Taryn writhed and moaned as he worked her into a frenzy using long sensual licks. His tongue constantly teased her opening, but never delved inside. It was torture and it was pleasure and it was goddamn unfair.

Frustrated, she was helplessly squirming and arching. If he was hoping she would beg, he was in for a disappointment. She had warned him in the beginning that she never begged, not for anyone. But she couldn’t take anymore teasing, she couldn’t. She tried escaping his hold, but his hands tightened on her thighs, claws digging warningly into her skin, and he growled. The rumble sent vibrations shooting up her core and through her body, sizzling all the way to her extremities.

She was ready to smack him over the head when she suddenly felt the lash of a tongue to her clit. Then his tongue was swirling around it as a finger speared inside her and she groaned, melting into the mattress. He growled again – this one was approving.

Trey knew that Taryn wouldn’t last much longer, that she really needed to come, but he couldn’t bring himself to part with her taste. It was like an aphrodisiac to him because it was creamy and zesty and his. For as long as she was mated to him every part of her was his, this pu**y that he loved the feel of around his c*ck was his, and he needed to hear her say it.

Abruptly he shoved another finger inside her, making her cry out and buck. “Who does this pu**y belong to?” he gritted out as he curved his fingers inside her while pressing his thumb on her cl*t so that his hand was clamped around her. Eyes glazed with lust met his.

“Shut the f**k up, Trey, and make me come.”

He thrust his fingers deep and again she bucked and cried out. “Whose is it, Taryn?”

“As I’m the one who cleans it, waxes it, keeps it tidy and has it medically checked, I’d say it’s mine. But you can borrow it if you like.”

He couldn’t hold back a smile. “If you want to come you better be careful, baby, or I might just stop.”

“That’s fine. You’ve laid the foundations. My vibrator will take care of the rest.”

“No fake cocks. This” – a thrust of his fingers – “is mine. The only c*ck that goes inside here is mine. Nothing else, no one else. Say it.”

“I would,” she rasped, “but I don’t believe in telling lies.”

“I mean it, Taryn. Nothing and no one goes inside you except me.” He flicked her cl*t with his tongue. “I don’t share what’s mine.”

“Now that’s a lie because I’ve heard that you and Tao have double-teamed some of your girlfriends in the past.”

It surprised him that Tao had told her. “That was different.” He suckled gently on her clit, smiling at how close she was to coming. He wouldn’t let her until he’d heard what he wanted to hear. Needed to hear.

“Yeah?” she breathed.

“Yeah, I didn’t consider them mine. I didn’t mark them as mine. And if you don’t tell me right now that this hot little pu**y here is mine, I’ll keep you hanging like this.”

“You motherfucking ass-licking son of a goddamn cock-sucking bitch!”

It took effort not to laugh. “All the teasing will be over the second you tell me what I want to hear.” Instead she shook her head, growling. He rose to his knees and gripped his c*ck through his jeans with his free hand. “See this, baby? This is yours. I’ll give you as much c*ck as you want whenever you want. It’s yours. And this” – he plunged his fingers hard inside her – “is all mine. No other c*ck except mine. Say it.”

Again she growled, clawing his pectorals enough to tear his t-shirt but not enough to draw blood. “Just make me come you miserable bastard!”

He slashed his claws in a diagonal line from her breast to her hip. “Fucking say it.”

Taryn kicked at him but he didn’t remove his hand, only cupped her harder. She could see by the tight line of his lips that he wasn’t going to drop this. “No other c*ck except yours, there I said it!”

“And why is that, Taryn? Why does nothing or no one go inside this tight pu**y except me?”

“Because it’s yours,” she growled.

“That’s my good girl.” In one quick movement he withdrew his fingers, gripped her ass, curled her h*ps and stabbed his tongue inside her. Her back arched as she gave a loud cry. Her fingers threaded through his hair, tugging painfully, but he didn’t give a shit. Not while her taste was in his mouth and her perfect ass was in his hands and she was making those goddamn noises.

He continued f**king her relentlessly with his tongue and then, when he sensed her orgasm was close, he pulled her ass cheeks apart and plunged one wet finger into her ass. She screamed as her release hit and, unable to help himself, Trey moved his mouth to her inner thigh and bit down hard, sucking and licking and marking. Quickly he realized that he hadn’t bitten her to placate his wolf, he’d done it because Trey the man wanted to mark her.

CHAPTER NINE

Taryn was still panting and vibrating with aftershocks when Trey kissed his way up her body and lay down beside her, gathering her against him. Although his eyes had darkened with lust he wasn’t making any moves on her. In fact, he seemed pretty content to just play with her hair. As much as she appreciated his selflessness, a part of her wanted him to be a little selfish right about now because she really wanted his c*ck inside her.

“Tell me about your mom.”

There went her arousal. When she hesitated answering he gave her a reprimanding look. He didn’t want to be frozen out again. “She was…this is going to sound mean. She was dizzy.”

“Dizzy?”

“Yeah,” she chuckled. “Wherever she went she’d leave something behind. The worst part was she wouldn’t even realize she’d left anything until someone asked her if it was hers. Common sense was something she lacked but it was one of the things that everyone loved about her because she could always make them laugh. Oddly enough, though, she was good with money. You’d have thought that her dopiness would have interfered with her money management skills, but no, she was great with numbers.”

“You two were close?”

She nodded. “I think one of the reasons she doted on me so much was that I was her only child. Her and my dad tried for more, but for whatever reason, she never got pregnant again. I knew she felt guilty about that, like she’d let my dad down.”

“Was your dad just as doting until he realized you were latent?”

“No. As a female, I was already a disappointment to him.”

Trey made a derogative snort. “That guy really is an a**hole.” He gentled his voice as he asked, “How did she die?”

Again she hesitated and again he gave her that look. “My mom and Joey’s mom were close friends. Every Sunday they’d go to the market in town and take me and Joey with them. On this one day I couldn’t go because I was in the basement -”

“The basement?” There was something in the sound of her voice that had his hackles rising.

“It was my dad’s version of a punishment.”

“He used to confine you?” Hell that would be bad for any kid but for a shifter...

“It’s all part of that ‘him being an a**hole’ thing. Anyway…On the way into town, some totally blitzed guy in a banged up Chevy crashed into them, sent them toppling over…It was thought that the three of them were unconscious when it went up in flames. The drunken bastard was fine.”

Trey held her tightly to him and kissed her hair. “It’s weird just how similar our situation is.”

Taryn pulled back to meet his gaze. “What do you mean?”

“Both of us lost our mom and true mate. Both of us were lumbered with a**holes for fathers. Both of us have to deal with bold inner wolves.”

“How did they die?” When he just stared at her she growled. “Wait, I’m supposed to lay it all out but you get to remain a closed book? I don’t think so, Flinstone. Get talking.”

Not wanting to, but knowing she was right, he sighed and nodded. “There weren’t just the sixteen of us when I left the pack. My mom came. The separation from my dad…She wasn’t strong enough to deal with it and she turned rogue. Then I killed her. She’d attacked Marcus…”

When he paused midsentence and Taryn saw the pain in his eyes she couldn’t help but stroke his chest and snuggling closer. He shot her one of those macho ‘I don’t need comfort’ looks. “I’m not sympathising with you, I’m just cold.”

“As for my true mate…Her name was Summer.” That was the first time he’d spoken her name in a very long time. “She was two months old when she died in her sleep.”

Taryn’s heart clenched at the idea. “You said when we first met that you hadn’t acknowledged her?”

“I was fourteen, she was a baby…it felt weird and I acted like a dumb shit. Then when I heard she was dead…Let’s just say I didn’t take it too well and I made a mess of my room. My dad put two and two together and teased me about it.”

“Teased you?” Rage and protectiveness surged through her, making her wish the bastard was alive so she could kick his ass.

“He thought the whole thing was funny because something had finally gotten an emotional reaction from me, he wanted me to cry. See, I’d never cried no matter what he did to me, and he hated that. I’d always stay stoic and take every punch, refusing to give him the reaction he wanted. Even as he teased me about Summer I couldn’t cry, it’s just not in me to do that I guess.”

“You’re right, he was an a**hole. So am I right in thinking that it was the teasing that made you lose it and beat him up so bad you almost killed him?”

He nodded. “I’d put up with his shit for years, but everyone has a limit, and that day he found mine and pushed it. I’m not sorry. Not even now that he’s dead. If he was here right now I’d do it all over again, and I’d enjoy it.” He wanted her to know who he was, what he was capable of. He wanted to know if she could handle it. She didn’t disappoint him.

“And I’d be cheering you on.”

Sliding his hand to her nape, he brought her face to his and kissed her hungrily, lashing her tongue with his and nibbling on her lips. The urge to plunge inside her and take her over was eating at him. Making it worse was that the scent of her arousal still flavoured the air. Shit he deserved a goddamn award for his restraint.

The sound of her stomach rumbling had Taryn chuckling into Trey’s mouth. “I need feeding.”

“I’ve already eaten,” he said with a wicked smirk. He tapped her bare ass lightly. “Come on, let’s get you some food.”

Five minutes later Taryn was fully clothed again and accepting a piggyback ride from Trey who rushed her into the kitchen. The entire pack was there other than Cam who was on guard duty. All were smiling with the exception of Greta, Kirk, Selma, and Hope. Taryn could only assume they had overheard her and Trey having some quality time together, or had guessed by the sight of his slashed t-shirt which he had purposely left on.

There was someone else who wasn’t smiling, she suddenly realized. Tao’s expression was carefully blank. Before she had the chance to wonder on that, Grace came and handed Taryn – who was sat on the counter with Trey standing beside her – a plate on which a few slices of watermelon sat, and also a candy bar just because she was an angel. “It’s good to have you back.”

She took the plate gratefully. Grace always took care of her. Then she topped it off by handing her a mug of coffee. “I think I love you.”

“So the hussy’s back, is she?” sneered Greta, glaring at Taryn like she was a giant turd.

Taryn only smiled. “Is there no way you could just pull your bottom lip over your head and swallow?”

Dante’s drink sprayed out of his mouth as he went into a fit of coughing.

“I’d have shoved this piece if watermelon in your mouth if I didn’t like it so much.” Taryn saw Dominic biting his bottom lip and just knew he was doing his best to bite back a dirty chat up line. Perv.

“While you and Taryn were, um, busy,” said Rhett to Trey, “I checked our pack web for messages. Turns out there’re a lot of alphas interesting in discussing an alliance with you, Trey. The new alpha of the Roscoe’s pack included.”

Taryn laughed. “I had a feeling he might get in touch through the pack web. He seemed too terrified of Trey to come back here.”

“There was someone else too.” He looked at Taryn then. “Your dad. Only he wants to set up a meeting to discuss it in person. Any idea why?”

“My dad likes to name-drop.”

“Name-drop?” echoed Trick.

“There are different levels to an alliance. Most simply want the association with that pack, want to build the number of associations to look impressive.”

“A little like people on social networks wanting to have a massive friends list?”

“Exactly. Others want an assurance that if they ever need to call on the pack in an emergency for back-up of some kind, they’ll get it. Then there are some who are a lot like people who enjoy boasting about all the important or influential people they know – like to drop names into conversations and claim that that person is a close acquaintance in order to look impressive to others.”

Trey folded his arms across his chest. “So, basically, your dad wants to be able to throw my name around to deter others from f**king with him, and maybe even call on me for protection?”