Read Riley's Downfall [Brac Pack 29] for Free Online Page A

the saddle, glancing down at his pa and wondering if he even wanted to tell the man where his mate was. He knew he was going to catch some shit over this. No one in the house was going to let him live this down.
    He just knew it.
“I didn’t snap at him, Pa,” Riley said as he swung his leg over the saddle and dismounted. “Sterling is in the house with his pig.” The words were spoken so low that Riley prayed his pa didn’t hear him.
His pa stopped dead in his tracks, cocking his head as he studied Riley intently. Yep, the man had heard him. Damn shifter hearing. “Did you hit your head, boy?”
And it began.
“No,” he grumbled. “Sterling found the sow and her piglets.”
Pa’s eyes lit up and a grin formed on his face, spreading until the smile reached from ear to ear. He gave a deep chuckle as he shook his head. “You have one interesting mate, Riley. Strange, but interesting.”
“Who said he was my mate?” Riley winced. He wasn’t trying to deny Sterling. Even saying the words tasted bitter in his mouth. He just wasn’t sure what he was going to do with the man. Sterling was a walking, talking paradox to Riley. The man baffled Riley from head to toe, and everywhere in between. But he knew that Sterling was beginning to make a chink in Riley’s armor. All he had thought about in the barn was making the man smile.
“Son,” Pa began and then sighed, looking as if he was letting whatever argument he was gearing up for fade away. “Very well. We have other matters to discuss right now anyway.”
Riley didn’t like the solemn look on his pa’s face. That look never boded well for any of them. He’d grown up at the man’s side, and Riley had gotten pretty damn good at reading his pa. He didn’t like where this story was going.
“Let’s talk inside,” his pa said and then climbed the front steps, leaving Riley standing there for a moment wondering if he wanted to follow. Sighing deeply, Riley trotted up the front steps and walked inside. He found his pa in the kitchen, making a pot of coffee. He looked tired, weary, and Riley wasn’t sure what to think.
His father had always been strong, a force to be reckoned with. But today, Malcolm Lakeland looked his age. Riley took a seat at the table, glancing at his pa as the man made two cups of coffee and set one down in front of Riley.
The man was starting to worry Riley.
“Is everything okay?” Riley asked as he picked the mug up, taking a small sip.
“You know, son. There are some days when I wonder why I even get out of bed,” Pa said as he took a seat at the table.
That sentence scared him. Riley wasn’t used his pa talking like this. It just wasn’t him. The man was an unyielding force that Riley relied on for guidance and reassurance. Riley was a grown man, but even grown men needed a shoulder to lean on once in a while. And his pa was that shoulder.
“What happened at Maverick’s?”
His pa stared into his cup for so long that Riley didn’t think the man was going to answer him. He had a faraway look, like something was troubling him. Whatever it was, Riley wanted to find out so he could dismantle it and take that look off of his pa’s face.
“Maverick asked me to do something today that I’m not sure I want to do.”
“Then I’ll do it for you,” Riley instantly said. “Just tell me.”
Malcolm’s eyes rose slowly, the steel grey looking more like soft wisps of cloud. The fire wasn’t in his pa’s eyes, and Riley wanted to kill whatever was upsetting his pa.
“The wood elves don’t have a leader. Not since Luke killed Shanta. Maverick needs someone to bring back order to their tribe until Ahm can find them someone suitable for the position.”
“And he wants you to be their temporary leader?” Riley was shocked. The man had a ranch to run, people who relied on him. His pa had decided to open his ranch to those in need, and he wouldn’t be able to do that from the wood elf tribe. Maverick was nuts. What had he been