“Roscoe gets here on Sunday,” warned Perry. “He’ll come for you.”

Trey laughed. “Oh I certainly hope he does.” With that, he flung Perry away from him and signalled for Tao to release Oscar. He then turned his back on them, communicating his lack of fear, and snaked his arm around Taryn’s waist to pull her tight against him. “Time to look mesmerised by each other while we have a little chat,” he whispered in her ear.

Wrapping her arms around his neck, she locked her gaze with his and fixed a smile on her face. His answering smile was devilish. “My dad’s going to shit a brick. He’ll have felt my disconnection from the pack by now.”

“I think he’s already on his way here. When the enforcers first tried interfering, one of the males from your pack announced to a female that he was going to call him. Are you going to be okay watching what happens next? I don’t want to battle with your father and risk the chance of an alliance, but there’s a possibility that the confrontation will lead to a battle.” He wasn’t expecting to be granted an alliance straight away, not when Warner was going to be pissed about having his daughter taken from him.

“He won’t want the fight any more than you do. He’ll know you’re a more dominant wolf and that you’ll most likely defeat him – he won’t want to chance looking weak in front of his pack in case it inspired one of them to challenge his position.”

“You’re going to have to openly claim I’m your true mate, Taryn,” he reminded her gently as he breezed his thumb over his mark. “Are you going to be able to do that?”

It took a good deal of effort not to let the smile drop from her face. “Yes. I know what has to be done.”

He brushed his lips against hers. “Good girl. How’s your wolf doing? Did she want you to fight me off when I marked you?”

She shook her head. “She likes you.”

Trey smiled crookedly. “You say that like it makes her stupid.”

“She’s impressed by your level of dominance.”

That surprised him. “Not intimidated?”

“No. She thinks you’re strong enough to take her on, she doesn’t like weaklings. It’s your scent she likes most.”

His wolf really liked hers. Trey inhaled deeply, taking that exotic scent into his lungs. “My wolf’s riding me hard. He wants to complete the claiming.” Grinding against her, he spoke into her ear, “And I need to be inside your hot little body.”

It was true that the mating technically wouldn’t be complete without them consummating it, but as it wasn’t a mating in the truest sense Taryn had figured that the drive to have sex wouldn’t be as strong. Instead, her wolf and her body were craving that completeness.

Trey slipped his hand under her dress and boldly cupped her. “This is where I’ll be very, very soon, Taryn,” he promised – more like threatened. “Inside you, filling you with my cum, and making you scream.”

“I’ve met guys like you before. They talk the talk but, well…talking doesn’t exactly get people to orgasm, does it?”

Trey smiled wickedly. “When I f**k you Taryn – and make no mistake about it, baby, I will f**k you – the only talking you’ll be doing is begging me to let you come. And don’t doubt that I’ll make you come. Not just the once. You’ll come over and over again, until I decide you’ve had enough. Until I decide that I’ve had enough.”

“Hmm. That’s all very fascinating, but you’re forgetting one very important thing.”

“And what’s that?”

“My guess, Tarzan, is that you’re very used to Janes; you don’t just want total obedience, you expect it. I’m not sure you’d know what to do with a woman who would bite you, scratch you, and curse you to hell and back if she wasn’t getting her own way. You want my submission, you’re going to have to battle for it.”

He hadn’t thought he could get any harder. She was right in her assumption that he was only used to submissive women; females were too cautious around him to fight him for dominance. He didn’t crave submission, but he liked it. And he sure as shit liked the thought of Taryn, his mate, submitting to him. The idea of having to fight for and earn the right to her submission…Fuck. “I’ll look forward to the upcoming battle.”

“And just so you know in advance, big boy, I never beg.” All alphas had a big thing for begging, especially when it came to their mates, and Taryn needed him to know that it wouldn’t be happening. “Don’t take that as a challenge, because it’s genuinely not meant as one. It’s just something I never do.”

Trey didn’t have to ask to understand why. It was because that would mean she had completely surrendered, given her complete submission, and Taryn wasn’t prepared to do that for anyone. He understood that need to not be totally vulnerable to another person. “Now that we’ve cleared that up” – he curled both arms around her, resting his hands on her ass – “I’ll ask…do you think we’re fooling anybody?”

“I think most of them are having a little trouble accepting that I’d been wrong about Joey, but they can’t deny to themselves what they’ve just seen.” Or what they thought they saw. She realized now that if they hadn’t done things this way, no one would have bought it. “I don’t think any of them believe this is some kind of prearranged thing. More like they’re wondering if it’s out-of-control-lust or something.”

He nodded. “They might be able to think of a reason why you would lie about being mated, but they won’t be able to come up with a reason why I would.”

As his head tipped to the side and his eyes turned wolf, Taryn gasped. His gaze was glued to her shoulder and she knew exactly what it was that had his wolf fighting to surface. She had to refrain from flinching as he released a menacing growl. If she, the female his wolf saw as his, showed any fear of him it would offend and aggravate him. He was already very much on edge right now.

Knowing what the animal wanted and needed, she said, “Go on.” He didn’t hesitate. Just bent his head and bit down hard over Roscoe’s mark, sucking and licking the skin to replace it with his own mark. When he lifted his head again it was Trey looking back at her. Apparently his wolf was satisfied enough that he was willing to retreat.

Trey wasn’t surprised by his wolf’s jealous reaction to the sight of the fading bite from the other wolf’s teeth on Taryn’s flesh, but he was surprised that she had accommodated his wolf’s basic need to replace the mark with his own. By abruptly more or less chomping on her shoulder, he had done what Roscoe had.

“You didn’t struggle,” he said, knowing he sounded a little mystified. He wouldn’t have expected for Taryn, a latent wolf, to understand how difficult it could be to reign in the animal’s instinct when the beast lived so close to the surface as Trey’s did.

She sighed. “You and I aren’t really all that different when it comes to our wolves. My wolf constantly reaches for the surface, because she has no understanding of why she’s trapped. Being trapped frustrates her and all that frustration fuels her spirit, making her brash and testing. And that brash, testy spirit then constantly rides me, trying to force her urges or needs on me – it’s really her only way of surfacing. So I understand more than you might think about how it is for you to have your wolf so close. Not that I’ll always placate him – it’s probably best you understand that now. But both she and I know when to push and when to yield.”

That was something that only a true alpha could do. Trey found that he respected Taryn Warner, and that wasn’t something he could say for a lot of people. “It wouldn’t be much fun if you placated me or my wolf all the time.” His head whipped round when one of the females spoke.

“Taryn, do you think we could just talk alone for a second?”

Taryn guessed that Shaya thought she might think more clearly if she was away from Trey. She had been about to respond when Richie tapped Shaya on the shoulder.

“Getting in between mates isn’t a good idea,” he told Shaya. “Especially when they’ve only just claimed each other.”

“But they can’t be -” She stopped mid-sentence and Taryn knew why. Her dad had arrived.

As soon as Lance Warner spotted her he strolled toward her, clenching his fists. His eyes darted from her to Trey. “What the hell is this?” Then he saw the mark on her neck and his eyes bulged.

“I’ve found my mate,” she declared in a steady voice.

“Your mate?” he repeated tonelessly. “What the hell are you talking about, girl?”

“You’re not happy for me, Daddy Dearest? Why am I not surprised?”

Lance fixed his glare on Trey. “Let go of my daughter.” There was a slight tremor to his voice that betrayed his nervousness.

“That’s not going to happen.”

“What’s your game here? We all know she isn’t your mate. What would you want with her, with a latent?”

“Careful,” said Trey in a deceptively patient voice, not liking the derogatory way he had spoken of Taryn.

“You want to trade her for some of my land, is that it?”

Trey laughed, and it wasn’t a nice sound. “If I wanted some of your territory, I’d have challenged you Alpha to Alpha. And, believe me, I’d have won.”

“Well if this isn’t about territory then what the hell is this all about?”

“Um, Alpha,” began Richie, “we all just saw what happened. It looked like true mates finding each other.”

Relief washed over Taryn as she saw many of the wolves around them nodding their agreement with Richie.

“No!” insisted Lance. He pointed hard at her. “You’re doing this just to spite me, you little bitch!”

“Hey,” snapped Trey as he advanced a step toward Lance. “Be very, very careful. Paper thin f**king ice.”

Taryn almost shivered. The words had been delivered in such a lethal, authoritative tone that her dad had actually resisted the urge to snap back at him. “The decision was taken out of anyone’s hands by nature itself, Dad.”

“Nature? If you’re talking about your rebellious nature, then yeah, nature is what caused this. You’re doing it to get out of mating with Roscoe. We both know that Joey was your true mate.”

“I thought so too, but as unbelievable as it might seem, I was wrong.” God, it hurt to say that.

“No. I remember the way you were when he died. You wouldn’t talk, barely ate, never left the house. You were like that for over six months.”

“That was probably a lot to do with me having lost my mom in the very same accident.”

He went to take a step toward her but Trey’s growl halted his advance. He snarled at Trey. “Even if the kid wasn’t her true mate it makes no difference, she’s already mated! She’s mated to Roscoe Weston.”

“As I said to your enforcer, if that had been true, I wouldn’t have been able to claim her.”

“Well I think you’ll find Roscoe will disagree with you on that. And so do I. She’s coming home with me.” He signalled to Perry and Oscar to grab her.

“Try it,” bit out Trey, his face like thunder and his eyes flashing with anger. “I can guarantee you won’t like what happens.” Wisely, the enforcers didn’t try it.

“What are you waiting for?” Lance growled at Perry and Oscar.

Oscar shrugged. “It’s like Richie said. We saw what happened, it sure looked like true mates -”

Lance shook his head. “There’s something I’m missing here.”

Taryn used his own words against him. “With your view of the world, I would have thought you’d have found this easy enough to accept. According to you, a wolf wouldn’t want a latent for a mate unless he had no choice in the matter.”

“That’s true,” said Lance with a snicker. “I don’t even know why Roscoe wants you, why anyone would.”

A second later he was pressed against the wall with Trey’s hand around his neck. “It’s almost as though you want me to rip your throat out,” he growled, fighting his wolf from surfacing and doing just that. He hadn’t wanted there to be any violence, but Taryn had been right. Although they weren’t true mates and this whole thing was to be temporary, his wolf wasn’t hung up on those details, wasn’t held back by them. His wolf was an elemental being who acted mostly on instinct, and since he’d marked Taryn Warner, his wolf regarded her as his. His to protect, to comfort, to shelter, to possess. And Trey agreed.

This whole thing hit too close to home, making Trey think of his own father. His dad had been pretty attentive and protective…right up until the Seer within the pack, when Trey was just five, had told his dad that Trey would one day usurp his position as Alpha. After that, his father had pretty much disowned him and left his care to his maternal grandmother – when he wasn’t busy taunting him or using him as a punchbag. His mom had tried to fix the divide between them, but she was too much of a submissive wolf to have had any influence on his father.

“Get the hell off me!”

“But I’m comfortable here.” Watching Lance try to glance around, Trey smiled. “No one’s going to help you. Unlike you, they know better than to try to get between mates. Says a lot about you as an alpha if no one is willing to offer their life for yours.”