And now here she was alone because he had ‘things to do’ in his office.

Well it seemed like the very sexual male from the past two days had retreated, or had retreated from her at least. It occurred to her then that maybe it had only been his wolf’s insecurity in the mating that had been behind his fevered urge to be inside her and mark her. Maybe now that the threat of Roscoe was gone and his wolf was more settled Trey would no longer have that urge. Hell, maybe without the mating urges he would never have wanted her at all. The idea of that shouldn’t have sparked a dull ache in her chest and it shouldn’t have made her have the sudden desire to cuddle herself. Yet it did.

But what had she expected? Trey was a big guy with a lot of pride and probably didn’t have a thing for tiny females who would challenge his dominance. Her body wasn’t exactly model material and then there was the fact that she was latent. He acted as though it didn’t bother him, but it was likely that in truth he saw the latency as a weakness and it made her very unattractive to him.

A noise penetrated her thoughts and she realized that someone had entered the room. The scent flowed over her, stroking her senses and stirring her wolf who was anxious for some contact with her mate. But Taryn hadn’t begged for scraps from her dad’s table and she wouldn’t be begging for scraps from Trey’s table either. So she remained on her side facing the wall, faking sleep, ignoring her wolf’s growling protests.

Trey took one look at Taryn’s still form and sighed in relief. She was asleep. He hadn’t woken her. He had been fighting his wolf – hell he’d been fighting himself – for hours on the subject of going to Taryn, of getting in some physical contact, social or sexual. He was literally starving for it. Had he known that mating would be this bad with all its urges, instincts, and needs, he probably wouldn’t have mated at all.

After quietly using the bathroom and stripping down to his boxers, he slipped beneath the covers and resisted the desire to snuggle into her. Instead, he rolled to his side so that his back was to hers and there was enough space between them in the large bed to fit another person. His wolf growled at that idea, but Trey ignored him and ignored his instincts. And he closed his eyes, completely obvious to the fact that the eyes of the women behind him had opened and had a haunted look in them at the realization that she was now of no interest to a wolf she was bound to.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Just as she had each morning over the past week, Taryn was perched on the kitchen counter sipping her coffee while engaged in a staring contest with dear old Greta. It was practically ritualistic for them to partake in a battle of wills whenever they were in the same room. Each and every time, Taryn would leave the room smiling while Greta was purple in the face and growling. Once Greta had realized that she wasn’t going to scare Taryn off, she had taken to simply insulting her and generally being difficult. In truth, Taryn found the whole thing just as entertaining as everyone else did. As usual, they were all eating quietly as they waited for the verbal spar to begin.

“What are you looking at, hussy?” Greta finally spat.

“I haven’t figured that out yet.”

Huffing, Greta drank down more of her weird green herbal tea. “I hope you’re not getting comfortable, you won’t be here for much longer.”

“So you’ve said. Repeatedly.”

“You might have some of the others fooled, but I see you for what you are.”

“Is that right?”

“I warned my boys all about females like you.”

“Oh come on, your imagination was never this good.”

Hand over her heart, she said with fake misery, “My daughter is probably turning in her grave now. You’ve got tattoos for God’s sake!” A cruel smirk suddenly curved her lips. “I suppose I shouldn’t have expected much better, what with your wolf basically being disabled. What does it feel like to be latent? To know your wolf will forever be trapped?”

“I don’t know. What does it feel like to be so old that your birth certificate is in Roman numerals?” The smirk quickly fell from the crone’s face and Taryn smiled.

Entering the kitchen, Trey wasn’t surprised to find his mate and grandmother glaring at each other. Neither even spared him a glance. Given that Taryn seemed cheery while Greta looked like she was chewing a wasp, Trey could guess who was on top of the situation. His grandmother was doing her best to intimidate Taryn, however his little mate was holding her own, making it clear that she didn’t take any shit from anyone, especially one who was ‘old and senile’.

His wolf didn’t like that Taryn’s attention hadn’t immediately shot to him and, before Trey knew it, he’d yanked gently on her hair to make her look at him. Restraining himself from nipping her lower lip, he simply gave her a nod. A growl of approval built in his chest as he saw that she was wearing a black tight fitting t-shirt that showed off some of his marks – marks that were fading, he then noticed. His wolf growled angrily inside his head.

“Morning son, come sit down and get something to eat.” Greta’s voice was now sugary-sweet.

“How long before your friends get here?” he asked Taryn as he took his seat.

“They should be here any minute now. Remember what you promised.”

“I’ll give you some time to talk with them alone,” he assured her, though it would nettle his wolf to know there was a strange male wolf around her. He told himself it wouldn’t bother Trey the man so much, and if his wolf could have snorted, he would have. “At some point I’ll come over there so we can act the mated couple, totally devoted to one another and completely smitten and all that.”

Again Taryn was struck by the feeling of how unfair it was that she would never have that, especially that she would never have it with Joey. And now here she was again about to commit the ultimate blasphemy and claim that the one person created for her had never been her true mate at all. God, this sucked big time.

At least she and Trey were exchanging a few words. Occasionally he wouldn’t speak to her at all. Or there were the times when she would enter a room and he would immediately leave it. He spent most of his time cooped up in his office. She knew he had to keep an eye on his investments – he actually had a pretty good head for business – but surely he didn’t need to spend that much time in there. Making the whole thing even more annoying was that Selma had picked up on the huge divide between them and tried clinging onto him as much as she could – just as she was doing right now at the table. The only thing preventing Taryn from reacting was that Trey was growling, warning the female away from him. Still, it pissed her off to no end, but damn if she would let either of them know that.