“Trey’s not your type?”

“I meant because he’s psychotic. Although it’s true that I’ve never been with a guy built like a highlander before, but I don’t really have a type. I either like someone or I don’t.”

“And you like Trey.”

“To an extent,” she said with a smile. “Selma made it clear that I’m not his type.”

“Trey’s always gone for, what do you females call them, hourglass figures or something like that?”

Noticing he hadn’t sounded so fond of them, she prodded, “You’re not such a fan?”

He shrugged. “I wouldn’t say no to one. Plenty of times Trey and I have shared one of his women -”

“Really?”

“- but I prefer my women to be more…athletic, I guess. And I have a thing for blondes.”

“Ooh, please don’t say that line – that was the first thing Roscoe ever said to me. Makes me shiver even now.”

His words were both consoling and sympathetic. “It has to have pissed you off that you had two guys wanting to mate with you but neither really wanted you for you.”

“Yeah, but I don’t think I’ll make a good mate anyway.”

“Why?”

“My natural reaction is to hold back from people, especially guys. It’s something I honestly can’t control. When Joey and my mom died, I had this big hole and it’s as if when I taped it up, I did it too tight. I don’t know if I could ever really make myself completely vulnerable to another person again. And when you mate with someone, really mate with someone, there can’t be protective walls.”

Tao’s smile was a little sad. “The right wolf will hammer them down.”

“It might take more than a hammer. Anyway, let’s talk about something more interesting. What’s this thing about you and Trey sharing women?” Ménages weren’t exactly unusual among shifters, but she wouldn’t have had Trey down for someone who shared.

“Before you, Trey’s never been possessive with women. Plenty of times we’ve shared. The invite was always open to Dante, but he just likes to watch with Marcus, Trick, Ryan, and Dominic.”

“They watch?” she chuckled, not finding it difficult to believe, especially since many shifters had voyeuristic tendencies.

“Oh yeah, if Trey’s feeling in a good mood he doesn’t mind. You ever participated in a ménage?”

She snorted. It was hard enough making things work out with one guy, let alone two. “Having a sex life isn’t as easy for an alpha female as you might think.”

“In what way?”

“Guys say they like a woman who’ll take charge in the bedroom but most of the time they’re talking out of their ass.” Finally they pulled up in the parking lot of the pizza place and Taryn couldn’t stop a joyous smile from taking over her face. She really had missed the taste of pepperoni pizza.

“But most alpha males would be hard at just the thought of battling an alpha female for dominance in the bedroom.”

“Yeah but that erection often disappears when the male realizes that it’s not as easy as they thought to win that battle. Most of the time they’ve originally thought that if they just chase us around and tire us out we’ll surrender or something. Then there are the males who confuse dominance with bullying. When it comes to alpha females, submission has to be earned, not taken. You’ve never been with an alpha female?”

“Not yet.” Most likely in response to her baffled expression, he said, “What’s wrong?”

She gestured to the pizza delivery guy who was exiting the restaurant with a pile of boxes. “I’ve just never worked out why they put pizza in a square box.”

Intending to seem as though he was only leaving his office to refill his coffee mug, Trey left the room and began walking toward the kitchen, wanting to discreetly check on Taryn. Two things quickly became apparent. One, it was a lot quieter than usual. Two, although Taryn’s scent was everywhere he turned, it was faint…as if it was simply what lingered in the air.

In the kitchen Dante, Greta, Marcus, Trick, Grace, Lydia, Selma and Hope sat at the table, laughing and joking. It looked as though Selma and Hope were having a separate conversation, unsurprisingly. They had made themselves pretty unpopular with their refusal to accept Taryn. After refilling his mug Trey asked, ensuring his voice was casual, “Where’s Taryn?”

“Out,” replied Dante.

“On another run with Tao?” Although she was latent, she was just as fast as any shifter.

“No, she went into town.”

Trey had to have heard wrong. “What was that?”

“She went into town.”

Dumping his mug on the counter, uncaring of the scolding hot coffee that had splashed onto his fingers, he demanded, “Where? With who?”

“She and Tao went for pizza,” said Greta, her voice full of implications.

Selma dived on that. “He’s a very attentive bodyguard, isn’t he? You have to admit, they look real cute together. Right, Hope?”

“Oh yeah, real cute.”

“Shut it,” snapped Trey, surprising most people in the room.

“She didn’t tell you she was going out?” asked Marcus.

“No, she didn’t,” Trey managed to grit out, pissed off that she had ventured out without a word and jealous that she had asked Tao to go with her rather than him. He switched his attention back to Dante. “Why didn’t you stop her from going?”

“Why would I have stopped my Alpha female from leaving pack territory? And how exactly would you have expected me to stop Taryn from doing that or anything else?”

“When did she leave?”

“Calm down, Trey, what’s the problem?” But Dante knew exactly what the problem was – he always saw too much.

As the sound of laughing coming from outside the caves met their ears, Marcus nodded. “That’s probably them now.”

Trey stalked toward the main door, clenching his fists. Almost yanking the damn thing off, he opened it to find Taryn and Tao practically stumbling up the stairs as they laughed so hard at something they were keeled over. The sight of them looking so happy and comfortable with each other sent another surge of jealousy rushing through him.

Eventually they looked up and saw him. He could guess that his expression was thunderous because Tao immediately lowered his eyes. Taryn, on the other hand, presented him with a smile.