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.”