"You really believe that? Ah, bless your little heart." His long arm shot out and his hand snagged the end of the towel, whipping it away. b.a.s.t.a.r.d.

As his gaze caressed her naked body and took in all that flawless creamy skin, Trey actually felt like he'd been poleaxed. Although she was slender, she wasn't skinny or fragile looking. She was lithe and sinuous with gently and perfectly curved hips, shapely toned legs, and a gorgeous set of b.r.e.a.s.t.s. He'd always gone for voluptuous women, but it became clear to him now that he had seriously underestimated the appeal of small b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Taryn's were high, plump, and perfectly rounded, calling his name. His mouth watered as he caught sight of her completely bald p.u.s.s.y. "Mine."

"I'm afraid not, big boy."

He leapt across the bed and grabbed her arm but she expertly twisted out of his hold and backed away. "You can keep running from me but it won't change anything."

"I belong to no one but myself."

"That mark right there my mark says different."

"I'm your mate," she allowed, "but I don't belong to you or anyone else. Well, actually, if you want to get technical about it, I'm not actually your mate yet," she added with a smile.

"Oh you will be very soon, baby, once I shove my c.o.c.k inside you." He charged at her with renewed vigour, catching her just as she turned, and crammed her against the wall, her back to his chest.

Taryn struggled and twisted but his body was like a cage around her. "Move you son of a -" Then abruptly he plunged a long finger inside her, addressing that aching emptiness, and she practically liquefied against the wall, moaning.

"That's it, baby, be still for me." He kept his thrusts shallow and leisurely, licking his claiming mark and liking her answering tremor. "Feel good?"

"It's alright, I guess."

He had to smile. "It's alright, huh?" She cried out as he plunged another finger inside her. "You're so tight," he groaned. "Tight. Hot. Wet. Mine."

"Wrong."

"Well, baby, while I'm finger-f.u.c.king you against this wall and you're moaning like crazy it sure feels like I own you."

"Never in a million years, a.s.shole," she growled.

"a.s.shole...Now you're just giving me ideas." He withdrew his fingers and moved one to the puckered hole at the back, circling it teasingly. "One day, I'm going to f.u.c.k this gorgeous a.s.s."

"I'm curious, do you retreat into your fantasy world often?" Catching him off-guard, she sharply jammed her elbow into his ribs, making him jerk back just enough for her to duck out under his arm. Sometimes it was good to be small and slim.

To her frustration she had only gotten a few steps when a strong arm looped around her and he tackled her to the ground. Then she was flipped onto her back and Trey's mouth closed over her nipple and sucked hard. "Oh G.o.d," she breathed. Moaning, she cradled his head and scrunched his hair in her hands. Each tug on her nipple sent sparks of pleasure shooting to her c.l.i.t, making her writhe and squirm beneath him.

It was official that Trey had been mistaken to overlook small b.r.e.a.s.t.s. Or maybe it was just that this was his mate that had him unable to release the taut nipple. As he moulded and squeezed her other breast he groaned at how perfectly it fit in his hand. His wolf was growling, urging Trey to take her, to make sure she knew who she belonged to.

Abruptly he meshed his lips with hers, forcing his tongue inside to glide against her own. "I'm going to f.u.c.k you now," he rumbled. "I'm going to f.u.c.k this body that now belongs to me. Mine," he growled, punctuating it with a bite to her lower lip.

As Taryn met his gaze she saw hunger, antic.i.p.ation and determination, and there was something else possessiveness. "No." She dealt him a harsh blow to the chest which had him jerking into an upright position. Quickly she flipped to her stomach and was almost fully on her feet when he gripped her by the hips and yanked her down onto his lap. He growled something that sounded like 'Got you' and then impaled her on his c.o.c.k. The pleasure/pain of it had her back arching as she cried out.

Trey groaned as her inner muscles clamped down on him. "Take all of it, Taryn," he demanded through his teeth. He slowly lifted her until only the head of his c.o.c.k was inside her and then slammed her down onto him. "All of it." He raised her again, enjoying the feel of her juices coating his c.o.c.k, and then he impaled her to the core, seating himself to the b.a.l.l.s. "Oh f.u.c.k yeah." His wolf howled inside his head, loving that he was finally inside Taryn, filling her, stretching her. She was so tight and hot around him that he was close to coming already. As he gave her a moment to adjust to his invasion, he nibbled at her spine and then pulled her back against his chest so he could graze his teeth over his claiming mark. "You okay?"

Okay? She was absolutely freaking amazing. The pressure of his size stretching her stung and burned, but it was a delicious pain and she was revelling in it. She gasped as he suddenly lifted her again. The movement was slow, forcing her to feel every inch of him dragging against her sensitive inner walls. Something between a moan and a whimper escaped her throat.

"Shhhh," he soothed. "Such a good girl taking all of my c.o.c.k," he praised as he once again slowly impaled her on him. Twice more he did it, loving her drawn-out moans and the way she squirmed restlessly. "Are you going to tell me no again?" She shook her head, moaning. This time he lifted her fully off him, then rose to his feet and propped her up on her hands and knees on the bed. "I need it hard and fast, Taryn. Can you take it?"

"Do it."

"Good girl." Gripping her hips, he rammed into her so hard she fell forward so that she was resting on her elbows. That was even better.

Taryn cried out as he began mercilessly pounding into her with deep, dazing strokes that were zapping her with bliss. Nothing should feel this good, she was sure of it. It had definitely never felt this good before, but she'd known it would be this way and it had scared her. Now, though, as he tunnelled in and out of her reaching depths that had until now been untouched, there was no fear, only sheer and utter carnal bliss.

As Trey gazed down at all that creamy skin of her back, that unmarked creamy skin, he had the urge to bend down and sink his teeth into wherever he could reach. He closed his eyes against the impulse. He wouldn't mark her again, he told himself. He'd f.u.c.k her and ensure she knew that she was his, but he wouldn't mark her again. Twice already he had marked her when the one claiming bite was all they needed. He didn't need to possessively mark her up with claws and teeth to leave his brand all over her the way his wolf wanted him to. The way Trey the man wanted to.

"Do you like that? Does it feel good having my c.o.c.k inside you?" Her response was a feverish moan that was a clear yes. "That's a very good thing because I'm going to be in here often. Taking what's mine."

"Not yours," she growled.

His next thrust was extra hard a warning, a punishment. "Keep growling at me, keep telling me you're not mine, I dare you."

"I'm not yours." She reached back with one arm and grazed his chest with her claws. Not enough to leave a permanent mark, just enough to caution him. She growled when she felt the slash of claws along the flesh of her lower back these were deeper, would mark. "Don't you dare brand me, you son of a b.i.t.c.h." She gasped as a hand came down sharply on her a.s.s and then his hand knotted in her hair and he dragged her up so her back was arched against his chest.

"I'll mark you wherever I want," he growled into her ear, still ruthlessly hammering into her. Abruptly he sank his teeth into her nape and his wolf growled his approval. "You're my mate, Taryn, say it."

She snapped her teeth at him, missing his jaw by mere inches. "f.u.c.k you!"

Again Trey spanked her a.s.s hard. "Let's try that again, shall we. Whose mate are you, Taryn? Who do you belong to?"

"I'm your mate, but I don't belong to you!"

"The two can't be separated, it doesn't work that way."

p.i.s.sed off that he was right, Taryn growled her annoyance and struggled against him but he only tightened his hold on her hair.

"You're not going to get away. Not until I've pumped every ounce of my c.u.m inside you. Now, who do you f.u.c.king belong to?"

After a slight hesitation she conceded with a snarl, "You."

"That's right, baby, and just in case you're ever tempted to forget..." He yanked her head back and bit down hard into the soft flesh of her neck where it would be visible for all to see.

Just like that, even though she hated what he'd done, a wickedly powerful o.r.g.a.s.m crashed into Taryn and she screamed her release.

As her muscles closed bitingly around him, Trey exploded inside her with a loud, guttural growl/groan, marking her with his c.u.m just as surely as he'd marked her with his teeth. s.h.i.t, he had never f.u.c.ked like that, never come so d.a.m.n hard. He couldn't decide if it was a good thing or a bad thing that this female could make him mindless.

As she collapsed forward onto the bed and Trey got a look at her body, he had the urge to slap himself. In addition to his claiming bite and the one he'd given her to cover Roscoe's, there was a bite on her nape, there were claw marks on her back, his handprints on her a.s.s, another bite on the very visible part of her neck, and claw marks on her hips where he'd held her. The worst of it was that every single one of those brands gave him and his wolf a kind of masculine satisfaction.

G.o.ddammit.

CHAPTER FIVE.

An overwhelming need to pee woke Taryn. The rays of moonlight peeking through the curtains had been replaced by sunlight, telling her it was early morning. Her intention to stretch was inhibited by the tanned, muscly arm and leg belonging to the wolf behind her, both of which were draped over her as if to trap her there. She smiled at that. Then her smile widened as she recalled being woken a few times in the night. Yeah it could be said that they had engaged in a s.e.xual marathon. Trey was insatiable and had impressive stamina, even for a shifter.

Having wriggled out from under his hold, she went to answer the call of nature. She found herself staring longingly at the luxurious tub a hot bath sounded fabulous...but her rumbling stomach had other ideas.

A few minutes later she was dressed and heading through the d.a.m.n network of tunnels. The familiar black door that led to the kitchen wouldn't be too hard to find; she could just follow the scents of meat and eggs and hot toasted bread. The chattering stopped as she entered and five strange faces looked at her curiously, though they didn't seem surprised to see her. Obviously word had gotten out about Trey having finally brought her here.

As simple as this moment was, it was also pivotal. Her stay here wasn't going to be a pleasant one. Her being Lance Warner's daughter would be enough to make some wolves give her a hard time. It wouldn't matter that her mating with Trey might ultimately aid their cause. She was still a Warner and there was no way any of them would want to answer to her. Also, the fact that she was latent meant that some people would regard her in the same way that Brodie did a freak of nature, an easy target, someone who didn't even count as a shifter. They would test her patience and strength, and make her stay here difficult.

As such, there were a few ways she could handle her first few moments in their pack. One, she could present them with a dazzling smile and introduce herself needlessly, hoping to win them over with a friendly att.i.tude. Two, she could act aloof, distant, and ignore any attempts to goad her. Or three, she could just be her usual ray of sarcastic f.u.c.king sunshine and tell anyone who pushed her to go eat s.h.i.t.

A bigger person would have gone with option two, but, well, she was a b.i.t.c.h. So she decided to go with number three. "Look, I'm not much of a morning person because I tend to sleep through it so if you're hoping to p.i.s.s me off then proceed with extreme caution. We'll get along just fine though if you don't treat me any differently than you would a princess." With that, she nodded at the stunned faces and hopped up onto the countertop.

The plump brunette who had been pouring coffee for the others then approached her. "You must be Taryn," she said, smiling. "I'm Grace. I cook, clean and say 's.h.i.t' a lot."

"Ah, someone who speaks my language."

She gestured at the dining table where croissants, toasted bread, bacon, scrambled eggs, baked beans, sausages, platters of cold meat, various fruits, and cereals were all laid out. "The wolf over there with the gla.s.ses and the goatee who's the epitome of geeky, that's my mate Rhett. The Bill Clinton lookalike is Brock, a cousin of Trey's dad. The guy next to him with the spiky blonde hair and the baby face is Cam. And the unfairly gorgeous female opposite him with the unfairly great legs is Cam's mate, Lydia."

"Stop mooning over my mate's legs, Grace," groused Cam playfully before shovelling half a croissant in his mouth.

"You're like a little doll," said Lydia, smiling at Taryn. She was the only one other than Grace who had a smile for her. "No one would ever think you had such a smart, awesome mouth."

"Coffee, tea, or orange juice?" asked Grace while Taryn took one of the empty plates and piled bacon, scrambled eggs and toasted bread on it.

"Coffee." Plate in hand, she parked her a.s.s back on the counter. At Grace's amused but questioning look, she shrugged. "I always sit on the counter. A little quirk of mine."

Grace's gaze skimmed over her, taking in the various marks of possession that decorated her flesh. "Well, short of having 'Property of Trey Coleman' tattooed on your forehead, he couldn't have made it any clearer that he considered you his, could he?"

Very true. In addition to those marks that Trey had left while they consummated the claiming, there were those that he had made during the second, third and fourth rounds that followed through the night. There was a bite at the hollow of her throat, another on her inner wrist, a third one on the swell of her breast, and also claw marks on both upper arms and they were only the ones that weren't hidden beneath her black t-shirt, navy jeans, and black leather knee boots.

And what had Trey's response been when she told him that he may have overdone it a little with the marking? A shrug followed by a very smug grin.

Maybe it would be fair to say that if she hadn't fought him so hard on the issue of belonging to him then she wouldn't be in this state. Yeah, but that only applied to the first time. After that, she had conceded belonging to him as his mate, although she had snarled at him with every concession. He hadn't had any need to keep it up.

She wondered if maybe the drive behind it had been that he had sensed that her admission was only half-hearted. Once she had belonged to someone and when he had been taken from her it nearly killed her, even though they had never mated. As it was, Joey had taken a chunk of her with him when he died. And that was okay, because that was his chunk to take. But she wouldn't give that much of herself to another person again. Her soul wouldn't survive the loss a second time as there wouldn't be enough of her left to allow her to live. She would simply exist, breathing in and out and in and out, but nothing more. And this was a male who she would lose that was a sure thing. So, yeah she would belong to Trey on a physical level, but no more than that.

It was actually best that way as it meant there was no chance whatsoever of the process of imprinting being sparked. Despite Trey's mark-happy behavior, he didn't want that any more than she did. It was simply in the nature of the male to want to completely possess his mate inside and out. This male would just have to make do.

"And I thought I looked badly marked up on my claiming night," said Lydia.

"Can I, um, ask," began Rhett, "is it true that you're, um, latent?" At her nod he added, "Do you still feel your wolf or is she buried deep?"

Grace quickly interrupted. "You should know that Rhett is one of the most curious people to have ever walked the face of the Earth. Whereas he's great with computers and anything technical, he's not an expert with human emotion. It wouldn't occur to him that he might offend you by bringing it up." She shot him a reprimanding glare.

Taryn shrugged. "It's fine. No, my wolf's not buried, she's very much aware and very much a pain in the a.s.s." Rhett seemed about to ask her something else, but a sharp look from Grace had him returning his attention to his meal.

"It's going to be nice having some more female company," said Lydia. "We're way too outnumbered by the males."

Taryn arched a brow. "There aren't many women?"

"Well, there are three others but they don't really count. Selma and Hope are your typical walking tributes to Barbie, and are both vain and b.i.t.c.hy. And Greta's....well, she's horrid."

"Lydia," censured Brock. "Have a little respect." The look he gave Taryn was withering.

Lydia ignored him. "She thinks she rules the place because she's the Alpha's grandmother, likes to boss us females around. The males can't do any wrong in her eyes. She mothers Trey, Dante and the enforcers something awful, calls them her boys. And, well, she doesn't like females sniffing around her boys."

"She's even worse when it comes to Trey." Grace's smile was sympathetic. "Scares off every female who goes near him."

"Surely she's not going to want to scare me off when Trey needs to claim I'm his mate for his super plan." Their winces said that wouldn't be the case.

"Need a Warner? Now that's a joke." The deep voice belonged to a male who, though nowhere near as good-looking or muscular as Trey, bore a few similarities to him. He had the same strong nose and chin, the same artic blue eyes, the same height. Whereas Trey's dark scowl somehow looked good on him, it made this guy look creepy. She only had to look at his posture and the flash of bitterness in his eyes to know the guy had a chip on his shoulder. She had to wonder just what that chip was all about. He took a seat beside Lydia and then glared at Taryn. "We don't need a Warner, and we don't need a latent."

"I don't need your approval," retorted Taryn. "So f.u.c.k off." That seemed to surprise him, but she wasn't under the illusion that it would shut him up.

Grace sighed. She didn't appear any happier by his presence than Taryn was. "That's Kirk, Brock's son, so he's sort of Trey's cousin." She mouthed, 'And an a.s.shole'.

His nostrils flared as he looked at Taryn. "If you think we're all going to bow down to a Warner then think again."

Taryn smiled at Grace. "Isn't it great when just your very existence infuriates someone? You've got to love that kind of power."

The sound of very merry whistling was soon followed by the entrance of Marcus and Trick. One look at the marks on her body and that clown grin took over Marcus' face. Trick simply snickered.

"Hey little sister." Trick ruffled Grace's hair, earning himself a scowl and a smack on the shoulder.

"Go, sit, eat, don't bother me," she grumbled. Chuckling, he took a seat at the table and practically attacked the plate piled with slices of cold meet. "Here," said Grace as she handed Marcus a goody bag. "See you later."

Marcus opened it and sighed happily. "Is it wrong that I'd sell my soul for your cooking? If you weren't already mated I'd snap you up."

Grace rolled her eyes but a blush stained her cheeks. Taryn couldn't blame her the guy was seriously hot. h.e.l.l, all the enforcers were. "He's guarding the gate today so he only has time to pop in and out," she explained to Taryn after he had left the room.

Taryn looked up as Dante entered and went straight to the jug of coffee. He poured some into a Bart Simpson mug, inhaled the aroma deeply, and then took a sip. It was only then that he turned to everyone, apparently now equipped to interact with others as he had caffeine in his system. The instant he saw her he almost choked on his drink. She would have said she didn't look that bad, but she did.

"Now I know why you kept yelling at him for biting you." At her raised brow, he explained while grinning wickedly, "As Beta, my room's next to the Alpha's. How does he look?"

"You'll see for yourself, won't you." In truth, she hadn't marked Trey. Her wolf had wanted her to, had desperately tried to surface in response to Taryn's resistance. But no chance was Taryn going to encourage his wolf's sense of possessiveness by marking him back, not when this was temporary. Also, it would be easier on her wolf when they separated if she hadn't branded him. It would be easier on Taryn too. Trey hadn't questioned her about it or urged her to mark him so she could conclude from that that he was on the same wavelength.

Dante took another swig of his coffee. "I said that Trey although he's not usually possessive would mark you up proper. The others, including Trey, thought he would be able to rein it in because you aren't true mates. I have to say that I'm kind of enjoying that I was right."

"Your life is that sad?"

"You don't get it. Trey never marks his women. He's always teased us whenever we've gotten even the slightest bit possessive with our partners. I'm just enjoying how the tables have turned."

"To be fair," said Trick, pausing in the demolishing of his cereal, "it's a little different since he mated her."

Dante looked about to say something but was distracted by the entrance of Ryan, Dominic, Tao and Trey. Ryan acknowledged her with a grunt, Dominic with a teeny nod, and Tao with a fierce scowl.

"Yes it is a fabulous morning and yes I did have an amazing sleep, thank you," she said to them sweetly.

Just for the h.e.l.l of it, Trey delivered a sharp nip to her bottom lip before taking a seat at the table with the others. Inwardly he frowned at this strange primal urge that he had to be close to her and touch her. Naturally he ignored it, but his irritation remained. Trey hadn't hungered for touch for a long time and he didn't like the idea that that might be changing.

He hadn't been too pleased when he woke up to find himself alone. He'd originally hoped to taste her this morning since oral s.e.x had been out of the question last night while she was battling his dominance so hard. He hadn't been able to pin her down to taste her and he certainly hadn't been interested in risking sliding his d.i.c.k between those snapping teeth. d.a.m.n if their battles for dominance hadn't been the hottest thing ever though.