“Now be still.” She was pretty sure he only did it out of curiosity. Taryn placed her hand on his forehead and watched as several patches of his skin suddenly illuminated where there were scratches and bites. She heard a few gasps, a ‘Whoa’ and a ‘Holy shit’ coming from behind her, but ignored them.
Leaning down, she placed her mouth at Trey’s and inhaled deeply, taking the foulness from him and then blowing it out of her mouth through the window. She repeated the move over and over until, finally, the last luminous patch faded. “I’d say you’re done.” With that, she allowed herself to flop backwards onto her back much as Trey had five minutes ago. She almost laughed as she opened her eyes to see several faces all peering down at her. Then suddenly she was snatched from the rug and was being cradled against Trey’s chest.
“You shouldn’t have done that, you look worse than I did.”
“I’ll be fine, you ungrateful asshole. I just need some water and maybe some sort of sugary food.”
“You got it,” said Grace as she dashed out of the room.
“You do know that was awesome, right?” Dante’s grin was almost as wide as Marcus’ clown grin.
“More like unnatural,” muttered Greta.
“Did you just use the word awesome?” Dominic asked Dante, chuckling.
“Come on, she totally calmed a feral wolf and at the same time negotiated an alliance before then doing some weird healing stuff. That’s some seriously cool shit.”
Trey strangely felt a twinge of pride for her, though he still wanted to spank her ass for going near his wolf while he was feral. “My wolf could have hurt you.”
“Yeah, I know. Blame Dante, he told me I should go for it.”
Dante spluttered. “That’s not – I didn’t – She -”
“You should see your face.” Her chuckle was interrupted by a cough. Her throat always felt a little hoarse after she used her healing gift. At that moment Grace handed her a bottle of water and an energy bar. “Thanks.”
“Never again are you allowed to use that gift,” stated Trey firmly, not liking how pale she was. His wolf wasn’t happy about it either.
“Don’t be a goof. Of course I’m going to use it. I wouldn’t be much of a healer if I didn’t.”
“You look like a corpse.”
“I’ll be fine. Just plonk me on that monstrosity of a sofa and let me have a twenty minute nap and I’ll be just as lively as I was before.” She wouldn’t have even needed the nap if Trey hadn’t had so many bruises and wounds. “Just a little power nap and I’ll be fine.”
Trey couldn’t help smiling at the way she curled up on the bulky sofa in a fetal position five minutes later. She looked even tinier than usual, but still not fragile. There was too much steel in her for that.
“Ryan just called,” Tao informed him. “They’ve gone.”
Trey nodded and then watched in surprise as some of his pack gathered around her. Dante, Grace and Rhett sat on her left while Lydia, Marcus and Cam sat on her right. Trick, Dominic and Tao then all sat on the floor with the back of their heads resting against her legs. It was a gesture of support, comfort and acceptance as well as an indication that they intended to guard her as she slept. She had earned the respect of each of them in the short time that she had been here.
A strange pang struck his chest – unfamiliar and unnerving. “I’m going to take a shower. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” They nodded but were focused on Taryn who had gone out like a light. He and his wolf were comforted by the knowledge that they would stay with her while Trey removed the streaks of blood and the lingering scent of the dead wolf from his body. The dead wolf who was now no longer a threat to his mate or their mating.
It was as Trey was showering that he thought back to how he had felt when, forced to be nothing but an observer, he saw Taryn tentatively trying to gain his wolf’s attention. The anger, the frustration and the anxiety rushed back. There had been something else in that cocktail of emotions. Fear. Trey had actually felt fear.
It wasn’t that he hadn’t experienced that emotion before. Of course he had. Having an underdeveloped conscience and an explosive temper didn’t mean he didn’t know fear. What was bothering him right now was that he had felt such fear for Taryn, had feared she would be seriously hurt and feared she would be taken from him just like that – and at his own hands. He couldn’t even say it was his wolf’s fear. His wolf had been going through his own shit right then. No, that had been all Trey.
It had to have been a direct consequence of the natural crazy-possessiveness and crazy-protectiveness that came with mating. It was obviously age-old instincts pushing to the forefront, taking over. Trey understood that the mating would be temporary, but his instincts to protect his mate were obviously going to override his thoughts. Obviously. Just like his instinct to mark his mate and make her submit to him had overridden his true indifference to those things.
Yeah, that was all it was, all it could be. Obviously. That didn’t improve his mood any because there was another issue that was bothering him. Taryn shouldn’t have been able to calm his wolf.
When a wolf shifter went into feral mode they behaved a lot like a rabid animal. They attacked senselessly, they felt no emotional attachments, they lost all sense of reason and logic. And yet her scent and voice had reached his wolf even through that fog.
Trey had felt how quickly his wolf had recognised her as his mate, how quickly he had switched from wanting to kill to wanting to protect. The only reason his wolf had been reluctant to leave the carcass was because he still hadn’t been stable enough to understand that the sandy wolf was dead and no longer a danger to Taryn.