Suzanne Wright: Feral Sins

“What about your pack? Won’t they know it’s bullshit?”

Not wanting to go into the specifics, he kept his reply vague. “It’s a shitty story, but let’s just keep it at I hadn’t acknowledged to others that she was my mate.” That had made her death all the worse and then he hadn’t felt like he had the right to speak of her. Not many knew the complete truth and that was how he liked it. “When I informed my pack a few weeks ago of my plan to mate, I also informed them that my true mate died a long time ago. That’s all they need to know.”

And that’s all you need to know , he didn’t say but Taryn heard. She might have bristled at that but it would have been hypocritical; losing Joey wasn’t a matter she spoke of unless she had to.

“They will play along that we’re true mates if it helps us keep our territory and stops my uncle from taking over the pack.” Unfortunately, not all of them were supportive of a Warner being in their pack, but telling her that wouldn’t be a wise move.

A part of Taryn wondered what she was hesitating for. She wanted to get away from Roscoe, didn’t she? Well here was her chance. But it wasn’t as simple as that, was it? No, because her chance came in the form of another big bad Alpha who had a price for his help. Hell, two wolves suddenly wanted to mate her – two alpha wolves – yet neither actually cared even a tiny bit about her. She was a means to an end. Not exactly flattering and it certainly stung.

Taryn was surprised by just how much it stung considering that she hadn’t envisioned ever wanting to take a mate; it would have felt like she was betraying Joey. Yeah, that might not make a lot of sense given that they were kids when he died, but Joey had been the one person in the world created for her, just for her. Created to care for her, to accept her, to love her.

And because of that, just as Trey had pointed out, Joey wouldn’t have wanted her to be trapped in a mating she didn’t want. Joey would have wanted, no, expected , her to do whatever it took to escape that fate. This particular avenue, however, might be a bit too complicated.

“Even if I did agree to this deal, I don’t see how we could fake a mating bond. It’s an extremely intimate thing. Mates are all touchy-feely, they don’t spend a minute apart, they smell of each other, they wear each other’s mark and they have some kind of link that helps them sense each other’s mood. How in the hell could we ever fake a metaphysical connection like that?”

“We’ll only need to fake it when anyone outside my pack is around and that won’t be often. Knowing that your freedom from Roscoe depends on this should help you dramatically with your acting skills.”

The man has an answer for everything, grumbled Taryn inwardly. Could she do this? Could she pull this off? It wasn’t in her nature to cower from anything challenging, no matter how much danger or risk it involved. Maybe it was a lot to do with her latency; continually proving herself had always been a way of gaining some measure of respect. But this wasn’t just some kind of dare. This was her life and all about what direction she wanted it to take.

She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. “My dad’s not stupid, unfortunately. He knows I don’t want to be mated to Roscoe. If I walk up to him and say ‘Hey dad, guess what, it turns out my true mate’s not dead and I found him’ he’s going to accuse me of trying to play him.”

“And that’s why we’ll need to be publically seen to ‘discover’ each other. Maybe at one of the shifter clubs. No one other than my wolves will know we’ve met before that claiming.”

Okay that was a good idea. But would it work?

Taryn stifled the urge to groan as indecision wracked her mind and body. Her wolf wasn’t undecided. Oh no. With her elemental nature, her wolf wasn’t interested in details or problems, she was only interested in whether Trey was a potential mate. She liked his confidence, his determination, his heavy air of dominance, and she absolutely loved his scent. Her wolf was totally fine with letting Trey mark her. In fact, she was craving it. Not good.

“Have you thought about what it’ll mean to claim me even temporarily?” she asked. “Your wolf will know I’m not your true mate, and he may even understand that you don’t consider this a permanent mating, but those will be itty bitty details to him. If you bite and mark me your wolf is going to see me as all his in every way. That means he’ll be -”

“Crazily possessive, crazily jealous and crazily protective” finished Trey. “That will help us with faking a mating bond. Though I’m sure that his understanding that you’re not my true mate will be enough to keep him under control.” His wolf was currently quiet inside his head, completely focused on Taryn as he waited for her response. His wolf approved of Trey’s choice. He had identified her wolf as dominant and assertive, and he very much liked Taryn the woman too. Liked her innate sensuality, liked her loyal streak and he especially liked her spunk. Just as Trey did. And her scent…God, her scent.

He could sense that she was close, so close, to accepting his proposition. He didn’t blame her for being wary or hesitant, but she had to know he was the lesser of two evils. “Taryn, I’m offering you a way out. If I were you, I’d take it. Unless you want to end up bound to Roscoe for the rest of your life.”

“That would never happen, no matter what.”

“Maybe not. It seems to me, though, that there aren’t any other avenues open to you right now.”

“I was planning to go to my uncle’s pack.”

Oh he hadn’t doubted that she had some plan up her sleeve. “You trust his Alpha to take you in, to protect you against Roscoe when he comes for you? And he will come for you.”

She swallowed hard. “I don’t know if I can trust his Alpha because I’ve never met him, but I don’t know if I can trust you to protect me either. I know Roscoe won’t just bow down and accept it; he has too much pride for that. He’ll most likely turn up and challenge you. Are you saying you would honestly accept that challenge, that you would fight to keep me in your pack?” She didn’t hide the scepticism from her voice.

“Yes, I would,” he stated firmly. “I need this mating as much as you. You can still contact your uncle after joining me and then see about switching packs afterwards. Three months at the most is the length of time I’ll need you to stay. Mediators don’t usually ask packs to take longer than that to civilly sort out the matter. You could then say you’ve realized you were wrong about me being your true mate, whatever.”

A few months in a mating with psycho boy versus a lifetime with Roscoe…It should be easy for Taryn to take Trey up on his offer in theory, but not when she considered that she would be handing herself over to someone who literally was the big bad wolf. Her instincts told her he wouldn’t harm her, and although they had never let her down before that wasn’t to say that they weren’t letting her down now.

He raised his brows questioningly. “Well, Taryn, do we have a deal?” He shook the pill packet. “Or would you like another long nap?”

“There’s one thing I really don’t get. Why me? From what I’ve heard, you’ve never had any problems reeling in females. Surely it would have been a lot easier for you to approach an unmated female and ask her to play mates. I’m sure plenty of those females have alphas that have the same kind of alliances my dad has.”

“As much as it’s going to be a pain in the ass having to convince everyone that your mate was never your mate, it would be even more complicated to convince an unmated female to pretend I’m her mate. To let another male mark her, even if it was temporary, would be like betraying her true mate, even if she hadn’t found him yet. Sure I know females who are power hungry enough that they would find the prospect of becoming Alpha female of my pack more important than waiting for their true mate. But then I’d be stuck with them. When I heard of your situation, I figured we could help each other.”