After quietly using the bathroom and stripping down to his boxers, he slipped beneath the covers and resisted the desire to snuggle into her. Instead, he rolled to his side so that his back was to hers and there was enough s.p.a.ce between them in the large bed to fit another person. His wolf growled at that idea, but Trey ignored him and ignored his instincts. And he closed his eyes, completely obvious to the fact that the eyes of the women behind him had opened and had a haunted look in them at the realization that she was now of no interest to a wolf she was bound to.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

Just as she had each morning over the past week, Taryn was perched on the kitchen counter sipping her coffee while engaged in a staring contest with dear old Greta. It was practically ritualistic for them to partake in a battle of wills whenever they were in the same room. Each and every time, Taryn would leave the room smiling while Greta was purple in the face and growling. Once Greta had realized that she wasn't going to scare Taryn off, she had taken to simply insulting her and generally being difficult. In truth, Taryn found the whole thing just as entertaining as everyone else did. As usual, they were all eating quietly as they waited for the verbal spar to begin.

"What are you looking at, hussy?" Greta finally spat.

"I haven't figured that out yet."

Huffing, Greta drank down more of her weird green herbal tea. "I hope you're not getting comfortable, you won't be here for much longer."

"So you've said. Repeatedly."

"You might have some of the others fooled, but I see you for what you are."

"Is that right?"

"I warned my boys all about females like you."

"Oh come on, your imagination was never this good."

Hand over her heart, she said with fake misery, "My daughter is probably turning in her grave now. You've got tattoos for G.o.d's sake!" A cruel smirk suddenly curved her lips. "I suppose I shouldn't have expected much better, what with your wolf basically being disabled. What does it feel like to be latent? To know your wolf will forever be trapped?"

"I don't know. What does it feel like to be so old that your birth certificate is in Roman numerals?" The smirk quickly fell from the crone's face and Taryn smiled.

Entering the kitchen, Trey wasn't surprised to find his mate and grandmother glaring at each other. Neither even spared him a glance. Given that Taryn seemed cheery while Greta looked like she was chewing a wasp, Trey could guess who was on top of the situation. His grandmother was doing her best to intimidate Taryn, however his little mate was holding her own, making it clear that she didn't take any s.h.i.t from anyone, especially one who was 'old and senile'.

His wolf didn't like that Taryn's attention hadn't immediately shot to him and, before Trey knew it, he'd yanked gently on her hair to make her look at him. Restraining himself from nipping her lower lip, he simply gave her a nod. A growl of approval built in his chest as he saw that she was wearing a black tight fitting t-shirt that showed off some of his marks marks that were fading, he then noticed. His wolf growled angrily inside his head.

"Morning son, come sit down and get something to eat." Greta's voice was now sugary-sweet.

"How long before your friends get here?" he asked Taryn as he took his seat.

"They should be here any minute now. Remember what you promised."

"I'll give you some time to talk with them alone," he a.s.sured her, though it would nettle his wolf to know there was a strange male wolf around her. He told himself it wouldn't bother Trey the man so much, and if his wolf could have snorted, he would have. "At some point I'll come over there so we can act the mated couple, totally devoted to one another and completely smitten and all that."

Again Taryn was struck by the feeling of how unfair it was that she would never have that, especially that she would never have it with Joey. And now here she was again about to commit the ultimate blasphemy and claim that the one person created for her had never been her true mate at all. G.o.d, this sucked big time.

At least she and Trey were exchanging a few words. Occasionally he wouldn't speak to her at all. Or there were the times when she would enter a room and he would immediately leave it. He spent most of his time cooped up in his office. She knew he had to keep an eye on his investments he actually had a pretty good head for business but surely he didn't need to spend that much time in there. Making the whole thing even more annoying was that Selma had picked up on the huge divide between them and tried clinging onto him as much as she could just as she was doing right now at the table. The only thing preventing Taryn from reacting was that Trey was growling, warning the female away from him. Still, it p.i.s.sed her off to no end, but d.a.m.n if she would let either of them know that.

"Morning," drawled Tao as he strolled into the room. He play-punched her shoulder before joining the others at the table.

"a.s.s," she snapped, smiling.

Trey knew he shouldn't have the urge to growl at his ex-Head Enforcer. It was just a play punch it wasn't s.e.xual, it hadn't hurt her, and it had only been the briefest touch. But Trey was honestly considering stabbing the wolf with his fork. It might not have annoyed him so much if Tao wasn't always touching her. The guy had taken his role as 'bodyguard' a little too literally. Trey couldn't understand how he hadn't noticed before the way Tao looked at her. Mixed in with admiration and respect was a deep longing. And Trey didn't like it one bit.

His wolf was urging him to take a swipe at his enforcer and warn him off. Perversely, Trey the man liked that others wanted what was his, and that gave him strength against his wolf's drive to separate her from the other male. Also, Trey knew that no matter how much Tao might want Taryn, he would never encroach he was too good a guy for that. Nonetheless, his wolf wasn't particularly interested in whether or not Tao was a good guy, he didn't want him around Taryn so much.

Trey inhaled deeply, reminding himself that he was in control not his wolf, not those primal instincts. The smile on Dante's face said he knew what inner struggle Trey had been going through. The ringing of his cell phone distracted him from thoughts of flicking scrambled egg at his Beta. "That was Kirk," he announced on ending the call. "They're here. He just let them through the gate. Should only be a minute before their SUV pulls up outside."

Taryn hopped down from the counter and stretched. "Time for Scene One: The Alpha Pair's Welcome. Make it good, Flinstone. These guys won't be easy to convince."

"I noticed that at the club."

"They won't be trying to separate the two of you like they did that night," stated Dante.

Hearing the fierceness in his tone and watching the way his body language became confrontational, Taryn pointed hard at him. "You are not going to spend the next few hours trying to intimidate them. They're already scared half to death by Trey."

"Are you going to tell me they won't try to convince you to leave with them?"

"Of course they will."

"Let's hope our luck stretches that far," muttered Selma. Hope and Kirk chuckled. Everyone else ignored them.

"They won't dare ask you to leave if a few of us are sitting with you," said Dante.

Taryn shook her head. "Not a chance, Barney Rubble. You all stay the h.e.l.l away and give us some privacy."

"It'll only be until Trey comes over."

"No, I'm not having any of you hovering around us like parental supervisors. Not even Tao."

Tao frowned. "But I'm your bodyguard."

"They're not a threat to me." As all three males opened their mouths to say something she held up her hand. "I don't want to hear it. Now let's do this."

Seeing the resolve in her expression, Trey sighed and took her soft hand in his large calloused one as they walked together to the main door. Marcus was holding it open, watching with his usual grin as their visitors hesitantly exited the SUV and, with a slow nervous stride, made their way up the stairs.

Trey locked his arms around Taryn's waist, keeping her back against his chest, and allowed himself the luxury of burying his face in her neck to drown in that scent that could so easily make his c.o.c.k hard. He shouldn't have been surprised when he woke up that morning and found himself curled around her with his face nestled in the crook of her neck, taking comfort in the exotic smell of his mate as he slept. At some point in his sleep he had covered that huge s.p.a.ce between them and fed the hunger that he had ignored for the past week. Then he had snuck out of bed before she realized. Had she not been such a deep sleeper, he would never have gotten away with it.

As Shaya and Caleb finally came to stand in front of them, shuffling from foot to foot and completely avoiding eye contact with Trey, Taryn had to refrain from groaning. She knew he had an intimidating presence, but she didn't think he was that bad. Okay, maybe he was. "Thanks for coming."

"It's been weird not seeing you every day," said Shaya.

Taryn discreetly pinched Trey's arm, urging him to do his part.

Flinching a little, he said, "Welcome. I have a few things to do, but Taryn will take you down to the lake, won't you, baby?"

"Yep."

Four days ago Greta had come to him complaining that Taryn had taken their deckchairs and barbeque from storage and set them up near the lake as an area where she could go and relax. Well, she hadn't taken the items personally more like she had turned into Captain Von Trapp and had his enforcers virtually marching as they followed her every command. He had to admit it was a nice little set up and he was surprised no one had thought to do it before.

"Great, thanks," said Caleb, his eyes still lowered.

A few minutes later Taryn was sitting by the lake at the patio table trying her best not to laugh at the way Shaya and Caleb were glancing around nervously as if they were expecting Trey to jump out and pounce on them.

"They're all very protective," noted Caleb, referring to the pack.

And wasn't that an understatement. It was laughable the way the males were hanging around trying to look as though they weren't in fact there to keep an eye on her and ensure she wasn't kidnapped. Like that would ever happen. Marcus and Trick were lazing in the lake as if it wasn't a chilly day, Tao sat against a nearby tree reading a book that was upside down, and Dante and Ryan were cleaning a barbeque that was already spick and span. All were occasionally sneaking covert looks at Taryn and her friends, or at least they thought they were being subtle anyway. Apparently she should have better defined 'the h.e.l.l away' because they didn't appear to have gotten the idea.

"Yeah," she agreed.

"Which means you must have proven your worth as an Alpha Female, so I'm guessing that tale about you calming a feral Trey was true."

The emphasis on the word 'feral' irritated Taryn. "He hasn't hurt me and he's not going to."

"Taryn, have you seen yourself in a mirror? You're covered in marks." Most of which were fading, thankfully. "Someone that possessive isn't balanced."

"I know Trey's a few fries short of a happy meal, but it doesn't mean he'll hurt me."

"How can you be sure of that? His wolf goes feral for G.o.d's sake."

"But even feral he doesn't hurt me."

"And you expect us to believe that's because he's your true mate, right?" Caleb snickered. "There's no way I can believe that."

Shaya appealed to her with a look. "Taryn, we watched you, at nine years old, slip into a state of depression. It was like being around a zombie. You existed but you didn't live. It was all just mechanical. And we understood why you had just lost the other half of your soul. It was a shock that you even survived it, no one thought you would. I mean, I know you two hadn't mated but you had still formed a connection and you were so young."

"It hasn't occurred to you that maybe the reason I lived was because that connection solid and true though it was just wasn't the connection between true mates? That maybe the reason I reacted so badly was because I'd just lost my best friend and my mom in the same accident?"

Caleb lowered his voice as he spoke. "Look, if your dad's right and you did this to get away from Roscoe...well he's dead now. You don't have to keep this up. G.o.d, you could have come to me, I'd have mated you. I still will if it's what you want."

Taryn smiled. "Caleb, that's sweet and all, but do you really think I'd ask you to enter a permanent mating with someone you thought of as nothing but a friend an annoying friend at that ending any chance of you having a life with your true mate?"

He shrugged, suddenly seeming uncomfortable. His voice was even quieter when he spoke again. "Who says I see you as nothing but a friend? Maybe I just hadn't acted on what I felt because it would have felt like I was betraying Joey."

Taryn rolled her eyes. "Yeah. Right."

"So you hadn't wanted to mate with Roscoe?" asked Shaya.

"Not particularly, no. I thought he was kind of vain and overly flirtatious you know how stuff like that annoys me. I don't know how my dad or anyone else can claim that me mating with Trey someone who had been a stranger to me before that day has anything to do with that. Maybe if I had the power of mind control and could hypnotise him to believe and claim that I was his true mate, then yeah sure."

"Obviously you guys believe you're true mates, I saw for myself what happened," said Shaya. "But isn't it possible that it was just a really strong case of l.u.s.t at first sight? 'Cause, you know, I've been there it's powerful."

A loud, sharp, metallic 'tock' sound had Taryn looking up. She smiled at her relatively new friend who was perched on a branch high in the tree to her left. "Hey, big guy. Come on down here."

"Oh no, Taryn please don't," whined Shaya. But it was too late. The huge glossy black raven was already on the table.

Caleb frowned. "What is it with you and birds? Why do they always like you?"

Taryn shrugged one shoulder. "Isn't he gorgeous?"

"I don't like crows," whined Shaya, leaning back in her seat.

"It's a raven."

"Well then I don't like ravens."

"How can you not like them? They're so intelligent and beautiful. Look at the way his feathers shine a kind of metallic violet in the light." He made a series of guttural croaks that had Shaya flinching.

"Aren't ravens an omen of death and disease?"

Taryn rolled her eyes at the nervousness in her friend's voice. "For G.o.d's sake, Shaya, it's only a bird."

"And a scavenger, did you forget that part? Wait, does it only have one leg? And hang on, did it just bark?"

Taryn chuckled. "Ravens can imitate a whole variety sounds, even a human voice." As if to back her up, he made a series of gurgling and croaking noises followed by another bark. "See, LJ's cool."

Caleb made a choking noise. "LJ?"

"Yeah, as in Long John...Long John Silver, the sailor cook with the one leg?"

"Oh. Right."

"Ravens only have one mate too, you know," she said as she watched him return to the tree.

Caleb sighed. "I don't care what you say, Taryn, there's no way I'll believe Joey wasn't your true mate."

Of course he wouldn't, the opinionated SOB. "Just because I'm mated now doesn't mean Joey means anything less to me than he did before. That bond we had doesn't mean any less because he once filled a place inside me. It's not that Trey's replaced him, because Trey has his own place." Not one word of that had been a lie. Now that she'd mated with Trey, he did have his own place. He just wasn't filling it.

Shaya ran her hand through her hair, sighing. "I want you to have this, Taryn, I really do want you to have this. I'm just worried that somewhere along the way you'll think, 'Hey, I was wrong, he's not my true mate at all'. Then you'll have lost two mates. Where would that leave you? I don't want to ever again see you in that state. And, well...For G.o.d's sake, Taryn, how can you not be petrified of him?"

"He's a walking time bomb, Taryn, he's -"

Taryn held up her hand. "Look, Caleb, if you're here to try to turn me against my own mate then you might as well save your breath to blow up your doll."

Grinning, he shook his head and took the hand that Taryn had held up. "I want to say I'm happy for you but...well I'd be lying. I don't want you mated to a psycho. Just swear to me that you're happy here. At the end of the day, that's all that really matters."

In some ways, Taryn was happy. These people with the exception of Greta, Kirk, Brock, Selma and Hope didn't treat her like she was inferior just because she was latent. She didn't feel like an outsider or someone who needed to be constantly on the defensive. The atmosphere here was the total opposite of the one she had grown up in and she found it refreshing.

She had become close friends with Lydia as she spent a lot of her time helping her with her graphic design business. She was a great person to be around as she entertained Taryn non-stop with her little eccentricities and her habit of saying whatever the h.e.l.l she thought. Taryn wouldn't have thought that someone like that could be so suited to the very sensitive Cam, and yet Lydia was.

When she wasn't with Lydia she was often with Grace who was helping her improve her cooking skills, or sometimes Rhett who was teaching her how to hack. Tao was of course often there, but as her friend just as much as her bodyguard. He was very easy to be around, he wasn't complicated, he didn't brood, and he didn't blow hot and cold. Trey could learn a few things from him.

She also found that she got along pretty well with Marcus, which kind of surprised her because ordinarily she tired of flirtatious people. And Marcus was extremely flirtatious. When he turned the full force of his huge impish grin on you there was no holding back a blush. Maybe it was because he gave some fantastic shoulder ma.s.sages that the flirtatiousness didn't bother her...? Very possible.

She hadn't realized that he and Trick scratched each other's itch from time to time until she stumbled upon them having some fun at the lake. d.a.m.n that had been hot and it had taken all her self-control to leave rather than stay and watch. Apparently they had known she was there as Trick later teased her about it and still continued to do so on occasion. Trick was a tease in general. He seemed to get his kicks from making people blush or feel uncomfortable, but as he targeted Selma and Kirk a lot, Taryn was totally fine with it.

Although Ryan didn't talk much and mostly communicated through grunts, Taryn rather liked him. Unlike everyone else, she spoke to him as though she actually expected him to respond until eventually he began to talk to her a little. She wasn't surprised to find that Ryan was quite intelligent, even more so than Rhett. He was very big brotherly with her, as opposed to Dominic who often asked her what color her underwear was and tried to look down her shirt a lot. He was the worst perv ever and constantly hit her with dirty chat up lines which he didn't need to use just one look at him had females drooling. He seemed to just enjoy being a perv, and yet it was impossible not to like him. Dante was another person who was impossible to dislike, but behind his laidback 'I don't take life seriously att.i.tude' was an astute, diplomatic, extremely observant person.

Trey's withdrawal from her, however, tainted her otherwise happy state. She knew it was a good thing that they didn't spend much time together. She knew it was best that she didn't find herself happy here when she had every intention of leaving. Still, it stung because she got the feeling that Trey's withdrawal had nothing to do with that and everything to do with the simple fact that he didn't desire her.