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 fucking 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.”
“She’s my daughter -”
“And she’s my mate. She’s mine. No one keeps her from me. No one insults her. And no one – and I mean no one – talks to her the way you just did, understand me?”
“Just tell me what it is you really want,” snarled Lance. “You just that desperate for a pack healer that you’d tie yourself to a latent?”
Tightening his hold on Lance’s throat, Trey smacked his head against the wall. “Didn’t I just tell you no one insults my mate? Not very bright, are you?” He gave Taryn a baffled look. “You sure you two are related?”
She shrugged one shoulder delicately. “I do look a lot like the maintenance guy.” Going to stand beside Trey, she cocked her head at Lance. “I don’t know what your problem is, Daddy Dearest. You can’t stand the sight of me. You should be pleased that I’m leaving the pack. Oh and you should also stop insulting me if you expect Trey to release you anytime soon.”
Lance stared at her with a disbelieving look on his red/purple face. “You honestly believe he i
sn’t playing some kind of game? He’s using you, Taryn. When you realize that for yourself, don’t think you’ll be welcome back in my pack.”
She gave him a sad smile. “I stopped being welcome the day you realized I was latent. But then, you always were an ass, weren’t you.”
“Is that what this is? Revenge? You know how bad I want that alliance.”
Trey snickered. “What, an alliance with me wouldn’t mean anything to you?”
Lance’s gaze shot to Trey. It was obvious he hadn’t thought of it that way and she could almost see the wheels turning in his head.
She released a bored sigh. “Trey, just leave him.” But Trey didn’t. He seemed to be having too much fun watching her dad struggle to breathe. “Come on, he’s a waste of skin and fur.”
After a deep, calming breath, Trey ever so slowly released him and stepped back. “This is what the situation is, Warner. Taryn is my mate, she is now part of my pack, and Roscoe Weston will not touch her ever again. If he has any kind of issue with that, he is free to come to my territory. I’ll be waiting.” He held his hand out to Taryn. “Come on, baby.”
Shooting her dad a withering look, Taryn took Trey’s hand and he pulled her against him. His warmth seeped into her body and calmed her wolf even despite the tension. As she looked at Shaya and Caleb and saw the concern and horror on their faces she felt a stab of guilt.
It’s this or being Roscoe’s little sex slave! a voice in her head reminded her.
Mouthing ‘bye’ at Shaya and Caleb, she allowed Trey to lead her out of the club.
CHAPTER FOUR
After a twenty-five minute journey, Dante was turning the hulking seven seater Toyota Highlander into a wooded area. Taryn’s father’s pack territory was a ranch that spanned six acres of land on which sat a main house wherein he, his Beta, his bodyguard, and his enforcers lived. Surrounding the main house were several converted barns for the other pack mates.
Phoenix Pack territory…was nothing like that.
For a start, it had a perimeter fence with an access/exit gate.
“We didn’t bother having security on the gate until those human groups formed that call us abominations and like to stand outside pack houses with their ‘Die Demons’ banners,” explained Trey. “Only pack is granted admittance or guests-by-invitation. It’s guarded twenty-four hours. He waved to the shifter on duty who strolled out of a little security shack and approached the Toyota. “You remember this wolf, right?” Trey asked her. “Ryan’s one of the pack’s enforcers.”
Taryn smiled at the apparently not very talkative Ryan – or Grumpy, as she had branded him a few days ago – who was eyeing her curiously. He made her think of one of those bionic soldiers in sci-fi movies. His movements were a little robotic and he had a real Terminator snarl going on. A guy who wouldn’t hesitate to kill if the need arose, she deduced. Still, she didn’t feel intimidated. In fact, she was determined to see that impassive expression falter.
“Are you miserable by choice?” As she’d hoped, he was so taken aback that his guard dropped for a split second; his dark eyes widened and his lips twitched. “It’s fine and everything. I was just curious about whether you were born looking like you were sucking on a lemon or if the whole gloomy attitude is a lifestyle choice.”
When Ryan’s lips curved the tiniest bit at one corner, Trey inwardly gaped. For the mostly mute and anti-social Ryan, that was a gushing reception. “Everything went as planned with the claiming,” he said to Ryan. “I’ll tell you more in the morning at breakfast.” Ryan nodded then patted the vehicle before returning to the shack.
After a short drive over a rocky trail, they finally arrived at Bedrock – there was really no other word for it, was there? She found it amazing that even with light coming from some of the windows it didn’t stand out at all. It was one of those things that unless you were looking for it, you’d probably miss it. “Who did all this?”
“Apparently the ancestors of the last pack started it yonks ago. It’s been added to and modernised over the years. We did a lot of improvements to it ourselves.”
“There are actually hotels in places like Turkey that are luxurious cave dwellings just like this,” Dante told her as he drove through an opening in the bottom of the mountain which Taryn soon realized was actually a concealed parking lot.
As she hopped out of the Toyota, she noticed Tao parking her Hyundai Tucson a few spaces away. His sulky expression as he got out of the car was the same one he had worn when Trey ordered him to drive it here for her. “I need to get my bag out of the trunk,” she told Trey as she took a step toward her car.
“Tao will get it.”
The Head Enforcer froze and a muscle ticked in his jaw. Begrudgingly he retrieved her bag and Taryn couldn’t help smirking at his petulant behavior. The ass shook his head when she went to take the bag from him and stormed past her, following behind Trey and Dante as they strolled out of the opening they had just driven through. Smiley gestured for her to go before him and Burly. Sighing, she removed her high heels and headed for Bedrock.
The night was dark, cool and silent. The earthy smell, the little sounds of small animals, the wonderful night-breeze, the rustling of the tree branches…all of it called to her wolf. She wanted to explore this new woodland, wanted to find out what those unfamiliar scents and sounds were around her. Instead Taryn was hiking up several narrow flights of steps that had been carved into the mountain wall.
They came to a large door that appeared to be at the centre of the other entrances. Then they were going through an indoor maze of tunnels that took them deep into the mountain. Taryn was pretty sure she would get lost if left to wander anywhere alone. Eventually they came to a black door that led to the same kitchen she had sat in only a few days ago.
Realized that she had been pretty much dismissed as unimportant right now, Taryn hopped onto the black marble counter and grabbed herself a peach from the fruit bowl. Munching happily on it, she listened as all five male wolves sat around the table discussing strategies for when his uncle made his challenge. They were so cool about it that anyone would think they were referring to an X-Box game or something as opposed to an actual life or death situation. There was even a kind of child-like excitement there.
Rolling her eyes, she dug out her cell phone from her purse and read the dozens of text messages she had received from several members of the pack. All were asking if the rumor that she had mated Trey Coleman was true. Shaya and Caleb had sent several, both expressing concern about his reputation and trying to convince her that she was wrong about him being her true mate. She knew she would have to respond to them soon, but right now she was feeling too raw.
Aware that all had suddenly gone quiet, she looked up from her cell to find several pairs of eyes focused on her. Surprised, she pulled her finger from her mouth having sucked off the peach juice. “What?”
Trey cleared his throat. “Nothing.” Not liking even the thought of the other males ogling her, he shot them all a cautioning look. Of course he couldn’t blame them. She was so damn sensual and so damn unaware of it.
“By the way,” said Dante, grinning from ear to ear, “welcome to the pack, Taryn.”
She snorted. “You might not be saying that when Roscoe appears on your territory.”
“Are you kidding? We’re looking forward to it.”
“Yeah, we have to thank you for bringing a bit of life to things round here,” agreed Smiley as he leaned back in his chair – or Marcus, as he had introduced himself as on the drive here. Although he didn’t seem any more accepting of her than the others did, he wasn’t as antisocial toward her as they were.
“You have to understand, Taryn,” said Dante, “we don’t get a lot of challenges. This is the most excitement our pack has had in a while.”
“Why were your dad’s enforcers following you around?” asked Trey.
“When Roscoe came to visit I wasn’t very nice and they considered me a flight risk. The mating ceremony was supp
osed to take place in a few days.”
“Do you think her dad will keep fighting this?” asked Burly. His name was Patrick, remembered Taryn – or ‘Trick’ for short.
Trey shook his head. “He might be pissed off and wish things had happened differently, but it’s like Taryn said. He’ll be worried I’ll defeat him and make him look weak to the rest of his pack. He recognised that my wolf was more dominant than his.”
“And the alliance? Do you think we have any chance of getting it?”
Trey looked at her. “What do you think?”
“I’d say yes,” she said. “I saw the look on his face when you asked if an alliance with you wouldn’t have meant anything to him. It gave him something to think about.”
FERAL SINS (The Phoenix Pack, Book One) Page 7