“No. I was the one who ended the relationship. But Cynthia will believe I still want him if it makes her feel better about herself.”
“Personally, I doubt she’ll want you in his line of sight.”
“I’m not the only one in the flock that he dated.”
“Does she hate the other females as much as she hates you?”
Riley shook her head.
“Then it’s got to grate on her that you’ve had her male.” Tao didn’t want Riley near Sawyer either. His wolf growled at the idea. “What’s your favorite day of the week?”
She did a double take. “What?”
“Your favorite day. What is it?”
Baffled, she asked, “Why does that matter?”
“It just does. I told you, I want—”
“You want me to let you in a little, yeah, I know. I just told you all that stuff about my flock.”
“Yes, about your flock,” he pointed out gently. “Not you. It’s you I want to hear about. I’m not asking you to bare your soul, Riley. It’s just an itty-bitty question.”
She thought about it for a moment. “Friday. It’s the start of the weekend. I like weekends.”
Satisfied, he nodded. “So, do you think Cynthia will cause a scene at any point this weekend?”
Blinking at how swiftly he’d returned to their previous subject, she said, “I don’t know.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if she does.”
“She might feel reassured by my bringing you along.”
“Don’t be so sure.”
“Well, you’ve left a mark on my neck where it’s easy to see. That’ll convince her I have no designs on Sawyer, won’t it?”
His eyes drifted to the bite. His cock, hard and heavy, throbbed at just the sight of it. “If you were my ex, seeing another guy’s mark on you would piss me the fuck off . . . but it wouldn’t stop me wanting you. And if she’s worried he might still want you, she won’t be reassured by my mark.” Tao gently fingered the bite, asking, “Coffee or tea?”
“Huh?”
“What do you prefer to drink, coffee or tea?”
She didn’t know whether she wanted to laugh or grab him by the throat. It seemed easier to just answer him. “Tea, but I like the smell of coffee better.”
He frowned. “Tea’s a girly drink.”
“I am a girl.”
“But you’re not a girly girl, so that surprises me.”
When the attendant announced it was time for them to board, Riley grabbed her duffel and got to her feet. Tao took the duffel from her, easily carrying both hers and his own, as they joined the line to board. Finally stepping onto the plane, she stayed behind Tao as they walked down the narrow aisle, passing rows of fabric seats and pausing while passengers shoved their bags into the white overhead compartments.
When they reached their designated row, she was grateful to see there were only two seats. She didn’t like sitting with strangers on airplanes, particularly since she always seemed to be seated by the chatty ones who liked to take off their shoes.
Having placed their bags in the overhead compartment, Tao turned to her. “You can have the window seat.”
“That’s okay. You have it.” She would prefer not to be stuck between him and a wall.
Shrugging, Tao took his seat. It was as he clicked on his seat belt that he noted her flushed cheeks and stiff muscles. “You don’t like airplanes?”
“I don’t like being cooped up, that’s all.”
Tao fussed with the controls overhead until the air conditioning was blasting down on them. “Better?”
Riley nodded. “Thanks.” She watched as he examined the fold-down tray, fingered the selection of in-flight magazines and safety manuals, tapped the TV screen on the seat back, and pushed the buttons on the armrests that controlled the channels and volume of the TV. He wasn’t fidgeting, she knew. He was studying. Getting a grip on his surroundings. Leaving his scent on everything—it was a dominant male thing.
Frowning at the sound of the seat creaking as he adjusted it, she glanced around and saw that the passengers finally seemed to be settling into their seats; most seemed to be reading, playing games on their iPads, or listening to music. Annoyingly, her sensitive hearing picked up their audio just as it easily picked up all the chatter, laughter, and rustling of bags. There was just too much sound in such a small, contained space.
“Since you lost your biological parents,” began Tao, “I need to know if there’s anything I should or shouldn’t say in front of your flock. I don’t want to hurt your family by bringing them up. But if there’s something it would be better for me to know so there’s no confusion, it would be best to tell me.”
She supposed that was true. “They died when I was four. My mom was killed by a bald eagle when in her raven form. My dad died a few days later.” Not many mated pairs survived the breaking of the mating bond, and her father simply hadn’t hung on.
Several questions leaped to the tip of Tao’s tongue. Did she remember them well? Had they been good parents to her? Did she think the trauma had triggered the insomnia or had that come first?
She was tense as a bow, as if braced for an interrogation. He snapped his mouth shut, holding his words inside. Piling sensitive questions on her all at once would only put her on the defensive. She was steadily opening up to him and he didn’t want to mess that up. So instead he asked, “What are your uncles like?” He knew he’d made the right decision when her shoulders relaxed.
“Ethan—he’s my mother’s brother—is reserved and taciturn, but he has a mushy center. His mate, Max, is more expressive and fun loving, but he also takes things as seriously as Ethan does. They’re both solid and reliable. They’ll like you. Sort of.”
“Sort of?”
“You’re a wolf—you’ll lose points for that. But you’re walking onto raven territory just for me; they’ll like that.”
Tao stretched his legs out as far as he could, which wasn’t much. “Are any of your other family part of the flock?”
She shook her head. “My grandparents died before I was born; both my parents were only children.”
“If you had to survive on just one type of food, what would it be?”
“Would you stop that!” she burst out.
“Stop what?”
“Asking me dumb questions.” The repeated shifts in subject were throwing her off balance.
“Come on, Riley. Humor me.”
She sighed. “Peanuts.” A long pause. “What about you?”
He was insanely pleased that she’d asked him the same question in return. It felt like a game. Tao liked to play. “Pizza.”
“Awesome,” she said drily. “Will you stop this now?”
“I’m just trying to learn stuff about you.”
“You can’t honestly say you know nothing about me.”
“True. I know that you’re smart, confident, tough, and independent.” A combination that would draw any dominant male shifter. “I know you don’t sweat the small things or take yourself too seriously. Even though you’re fairly laid back, you brook no bullshit—something I like and respect. You sometimes come across as aloof because you’re not bothered by what people think of you, but you’re a person who cares deeply.” A person who would go to a place where she’d be distrusted just to protect two children she wasn’t even distantly related to.
Riley swallowed, taken aback by the glossy assessment.
“But I want to know more.”
With a growl of exasperation, she spoke quickly. “I like puzzles, Halloween, peanuts, rock music, and dragonflies. I seriously dislike bats and complications, and I think toupees should be outlawed—they’re just plain weird.”
“There,” he said with a smile. “Was that so hard?”
No, not really. Relaxing back in her seat, Riley closed her eyes. “Q time is now over.” She really hoped she slept through the need to pee, because she detested using the tiny bathrooms on airplanes. As Tao’s arm cur
led around her and pulled her close so that her head rested on his shoulder, she frowned. “I can sleep sitting up.”
“That’s just stupid. You’ll wake up with a kink in your neck.”
“Fine.” Against her better judgment, she relaxed into him. As his fingers toyed with her hair, she drifted off to sleep.
Neither the flight to Arizona nor the drive from the airport to Sedona was very long. However, given that Sedona was a place where traffic was heavy and slow, it took a little while to reach the outskirts, where the Exodus Flock resided. Tao would have lost his patience long ago if it hadn’t been for the picturesque view.
He wasn’t a person who was moved by scenery, but Sedona was truly a beautiful place. Surrounded by red rock formations, it was situated at the mouth of the Oak Creek Canyon. As he took in the rustic valley boasting cacti, pine trees, bushes, and rocks of various colors, he felt as if he were in an old Western movie or something. His wolf liked it.
“The town’s not very well lit,” he observed. There weren’t even any streetlights. If it hadn’t been for his shifter’s enhanced vision, he might not have been able to truly appreciate the scenery around him.
Riley kept her face angled toward the partially open window, enjoying the breeze on her skin. “No, but it makes the view of the red rock landscape look even better when the sun sets. We’ve missed it.”
“A lot of tourists here,” Tao noted. A lot of commercialized businesses too.
“Sedona is pretty popular. It’s considered very spiritual because of the vortexes; a lot of people believe that the energy fields can sort of heighten psychic ability and even raise their self-awareness. People often come here to ‘find’ themselves. Boynton Canyon, which isn’t far from where we’re heading, is thought of as the most sacred in the Red Rock Country. Sage told me that many American Indians consider Sedona so sacred that they won’t live here. The Exodus Flock, however, are regarded as guardians.”
He gave Riley a sideways glance. “You told me that you and Cynthia clash. Do you think there’s a chance you two will end up battling at some point?”
“If we did, it wouldn’t be the first time,” said Riley. “We’ve had plenty of fights over the years. They were battles for dominance, really. Our mutual dislike goes right back to childhood. We’re just very different.”
“Different how?”
“She’s smart and she always worked hard during lessons—the regular star student. I was never academic, I just wanted to be outside in the sun, so she thought she was very superior to me. She was also an awful snitch who cried whenever she didn’t get her way, even for simple stuff like if she wasn’t picked first for sports.
“Still, she wasn’t a major problem until she grew tits and boys started looking her way; then she turned into a complete nightmare. Brash, bitchy, fashion-conscious, and totally obsessed with the male gender. Seriously, she gave away more pussy than a cat rescue center.”
He chuckled. “You have a way with words.”
“There honestly wasn’t much she wouldn’t have done to get a guy’s attention. I would have felt sad for her if it was because she was secretly insecure and trying to compensate for it, but I once heard her tell her friend that she was going to have every boy in the flock so that whoever they later mated would always know she’d had them first.”
Tao shook his head. “Sleeping with them all was a form of domination to her.”
“Yes. She wasn’t just using them; she was marking every one of them in her own weird way. I think Sawyer knew that, because he never once touched her. Not until after I left, anyway.”
“Really?”
“I think that was part of his attraction for me. But enough about them.” Riley sat up straight. “We’re not far from Exodus territory. Two minutes away, at most.” That was a good thing, because, according to the text messages she’d received from Lucy, the party was in full swing.
“You nervous?”
“A little,” she admitted. “It’s been a long time since I was last here. I don’t really know what to expect, and I don’t like that I don’t know what to expect.”
“Your uncles will be happy to see you. That’s all that matters, right?”
She nodded. “Right.” Soon enough they reached the border of the flock’s territory. Riley smiled. “There’s Lucy.” Duncan was also there, obviously in on the secret.
At Lucy’s urging, Tao whipped the rental car into a mostly full parking lot.
Lucy immediately pulled open the passenger seat, smiling like a loon. “I’m so glad you’re here! Duncan will take your bags to the guest cabin—I’ve put you in the one near the waterfall. It’s the prettiest.”
While the two females hugged, Tao took the duffels out of the trunk and handed them to the male raven. His wolf took an instant dislike to him simply because he didn’t know him; Tao sensed the distrust was mutual. Still, the males managed not to snarl at each other.
When Riley grabbed a small gift-wrapped box and pink card and held them against her chest like a shield, Tao squeezed her shoulder and shot her an encouraging look.
Lucy opened the trunk of another car and said, “Tao can carry the card and gift. You need to carry this.” She picked a white box out of the trunk and lifted the lid, revealing a large, rectangular cake covered in white icing and some kind of edible photo—Tao couldn’t quite make it out. Obligingly he took the card and present from Riley, who then carefully took the cake.
Guiding Tao and Riley quickly toward a forested area, Lucy said, “The party’s taking place in the clearing.”
Tao didn’t need her to point it out; he could hear the music blasting.
Lucy paused. “I never thought to ask if you need to freshen up.”
“I probably should,” said Riley, “but if I hang around there’s a good chance I’ll be seen.”
“True,” said Lucy. “Then our efforts would have been for nothing.” Lucy paused midway through the woods. From there Tao could see lights twinkling up ahead. Balloons and streamers were tied to trees and bobbing with the breeze.
“How many people know Riley’s coming?” he asked.
“Me, my parents, Sawyer, our Beta, and Duncan. I couldn’t trust the others to keep it quiet. If Cynthia found out, she’d have told Riley’s uncles out of sheer spite.” Turning to Riley, she gripped her arms. “You ready?”
Riley took a deep breath. “I’m ready.”
“Good. Listen for a cheer. That’s your signal to light the candle and get moving. By the time we start singing ‘Happy Anniversary,’ you should be entering the circle.” Lucy handed Tao a lighter and gave Riley a nod of approval. “You did the right thing.” The female then jogged away.
Tao blinked at Riley. “They sing ‘Happy Anniversary’?”
“In the same rhythm that they sing ‘Happy Birthday,’” she confirmed. “Cheesy, I know.”
Getting a good look at the family photo on the cake, he said, “It’s pretty.”
“It’s a picture of me and my uncles.”
“You were a cute kid. What happened to you?”
She huffed at him. “I’d ram my elbow into your ribs if I wasn’t worried I’d drop the cake.”
“Your heartbeat is racing. Calm down, it’ll be fine.” Tao wouldn’t allow anything less.
Hearing the cheer, she tensed. “Here goes nothing.”
“Happy anniversary to you . . .”
Tao lit the candle and followed Riley as she walked through the trees, singing along.
“Happy anniversary to you . . .”
Entering the clearing, he saw a happy couple smiling beneath a huge congratulatory banner. Their eyes landed on Riley. And they gaped.
“Happy anniversary to Max and Ethan . . .”
As the others finally spotted Riley, the singing, laughing, and cheering stopped. Her stomach churned, but she ignored it. Lucy, the Alphas, and Hugh sang along with her, drawing out, “Happy anniversary to you.” A little sheepishly, Riley then added, “Surprise!”
CHAPTER FIVE
All that could be heard was the lanterns clinking and the streamers fluttering. Tao sensed Riley’s anxiety and thought about stepping in, but then her uncles came forward. Eyes prickling with tears, the taller of the two blew out the candle, handed the cake to his mate, and wrapped his arms around Riley.
After a heartbeat of silence, people cheered and clapped. Many then came forward to greet her, taking their turns hugging her one at a time. Tao stood back and watched the reactions of those around him. They were all so focused on Riley that they barely noticed him.
Everyone seemed pleased to see her and touched by her uncles’ joy . . . with the exception of two females. One was a middle-aged redhead who he guessed was Wade’s mother; she was glaring at Riley with a mixture of pain and contempt. The other female looked a little like Lucy and, scowling, was digging her nails into the arm of a tall, dark male who was staring at Riley curiously. Tao assumed they were Cynthia and Sawyer.
He could tell which ravens had lost children in the shooting just by their expressions; they either looked at Riley with a sad glint in their eyes that said they were remembering their own deceased children, or they looked at her with remorse and an awkward smile.
Tao watched Ethan and Max Porter fuss over Riley, and it became infinitely clear that they worshipped the ground she walked on. They both would have her back there in a heartbeat if they thought it was best for her.
Riley suddenly turned to face Tao and grabbed his arm to pull him toward her. “Max, Ethan—this is Tao, the Phoenix Pack’s Head Enforcer. Tao, these are my uncles, Ethan and Max.”
Not particularly comfortable in social settings outside his pack, Tao simply said, “Riley speaks highly of you.” There was nothing effeminate about either male. They were both tall and muscled and moved like they could handle themselves. With his stylish pants and shirt and his well-groomed appearance, Max looked like a predator in corporate clothing. Ethan, on the other hand, had a cowboy style with his checked shirt, jeans, and boots.
Max regarded Tao through eyes that twinkled with both curiosity and surprise. “Riley, sweetheart, you’ve been holding back a few things.”
Fierce Obsessions (The Phoenix Pack Series Book 6) Page 6