Hey Joe. I don’t know how much you guys up there know about what goes on down here, but there’s been some really weird crap going on. Remember I told you last time about that weird-ass alpha my dad is trying to force me to mate with? Well, it turns out he’s also a very sick son of a bitch and my dad doesn’t even give a shit.

There’s this other alpha who’s offered me a deal that would get me out of this, but it means I’d have to mate with him. It wouldn’t be a real mating, because all he wants is an alliance with my dad and it will only be temporary. The thing is…I need to make everyone believe that he’s my true mate, which means I’m going to be telling them that you never were. And I’m so sorry for this, so f**king sorry, but I can’t see any other way out.

People say I must wish I’d never found you if it meant you were going to die before we even had a chance to have the mating bond, but I don’t wish that, you know. Never have. We might not have mated, but we did have a bond.

I’m so sorry, but this is the last time I’ll be here. My dad’s not going to let me come back after this, but you can bet your ass that I’ll still be talking to you sometimes. I’ll find a river just like we use to and I’ll go sit there and talk to you. And you better listen, too, Joseph Winters, because you always had a habit switching off when you thought I’d been talking for too long.

You’ve probably switched off now. Okay, it’s fair to say that I’ve been jabbering on. She stood, wiping the tears from her cheeks, as she said the words she always said just before leaving. Miss you, love you.

Then, with a heavy heart, she turned away and began walking back toward the pack house. And it hurt so, so bad knowing she’d never be back. It was like there was this huge constriction around her chest that tightened with each step.

“He was a good kid,” stated Perry.

“Yeah.”

“He won’t hate you for mating with Roscoe, you know. He wouldn’t want you living your life alone. And Roscoe’s not a bad guy.”

Deciding that arguing would only make Perry more likely to watch her more closely, she continued with her ‘I’m pissed but resigned’ act.

Knowing that she would never again see the graves of the two most important people to her, Taryn would have spent the next few hours in a gloomy mood if it hadn’t been for her dad’s fantastic news. Roscoe was due to arrive the morning after tomorrow for another visit. That put her thoughts back in order like nothing else could have. Not only did it remind her why exactly she was doing this, but it helped her shove the guilt aside – guilt which had been heightened by how her body and her wolf reacted to Trey.

It wasn’t that she had never desired a guy before, but the desire had never been this intense before. If Taryn had met him under different circumstances she would have most likely ran far and fast from that desire. As much as she had always told herself that she would one day mate, whenever she had gotten involved with a guy she had found herself involuntarily holding back. Although she craved safety, protection, and the type of connection that only mates had it made her hate herself, because she felt as though she was betraying Joey. A part of her knew that wasn’t the case but it didn’t change how she felt. If she ever particularly liked a guy, her instinct was to stay the hell away from him.

Therein lay the problem with Trey…she wouldn’t be able to stay clear of him. Not only because they needed to spend time together to pull off the true mate stuff, but because they would be mated. It wouldn’t matter that what brought them together wasn’t love or even a desire to be mated, the second he marked her and she accepted him, they would be classed as mates and their wolves would make it damn difficult for them to keep a physical distance.

She was pretty sure she wouldn’t need to work hard to keep an emotional gulf between them, because neither she nor Trey wanted to imprint on each other. Still, the idea of being around someone who could so easily prime her body with just a look was, to say the least, disconcerting. It didn’t help that her wolf had such a big thing for him.

Figuring it was important that Trey knew, she sent him a text message around midday to warn him about her dad having her followed. The whole claiming might work out better if his enforcers were aware that they might have to either distract or fight off two of her dad’s enforcers.

It was eight-thirty when Shaya and Caleb finally came knocking on her bedroom door. Since they were kids they had all been best friends. Joey had been the leader of their little group and it had hit every one of them hard when he died. These two people had seen how badly Taryn had dealt with Joey’s death. They would remember how Joey was so protective and possessive of her. As such, they would be the most difficult to convince that Trey was her true mate. Hell, she might not be able to convince them at all. She would feel a little guilty lying to them like that, betraying their friendship.

It’s act well or mate with Roscoe.

“You ready to go?” asked Caleb as he fiddled with the collar of his shirt.

“Yep,” she replied.

“Hey you look you great,” remarked Shaya in her usual giddy voice as she took in Taryn’s silk, sapphire blue dress and matching heels.

Caleb nodded his agreement. “I’m not sure Roscoe will like that you’re going out looking like that without him around to keep other wolves away.” As they began walking down the stairs, he added, “I still can’t believe you put him on his ass at dinner the other night.”

Shaya shrugged. “Looked to me like he kind of liked it. It’s only what he should expect if he picks a dominant female.”

“Taryn, I wanted to ask,” began Caleb, “do you seriously not want him, or is this some big thing that dominant females do? Do they make the males really work for it?”

Deciding it was best not to launch into how much she detested Roscoe right before apparently stumbling upon her true mate, she bit her lip. “It’s our way of testing if the male’s a worthy mate.” That wasn’t a lie. Alpha females didn’t submit without the male proving their dominance. It was just that, in this case, that didn’t apply, because Roscoe had never been a consideration.

“Oh I think he’s definitely worthy,” said Shaya with a smirk. “I’d do him.”

Taryn rolled her eyes, smiling. “There aren’t many people you wouldn’t do.”

Shaya jiggled her head as she conceded that, making her short auburn tresses dance around. She talked a lot about other people she would do as Taryn drove them to the shifter club in her Hyundai Tucson. Caleb then criticised each one of her choices purely to annoy her. Taryn laughed when she was supposed to and spoke wherever necessary, but mainly she was concentrating on keeping herself and her wolf calm. How could she, though, when her nerves were shot?

When Taryn finally pulled up outside The Pulse her dad’s enforcers parked their own car two spaces behind. She prayed – literally – that they would follow her inside. If it came to her needing to resort to plan B then she couldn’t exactly sneak off in her car if they were outside watching over it. Relief swept over her when they began following at a discrete distance.

A nervous sigh escaped Taryn as she entered The Pulse. Although some clubs allowed both humans and shifters to enter, this club was open only to shifters. Her wolf picked up on her anxiety, but didn’t understand what was really happening. Confused and frustrated, her wolf was pacing within her, clawing at her. In addition to that, as a creature with the most basic instincts, her wolf wanted to investigate some of the male scents and also hiss at some of the female scents. Yeah, her wolf could be a right bitch when she was all worked up.

“You okay?” asked Caleb as he halted behind her. Great, he’d sensed something was off.

“My wolf’s not having a good day. She’s practically clawing at my insides in an effort to get out. Sometimes I think my being latent is harder for her than it is for me.”

Shaya shot her a sympathetic smile. “The feeling of being trapped must drive her wild.”

Taryn nodded. “Come on, let’s go get a drink.” And try to stay near the bar so Trey could easily find her. She sidled through the incredibly tight crowd on her way to the bar. The incidental social touches soothed her wolf a little.

The owner of the club and Head Barman, Roger, looked up as they reached the bar. In greeting he nodded at her, Caleb and Shaya. “What can I get you all?”

A Valium, maybe? “The usual for me please, Roger.” Being constantly on call, she mostly stuck to Coca Cola when she went on a night out. Depressing, but a drunken healer wasn’t a good one.

As Caleb ordered a beer and Shaya ordered some weird cocktail, Taryn discretely searched for her dad’s enforcers, Oscar and Perry. They stood at the other end of the bar, chatting while still alert. At least there was a decent distance between them all. She had to resist the urge to scan for any sign of Trey.

She, Caleb, and Shaya found some vacant stools by the bar and got comfortable as they drank and chatted. Although she was fully part of their conversation, it was always at the forefront of her mind that her life was about to change. She was about to enter a temporary mating with the wolf shifter equivalent of the Black Mamba snake and had a worryingly overwhelming effect on her body. To add to that, she would never be returning to her dad’s pack and this could even be the very last time she saw her two best friends.

“Thank God you’re here! I need your help badly.”

A curse flew out of Taryn’s mouth as she looked up to see Nicole, one of her pack mates. She had run over everything in her head before coming, but she hadn’t once accounted for someone needing her for her healing skills right in the middle of her fake claiming. Crap. As the pack healer, it wasn’t like she could refuse to help and nor did she want to.

“It’s Ashley,” explained Nicole as she took Taryn’s hand, pulled her from the stool, and began to lead her through the tight throngs of people. Shaya and Caleb followed closely behind them. The combination of the brushing of bodies against her and strange hands occasionally fondling her as she went by further soothed Taryn’s wolf while simultaneously rousing her.

“What’s wrong with her?” asked Taryn.

“She’s barely conscious. I guess she must have taken something, but Taryn you know Ashley doesn’t do drugs.”

Nicole abruptly stopped. Not because they had reached Ashley, but because there was such a large crowd of shifters huddled together that it was like coming up against a wall. Clearly there was a very powerful alpha male somewhere within that crowd who was being both protected and harassed. She wondered if it was Trey. A shudder rippled down her spine as she thought of what was to come – if he found her, that was.

Advancing further involved a lot of foot squashing and elbow clashing, but eventually they stopped before a chair where Nicole’s boyfriend, Richie, stood as though on guard. He gave them all a nod in greeting. In the chair was Ashley, slouched, pale, and limp.

Nicole crouched before her and rubbed her forearm. “Ashley?”

The small red head opened her eyes slightly, but her expression was pretty vacant. Yep, she’d been drugged alright.

Nicole, worrying her lower lip, rose and turned to Taryn. “Can you help?” She knew that Taryn didn’t have to help anyone who had been dumb enough to drug themselves into a practically catatonic state, but she had to agree with Nicole. Ashley wasn’t the type of person who would do drugs.

“You think Roger will let us use his office? I can’t heal her here.”

“I’ll go ask him,” said Caleb. Before she could say a word, his tall form had disappeared in the crowd.

“Do you think someone spiked her drink?” asked Shaya.

“She was fine up until those hyenas were sniffing around her,” said Nicole in a panicky voice, twirling a blond curl around her finger.

Richie nodded. “They looked like a bad bunch, so I chased them off.”

Taryn puffed. “Roger’s going to be so pissed off. Not only is someone using drugs in his establishment, but they’re using them to spike people’s drinks.”

“You not with Roscoe tonight?”

“It’s only a few days until the mating ceremony,” said Nicole. “You must be pretty excited.”

“Hey it was really cool when you knocked him out of his chair,” said Richie with a grin. Clearly Nicole had been one of the females staring at Roscoe, pissing Richie off.

“What had he done?”

Taryn ran a hand through her hair, hoping she didn’t look as stressed out as she was feeling. “You know how it is with alpha females and making sure their mates are worthy.” Feeling a tap on her shoulder, Taryn swerved to find Caleb. “Roger said it was okay?”

Caleb nodded. “He’s waiting by the door with the key. He likes to keep it locked.”

“Come on then people, let’s get Ashley moved.”

Taryn grabbed Ashley’s purse as Richie and Caleb each draped one of Ashley’s arms over their shoulders and lifted her from the chair. She didn’t react other than to let out a low whiny moan. With Nicole and Shaya on either side of her, Taryn led the way to the office, making room through the crowds for the guys to carry Ashley through without dropping her on her ass.

Five footsteps later Taryn accidentally bumped into a curvy brunette. A familiar curvy brunette. Everything about her was false; her br**sts, her plush upper lip, her eyelashes, her nails. God, even the length of her hair wasn’t natural – she clearly wore hair extensions. Hell, she was so fake she probably had ‘Made in China’ stamped somewhere on her body. Taryn would happily have ignored her if she hadn’t turned and sneered, speaking in that acidic tone of hers.