“We like Tao,” said Max.
“We like him for you,” Ethan added. “Promise you won’t have the mating ceremony without us.”
“I have no intention of throwing the ceremony until all this crap is over,” she assured them. She thought about telling them what had happened at the amusement park, but she saw no need to worry them further. It would only hurt them that they couldn’t be here to protect her because they needed to keep watch on the other ravens. “All the flock still accounted for?”
“Yes,” said Ethan. “We’re in constant contact with Hugh and the enforcers—everyone has been vigilant, but there have been no problems so far.”
“I’m guessing more and more people are thinking Dana was right and that I was behind the shootings, then.” It was more of a question than a statement.
“I’d say our trigger-happy friend has gone quiet to cast suspicion on you and make us stop watching everyone so closely.” Ethan was no doubt right about it.
“You don’t deny that people suspect me,” she began, “so I’m guessing I’m right.”
“It’s mostly just Dana, Shirley, and Cynthia.” Max’s derision was clear in his voice. “Don’t let it get you down, sweetheart. They’re not worth it.”
“Don’t waste your thoughts on them. You’ve just mated, enjoy it,” Ethan urged her.
She smiled. “Will do. Love you both.”
“You too, sweetheart,” said Ethan.
“Love you, Ri.” Max made a kissing noise just before the line went dead.
Returning her cell to her pocket, she crossed to the table and took the seat beside Tao. He’d already poured her coffee and filled her plate with pancakes drizzled in syrup. “Aw, thank you.” She didn’t miss Gabe mouthing, “Whipped” at Tao, but her mate just snickered at him.
“How are your uncles doing?” Tao asked.
“They sound good for two people who no longer trust most of their flock mates.”
“You told them we mated?”
She forked up a small chunk of pancake. “Yep.”
“They’re happy for you?”
She smiled at the “They’d better be happy for you” note to Tao’s voice. “For us, yes.”
“Good.”
“I think they might be a little disappointed that I’m no longer part of the flock, but they did their best to hide it from me.” She simply knew them too well.
“Did you tell them about Ramón?”
“No. It would have just frustrated them that they couldn’t be here to help, not to mention make them worry about me even more than they already do.” She sipped her coffee. “You planning to call your parents and tell them we’re mated?”
“Yes. After that . . . how about we let our animals out to play?” His wolf was craving it. “We’ll stay close to the mountain.”
Her raven perked up at that idea. “All right.”
Once they were finished with breakfast, Tao went off to call his parents while Riley settled the kids in the playroom with Grace and Rhett. To Riley’s utter surprise, both Avery and Lennon insisted on speaking with Riley to offer congratulations and promised they would visit soon. Well, it was good to know she wouldn’t forever be at war with her mother-in-law.
With all that done, she and Tao made their way out of the caves. At the clearing near the lake, he began removing his clothes. Riley was so distracted by the flow of muscle rippling fluidly beneath his skin that she just stood there, practically drooling.
Naked, he grinned at the hunger in her eyes. “We’ll get to that later. My wolf wants time with you first.” He pulled back and gave his wolf the reins.
Riley squatted to pet the wolf. She loved his thick, midnight-black fur. Loved sifting her fingers through it and hearing him rumble contentedly.
She laughed as he did a complete circle around her body, rubbing himself against her. “Someone’s possessive,” she teased. He playfully bared his teeth, so she did the same. Then Riley stripped and gave her raven freedom.
The wolf padded through the woods, hopping over logs and thick tree roots. The scents of pine needles, moss, and sun-warmed earth spoke to him. But it was the scent of his mate—their combined scent—that stood out above all else for him.
Her shadow moved over his as she soared above. She was agile. Graceful. Called to him to play. With a playful growl, he gave chase. She swooped low. The wolf bounced up to swat her. He missed. She was fast, sneaky.
The raven flew in circles around the wolf, taunting him. Then they raced through the woods alongside each other. Tired, the raven perched herself on his back as he padded back to the clearing. On their way, they passed two enforcers.
Dominic blinked at the sight of them. “Now that’s something you don’t see every day.”
Trick raised a brow. “Or ever.”
Deep inside the raven, Riley smiled.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The next day Trey and Taryn called a strategy meeting in Trey’s office. The Betas, the enforcers, Tao, Riley, and Makenna were all invited. In addition, Nick and Shaya, the Mercury Pack Alphas, were included in the meeting via teleconference.
Leaning against his office desk, Trey ran his gaze along everyone as he said, “Taryn and I have been talking about the best way to deal with Ramón. We can all agree that he’s not going to give up, and ignoring what he’s doing will give him the impression that we’re scared. We need to retaliate, but we need to do it in a way that’s smart. He’ll be expecting an attack, so he’ll be prepared for it. Besides, his residence is locked up tight and well guarded, which means that trying to infiltrate it would be difficult. And I don’t know about the rest of you, but, honestly, I’m sick and tired of war.”
Nick spoke. “I know what you mean, I feel the same way. But it just seems like everyone keeps bringing the fight to us.” His redheaded mate, Shaya, nodded, her elfin face grim.
Marcus looked from Trey to Taryn. “What kind of retaliation did you have in mind?”
Taryn, who was sitting on the desk and swinging her legs, replied, “We thought about pretending to back down so we could get close enough to get a grip on him, but he won’t buy it. Not after how long and hard we’ve fought him, and especially not while he knows we’ll be righteously pissed at him for trying to snatch Dexter.”
Shaya leaned forward, brow creased in concern, as she looked at Riley. “How is the little cub?”
“He doesn’t seem to remember any of it, and we think the drug they gave him is to blame for that. He wants to go back to the park so he can get a red balloon.” Riley had wondered if the memories would come back to him, but they hadn’t. It was a blessing, really, because what two-year-old wouldn’t be frightened after almost being snatched? Savannah had been watching him like a hawk, as if afraid he’d disappear if she didn’t. It broke Riley’s heart a little.
Tao, doodling lazy circles on her nape with his thumb, spoke. “We need to scare the shit out of Ramón like he scared the shit out of us when his men tried to kidnap Dexter and gut Riley’s raven open.”
“Spooking Ramón is exactly what we need to do,” said Trey. “But it’s not easy to scare someone like him.”
Nick tilted his head. “Maybe we should have someone sneak into his home and leave a message, show just how easily we could get to him, despite all his security.”
Not a bad idea, thought Riley. “I could do it.”
Linking his fingers with hers, Tao shook his head. “He’ll know to look out for a raven. He’ll tell his men to shoot any birds on sight.”
“Ryan can get in and out of anywhere without being seen,” said Taryn.
“I wasn’t thinking about Ryan,” said Nick.
Shaya’s gaze sharpened on her mate. “You’re thinking about Harley’s cousins.”
Nick lifted his shoulders. “Isn’t sneaking into their enemies’ homes and killing them in their sleep what they do?”
“Yeah, because margays don’t believe in war,” said Shaya. “But you’re talking about leaving R
amón a message. Seriously, Nick, there’s no guarantee her cousins won’t just kill the bastard. They’ll despise him for trying to kidnap Dexter.”
Makenna raised her hands. “I got no problem with them killing Ramón. Just putting that out there.” Ryan grunted.
“I doubt killing him will help,” said Nick. “There is always someone who’ll step up to the plate in a lifestyle like that. Someone else will take over and they’ll likely seek to avenge him. Your best bet of completely avoiding any war would be to scare him into backing off.”
Taryn raised a brow. “And if he doesn’t?”
“Then we fight him,” replied Nick.
Lips pursed, Dante spoke. “I like this idea. If he realizes a shifter got inside his home, it’ll shock the shit out of him. An act like that says, ‘We can kill you anytime we want, you arrogant bastard; you’re nothing to us.’ It’ll remind him who he’s fucking with. Not humans, but shifters—the ultimate predators.”
Taryn’s mouth curved. It was clear that she was warming to the idea. “Shaya, do you think Harley’s cousins will agree to do it?”
The redhead grinned. “Oh yeah. They’ll enjoy the challenge.”
“Talk to them,” Trey said to the Mercury Alphas. “If they’re happy to do it, we’d appreciate it.”
Nick inclined his head. “We’ll have Harley call them and we’ll get back to you soon with an answer.”
As Trey switched off the monitor, Riley turned to Tao and said, “Involving Harley’s cousins might actually work.” She sincerely liked Harley, who was a margay wild cat. They’d sort of connected . . . maybe because they both knew what it was like to live in a pack of mostly wolves. Riley had briefly met her cousins at Harley and Jesse’s mating ceremony. They were all very different and quirky in their own individual ways. They were also incredibly lethal—though at first glance they didn’t look it. None of them appeared to be 100 percent sane either.
“Let’s hope so,” said Tao, “because we need—” He frowned at the sound of her phone chiming. “Is it Ethan?”
Looking at the screen, Riley shook her head. “No, it’s Lucy.” They’d spoken a few times since Riley left Sedona. “I’ll just be a minute.” She walked out of the office and swiped her thumb across the screen. “Hey, Luce.”
“I just spoke to Ethan and Max,” said Lucy. “I can’t believe you didn’t call me to say that you’re mated.”
Riley winced. “Sorry, there’s just a lot going on.”
“Hmm, well, I’ll forgive you because I love you,” Lucy said, a smile in her voice. “I wanted to say congratulations. I have to say, it comes as a shock that Tao was your true mate. You’re just both very different, but I guess that’s often how it works with predestinated mates. I really am happy for you.”
“Thanks, Luce.” Riley leaned back against the sandstone wall. “Are you fully healed now?”
“Yes, thanks to Max. He truly is a gem.”
Riley smiled. “Yep, he is.”
“Both your uncles are awesome. They’ve been like watchdogs since you left.”
“Aside from your wound, how’ve you been?”
“Good. Just . . . nervous, you know?” Her voice shook a little. “It’s still hard to wrap my head around the fact that someone here actually shot me. I hate not knowing who it was, hate that I could be smiling at the person who did it. And I’m utterly pissed that some of the flock are trying to pin the blame on you.”
“Join the club.”
“I don’t think they really believe what they’re saying. I think they just want someone to point the finger at so they can convince themselves that the threat has gone. But that doesn’t make it okay.”
No, it damn well didn’t. “How’s Sawyer?”
“He’s fully healed too. He doesn’t believe it was you either, by the way.”
“I don’t suppose you have any theories on who it actually is?”
Lucy paused. “If I’m honest, I would have suspected Cynthia if I hadn’t been shot. I mean, she could have deliberately missed you because all she really wanted was to piss you off, right?”
Riley blinked. She hadn’t actually considered that. “Right,” she agreed.
“I don’t think Cynthia would ever try to kill me. Not even for what I did,” she added in a low voice.
Riley frowned, echoing, “What you did?”
Another pause. “Rhonda Lincoln . . . she started a petition.” Rhonda was one of the ravens who had been killed at Alec’s party.
“What sort of petition?”
“She wanted Cynthia gone from the flock,” Lucy explained. “Rhonda was tired of Cynthia taunting her about how she’d had her mate, Richie. You know Cynthia took particular joy in tormenting any females who’d mated one of the guys she’d slept with.”
Yeah, Cynthia had loved that she could hurt the others that way. She hadn’t cared that it left her with only a few friends or that it lost her the respect of many. A dominant female shifter had her pride, but Cynthia’s pride either wasn’t easy to chip at or was somehow completely nonexistent.
“She somehow got Rhonda’s number and repeatedly sent her cruel text messages with all kinds of explicit details about her time with Richie.”
“Yeah, I heard about that. Rhonda hit breaking point and told your parents.”
“Yes,” said Lucy. “They told her they’d make Cynthia stop, but they didn’t. Or maybe they tried and Cynthia just didn’t listen. Rhonda went to them two more times for help, but nothing changed. That was when she started the petition. The other females were happy enough to sign it. Most of the guys also signed it because they didn’t want their future mates to have to deal with Cynthia when they claimed and brought them to the flock. Even Sawyer signed it, though I think that was more because Richie was his friend than anything else, since Sawyer doesn’t intend to take a mate.”
“I didn’t even hear about the petition.” Given that Riley despised Cynthia, she figured that the other females would have considered her the best person to go to for support.
“Rhonda knew you were loyal to me; she was worried that you’d tell me because, as Cynthia’s sister, you felt I had a right to know what was happening. Of course, I’d have then been pissed as hell and told my parents. So Rhonda came to me first and tried to talk me into signing it . . . She made some really good points—things I wouldn’t have thought of myself.”
In other words, Rhonda had done her best to turn Lucy against her own sister. It sounded as if it had worked. “What points?”
“Imagine being me, Riley. Imagine that your sister has fucked every guy in the flock. It would feel a little bit weird being with any of them, wouldn’t it? Imagine that you push past that awkwardness and take a chance, but then those guys compare your performance to hers. Imagine how smug your sister would be, knowing you had her castoffs. That was my reality. You know how bad it was.”
Riley bit her bottom lip, hating the pain in Lucy’s voice. Several guys had teased Lucy that her sister was a better lay. It had been cruel, and Cynthia had been delighted about it.
“Rhonda was right: if I mated any of the guys in the flock, Cynthia would be sure to constantly remind me that she’d had him first. And he would compare us, wouldn’t he? And she’d flirt with him and try to seduce him, and just maybe he would cheat if she really was the amazing lay all the guys said she was. Even if my mate came from another flock and wasn’t someone Cynthia had slept with, she still would have been all over him.”
Riley truly couldn’t deny any of that. “You signed it, then.”
Lucy hesitated. “Yes. I was going to tell you about the petition and ask you to sign it too, even though I doubted that you would—you’re a very forward person; you don’t go behind people’s backs. But then the shootings happened and the petition just went right out of my head. It was a moot subject at that point anyway. Hell, I’d forgotten all about it until about six months after the shootings, when Cynthia came to me. She’d found out—I’m guessing it was Duncan
who told her. Hypocritical bastard. He signed it too.”
“Duncan? I can’t imagine that he’d ever want her to leave.”
“Now you’re missing his reality. The female he wants makes a point of fucking every male in his flock. She tells him again and again that she’s done with that now, that she only wants him. But she never keeps to her word, and she’s too obsessed about getting the one male into bed who won’t touch her. Duncan cares for Cynthia, but I think he’d just had enough.”
“I guess I can understand that.” It would have gutted Riley to have Tao do that to her.
“Cynthia thought you were behind the petition, that you gave Rhonda the idea. I told her that you weren’t, but she wouldn’t believe me. When you were shot at, I did wonder if maybe she was just trying to get back at you or something. I even said as much to my dad, but he was reluctant to accuse her without proof.”
As much as Sage’s refusal to act on Lucy’s concerns pissed Riley off, she had to admit that he truly couldn’t have accused anyone without evidence. After all, several people had blamed Riley for what was happening, but he’d never once accused her of anything. “But you don’t think it’s Cynthia anymore?”
“No. She wouldn’t shoot me. Not even to divert the blame to someone else.” Lucy paused. “Right?”
“I would have said Wade would never walk into a house and shoot nine people. I think anyone’s capable of anything.”
After ending the call, Riley stood there for long moments, wondering what to make of what she now knew. Eventually Tao came looking for her. His face darkened at her expression.
“What the hell did she say to upset you?” he demanded, eyes flashing wolf.
“Nothing.” Riley pushed off the wall. “I’m not upset, I’m just surprised and confused.” She told him all about the petition.
Tao edged closer, mind working overtime. “You think that maybe Cynthia found out before the shootings? That maybe she had Wade do her dirty work for her?”
“No. Having a bunch of people killed for signing a petition is a little extreme.”