And beneath all that, there was something else. God, it was like he had this knot inside him that chafed and nettled – threads of protectiveness, possessiveness, adoration, respect, desire and loyalty all twisted and matted with disorientation, panic, incredulity and even fear. With all these feelings he was in totally unfamiliar territory and couldn’t make sense of anything, but he was sure that he cared about her and couldn’t be without her.
Hell, it had been a lot more than she would have ever expected to find. She would have thought that anything he felt for her would be based on a primal need for sex and the instincts that came with his wolf and their mating, but it wasn’t that at all. This was about Trey and Taryn, the man and the woman. When she opened her eyes it was to see him looking at her with confusion in his eyes.
“You think you love me,” he practically whispered. He hated that he couldn’t say it back, knowing it would hurt her. Stroking her hair again he said, “I don’t know what that is, baby.”
Taryn’s heart literally ached for him. He was telling the truth, he didn’t know what it was. He had never had any real examples of love in his life, and he was convinced from the things he had done and was capable of doing that he wouldn’t be able to feel an emotion like that. He’d only been a child when he’d closed himself off. A child who didn’t want his dad’s words or treatment to be able to hurt him anymore. Closing himself off so early like that had stunted his development and he was, in a way, emotionally immature. It was that which was stopping him from untangling that knot.
It was like a kid with a complex math formula – too many factors and variables and unfamiliar terms for him to work out what it all meant. “Love is giving someone the power to completely destroy you, and hoping that they won’t.”
Trey framed her face with his hands, brushing his thumb over her bottom lip. “I’d never purposely hurt you. Never. I’m a man which means I’ll fuck up. Regularly. I’m not good with words, I spout crap when I’m angry, and I’m about as romantic as a pebble. But…See, I’m not good with words. All I can say is you’re important to me in a way I can’t explain or understand. More important to me than anything else.”
And Taryn could work with that because he did care for her, and that was more than she would have hoped for. “Same here.”
Gently he brought her face to his and ravished her mouth, gliding his tongue against hers and drinking her in into him. “My wolf’s feeling pretty smug about this.”
She smiled. “So is mine. Think the rest of the pack will be okay about it?”
“Let’s go find out.” Although it had been hot at the time to tear her jeans from her body, Trey was regretting it as he walked back toward the house with a half-naked Taryn. Shifters were pretty easy about nakedness since they had to strip in front of each other a lot for shifting, but it wasn’t something they did so casually under other circumstances. When they reached the spot where he’d thrown his clothes he gave Taryn his t-shirt to wear. A smile spread over his face at the sight of her practically drowning in it.
“Did it ever occur to you that I’m not too small and you’re just ridiculously big?”
Zipping his fly he shrugged. “You like how big I am.”
Of course, as usual, he was referring to the bulge in his jeans. She snorted. “It’s a wonder that thing even fits inside me.”
“Thing?” He pulled her to him and kissed her forehead. “Of course it fits. It belongs there.” Swatting her ass, he added, “Now come on.”
Strolling through the tunnels toward the living area they passed Greta. As she took in Taryn’s appearance she huffed. “Hussy.”
“Prude,” Taryn shot back without breaking stride as she and Trey walked hand in hand into the living area. Cam, Rhett, Grace, Lydia, Trick, Marcus and Dante all looked up, saw their clothes – or lack thereof – and grinned.
“So you’ve kissed, bitten, and made up?” asked Dante.
“Get the entire pack together,” ordered Trey. “We’ll be back in a few minutes.”
Exactly ten minutes later both Taryn and Trey were back in the living area, washed and dressed in fresh clothes. Taryn was surprised at how nervous she was about the pack’s reaction. She knew that most of them liked her and respected her and even viewed her as their Alpha female to an extent. However, this would no longer be a temporary thing, they would now have to accept her as their true Alpha female, latency and all. She hadn’t had to care before about what they thought of her, but now it mattered.
She was certain that Kirk, Selma, Hope and Greta wouldn’t be pleased about it and she suspected that Tao might not be so happy either. Even though he was reasonably friendly, he didn’t spend time with her the way he used to and envy wafted from him whenever she and Trey were together around him. He could very well decide that he wasn’t going to stick around and watch she and Trey be mated.
Taryn was quite sure that the others would be okay with her staying. Brock she couldn’t be too sure about because he didn’t talk much, but she suspected that if Tao threatened to leave and some of the others got upset then Brock would want her gone – which wasn’t going to happen no matter what any of them thought. God, this was nerve-wracking.
Sensing – no, feeling – Taryn’s anxiety, Trey took her hand and tugged her closer to his side. “You should all know that Taryn is now officially your Alpha female.”
“You’re staying?” asked Marcus, leaning forward in his seat, wide-eyed.
Rhett frowned at Taryn’s nod. “What about imprinting?”
Trey smiled crookedly. “We haven’t imprinted. We’ve bonded.” As he’d expected, Dante smiled smugly.
“Are you saying you’re true mates?” asked Trick. Surprisingly, he didn’t look all that shocked. “Well that explains a lot.”
“Oh that’s all we need,” griped Greta. “A midget with a sharp sarcastic tongue for an Alpha.”