Total pages in book: 162
Estimated words: 151489 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 757(@200wpm)___ 606(@250wpm)___ 505(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 151489 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 757(@200wpm)___ 606(@250wpm)___ 505(@300wpm)
At this moment Trey was very much regretting having made Tao her bodyguard. He didn’t like Tao’s flirtatiousness, didn’t like how easily Taryn had taken to the other male’s touch. He wanted to grab Taryn and pull her to him, wanted to lick over his mark to remind her she was claimed. Claimed by Trey.
Rhett’s voice broke into his thoughts. “I checked to see if Darryl had set one up, but he hasn’t. Shame. We could have gotten an idea of who has what position within the pack nowadays.”
“Oh by the way,” began Taryn as she went to stand directly in front of Trey. “Remember the female who kept trying to get me to walk away from you while we were in the club?”
“Yeah,” he replied, hiding how content he was that she was away from Tao. It was a struggle not to touch her, but he wouldn’t let those instincts rule him.
“Her name’s Shaya, she’s my best friend. Well, her and Caleb.”
“Caleb?”
Rolling her eyes at the amount of jealousy coating that one word, she continued, “I’m going to need to meet up with them. They’re not buying that this mating’s real, they need to hear it from me, face to face.”
“Then we’ll meet up with them somewhere public like -”
“No, no, no, you can’t be there when we talk.”
“What do you mean I can’t be there?” He had meant to sound affronted but it came out petulant.
“Not the whole time anyway. They’re worried about me, they think you might be hurting me or that you’re forcing me to stay. It’s why they’re so desperate to speak to me alone. I want to see if I can get them to come here, to see that I’m alive and fine and that you and I are ‘happily’ mated.”
He folded his arms across his chest to stop himself from reaching out to her. “Why exactly weren’t they so worried when Roscoe forced his claim on you?”
“That was different. Unlike you, Roscoe wrapped his meanness up in charm and managed to fool a lot of people with it.”
“You’re saying I have no charm?”
She gave him a bright, mocking smile. “Why of course you have charm, you practically ooze it. Ego better now?”
He sighed. “Call them, invite them to come here sometime this week.”
“The weekend would be better because they work through the week. I’m thinking Saturday morning.”
“Fine.”
The way he so abruptly left the room had Taryn frowning. It was as though the guy was desperate to get away from her or something. It wasn’t until later that evening when she found herself lying in bed very alone that she began to think on it a little more.
Trey had been different with her since the confrontation with Roscoe that morning. Or, more accurately, he had been indifferent. There had been no more heated looks, no more whispered promises, no more licking the marks on her neck, no more taking the odd moment to inhale her scent. But it wasn’t just that. He was barely speaking to her.
And now here she was alone because he had ‘things to do’ in his office.
Well it seemed like the very sexual male from the past two days had retreated, or had retreated from her at least. It occurred to her then that maybe it had only been his wolf’s insecurity in the mating that had been behind his fevered urge to be inside her and mark her. Maybe now that the threat of Roscoe was gone and his wolf was more settled Trey would no longer have that urge. Hell, maybe without the mating urges he would never have wanted her at all. The idea of that shouldn’t have sparked a dull ache in her chest and it shouldn’t have made her have the sudden desire to cuddle herself. Yet it did.
But what had she expected? Trey was a big guy with a lot of pride and probably didn’t have a thing for tiny females who would challenge his dominance. Her body wasn’t exactly model material and then there was the fact that she was latent. He acted as though it didn’t bother him, but it was likely that in truth he saw the latency as a weakness and it made her very unattractive to him.
A noise penetrated her thoughts and she realized that someone had entered the room. The scent flowed over her, stroking her senses and stirring her wolf who was anxious for some contact with her mate. But Taryn hadn’t begged for scraps from her dad’s table and she wouldn’t be begging for scraps from Trey’s table either. So she remained on her side facing the wall, faking sleep, ignoring her wolf’s growling protests.
Trey took one look at Taryn’s still form and sighed in relief. She was asleep. He hadn’t woken her. He had been fighting his wolf – hell he’d been fighting himself – for hours on the subject of going to Taryn, of getting in some physical contact, social or sexual. He was literally starving for it. Had he known that mating would be this bad with all its urges, instincts, and needs, he probably wouldn’t have mated at all.