“We could put in an automatic gate at the far edge of the parking lot away from the store. Maybe build some brick columns on each side to support it and run a fence down the store side of it, make it like a driveway and run the fence all the way to join the one that’s there now where Riley parks his truck. Ya’ll would have a driveway that opened onto the parking area you use in the front the house now. Leaving the rest of the parking lot for the store.”
“You know what, Scotty? That’s a great idea. And we can put a neutral ground in, between our fence and the store’s parking lot.”
“What’s a neutral ground?” Scotty asked.
Maia chuckled, “I forget if you’re not from New Orleans, chances are you don’t know what a neutral ground is. In New Orleans, most streets are one way, two lanes going the same direction on one side with a slightly built up grassy area framed by a curb with trees and flowering shrubs growing the length of it in the middle and two lanes going the opposite direction on the other side. The grassy area is called a neutral ground. We could build one, not a huge area, just a couple of feet that runs the length of the parking lot and separates us from the public parking area.”
“Come on, I’ll introduce you to my manager, and you can tell him whatever you want. Alpha has an account here, so you can order whatever you like and put it on account. Oh, and tell him the other thing he ordered,” he said, pointing with his chin at Cristie, “is due in in a couple of days, so it’ll be here in plenty of time before Christmas.”
Maia looked from Scotty to Cristie and back, then smiled, realizing Riley had ordered something from them for Cristie for Christmas. “I’ll tell him. Now, take me to your manager.”
Maia, Cristie and Libby finally left the store. They’d ordered everything they thought they’d need for the mobile home park landscaping and for their neutral ground. Maia had made arrangements with a cement contractor in the area to come out in a few days and take a look at their place and her ideas for separating it from the store. They strapped Cristie in, climbed into the jeep and headed home. They had no idea they were being watched.
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
“Right there, Alpha. That girl, the one driving has been spending time with the Pride Richie has joined.”
“She’s human, isn’t she?”
“Yes, sir. She is.”
“What kind of respectable Pride allows humans in? It weakens the Pride,” the Alpha spat disgustedly.
“Yes, sir. Agreed.”
“Are there any others in this — Pride?” he put sarcastic emphasis on the word Pride.
“As far as we can tell, only Richie, the Alpha and one other. A Bear of some type.”
“We can surely take them,” the Alpha said confidently.
“Yes, sir. We think so as well.”
“You will do more than think so. You will achieve it. We will watch them for several more days, ensure there is nothing to surprise us. Then, we’ll put an end to this Pride, and take my,” he paused as though the word put a foul taste in his mouth, “son,” he swallowed, “back home to learn his place and take his punishment.”
“Yes, sir. We’re ready. Our males have already arrived. They’re lying in wait several miles from the house Richie is living in.”
“Good. Are they all here?”
“Yes, sir, our strongest. Ready to go to battle for the insult Richie inflicted on you, to defend your honor. What are our guidelines, sir? Do you want survivors?”
“I don’t care what you do with the females. Kill them all, claim them as yours, or leave them to tell the tale. But you will slaughter both the other males. Let Richie watch you do it, knowing their blood is on his hands.”
“Yes, sir.”
Chapter 23
Libby took Maia home and spent the rest of the afternoon with her and Cristie. Libby had told her all about Travis and Scotty. And Maia had lightly touched on the subject of her and Riley, but left out the more emotional details. They’d really gotten to know each other and bonded.
Then when the subject of dinner came up, Libby begged off, saying she was tired and really wanted to go home and rest.
“You sure you’re okay?” Maia asked.
Libby nodded, “Yes. Just really haven’t stopped much lately. Think I’ll go home and get some rest. I have to work tomorrow, too. I work Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, now.”
“Alright, we’ll see you on Friday, then?” Maia asked.
“Couldn’t beat me away with a stick!”
Maia stood and hugged her, “Thanks for today. And for being my friend.”
“You’re welcome,” Libby said. “And thanks for being my friend.”
After Libby left, Maia looked over at Cristie sleeping soundly on the couch and decided to lie down with her for a few moments.
The next thing she knew Riley was leaning over her. “Maia? Sweetheart? You hungry?”
Maia stirred in her sleep.
Riley stroked her hair, his Panther chuffing, “Maia? Honey?”
Maia opened her eyes and saw Riley leaning over her, just inches from her. “Hi,” she said.
“Hi. I hated to wake you, but you fell asleep without dinner. You hungry?”
“Yes, starving.” She realized there was a glorious smell permeating the room, “What is that smell?”
“Richie made beef stew.”
Maia made to sit up, and Riley moved back just enough to let her. She looked at the spot where Cristie had been sleeping and realized she was gone.
“She woke up about half an hour after we got home. She’s in the kitchen already having her first helping,” Riley assured her.
Riley stood, then held out his hand to help Maia stand. Without thinking, Maia reached out and placed her hand in his.
Riley pulled her to her feet, but rather than let go, he continued holding her. Maia looked up into his eyes, and he looked down into hers. There were no words for moments, just both of them looking into one another’s soul. “I miss you,” Riley whispered.
“I miss you, too.”
“Are we going to be okay, Maia?”
Maia tried to step back, but Riley held her gently in place.
Maia’s eyes dropped down to his chest. She swallowed, then shrugged. “We’re better than we’ve been. Isn’t that enough for now?”
Riley watched her for a moment, held her for just a second longer, “No. It’s not. I’m not as good a male as I thought I was. I need you, Maia. I’m trying to be patient, but it’s fucking killing me. I need you. I don’t want to wait anymore.”
“Riley…”
“I’m sorry, Maia. I’m not one for playing games. I thought I could wait until you came to me. Now, I’m not so sure.”
Maia looked up at him, “Do you think I don’t feel the same pull toward you?”
“I don’t know anymore. I know you’re angry. But I know I did nothing wrong.”
Maia chewed on her bottom lip for a second, then said, “You know what? Instead of dinner, I think I’ll go for a run, do you mind?”
Riley breathed deep, shaking his head before saying, “No. I don’t mind. Everything back behind the house is ours and across the highway, too. I’ve fenced off the property line behind us, but not across the road yet. Just stay on our property, please.”
Maia nodded. “Okay. I won’t be long.”
Before she got out of the room, he said, “How can I win your trust again, Maia?”
She didn’t turn around, but she stopped walking. She waited a heartbeat, not quite sure what to say. Finally she shook her head, saying, “I don’t know, Riley. But I really hope you can,” before leaving the living room.
She walked in the kitchen to find her place already set with a bowl of beef stew, a huge scoop of rice sitting in the middle of it, and a crusty dinner roll with several pats of butter on the saucer next to it. A big glass of tea sat next to it.
“I’ve already served you, Reigna. I hope that’s okay,” Richie said.
“Thank you, Richie, but I think
I’ll go for a run first. Keep it warm for me ‘til I get back?”
“Of course, Reigna.”
Maia smiled a thank you and let herself out the back door. She stepped into the shadows and stripped down, allowing her Wolf to take over.
She padded up the steps onto the back porch and looked at the men sitting at the dinner table, looking back at her. She looked at Riley who was standing beside the table, watching her.
“I love you, Maia. I will never let go,” he said.
Her Wolf stared at him, threw back her head to howl a long, painful call, then she was gone.
“She’s fucking gorgeous,” Lucas said.
Riley shot a look at him.
“Her Wolf I mean. Deep browns and reds. Never seen one quite like her.”
“Same color as her hair,” Richie said.
Riley didn’t comment, just went outside to gather her clothes, fold them and lay them on the old pale green glider rocker that sat on the back porch.
He came back in and took his seat.
Cristie looked at him with big, sad eyes, “Mai?”
“She just wanted to run a little, she’ll be back, baby,” Riley said.
About an hour later Maia trotted toward the lights of the house she could see in the distance. The run had been good for her. She’d aimlessly run their property, thoughts of Riley and all they’d been through running on repeat through her head. She kept coming back to the same conclusion. She loved him. She’d always love him and trying to convince herself of any different was only lying to herself and putting off the inevitable. She felt better about where she was. She felt better about Riley. She still had questions, but she at least had no doubt that he was completely truthful with her. He’d not been unfaithful to her. She shifted and walked up the back steps, reaching for the clothes Riley had folded and left on the rocker out there. She could smell him on them, knew it was him that had gathered them up for her.
She opened the back door and let herself in the house.
Richie was just finishing cleaning the kitchen. He smiled at her, “Feel better?”
“Yeah, I do. A run always helps.”
“It does me, too. You hungry yet?”
“Starved.”
“Good, kept it warm for you. There are leftovers if you want more, too.”
“Thank you, Richie. I appreciate it.”
“You’re welcome. Is there anything else you’d like, Reigna?” Richie asked.
“Yes. I want you to stop calling me Reigna.”
“But that’s what you are,” Richie said, grinning.
“No. I’m just Maia. Please, just Maia.”
“Is that an order?” he asked.
Maia snapped her eyes up to him — they were flashing, the first hint he’d gotten of her Alpha nature.
“I think you’d better call her Maia, Number 2,” Lucas said, strolling back through the kitchen for a cookie.
“Well, is it?” Richie pressed.
“Yes! It’s an order,” Maia said.
“Very well, Reigna, I’ll call you Maia,” Richie said, grinning at her flinching at the use of both names.
Riley finally joined them, taking a seat. “You get a lot done in town today?” he asked.
“Actually, we did. And I had some ideas about some changes to the front of the house.”
“Tell me,” Riley said, sitting back, to listen attentively as Maia explained all she’d planned for their property today. Both the house they were in and the space across the highway.
“What do you think?” Maia asked excitedly, after explaining her ideas to separate his home from the public area of the parking lot.
Riley smiled at her, genuinely pleased that she had taken an interest in their home. “I think it’s a great idea. It’ll give us a private drive and at the same time separate us with the greenery from the other side.”
“Yay!” Maia answered, her eyes sparkling as she added, “And we could build two sets of brick columns, the first right at the highway, the second about twenty feet off the road, to give us room to pull off the highway while waiting for the gate to swing open. And we could build a stationary wrought iron fence, rather than a chain link one, too. Put lights on top of the columns, make it really pretty.”
Riley grinned, “I love it, Maia. Let’s do it. You realize you’re saying we?” Riley asked.
Maia looked down at her hands. “Yes,” she whispered, without looking back up at him, “I do.”
Riley met the eyes of Richie, then Lucas across the table from him. Richie smiled at him and gave him a thumbs up, Lucas gave him one single nod — just a slight incline of his head.
Later Riley tried to take Cristie upstairs to bathe her and get her into bed, but she refused. “No! I want Mama.”
Riley froze.
“Who, baby? Mama isn’t here.”
“Mai’s mama.”
It was Maia’s turn to freeze in place. “Cristie? Baby, my name is Maia.”
Cristie nodded, “Mai mama. I want Mai be mama,” and started to get upset.
Maia went straight to Cristie, picking her up and hugging her. “Okay. I’m here, I’m here. It’s gonna be okay. I’m not going to leave you.”
Riley shared a meaningful look with Maia before she went upstairs with Cristie.
Maia bathed Cristie and put her in bed. Read her a story and sat with her until she fell asleep. When she went back downstairs Riley was standing in the living room, looking out the front window at the store where it could easily be seen in illumination of the street light on the other side of it.
“It’s going to be a nice place. Lots of people will stop, and with the diner attached, even people from town will come out to eat,” Maia said.
Riley turned to face her. He had a glass in his hand, with ice and whiskey in it. He didn’t answer her at first, just looked at her.
“You alright?” she finally asked.
“You can’t ever leave. You know that, right?”
Maia, surprised by his words, took a step back. “What do you mean?”
“You told that little girl up there,” he indicated with a raise of his glass toward the second floor of his home, “Okay, when she said she wanted you to be mama. You told her you were here, and it would be okay because you wouldn’t leave her. You can’t walk out on her. That would be all kinds of wrong, Maia.”
Maia nodded, “I know.”
“So what do we do, Maia? This shit isn’t working for me. I’ve waited, and waited, and been punished for something I didn’t do. Now we just walk around each other. Are we supposed to do this forever, never knowing where we stand from one day to the next? You can’t forgive me, don’t trust me. For fuck’s sake, Maia, you think I fucked around on you. Really? What does that say about your faith in my character?”
“I don’t question your integrity! I know you’re a good male. I know you weren’t with anyone else,” she shouted at him. Then the crease between her eyebrows deepened, her frustration, confusion and even guilt easily read on her face, “Okay, maybe I did. But I know you’re not lying to me, now. You’ve never told me anything, but the truth. And all I know is, as angry as I was when Dad brought me here,” she paused to take a deep breath, “I was very glad that he did. I’d have never come on my own. And being here with you — it just brought it all back. I want to stay here, Riley.”
Riley took a step closer, then another.
Maia met his eyes, “I don’t know what happened back then. I know what I heard, but I don’t know what context it was in. I’ll admit that — I don’t, and I should have asked you, but it just hurt so damn bad. And honestly, after all this… crap” she waved her hands up and down her own body, “I’ve been mired in. The pain, the loss of you. The absolute lack of will to live. All I want to do is forget. I want you, Riley. I want you. I don’t know what happened, but I believe that you don’t know either. And I know you are a good male. I KNOW that. I just want to be here with you and Cristie. I don’t want to be apart from you ever agai
n. Not ever.”
Riley dropped the whiskey glass to crash to the floor and rushed to her, wrapping her in his arms and holding her to him as though she was the air he breathed. He buried his face in her neck. “Maia,” he croaked.
Maia held him back, pressing herself so closely to him that she had no idea where she ended and he began. She turned her face into his throat, “Please forgive me. I should have spoken to you long ago. I should never have sent you away. And I should never have renounced you.”
Riley pulled his face back from where he nuzzled her neck, her shoulder, and looked her in the eye, “Say it, Maia. Say it.”
Maia looked up at Riley, “I’m afraid,” she whispered.
“So am I, but nothing will happen until you say it.”
Maia swallowed, then looked up into Riley’s eyes, tightening her hold on him. “You are mine, Riley Colter. Even if you never forgive me, you’re mine. I claim you.”
Riley crushed his lips down on top of hers, kissing her deeply, tasting her, savoring the feel of her in his arms. “I’m yours, my Maia. And you are mine. My Maia, my Mate.”
Maia sobbed through her trembling smile, tears running down her face, while Riley kissed them all away from her cheeks. “Promise me, Maia. No more misunderstandings. Not about anything. You don’t shut down and pull away. You have to talk to me. Always. I can’t live through this again.”
“I promise, I will talk to you so much you will beg me to shut up,” she whispered, searching for his lips with hers again. He smiled against her lips while he kissed her, deeply, passionately. Then he picked her up and carried her upstairs, “Gonna make you mine now, tonight. No more waiting,” he growled.
<<<<<<<>>>>>>>
Outside, on the rise that overlooked the area they were installing the mobile homes on for future Pride members, three Panthers watched the scene unfolding in Riley’s living room through the huge picture window.
The thinnest of the three, a scruffy one, with hip bones showing through his aging hide, cold dead eyes and a greyed muzzle sent a thought to the other two. I’ve changed my mind, that female will be mine. Bring her to me once we decimate her Pride. She will serve us well.
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