“As for this Macy person,” began Bailey, sitting cross-legged on the floor beside Aspen, “wow, that was harsh. Even if she only did it because your mom put her up to it, it’s no excuse for how utterly shitty that was.”
Blair nodded. “She didn’t deserve to die for it, though.”
A silence fell around the room.
“She died?” asked Tate.
“Yes.” Luke picked up the story from there, not stopping until he’d revealed every last detail.
Aspen puffed out a breath. “Embry had better do what he can to ID Macy’s killer, or her pack will likely go to war with his.”
“I think the email I forwarded him earlier might make him up his game,” said Blair.
“Would you mind reading it out?” asked Tate. “Luke only gave us a quick summary of it.”
“Sure,” said Blair.
Once she was done reading it aloud, Farrell let out a low whistle from where he leaned against the wall. “That’s some whacked shit. This person obviously believes himself to be in love with you.”
“That doesn’t mean he is, though,” River cut in. “Stalkers are often looked upon as pathetic, weak, socially inept people who have a tendency to develop silly infatuations and can get a little carried away. They’re often pitied and not thought of as particularly dangerous. But that isn’t always true.”
“Did you ever get the feeling that anyone had been inside your cabin while you were gone, Blair?” asked Aspen. “Did any of your things get taken or moved around?”
She shook her head.
“That probably would have been his next step,” Aspen hedged.
“Possibly. Not all stalkers exhibit the exact same patterns,” said River. “They’re not all cut from the same cloth. And the motivations for their actions can differ from person to person. Stalkers all have one thing in common—anger. They have a lot of repressed anger, and it’s not always directed at whoever they’re harassing. Sometimes the rage stems from a past event or the hurt they felt after being slighted by an ex.”
Pausing, River refocused his gaze on Blair. “This guy, the way he talks … he’s delusional for sure. And that’s bad. It means he lives in his own self-created reality. You can’t reason with people like that. They twist what they see or hear to fit the narrative in their mind and feed their own fantasy.”
“Why oh why do stalkers send weird gifts and stuff?” asked Bailey. “I never understood that. They can’t seriously think they’re going to successfully seduce someone by doing that, can they?”
“They’re not out to please or impress or seduce,” River explained. “They want to be on that person’s mind. They want their attention, and they’ll go as far as they have to in order to get it.”
Farrell looked at Blair. “He never speaks to you when he calls?”
“No,” she replied. “I don’t speak either. I hang up as soon as I realize it’s him. That’s if he doesn’t hang up first.”
“Good,” said River. “Don’t change that. Don’t talk to him—not even to tell him to go jump up his own ass. The worst thing you can do in a situation like that is attempt to fix it by speaking with him. You can’t give him feedback, positive or negative. Otherwise, it’ll feed into his belief that he matters to you. He’ll love that he’s getting to you; that he’s on your mind just as you’re on his. It would be better to change your cell number and be careful who you share the new one with. Change your email address, too. And if you’re on social media, temporarily close your accounts—give him no way to contact you.”
Blair dipped her chin. “I can do that. He’s never reached out to me through social media platforms before, but he might resort to it when he no longer has my cell number.”
Luke gently squeezed her thigh. “You’re safe in our building. The security measures are tighter than ever. He won’t get to you there.”
“Stay away from any places you frequent, like certain restaurants or whatever,” River recommended. “And if you have any routines, now is the time to change them. At least for a little while.”
“The only routines I had were based around my position of pack enforcer,” said Blair. “I’m no longer part of the pack, so …”
“You have to bear something in mind,” said River. “He’s not going to react well to being stonewalled. He’s going to hate that he has no access to you. He might become aggressive toward you.”
“I’d say that’s already a probability,” said Aspen, glancing from Luke to Blair. “You two will be mated soon. He’ll hate that. His fantasy is that she’s his mate.”
River scratched his jaw. “It’s not really as simple as that. What you have to understand about people like this is that they’re not truly in love. They’re not filled with soft, fuzzy feelings. What they feel is more like a black mania. They want to control the person they’re obsessed with. They want to take over every aspect of their victim’s life. He wants Blair, yes. He has deluded himself into believing that she wants him as he does her. He may view her as his perfect mate. But in truth, she’s more like a trophy to him.”