Seriously, who would want to be lying in the same bed each night with someone who purposely left enough room between them to fit an elephant? Worse, she couldn't argue with the fact that she did still belong to him in a sense. Who would want to belong to someone who didn't want them?

She was considering moving into one of the guest rooms, but she suspected that if she increased the distance between them it would only make her wolf worse. Her wolf was restless and miserable enough after going a week with only minimum contact with her mate. What Taryn was thankful for was that she and her wolf were in perfect accord on one thing there would be no begging her mate for more no matter how bad things were.

Taryn consoled herself with the reminder that this would all be over in just over ten weeks and then, with any luck, she might be able to switch to the pack her uncle belonged to. She had been delighted when she discovered that her uncle's pack was signed up to the USA Pack Webs. She had sent him a nice friendly message, asking how he was doing and stuff of course not mentioning that she and Trey weren't true mates. Only when Darryl's challenge was over would she let the information loose. Her hope was that she might first be able to sort an alliance between Trey and her uncle's Alpha. Not only would this benefit Trey, but it might increase her chances of the Alpha agreeing to let her join his pack at a later date.

Taryn was snapped out of her thoughts as Caleb abruptly dropped her hand and his gaze was drawn to something over her shoulder. She turned to see Trey strolling toward her looking as s.e.xy and intimidating as always. Time for Scene Two: Looking Lovey-Dovey. She hadn't expected that it would be so hard emotionally to fake intimacy with a person, but it felt so weird and uncomfortable because it wasn't real. On the plus side, some physical contact with him would calm her wolf a little.

Trey grabbed the chair beside Taryn, turned it to face her and then sat before lifting her from her own seat and placing her on his lap, straddling him. He couldn't help marvelling over how well she fit there and at the same time being annoyed about it. His c.o.c.k wasn't annoyed, it was quickly rising to attention especially as she was wearing those 'bend me over and f.u.c.k me now' knee boots. "Hey." After skimming his nose along the crook of her neck to again take her scent deep into him, he gave her a lingering kiss. He'd missed her taste. "How's my girl doing?"

"Fine." She almost purred as he ran his hands up and down her back. Her wolf was lazing, content, within her. It didn't matter to her wolf that the entire thing was an act. All that mattered was that she was having physical contact with her mate.

Unable to resist, Trey licked over his mark and smiled as she quivered. "I know you wanted some time with your friends, but I don't like it when you're out of my sight for too long." It was a pain in the a.s.s that that was the truth. Although he spent little time with her, he would still seek her out several times a day usually every few hours just to check on her.

"That's okay, I missed you." She brushed her lips against his and then gestured to her edgy looking friends. "And Shaya and Caleb don't mind."

He gave them a simple nod of acknowledgement which they returned with shaky smiles. His attention quickly returned to Taryn as he drank in the sight of her in a way that he usually only did when no one was watching.

"Have you noticed my surveillance team?"

Trey smiled. "I noticed. I approve."

"I'll bet you do," she grumbled.

He shrugged unrepentantly as he spoke against those luscious lips. "I like knowing you're safe."

"And yet you haven't thrown out your inherently evil grandmother."

Chuckling, he shaped her waist with his hands. "I know she's being a little difficult right now, but she's one of those people who grow on you."

"No, she's one of those people who are like Slinkies."

"Slinkies?"

"Yeah. Basically useless, but they make you smile when you push them down the stairs."

He laughed before nibbling and sucking on her earlobe. "She'll come round."

A shiver wracked Taryn's body as he grazed his teeth over his mark. "Trey, you can't do that in public. It has an embarra.s.sing effect." His totally wicked laugh made her nervous. Of course the b.a.s.t.a.r.d nipped at her mark. Deciding some retaliation wouldn't be such a bad thing, she very slightly grinded against his very hard c.o.c.k he might not particularly desire her, but his body would still react to his mate's scent. He groaned against her neck.

Trey knew he could leave now. They had done enough touchy-feely stuff and she probably still had things to talk about with her friends. In fact, he should leave her friends were anxious and uncomfortable when he was around as though they expected him to lunge at them or something. But he couldn't bring himself to break the contact with Taryn. Instead, he lazed back into his seat and pulled her forward so that she was draped across his chest. "Don't mind me, you carry on talking. I won't even be listening, I'm too distracted by your scent." Another truth.

As he looked over her shoulder he saw that Tao was looking at them with envy in his expression, envy that he wasn't bothering to conceal. Holding Tao's gaze, Trey knotted a hand in Taryn's hair a gesture of possessiveness, a reminder that she was his. Tao lowered his eyes and continuing staring at his book. Did he know it was upside down?

"How's my dad?" Taryn asked Shaya, groaning as Trey began gently ma.s.saging her back.

"Feel good, baby?" he asked. She nodded against his chest.

"Alternating from being angry with you to wondering if just maybe this mating could be more beneficial than the one with Roscoe would have been," Shaya replied to Taryn's question, her expression studious as she observed Taryn and Trey together.

"Thought as much," grumbled Taryn before then groaning again. "Trey, your hands are magical."

"You already knew that." He groaned again as her body shook against his chest as she laughed, sending all kinds of interesting vibrations through him and his very hard c.o.c.k. He combed his fingers through her hair. "I love the way it has all those different shades of blonde in it and even a little bit of red." Another truth.

"It annoys me. It can't seem to decide what color it wants to be."

"It has me curious."

She lifted her head, resting her chin on his chest. "About?"

In a voice too low for anyone else to hear, he said, "Well as much as I like you bald down there, I wouldn't mind knowing if the color of the carpet matches the curtains."

She slapped his chest. "Trey!"

"Oh look," snickered a familiar, annoying, witchy voice. Greta. "Not only is she lounging all over you like a s.l.u.t, but she's flashing her underwear to all and sundry."

Glancing back, Taryn saw that the top of her red lacy thong had ridden above her jeans. "Do you like it? I quite like your blouse, Greta. Wouldn't you like to slip into something more comfortable, though? Perhaps a coma?"

"Didn't anyone ever tell you sarcasm's the lowest form of wit?" Greta turned to Shaya and Caleb. "Do us all a favor and take this hussy with you when you leave."

Taryn sighed. "How about we play fetch with a twist, Greta I'll throw the ball for you, but just don't come back. What do you think?"

Huffing, the old woman marched off. Taryn smiled at a chuckling Trey before laying her head back on his chest, facing Shaya and Caleb. She wondered what their odd expressions meant. She finally found out an hour later as she walked them to Shaya's SUV.

"I told you that what really matters is that you're happy," said Caleb. "And it seems like you are."

"Is that your way of saying that I have your blessing?"

"I'm still having trouble getting my head around him being your true mate but...well you act like true mates and he obviously adores you. That's enough for me. I have to admit I'm kind of jealous that everyone around us seems to have mated."

She patted his arm. "Don't worry, I'm sure your own true mate is somewhere just waiting for you to find her, and I'm sure she's the next model up from the inflatable one you already have."

"b.i.t.c.h," he said affectionately.

Shaya had her palm pressed against her forehead, looking stressed and confused. "I don't know how anyone can not be terrified of that wolf...but his true mate wouldn't be, mates never fear each other. And clearly you don't so...Look, just promise me that if you suddenly think you've made a mistake or he ever hurts you, you call me and you get out of here."

Taryn smiled. "Aw, Shaya, if he ever hurt me he'd be dead before I made that call."

A grin spread across Shaya's elfin face. "That's my girl."

It hadn't been a surprise to discover that Trey had disappeared into his office before the car had even moved out of sight acting time was over. She turned to Tao who had been waiting a few feet behind her. "Hey, fancy going out somewhere?"

"Where?" He sounded a little suspicious.

"I've gone twelve whole days without pizza and that's just not right."

He grinned. "Pizza definitely sounds good. Let me just tell Dante we'll be out for a while."

She hadn't realized just how much she had missed her Hyundai until she was driving it en-route to town five minutes later. Tao, apparently not content enough with being her bodyguard, had wanted to play chauffeur too, but she easily got her way because he was smart enough to know that she wouldn't give in.

"Did your friends buy the act?" asked Tao about fifteen minutes into the journey.

She shrugged. "They've accepted it, but I don't think anything will ever completely convince them."

"They don't think you and Trey fit?"

"It's not so much that. They saw how close Joey and I were, and then they watched me deal with his death pretty badly. For me to suddenly claim that Joey was nothing but my best friend..." She let the sentence trail, knowing he'd see her point. "I think if it had been anyone other than Trey, I might have had more luck with getting them to accept it."

"Trey's not your type?"

"I meant because he's psychotic. Although it's true that I've never been with a guy built like a highlander before, but I don't really have a type. I either like someone or I don't."

"And you like Trey."

"To an extent," she said with a smile. "Selma made it clear that I'm not his type."

"Trey's always gone for, what do you females call them, hourgla.s.s figures or something like that?"

Noticing he hadn't sounded so fond of them, she prodded, "You're not such a fan?"

He shrugged. "I wouldn't say no to one. Plenty of times Trey and I have shared one of his women -"

"Really?"

"- but I prefer my women to be more...athletic, I guess. And I have a thing for blondes."

"Ooh, please don't say that line that was the first thing Roscoe ever said to me. Makes me shiver even now."

His words were both consoling and sympathetic. "It has to have p.i.s.sed you off that you had two guys wanting to mate with you but neither really wanted you for you."

"Yeah, but I don't think I'll make a good mate anyway."

"Why?"

"My natural reaction is to hold back from people, especially guys. It's something I honestly can't control. When Joey and my mom died, I had this big hole and it's as if when I taped it up, I did it too tight. I don't know if I could ever really make myself completely vulnerable to another person again. And when you mate with someone, really mate with someone, there can't be protective walls."

Tao's smile was a little sad. "The right wolf will hammer them down."

"It might take more than a hammer. Anyway, let's talk about something more interesting. What's this thing about you and Trey sharing women?" Menages weren't exactly unusual among shifters, but she wouldn't have had Trey down for someone who shared.

"Before you, Trey's never been possessive with women. Plenty of times we've shared. The invite was always open to Dante, but he just likes to watch with Marcus, Trick, Ryan, and Dominic."

"They watch?" she chuckled, not finding it difficult to believe, especially since many shifters had voyeuristic tendencies.

"Oh yeah, if Trey's feeling in a good mood he doesn't mind. You ever partic.i.p.ated in a menage?"

She snorted. It was hard enough making things work out with one guy, let alone two. "Having a s.e.x life isn't as easy for an alpha female as you might think."

"In what way?"

"Guys say they like a woman who'll take charge in the bedroom but most of the time they're talking out of their a.s.s." Finally they pulled up in the parking lot of the pizza place and Taryn couldn't stop a joyous smile from taking over her face. She really had missed the taste of pepperoni pizza.

"But most alpha males would be hard at just the thought of battling an alpha female for dominance in the bedroom."

"Yeah but that erection often disappears when the male realizes that it's not as easy as they thought to win that battle. Most of the time they've originally thought that if they just chase us around and tire us out we'll surrender or something. Then there are the males who confuse dominance with bullying. When it comes to alpha females, submission has to be earned, not taken. You've never been with an alpha female?"

"Not yet." Most likely in response to her baffled expression, he said, "What's wrong?"

She gestured to the pizza delivery guy who was exiting the restaurant with a pile of boxes. "I've just never worked out why they put pizza in a square box."

Intending to seem as though he was only leaving his office to refill his coffee mug, Trey left the room and began walking toward the kitchen, wanting to discreetly check on Taryn. Two things quickly became apparent. One, it was a lot quieter than usual. Two, although Taryn's scent was everywhere he turned, it was faint...as if it was simply what lingered in the air.

In the kitchen Dante, Greta, Marcus, Trick, Grace, Lydia, Selma and Hope sat at the table, laughing and joking. It looked as though Selma and Hope were having a separate conversation, unsurprisingly. They had made themselves pretty unpopular with their refusal to accept Taryn. After refilling his mug Trey asked, ensuring his voice was casual, "Where's Taryn?"

"Out," replied Dante.

"On another run with Tao?" Although she was latent, she was just as fast as any shifter.

"No, she went into town."

Trey had to have heard wrong. "What was that?"

"She went into town."

Dumping his mug on the counter, uncaring of the scolding hot coffee that had splashed onto his fingers, he demanded, "Where? With who?"

"She and Tao went for pizza," said Greta, her voice full of implications.

Selma dived on that. "He's a very attentive bodyguard, isn't he? You have to admit, they look real cute together. Right, Hope?"

"Oh yeah, real cute."

"Shut it," snapped Trey, surprising most people in the room.

"She didn't tell you she was going out?" asked Marcus.

"No, she didn't," Trey managed to grit out, p.i.s.sed off that she had ventured out without a word and jealous that she had asked Tao to go with her rather than him. He switched his attention back to Dante. "Why didn't you stop her from going?"

"Why would I have stopped my Alpha female from leaving pack territory? And how exactly would you have expected me to stop Taryn from doing that or anything else?"

"When did she leave?"

"Calm down, Trey, what's the problem?" But Dante knew exactly what the problem was he always saw too much.

As the sound of laughing coming from outside the caves met their ears, Marcus nodded. "That's probably them now."

Trey stalked toward the main door, clenching his fists. Almost yanking the d.a.m.n thing off, he opened it to find Taryn and Tao practically stumbling up the stairs as they laughed so hard at something they were keeled over. The sight of them looking so happy and comfortable with each other sent another surge of jealousy rushing through him.

Eventually they looked up and saw him. He could guess that his expression was thunderous because Tao immediately lowered his eyes. Taryn, on the other hand, presented him with a smile.