Tao, doodling lazy circles on her nape with his thumb, spoke. “We need to scare the shit out of Ramón like he scared the shit out of us when his men tried to kidnap Dexter and gut Riley’s raven open.”

“Spooking Ramón is exactly what we need to do,” said Trey. “But it’s not easy to scare someone like him.”

Nick tilted his head. “Maybe we should have someone sneak into his home and leave a message, show just how easily we could get to him, despite all his security.”

Not a bad idea, thought Riley. “I could do it.”

Linking his fingers with hers, Tao shook his head. “He’ll know to look out for a raven. He’ll tell his men to shoot any birds on sight.”

“Ryan can get in and out of anywhere without being seen,” said Taryn.

“I wasn’t thinking about Ryan,” said Nick.

Shaya’s gaze sharpened on her mate. “You’re thinking about Harley’s cousins.”

Nick lifted his shoulders. “Isn’t sneaking into their enemies’ homes and killing them in their sleep what they do?”

“Yeah, because margays don’t believe in war,” said Shaya. “But you’re talking about leaving Ramón a message. Seriously, Nick, there’s no guarantee her cousins won’t just kill the bastard. They’ll despise him for trying to kidnap Dexter.”

Makenna raised her hands. “I got no problem with them killing Ramón. Just putting that out there.” Ryan grunted.

“I doubt killing him will help,” said Nick. “There is always someone who’ll step up to the plate in a lifestyle like that. Someone else will take over and they’ll likely seek to avenge him. Your best bet of completely avoiding any war would be to scare him into backing off.”

Taryn raised a brow. “And if he doesn’t?”

“Then we fight him,” replied Nick.

Lips pursed, Dante spoke. “I like this idea. If he realizes a shifter got inside his home, it’ll shock the shit out of him. An act like that says, ‘We can kill you anytime we want, you arrogant bastard; you’re nothing to us.’ It’ll remind him who he’s fucking with. Not humans, but shifters—the ultimate predators.”

Taryn’s mouth curved. It was clear that she was warming to the idea. “Shaya, do you think Harley’s cousins will agree to do it?”

The redhead grinned. “Oh yeah. They’ll enjoy the challenge.”

“Talk to them,” Trey said to the Mercury Alphas. “If they’re happy to do it, we’d appreciate it.”

Nick inclined his head. “We’ll have Harley call them and we’ll get back to you soon with an answer.”

As Trey switched off the monitor, Riley turned to Tao and said, “Involving Harley’s cousins might actually work.” She sincerely liked Harley, who was a margay wild cat. They’d sort of connected . . . maybe because they both knew what it was like to live in a pack of mostly wolves. Riley had briefly met her cousins at Harley and Jesse’s mating ceremony. They were all very different and quirky in their own individual ways. They were also incredibly lethal—though at first glance they didn’t look it. None of them appeared to be 100 percent sane either.

“Let’s hope so,” said Tao, “because we need—” He frowned at the sound of her phone chiming. “Is it Ethan?”

Looking at the screen, Riley shook her head. “No, it’s Lucy.” They’d spoken a few times since Riley left Sedona. “I’ll just be a minute.” She walked out of the office and swiped her thumb across the screen. “Hey, Luce.”

“I just spoke to Ethan and Max,” said Lucy. “I can’t believe you didn’t call me to say that you’re mated.”

Riley winced. “Sorry, there’s just a lot going on.”

“Hmm, well, I’ll forgive you because I love you,” Lucy said, a smile in her voice. “I wanted to say congratulations. I have to say, it comes as a shock that Tao was your true mate. You’re just both very different, but I guess that’s often how it works with predestinated mates. I really am happy for you.”

“Thanks, Luce.” Riley leaned back against the sandstone wall. “Are you fully healed now?”

“Yes, thanks to Max. He truly is a gem.”

Riley smiled. “Yep, he is.”

“Both your uncles are awesome. They’ve been like watchdogs since you left.”

“Aside from your wound, how’ve you been?”

“Good. Just . . . nervous, you know?” Her voice shook a little. “It’s still hard to wrap my head around the fact that someone here actually shot me. I hate not knowing who it was, hate that I could be smiling at the person who did it. And I’m utterly pissed that some of the flock are trying to pin the blame on you.”

“Join the club.”

“I don’t think they really believe what they’re saying. I think they just want someone to point the finger at so they can convince themselves that the threat has gone. But that doesn’t make it okay.”

No, it damn well didn’t. “How’s Sawyer?”

“He’s fully healed too. He doesn’t believe it was you either, by the way.”

“I don’t suppose you have any theories on who it actually is?”

Lucy paused. “If I’m honest, I would have suspected Cynthia if I hadn’t been shot. I mean, she could have deliberately missed you because all she really wanted was to piss you off, right?”

Riley blinked. She hadn’t actually considered that. “Right,” she agreed.

“I don’t think Cynthia would ever try to kill me. Not even for what I did,” she added in a low voice.

Riley frowned, echoing, “What you did?”

Another pause. “Rhonda Lincoln . . . she started a petition.” Rhonda was one of the ravens who had been killed at Alec’s party.

“What sort of petition?”

“She wanted Cynthia gone from the flock,” Lucy explained. “Rhonda was tired of Cynthia taunting her about how she’d had her mate, Richie. You know Cynthia took particular joy in tormenting any females who’d mated one of the guys she’d slept with.”

Yeah, Cynthia had loved that she could hurt the others that way. She hadn’t cared that it left her with only a few friends or that it lost her the respect of many. A dominant female shifter had her pride, but Cynthia’s pride either wasn’t easy to chip at or was somehow completely nonexistent.