Trey buried his face in the crook of her neck and swam in her exotic scent…and that was when he smelt the scent of the other male.

Taryn gasped as Trey pulled back and she saw his eyes flash wolf. “Trey -”

“I can smell him on you.” Trey trailed his finger over her neck. “He had his hand here.” His gaze landed on the tiny wound on her forehead and a long chilling growl spilt from his throat. “He hurt you.”

She framed his face with her hands, capturing his gaze. “No, I got that teensy little cut when I headbutted him and broke his nose. I’m fine.”

“What the hell happened?” asked Dante as he hurried to their side with the enforcers on his heels.

Ignoring them in favor of keeping her mate calm, she lightly dabbed a kiss on Trey’s lips then one on each cheek and another on his lips. “I’m okay.” With each soft kiss the tension ruling his body began to lessen, but only ever so slightly. He was nowhere near calm and it wouldn’t take much for him to leap to an irrational state. “Can we talk about this on the way home?” She tried to sound a little vulnerable and shaken in the hope that it might shift him from needing revenge to needing to comfort her.

Good ole Cam – not at all aware of her plan – suddenly approached and said, “Lydia’s just told me they said something about Darryl. That true?”

Fan-fricking-tastic. Just like that, Trey’s body stiffened and his arms fell to his sides, making her slide down his body.

He stepped away, panting and growling. “My uncle?”

Taryn shot Cam an annoyed glare. Looking nervous, he took Lydia by the arm and led her to Taryn’s Hyundai – a good thing since she didn’t want to mention the informant in front of anyone other than Trey, Dante and the enforcers. It wasn’t that she suspected Lydia or Cam, but she wasn’t sure she could trust them not to panic or to keep quiet about it. She returned her focus to Trey. “It was just a pathetic attempt at making you agree to unite the packs.”

“So he set that up. He ordered them to hurt you.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t sense them following you,” said Dante.

Anger flashed across her face and Trey tensed. “What? Tell me.”

She sighed. “Apparently…someone from our pack told Darryl where I’d be.” She winced as his face turned purple. Then he was then striding purposely toward his Toyota. No prizes for guessing where he was going. She dashed after him and then leapt onto his back, locking her arms around his neck and her legs around his middle. “Trey, no, listen to me. You can’t go after him, it’s what he wants.” He continued onwards as if she wasn’t even there, completely undeterred by her weight – though it was fair to say she didn’t weigh that much. Deserting her plan to placate him, she took on another approach. She kicked her legs madly and bit his ear. “Trey, don’t do this! For God’s sake, will you just listen!”

Trey halted abruptly and shifted her so that she was once again wrapped around his front. He held her gaze as he growled, “Don’t, Taryn. Don’t ask me to ignore this. You’re my mate and he sent two wolves after you. It doesn’t matter that you kicked their asses, he wanted you beaten – maybe even worse. To add to that, he has one of my own wolves betraying me, betraying you.”

“I know, I know it’s bad but -”

“You’ve always known who and what I am. You’ve always known what I’m capable of. Don’t ask me to ignore what he did to you, don’t ask me to be something I’m not.”

“That’s not what I’m doing. I know you want to shred the bastard into tiny pieces – you’re not alone there. All I’m asking you to do is put a pin in it. Just delay it for a while. You have to see that it’s a trap.”

“A trap?” asked Ryan.

“No shifter would dare harm another shifter’s mate unless he was hoping to die a long, painful death. He will have known that Trey would react ten times worse and most likely go feral. He’s probably getting desperate now – the twelve weeks are almost up. If he could get you to go against council protocol and attack within the next seven days…” She didn’t need to say more, knowing he would see her point.

“Makes sense,” said Tao after a minute. The other males nodded. Other than Trey.

Taryn dabbed another kiss on Trey’s lips. “He thinks he’s got you all figured out. But he hasn’t. You might be the wolf shifter version of the Black Mamba snake and have homicidal urges from time to time, but you’re also smart. Smart enough to know that if you go to him now and react like he wants, you’re giving him power over you. Smart enough to know that the important thing now is to figure out who his informant is before they feed him more information.”

Trick stepped forward. “She’s right, Trey. I say we let Darryl sweat. He’ll know he’s not going to get away with it. Leave him to sit and wonder what you’ll do and when you’re going to do it.”

Trey snickered. “And what if he goes after her again? Huh? What if I put a f**king pin in it and then he sends more wolves after her in the meantime? He’d most likely send an even larger number the next time just to be sure she got the beating he ordered.”

Growling, Taryn gripped his head and turned it sharply so that she could stare into his eyes. “You listen to me, psycho boy. You might be happy to give your uncle the satisfaction of falling into his trap but I’m not. Here’s what’s going to happen. We’re all going to calm down and drive back to Bedrock and you’re not going to give me any shit about it or so help me God I’ll beat you so bad you’ll have to put toothpaste in your ass to brush your teeth!”

There was a moment of quiet before some of the guys chuckled and others just smiled.

“I think she’s having caffeine withdrawal,” said Dante.

Trey sighed in frustration. Why did she have to be right? All he wanted was revenge. Was that really that bad? He didn’t think so. Nor did his wolf. But, as Taryn had pointed out, that was what his uncle was counting on. Well, if Trey was going to do something totally out of character and delay his revenge, then there was going to have to be a few changes round here. He pinned his little mate with a look. “No more telling me to stay behind. If you leave pack territory, I’m right there with you.”

Not liking his tone but recognising how hard it was for him to back down, Taryn nodded. “Got it.”