“Why?” It came out a growl; both he and his wolf had no intention of letting that happen.

“After that incident, she’ll see herself as too much of a risk to the pack.”

“It looked to me like all she did was respond to a challenge.” Okay, so there was much more to it than that, but that was pretty much at the crux of it.

“Yeah, but you and I both know that won’t mean squat to Trey, given his overprotective state right now. It won’t mean squat to her conscience either.”

“If she leaves, if she’s without the connection of a pack and without territory, it’ll most likely make her wolf worse.”

“I know,” he croaked. “She’s done so much for me, you know. When our parents died, we went to live with our aunt and uncle, and they were great and all, but they already had five kids of their own to care for. A year later came a set of twins. You know what it’s like to live in a full house.

We were only their niece and nephew, so we came last. Jaime took more care of me than they did—

as if she didn’t have enough to deal with. I hate it that I can’t do anything to help her with this.” So did Dante.

Once they were finally on pack territory, Dante retrieved her from the passenger seat and kept her cradled against his chest as he walked up the stairs of the cliff face. Going by the fact that Trey wasn’t blocking the main door wearing the mother of all scowls, it was clear that neither Tao, Trick, nor Marcus had called to warn him. Dante wouldn’t have blamed them if they had; he’d have understood. He’d have also kicked their asses.

Acting on instinct, he took her straight to his room and settled her down on his bed. No one would dare walk into his room without permission, so he knew she’d be fine in there. Recalling that Gabe had said she’d be out for hours, he left her there and went to Trey’s office. He knew it would only be a matter of time before someone told their Alpha something, and Dante wanted it to come from him. He also wanted to make sure that Trey didn’t make any rash decisions—something he was prone to do at times when the matter concerned his mate.

Not bothering to knock—he was the only one of the pack other than Taryn who didn’t—Dante walked straight inside. His facial expression must have given away some of his anxiety, because Trey was instantly on his feet.

“Is it Taryn?”

“No, it’s about Jaime.”

“Jaime?”

Dante sighed heavily and explained Jaime’s situation in full detail. The look on Trey’s face didn’t bode well for her.

“You know she has to go, don’t you?”

“Trey, you can’t seriously be okay with her being out there on her own. You know what it’s like to be banished.”

“Yeah, I do, and I know that none of this is her fault, but my main concern is that Taryn and the baby are safe.”

Dante held up a placating hand. “I know it’s important that we keep Taryn protected right now, but does it really mean you have to toss Jaime out to deal with this on her own?”

“Yes, it does.”

Coming from anyone else, this reaction to Jaime’s situation would seem cold, but Trey wasn’t like most people. He functioned mostly on logic, on probability. He didn’t make emotional decisions, because he wasn’t an emotional person, except when it came to his mate, which was exactly why logic was telling him that keeping Jaime here wouldn’t be wise.

Dante sighed again. “If you want, I’ll leave pack territory with Jaime and stay with her until…

well, I don’t know exactly what will happen if she’s without a pack, though it’s reasonable to assume things will get much worse for her. I can’t leave her to deal with this on her own. What she needs is support and protection right now.”

Trey looked at him curiously. “She matters to you, doesn’t she?” Mattered to him? Dante wouldn’t say that she mattered to him. Yeah, okay, she mattered to him. “Even if she didn’t, I couldn’t just ignore the fact that she needs help. No one should have to deal with something like that alone.”

Trey was quiet for a few minutes, studying him intently. Anyone else might have squirmed, but Dante merely held his gaze while standing immobile—an act that told Trey he wasn’t going to budge on this.

Finally Trey spoke. “Look, I know it goes against your nature to turn your back on someone who needs protection, and I see that she matters to you…so she can stay…but she needs to be under watch twenty-four/seven. I don’t want her alone at any time, understand?”

“I understand.” Dante didn’t intend to let her out of his sight anyway.

“And if she turns rogue, Dante, she’s dead. I’ve seen what a rogue wolf can do, and I won’t have it happen to Taryn.”

“Neither will I.” But could he really kill Jaime? Even to protect his Alpha female? Dante wasn’t sure that he could, rogue or not. In fact, he wasn’t sure if he could let anyone else hurt her either, which meant that for the first time, his loyalty was divided. No, that wasn’t good.

Whoever invented alarm clocks was an ass**le. Jaime groaned and rolled away from the noise. At the same time as it registered that the noise was a cell phone—one she intended to ignore, as it wasn’t hers and therefore wasn’t her problem—she also realized that she wasn’t in her room. A delicious male scent filled her nostrils. Her eyes flickered open to see Dante sitting on a chair beside the ridiculously huge bed, looking right at her. Without moving his gaze from hers, he took his cell out of his pocket and answered it.

“Hello. Yes, she’s awake,” he said in response to Grace’s question. When she offered to bring a tray of food so that Jaime could have breakfast in bed, Dante’s wolf growled. It sounded like an offer of kindness, but he knew it was also the pack’s way of keeping Jaime apart from them. Stiffly, he said, “Thanks.”

Jaime glanced around the spacious room, noticing how different it was from her own. Not simply because of his very masculine oak furniture, but because it was obsessively neat and everything seemed to have its own place. It looked more like a showroom in a furniture store. By contrast, Jaime seemed to find order in chaos and tended to place something wherever there was space for it to go. She would bet that he would be horrified by some of her habits, like not putting CDs back into their cases and how she kicked her shoes off wherever she was stood at the time.