“And you will upset her again,” maintained Taryn, glaring hard at Nick. “Because you’re a cruel, insensitive shithead—something you’ve proven by even thinking of coming here! You lost the right to see her when you ignored her instead of claiming her! Don’t you think it’s a little late to come knocking now?”

Nick raised a brow. “Don’t you think that’s up to Shaya to decide, who I’m sure isn’t liking that everyone’s speaking on her behalf?”

Her mate knew her well. As his arm lifted in invitation, Shaya let him tug her to his side. He wasn’t forcing her to remain behind him—he was treating her like an equal. She hadn’t expected that. Sensing that Taryn’s anger was increasing, which in turn was increasing the anger of the Phoenix wolves—of course, all of that was feeding Nick’s anger and putting his wolf on edge—Shaya decided it was past time to defuse the situation.

Petting Nick’s chest to calm him, Shaya smiled at her best friend. “Taryn, I really appreciate your concern for me—it was the same concern I showed for you when you first mated with Trey.” Ignoring Trey’s affronted look, Shaya continued, “But I’m asking you to give me the same support I gave you.” When both Dominic’s and Tao’s mouths opened, Shaya gave them a dark look that made their mouths snap shut. “You’ve made your opinions clear. I don’t need to hear them again.” She swept her gaze over all of them as she said, “This isn’t a negotiation. If you’re not willing to give Nick the same chance I’m giving him, you need to leave.”

When Trey’s eyes moved to her neck and narrowed, Shaya knew he’d seen one of Nick’s many marks. “You haven’t officially claimed her,” noted Trey, studying Nick curiously.

“Yet,” Nick quickly said. “When Shaya’s ready, I will.”

Lips pursed, Trey considered that for a moment, and then nodded in satisfaction. Tao did the same while Dominic shrugged.

Taryn gawked at her mate. “You’re okay with this?” she practically screeched.

“Baby, you knew this would happen.” Trey ran a hand through the various shades of blonde that made up his mate’s hair, clearly trying to calm her down. “Nothing in this world could keep me away from you, and nothing was going to keep him away from Shaya.”

“He should have claimed her when he had the chance!”

“Yes, but he didn’t.” Trey gestured to Shaya’s neck. “And look, he still hasn’t. He’s waiting for her to be ready. That’s more than a lot of shifters would do, and we all know it.”

After a thoughtful pause, Taryn turned to Nick again. “I want to talk to Shaya alone.” Her eyes dared him to say no.

“Then you need to ask Shaya,” said Nick. “I’m her mate, not her boss.”

Taryn’s brows rose in surprise, and Shaya saw a hint of approval in her eyes.

“Why don’t you all wait inside while Taryn and I talk out here?” When Nick tensed almost imperceptibly beside her, Shaya knew he didn’t like the idea of her being completely out of his sight with Taryn when it was clear that the Alpha female wanted her away from Nick. She laid a reassuring hand on his chest and rubbed her jaw against his side. That easily, the tension left him. Looking up at him, she said, “I’ll just be a few minutes.”

Common sense told Nick that Taryn wouldn’t attempt to sneak away with Shaya because that would mean leaving without her mate and pack members. Common sense also told him that Taryn was too brazen to do “sneaky”; she’d do it right in front of him and expect him to deal with it. But he couldn’t help being anxious. It was one thing for the two females to talk where he could see them. It was another for him to wait inside. But as he looked down into gray-blue eyes that were begging for the same trust she was trying to give him, there was no way he could object.

Dropping his arm, Nick nodded. Shaya’s beaming smile was reward enough for him. “Don’t leave the yard unless you want our little followers to hear your conversation.” As Shaya nodded and then went to the Alpha female, he caught the blonde’s eye and held her gaze. “Try to take my mate from me, and I’ll take yours from you.”

The blonde just blinked at him, before asking Shaya, “Is he always delusional?” Nick tracked their movements as they went to stand at the bottom of the yard, satisfied when they didn’t walk any farther.

“Who are the people watching the house?”

At Trey’s question, Nick sighed. “I guess you’d better come in.”

As Nick, Derren, and the Phoenix wolves went inside the house, the rebels insisted on waiting outside. The trio stood monitoring Taryn and Shaya, and she had the feeling that they intended to ensure on Nick’s behalf that Taryn didn’t attempt to kidnap her. It was kind of touching. “So, to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?”

“We saw you and Nick on the news,” said Taryn, arms folded across her chest. “We left Dante and Jaime to hold the fort while we came here. The reporter said there’s some kind of shifter war going on, but that made no sense to me—every shifter in the world is on their best behavior right now, not wanting to give the human extremists anything to work with.”

Shaya sighed. “You can thank those extremists for what happened. They did it to get a reaction from Nick. It turns out that the guy running the local extremist group was one of the prison guards when Nick was in juvie.” When Taryn showed no surprise about Nick having been in juvie, Shaya frowned in confusion. “You knew about his past?”

“Only what Dante told me: that he killed a human and injured two others while defending himself and his sister.”

Shaya inwardly sighed in relief. She was sure Nick wouldn’t like all his past to be common knowledge.

“You can’t seriously be thinking about mating with him, Shaya.”

“There was a lot I didn’t know about him.” Aware that Nick’s pride would balk at others knowing about his health issues, that Nick wouldn’t want to be viewed as having weaknesses to anyone, she didn’t elaborate. “And nobody can say he hasn’t earned a chance, Taryn. I put him through an alpha’s version of hell—rejected him, stomped on his pride, and even went on a date with another guy.”

“No way!” Taryn seemed pleased about it.

“But he’s still here. He’s apologized, he’s done sweet stuff for me, he’s bought me gifts, he’s fixed the little messes in my life, and he’s just generally been here for me. It’s like, wherever I look he’s there, just like—”