“Maybe you wanted Trey out of the way so you had a chance to snatch Taryn. You would have known that he would feel her panic and help her…unless he was far enough away that he wouldn’t reach her in time. Just what were you planning to do with her? Or to her?”

“I didn’t send that message!”

“If my dad says he didn’t do it, then he didn’t do it,” said Kirk as he stood beside him, folding his arms across his chest. “I’m not disputing that someone tried to pull you away from Taryn,” he told Trey. “But whoever it was used my dad’s phone, most likely to implicate him and shift the blame. It wasn’t him.”

Taryn groaned. “I can’t deal with all this yelling.”

“Come on, baby.” Trey rose with her in his arms and carried her out of the room, through the tunnels and into their bedroom. He placed her gently on the bed and lay down next to her.

“Now do you believe me?” She sighed when he didn’t answer. “I don’t care what you say, someone grabbed me. If you don’t want to face the fact that someone in your pack – the people you’ve grown up with – could do that, then I can understand that. I really can. But it doesn’t change that I’m right. Like it or not, you have someone in your pack who would willingly hurt your mate, because I’m not lying.”

Angry with himself for hurting her, he stroked a hand through her hair. “Hey I never thought you were lying, baby. Not that. Just that maybe you tripped.”

“Oh I tripped. With help.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Okay so there was being possessive, there was being crazily possessive, and there was this: being a total shithead. Taryn groaned and slapped her hands over her face. All she wanted was to go shopping with Lydia. It wasn’t like she was planning to go shopping on a whole other continent or that she would be walking around naked the entire time. Trey, however, was totally opposed to the idea of her going without him.

When attempting to bully her into taking him along hadn’t worked, he had switched to trying to manipulate her with a little reverse psychology. When that failed he introduced some seriously good bribes. As she had still refused, he was now trying his hand at emotional blackmail.

Releasing her face she looked at her mate who sat at the kitchen table wearing a kicked puppy expression. “For God’s sake, Trey, I’ll only be gone a few hours. I’m pretty sure you’ll cope without me.”

“Yeah, but I like being with you.”

That should have sounded corny or pathetic, but it had managed to sound sweet and cutely protective. Oh he was so good at this. She had learned over the past few weeks that although Trey was mostly hard and antisocial, when he really wanted something he was more than capable of a little charm. He had a way of focusing totally on her in a manner that she would have expected to freak her out, but instead it made her feel adored and safe.

What made it better for Taryn was that he was completely unashamed of how much he liked having her near him all the time. He didn’t hold back – except in a sexual sense – in front of other people. Maybe that was why they didn’t make fun of him for it. Maybe his complete conviction that it was normal, reasonable, and his right to act that way rubbed off on others so that they too saw it as natural and expected.

They didn’t even poke fun at him when he agreed to let Taryn take him places he otherwise would never have bothered his ass with like the beach, the cinema, the bowling alley and even an ice-ring. “You can be with me as much as you want when I get back.”

“Why is it you’re so set on me not going?”

Because it was his birthday in a few days and she wanted to get him a decent gift as a surprise, but he didn’t have to know that. Just as he didn’t have to know that they were all planning a surprise party or he would probably hide. According to Dante, Trey didn’t like to celebrate his birthday – something about him not liking that kind of attention. Well that was just tough shit, it was time for him to stop being so serious. “You already know that it was Lydia who organized the trip. How can I justify taking you along when she won’t even let Cam come along? Besides, you hate shopping.”

“No I don’t.”

“It’s not like we’re only visiting one store. There’s going to be a lot of browsing around shoe stores and boutiques and going bag hunting in the mall. You wouldn’t last five minutes in that jungle.”

“Hey, I wear clothes, I’ve seen women’s’ clothes, I’m pretty sure I could cope in a mall.”

“Trey, let me cast your mind back to the time when as a punishment for being a bastard I took you to Victoria’s Secret and tried on a load of lingerie for you but then never bought any.” His pained expression made her smile. “You remember how you were sweating and huffing and puffing and asking how long before we could go home?”

“That was because you’d just made me watch you model all kinds of kinky shit, got me hard as a rock, and then expected me to walk without being in agony.”

“No, Trey, that was before we even got into the store. You’re not cut out for this sort of thing. Leave it to the experts.”

Taking her by the wrist, Trey pulled her onto his lap to straddle him. It probably wasn’t a good idea since that position sparked off some really dirty thoughts and quickly his c**k began to harden. Then again, when was it ever limp when Taryn was around? The fact that she soon wouldn’t be around – even if it would only be for a few hours – was enough to cause his surge of lust to wane and to perturb his wolf.

When she was there he was content and relaxed in a way he had never been before. She made him laugh and gave him a feeling of being anchored, of having perfect equilibrium. When she wasn’t there he missed her and didn’t think about much but her anyway, so he didn’t see the logic in her not being with him. It was really that simple to him.

Of course he was aware of just how possessive and greedy he was being, but he also knew that Taryn would never let him steamroll her. If she thought he was taking it too far, she would let him know about it in a way that would make him seriously hesitate doing it in future. Brushing his lips against hers, he asked, “Is it really so bad that I just want to spend time with you?”

“That’s not going to work, Trey. Especially since I know that this isn’t only about you wanting the pleasure of my company.”

“Okay, I’ll rephrase. Is it really so bad that I just want to spend time with you and have you in my sight at all times?”