Riley's Pride

by Sandra R Neeley

  Riley heard Richie set his phone down on the counter in the kitchen before picking up a spoon and stirring something in a pot on the stove. Riley set his foot down on the floor heavily, so Richie would be sure to hear him and started toward the kitchen, speaking loudly to Cristie, so Richie would hear. As soon as they came around the corner into the kitchen, Richie looked up at him guiltily.

  “Hey, I see a hungry girl,” Richie said to Cristie, trying to cover.

  “’Sketti?” she asked.

  “No, not ‘sketti, but just as good. You’re going to love this. I made pork roast with mashed potatoes and gravy.”

  Riley put Cristie in her chair, seated on top of a couple of very old phone books he found in the pantry, and then served their plates.

  Richie served his own plate and put a glass of sweet tea in front of each of them.

  Riley took one bite and moaned his pleasure, “Aw, man. This is amazing, just amazing,” he said, placing another bite in his mouth.

  “I’m glad you like it, Riley. I really enjoy cooking.”

  Riley looked over at Cristie who was busily eating her own meal as quickly as she could, “Slow down, baby, it’s not going anywhere.”

  “Riley, I got to be honest with you. I used your phone while you were bathing Cristie. I know I should have asked, but, I just, I saw it lying there and just really needed to make a call.”

  “It’s fine, Richie.”

  “I should’ve asked.”

  “It’s okay. Why don’t you have your own phone?”

  “Alpha didn’t like us to have phones to communicate with the outside world without his supervision. There were a couple of Pride phones for anybody to use whenever they wanted, but it was always on his account, so he could trace the calls, keep up with where they went and who they were to. So I didn’t use them.”

  “Why? Who didn’t you want him to be able to track down?” Riley asked.

  Richie looked at Riley thoughtfully for a moment before seeming to make a decision, and he set his fork down before looking Riley in the eyes, “My mother. I didn’t want him to be able to find my mother.”

  “Tell me, Richie,” Riley said quietly, taking his last bite of meat and sitting back to give Richie his undivided attention.

  Chapter 5

  Richie did. He told him. He told him about how his father had once been a halfway decent male. At least had seemed to be. How his mother, a human, had fallen in love with him and when she became pregnant, moved to be with him and his Pride. “Everything was fine until I was about four years old, when my grandfather died. I’m not sure what happened, but it’s almost as though he started to lose his mind. He became completely controlling of everything and everyone. The Pride had always been a very tightly held group. We had strict rules, and everyone had a particular part to play, but after my grandfather’s death, my father became tyrannical. Maybe he was afraid someone would challenge him if given half a chance. Anyway, he was horrible to my mother, barely tolerated me, and made conditions almost unbearable for most of the Pride. Not only were we forced to work within the Pride only, now we had to pay dues to him, for his leadership and the luxury of the protection of the Pride. If you can’t pay your dues, you have to come up with other services to provide, or sell anything you may own to meet your quota. One day he made the mistake of raising his hand to my mother. I was about fourteen, but I got in between them. He was drunk, and I was able to fight him off that time. I kept fighting him, and my mother started fighting him, too, and eventually we managed to shove him out of the door and into the yard.”

  “Was that when you sent your mother away?”

  Richie shook his head, “No, that was months later. Most days my mother was not allowed in our house anymore. He’d get drunk and throw her out of the house, locking the door to keep her outside. He was furious that we’d embarrassed him in front of his Pride. He threw my mother out of the house, but threatened to kill her if she left our territory. She was sleeping in her car at night, with me sneaking out with blankets and staying in the car with her. She didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know what to do. The Pride was all I’d ever known.”

  “Why did your Pride accept his behavior?” Riley asked, his temper on a slow boil for the mistreatment of the child Richie had been and his mother.

  “The Pride was all they’d ever known. They had always been a closed sect, had never lived outside the “walls” of safety the Pride provided. They just went with it. The Pride Alpha makes the laws, and the Pride lives by them. Some are better than others. Simple enough.”

  “Then what?”

  “I grew up with a little girl, Yvette. She was so perfect, and shiny, and happy, and sweet. Everyone knew she was mine. And everyone knew I was hers. My father decided that she would come live with us in our house so that he could teach her to be a proper submissive wife. My mother was living in her car. My father was an abusive drunk who was power happy and quickly becoming more delusional. And her parents were outraged, to say the least. Her family decided that they couldn’t live under the conditions my father was imposing any longer. They planned to leave and asked my mother to bring me and come along with them. It was all planned, but the night we were to leave, we waited and we waited, but they never came. Eventually my father showed up in the place we were to meet. He had a crying Yvette with him. He said that her family were traitors and had been killed for their attempt to leave his Pride. He said the only thing that saved her was that she was a child and unable to make decisions on her own. He shoved Yvette into the car with us and drove us back to the house. He locked Yvette and me in my bedroom, while he beat my mother into unconsciousness.

  Days later my mother started making plans. She told him that she’d been wrong, that she needed to contribute as well. She wanted to start working at the diner and pay her own dues. He seemed to buy into her contrite act and allowed her to begin working as long she gave all the money to him. He didn’t realize it gave her access to strangers as they passed through. She borrowed one’s cell phone, called my uncle, who she’d known from when she and my father dated. He’d never wanted a part of the Pride life. But he came back when he heard how bad things were for the people of the Pride. He showed up, challenged for Alpha. He didn’t want it, but challenged for it just the same. My father refused to honor his challenge and offered to pay him off instead. Everyone knew my uncle would win if he did actually go through with the challenge. But he had other plans, just to get us free. He settled for us — my mother, Yvette and myself. My father agreed, in exchange for his Pride, he’d allow his brother to leave with us, provided he never came back and gave up all rights to the Pride. Only at the last minute, my father changed his mind — he refused to allow me to leave. I was his legacy. My mother could go, Yvette could go, but I had to stay so that I could be groomed to take his place.”

  “Your mother left you there?” Riley asked, stunned.

  “No! My mother was fit to be tied, but I told her to go. I insisted she go and get Yvette to safety as well. I had no doubt if she stayed that he’d kill her. He’d beaten her so many times. I couldn’t live through it again. I begged her to go. So she did, crying and pleading with my uncle and me, but we knew there was no other way. If I stayed, he’d let her go. If I went, too, he’d track us down and he’d kill her. So I stayed. As punishment for her leaving, I was given the diner as a job. Since that was the last place my mother worked, I had to take her place. But… he had no idea, I actually loved the job. I loved cooking. I loved the people. So I just kept doing it. Knowing full well, the longer I stayed, the less the chance for my father to find my mother.”

  “Why has no one killed him?” Riley asked, outraged that anyone could be allowed to abuse his power to such an extent.

  “They’re afraid of him. He’s got a group of males that share in his power trip. There are moles in the group that report back to him on any unrest, any complaints, and those doing the complaining are punished.”

  “That’s not Pride life
! That’s a freaking cult! It’s little more than a prison camp! They can’t possibly be happy,” Riley declared.

  “I know. But as you said once, everyone has the ability to change their lives. And if they choose not to, there’s nothing anyone else can do.”

  “Unbelievable,” Riley said, shaking his head.

  “My uncle had a friend that was passing through stop and give me his phone number. I memorized it and sent the paper back with my uncle’s friend. I didn’t want any trace of it that my father could ever find. He destroyed everything I had of my mother’s. Everything but the small photo I kept in my wallet and memories. He can’t take my memories. And each holiday I try to call my mother. At midnight, the night before, so I’m the first one to wish her Merry Christmas, or Happy Easter, or Happy Thanksgiving. I’d drive down the road to the pay phone in the next town, and I’d call. It was only a quick call, knowing that I had to get back before I was missed, but still, I was the first one to call her as often as I could.” Richie stopped talking, looking down at the bit of food still left on his plate as he pushed it around with his fork.

  Cristie had finished eating and was now making designs in what was left of her mashed potatoes.

  Riley was speechless at the story he’d just heard. It just convinced him even more that he was correct in taking Richie into his Pride.

  “You don’t have to do that anymore, Richie. You don’t have to ever think of that life again. You call your mother anytime you want. In fact,” he stood up and snatched his phone off the counter, handing it to Richie, “you call her now. You call her, and you spend all freaking night on the phone if you want. And then you call Yvette. You spend all damn day talking to her if you want.”

  “Yvette isn’t mine anymore. She married someone else.”

  Riley’s mouth dropped open in shock.

  Richie shrugged, “She got tired of waiting. I don’t blame her. She’s young, she’s beautiful, she should not have to wait endlessly on me. I’m glad she’s happy.”

  “But she’s your Mate!”

  “Don’t you want your Mate to be happy? Even if it’s not you that makes her happy?”

  Riley nodded. “Yes, I do.” Riley thought about it for a second, then, “My Mate left me, too. She renounced me. I’m not sure why, but she did. I just keep waiting, thinking that maybe she’ll rethink it. Maybe if she sees that I’ve built a life here, she’ll think I’m worthy again.” He pointed at the phone, “But this isn’t about me, this is about you. Call your mom, and tomorrow we get you a phone that they can call you on anytime they want to.”

  “Alpha…” Richie started, a lump in his throat.

  “Riley!” Riley snapped. “And we’re going to bed. You have phone calls to make.”

  Riley got halfway down the hall before he stopped and walked back to the kitchen, one hand reaching out toward Richie, pointing directly at him, “Just for the record, Richie, that sick bastard that fathered you shows up here, I’m not promising you he will walk away alive. Nobody fucks with mine, and you are certainly my people. A member of my Pride. I protect my people.” Then he was gone again, heading back to put Cristie down for the night. He was almost at the top of the stairs when he heard Richie’s voice, “Mother? It’s me. No, nothing’s wrong. Are you busy? Alpha said I was to call you and talk as long as we wanted. Tomorrow I’m going to get my own phone, and I’ll call you with the number. But for now, sit, tell me about you. Tell me about Yvette. How are you?”

  <<<<<<<>>>>>>>

  A tall, thin balding male paced manically back and forth through the main dining room of the roadside restaurant in the mid-morning light. Frustrated with the lack of information, he reached out and swiped the condiment caddy from the nearest table as he stalked by it for the twentieth time. “I want to know why the damn restaurant wasn’t opened. Why the hell weren’t my customers seen to? And where the fuck is my son?!” he yelled. His security detail, a group of five males, jumped when he swatted the caddy with the ketchup bottle and salt and pepper shakers to the ground. Their Alpha was not stable, and none of them wanted to be on his radar when he was in a fit of rage.

  The simpering female in front of him answered, “I don’t know, Alpha. I told you already, I honestly don’t know. He was here when I left last night. I got here this morning and he hadn’t opened. I went around back to his apartment to wake him, but he wasn’t there. His bike is gone, but all his clothes are here. I came inside the restaurant and found he didn’t clean up the kitchen, he didn’t clean the last table, he didn’t even lock the doors. That’s when I called you.”

  The Alpha walked back and forth, again, wandered over to the still dirty table from the night before and pushed the dishes here and there. “Who were the last customers?” he asked, still looking down at the table.

  “Just some strangers passing through. A male, Panther I think, and his little girl.”

  “Which way did they go?”

  “I don’t know. I left before Richie did.”

  “Are you good for any damn thing, Sassy?” Alpha screamed at her. “Fuck!” He started for the door, his men following a respectable distance behind him, “Get this place cleaned up and get some food cooked. I’m not losing a whole day’s revenue because my fucktard son can’t do what’s expected of him. He’s no fucking better than his damn mother.”

  “Yes, Alpha,” Sassy answered shakily. “I’ll do my best.”

  “Damn right you will.”

  Chapter 6

  Riley and Richie were in Cooper’s the next morning, buying one of those prepaid phones with unlimited usage. Everything was almost finalized when they asked for the credit card to use for monthly billing.

  Richie wasn’t sure how to answer, realizing that they’d just wasted thirty minutes getting it all set up to just have to walk away because he didn’t have a credit card.

  Riley reached into his wallet, “Here, use this one,” he said, handing it to the lady activating it for them.

  “Riley, you don’t have to…” Richie started.

  “When you get one of your own, you can change it over,” Riley said. Then directed to the girl behind the counter, “He can change the card number later, right?”

  “Yes, sir. Anytime he’d like.”

  “Good, go ahead, use that one.”

  Riley immediately turned his attention to Cristie who was trying to pull the lights and garland off the edge of the counter. “Baby, please. Stop!”

  “Pretty!” she said, pointing at the lights.

  Having been trained to never miss an opportunity for a sale, the girl finishing up the activation of Richie’s phone said, “We have lots of different colors and shapes of Christmas lights to choose from right over there.” She pointed down the aisle and added, “We have Christmas tree stands, lights, ornaments, even Santas and reindeer and snowmen for your yard.”

  At the same time Riley said, “No, thank you, we’re good,” Cristie started screeching, “Lights, lights, lights!” and Richie started chuckling.

  “We don’t need them, Cristie,” Riley said.

  “I can put them up if you don’t want to do it,” Richie offered.

  “It’s not that, man, I just… I’m having a hard time getting through each day. The last thing I need is Christmas lights and celebrations all around me.”

  Richie looked at the little girl still bouncing in the shopping cart, turning around and trying to see all the shiny, happy decorations. Then at Riley, who he’d never really noticed had a very dark weight pressing in on him. He knew both of those feelings. “Riley, she don’t know that. All she knows is the colors and the lights, and probably gonna be the first year she’s old enough to understand Santa. She’s just excited.”

  Riley looked back at the decorations lining both sides of the aisle, then at Richie. “I’m a dick.”

  “Naw. Anything but. You’re just trying not to drown.”

  Riley sighed, reached for Cristie and lifted her from the shopping cart. He put her on her feet and said
, “Come on, show Doddy what you want.”

  Riley looked over his shoulder as Cristie dragged him excitedly toward all the decorations and said to Richie, where he stood waiting for his phone to be handed over to him, “You’re helping me put this stuff up.”

  “Deal!”

  An hour later Riley stood at the register paying for so many Christmas decorations he’d have to make two trips to get them all out to the truck. Cristie stood in the shopping cart surrounded by boxes and packages and lights and boxed blow-up characters. He had outdoor lights and lights for the tree, he had a star tree topper and garland for the staircase. He even bought Poinsettias to place on the front porch. Richie was standing up front waiting for them while proudly pressing buttons on his new phone and smiling constantly.

  Riley opened his wallet and pulled out his card to swipe through the reader when Cristie started up, “Doddy, Doddy, Doddy!” she was tugging on his sleeve and stomping her little feet in the shopping cart while pointing behind and above his head. “What, baby? What?” he turned to see what she was looking at. It only took a moment, and he was laughing, whole-heartedly laughing. There behind him, were two 5’ blow-up Dragons, one blue and silver and one black and red. One had a Christmas wreath around its neck, and the other wore a Santa hat and had a huge candy cane in its mouth.

  “You trying to say we need these, too?” he asked her.

  “Aunt Lilah! Unca Dan!” she said, clapping her hands and smiling, her eyes sparkling with delight.

  “Yep, looks just like them. Okay,” he turned back to the cashier, “throw in two of those, too. One of each color.”

  “You got it,” the guy said and added the cost to the total.

  They stopped at the hardware store on the way home, got everything they’d need to fix the roof. When they went around back to load it up, Scott was working. “Hey, Alpha Riley. You gonna be fixing a roof?” he asked, as he swung the heavy packs of shingles over the side of the truck and into the bed.