CHAPTER NINE
Before Tao even opened his eyes, he knew he was alone. He reached out with his enhanced hearing, listening for any movements in the bathroom. There were none, but Riley’s scent was strong enough in the air to suggest that she hadn’t been gone long.
He inhaled deeply, taking that scent inside him. It shot right to his cock, and he almost groaned. It was a sincere shame she wasn’t right there beside him—he could have rolled her onto her back and driven himself deep inside her.
After edging out of bed, he washed and dressed in a black T-shirt and dark blue jeans before heading downstairs. There were no sounds coming from inside the cabin, so he guessed she was either out on the porch or lying on the sun lounger. But when he slipped out the patio door a few minutes later with a cup of coffee in hand, it was to find no sign of her.
Hearing a distinct prruk-prruk call, he looked up to see a very familiar raven soaring above the trees. The metallic glint of her feathers shone in the sunlight, making them seem alternately blue and purple.
His wolf pushed against his skin, wanting out, wanting to play with the pretty raven. Instead Tao leaned against the porch post and watched as she performed a series of carefree, acrobatic flying maneuvers. As she flew, her wings made a sound that was much like silk rustling. She was so incredibly agile and beautiful, much like Riley herself. It was surprisingly relaxing to just watch her flutter around.
After a minute or so, she swept down and perched on the wooden porch rail. Head cocked, she blinked at him. Those dark-brown eyes held a surprising amount of intelligence and curiosity. The raven had come close to him before, but never this close—she seemed to prefer dropping worms on his head.
“Don’t bite me with that big beak.” Slowly he reached out and lightly skimmed a finger over her long wings. The feathers were softer than he’d expected.
Her body dipped low, making her large, slightly curved bill lift. It made him think of a wolf getting ready to pounce. She let out a toc-toc-toc sound.
“I don’t know what that means.”
She edged along the rail, moving closer to him. Swift as lightning, she snapped her beak around the cell phone sticking out of his pocket and was gone in a rustle of wings.
“Hey, give it back!”
She didn’t. Instead she circled him low enough that he could almost touch her. Again and again she did it—taunting him. He jumped up to grab her tail and almost had her. She settled on a tree branch, dangling the phone toward the ground . . . and that was when he realized there was a huge rock at the base of the tree.
“Don’t you dare!” But she would dare. The raven could be a little devil at times. He balanced his cup on the wooden rail and stalked over to the tree. “Give it back.” He held out his hand, repeating, “Give it back.” But of course she didn’t. “Riley, tell your damn raven to hand it over.”
The raven soared out of the tree and landed on the porch swing, where she dumped his phone. Her throat feathers puffed up and a deep croak seemed to rattle out of her. It sounded like a complaint—possibly that he was no fun—but Tao couldn’t be sure.
“Whatever,” he grumbled, snatching his phone just as she flew off. Instead of heading back to the trees, she retreated into the house. A few moments later, Riley came out in one of his flannel shirts. “I don’t think your raven likes me much,” he said.
“Actually, she thinks you’re freaking hilarious.”
Leaning his back against the porch post, he curled an arm around her and drew her against him. “Hilarious?”
“She likes to play, and she thinks it’s funny when you moan and whine.”
Affronted, he frowned. “Dominant male wolves do not whine.”
“You do.”
“Whatever.”
“If you want the truth, she’s becoming worryingly attached to you. You should probably run while you still can.” Her raven didn’t get attached to people easily. When she did, she held on tight. It took a lot to make her let go.
He snorted, sliding his hand under her shirt to cup her delightfully bare ass. “You think my wolf’s any less attached to you? He hasn’t given me a minute’s peace since he caught your scent. Even at the beginning, before you managed to charm him, he wanted you.” Tao licked at the mark on her neck. “All he’s done is hound me to take you. It’s not easy to not be at peace with your inner animal. This is the most relaxed he’s been in a while, even though you’re in danger and he hates it.”
Taking all that into consideration, Riley said, “Our animals are weird.”
“I can’t argue with that.” He combed his fingers through her hair, letting his gaze drift a little too possessively over her face. She wasn’t wearing any makeup, and yet she looked too beautiful for words. “I have no idea why you wear makeup. You don’t need it.”
Riley’s mouth twitched. From anyone else that might have been a compliment. But this was just Tao being his direct, outspoken self, complaining about her use of cosmetics. “I’ll take that on board.”
“You should.” Cupping her pussy, he slid a finger between her folds, humming as he found her wet. “I didn’t like waking up alone. I like finding you next to me.”
“You like morning sex,” she corrected. She slid her hands up his chest and he winced ever so slightly, but she caught it. Her smile faded. “I really am sorry about the marks.”
He rubbed his nose against hers. “I told you: don’t be.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“I pushed you too hard; you reacted.”
“Clawing you is one thing; scarring you is another.” His mate would hate her for it. Yeah, well, Riley would hate her right back just for having him. God, she despised jealousy.
“What are you thinking that has you scowling?”
“That your mate will hate me for leaving a permanent brand on you.” It wasn’t so much that that bothered her, it was that . . . “And then you’ll hate me for upsetting her.”
Snapping open his fly, he said, “I could never hate you.” Tao lifted her and settled her over his cock, groaning as she took him deep. “Not ever.” He turned them so she was up against the post as he took her with short, feral digs until he came so hard it almost blew the head off his cock. And he knew it wasn’t just his wolf who was becoming attached to Riley; it was him.
Later, after breakfast, Tao called Sage for an update. They hadn’t yet found the gunman, which pissed Tao off and had Riley pacing up and down the den like a caged tiger. The Alpha assured them that the Beta and his enforcers would continue their search until the human was found.
A whole day passed without success. And another. And another. The shooter seemed to have literally disappeared. That didn’t go down well with Riley at all. She’d gotten more and more restless as the days went by. Tao had kept a close watch on her, worried she’d get tired of waiting and go hunting for the human herself. So when they were invited to share a meal with the entire flock, Tao accepted the invitation, hoping it would cheer her up a little.
Unlike his pack, the flock didn’t share daily meals, but it did eat together once every two weeks. Of course, his nature balked at the idea of spending time with a bunch of people who were, for the most part, strangers. But if it would distract Riley from her worries, it was worth it.
So, he and Riley made their way to the main cabin for the evening meal. It quickly became clear that the event wasn’t being held inside the building, but in the pretty garden outside. The style in which the long wooden tables were set up, forming a U shape, made Tao think of a medieval banquet. Circular stands of food stood within the U shape.
Spotting Cynthia at the head table with Lucy and the Alphas, Tao was sure to send the bitch a narrow-eyed look, communicating that he knew exactly who’d shredded his clothes. Her brow furrowed in confusion, but he wasn’t buying it. He didn’t miss that Riley tossed her a hostile look, and he wasn’t at all surprised.
While they ate, Tao scanned the tables. Although the ravens were smiling and laughing, there was a tension that hadn’t been present at the anniversary party. One of their own had been injured and there had been no justice, so they were naturally a little on edge. But soon after the last plates were cleared, bottles of tequila were brought out and the whole atmosphere changed.
“Ravens love tequila,” Riley told him. Of course, she tended to despise it when she was hungover.
Lucy, who’d joined them after finishing her dessert, said, “Riley usually drinks us under the table. Not tonight, though. No. Tonight, I will be the last one standing.”
Riley smiled sweetly. “You always say that. And you always fall flat on your face at least an hour before Max does.”
“I do not fall on my face,” insisted Max, flushing, but Ethan snorted.
“There will be no falling on my face this time.” Lucy shook her finger at Riley. “Tonight, your wolf here will need to carry you to your cabin and I will be perfectly alert and coherent.”
Tao wasn’t surprised that things didn’t quite work out like that. The tequila kept flowing and, though it seemed that ravens had a high tolerance for it, most of the flock retired to their cabins after a couple of hours.
By midnight the only people still around were he, Riley, her uncles, Lucy, the Alphas, and Hugh. Everyone was smashed, except Tao, who hadn’t touched a drop of tequila.
Lucy slammed down her glass and lifted her hands. “I’m done,” she slurred. “You win, Ri.”
“Doesn’t she always?” grumbled Max, resting his chin in his hand.
“Lucy, come dance with me, sweetheart,” urged Ruby, who’d been swaying in the center of the tables for a while now.
Lucy’s brows drew together. “But there’s no music.”
“We can’t let a little thing like that stop us.” Ruby dragged her daughter out of her chair. “I’ll sing.”
“Oh God, no, don’t sing,” Sage begged his mate.
Ruby planted her hands on her hips. “Are you saying I don’t have a good singing voice?”
Sage lifted his glass. “Woman, you’re tone-deaf and you know it.”
Hugh laughed, which earned him a scowl from Ruby.
“That was mean, Dad,” Lucy told him. “I’m not saying it isn’t true, but it was totally and utterly—” Her body jerked just as a thunderous sound cracked through the air.
Tao knocked Riley onto the ground and covered her body with his, shouting, “Everybody down!” The ravens dove to the floor, knocking glasses everywhere. Sage and Max army-crawled their way to Lucy. Ruby was already there, putting pressure on Lucy’s chest, her hands red with blood. Shit. Feeling Riley wriggle under him, he hissed, “No, stay still.”
“But Lucy—”
“Will be all right,” Ethan assured her. “Max is with her now; he’ll help.”
If he’d been on his own territory, Tao might have risked trying to get to Lucy, knowing Taryn could heal him if need be. He’d never realized just how much he truly relied on Taryn’s healing skills until then. “Be still for me, Riley,” he growled.
She punched the ground. “I need to check Lucy!”
“What we need is to get her inside.” Luckily, the ravens were already well ahead of Tao on that one. Sage, Ruby, and Hugh did their best to shield Max as he carried Lucy into the main cabin. Tao nodded at Ethan, who then helped him provide cover for Riley as they followed the others inside.
In the den Ethan went straight to Max, who was leaning over the sofa and using his limited healing skills on a half-aware Lucy. Ruby paced at her side, frantic, while Sage yelled orders into his cell phone to “find that bastard.” Just moments before, they’d all been swaying and slurring. Nothing like a shooting to sober everyone up.
Finally Max straightened, sweat beading his forehead. “The bleeding’s stopped. The bullet missed her heart and doesn’t seem to have done any internal damage. She’ll probably be asleep for a while.”
“Thank you, Max.” Stroking her daughter’s hair, Ruby looked accusingly at her mate. “You told me you were sure the human was long gone.” Her voice shook with suppressed rage.
“We all thought that,” said Sage. “Hugh and the enforcers were sure he was nowhere near our territory.”
“Obviously they were wrong,” Ruby clipped.
“We searched everywhere,” Hugh told her. “Every area, every cave, every possible hiding place you can think of. There wasn’t even a trail to follow.”
Ruby whirled to face Tao. “I want the name of this human who has assassins shooting my daughter!”
Tao lifted his chin. “I don’t think it was him.”
Everyone swung to face Tao, their eyes widening.
“Excuse me?” asked Ruby.
“It makes absolutely no sense that he would ask someone to shoot your daughter,” said Tao.
Hugh exchanged a look with Sage. “Maybe he did it to get at Riley.”
Tao shook his head at the Beta. “He shot at Riley to get at me. Or at least I thought he did. There’s no reason for him to think that shooting Lucy or any other member of this flock would hurt me. The guy’s brother is dying, and he has it in his head that my Alpha female can help. He’s pissed at me because he feels I didn’t heed him. Does it make sense that he would have someone shoot at Riley as a warning to my pack? Yes, it does. Does it make sense that he would have someone shoot Lucy? None at all.”
Ruby clutched the collar of her sweater. “He might mistakenly think Lucy means something to you.”
“And why would he think that?” asked Tao. “I’ve spent no real time with Lucy. What’s more, she’s no one to my Alphas—they’re the people he wants the attention of, not you.”
Hugh rubbed the back of his head. “Who else would shoot at Riley and Lucy?”
Tao raised a brow. “You don’t think it’s odd that, out of all the things this person targeting them could have done, they shot at them? As I understand it, there was only ever one other time a gun was used against your flock members.”
Riley closed her eyes, not liking where she suspected he was going with this. She took a deep breath, trying to calm her raven.
“Wade’s dead,” Ruby whispered.
“But maybe someone feels he didn’t finish his job,” said Tao. “Lucy was supposed to be at that party, wasn’t she?”
Sage nodded, brows knitted. “She was on her way there when the shooting started.”
Ruby jutted out her chin. “No, this is totally unrelated.”
“Where did Wade get the gun?” Tao asked Sage.
“We figured he stole it from one of the humans who go hunting around here,” replied Sage. “But the person who shot Lucy and Riley used a rifle, Wade used a shotgun. He dumped it outside Alec’s house before he shifted and flew off into the mountains. We destroyed it.”
“They’re likely using a rifle because it’s better for shooting long-distance targets.” Tao folded his arms. “Just because it’s not the exact same weapon doesn’t mean I’m wrong.”
Ruby looked from Sage to Tao. “You can’t seriously think one of the flock did this.”
“Why not?” asked Tao. He understood why she wouldn’t want to believe it, but he wouldn’t placate her—they all needed to face the facts so they could take appropriate action. As long as they were blaming the wrong person, no one was safe.
Ruby opened her mouth, but no words came out. She shook her head again. “I won’t believe it.”
“Whatever way you look at this,” began Tao, “it makes no real sense that the human would target your daughter. Riley was right there at the table. He could have just as easily shot her”—the thought made his stomach roll—“but he chose not to. Lucy wasn’t near Riley, so he couldn’t have accidentally shot her. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that two people who should have technically died at the shooting are now being targeted with a weapon similar to what would have killed them that night.” He turned to Riley, who looked a little shell-shocked. “Who else should have been there?”
“Um, Cynthia. Apparently she had a ‘wardrobe crisis’ or something.” Riley looked to Sage for confirmation, and the Alpha nodded.
“Duncan should have been there too,” said Hugh. “And Sawyer.”
“Why weren’t they?” Tao asked.
Hugh shrugged. “I don’t know about Duncan; you’d have to ask him.”
“Sawyer was at our cabin, looking for Riley,” said Max, slumping into an armchair. “They’d just broken up, but he wanted to walk her to the party. I told him she’d already left.”
Ethan nodded. “Then we heard the shots. Normally we’re not alarmed by the sound of gunfire, but”—he swallowed—“we heard the screams, we knew something was wrong.”
Hugh let out a long sigh. “I don’t want to believe that one of our own could do this.”
“Wade was one of yours, and he did it,” Tao pointed out. He didn’t want to be insensitive, but he wouldn’t allow them to bury their heads in the sand.
Sage inhaled deeply. “Tomorrow, Hugh and I will question every member of the flock. We need their whereabouts for tonight and the morning that Ethan was shot. The only people we can be sure had no part in the shootings are in this room.”
Ruby once more shook her head in denial. “I don’t see how it could be anyone in this flock.” She held up her hand when her mate tried to speak. “I don’t want to think about it anymore. I just want to put Lucy to bed.”
Sage hugged his mate. “Then that’s what we’ll do.” He whispered something into her ear; whatever it was made her visibly gather herself.
Tao took Riley’s hand. “We’ll go.”
“I’ll drive you all back home.” Hugh pulled out his car keys. “I doubt anyone’s still out there aiming a rifle—they hit their target, after all, and they’ll be hiding from the enforcers. But it’s best to be safe.”
Ethan grabbed Max by the arm and pulled him to his feet. “Home.”
Max nodded. “Home.”
Hugh first dropped off Ethan and Max, who both warned Tao to “watch over” Riley. Tao picked up on the double meaning: “keep her safe” and “make sure she doesn’t go off alone.” She seemed to have also picked up on the double meaning, because she gave both her uncles a narrow-eyed look.
When Hugh pulled up outside the guest cabin, Tao thanked him for the ride before literally hustling Riley inside. Locking the door, he announced, “We should leave.”
She whirled on Tao. “What?”
“Leave. Tonight.”
She took a step back, shaking her head. “I’m not going anywhere.”
His wolf growled. “Yes, you are,” said Tao, his tone nonnegotiable. He knew he needed to handle this delicately, but he wasn’t a delicate guy. “This situation isn’t what it seemed. You weren’t shot at as a warning; the gunman didn’t deliberately miss. You’ve got a crazy-ass son of a bitch out there shooting at the guests that didn’t show up for Alec’s party. Their bullet did nothing more than graze you, which may not be enough for them. They could try again. We need to leave.”
“Run away, you mean? No way.”
“It’s not running, it’s being smart.”
“I want to find out who shot Ethan and Lucy, and I want their blood. I’m not leaving here until I have it.”
Tao would have ranted and railed at her until he got his way, but the sight of her—pale, confused, hands shaking with suppressed anger—made his heart soften. And not a lot could do that, because he was a hard bastard. “Ethan and Lucy would agree that this isn’t a place you should be right now.”
“Has it occurred to you that you’re wrong and it was the human? That he shot Lucy to scare us into leaving so we’ll be easier to grab?”
Actually, he hadn’t thought of that. It annoyed him that he couldn’t deny it was a possible scenario.
“Either way, Tao, I’m not leaving.”
“Why? What can you do here? You’re not an enforcer. Let the people responsible for the safety of the flock handle this—that’s their job.”
“Oh, and they’ve done a great job of that so far, haven’t they?” she mocked.
“You can’t find this bastard alone—”
“So help me.” Her voice cracked. She never asked anyone for anything, which was why Tao seemed taken aback by the request. It wasn’t that she was too proud to seek help, rather she liked relying on herself. But this . . . this was different. “I was a mess after the shootings, Tao. I don’t do well with grief, I’m not strong when faced with it.”
The self-condemnation in her voice pissed him off. “That’s not weak, Riley. Of course you find death hard to cope with—it must trigger memories and dredge up all the pain you felt when you lost your parents.”
“You think it was bad the other day when I disappeared in my ‘zone’?” Riley shook her head. “That was nothing compared to how I was after that party.”
“Do you think I’d judge you for that? Hell, you might not have watched all those people get shot at the party, but you were there and you heard it. That would leave anyone a mess.”
“It wasn’t just the victims I was grieving, though, Tao. I was grieving the friend I lost, and I couldn’t even be seen doing it because he’d taken all those lives. It was so hard to watch people hate Wade, to watch them forget that he’d been a victim of their kids all his life. I’m not saying those kids deserved to die. They didn’t, not by any means. But how was it fair that everyone so easily overlooked just how much pain Wade must have been in to get in that state?
“What made it worse was that I didn’t even have the space to grieve because Shirley was harassing me, blaming me for what he did. But Ethan, Max, and Lucy were there for me. They talked with me about the old Wade, looked through his pictures with me, and helped me grieve the person I once knew. They didn’t judge me or try to make me feel bad for grieving a killer. Without them I wouldn’t have coped. I really wouldn’t have. They were there for me when I needed help, so I’ll be damned if I’ll walk away from this and—”
Tao grabbed her nape and pulled her to him, wrapping an arm around her. “Shh,” he soothed, rubbing her back. He wanted to argue with her, talk her into changing her mind, but the pain in her eyes and voice absolutely gutted him. He kissed her temple. “I’ll make you a deal. We’ll stay and we’ll try to find out who did it, but if somebody tries to hurt you again in the meantime, Riley, we go. That’s the deal.”
“And if I don’t agree to go until I’ve made the bastard pay?”
“I’ll shoot you myself and haul your ass home where you’re safe.”
Um, no, he wouldn’t, thought Riley. She wouldn’t be going anywhere until this shit was over, but she decided to keep that to herself. She needed his help. Tao had a sharp mind and a keen eye; he was tireless when in pursuit of something. “Deal.”
She just had to hope she didn’t have to back out of that deal.