Riley wrung her hands together for a minute as she watched the SSTF pack away everything. And there he was, her father, directing them around, about to leave.

Again.

It shouldn’t have bothered her, really. He had barely re-entered her life. Two weeks in her home hadn’t brought them any closer, only marked the distance between them; a distance he had created by walking away.

“Dad?” She called out, making the chatter and conversation around her go quiet. He turned to her and frowned. “Can we talk for a moment? Before you go?”

He had walked out without a goodbye last time. She needed to know if he was okay doing it again. If she mattered so little to him. He was her fucking father—she couldn’t mean so little to him.

Hanging out with the wolves, Zachary, and Abigail had done her a lot of good the evening before. Refilled her batteries and recharged her heart as she watched Abigail dance away from the wolves, who only wanted a friend. She and Zachary had a bit too much to drink and got home howling, James needing to drive them back.

He didn’t answer, but he did walk over to her. She took a deep breath. This was it. Time to see if they could find some agreement. If she wanted one. She hadn’t decided on what, yet, but she would at least give him the opportunity.

“Would you like to talk somewhere privately?” He asked gruffly, folding his arms behind his back. It seemed like he was reporting to her like he would a superior, and that pissed her off a little bit. She bit back the anger and nodded.

“Yeah, we can go for a walk,” she mumbled, walking off the front porch and leading him around the house, away from the noise.

Neither of them said anything for a long time as she walked them closer to the woods. She raised her chin and sniffed at the wind. She didn’t think there were any other shifters or humans around.

“I’m on a tight schedule, Riley,” he reminded her, checking his watch. She reined the anger back a little more.

“Look,” she said with a bite. She wasn’t controlling her anger as well as she had hoped. “I’m trying to… I don’t know, talk about shit, okay? Don’t fucking rush me.”

“What’s there to say?” Keith huffed. “You are mad at me because I needed to go do something and screwed up on making sure you were taken care of. I’m mad at you because you have broken laws to get what you want. And that’s ignoring the… relationship… you have, which is a whole topic that has been made clear to be off-limits.”

She ground her teeth and glared at him.

“We can start at the beginning, then,” she hissed. “You can explain what this thing you needed to do was and why it was so much more important than me.”

“Where do I even start?” He sighed. “What all did you hear from Darcy?”

“The serval?” She snapped. “Oh, just that you’ve been obsessive about catching Mom.”

“I thought shifters killed her,” Keith mumbled. Riley winced.

“I did hear something about that,” she whispered.

“Yeah,” Keith grumbled. “After leaving the Navy to take care of you, I did some research. I was never comfortable with how Lily died… And I stumbled on shifters and what they are, how they are. What I didn’t think is that your mother or you were actually shifters.”

“Well,” Riley huffed, “I’m a half-breed. A couple of different rules on that.”

“I learned those later, too late,” Keith said with a shake of his head. “I met hunters, but that all seemed too…”

“Awful? Despicable? Repulsive? Evil?” Riley threw out her favorite terms to describe hunters, wondering which would stick.

“All of the above.”

At least they could agree on that.

“Continue,” she mumbled. “Please.”

“So, I dug deeper and found out about the SSTF,” Keith shrugged. “And I contacted them. I had all the work experience and the knowledge for them to offer me a job. Suddenly, I had a mission again, a purpose.”

“You already had a purpose,” Riley growled, bitterly.

“I didn’t know anything about raising a child, especially not a girl with an attitude and a wild streak,” Keith scoffed. “Moving on, in my first week with the SSTF, I was shown the Most Wanted list. And there was your mother with a list of her known crimes.”

“Really?” She hissed. “How long did you know who mom was when I didn’t?”

“Two years,” he sighed, looking at the ground. “For two years, I resented having been a fool for falling in love with a criminal. Oh, and the SSTF didn’t hold it against me. They now had an asset, someone who knew where Lily… Isabella had been for years after her break from the Kingson Pride, while that Pride collapsed, slowly but surely. Your guys might not know this but the SSTF saw the Kingson Pride collapsing for nearly a decade before Geoffrey was finally killed. Growing weaker, being picked apart by their enemies.”

“What do they think about the Pride now?” She asked, cautiously.

“They give you all about six more months before the Kingson Pride is forever disbanded,” Keith told her, a deadly whisper, a prediction of the end. She almost didn’t hear him, even with her shifter senses. She felt her heart rate pick up but ignored it. She wasn’t going to let her pride fall, that was for sure, so the SSTF could go eat a dick.

“Why did you leave?” She asked, going hard and straightening her spine.

“There was an undercover mission that needed someone who wasn’t on the system, our digital records. I’m not because of my ties with Isabella. The mission was to go into South America and bring down a Pride with major drug connections,” Keith sighed. “I couldn’t tell them no. Isabella had once done work with that Pride and it was opportunity for more information on her. And catching her is my life’s goal.”

“Why is everyone so obsessed with her?” Riley snarled. “You, Cameron Slater, fucking half the shifter community, and nearly all the felines. What the actual fuck?”

“I loved her,” Keith growled at her. “That’s why I’m bringing her in. So she can stand trial for her crimes.”

“And you can say that you didn’t love her more than your duty to home and country,” Riley hissed with disgust. “Is that right?”

“Yes.”

It was the only answer she needed. There it was, the truth laid out in front of her. Her father loved his family, sure… but he was ashamed of them.

“You love home and country more than me,” she said, tears finally welling in her eyes. “Thank you for finally confirming that.”

“I do not-”

“You made that decision, Dad, about eight years ago,” Riley whispered. “Don’t try to lie to me now.”

“You look like her,” Keith growled. “You know that? You are her, about five inches shorter, but I won’t lie to you and say you look anything like me. If it weren’t for the shifters around, confirming the familial scent… Riley…”

“You didn’t think I was actually your daughter,” she muttered with pure rage. “Are you fucking kidding me? Is that why, even when your plans for a new home for me failed, you didn’t come back?”

“I had a very small window to make that work. Very small. I had one number and an address.” Keith shook his head. “By the time I learned that he’d been unreachable, I was already on the mission, two weeks in and unable to back out. And, a few people thought it was safer for everyone if I kept on the mission and you just made do. Part of me…”

“Part of you what?” Riley yelled at him, making him jump.

“Part of me wonders if my superiors were trying to screw you for being Isabella’s daughter,” he admitted, looking upset. “But they gave me a purpose, and they kept me a bit aware of your life. I knew you were having a hard time. I knew you graduated, though, and I was proud of you.”

She took a couple of steps back and began to laugh until she cried. She covered her face and couldn’t stop herself.

“Even they judge me for being her daughter,” Riley laughed. “I didn’t know they existed, and they hate her so much. I barely fucking know her, and I can’t escape her.”

“I never proved anything, and by the time I was done in South America, you had moved on with life. I saw you with that boyfriend… whatever his name was and thought it was okay. And I… I felt guilty for it all and stayed away.”

“And you proceeded to ignore my existence for years,” she said, finally calmed back down. The injustice of it all. Oh, she was still pissed, but she could at least control herself again.

“I thought it was easier on both of us,” he mumbled, full of guilt.

“And when you showed up here?” She waved a hand around. “What the fuck was that?”

“I heard about what you did and realized you had gotten in too deep. Now, you are going to live in her world and behave like her. I was pissed off.” Keith shook his head. “I still am. I’m disappointed in you, Riley. I thought maybe my influence on you as a kid would have made you different from her. You had options, and yet, you chose to go out and get revenge instead of trusting the authorities. And everyone in the SSTF knows you’re also my daughter. All I heard for two days before I got here was how I fathered the new Isabella, off burning down houses and hanging out with the young, newer generation of the Kingson Pride.”

He did not just go there again. He did not just say she was another Isabella. She was not her mother.

“You should go,” she hissed. “Like right now. If you think you can compare me to her, then you should just go and stay gone. If you think what I did was in any way like her schemes, then just leave.”

“I really should, since it looks like you aren’t willing to admit there’s anything wrong with what you did,” Keith snapped. Then he added, just a bit gentler, “Have a nice life, Riley. I love you.”

“Sure, you do,” she mumbled as he walked away. “Sure, you do…”

She waited until she heard their vehicles leave before walking back towards the house. He had seemed to feel somewhat guilty for it all, but he also didn’t seem to regret it. The fact that some underhanded asshole in the SSTF had convinced him that abandoning her was okay made her look down on the organization. She’d been sixteen… what had she done that deserved that? And he’d let them, never tried to prove they had done it to her on purpose.

“Riley?” A feminine, older voice called out. Riley looked up as she got closer to the back door. Patty was an older woman, though Sheriff said that she was still as beautiful as the day he met her. They had been married for nearly forty years and had several sons. She had claimed the bear’s heart and held on to it with a patient, loving kindness that could break down even the angriest person. She had the kindest brown eyes and simple, long brown hair that she held back in a braid. Riley thought she was beautiful, not just in body, but also in spirit.

Patty Johnson gave her a sad once over and walked over. Riley didn’t say anything as the human woman, nearly in her sixties, hugged her tightly. Riley wrapped her arms around Patty and held back another wave of tears.

“Why didn’t they care about me?” Riley whispered, trying so hard to hold it all back. “Why did neither of them love me enough to stay?”

“I don’t know, Riley,” Patty told her, clinging to her and rubbing her back. “But my Sheriff loves you. And I do too, even if he tries to keep me from interacting with other shifters. The boys love you. We all love you, and hopefully, one day, it will hurt less.”

“I hope so,” Riley cried softly.

“I’ll be your mom, because yours didn’t realize how wonderful her daughter is,” Patty continued. “I’ll help you with boy problems, teach you how to bake, all of it. Sheriff will knock the boys around when they break your heart, sometimes. We might not be your real parents, but we’ve always wanted a daughter.”

“I told Sheriff I considered him my father,” Riley choked out a laugh through the tears.

“Oh, I know,” Patty laughed softly. “He came home like he’d just saved the world. “‘Riley loves me more than Keith!’ It was the silliest thing I had ever seen. We’d never been blessed with a daughter, and you give him that. We’ve never been close, but… maybe in time you’ll see how much I care for you, even if was just through him.”

“Thank you, Patty.” Riley smiled, pulling back from the embrace. “Thank you for being around with Sheriff. I know the guys have been a bit on edge, but you’ve really brightened this place up for us.”

“Come inside,” Patty said, ignoring Riley’s thanks. Riley chuckled as Patty pulled her along. Once they were at the door, Patty leaned in close. “Never say thank you for being loved. It’s what you deserve.”

Riley blinked back a new wave of tears.

“Come on, let’s go eat something,” Patty chuckled, wiping Riley’s cheek. Patty was nearly six feet tall, and Riley felt like a child again with the older woman doting on her. She pulled her face away from Patty’s hand, who only laughed. They were both smiling as they walked into the kitchen together.

Riley could rebuild. Hell, she already had rebuilt. This was just a stumble. She didn’t need him. She hadn’t needed him for years. He’d just reopened the old hurts and the old pain.

Now, looking at Brenton and Sheriff arguing over something or another, Zachary teasing the leopard brothers, and Andrew hauling food into the dining room, Riley realized who her family was. Not the mother who was off her rocker. Not the father driven by a sense of duty she couldn’t fathom.

This was her family.

And that was all that mattered.

She would fight for them until her last breath because they were the first people to do it for her.