“None of the wolves you see here would hurt her, Trey,” vowed Martin.
“I won’t take chances where my mate’s concerned. Her safety is my first priority, and right now my intention is to be more vigilant than ever. Fortunately Darryl had greatly underestimated Taryn and she was unharmed despite his efforts. If there’s a next time, he won’t underestimate her, and I don’t intend for there to be a next time.”
“Trey?” It was spoken in a low, gentle, appealing tone by a very thin, dark, middle-aged woman who was gazing at him in a motherly way, surprising Taryn. “I can understand you being a little surprised by us showing up like this, but you know that I’d never do anything that would hurt you or yours. You trust that, don’t you?”
It was clear to Taryn that the woman was very much expecting the answer to be ‘yes’ and she wondered why.
Trey narrowed his eyes at the woman. The affectionate way Viv was looking at him was making him uncomfortable. “No. The only people in this world I trust to never betray me are those you see standing with me here. If any of you take offence to my not welcoming you all into my home with open arms, I don’t much care. I’m extremely protective of what’s mine, but I won’t let Darryl trick me into losing control and attacking him for going after Taryn – you might want to pass that on.”
Martin seemed to think on that for a moment and then nodded. “Going by the fact that you didn’t lose control…Does this mean you’re not as, um…impulsive…as you once were?”
Trey had to smile. Impulsive wasn’t the right word, but he knew what Martin was getting at. He went with the truth. “No, it doesn’t mean that at all. It just means that Taryn keeps me calm.”
“Why did you do it, Trey?” Trick’s dad’s tone was soft, not condemning. “Why did you almost kill your father, your Alpha?”
Trey simply shrugged, not willing to explain himself to any of them. “Because he deserved it. Deserved it so much that I’d do it again if he was alive.” Oddly, that seemed to be a good enough answer for Michael.
Uma, Trick’s mom, on the other hand, wasn’t so satisfied. “You owe us more than that. You owe us an explanation as to why we missed our son growing up.”
Oh she did not just say that! Without conscious thought Taryn sprung forward, growling. If Trey hadn’t looped on arm around her and pulled her back against him she would have been on that bitch – who had wisely backed up – in a blink. “Trey doesn’t owe you anything. In fact, you owe him an explanation – an explanation as to why you didn’t give a fourteen year old boy a chance to tell you what his asshole of a dad did. And don’t tell me that you all weren’t aware he’d been an asshole. Didn’t it ever occur to you that Trey could’ve easily finished off the job? He didn’t though, did he? No. But your tiny little brain didn’t even consider that. If you missed that time with Trick, it was your own goddamn fault. So if I were you, I’d exercise that right you have to remain silent or you’ll find yourself strung up like a piñata while I beat the shit out of you!”
Smiling at the almost feral protectiveness in her manner, Trey kissed his mark and rubbed his cheek against hers. He wasn’t the only one smiling. Yes she had been offensive, and threatening, but wolves respected that kind of strength. And no one much liked Uma anyway.
“I’m prepared to go to the council and tell them what I overheard Darryl saying,” offered Martin.
Trey shook his head. “I’d much rather you didn’t.”
“Why?”
Smirks that were identical to Trey’s surfaced on the face of each of his pack. It was Tao who explained. “We deal with things our own way.” Nothing more needed to be said for anybody to understand.
“If what you say about being concerned for Taryn’s welfare is true, then I thank you for coming.”
Understanding they had been effectively dismissed, the wolves all as one turned and made their way back to their vehicles – with the exception of one female who began to slowly and cautiously approach Trey.
“Who’s that?” asked Taryn in a whisper.
He sighed. “Viv. Summer’s mom.”
“Oh.” Well that would certainly explain the motherly behavior. “I’ll give you two a few minutes alone.”
Surprised, he turned her to face him. “Baby, you don’t have to do that. There’s nothing for me to say to her now that I know Summer was never my mate.”
“But she doesn’t know that, does she? If you don’t want to tell her, then don’t.”
“You would be okay with me letting her believe you’re not who you are to me?”
She sighed. “No, I wouldn’t like it, but that woman has already been through a lot. She probably sees you as her last link to her daughter. Someone else who saw her in the special way that she did.”
“But I didn’t. Not even when I thought we were mates.” He released a long breath. “I’m going to tell her the truth. It’s the right thing to do, for everyone.”
Dante called, “Trey, Viv’s asking to talk to you.”
Trey turned his head to see that Tao and Dante stood in front of her, blocking her access to their Alpha pair.
Taryn nipped his chin. “Go on. I’ll wait back at Bedrock. I’ll have you a coffee waiting on the table. Of course you understand that Grace will have made it, but the thought is all mine.”
He smiled and bit her lip. “I’ll just be a few minutes.”
It wasn’t until she was heading back through the forest – having rounded up the others like sheep and shoved them ahead of her, including her uncle, Nick and Derren – that he went to where Viv was waiting. He signalled with an incline of his head for Dante and Tao to give them a moment alone.
“Thank you for speaking with me,” said Viv, swallowing hard. “Trey, I – I just…I’m glad you’re…happy. I always worried about you, wondered if you would survive the banishment. Your mate is very protective of you. You obviously care for each other. I didn’t expect to ever see you imprint.”
If he wasn’t mistaken, she wasn’t happy about it at all despite what she claimed. It occurred to him that she might feel as though he had betrayed her daughter’s memory in some way. Damn, she wasn’t going to like what he had to say. He took a deep breath. “We didn’t imprint.”
“Oh, you’re not mates?”
“Oh we’re mates. True mates.”
Frowning, Viv shook her head. “No, that…that can’t be. Summer was your true mate.”
“Viv -”
“I saw the way she looked up at you that day – so adoringly, so focused on you. She used to cry all the time with those colic pains but she calmed down as soon as you held her.”
“And you mistook that for a true mate bond. I’m sorry if that’s not what you want to hear, but I’m not going to lie to you.”
She shook her head again. “You reacted so badly to her death. What you did…That was grief -”
“That was me attacking my father for teasing me about her having died.”
“He did that?”
“Don’t kid yourself that I was someone who deserved your daughter and lost control in a moment of despair, that I’m just terribly misunderstood. When I heard she was dead, I felt guilty and angry with myself, but it could never have touched me the way it touched you. We weren’t mates, Viv.”
The hopeful gleam didn’t leave her eyes. “I can’t accept that. Maybe once all this is over with Darryl you could come with me to visit her grave and -”
He held up his hand. “Viv, I get that you might wish you could have someone to sit there and grieve with you for your daughter, who saw her as special and who you can share stories with, but…I can’t be that someone.”