“What do you think they’ll do?” he whispered into her ear.

She knew what he was asking. It was traditional that mates celebrated the ceremony by having sex, and whereas most preferred to do so in the privacy of their home after the party, there were some who gave in to their exhibitionistic urges and had sex beneath the full moon regardless of who may be there to watch.

She whispered her response. “Well, I only spoke to Lena a couple of times but she seems pretty shy so I can’t see her wanting to get down and dirty with her mate in front of everyone. Then again, it’s the quiet ones you have to look out for.” Knowing how dominant and possessive his wolf was, she said, “I don’t have to ask what you’d prefer.”

“Oh?”

“You’d love the idea of everyone watching. You’re quite the exhibitionist, even for a shifter.”

Trey merely shrugged. “We all have our kinks. Want to know what I think? I think you’d like having people watch while I pin you down and f**k you.”

Ignoring the flutter in her stomach, she replied, “Wishful thinking on your part, Trey.”

“You’d like people seeing what a good girl you are for me, how well you take my cock.” And he’d love for others to see it. Not in this place around all these strange wolves he didn’t know or trust, but he couldn’t resist teasing her with the idea.

“Careful, you’re at risk of disappearing into La La Land.”

“So if I slipped my finger inside you right now, you wouldn’t be wet?”

“Nope,” she lied easily.

He inhaled deeply. “I can smell your arousal, Taryn. I can sense it. Just to be sure…”

Feeling his hand discretely snaked behind her she hissed, “Trey, don’t you dare.”

“Shh, be still. Unless you want everyone to turn and watch. I don’t mind.” He delved beneath her dress, slid her thong aside and slipped his finger inside her. He groaned as her muscles tightened around his finger. “Nice and wet, just like I knew you’d be.”

“Remove your hand right now.”

“This pu**y is mine, remember. I get to play with it whenever I want.”

“You -”

“Shh,” he murmured again as he withdrew his finger and wrapped both arms around her middle again. “Do you really think I’d let down my guard around all these strange wolves when you’re mine to protect? Now, on the other hand, if we’d been on our own territory surrounding by our own pack well then…” He let the sentence trail and smiled as he sensed her arousal spike. He knew she’d never admit that the idea turned her on.

“And so,” said Nick, “do you, Robert, and you, Lena, enter this mating with your body, mind, heart and soul?”

“I do,” they said in unison.

Nick then blessed the mating using a string of Latin words that Trey didn’t have a hope of understanding. He couldn’t help frowning as Lena kissed her mate before then biting his unmarked shoulder, branding him for all to see. The one thing that his own little mate had never done – though she’d have every right considering how many damn times he had done it to her – was leave her brand on him. Although she had scratched him and nipped him plenty of times, she had never marked him. His wolf keenly felt the absence of that mark; he didn’t understand why she hadn’t branded him. Neither did Trey.

He knew that she wanted to, knew that her wolf was pushing her to act on the basic urge to mark her male. Taryn’s resistance had to be pissing her wolf off and making her feel insecure in the mating. Yet, Taryn was fighting her. Much like he’d been fighting his own wolf from the beginning, he mused. So maybe he hadn’t been the only one of them who had been battling emotions they didn’t understand. Or maybe he had found his way into La La Land.

“I was right,” whispered Taryn, “she’s too shy to have an audience. Come on, let’s eat, I’m starving.”

Shoving his thoughts aside, Trey allowed her to lead him to the large table beneath the canopy where a huge feast was set out. Although the ceremonies were considered to be sacred and solemn, the after-party was always jubilant and lively – the general plan being to dance, eat and get ridiculously drunk. Seen as neither he nor Taryn were particularly good at dancing, they stuck to stuffing their faces with food and gulping down plenty of beer – though not too much considering Trey needed to drive them home.

He really didn’t want to like these people who would soon take Taryn away from him – or at least that was how he saw it – but a part of him could admit that they seemed to be pretty okay people. If he was going to lose her to another pack then this was a fairly decent one for her to join. The only wolf he couldn’t be too sure about was her uncle. The tall, bald guy had purposely avoided Trey the entire time they were there. Several times Taryn had tried to introduce him, but Don always managed to artfully dodge her. Trey didn’t particularly care, though he didn’t like that it was upsetting Taryn.

That meant that when the party ended at six in the morning and Don finally approached him while Taryn was saying goodbye to the pups, Trey really wasn’t in the mood to take any shit. And of course Don happened to have some shit to throw at him.

“You seem fond of my niece,” said Don, squinting, as he crossed his arms over his chest in a very confrontational posture. “And you’re certainly possessive of her. Still, I’m not buying the true mate thing. Nor am I buying that you’ve mated with her because you care for her. Being fond of her and wanting her with you for life are two very different things. Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful that you got her away from her father who was a bastard to her. My issue is that I’ve heard all about your reputation, Coleman, and I promise you now if I find out you’ve got my niece involved in anything dangerous you’ll have me to deal with.”

Resisting the urge to grip him by the throat, Trey took a threatening step toward him and cocked his head. It pleased his wolf when the other male backed up a little. “You know what pisses me off most about what you just said? That you think you have the right to act the caring uncle now. Where were you when she was growing up? Like you just said, Lance was always a bastard to her and yet you left her there with him believing that there would never be a true mate to come along and take her away. You didn’t even keep in touch with her, did you? No. So don’t think you get to stand here and be all high and mighty with me or that being my mate’s uncle will save you. Taryn might care about you, but I don’t, and I sure as shit won’t have anyone saying she’s not my mate.”