Chapter 17 Riordan #2
“Fine. But don’t say I didn’t warn you. About fifteen years ago, when Max and me were in our teens…
he was sixteen and I was nineteen… I knew that I was the Alpha-heir.
When Dad stepped down, I would take over the pack.
I didn’t earn it. I didn’t challenge him for it.
It was going to be handed to me, and I was a cocky prick about it. ”
“Riordan…”
“It’s okay, Max. I know it. I treated everyone in Moon burrow like shit.
I treated you like shit because you would be my Beta.
” A hollow laugh escapes him. “I thought I was untouchable… until I angered a witch who was passing through. I told her to get out of Moonburrow if she wasn’t going to respect me.
She said I needed to learn to earn it. I told her that I would one day be Alpha and everyone would listen to me.
“She said, ‘Why wait?,’ and she cursed me so that, any order that came out of my mouth, whoever heard me had to listen. They have to listen. They have to obey. It’s what I thought I wanted, but the reality is… how can you lead if you steal your pack’s free will? Who would follow me?”
I know the answer to that: no one.
A lot of things suddenly make sense. How Riordan is so careful to say things like ‘should’ and ‘suggest’. He gives options, and all along, I thought it was because he didn’t want to stop on the Alpha’s toes.
Oh, no. He must’ve stepped down, letting Max become the Alpha instead, the older brother relegated to the Beta role he once scorned.
Huh. No wonder his laugh was so hollow...
“Damn,” I said. And that’s all I said.
“It sucks,” he says, the understatement of the year. “But I’ve learned control. An Alpha doesn’t demand obedience. He commands loyalty. I’ve strived to do that. Max is our Alpha. My job as his Beta is to support him. In this case, he’s too close to you. He won’t want to risk you.”
He’s right. Max wouldn’t.
But what if I wanted to help? That’s what my attempt at amateur sleuthing was all about, after all. What began as wanting to clear my name—and my bakery’s name—turned into something more.
This is Max’s pack. His life.
“How would it work?”
“Honey—”
“You wear an ear plug,” Riordan says, conveniently ignoring the fact that Max spoke up at all.
I guess, on Max’s territory, his older brother has the leniency to be the true alpha he was born to be.
“A wire. You give me the signal if you see Leo. Over the line, I’ll tell you what to do.
If I command you to ‘play dead’, you will.
Max will be right there. As soon as we have Leo in custody, I’ll bring you back. There’s no danger involved.”
“Then why don’t you ask your mate to do it?”
Riordan grimaces, and Max runs his hand over his face.
“Fuck. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. It’s just… I can’t lose her. When you find your mate, you’ll understand.”
A small, humorless smile tugs on Riordan’s lips.
“When I find my mate, my curse will be broken and I wouldn’t be able to do this in the first place.
But I can. It’ll be safe, Max. I understand if you want to come up with another plan.
That’s fine. Either way, we have to get Leo.
If he’s plotting behind your back and has enough help that we’ve been in the dark all along, he’s too dangerous to be free. ”
“He doesn’t know we’re onto him. There’s time.”
No. There isn’t. I lift my hand. “Screw it. I’ll do it.”
“Honey—”
Sorry, Max.
“I’ll do it, but on one condition.” Turning in my seat, I focus on Riordan.
“I was to know if you ever used your curse on Max. And I don’t mean something silly.
” Suspicion sparked the instant Riordan confessed what exactly his curse entailed.
Maybe I’m wrong… but I have to ask. “Did you do something that would keep him from recognizing that I was his fated mate?”
Max sucks in a breath. I get it. I’m basically accusing his brother of taking his free will away from him. It’s messed up, but what if he did?
“What? Of course not! I would never—” He stops suddenly, his tanned skin paling. “Shit.”
“Riordan?”
He gets up. Everytime I’ve ever seen Riordan Lobo, he’s been immaculate. Clothes stylish and pressed, not a single hair out of place.
Until now.
He runs his fingers through his hair, pacing back and forth in front of the coffee table. From his place on top of it, Gus mimics his movements, keeping company with the Beta.
“Shit. Max… let me say this first: I didn’t do it on purpose. I swear it to the Luna. If I did… it was completely an accident.”
Max digs his fingers into the couch. Hopefully they’re not claws otherwise he’s going to have a whole bunch of slash marks in the leather. “What did you do?”
“Remember back in September when we were dealing with the zoning laws? We had that lawyer stop by the station with papers.”
Max’s face shadows over. “Abigail. I remember.” His gaze darkens.
“It was redrawing the unofficial borders of Moonburrow. The witches wanted more land. The predators refused to concede. The prey shifters were staying out of it. It was giving me a headache and I told Abigail to discuss the papers with Leo.”
Well. At least we know when they could have met…
“Right. You went out for a walk, and when you came back, you told me that Jean Doucy’s granddaughter had arrived to take over the bakery.
You said she smelled like caramel and something that was making your wolf go wild.
” Riordan gives me an apologetic look. “You want to go back and talk to her. I… I snapped at you to focus. That the zoning shit was important. We got it done, but you never went back to the bakery.”
Not until the fiasco with the Can’t Resist Cupcakes meant that I had a couple of complaints that brought the sheriff to my door…
Max stares at Riordan. “I remember that. Everything else seemed so important, but every time I smelled caramel, it was like I was missing something.”
I bump my shoulder against his. “You were. Me.”
Max shifts so that he’s facing me. “And you’re asking me to put you in danger?”
“No.” I pat my mate on his handsome cheek. “I’m asking you to let me help you close this case so that we can put all these murders behind us. Besides, I trust you. You won’t let me die.”
He won’t, and I believe that with every last inch of my soul.
“Declan needs justice. No matter why Leo went after him, he needs justice. So does Abigail.” Her sad eyes flicker through my mind. “I don’t want him to hurt anyone else. Not me.” I stroke the edge of his jaw. “Not you, either.”
Put like that, how can he refuse?
Spoiler alert: he can’t—and he doesn’t.