“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.
/>
BRENTON
Riley was finally asleep, Andrew was home and Brenton desperately wanted to just crash. He couldn’t yet, he had to make one call. He walked slowly into his office, Zachary on his heels.
“Are you really going to do this, Brenton?” Zachary growled.
“I had to do it eventually. No better time then now,” Brenton sighed.
He went to the ‘closet’ door in his office and stepped inside. Zachary staying with him every moment. They slipped through a hidden door in the back and they climbed down a flight of stairs. His office was on the first floor, it was once his father’s and so these stairs lead to a basement that technically didn’t exist. There were four entrances around the house to the basement. It was a bunker that no one knew about, his father installed it before Brenton was even born. Geoffrey Kingson was a paranoid son-of-a-bitch.
They stepped into the first room to the right in the basement hallway.
The conference room.
“Using this is going to wake up-” Zachary was growling but Brenton didn’t really want to hear it.
“I know,” he snapped. “Do you have a better idea? Someone sent those guys and this is the fastest way to spreading the word on the fact that Riley is under our protection…”
“Those guys might not have had a pride,” Zachary hissed. “They could have been agents for private interest. This is going to expose Riley to all of this.”
“No, it won’t. She’s never going to meet any of these pricks. There’s no reason for her to. These people would come after her if we told them about her or not if they decided to. This just clarifies our stance how we would feel about it.” Brenton leaned over the desk in the center of the room, his hands flat against the oak surface. “We put off making her an official pride member and look what happened.”
“This is not-”
“This could very well be one of them trying something to do with Isabella. Kidnap her daughter and see if mom really is still alive and would bargain for her life,” Brenton laughed harshly. “Or just torture Riley to see if she knows anything about her mother. Zachary, you and I both know that’s how these pricks work!”
His second nodded uncomfortably. Brenton couldn’t blame him since Brenton was about to wake up every major feline Alpha in the world for an emergency phone call. That’s what this room was for. So his father could stand in a room and feel powerful. All the feline Alphas around the room had a room just like this, so they could all talk. Brenton knew how everything worked but he had never used it personally.
In front of the desk were dozens of flat screens on the wall. That’s all. It looks like a classic office for a billionaire with way too many televisions.
“Let’s do this then,” Zachary snarled. He hit the call button labeled emergency meeting. This would ensure they all woke up and go to their conference rooms. They wouldn’t know who is calling, only that it was urgent.
Brenton wanted to laugh as he sneered at some of the connections coming through. It only took fifteen minutes as he sat on the desk with Zachary behind. Fifteen minutes until every major feline shifter Alpha was on the call.
“What is the meaning of this?” One of them snapped through the open line. Others were chatting to each other, acting like this was just another regular meeting.
“Good morning, evening, night, to you all where ever the fuck you are,” Brenton finally announced, putting on his best bored rich guy arrogance. His father had loved money and when he left it to Brenton, Brenton became the richest feline shifter in the world. He hated it.
The chatting all went silent. He clicked to turn on his video feed, grinning dangerously.
“Better? Now you know who made the call. It’s nearly four in the morning my time, so let’s get this over quickly.” Brenton crossed his arms over his chest and slid off the front of the desk slowly. He ended up just standing, leaning against the front of the desk, ankles crossed. Zachary chuckled and sat on the desk from the back, his back turned to the camera that would be giving the other callers a view of them.
“Brenton Kingson… To what do we owe this… call?” A female voice asked him. She was a European Alpha and they only knew about him by reputation there.
“i wanted to make announcement. For over a decade, my pride had consisted of only me and four members, we got a new one though.” Brenton smiled at all of them. “And since her apartment here in Wild Junction was broken into earlier this evening, I figured I needed to clarify a few things with all of you.”
“You?” Snarled a male tiger from Canada. “You accepted a new pride member?”
“I did, a half-breed” a lot of gasps to that, “ shifter, Riley Stern, is now a member of my pride. Any harm done to her is harm done to my pride. When I find out who sent the two mother fucking feline shifters to completely destroy her home and injury her God damn pet, I’m going to ruin them.” He ended it, snarling through his teeth. His smile became more of a grimace, his lips twisted on his teeth, baring them. A few people sputtered, some paled. Nearly half had reacted to the name.
“Isabella’s daughter is your newest pride member?” The tiger growled.
“No, Lily Stern’s daughter is my newest pride member. And that’s exactly what I wanted to clarify in terms of my new pride member,” Brenton growled back. “She had no idea who or what she was when we met her. She definitely doesn’t know who Isabella Amelia Gordon is and I want you to keep that fucking vendetta against Isabella out of Wild Junction. I’m not fucking playing with any of you right now. Who ever sent those fucking pricks knew better then to come here and cause a scene.”
“Brenton, I can’t believe this,” A male lion snarled at him. It was his fucking uncle on his mother’s side. Her older brother. “That… woman is the reason your mother is dead. We all know it! And you would shelter her brat instead of possibly help us give us this woman justice after so long?”
Zachary snarled at that. Brenton didn’t like that his uncle just called Riley a brat or implicated her mother in the murder of his mother.
“I know that Riley Stern hasn’t heard or seen her mother since she was six years old,” Brenton kept his voice low and nearly winced at the sinister tone it carried. “I know that Lily Stern was declared dead in a car accident and never showed back up. Because of that, yes, I will shelter Riley Stern since she has nothing to do with any of this. You all know that but you’re so fucking high up your own asses that you’re desperate for a way out.”
“Weakling,” his uncle snarled at him. “You could be using her to-”
“No.” Brenton snapped. His uncle went rigid on his screen. “Isabella was my father’s mistake. Isabella was you guys’ mistake. Not mine. Not my pride’s. Not Riley’s. You clean it up and leave Riley out of it. Or I’m going to go down the list and start knocking Alphas off their fucking thrones.”
He could too. He hated how felines did business but he was fucking good at it. He would ruin their business, get them arrested for illegal activities, assassinate their characters. By the time he was done with the first couple, the others would fall in line. And he would run the fucking feline shifter world.
“Is this all you wanted to speak to us about?” Another female, from South America.
“Yes,” Brenton smiled to them again. “So, is everyone here clear on my stance? Or do I need to call my board in and start destroying companies?”
A mumble of all clears came to him. His uncle was furious and raging in his office, live on camera. Brenton knew the rumors that Isabella killed his mother but he didn’t have memories of the time when Isabella and his father were a thing. He was fucking three when the woman disappeared and his mother died.
Once he was certain all of them agreed, he disconnected the entire call without a good bye.
“Fuck, Brenton,” Zachary hissed. “Your uncle is going mad.”
“Yeah, I saw that.”
RILEY
The next day, she woke up slowly. She didn’t have the benefit of alcohol to pretend th
e night didn’t happen this time. She could remember it with clarity.
She had gotten home, her door was ajar. She pushed it open and saw it all. Saw Star mewing quietly in pain and she couldn’t stop the scream that pushed past her lips. She called Zachary immediately, once she could stop screaming but that turned on the tears. She couldn’t focus as she ran through her apartment to make sure no one was still there. Stupid, but she had no where else to go and she needed to make sure Star was safe. She couldn’t close her front door and she gave up on it all when she pulled Star gently into arms as Zachary answered the call.
Her pride had gotten to her so fast but it still had felt like an eternity.
She looked at all stuff the guys had moved into the guest bedroom that was now her home. Her entire world down to only four large boxes and two smaller ones. They told her that her personal room would be done within the week and they would also get the house ready for Star.
She bit back tears.
Why would anyone do this to her?
She pulled herself out of bed and didn’t bother showering. Troy had forced her to bathe before laying down, thinking cleaning her body would help wash away the dirty feeling of have her privacy violated.
She threw on nearly none of her own clothing, opting for a pair of Gabe’s sweats, one of Troy’s tanks and a Brenton button up. She barely wanted to wear her own underwear but she suffered through that. She wasn’t sure where their clothing came from but she wanted to wear it. She could smell them in it and that was comforting.
She stepped in to the hallway and moved silently to the kitchen, where Andrew was making breakfast. None of the others were around.
“Hey Riley,” he called out to her gently.
“Good morning, Andrew,” she mumbled back to him. She stood in the doorway to the kitchen until he turned to her. She heard the sharp inhale of breath from him and let him look over her clothing choices. All the guys were nearly a foot taller then her or more. The sweats had to be rolled several times at the waist. The tank wasn’t tight at all and hung loosely under the button up that was open.
Wild Pride (The Kingson Pride Book 1) Page 16