Cruel Alpha Daddy (Silver Meadows Wolves #4)

Chapter 15 - Rider

Despite that Fiona and I have formed a deeper bond, I’m still not comfortable giving her full freedom. When we sleep together, we are close but not always intimate, and during the day, she seems happy in her interactions with me. It truly warms my heart to see her with the other women. It helps me believe she really wants to stay.

Sometimes, though, I catch her looking at the far-off mountains as if she’s thinking about running away. She also has bad dreams when she tosses and turns violently, waking with an agonized whisper on her lips.

Like last night. As we make coffee in the kitchen, I can’t stop looking at her, desperate to ask her about her dreams. She smiles at me and gives me a little hug as she walks past me to get a cup, but her eyes are dark and troubled.

“Fiona, what did you dream about last night?”

“Huh?” she asks, pouring boiling water into her cup. “Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention.”

“Last night. You had a bad dream. I woke you up because you were very upset.”

“Oh, I don’t remember,” she says, smiling as she takes a sip of coffee. “I guess it wasn’t that important.”

Our morning routine has become very comfortable, and I enjoy it, but at times like this, there is tension in the air I can’t ignore.

She’s lying to me. I can feel it.

And it triggers my abandonment issues a lot more than I’d like to admit. I want to slam the door, nail slats down on the windows, and never let her out again.

Can’t do that, though. It would go against our bond of trust, and the other women expect to see her every day.

I can’t lock her away with the excuse it’s for her own safety, either. Tobias has kept his head down low since the last meeting and hasn’t come to my end of town, let alone looked at Fiona. From what I hear, he’s behaving like a model citizen.

Why? What’s his game? I don’t understand why he’s pandering to me like this. There must be a reason.

“You look like you’re having some pretty intense thoughts yourself,” she points out, putting an arm around my waist.

“Thinking about pack stuff. There is still a lot going down with the biker faction. I want it settled as soon as possible.”

I feel tension running through her, and there is a hint of fear in her eyes.

“Tobias?”

“He hasn’t made any noise personally, but it’s as if we have two packs here. I don’t have any faith that Tobias and his boys can be reformed, so I have to kick them out. At the moment, though, they have a lot of support, thanks to the supplies they brought in.”

“I don’t believe for a second that they did it all with donations from charities!”

“Nor do I,” I whisper, shaking my head. “But as yet, we have no evidence. I know Ryan is working with Frank and Scotty in town. I think the guys running the bar are dirty as fuck.”

“Is there any way to take over their supply chain and get rid of the crime involved?”

“That’s a good idea,” I say, smiling at her. “We need the resources, that’s for sure. I just have no clue where they are getting the goods from, or if it’s legal. We’re working on it, though.”

“Well, I better get going,” she says, putting her cup down by the sink. “The other girls are waiting for me. I’ve been teaching them all about baking, and they have been teaching me their skills like sewing and gardening. Even if we can’t take over Tobias’s supply chain, we will have a good stock of necessities right here that are handmade.”

“Okay,” I reply, nodding. “I’ll see you later.”

As she turns away from me, I see a tense expression on her face. I remember her nightmare from last night, the way she cried out, and the tear that ran down her cheek.

“Fiona?”

“Yes, Rider?” She turns back to look at me, and her smile is warm and loving.

I study her for a moment. “Nothing.”

“Okay, I’ll see you this afternoon.”

“Yes, see you.”

I watch her walk down the steps and head towards the hall. It feels like this life we are building together is perfect, something I always imagined but never thought I’d actually have.

So why do I feel like she isn’t committed?

A knock on the door startles me so badly, I almost drop my cup. “Hey, Rider?”

“What is it, Donny?”

“Sorry to disturb you. But we’ve got some serious shit going down, and you need to hear it.”

“Okay, let’s go.” I put my cup in the sink and go out front, following Donny as he strides briskly down the street.

“Are we in that much of a hurry?” I ask him.

“Yes, we are,” Donny answers, giving me a worried look. “Wait till you hear this. It’s not good.”

Fuck.

“Is it Tobias?”

“Yeah.”

We don’t go to the main hall where the women are. Instead, Donny takes me to a large cabin some distance away from the rest of town. It looks like it was once the private house of a person much wealthier than the rest of the village.

“We set this up as a base of operations,” Donny explains. “It’s a bit bigger than the other houses, and it’s far enough away from everything else that it’s difficult to sneak up on us.”

“Good thinking. Are Tobias and his bunch still holed up in the old school?”

“Yup, they are. They spend a lot of time together in the main schoolhouse, and they have the surrounding rooms set up as sleeping areas.”

As I walk into the main room, I see Ryan, Luke, and Tucker waiting for us. All of them are wearing dark, troubled looks. Ryan’s distress is obvious, and he keeps flexing his hands like he wants to rip something apart.

“Tell me,” I order.

Ryan sighs. “I’ve done some snooping, and I’ve also got a mole in Tobias’s camp. Apparently, they hold meetings regularly about attacking Bailey’s pack and making plans to steal their goods, territory, and women.”

“This isn’t new,” I answer. “He’s had these delusional plans for a while now.”

“Yeah, I know. But last night, it escalated. He wants to set an example and really hurt Bailey at the same time. He’s gunning for Kyle as well, telling his supporters that Kyle deserves the pack punishment for his betrayal.”

Admittedly, there is a part of me that agrees. I don’t know if I can ever forgive Kyle, but I don’t want to see him get hurt, either.

He showed me that even the worst of monsters could be redeemed. He deserves a good life, and so do I.

“So, what’s his plan?” I ask.

Ryan looks at the table, letting out a sharp sigh. It’s as if the words are almost impossible for him to say. When he looks back up at me, his eyes are fierce, glowing with the power of his wolf.

“He wants to kidnap the mates of Bailey, Jack, and Kyle, then pass them around between them, torture, and kill them.”

“Jesus fucking Christ!” I swear. “Is he out of his fucking mind?”

“Apparently, yes,” Luke replies. “He has a bunch of young men convinced that if they do this, Bailey will be too broken to fight, and they can move in on the territory and take it for themselves.”

“Are any of them aware that the pack is close to three times the size of ours, not to mention the support from Bailey’s wild faction and the rogues?”

“I doubt he’s thought that far ahead,” Tucker mutters.

I put my head in my hands, scratching my temples. “This is a fucking disaster. Why are they even thinking about this?”

“There aren’t enough females,” Ryan says. “My mole keeps coming back with this information above all else. We don’t have enough girls here, and Tobias is promising them women.”

Suddenly, everything clicks into place. Tobias’s actions make perfect sense now.

“Holy fucking shit,” my voice comes out in a harsh, breathy rush. “That’s it. That’s why he won’t just challenge me. He needs the pack bound to him so when he goes up against me, he can kill anyone on my side, then take the women!”

“And what will they do with our children?” Donny asks. His hands clench by his sides as if he’s thinking about pounding a hole in Tobias’s skull. “Do you think my son would survive in this pack war?”

I shake my head. Tobias would have no use for pups, and he certainly wouldn’t bother to care for any that weren’t his own.

“What are we going to do?” Ryan asks. “They’ll just be waking up now and heading to the hall for breakfast. Should we confront them?”

“No,” I reply, shaking my head. “We don’t want a bloodbath in there, or another scene like the other day. I need hard evidence; we can’t go up against him with mere accusations. Does your guy have any specifics on Tobias’s plan?”

“No, not yet,” Ryan answers. “Mark—he’s a good kid—he tells me that it’s just an idea at this stage. Tobias is getting them hyped up about it. Some of the guys don’t like it, and he’s got to convince them to go along.”

“How does he convince them?”

“The same way Jethro convinced anyone of anything,” Donny growls. “With violence and threats. If they don’t agree, they look like weak little cowards betraying their brothers.”

I close my eyes, trying to hold back the memories flooding into my mind. It’s like I’m living it all over again. I can feel the blood on my knuckles, the bruises on my face. I can hear my opponents screaming in pain.

These guys don’t know it, but they will carry guilt over these deeds for the rest of their lives. We have to save them.

“We’ll have to keep an even closer eye on them,” I say. I look up at each of my brothers in turn, seeing expressions of determination on every face. “We can’t let them execute this plan. I want you to alert everyone the second they try to implement it, and we’ll bring the whole pack down on them.”

“What if they resist?” Ryan asks. “If every single young male on his team decides to fight, we’ll be evenly split.”

“So be it,” I say harshly. “I’m ready to fight this fucker with everything I’ve got. Get your man—Mark?—to whisper in the ears of anyone who doesn’t like the plan. Make sure they know they’ll have to deal with retribution from this pack, from Bailey… and from me.”

“Can do,” Ryan says. “I’ll get the word out to him.”

“What about us, boss?” Donny asks.

“We need to set up a watch. Get anyone loyal to us to position themselves around town where we can clearly see our perimeter. The second those guys go anywhere, I want that information immediately.”

“You got it,” Tucker says.

“Go,” I say, looking down at my hands as the others leave.

The plan sickens me. Tobias and his goons are worse than I imagined. Maybe even worse than Jethro.

I can’t let them win. I have to take him out.

My greatest fear is that there is no way to do this without tearing the entire pack to shreds.