She looked at him dubiously. Since when did he possess patience? “You will?”

“I’ll give you until tomorrow night to think on it. That’s as much time as I can give you without losing my mind. Then we talk it all out and I’ll claim you.”

“You’re so certain I’ll agree?”

He smiled. “Ah, baby, do you really think I’ll ever settle for anything less than what I want? What I want most is you. And I’ll get it.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Watching the miniature pirate ship seesawing back and forth, Taryn shook her head. “I don’t know how they could go on that thing after an ice cream and not spew up.”

Riley smiled. “It’s moving pretty slow.” Still the young riders screamed, cheered, and laughed. Kye even daringly had his hands up.

Taryn gestured at a small ball pit. “Lilah would have liked that. Shame she wasn’t well.”

Riley had almost canceled the day trip, feeling shitty that Lilah would miss out, but Grace had insisted that it was best if the other kids weren’t around, or Lilah would never take a nap. Shifter children tended to recover quickly and could often sleep off bouts of nausea. Still, Riley had hesitated. The Alphas, however, had practically ordered them to go and had even come along. They’d been at the amusement park for hours and the kids had ridden everything from the carousel to the bumper boats. They should be tired and bloated after all the walking and junk food, but they were still bundles of energy.

“Look!” Dexter, who was currently taking a break to eat, threw one of his fries on the ground and laughed when a bird swooped down and grabbed it.

Riley chuckled. “Don’t forget to feed yourself.” Keeping a close watch on the cub, she spoke to Tao, who had his arm curled possessively around her. “They’re loving it, aren’t they?”

Tao tucked her hair behind her ear. “They are.”

When she’d woken up that morning, she’d expected to be dealing with a very pushy and impatient Tao. Instead he’d been calm and casual. He hadn’t once bugged her to agree to mate with him. Hadn’t once even mentioned their conversation of the previous night. She could almost think he’d forgotten it . . . except he cast her the occasional look of challenge, a dare to reach for what they both knew she wanted. Riley blushed every time.

“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.