Looking apprehensively at the grey wolf, the Alpha said, “You’ll be there too, right?”

She smiled. “Don’t worry, I won’t let him eat you. Once we’re inside, you can take Roscoe’s body.” At the Alpha’s surprised look, she said, “We’re not trophy killers here.” His nod communicated respect.

With that, she slowly stood and began to walk toward the caves, signalling for the rest of the pack to keep a fair distance away so that Cujo didn’t feel threatened and turn feral again. She didn’t have to encourage him to follow her. He remained at her side, half-companion half-guard the entire time.

Once they had passed through the main entrance of Bedrock, she went to the living area and sat down on the large rug. The wolf sat between her legs, closing his eyes as she ran her fingers through his fur.

“Trey, I need you to come back now or I can’t heal you. I don’t want to hear any macho shit about Alphas not needing healing. If you expect to have sex ever again, you won’t fight me on this.”

It was something like twenty seconds later when the change began and suddenly Trey was back in his human form. Instantly he flopped to his back, breathing hard.

“Someone get him a bottle of water,” she called out as the living area filled with people.

“I’m okay,” he wheezed.

“Sure you are, Flinstone.” His wounds actually weren’t that bad, but they were ugly and would most likely scar if she didn’t heal them.

Greta appeared, growling. “Now if you’d have just handed her over, Trey, you’d be fine.”

“Not now, Wicked Witch of the East,” groused Taryn.

“Here.” Grace placed a bottle of water beside Taryn.

She offered Trey the bottle but he shook his head. “Hey, you still have some blood on your mouth and I’m not going near said mouth to heal you until you’ve washed your face at the very least.”

“Why would you need to go near his mouth to heal him?” asked Rhett in that curious tone of his.

Turning to see that Trick was the one standing closest to the window, she asked, “Trick, would you open that for me?”

“Why?”

“So I can gaze lovingly at the sun. Will you just open it?”

Grunting, he did as she asked while Trey finally drank down some water and wiped his face.

“Now be still.” She was pretty sure he only did it out of curiosity. Taryn placed her hand on his forehead and watched as several patches of his skin suddenly illuminated where there were scratches and bites. She heard a few gasps, a ‘Whoa’ and a ‘Holy shit’ coming from behind her, but ignored them.

Leaning down, she placed her mouth at Trey’s and inhaled deeply, taking the foulness from him and then blowing it out of her mouth through the window. She repeated the move over and over until, finally, the last luminous patch faded. “I’d say you’re done.” With that, she allowed herself to flop backwards onto her back much as Trey had five minutes ago. She almost laughed as she opened her eyes to see several faces all peering down at her. Then suddenly she was snatched from the rug and was being cradled against Trey’s chest.

“You shouldn’t have done that, you look worse than I did.”

“I’ll be fine, you ungrateful ass**le. I just need some water and maybe some sort of sugary food.”

“You got it,” said Grace as she dashed out of the room.

“You do know that was awesome, right?” Dante’s grin was almost as wide as Marcus’ clown grin.

“More like unnatural,” muttered Greta.

“Did you just use the word awesome?” Dominic asked Dante, chuckling.

“Come on, she totally calmed a feral wolf and at the same time negotiated an alliance before then doing some weird healing stuff. That’s some seriously cool shit.”

Trey strangely felt a twinge of pride for her, though he still wanted to spank her ass for going near his wolf while he was feral. “My wolf could have hurt you.”

“Yeah, I know. Blame Dante, he told me I should go for it.”

Dante spluttered. “That’s not – I didn’t – She -”

“You should see your face.” Her chuckle was interrupted by a cough. Her throat always felt a little hoarse after she used her healing gift. At that moment Grace handed her a bottle of water and an energy bar. “Thanks.”

“Never again are you allowed to use that gift,” stated Trey firmly, not liking how pale she was. His wolf wasn’t happy about it either.

“Don’t be a goof. Of course I’m going to use it. I wouldn’t be much of a healer if I didn’t.”

“You look like a corpse.”

“I’ll be fine. Just plonk me on that monstrosity of a sofa and let me have a twenty minute nap and I’ll be just as lively as I was before.” She wouldn’t have even needed the nap if Trey hadn’t had so many bruises and wounds. “Just a little power nap and I’ll be fine.”

Trey couldn’t help smiling at the way she curled up on the bulky sofa in a fetal position five minutes later. She looked even tinier than usual, but still not fragile. There was too much steel in her for that.

“Ryan just called,” Tao informed him. “They’ve gone.”

Trey nodded and then watched in surprise as some of his pack gathered around her. Dante, Grace and Rhett sat on her left while Lydia, Marcus and Cam sat on her right. Trick, Dominic and Tao then all sat on the floor with the back of their heads resting against her legs. It was a gesture of support, comfort and acceptance as well as an indication that they intended to guard her as she slept. She had earned the respect of each of them in the short time that she had been here.

A strange pang struck his chest – unfamiliar and unnerving. “I’m going to take a shower. I’ll be back in a few minutes.” They nodded but were focused on Taryn who had gone out like a light. He and his wolf were comforted by the knowledge that they would stay with her while Trey removed the streaks of blood and the lingering scent of the dead wolf from his body. The dead wolf who was now no longer a threat to his mate or their mating.

It was as Trey was showering that he thought back to how he had felt when, forced to be nothing but an observer, he saw Taryn tentatively trying to gain his wolf’s attention. The anger, the frustration and the anxiety rushed back. There had been something else in that cocktail of emotions. Fear. Trey had actually felt fear.