Riley was with Troy and Gabe, still thinking about Andrew’s story hours later. Good Lord, Andrew killed someone at fifteen. Only fifteen. His near father, at that.

“You’ve been quiet all morning, gorgeous,” Gabe whispered to her, leaning over her shoulder as she sat at Troy’s computer, mocking up a design for a gas tank.

“Where did you bury him?” she asked softly. Was it near Cameron?

“Jameson?” Gabe sounded confused. “Shit, um, near the field.” He sounded a little disturbed by her question.

“How many are out there?” She continued to question him.

“We put three out there,” Gabe whispered in her ear, keeping his voice down, “including Cameron. How many are actually out there? We have no idea.”

“How can you not?” She sputtered, turning around to look at him.

“Because every Kingson Alpha has buried bodies out there,” Gabe told her, his voice firm, “and we aren’t about to go digging them all up.”

“How is this okay?” She hissed. “How is any of this okay?”

“It’s not,” he growled. “None of it is. Jameson tried to poison five teenage boys who trusted him. He tried to kill the one he raised to finish what he intended. Cameron tried to shoot you in our kitchen. The last one is a young female who tried to stab Brenton in his fucking sleep after they fucked. Riley, none of it’s okay, but it’s what we are.”

“I… I,” she swallowed, trying to find the words to describe how this all made her feel.

“Abel fucked with you, and you burned his house down and sent him running for his life and freedom,” Troy said from where he was hand-painting a tank. “It’s second nature to us to be power-hungry and conniving. To live by the belief of survival of the fittest.”

“How did I not notice this?” She whispered to herself, looking away from Gabe.

“Because we never wanted you to,” he mumbled. “We were really happy after everything with Cameron, and… it just never came up.”

“Of course,” she murmured, standing up. She felt uncomfortable. She wasn’t a killer like this. She didn’t bury bodies in the woods and move on.

Except she was, and she did. She had to swallow that hard truth. Her father was right. Dangerous and out-of-control. She had killed hunters to defend herself and let Sheriff bury them on his property. She’d shot more in this very house. She’d stabbed Cameron in the kitchen.

She’d gunned down hunters in the compound without a second thought.

She’d burned Abel’s house down and terrified him…and she had liked it.

“I can’t believe…” She crossed her arms and frowned. Did she really regret any of it?

“Gorgeous,” Gabe whimpered to her, “gorgeous, we never wanted any of this for you.”

“Do you regret any of it?” She asked, meeting his glowing green eyes.

“No,” he whispered. “Not any of it. Do you?”

“No,” Riley sighed, “and I think that’s what’s bothering me the most.”

“You can always tell us that you want out,” Troy told her, full of sadness. “You can do that.”

“And then I wouldn’t have any of you,” She shook her head. “Why don’t I regret it?”

“Because we aren’t murderers,” Gabe said with a rueful smile. “We retaliate, and we do so without reservation. We crush our enemies without a blink, but we don’t go out and start fights. You aren’t a bad person, Riley. You’ve just stayed alive, and, sometimes, survival means bodies need to be buried in places no one will ever find them. Sometimes, people will never stop until you’re dead, so you need to kill them first.”

“You sound experienced in this,” she huffed.

“We are,” Troy growled softly. She looked over at him and realized he needed a haircut. Such a mundane thing to notice, she thought. His gray and silver hair was getting too long. He flicked her a glance, and she saw pain in those mercury eyes.

“I love you,” she whispered. “I’m sorry. I don’t know why… I don’t why Andrew’s story got to me so much.”

“We were kids,” Gabe sighed, “and Jameson was… our only adult friend.”

“Who was the woman he loved?” Riley asked, with a frown.

“Brenton’s aunt, Geoffrey’s younger sister… Abel’s mother,” Gabe told her, going back to his tinkering. “He never could have had her. Geoffrey basically married her off for political reasons, even though she and Jameson had grown up together and were definitely in love. They both grew bitter over the years apart, and she finally decided to take the Kingson fortune from her brother as revenge. Geoffrey was already dead, and we’ve never figured out who got Jameson to do that, but we know that it left Brenton as the only person between her and billions.”

“No shit,” she hissed, shocked and bit disgusted by that. “Why have y’all never gone after her?”

“It wouldn’t do us any good, really,” Gabe said with a bit of anger. Not at Riley though, she knew that. “We’ve considered it, a thousand times, but by the time we knew it was her, she hadn’t been a threat in years. It would be an act of war over old insults, and we don’t play that game. We don’t hold the long game. We win, and we move on. We won with her. She failed in killing us, in her attempt to take the Kingson fortune, and now, killing Brenton wouldn’t do her any good.”

“Is that all this is for shifters? A game?” Riley asked, wrapping an arm around Gabe’s waist and leaning on his back.

“To all of them? Yes,” he whispered. “To us? It was survival, pure and simple. If we didn’t go fast and go hard, without mercy, they would have never stopped trying to kill us. We wouldn’t have lasted more than a few years on our own.”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m in. I want you to know that. Anything the Pride needs, and I’m in.”

“I never had any doubts,” Gabe chuckled, grabbing her hand and pulling it up to his lips. “If Cameron and hunters didn’t chase you off, I’m not sure anything will.”

“You’re right,” she told him with a bit of levity. She was disheartened but not scared. She was sad because her men had such sad lives. She was angry at the injustice the feline world was ruled by.

But she would never leave them. She would never regret her actions. This was her family, and she was standing by for when she needed to walk in the fire with them.

“They used to call us wild animals, renegades, and fools,” Troy laughed. “We broke the rules, those unspoken do’s and don’ts of our world. We proved them right, every time. We were renegades. We were wild, and not just in the way people think they see Gabe and me.”

“Damn right,” Gabe growled with a grin, turning back to Riley. “We’re dangerous men, gorgeous.”

“Am I your dangerous woman?” She smiled at him.

“Yes.” He leaned down as he spoke. “You definitely are,” he growled against her lips. He kissed her deeply, and she moaned into his mouth as his hands moved to squeeze her ass and pull her harder against him. When the kiss broke off, Gabe was grinning. Troy was behind her, his hands wrapping around her front.

“You’ll have to tell me more about how much of a renegade you were,” Riley murmured against Gabe’s lips, “later.”

Work with us today, they had said. Work. Riley could laugh. They were never able to work for longer than a couple of hours.

“We can do that,” Troy growled as his hands roamed up her stomach and then her ribs. He cupped her breasts, and even through her bra, her nipples got hard at the idea of his hands there.

“I shouldn’t get hot at the idea of you being dangerous,” she purred.

“You’re a shifter, Pretty Girl,” Troy chuckled.

“Yeah,” Gabe continued, wearing his Cheshire Cat grin, “your cheetah knows that we’re males who can handle her. Just like our leopards need a woman who can handle us. You’ve got to be wild to do that.”

Gabe kissed her again as Troy nibbled on a sensitive spot where her neck and shoulder met. She could feel and smell they were both as excited as she was. She moaned as Troy dropped a hand and started sliding it into her pants.

“Excuse me,” a rough voice interrupted them. It sounded uncomfortable and unsure. Riley looked over as Gabe turned around. Troy quickly removed his hand. It was Liam, one of their protection detail—one of the bears.

“Can we help you?” Gabe asked, polite and professional. The guards had been well-behaved, so the Pride would be.

“We were told to ask everyone to meet in Alpha Kingson’s office,” Liam said gruffly, before turning around and walking out.

Riley looked between the guys and shrugged.

“Let’s go,” she muttered with a hint of worry. She didn’t like the sound of that.

* * *

She and the leopard brothers walked into the office, leaving Liam to do whatever he was supposed to be doing. She frowned at the crowd crammed into the room, already. Brenton stood behind his desk with Zachary next to him on the right and Andrew on the left. Sheriff was sitting on one end of the couch. Her dad and Special Agent Corban were standing to the side, both holding several pieces of paper.

“Well,” she mumbled, “I can imagine this is important.”

“There’s been some changes to the situation,” Brenton told her and the guys as she walked over to him. She wrapped an arm around his waist as the brothers dropped onto the couch with Sheriff.

“We don’t feel like we’re needed here anymore,” Keith began, holding up a file. “We’ve established that threats from those associated with the hunters appear to be empty, a nonissue. From there, any legitimate threats against you are from other feline shifters.”

“Oh great,” Riley snorted. “So, how long are you staying?”

“We aren’t,” Keith told her, meeting her eyes for the first time in over a week.

“We don’t offer protection services in Pride to Pride situations,” Corban cut in, giving Keith a look. “We’ll give you whatever information we have, and we’ll continue to monitor from hunter threats. But… situations you have with other shifters are your problem. We can’t become biased between different factions.”

“So much for upholding the law,” she muttered, a bit angry.

“It’s their policy,” Brenton sighed down to her. “It’s been like this for a long time.”

“That’s right,” Keith confirmed, nodding. “So, we’re going to spend a day packing up, and we should be out of here by dinner tomorrow.”

“Really?” Troy sounded excited, but Sheriff grumbled.

“About fucking time you all made some headway on anything,” he growled. “Back in my day, it only would have taken a week, and we didn’t have the tech you do now.”

“I’m sorry,” Corban looked down at Sheriff, “we have a lot going on, and we’ve been working with both Mexico’s and Canada’s governments on finally busting up much of the systematic hunter situation.”

“Give me the notes,” Gabe said, holding out his hand. Once Keith handed them over, Gabe looked to Brenton, “I’ll start running these after this little meeting.”

“Of course. Thank you, Gabe,” Brenton said with a smile. “But I don’t see any reason for you to over-work yourself, so you can keep Riley for the day… or the next several, just in case.”

Riley snickered as Gabe grinned her way. With a wiggle of his eyebrows, she stuck her tongue out at him, making all her men growl a little.

“Please, do not,” Brenton groaned. “Please, not with other people here.”

Normally, she would have stuck her tongue out at him for that, but while she was willing to test Sheriff’s patience, she wasn’t comfortable with Keith there. Keith, who disagreed with her relationship. Keith, the father who didn’t even begin to understand the woman she’d become.

She had to reconcile that. If he was leaving tomorrow, she needed to talk to him. She didn’t want to, but it felt somewhat necessary. She had no idea when, or if, she would ever see him again, and that felt… scarier than she thought it would.

He was her father, and he was looking completely okay with walking out her life again.

“Is that everything?” Zachary growled.

“It is,” Corban sighed. “I’m sorry we can’t be more helpful to you. We have to follow the rules on this.”

“Of course,” Brenton said mildly. “Give me a few minutes with my pride, please.”

With nods, Special Agent Corban and her father left the room. They all sat in silence until Sheriff grumbled incoherently, stood up and left as well.

“That bear,” Andrew chuckled. “So, what now?”

“We get back to our lives,” Troy laughed. “Fucking finally.”

“Not so fast,” Zachary cut Troy’s excitement off at the pass. “Security is still a top priority. We don’t know who sold us out to the hunters, since Abel didn’t know. Anything in the notes about that?”

“Yeah, a bank account number,” Gabe mumbled, flipping through pages. “I’ll see where it leads us. They didn’t go much further, since it ruined their neutrality in pride affairs.”

“We need to get that mother fucker,” Zachary growled at Brenton. “We can’t let it slide.”

“I agree,” Brenton growled back. Riley didn’t want to be in the middle of them when they started growling at each other, so she slipped past Brenton and cuddled into Andrew. “But we also need to live our lives. We can’t get wrapped up in some crazy revenge quest. No offense, Riley.” He looked over to her as he said it, and she shrugged.

“None taken,” she chuckled. Andrew rubbed her back, purring in her arms.

“Fine, but once we get a name, we go after that furball and end it,” Zachary pressed Brenton.

“I know,” Brenton said mildly. “Zachary, when are you going to learn that I very rarely disagree with you?”

“I…” Zachary trailed off and concentrated for a moment. “Good point.”

“I know,” Brenton said disdainfully with a roll of his eyes. “Sometimes, Zachary, sometimes I worry about you.”

“Fuck you,” Zachary snarled. Riley watched them and saw their eyes meet. Then both were laughing like teenage girls with a secret.

“Weirdos.” She mumbled.

“Aren’t they?” Andrew chuckled. “Everyone gets on the Walkers, but they don’t see Brenton and Zachary like this.”

“Right?” Riley laughed.

“You two talking smack?” Zachary growled their way, and she shook her head.

“Not smack when it’s true,” she told him with a smug smile.

“I’ll remember that,” Brenton told her with a heated look. “Now, all of you get back to what you were doing. Time for us to move on from all of this.”

“Thank goodness,” Gabe groaned. “Well, not really. I still have some work.”

“Later,” Riley whispered, as she walked out. She slapped his ass and got him to give her a look similar to the one Brenton had just given her.

“Naughty cheetah,” he murmured seductively in her ear. “Do it again.”

“Later,” she whispered even lower. A crook of her finger had both the brothers following her back to the garage, where she intended to finish what they had started.

“That’s impressive,” she heard Andrew laugh.

“Right? They never fall in line like that for me,” Brenton said with some humorous disbelief. “I might be a little jealous.”

“I’m just happy they listen to someone,” Zachary grunted, louder than the others.