Roman's Vow (Riley's Pride #4) - Sandra R Neeley Page 0,35
his tone crisp.
“I told him to tell you. And if anything had happened or I felt it was dangerous, I’d have told you. But as it is, what was I going to say… ‘Riley, I got a feeling a time or two. Thought you should know’. There’s nothing to really tell,” Roman said, defending his decision.
Riley just sat there looking at Roman, weighing the information he’d just learned. He turned to Maia. “He leave ya’ll here while I was gone?”
“No!” Maia answered. “He was here more than you usually are. He’s very committed to us as a family and a Pride. Don’t even give that a second thought.”
Riley nodded. “Good.”
“You know how I am,” Roman said. “If I was the least bit concerned to have Darcie living across the street over there, I’d have had a damn fit already. I'm not concerned.”
Riley sighed. “Alright. But I’m going to talk to him about it. I can’t keep everybody safe if I don’t know what the hell’s lurking around our property.”
“I don’t think he knows either,” Roman said, taking a bite of his breakfast.
Somehow that didn’t make Riley feel anymore secure.
~~~
Lucas’s Bear woke with the sun shining in his eyes. His Bear looked around, then clumsily sat up and rubbed his massive paws over his snout. He’d wandered all night and still hadn’t found anything. His stalker, silent-friend, visitor, whatever you wanted to call her, wasn’t here. He’d felt her every night since Christmas, but now he didn’t. She simply wasn’t here. He called out one more time, hoping wherever she was, she’d hear him.
Getting to his huge paws, he headed home at a slow lope. He glanced over his shoulder one more time before he crested the ridge and turned toward home. She was gone. He didn’t know how he knew she was a she, he just did. The same way he knew somebody was here, though he’d never seen them. He just knew — something deep inside him had let him know someone was nearby, someone was watching, and that someone was a female — his female. But now she wasn’t here any longer. And that made him feel lonelier than when she’d been here and refused to show herself.
Fifteen minutes later he topped the small rise that separated the six hundred acres the Pride owned behind the trailer park and went straight to his trailer that butted up against that rise. He shifted back and walked up the small set of stairs that led onto the back deck and his back door. He let himself inside and pulled on the jeans he’d shucked and left on the kitchen floor. Walking through his kitchen and into the living room, intent on a shower and then something to eat, he came to a standstill when he noticed Riley sitting on his sofa waiting for him.
“Have a good run?” Riley asked.
“Not really,” Lucas admitted.
“Problem?” Riley asked.
“Not exactly,” Lucas answered.
Riley nodded slowly while he watched Lucas wondering why he was sitting in Lucas’s living room and waiting for him to return from his run. Riley had never done anything like this before, and he knew it threw off Lucas’s sense of calm to find someone sitting in his living room, much less his Alpha.
“There a problem, Riley?” Lucas asked.
Riley shrugged. “I don’t know. Thought maybe you could tell me.”
“I don’t get it,” Lucas admitted, his eyes narrowing.
“What has you running all night, Lucas?” Riley asked.
Lucas shrugged.
Riley sat forward and placed his elbows on his legs just above his knees, leaning on them as he steepled his fingers. “Lucas, I can’t have shit happening around here that I’m not aware of. I try to make every effort to have as few regulations as possible. Everybody is encouraged to work where you want, do what you want with your lives as long as it’s legal and you’re happy, and maintain loyalty to the Pride. Come to me if there’s a problem. Hell, come to me if there’s not a problem and you just want to talk. But when it comes to one of you hiding something from me, for whatever reason, I have a problem with it. Whether that something threatens the Pride or not, I need to know if things are changing, or could be changing.”
“Nothing’s changing,” Lucas said.
“Then you’re not spending all your free time chasing after some thing that followed you home from Travis’s?” Riley asked.