“You’re not happy for me, Daddy Dearest? Why am I not surprised?”

Lance fixed his glare on Trey. “Let go of my daughter.” There was a slight tremor to his voice that betrayed his nervousness.

“That’s not going to happen.”

“What’s your game here? We all know she isn’t your mate. What would you want with her, with a latent?”

“Careful,” said Trey in a deceptively patient voice, not liking the derogatory way he had spoken of Taryn.

“You want to trade her for some of my land, is that it?”

Trey laughed, and it wasn’t a nice sound. “If I wanted some of your territory, I’d have challenged you Alpha to Alpha. And, believe me, I’d have won.”

“Well if this isn’t about territory then what the hell is this all about?”

“Um, Alpha,” began Richie, “we all just saw what happened. It looked like true mates finding each other.”

Relief washed over Taryn as she saw many of the wolves around them nodding their agreement with Richie.

“No!” insisted Lance. He pointed hard at her. “You’re doing this just to spite me, you little bitch!”

“Hey,” snapped Trey as he advanced a step toward Lance. “Be very, very careful. Paper thin f**king ice.”

Taryn almost shivered. The words had been delivered in such a lethal, authoritative tone that her dad had actually resisted the urge to snap back at him. “The decision was taken out of anyone’s hands by nature itself, Dad.”

“Nature? If you’re talking about your rebellious nature, then yeah, nature is what caused this. You’re doing it to get out of mating with Roscoe. We both know that Joey was your true mate.”

“I thought so too, but as unbelievable as it might seem, I was wrong.” God, it hurt to say that.

“No. I remember the way you were when he died. You wouldn’t talk, barely ate, never left the house. You were like that for over six months.”

“That was probably a lot to do with me having lost my mom in the very same accident.”

He went to take a step toward her but Trey’s growl halted his advance. He snarled at Trey. “Even if the kid wasn’t her true mate it makes no difference, she’s already mated! She’s mated to Roscoe Weston.”

“As I said to your enforcer, if that had been true, I wouldn’t have been able to claim her.”

“Well I think you’ll find Roscoe will disagree with you on that. And so do I. She’s coming home with me.” He signalled to Perry and Oscar to grab her.

“Try it,” bit out Trey, his face like thunder and his eyes flashing with anger. “I can guarantee you won’t like what happens.” Wisely, the enforcers didn’t try it.

“What are you waiting for?” Lance growled at Perry and Oscar.

Oscar shrugged. “It’s like Richie said. We saw what happened, it sure looked like true mates -”

Lance shook his head. “There’s something I’m missing here.”

Taryn used his own words against him. “With your view of the world, I would have thought you’d have found this easy enough to accept. According to you, a wolf wouldn’t want a latent for a mate unless he had no choice in the matter.”

“That’s true,” said Lance with a snicker. “I don’t even know why Roscoe wants you, why anyone would.”

A second later he was pressed against the wall with Trey’s hand around his neck. “It’s almost as though you want me to rip your throat out,” he growled, fighting his wolf from surfacing and doing just that. He hadn’t wanted there to be any violence, but Taryn had been right. Although they weren’t true mates and this whole thing was to be temporary, his wolf wasn’t hung up on those details, wasn’t held back by them. His wolf was an elemental being who acted mostly on instinct, and since he’d marked Taryn Warner, his wolf regarded her as his. His to protect, to comfort, to shelter, to possess. And Trey agreed.

This whole thing hit too close to home, making Trey think of his own father. His dad had been pretty attentive and protective…right up until the Seer within the pack, when Trey was just five, had told his dad that Trey would one day usurp his position as Alpha. After that, his father had pretty much disowned him and left his care to his maternal grandmother – when he wasn’t busy taunting him or using him as a punchbag. His mom had tried to fix the divide between them, but she was too much of a submissive wolf to have had any influence on his father.

“Get the hell off me!”

“But I’m comfortable here.” Watching Lance try to glance around, Trey smiled. “No one’s going to help you. Unlike you, they know better than to try to get between mates. Says a lot about you as an alpha if no one is willing to offer their life for yours.”

“She’s my daughter -”

“And she’s my mate. She’s mine. No one keeps her from me. No one insults her. And no one – and I mean no one – talks to her the way you just did, understand me?”

“Just tell me what it is you really want,” snarled Lance. “You just that desperate for a pack healer that you’d tie yourself to a latent?”

Tightening his hold on Lance’s throat, Trey smacked his head against the wall. “Didn’t I just tell you no one insults my mate? Not very bright, are you?” He gave Taryn a baffled look. “You sure you two are related?”

She shrugged one shoulder delicately. “I do look a lot like the maintenance guy.” Going to stand beside Trey, she cocked her head at Lance. “I don’t know what your problem is, Daddy Dearest. You can’t stand the sight of me. You should be pleased that I’m leaving the pack. Oh and you should also stop insulting me if you expect Trey to release you anytime soon.”

Lance stared at her with a disbelieving look on his red/purple face. “You honestly believe he isn’t playing some kind of game? He’s using you, Taryn. When you realize that for yourself, don’t think you’ll be welcome back in my pack.”

She gave him a sad smile. “I stopped being welcome the day you realized I was latent. But then, you always were an ass, weren’t you.”

“Is that what this is? Revenge? You know how bad I want that alliance.”

Trey snickered. “What, an alliance with me wouldn’t mean anything to you?”

Lance’s gaze shot to Trey. It was obvious he hadn’t thought of it that way and she could almost see the wheels turning in his head.