“Sure, baby.” They all rose and then Trey took the hand that Lance extended and shook it once. “Until we next meet…”

“Oh wait.” He gave Perry a subtle signal and the enforcer then dug a bulging sports bag from under the table and handed it to Taryn. She didn’t take it, just raised a brow at Lance hoping for an explanation. “You know what your mother was like for saving money. She began a fund for you to be given to you when you mated to give you a kick start. Obviously there would have been more in it had she not died.”

Tentatively she took the bag. “There’s money in here?”

“Twenty-five thousand dollars.”

“Twenty-five thousand dollars,” she echoed quietly, more than a little stunned. It struck her that he could have just kept the money for himself, knowing she’d be none the wiser. “Why are you giving me this?” It sure wasn’t because he cared for her.

“I’d never ignore the wishes of my mate.”

“Come on, baby.” Giving a slight nod to Lance, Trey draped his arm over her shoulder and kept her close to him as they walked side by side her from the diner with Dante and his enforcers trailing behind them.

Trey kept her just as close when they slid into the backseat of the Toyota, sensing that she was feeling a little off-kilter due to the bag that she was staring at as if it was a ticking bomb. He gave her the comfort she needed and would probably never have asked for – running the tips of his fingers along her bare upper arm and rubbing his jaw along her temple.

“Well, does it feel good to finally have the alliance you’ve been wanting so badly?” she asked, forcing her gaze away from the bag. She wouldn’t have thought being given a gift from her mom would have made her feel anything but incredibly happy, but this particular gift had had a purpose. Her mom had been starting a fund for her so that when Taryn and Joey were ready to begin their life together they would have some money to help them along. And that was why Taryn was – as unreasonable as it might be – feeling guilty for taking it.

Her mom hadn’t scrimped and saved this large amount of money to help Taryn along with a fake mating while she declared to all who’d listen that Joey hadn’t been her true mate. The woman had been a hopeless romantic and wouldn’t have seen Taryn’s mating with Trey as resourceful. She would have viewed a mating based around a deal that brought mutual benefit to both parties as a mockery of what mating was all about. She would have been right.

“Yes,” Trey answered carefully, hearing a difference in her tone that told him she’d withdrawn a little. His wolf growled, not liking it any more than Trey did. He nuzzled her hair and cuddled her closer. She didn’t resist him, but she didn’t melt into him either. He nipped the tip of her ear. She jolted and scowled at him. “Don’t freeze me out,” he insisted in a low, calm voice.

She sighed. “It feels like I’ve accepted it under false pretences. Hell, I have.”

“Not exactly. Your mom may have intended to give it to you and your true mate, but I don’t think she’d begrudge you having it just because you’d mated with someone else.”

“Of course she wouldn’t have…if the mating had been real.”

“This is real, Taryn,” he growled.

“Yeah I know. I mean if we’d mated with the intention of actually staying together, if we had feelings for each other. Now that’s something she would have understood because she was all about love and romance and all that stuff. Not this, though. She wouldn’t have understood this. She would have mated with Roscoe before renouncing her true mate.”

“The fact that you didn’t doesn’t make you a coward, Taryn,” he firmly stated, knowing that was where her thoughts had taken her. “Like you said, she was one of those romantic people. You’re more of a practical thinker, like me. Practical thinkers aren’t so much into self-sacrifices, they prefer solutions. And you’re not someone who’s prepared to wait around with the belief that life will hand you a solution, you go looking for one.” She smiled a little, but still looked troubled. “You don’t have to spend it. You don’t even have to open the bag. Put it away with your shoebox. She’d be happy enough about that, right?” Her smile widened then and he felt a pang in his chest. Nodding, she finally relaxed into him, pleasing both him and his wolf. As with all those other chest pangs he’d been feeling recently around her, he automatically ignored it.

“Ah come on, Taryn, don’t get all glum on us,” pleaded Dominic. “I tell you what, why don’t you come here and let me give you a great big hug, you can sit on my lap, and we’ll talk about the first thing that pops up.” Ignoring Trey’s growl, the gorgeous blonde pervert added, “I’ll even let you rub my lucky scrotum. Ow!” He still had the nerve to chuckle when Trey smacked him over the head.

When they returned to pack territory they found everyone waiting in the living area for news of how the meeting went. “Well?” prodded Trick.

“We got the alliance.” Trey winced at the loud celebratory noises.

“I checked the pack web earlier,” said Rhett. “You’ve got more Alphas requesting basic alliances. It really was a great idea to set up a pack web.”

“Yep, which means if it wasn’t for Taryn, we probably wouldn’t have any of those alliances,” said Marcus. He grinned as she flopped into the recliner and wiggled her shoulders, hinting for him to give her the usual massage. As always, he obliged her.

Greta snorted. “I still say you don’t need them. Or the hussy.”

Taryn looked at her with mock pity. “Isn’t it time for your nap yet, Old Mother Hubbard?”

“Listen to her. She’s never shown me any respect from day one. All common and no manners.”

“I just thought it was important that you felt comfortable around me.”

“Trey, you’re going to be the laughing stock of all the other packs having a latent as an Alpha female. Can’t you see that? I’ll bet she can, but she’s got it good here so she’ll drag this out as long as she can. Won’t you?”

Taryn simply smiled. “I’d tell you to stop having a hissy fit and act your age, but then you’d die so…Actually maybe I should just -”

“Oh yes make your smart remarks now, but it won’t be long until it’s time for you to go and then Trey will mate with a real Alpha female. One who’s not common and sarcastic, or disrespectful and slutty.”