Zachary
Zachary laughed at the stupid movie they had on. Riley had decided to have a day to herself and the guys all nursed beers and hung out while she did. He couldn’t deny he wanted to see her again as soon as possible but he wouldn’t encroach on her personal time.
“Fuck, I love the Rock,” Troy laughed, throwing popcorn at Gabe.
“I love this movie,” Andrew took a deep breath since he’d spent the last five minutes laughing hysterically.
They were watching Central Intelligence with Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and Kevin Hart. Zachary tried hated it but he couldn’t stop himself from laughing. He loved a good horror movie though. He found that out just the night before.
“I fucking hate everything about this,” Brenton groaned. They all knew he was spy movie buff but not this. He was a James Bond kind of guy. “Why are we watching this?”
“Because we had nothing else to watch?” Andrew sighed. He wasn’t finding it funny either. So far only two out five were okay with this flick. Zachary was on the fence. He wanted to hate it but he was laughing for most of it. Something was wrong with him.
His phone vibrated on the table and he checked the name. Riley.
“Pause it,” he called out and answered the call. He put it on speaker so they would all clearly hear and could talk back.
“Hey, baby,” he spoke into the phone.
“Zachary? Zachary!” He heard a sob as Riley said his name through obvious tears.
“Riley? Riley, what’s wrong?” He growled and all guys were standing up. He did as well, holding the phone in the middle of them.
“Star is hurt!” She cried out. “And my apartment is-” Another sob cut her sentence short. “My apartment was broken into! They hurt Star, Zachary! I don’t know-” More crying.
“Riley,” he snapped into action. They guys were running to garage, mobilizing. He followed them. “Listen to me, You keep Star with you, make sure she’s not bleeding. Can you do that?”
“Yes!” She cried back to him and his heart crumbled at the sound.
“Alright, do you know if anyone is still in your apartment?”
“It’s… it’s empty.” she cried softly now, a little far away and he heard her whispering to her cat softly. A tiny pitiful meow was picked up by the phone. He bit back a snarl. She didn’t need to hear that right now.
He jumped into the Range rover Brenton was driving. They were taking all three just in case. Brenton pointed to Zachary’s boots on the floor and Zachary only nodded.
“Baby, you stay right with Star then. Can you close the front door?”
“No, they busted the handle,” she was barely there at this point. She was more crying then ability to speak.
“You stay on this phone and keep talking, we’re on our way.” He finally growled at her. He put the phone in a cup holder where he could still talk to her and hear her. He pulled on his boots in case he needed to kick ass tonight. And he wanted to. Some one fucked with their girl and they were going to fucking die for it.
He convinced her to talk and tell him how Star was doing for the entire fifteen minute drive. Brenton went as fast as he could safely go, with both other Range Rovers close behind them. The minute they rolled up to the apartment, Zachary jumped out and began hauling up the stairs three at a time. The entire pride was close behind, Gabe being the closest.
They found Riley holding Star in the corner of her living room, surrounded by chaos. Zachary went straight to her and growled softly at the shape Star was in. Someone had kicked her into a wall, it was apparent. No serious external damage but the internal damage could be severe. There was also a dent in the plaster where the cat hit near Riley. Dear Lord.
“Riley,” he finally forced out. Andrew ran to get the cat carrier and brought it to them. “Let Andrew rush Star to a vet, can you do that?”
She eventually looked up to them and nodded slowly. Andrew gently took the poor small cat and eased her in the carrier. The moment he had it closed, he was gone. One Range Rover was now out of the picture.
Zachary knelt down, reached out and touched her cheek. He heard the other guys moving around the apartment, assessing the damage.
“I want you to go home with Troy and Gabe,” He whispered to her, wiping her face. “I promised you I would keep you safe, they will make sure you get back to the mansion and no one hurts you or Star again, okay?”
She nodded and he stepped back unable to handle the wave of emotions he was dealing with. Troy and Gabe helped her stand and walked her out. Brenton kissed her forehead as they passed him.
They heard the second Range Rover leave and Zachary threw a fist into the wall and roared. He did it two more times and looked to his Alpha. Brenton was barely holding it together across the room, his muscles tense. They had two different types of temper. Brenton’s was internal, raging inside, to himself while Zachary threw it out into the world. He was seeing red right now, his tiger ready to jump out and fucking eat someone.
“How fucking dare they?” He snarled viciously to his Alpha. “Who the fuck do they think they are?”
“I don’t know. What I can tell you is that this was done by two feline shifters, shifters who should fucking know better.” Brenton growled back. “I don’t know who they are, neither did the other guys. None of us recognized their scents.”
“She’s not fucking living here anymore,” Zachary snarled. “She is never coming back here, Brenton. Do you hear me?”
“Do you hear me arguing with you?” Brenton hissed, stepping into Zachary’s space. “Get to work, we need to find clues now and then we need to pack her stuff.”
Zachary nodded, still growling in his chest as he looked around. He also picked the scents of the two feline shifters. He could only pick out their species, a cougar and an ocelot, both male. Fucking strange males were in her home. He was not okay with that.
The couch was a major casualty, torn up, cut open, cushions tossed around the room. The TV was smashed and pieces of the screen were scattered every on the carpet. The cat tree had been knocked down and broken and the litter box was flipped.
The kitchen was worse. Dishes shattered, food thrown every where. It was a hazard zone.
He moved slowly to her bedroom and snarled in a renewed rush of rage. They had gone through all her clothing, tossing it every where. They then cut open the mattress and completely ruined it. Her entire closet was scattered around the room.
He didn’t bother with the bathroom. He got the picture.
“They were looking for something and decided to hide that search in the mess,” he hissed to Brenton. “Why else would they cut open the couch cushions and mattress?”
“Fuck.” Brenton growled. “What could they have possibly been looking for? Riley doesn’t fucking have anything! This could also just be someone incredibly pissed off though, we can’t discount that theory.”
“Hell if I know, but I’ve seen scenes like this before.” Zachary was going to kill someone. The first feline shifter he got his hands on that wasn’t a member of their pride had a death sentence. “And you’re right, this could just be a really pissed off scare tactic.”
He looked down at all her clothing. He picked up a few shirt he knew were theirs. “Fuck me,” he sighed.
“Let’s grab a bunch of her clothing so she has something to wear,” Brenton growled.
“No,” Zachary growled.
“She needs-”
“We’re taking fucking everything that isn’t ruined. She’s never coming back here, Brenton. I fucking meant that. We have the entire Range Rover. Riley is safe with the brothers and Andrew is helping Star. We are never coming back here once we leave.” Zachary looked to his Alpha. “I’ll fucking challenge you over it, fucking try me.”
Brenton nodded slowly to him and they got to work. It was grueling as they slowly went through everything their little female had in her entire life. Zachary was happy to see most of her art supplies were relatively safe from the destruction and so were her sketchbooks. He took a moment to stare at the stack of sketchbooks that she kept hidden from them. He knew she was an artist but she had yet to share her work with them. He resisted the urge to look through them but only barely.
It took them two hours to put everything Riley could still use in the Range Rover, including anything for Star. It wasn’t much but they wanted her to have as much of her own things as they could get. They would replace anything else, money wasn’t an issue. They also would hire someone to clean up the apartment and let the lease run out on it.
Most of the time was just digging through the destruction to find things she could keep. Nothing in the kitchen was worth the effort and Zachary noticed a surprising lack of any photos of her family or previous life before Wild Junction. Every moment he stayed in the apartment, the more his heart broke.
Finally, he sank into the passenger seat and groaned. Brenton was similar in the driver’s seat.
“What do you think this was about?” He finally asked his Alpha.
“Hard to say, could be her mother but that news only broke twenty four hours ago.” Brenton was still growling, just like Zachary. “I don’t think it’s us, since we haven’t had the chance to even introduce her to anyone outside of Wild Junction. Unless we’re being spied on, no one should know she exists except through the Lily Stern/Isabella Gordon connection. And it happened just too fucking fast.”
Zachary nodded to Brenton as they pulled away.
“At least she wasn’t fucking there for the break in,” Brenton snarled. “What was she doing tonight?”
“Andrew mentioned something about her meeting Haley for dinner. Those two are having some problems, I guess,” Zachary tried his best to keep his temper under control. He needed to remain calm for her. He wanted to hold her the moment he got home and just take a breath of her scent.
“Ah, we’ll have to ask her about that later. Apparently those problems are because Haley doesn’t like us in her life,” Brenton spoke softly now. Zachary could see Brenton’s temper had left him tired. That was fine, since Zachary had enough anger to fuel the entire pride.
“Why would they hurt the cat?” Brenton groaned. “Of all the animals on this earth, why would they kick a tiny little cat who couldn’t do anything to them?”
Zachary didn’t know what to say to that. Most feline shifters loved cats of any variety. It was instinctual and hard to deny. They were cousins on the non-human side and deserved their love and respect.
They pulled in to the mansion and still heard nothing from Andrew. It’d been nearly three hours since they got the cat out of the apartment and Andrew had yet to contact them. That was bad.
They didn’t bother unloading anything yet and headed straight for the den. Zachary’s heart stopped at the sight of Riley curled between Troy and Gabe. She had stopped crying and now just looked completely shell-shocked. Brenton passed him and knelt down by her, whispering softly about how they were all going to be okay and she would be safe with them.
He finally snapped, left the den and called Andrew, who picked up on the second ring.
“Status report.” He growled at his pride brother.
“Surgery for ruptured spleen. Broken back leg, it’ll need to be amputated. Nothing else.” Andrew sighed heavily. “She got lucky and should be fine, released to us in about a week if everything goes well. How’s Riley?”
“Shell-shocked. Want to tell her Star will be okay yourself? We’ve got her in the den. Troy and Gabe brought her home. Brenton and I stayed behind to grab everything we could and leave. She’s never going back there.”
“Yeah, I would like to talk to her.” Andrew didn’t say anything else. Zachary knew there was nothing to say. Their girl had been a victim of a vicious attack. She might not of been injured personally but she was still the target.
Zachary brought the phone in and walked over to the four shifters now huddled on the same couch. Gabe had let Brenton in the middle. Riley was now on Brenton’s lap, silent tears falling again.
“Baby,” Zachary whispered to her. “Andrew has news about Star.”
He hit speaker phone and saw Riley perk up, just a little.
“Riley?” Andrew’s voice filled the room.
“Andrew,” she mumbled back. “How is she?”
“She’s in surgery for a ruptured spleen and her back leg had is going to be amputated. The vet says she should make a full recovery since she’s a healthy young cat.”
At that rough good news, Riley broken down and Brenton rocked her gently.
“Why would someone do this?” She wailed into him, Zachary’s stomach dropped.
“We don’t know, beautiful. We’re going to find out though,” Brenton whispered to her, continuing to rock her.
Why would anyone do this to her? Her mother?
Zachary turned off speaker phone, thanked Andrew and wished him well. The call ended and Zachary sat on the sturdy coffee table between the couches. He faced Riley and the rest of them, but he only had eyes for her at that moment.
When Riley eventually stopped crying, she sighed and looked to him.
“Thank you, for answering and…”
“Don’t say that, baby,” Zachary whispered to her. “I told you, call me if anything happens and I would get there, no matter what. Now, we need to talk about a couple things.”
She nodded. He felt bad, since she looked so tired but they had to get this out of the way right now or it would be a fight later on. He knew Brenton was on his side for this one.
“You are going to live here from now on,” he whispered firmly. “You are never going back to the apartments, I won’t tolerate it.”
She nodded slowly. Thank God, he groaned internally.
“Your room won’t be done for another week, so we are going to put you temporarily in a guest room,” Benton spoke softly in her ear. “We’ll be driving you every where, no more walking around without us.”
She continued to nod. They were taking advantage of the fact she was just violated and her space was destroyed. It was manipulative and they didn’t care in that moment. They might have brought this down on her and they were going to do what they had to so she remained safe. Zachary could smell disapproval from Troy and Gabe but those two wouldn’t challenge him or Brenton in front of her. The brothers didn’t like they were rolling over her while she was upset but Zachary would bet his life they agreed with what he was telling her.
They had failed once, they couldn’t tolerate a second.
“We’re going to buy you replacements of everything that was lost. No complaints. You need clothes, and all manner of other things.” Zachary kept his eyes on her and she gave him the last nod he needed. He leaned forward and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Hell, we’re just going to get you everything we think you need.”
They could do this. They could protect her. They would protect her.