He chuckled and licked his mark, liking the shudder that ran through her. Movement in his peripheral vision snatched his attention and he looked to see Tao again. Most likely sensing that Trey’s wolf saw him as intruding and wanted to attack, Tao turned and trotted away.

Only when he was satisfied the other wolf was a fair distance away did Trey return his focus to Taryn, nuzzling her hair. “I’m sorry for what I said, baby. I was in a shitty mood. I took it out on Dante.”

Just like that, all the emotional torment that she had pushed aside came flooding back. She swallowed hard. “Like I said, it wasn’t anything I didn’t already know, you only said the truth.”

“No.” He withdrew, gently flipped her over, and then slid back inside. They both groaned. He kept his thrusts slow and sensual as he spoke. “I just say stupid things when I’m pissed. I didn’t mean any of it.”

“Then why say it?”

“I don’t know. I’m not good with this stuff, baby. Things weren’t supposed to be like this, it was only supposed to be about a deal.”

He sounded so lost and confused that it prickled at Taryn’s protective instincts and, before she thought better of it, she was curling her arms around his neck.

“When Dante talked about you staying and I realized how much I wanted you to it spooked the hell out of me and stupid shit starting coming out of my mouth.”

She could understand him being spooked. The second she realized she cared for Trey, she’d shit her pants. Even now she didn’t want to use the L word even though she knew it was what she felt.

“All I know is that I don’t want you to leave. If you do I’ll hunt you down and bring you back, Taryn, I shit you not, I will. Not because of our deal or my wolf, but because I want you here with me.” Then abruptly he reared back and began hammering into her, capturing her cries with his mouth as he crushed her lips with his. He groaned when she began sucking on his tongue, thinking of something else he’d like her to suck. Of course she was well aware of that. “If you do that again I’ll pull out and shove my c*ck in your mouth.”

She beat his back with her legs. “I’ll bite it off and shove it up your ass!”

“Then who would f**k you like this?” Drawn to one of his marks on her neck, he bent down and sucked at it, loving how her muscles tightened around his c*ck and how her nails pressed into his back. But, like always, they never broke the skin. “You know what I want, Taryn,” he growled as leaned over her, curling his h*ps as he increased the pace of his pounding. “Give it to me.”

Taryn knew what he meant, but she clamped her mouth shut and shook her head.

His eyes flashed wolf. “Bite me, mark me, now.”

“No!”

He tangled both hands in her hair and tugged hard. “Do it, Taryn. Put your f**king brand on me.”

She writhed beneath him, growling, “Fuck you!”

He gentled his voice a little and pinned her gaze with his. “Why fight it? Why?”

“This isn’t real,” she almost sobbed.

“Wrong, baby. This is as real as it gets.”

“I told you I won’t always placate your wolf!”

“He needs it, baby. I want it. I need it.”

Taryn shook her head again, knowing he couldn’t realize what he was asking, couldn’t realize what might happen. Nor could he realize that she was fighting herself just as much as she was fighting him. “It’ll never fade!”

“I don’t want it to. I want to look in the mirror and see it there. I want everyone else to see it there.”

“You want me to mark you so another female can cover it with hers? Fuck that!”

He arched a brow tauntingly. “You don’t like the idea of another female marking me? Then leave your brand there, warn them off, show them who I belong to.”

“It might start the imprinting! You don’t want that!” It surprised her that his expression suddenly softened.

“You’re not listening to anything I’m saying, baby. I’m not giving you up. Even if we don’t imprint I’m not giving you up, I can’t. If another man touches you I’ll kill him. I will. I’ll rip his f**king throat out and I won’t even care. You’re mine, Taryn, and you’re not going anywhere. I need you here with me, and I need your brand on me. Do it, Taryn! Give it to me!”

Whining in defeat Taryn lifted her head and sank her teeth into the juncture of his neck and shoulder.

It took everything Trey had to stop from coming there and then. “Fuck, yeah. More!”

She raked her claws down his back just like she and her wolf had wanted to from the beginning.

“Again, Taryn!” This time she bit down onto his shoulder but she didn’t release him and he loved the possessiveness of that act. Pounding into her even harder he demanded, “Come for me, Taryn.” He clamped his teeth over his claiming mark and she screamed around the flesh of his shoulder as her cl**ax tore into her. That together with her muscles closing around his c*ck had him erupting inside her once again.

And that was when it happened. Taryn released his shoulder with a gasp as her entire body clenched. Suddenly she was struck by a sort ice cream headache and then seconds later it eased and a feeling of warmth washed over her. Like how she felt when she was wrapped up in a blanket with a hot water bottle under her feet and a mug of hot chocolate in her hands – snug, contented, and sheltered.

She lifted her head and rested her chin on his chest, only then realizing he had rolled them over and she was lazed over him. “I -” Nothing more came out. Shock had apparently taken away her ability to speak. She could have told herself that what was happening was the imprinting bond beginning to develop, but she knew it would be a lie. She knew that what was happening was more than that, knew it as sure as she knew that she needed oxygen to survive – it was a knowing that basic and primitive. A bond was developing between them alright. A true mate bond.

Should she really be so surprised? Wasn’t this what her wolf and her body had hinted at all along? There had been plenty of signs. Like the way her wolf reacted to Trey’s scent – hell, she’d even been calm when he kidnapped her – and constantly craved his company and touch. Like the way her body had from the very beginning reacted rather enthusiastically to him. Like the way she had somehow been positive that he would never hurt her – for God’s sake, the psycho actually made her feel safe.

She realized then that, on some level, she had known she was speaking the truth when she told Shaya that the awful state she had slipped into after Joey’s death had been because of the double blow of losing her mom at the very same time. Due to having spent her entire life believing Joey had been her true mate, it had never occurred to her on a more conscious level that she could have been wrong – especially when Trey had also always believed that his own true mate had been another shifter. Apparently fate liked to play jokes.

Considering how long Trey had been imprint-phobic, he would have expected to shit his pants if he somehow discovered that his true mate hadn’t died at all, that he had found her. Instead, he strangely found himself at peace. Another strange thing was that he wasn’t so shocked to find out that Summer hadn’t been his mate. Thinking back, he realized that it had been her mom who had spoken the words ‘true mates’. Trey himself had never claimed that, never felt the tugging of that bond. He had taken what she said as truth because he hadn’t known any better – he was fourteen, he knew nothing of mating bonds, and wasn’t all that familiar with ‘feelings’. As he gazed up at Taryn, he marvelled at just how…happy…he was to have been wrong about Summer.

It made sense that the bond had never clicked into place before now, he mused. Both he and Taryn had held back from each other all this time. Now that he had come to accept he couldn’t be without her and now that she had finally branded him, there had been a bridge between them that enabled the bond to exist. It wasn’t fully developed yet as it was only in its early stages, but it was enough that he could feel her and what she was feeling.

So this was what Dante had meant each time he spoke to him of a truth that Trey wasn’t yet ready to accept. Dante had obviously suspected for a while that they were true mates. He was going to be so smug about this. “You know this is more than imprinting, don’t you?” he said softly.

She nodded. “Are you scared?” she asked quietly, dreading the answer.

Trey shook his head. “No.” He wanted her bound to him in every possible way. “Are you?”

Not wanting to lie and thinking he would probably sense it if she did, she nodded again.

He stroked her hair gently. “Why?”

“I don’t know if I’ve just claimed someone who doesn’t care for me.”

“Feel what I feel.”

Closing her eyes, Taryn found their connection instantly. She didn’t feel it in her head as she had thought mates did, she felt it everywhere, felt Trey everywhere. It was much like he was a shadow – something insubstantial that was forever just behind her but that she couldn’t touch. Yet, like with her shadow, although she couldn’t touch it or even feel it, she knew it was there – close and a part of her. She knew that he was genuinely happy that they had bonded, knew that he had been serious when he said he wouldn’t have let her leave no matter what.

And beneath all that, there was something else. God, it was like he had this knot inside him that chafed and nettled – threads of protectiveness, possessiveness, adoration, respect, desire and loyalty all twisted and matted with disorientation, panic, incredulity and even fear. With all these feelings he was in totally unfamiliar territory and couldn’t make sense of anything, but he was sure that he cared about her and couldn’t be without her.

Hell, it had been a lot more than she would have ever expected to find. She would have thought that anything he felt for her would be based on a primal need for sex and the instincts that came with his wolf and their mating, but it wasn’t that at all. This was about Trey and Taryn, the man and the woman. When she opened her eyes it was to see him looking at her with confusion in his eyes.

“You think you love me,” he practically whispered. He hated that he couldn’t say it back, knowing it would hurt her. Stroking her hair again he said, “I don’t know what that is, baby.”

Taryn’s heart literally ached for him. He was telling the truth, he didn’t know what it was. He had never had any real examples of love in his life, and he was convinced from the things he had done and was capable of doing that he wouldn’t be able to feel an emotion like that. He’d only been a child when he’d closed himself off. A child who didn’t want his dad’s words or treatment to be able to hurt him anymore. Closing himself off so early like that had stunted his development and he was, in a way, emotionally immature. It was that which was stopping him from untangling that knot.

It was like a kid with a complex math formula – too many factors and variables and unfamiliar terms for him to work out what it all meant. “Love is giving someone the power to completely destroy you, and hoping that they won’t.”

Trey framed her face with his hands, brushing his thumb over her bottom lip. “I’d never purposely hurt you. Never. I’m a man which means I’ll f**k up. Regularly. I’m not good with words, I spout crap when I’m angry, and I’m about as romantic as a pebble. But…See, I’m not good with words. All I can say is you’re important to me in a way I can’t explain or understand. More important to me than anything else.”

And Taryn could work with that because he did care for her, and that was more than she would have hoped for. “Same here.”

Gently he brought her face to his and ravished her mouth, gliding his tongue against hers and drinking her in into him. “My wolf’s feeling pretty smug about this.”

She smiled. “So is mine. Think the rest of the pack will be okay about it?”

“Let’s go find out.” Although it had been hot at the time to tear her jeans from her body, Trey was regretting it as he walked back toward the house with a half-naked Taryn. Shifters were pretty easy about na**dness since they had to strip in front of each other a lot for shifting, but it wasn’t something they did so casually under other circumstances. When they reached the spot where he’d thrown his clothes he gave Taryn his t-shirt to wear. A smile spread over his face at the sight of her practically drowning in it.

“Did it ever occur to you that I’m not too small and you’re just ridiculously big?”

Zipping his fly he shrugged. “You like how big I am.”

Of course, as usual, he was referring to the bulge in his jeans. She snorted. “It’s a wonder that thing even fits inside me.”

“Thing?” He pulled her to him and kissed her forehead. “Of course it fits. It belongs there.” Swatting her ass, he added, “Now come on.”

Strolling through the tunnels toward the living area they passed Greta. As she took in Taryn’s appearance she huffed. “Hussy.”

“Prude,” Taryn shot back without breaking stride as she and Trey walked hand in hand into the living area. Cam, Rhett, Grace, Lydia, Trick, Marcus and Dante all looked up, saw their clothes – or lack thereof – and grinned.

“So you’ve kissed, bitten, and made up?” asked Dante.

“Get the entire pack together,” ordered Trey. “We’ll be back in a few minutes.”

Exactly ten minutes later both Taryn and Trey were back in the living area, washed and dressed in fresh clothes. Taryn was surprised at how nervous she was about the pack’s reaction. She knew that most of them liked her and respected her and even viewed her as their Alpha female to an extent. However, this would no longer be a temporary thing, they would now have to accept her as their true Alpha female, latency and all. She hadn’t had to care before about what they thought of her, but now it mattered.