritably, “Okay, Coleman, what exactly are you willing to agree to?”

“Like I said, if there’s a situation that requires you to call on your alliances then you’ll have my support. In other words, I don’t mind being part of a solution to your problems, but I won’t have you doing your name-dropping thing and using me as a deterrent to the beginning of any problems. And there’ll be no using Taryn.”

“Out of curiosity, if you didn’t consider me such an awful protector where Taryn’s concerned…?”

“Then we wouldn’t even be having this conversation. My allegiance would be automatic and have no limits.” And Trey sincerely meant that.

Maybe it was petty of Taryn to be enjoying that, for just once in her life, her dad was regretting his treatment of her. Not because he cared about her, true, but because it had cost him in a political sense – something more important to Lance Warner than anything else. “How’s that Karma tasting, Daddy Dearest? A little sour, I’ll bet.”

Lance simple gave her an impatient look. “I’ll agree to your terms,” he said to Trey, albeit a little begrudgingly.

Trey looked at Taryn. “All of that okay with you, baby?” He knew he’d surprised her by asking for her input, but she didn’t let it show on her face.

“One last thing,” she said to Lance. “Because of your attitude toward me growing up, a lot of people saw it as their right to target me just for fun. Don’t think that if, like Brodie, they decide to do it again I’ll back down just because of the alliance. They shouldn’t challenge me unless they’re damn positive they can take me. I’m an Alpha female of a pack, which means any attack on me is an attack on the pack and I won’t ignore one.”

Lance gave her a sharp nod. “I’ll make sure the pack understands this.”

“Good.” After draining the last of the coffee from her cup, Taryn said, “Shall we go then, Trey?”

“Sure, baby.” They all rose and then Trey took the hand that Lance extended and shook it once. “Until we next meet…”

“Oh wait.” He gave Perry a subtle signal and the enforcer then dug a bulging sports bag from under the table and handed it to Taryn. She didn’t take it, just raised a brow at Lance hoping for an explanation. “You know what your mother was like for saving money. She began a fund for you to be given to you when you mated to give you a kick start. Obviously there would have been more in it had she not died.”

Tentatively she took the bag. “There’s money in here?”

“Twenty-five thousand dollars.”

“Twenty-five thousand dollars,” she echoed quietly, more than a little stunned. It struck her that he could have just kept the money for himself, knowing she’d be none the wiser. “Why are you giving me this?” It sure wasn’t because he cared for her.

“I’d never ignore the wishes of my mate.”

“Come on, baby.” Giving a slight nod to Lance, Trey draped his arm over her shoulder and kept her close to him as they walked side by side her from the diner with Dante and his enforcers trailing behind them.

Trey kept her just as close when they slid into the backseat of the Toyota, sensing that she was feeling a little off-kilter due to the bag that she was staring at as if it was a ticking bomb. He gave her the comfort she needed and would probably never have asked for – running the tips of his fingers along her bare upper arm and rubbing his jaw along her temple.

“Well, does it feel good to finally have the alliance you’ve been wanting so badly?” she asked, forcing her gaze away from the bag. She wouldn’t have thought being given a gift from her mom would have made her feel anything but incredibly happy, but this particular gift had had a purpose. Her mom had been starting a fund for her so that when Taryn and Joey were ready to begin their life together they would have some money to help them along. And that was why Taryn was – as unreasonable as it might be – feeling guilty for taking it.

Her mom hadn’t scrimped and saved this large amount of money to help Taryn along with a fake mating while she declared to all who’d listen that Joey hadn’t been her true mate. The woman had been a hopeless romantic and wouldn’t have seen Taryn’s mating with Trey as resourceful. She would have viewed a mating based around a deal that brought mutual benefit to both parties as a mockery of what mating was all about. She would have been right.

“Yes,” Trey answered carefully, hearing a difference in her tone that told him she’d withdrawn a little. His wolf growled, not liking it any more than Trey did. He nuzzled her hair and cuddled her closer. She didn’t resist him, but she didn’t melt into him either. He nipped the tip of her ear. She jolted and scowled at him. “Don’t freeze me out,” he insisted in a low, calm voice.