“Almost.” Her eyes focused on Trey and she grinned wickedly. “I’m Glory. And you are?”

“Mated,” snapped another female voice. “So move your ass very far away.”

A smile curved Trey’s mouth at the sight of Taryn approaching, sneering and emitting a sexy low growl. He loved seeing her in possessive mode. He didn’t blame Glory for her fast departure. Even he wouldn’t be interested in f**king with Taryn right now. He’d happily f**k her though, especially while she was wearing that little black dress that clung to her like a second skin.

“I’d say I’m sorry for upsetting one of your wolves, but lying’s a sin,” Taryn told Nick who just smiled. Damn if the guy wasn’t hot with his short silky butterscotch hair, sensual mouth and that set of piercing dusky green eyes. Still, she preferred the dark, broody psycho beside him. “Hey Flinstone.”

Trey gave her a lopsided smirk as he appraised her for like the hundredth time. “Come here.”

She cocked her head. “If I don’t?”

“I’ll chase you, catch you and spank you in front of everybody.”

“Was that supposed to be a deterrent?”

Nick now forgotten, Trey reached out and snatched her arm, pulling her on top of him. He licked her lips and she immediately opened up for him, flicking his tongue lightly with her own and conjuring images in his mind of her flicking her tongue along the head of his cock. Her sly grin told him she’d known exactly what she was doing. “Careful,” he warned.

“Where would be the fun in that?”

Quietly, he replied, “You’re right. Fun would be if I forced you to get down on your knees and then shoved my c**k in your mouth.”

“You could try, but I’d just bite it off. Maybe I’d heal it, I don’t know.”

He chuckled, running his hands along her back. “Such a snippy little bitch, aren’t you?”

“I am, yes.”

“Wrong. You’re my snippy little bitch.” Brushing her hair from her face he frowned. “You look tired.”

“I’m not surprised. I didn’t get much sleep.”

He heard the implication in her voice. “I’d say I’m sorry, but I’m not.”

“You never are,” she grumbled, still smiling. “So what have you been doing all the way over here while I was practically attacked by a swarm of pups?”

“I’ve been busy enjoying myself watching some gorgeous female.”

“Oh is that so? You’ll have to describe this female to me so I can go kick her ass.”

Collaring her throat with his hand, he guided her head backwards and slid his hand away so he could kiss and nibble at her neck. “You can’t miss her. She has all different shades of blonde in her hair.”

“Poor girl.”

“And the cutest ass” – he tapped it lightly – “and a hot little body” – he smoothed the palm of his hand up and down her spine – “and a very sharp tongue. Oh and she has a wicked mouth that was made to take my cock.”

“Stop kissing my very sensitive neck so I can think straight and respond with a sarcastic comment.” She wouldn’t let him know that, in truth, she had thought about it several times. Had wondered what it would feel like to take him in her mouth, how he would taste. But – and maybe she was alone in this – that one sexual act felt like an extremely submissive one. She was working on letting him lead in bed, but she wasn’t sure she was ready to get on her knees before him and do what seemed like the ultimate surrender.

It wasn’t that she had never done it before. It was just that whenever she had done it in the past it had been while she was the dominant figure in the relationship. Giving a guy a blowjob when she was supposed to be mostly submissive seemed like something else altogether, in which case it surprised her that she was even considering it. Just as it surprised her that as much as the wolves in Nick’s pack were great and as much as she could see herself being happy here if they accepted her, that didn’t make her feel as relieved and excited as it should. No, because she would miss Trey and his pack.

She really had thought she was being careful not to get comfortable in the pack, knowing that her stay would be a short one. But with them being so warm and fun – with the exception of a few – and seeing her as more than a healer who was rather inconveniently latent, it was damn hard to keep an emotional distance from these people and the situation itself.

If she was honest with herself – which she really didn’t want to be – she had also stupidly gotten a little too comfortable in her temporary mating with Trey. His heavy masculinity bounced off the impression of a hard individual, but she had come to see that there was more to him than that. Sure he could be aggressive, sullen and psychotic, but he had demonstrated that he could also be attentive, reassuring, gentle, and even indulgent – or at least he could be with her. Not to mention how his sexual appetites matched her own. Without realising it, she had somehow fallen a little into the fantasy of their mating even though she had resisted the urge to mark him. How shitty was that.

“It’s almost midnight,” announced Nick as he stood. “Ceremony’s about to start.”

Taryn frowned when she noticed how Trey was scowling at the Alpha. Sure Trey was pretty antisocial with ninety nine percent of the population – she was working on that with him – but when he scowled at someone like that it usually meant they had pissed him off.

Having made a mental note to ask Trey about it later, she rose to her feet and pulled him with her to join the loose circle that the pack had made around the mated pair in the clearing. She snuggled back into Trey as he pressed against her back and locked his arms around her. As always, she never felt squashed or suffocated by his huge body. He made her feel safe and protected.

At exactly midnight Nick began to speak the ritual words that called to the full moon to bless the mating. She had been a witness at several of these ceremonies in the past and the intensity of the sacred event never failed to amaze her. Although the ritual words didn’t hold any particular power and the ceremony was a case of the mates demonstrating to each other just how committed they were and wanting to celebrate that, the whole thing still gave her goose bumps and stirred her wolf.

What affected Taryn most, however, was witnessing the succession of intense emotions that flittered across the mated pair’s faces. To be loved, adored and worshipped like that by the person you loved in turn had to be the most amazing thing in the world. And it was something she would never have. She only ever experienced the tiniest twinge of jealousy. It was impossible not to be happy for those people who had found it. For a moment she wondered what it would be like to have that with Trey but quickly dismissed the dumb thought.