“They’re more or less just people who want to watch like nosy bastards so they can go and tell everyone about how they were there,” said Trick. Ryan grunted his agreement.
An unexpected yawn escaped Taryn and she allowed her head to drop onto Trey’s shoulder as she closed her eyes.
“Tired, baby? Come on, let’s get you to bed, you need sleep.”
“I’m not tired. I’m just checking my eyelids for holes. It could take a while.”
He chuckled and scooped her up, cradling her against his chest. “Bed.”
“You’ll get tired more easily over the first month of your pregnancy,” Grace told her. “It’s totally normal.”
Having said their goodnights, Trey carried her to their bedroom, liking that she didn’t fight him and allowed him to carry her. Once inside he carefully laid her on the bed and peeled away her jeans before then removing her long sleeved t-shirt. “What’s with the glum look on your face, baby?”
“You’re kidding, right? Take your pick. There’s the fact that you’ll be in a battle tomorrow. There’s the horrible knowledge that we have a traitor in our pack. Oh and there’s the little matter of me being hidden away tomorrow instead of being part of the battle.”
He sighed and draped himself over her, kissing her neck softly, wanting to relax her. “Baby, you can’t be upset with me for asking you to stay clear of a battle.”
“I’m not. There’s no way I’d endanger our baby like that. I just worry something will happen to you. Any of you. It’s worse knowing I’m a healer and I can help but won’t be there to help.”
“I can understand how you’re feeling. I’d be going ape shit crazy now if I knew you were going to be near any danger and didn’t even have me with you. But I need you to stay here, inside. Nothing can happen to you or the baby, Taryn, it just can’t, I’d never get through it.”
“Nothing can happen to you either, so make damn sure you come back to me.” She fused her mouth to his, kissing him hard. He tangled a hand in her hair and tugged, reminding her who the more dominant was, and then he took over the kiss. His tongue plundered her mouth just as she wanted his cock to plunder her body, but for some reason he was holding himself back. He was so tense it was like he was bracing himself for some kind of impact. She arched against him and felt the very hard proof of his arousal. His entire body stiffened and he looked like he wanted to jump off the bed. “What’s the matter?”
His eyes danced to her stomach and then back to her face. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
She groaned. “Is that why you’re holding back? Trey, you won’t hurt me or the baby by fucking me.” He didn’t look convinced. She sighed dramatically. “I suppose I could just get my old vibrator out or -”
He pinned her with his gaze. “Nothing goes inside you except my cock, remember.”
“Yes, and I remember agreeing that…but it was pending the applicable terms.”
“Applicable terms?”
“In situations where you’re denying me said cock, I get to dig out my vibrator and take care of the matter myself.” His face molded into a menacing scowl. Or, at least, he thought she’d find it menacing. Instead, she laughed. And cupped the erection pressing insistently against the denim of his jeans. “I want it. It’s mine.”
“Yes, it’s yours,” he allowed, “pending the applicable terms. In situations where you’re threatening to cheat on me with a fake cock, you don’t get any.”
Tricky little bastard. “It really is a good thing I love you and your cock, Trey, or I’d have had to snap it off for that.” An expression of shock replaced his scowl. She placed a finger to his lips. “Don’t say it back. I don’t want you to say what I know you don’t mean. Maybe one day you can mean it, but we both know that’s not today. I just want you to know.”
This was why she deserved a better mate – he was so damn wrong for her it wasn’t even funny. Still, she was staying exactly where she was. “You’re all there is for me, Taryn. I’m broken, baby. You know that. Before you…it was like those bits of me were just scattered all over the place. I’ve never felt whole. Not until you. You hold those pieces together. It’s not an exaggeration when I say you hold my sanity in your hands. Without you, I’d fall apart.” If that made any sense to her, he’d be surprised.
She stroked his bottom lip with the pad of her thumb. “Thank you for that. Now do me already.”
He sighed dramatically. “I’m mated to a nympho.”
“Ass.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The ringing of Trey’s cell phone had everyone in the kitchen stiffening, particularly Taryn who was sitting on the counter with her legs wrapped around his waist. Without releasing her gaze, he dug it out of his pocket and answered. “Hello.”
“They’re here,” Ryan informed him.
Trey wasn’t surprised that they had arrived at 10 A.M. The only reason he had told the pack last night that he was expecting Darryl around noon was because Trey didn’t want the informant telling Darryl he’d be ready for the bastard. “How many?”
“Dominic says there’s something like one hundred and seventy out there, but it’s likely that some of them are just there to stand at his side.”
“What about the three packs that offered to come and stand at our side, are they here?”
“Arrived an hour ago just before Lance and Nick. Everyone’s waiting just inside the gate.” They had arranged for their allies to arrive early, suspecting Darryl would make an attack in the morning time in the belief that he would be catching Trey unawares.
“Okay. Don’t let Darryl and his crew through the gate until I get there.”
“Sure.”
Trey ended the call and handed his cell over to Taryn. “I’ll lose it in the battle if I take it with me out there.”
She tightened her legs around him, wishing she could just hold him there and ask the others to face Darryl. Yes that was selfish and unfair, but she couldn’t help wanting that and she wasn’t going to apologize for it. This was her mate, the other half of her soul, the father of her child. If she had the right to be selfish about anything, it was him.
“I have to go, baby,” he told her softly.
She nodded sadly. “I know. Be careful. You have to come back to me.”
“There’ll be a lot of blood on my hands by the end of this battle. You know that, right?”
She pressed her forehead to his. “Do you honestly think I’d judge you for protecting your family, your pack, your territory? Darryl obviously wants to die. Assist him.”
Damn this woman got to him. Never had she judged him – not for being who he was, not for what he could and couldn’t feel, and not for anything he’d done or was capable of doing. He kissed her hard and deep, urging her into him, taking strength from her in a way that he had never been able to do with another person. Breaking the kiss, he buried his face in the crook of her neck and took her scent deep inside him, let it flow over him and center both him and his wolf. He hated to leave her, especially right now. Every primal instinct he had told him to stay at her side and be her constant protector, but there was no choice. He couldn’t tell the other males of his pack to face the danger alone – that wasn’t who he was and it wasn’t what an Alpha did.
“I need you to promise me something,” he said as he locked his gaze with hers. “I need you to promise me that no matter what you feel over our link, no matter what you think is happening, you stay here. You don’t try to reach me, you don’t take a chance out there just so you can heal me. You stay here with Grace, Lydia, Greta, Hope, Brock, and Selma. You focus on keeping yourself safe and our baby safe. Promise me.” He wasn’t surprised when she gave him a look that could kill. A lesser man would have cowered.