“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?”

“Yep.”

“Cheeky bastard. A basic alliance, sure. But the right to use me on a protective level? Hell no.” After the way he’d treated Taryn, the man was lucky to still be breathing.

“The whole point of mating with me was to get an alliance with my dad. You can’t let the fact that he’s an ass**le get in the way here of your big plan.”

Yeah, but Trey couldn’t agree to this alliance without feeling as though he was being disloyal to his mate. God knew he’d hurt her enough already. “Rhett said a number of other alphas are willing to discuss an alliance. Maybe I won’t need your dad.”

“You’ve never needed him, you’ve never needed this mating,” stated Kirk.

“Too right,” said Selma, crossing her arms over her chest, accentuating her cle**age. “She has no place here.”

“No Warner will ever have a place here.”

Taryn shook her head. “This stuff is getting real old.”

“Isn’t that right, Hope?” pressed Selma, ignoring Taryn.

Hope gulped and nodded. “You’ve no place here.”

“Why won’t you listen to us, Trey?” Kirk sounded genuinely confused. “Darryl will never go through with this challenge – you have to know that.”

“Son, why not just calm down,” said Brock.

“Are you telling me that you support her being here? Support having a Warner around?”

Brock sighed. “No, I don’t support it, and I don’t think we’ll get anything out of her being here. Nonetheless, we don’t question our Alpha, you know that.”

Sharply, Kirk stood and stalked out of the room. Selma and Hope followed closely behind him.

“Their lack of support isn’t exactly a shock,” said Dante, shrugging as if their input meant jack shit.

Trey nodded his agreement then stood between Taryn’s swinging legs and pulled her flush against him. “You’re sure you’ll be okay with me meeting up with your dad to sort an alliance?”

“Do you honestly think I’d keep my mouth shut if I wasn’t?”

He smiled. “Good point. Alright, Rhett, set a meeting up for this weekend at somewhere that’s neutral territory.”

“You do know I’m coming, right?” said Taryn. Seeing that he was about to argue she placed her index finger over his mouth. “I don’t mind if you want to start ranting just as long as you understand I’ll be ignoring every word and I fully intend to be there. Any Alpha pair would go together to a meeting with another Alpha, you know that.”

He nipped her finger, making her snatch it back and scowl. “This isn’t just any Alpha. This is the ass**le who was a complete and utter bastard to you throughout your entire life.”

“I’m not sure why you’d want to be in the same room with him ever again after the way he just tossed you aside because of the latency,” said Ryan, clearly in protective mode.

Taking in the sympathetic faces, Taryn sighed. “I take it this means you all know about my relationship – or lack thereof – with my dad.”

Rhett pointed at Marcus. “It was him who told us all.”

“Only because you were all talking about her like she was Warner’s golden girl. His treatment was far from golden.”

“Which is why I don’t want you near him,” Trey said to Taryn. His wolf was in full agreement.

She smiled sweetly and scraped her nails lightly down the column of his throat. “As cute as that is, it doesn’t make an ounce of difference.”

Again he wanted to argue with her, wanted to protect her from harm just as his wolf did, but now that Trey had come to know more about Taryn, he understood that how he handled this now would be very important. Throughout her entire life, people had seen it as their right to undermine her and disrespect her. If the male she had mated did that, it would hurt her deeply. Even his wolf understood that part of his job as protector was to protect her emotionally – something he hadn’t been doing very well so far. So, groaning, he nodded and didn’t let it show that her beaming smile had any effect on him.

“It’s good to see you’re starting to understand that I have a will of iron.” Seeing Dominic’s face scrunched up in agony, indicating that it was obviously killing him to hold back, she sighed tiredly. “Whatever the dirty line is, get it out of your system now.”

Dominic shrugged innocently. “It was just that you said you liked watermelon. It got me wondering…If I was a watermelon, would you spit or swallow my seed?” Some chuckled, some groaned, and Trey scowled at him.

“Okay, okay, I got a better one. If your left leg is Thanksgiving, and your right leg is Christmas, can I visit you between the holidays?” More people chuckled than groaned at him this time. Trey, of course, growled.

“Where do you hear these lines?”

“Some I’ve heard from other guys. Some I’ve read on the internet or heard on T.V.”

Trey glared at him. “Well you can stop using them on my mate.”

Dominic gave him an apologetic look that couldn’t have been more false. “I can’t help it, she’s like a dictionary – she brings meaning into my life.” This time everyone groaned. “Oh come on, that wasn’t that bad.”

The next few hours went as usual for the pack of an evening – they ate together in the kitchen, they watched T.V. together, Taryn and Greta exchanged more insults. But there were two major differences. One, Trey stayed with Taryn as opposed to closing himself in his office. Two, for some unknown reason, Tao didn’t appear to be talking to her.