Chapter 17 Riordan
RIORDAN
I knew there was something up with the big guy.
He smelled weird, but he’s nice. I don’t think I’ll bite him.
Yet.
— gus
Twenty minutes later, Max is pulling up to the Alpha cabin. Because I can sense he needs to do this, I wait until he opens the door for me. A sliver of relief coupled with affection flitters down the fledgling tie that bloomed into being as soon as we admitted we were mates.
It’s so easy to look at the Alpha not knowing that I was his and blame the scent-dampener charm. I’m no angel. I did that on purpose, applying it like perfume everyday religiously. I was a coward. Prey shifter, yeah? I was afraid that he would reject me so I didn’t give him the chance.
But there’s something more to it. He’s an Alpha.
Maybe when I was just enough prey shifter in Moonburrow, it was easier to overlook me while I was wearing the charm and running a charmed bakery.
As soon as we started spending time together, though, it should’ve been obvious…
and, in a way, it was. We went from being strangers to mates in less than a week, with him kissing me long before I washed off the scent-dampener.
Something was messing with Max. I didn’t know what, but I’d figure that out, too. If only for his peace of mind and mine, I would.
First, though, we needed to fill Riordan in on what happened.
Max opens the door to the Alpha cabin, stepping aside to let me in.
Good thing, too, since a ten-pound orange torpedo comes bounding at me the moment I walk inside.
Gus does figure eights around my sneakers, chittering the whole, swishing his tail as though scolding me for staying out all night with my new boyfriend.
No. Not my boyfriend.
My mate.
I laugh in delight. Bending low, I scoop up Gus, hugging him to my chest. I know that Max said that he was sending Riordan to keep Gus safe. That warmed my heart more than I can say, and I’m so glad to see that Gus is alright.
Following Max’s lead, I carry Gus into the living room. I remember walking past it yesterday to get to the guest room. Today, we got in as a trio.
Riordan is waiting for us there. There is a love seat on one side of a squat coffee table. To its left, and up against a window, there’s a sofa. Riordan is leaning back in the love seat, one arm stretched along the back, his ankle resting casually on his knee.
Max nods at him. I give him a small wave.
He breathes in deep, eyes going wide as he realizes that we’re wearing each others’ scent.
Unfolding his legs, he starts to rise. “Luna damn it. When you didn’t come home, I was worried, little bro, but I guess I shouldn’t have been. Congratulations—”
Max shakes his head. “I appreciate it, and I can’t wait to introduce Honey to you and Mom and Dad as my mate”—um, what?—“but that’s not why I told you to meet me here.” He had stuck the scroll in his back pocket when we got out of the car. Taking it out, he tosses it to his brother. “This is.”
It takes Riordan less than a minute to make sense of the document signed by Talia and Leo, detailing the contract or services and the orders he placed through her.
Just like me, Max, and Roxy, he instantly agrees that this is a smoking gun.
At the very least, Leo is up to his fuzzy ears in the creation of the shifter poison.
Add in Abigail’s unfortunate murder and it becomes clear to all of us that he definitely played a part.
Only one problem.
Riordan lowers himself to the love seat. Me and Max are seating together on the sofa, Gus curled up in my lap. As though he can sense the other wolf needs him, Gus scampers from my lap to the coffee table, rising up on the edge so that Riordan can give him scratchies.
Tossing the scroll away from him, the Beta absently scratches the underside of Gus’s chin. “We don’t have proof. Proof that he was in on the poison deal. But we want to get him for murder, don’t we?”
Obviously. This is a shifter town, though. Do we really need proof?
Actually, I know the answer to that. We do. Of course we do. If Max just took out packmates all willy nilly, who would trust him to lead? He’d be a murderous dictator, not an Alpha.
My mate knows it.
“He’s working with a witch. We can get the coven involved, but hey’ll side with one of our own without proof. All we have is a contract, and since Roxy will be a target when it gets out that she gave it to me, I can’t use it.”
I squeeze his thigh, grateful that he’s protecting my friend. “We’ll figure something out.”
Riordan clears his throat. “I might have an idea.” All eyes on him as Gus settles down to curl up on the coffee table, he adds, “He seems to be targeting Honey. I say we let him.”
Excuse me? “You want him to kill me?”
“Of course not. That’s ridiculous. We just let him think that he can kill you.”
Max growls. I don’t even attempt to stop him. Like, really? What the hell, Riordan? I thought you were cool.
“Let me explain. She’s an opossum, yeah?
We know she has that fancy trick where plays dead.
We can do this two ways. Either she goes catatonic, letting Leo think someone beat her to it and she’s safe because he thinks she’s dead, or we let him try to hunt her down and, when he tries, she faints, and we let him think he scared her to death.
Either way, he might target someone who is already dead, and we can use her as a third victim to get proof without her having to die. ”
“But what if he does kill me? For, like, realsies?”
“He won’t. We’ll be there. We’ll be the witnesses. And then we’ll make him talk.”
Max was silent during the outlining of Riordan’s plan. You’d think he was just dismissing it as a poor one. Nope, he was trying to keep his temper in check before he completely exploded.
Oh, like he does now.
“Have you lost your mind? You want my mate to be bait? Right after I found her?”
I stroke the side of his neck, trying my best to calm him. “Technically, I found you.”
“You did, and then you hid in plain sight for months. Now my eyes are wide open. Declan was one of mine. So was Abigail. Leo was in my inner circle, but I didn’t see the danger lurking there, either. I do now. I can’t let you do this.”
“Can’t?” I ask. “Or won’t.”
And that’s the thing about mating a predator. They will always, always outrank you when it counts. They’re stronger, faster, more fierce. I act like I can ignore any of his commands, but if Max really put his wolf into it, I’d be unable to do anything but bare my throat and submit to him.
That’s not how it works for mates. If there’s any imbalance in the mating at all, it’s the more dominant partner bending over to raise up their weaker mate.
If I want to go along with Riordan’s cockamamie plan, I should get to choose. If Max can make this decision for me without any pushback, what happens the next time he thinks he knows better?
We’re not bonded yet. Oh, we have a bond. I can’t pretend that doesn’t exist. It did even before the physical act of sex. But now that we did mate, if we perform the shifter Claiming Ceremony, I’ll be tied to Max Lobo for the rest of my life. Not yet, though.
Not ever if this doesn’t work...
“It has to be Honey,” Rirodan says softly.
“I’m sorry, but you know I’m right. Whoever is hurting our packmates, they’ve gone after her.
The cupcake… the tea… they involved her in this.
But we have the element of surprise on our side.
Most of Moonburrow still thinks she’s a witch.
Not everyone knows that she’s an opossum shifter.
He won’t think she’s playing dead. He’ll think she is dead. Remember? Even we were almost fooled.”
That’s right. I didn’t wake up in the morgue, but it was a close call the way they were peering down at me in the alley behind the bakery. They thought I was almost dead until I wasn’t.
But if Riordan’s whole insane plan hinges on me being able to play possum… we might have a small problem.
“Yeah. One thing about that… I don’t think I can play dead anymore.”
“What?”
That’s both of the Lobo brothers at the same time. I shrug.
“It’s something I noticed after I found Declan.
I dropped like I normally did, but when I woke up, Max was there.
The next time I thought I was going to faint, he steadied me.
Anytime I’ve felt weak, he was right there to give me his strength.
My opossum,” I say, tapping my chest, “can sense his wolf. She knows that Max… all of Max… will protect us. I don’t need to faint anymore because there’s nothing that he can’t protect me from. ”
Max loops his arm over my shoulder, tugging me to him so that he can kiss the top of my head before tucking me against his side. He doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t have to.
His promise to keep me alive is thrumming down our bond.
But Riordan just won’t let it go.
“I can help with that.”
Max sits up, moving so quickly that I nearly land on my side behind him when I fall over. “Riordan—”
“No, Max. It’s okay. You mated her and that makes her family. She ought to know.”
It takes me a second to push myself back to a seated position. Max, looking abashed, helps, but I brush him off. Oh, no. I’m way more interested in what his brother just said.
Know why? I think I might have a clue. Score one for Miss Marple. “Roxy said you were cursed.”
That takes the wind out of Riordan’s sails. His head shoots right toward his brother.
Max holds up his hands, leaning back into the sofa. “I didn’t tell her.”
Riordan frowns. “No one else knows.”
“Trust me, that doesn’t mean anything when it comes to Roxy.” Case in point, the scroll on the coffee table next to Gus. “So what does this curse mean? And why do you think you can help me? Do you, like turn into a scary beast or something?”
Riordan gives me a droll look. “I’m a big, black wolf. Isn’t that scary enough?”
Maybe before I mated a predator. “No.”
“Well. That’s not it. It’s worse.” He exhales. “A lot worse.”
“Come on. It can’t be that bad.”