Only two things stopped Riley from losing her shit: Savannah wasn’t bleeding, and she could hear Dexter’s heartbeat.
“I didn’t mean to bash his head so hard against the wall, but those claws of his are a hazard.” Shirley’s stare was fevered, unblinking. And in those eyes there was a hint of something, something not altogether sane, that made Riley’s stomach twist. “Expecting Cynthia?”
“It did look more and more like she could be behind all this,” said Riley.
Wind gusted through the open balcony door behind Shirley. Clearly the lock hadn’t stood up all that well to shifter strength. “I was flying around the perimeter of your territory, wondering just how I’d be able to cross over without being sensed, when I noticed the humans at the gate. They provided a nice diversion.”
Riley kept her voice a flat monotone, giving Shirley no emotion to work with. “So, what, you’re punishing people for not helping Wade?”
“He didn’t need help. He needed people to stop messing with his head and manipulating him. It was one of you. It had to be.”
“So you just figured you’d shoot us all to be sure the person responsible was punished.”
“You and Lucy spoke to him most often. Sawyer was spending time with him, though. Wade told me that Sawyer just wanted to help him to impress you. Cynthia was calling him all the time, telling him that you and Lucy were laughing at him behind his back. I can believe that.”
“You don’t believe it, though,” Riley said. “Not really. It wasn’t the first time Cynthia tried coming between me and my friends, and it wouldn’t have been the last.”
“She swears she didn’t give Wade the gun and tell him to do it . . . I think she was actually telling the truth.”
“But you hurt her anyway, didn’t you?” Which explained why Cynthia was missing.
“I wasn’t going to take the chance that she was lying. One of you did it.”
“Wade did it, Shirley.”
“Wade was—”
“Depressed. Troubled. Full of anger he couldn’t get out because his nature was just too sweet. It built up inside him until he burst like a volcano. I think he wanted to die. I do. I think he just also wanted to take with him the people who’d made him feel that way.” It was a sad truth, but it was the truth all the same.
“No.” Shirley’s voice shook. “No.” Her grip must have tightened on Savannah’s hair, because the little girl whined and tried pulling her ponytail free. The sound made Riley’s heart squeeze. Her raven flapped her wings and released a guttural rattle.
“Let her go.” It was hard to keep the plea out of her voice. “She’s not who you’ve come all the way here for.”
Shirley tapped her talons against Savannah’s fragile neck. “I don’t know . . . I think hurting her will hurt you, so maybe I should just do that.”
It took everything Riley had not to lunge at the bitch. Her muscles literally ached from the strain of keeping still, but she feared making any move that could set Shirley off. “That wouldn’t be enough for you. It’s me you want. Why wait all this time to hurt me? Why not do this years ago?”
“It’s your fault,” Shirley spat. “Seeing your face, having you around . . . it brought it all back. Everything went straight back to the way it was—Sawyer wanting you, Cynthia arguing with you, your uncles adoring you. But no Wade. No. While you’re all moving on with your lives, he’s dead.”
“But you didn’t kill us.” Riley paused, hearing tires screech and wolves growl just outside. Her stomach knotted at the sound of bullets firing, but she took comfort in the fact that none had hit her mate—she’d feel it if they had. “I don’t think you really want anyone to die, Shirley. You wanted people to remember Wade, to remember what he went through, and feel your pain.”
“Don’t kid yourself. I wanted you all dead. Especially you. You were supposed to be his best friend, but you did nothing to help him, just like you did nothing to help Daniel.” Shirley sneered and gave a quick snort of disgust. “Your mother never deserved him.”
The jealousy in the latter words made Riley frown. “Why?”
“He wasn’t hers anyway. I knew as soon as I saw Daniel that he was mine.” Shirley’s face actually lit up a little. “I didn’t need to feel the tug of the mating bond—I just knew. My raven knew.” The light on her face died an abrupt death. “But he didn’t. He felt something, I could tell, but he only had eyes for Anabel.” Her mouth curled in contempt. “Everyone had eyes for Anabel.”
Shocked, Riley was struggling to keep up. “You think my father was your true mate?”
“I know he was.” Shirley’s voice was like a whip. “He was mine, and she stole him from me. I had to watch them together. I told him he was my mate. He wouldn’t believe me and neither would she. She said I was just trying to break them up out of spite. I did try breaking them up after that, I really did, but—as he was so fond of saying—she was his world. They imprinted, and then they had you and you were both his world. Me? He avoided me like the plague.”
Now that she was mated, it was impossible for Riley not to appreciate just how agonizing that must have been. Shirley’s eyes were so wet and dull that Riley might have felt sorry for her if it weren’t for the talons aimed at Savannah and the fact that she’d hurt Dexter.
Shirley pressed her trembling lips together. “When Anabel died, I thought, ‘He can be mine now.’ Her death was fate at work, Riley. Fate punishing her for taking what wasn’t hers to take.” A flush crept up her neck and face. “I could have saved him. If they’d let me see him, let me speak to him, I could have brought him out of that state. He would have lived for me. I was his mate. But it was you the flock pinned their hopes on. They wouldn’t listen to me. Wouldn’t let me in to see him. ‘Riley will bring him back,’ they said. But you didn’t. So he died. Maybe fate was punishing him too for turning his back on what it offered him.”
“Are you forgetting that you were mated when he came to the flock?”
A dismissive sound. “I would have gotten rid of Dean for him. Dean never loved me anyway. He liked his girls young. Once I was too old for him, he lost interest.”