“It’s a nice park,” Tao added.
“Aside from the bat cave, sure.”
Tao smiled. “Why don’t you like bats?”
Was that a trick question? “They carry rabies, and drink blood, and make horrible squeaky sounds, and their wings are weird. I mean, what kind of wings don’t have feathers?”
“So you’re scared of them.”
“No, but I’ll concede that I might have been scared of them if I was a lesser female. Anyway, bat cave or no bat cave, I’m glad we brought the kids here. They needed this.”
“It has to be hard for them to be cooped up all the time,” said Taryn, licking her melting ice cream.
“Our territory is vast,” began Tao, “but being confined to it can make you feel like you can’t breathe.”
Trey absently nodded in agreement, busy eating the giant turkey leg he’d bought from one of the food vendors.
As Riley gave her surroundings a quick, surreptitious glance, Tao tugged on her ponytail. “Don’t worry.” She didn’t look worried, but he could sense it. Massaging the tension from her neck, he kissed her lightly. “Ethan said all the ravens were on Exodus territory. He’ll know the minute one leaves, and he’ll contact us immediately.”
“I know,” said Riley. “But while the whole flock business feels up in the air, I can’t relax. I’ll try, though.” Noticing the pirate ship slowing to a stop, she waited near the exit. The human operating the ride soon opened it, and Savannah and Kye came rushing out, not looking the least bit dizzy.
“Can we go on the teacup ride now?” asked Savannah in the sweetest voice.
“Seriously, it’s like they want to vomit all over themselves,” said Taryn.
Feeling a pat on his leg, Tao looked down to see that Dexter was pointing one of his fries toward the sky. A stray red balloon was drifting upward. “If we can get you a balloon from somewhere, we will,” Tao told him. Dexter’s answering smile tugged at Tao’s heart. The kid was becoming more and more relaxed around him, and Tao had to admit it felt good. He wanted Savannah and Dexter to see him and Riley as a unit. In order for that to happen, they needed to trust him as they did Riley.
Savannah would be a little harder to win over, Tao knew. But she was warming up to him little by little. The thought made him smile . . . right up until some of Dexter’s ketchup dripped off his fry and splattered on Tao’s jeans.
“Uh-oh,” said the cub. “Sorry.”
Tao tried to soak up the sauce with a napkin that Riley handed him. “It’s okay, little man.” Unfortunately, wiping at the sauce only succeeded in making the stain look worse. With a shrug Tao balled up the napkin and dumped it in a nearby trash can.
“Teacup ride! Teacup ride!” Kye fairly demanded as he madly twirled in a circle.
Trey snorted at his son. “No more sugar for you.”
Kicking the brake off the rental stroller, Riley said, “Time to get moving, kids.” Savannah and Dexter clambered into the double stroller while Kye climbed up his father’s back. Once Trey had more comfortably positioned the pup on his broad shoulders, Tao gently bumped Riley aside and pushed the stroller as they began an easy walk.
The place was pretty busy, full of other families, groups of teenagers, and even couples. As a woman passed with two crying toddlers, Taryn said, “I think the kids have been really well behaved, especially considering it’s hot.”
Riley nodded. “They’ve impressed me.”
Savannah leaned out of the stroller as she spotted a row of stuffed animals hanging around a game stall. “Ooh, can I have one?”
Tao brought the stroller to a halt and studied the basketball toss game. Nothing he hadn’t played before, he thought. “Which one do you want?”
“The snake,” replied the viper, eyes wide with excitement, as she leaped out of the stroller.
“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” said Tao. He handed five dollars to the human manning the stall, who then gave Tao three balls and told him the rules of the game. As soon as Kye hopped down from Trey’s shoulders and climbed onto the shelved barrier, Dexter deserted his fries and scrambled his way up Trey’s back—no doubt to annoy Kye for the fun of it.
Keeping tight hold of the stroller, Riley watched as Tao stood with his legs almost shoulder width apart, flexed his knees, and basically shot all three balls into the hoops like it was his job.
A bell dinged and Savannah released Riley’s leg, squealing, “You won it!” As Tao handed her the stuffed snake, she wrapped an arm around his leg and gave him the most angelic smile. “Thank you!”
He tugged on her pigtail. “You’re welcome.”
“Damn,” Taryn cursed quietly as a plop of ice cream landed on her shirt.
“I have some wet wipes in the mesh pocket at the back of the stroller,” Riley told her. “Time to get back in the stroller, kids.” Kye hopped off the barrier and turned back to Trey while Savannah slid inside the stroller with her snake. Dexter . . . Dexter didn’t follow her. He was also no longer hanging off Trey’s back.
He was gone.
Riley went cold from head to toe. She spun in a circle. “Where’s Dexter?” The words came out quiet, shaky, but every wolf heard them. “Dexter! Dexter!” There was no sign of him fucking anywhere. Panic choked her. She grabbed Tao’s arm, as if he could keep back the hysteria. “Where is he?”
Fighting the dread beating at him, Tao inhaled a deep breath, sifting through the scents. Catching Dexter’s, Tao turned to their right. “He went this way.”
“I’ve got the stroller, go,” said Trey.
Riley, Tao, and Taryn sprinted down the path, following Dexter’s scent. Whatever was on their faces made the throngs of people gasp and part.
“There’s another scent tight with his,” Riley realized. And both scents were leading to the exit. Riley didn’t think. She just shifted right on the spot.
The raven shook off Riley’s clothes and flapped her wings hard, pushing herself off the ground. She sailed through the air and over the exit of the park. Soaring above the rows of vehicles, the raven searched for the cub. She saw him. He was limp. An adult male was dragging him to a vehicle where another male waited.
The raven swooped down and knotted her talons in the male’s hair. Enraged with this male who would try to steal the cub, she clawed at his scalp, drawing blood. With a loud cry of pain, he released the cub and slapped at the raven. She didn’t let him go. She dug her talons in harder. Bit his fingers. Shrieked at him.
“Get the fuck off me!”
A burning pain blazed along the raven’s leg and pricked her belly. She released the human and recoiled. He turned toward the cub, knife in a hand that dripped with blood. The raven blocked his path, aggressively flapping her wings at him.
“Leave the kid, Mathers! Get back in the car!”
The male glaring at the raven froze, looking from her to the cub.
“The others are fucking coming, move!”
The male spat a curse and hurried to the car. The raven wanted to chase him, wanted to pursue the vehicle as it raced away, but her human half urged her to stay with the cub and guard him—something her human half felt she’d failed to do herself.
Tao dropped to his knees beside Dexter and the raven, his lungs burning. He could see the gentle rise and fall of the cub’s chest, could smell the drug. “He’s unconscious, but he’s alive.” But that didn’t calm Tao whatsofuckingever, because he had the image in his head of the human pulling a knife on Riley. The tang of her blood scented the air. His wolf snarled, offended by the scent and wanting to hunt the human who would dare harm her.