Shades of Hate (Jacky Leon Book 5)

by K. N. Banet

  “Yes,” he whispered. “You’re in for another scar.”

  “Fuck.” I huffed. “Probably a lucky guess, yeah? Werewolves, werecats, both change at the full moon, both weak to silver.”

  “I don’t like that they have silver in general. I’ll need to tell the NAWC you’ve run into humans using silver and trying to murder a moon cursed. This is a problem.” He stood and sighed. “There’s not much I can do more for you other than clean it up. You got lucky, Jacky. You got really lucky. You do need a hospital for that hand, for X-rays and setting. That needs to happen before you do anything else.”

  “I know. I got lucky they had bad aim. They damn near took my head off—” My phone started ringing. I tried to pull it out, but Heath got it when he saw me fighting to get it. He answered, then held it to my ear.

  “Are you okay?” Hasan demanded.

  “I’m fine. I need a small hospital visit for one of my hands that was hit, and bones were broken. A few scratches and a couple of new scars—”

  “Who did this?” Hasan snarled. “I’m going to start packing—”

  Oh, no. No, no. No, he’s going to stay right where he fucking is.

  “Humans. They shot at me, ran me off the road, then shot at me some more. Look, I know you want to descend on my territory with everyone under the sun, but I really think that’s only going to make this worse. Somehow, these humans learned what I am, learned I’m supernatural—”

  “Yes, I do want to descend on your territory. Do you honestly think we won’t come and defend you—”

  “Hasan, listen to me. There’s a human government involved. If you get involved, if any of our family gets involved, we’d expose how powerful we are, how old we are. We’re older than the werewolves. They’ll put that together.” He didn’t reply, but I heard a soft, unending growl. “On top of that, you are a member of the Tribunal. Do you really think the Tribunal is going to be okay with more of the members being in the public eye? Callahan and Corissa from the werewolves already are. Let me handle the BSA. They leaked me to someone, or they hired someone to kill me. I can deal with this. I won’t have all our plans at keeping the werecats out of the public eye ruined. I won’t have it. I won’t put everyone in the family at risk. I have backup. They made it abundantly clear that they know I hang out with Heath. I have other allies. There’s no reason to give them information they obviously don’t deserve.”

  I heard his exhale of defeat as he saw my reason.

  “Get to the hospital,” he ordered. “Send an email report of the full attack. We won’t come yet, but if you find yourself backed into a corner, get out of there.”

  “Yeah, you don’t need to tell me twice.”

  “And tell Alpha Everson thank you for continuing to be an ally to the family.”

  “I can hear you,” Heath said. “She was on her way to my place when it happened. She came walking up to my backdoor. I’ll get her to a hospital, then back to her bar.”

  “Good. One of you, keep me posted. I need to tell your siblings what happened.”

  “Bye.” I hung up and looked up at Heath. “Let’s get into the car and get moving.”

  19

  Chapter Nineteen

  After we loaded into Heath’s truck, Carey in between us, I thought about how that call ended.

  “He’s going to ask why I was coming over.”

  “You were dropping off something Carey left at your house,” he said quickly. Simple white lie no one ever had to verify. “That way, you weren’t staying over and hanging out with me or her. Just dropping something off, then getting a move on. They won’t think anything of it.”

  “Why are you lying?” Carey frowned at us. “Werecats can smell lies, and she was just coming over for dinner. Will I have to lie, too? Lying is wrong.”

  The scent of Heath’s regret was strong. I knew he didn’t like lying to his daughter, and he just set a bad example of creating a lie for me to tell my family.

  “We’re not asking you to lie,” I said softly. “Only that I will.”

  “Yeah, but why?” Carey crossed her arms. “Both of you tell me lying is bad. Why is it you get shot at but need to lie about coming to have dinner with us? We’re your friends.”

  “We’ll talk about it later,” Heath said softly.

  “Werecats and werewolves don’t like each other. People don’t like that your dad and I are friends, and they would prefer we stop being friends, Carey. You know that. I’ve explained it before.”

  “But you’ve had dinner with us before, and they know about those, don’t they? I mean, Dad goes to Kick Shot and hangs out with you every weekend.”

  I didn’t understand why Carey was attached to this. Her confusion was obvious, but one would think me bleeding in their dining room would allow a small white lie.

  “Carey, this is complicated,” Heath tried to say.

  “You’re using me to lie. I don’t want to be used for a lie that doesn’t make any sense. I thought people didn’t lie about who they were friends with if those friends were important to them.”

  “You and your dad are important to me,” I said softly. “Heath, she has to know. It’s actually part of the reason I came over. Zuri figured us out.”

  “Figured what out? I can help keep this big secret if someone tells me what it is.” When neither of us gave a reply, Carey slumped between us. “Really? I don’t like this. I don’t like knowing Jacky has to lie about coming over to dinner with us. Do you always do that?”

  “Yes,” I answered softly. “I never tell them about Heath and me hanging out away from Kick Shot, where he’s technically my customer.”

  “Why?”

  “Because we don’t want them to find out Jacky and I are dating,” Heath answered, keeping his eyes on the road.

  Carey’s eyes slowly widened. I waited as she absorbed the information.

  “When did that start?” she asked, looking between us. “Tell me, when did this start?”

  “Officially? My birthday last year, but we were already considering it after the werecats attacked me,” I explained. “Carey, it’s not smart for your dad and me to be together. People will think it a betrayal. They won’t understand, so we have to keep it a secret. Your dad doesn’t come to Kick Shot on Saturdays. He comes to my house and watches movies. It’s…the one time we can be normal.”

  “So, you’ve been lying to me…” She was hurt. I could see how hurt she was, then she turned on her dad. “You’ve been using me to get to Jacky!”

  “No,” he growled.

  “Like I should believe that. You’ve been lying to me for a year!”

  I winced as a headache started.

  “Please, stop yelling. He didn’t use you, Carey. We didn’t tell you because…we weren’t ready.”

  “I bet Landon knew,” she countered.

  “He’s an adult and a werewolf. We couldn’t keep it from him,” I reminded her.

  She crossed her arms, huffed, and fell back, ignoring both of us.

  “I just got shot at, Carey, so please forgive me if I don’t have the proper sympathy for this attitude right now. He didn’t use you to get to me. In fact, you accidentally brought us together, and that’s just the way it is. We were planning to tell you, but the time was never right. It’s not a good time right now to be talking about this.”

  “You’ve been using me as an excuse to hide it. That’s the only reason you hang out with me, isn’t it?” she softly whispered, refusing to look at me. The words cut me.

  “No, and the fact that you would think that is more painful than anything those assholes did to me,” I said in the same low whisper. “Where would you get that idea?”

  She shrugged.

  I looked over her at Heath, who wasn’t happy with how this turned out, either.

  “About Zuri,” I said, deciding Carey would need time to stew. “She figured us out last year. She knew I went to you to fix me up after Lani’s execution. She said she could see how you felt about me, but
she’s not going to tell anyone. She’s, uh, decided she’s going to back us up if and when we go public.”

  “What brought that on?” he asked, frowning. “She’s not pro-werewolf.”

  “She’s pro make her sister happy,” I said, trying to smile, remembering how sweet my oldest sister had been on the video call. I couldn’t tell him the full reason—the baby and the new lover—not until I had her approval, which probably wouldn’t be until the baby was born. “You haven’t given her a good reason to dislike you enough to try to put an end to it.”

  “That’s good,” he said, giving me a tired smile. “Now, let’s focus on your amazing ability to get shot at.”

  Snorting, I rolled my eyes and looked away from him. My hand throbbed painfully. Before we got in the truck, Heath made me wrap it in a towel. When we pulled up to the hospital, he and Carey stayed near me as the hand was looked at in the ER.

  “It’s a federal law to call the BSA when a supernatural comes into a human hospital,” Heath whispered to me as we waited for the X-rays to come back. Sitting with Carey in a patient room, it was the first chance we had to speak to each other since we entered the building. “I forgot. The hospital I took wolves to in Dallas treated us special because we find it an invasion of our privacy. Seattle is the same way. Most human doctors don’t agree with the rule.”

  “Are you saying they’re going to call some BSA hotline because you came in with me?”

  “Yes.” Heath sighed. “Sorry.”

  “Well, that complicates things even more, considering I think the BSA or someone in it tried to have me killed,” I growled, kicking the rolling doctor’s chair across the room and into the cabinets. “Heath, a warning would have been nice.”

  “Would it have changed anything? You needed to come to the hospital, and the BSA already knows about you. I bet they’re watching your credit card accounts. They would have seen the charge and known you were alive.”

  “Damn it.”

  He was right, but I still wanted to be mad. He let me fume, placing himself between me and Carey as if nothing was wrong. We didn’t say anything more, which gave me a precious moment to calm down enough to survive the doctor when he walked in.

  “It needs surgery and pins,” the doctor said as he put x-rays up where we could see them.

  “No metal,” I said quickly. “You’re going to have to figure out how to set it without all that.”

  “Ma’am, my best medical advice is pins—”

  “I turn into a creature every full moon. I don’t want metal coming out of my paws while the bones try to heal the right way. If you get it in the right way, I can Change, and the bones will begin to fuse in the right ways. If that goes wrong, I can suffer them being rebroken and trying again, but I can’t do metal.”

  Heath stepped up closer. “Sir, we do it all the time in Dallas when a werewolf breaks a bone. There are no security cameras in here, so Jacky will be able to shift back and forth without anyone knowing it’s happening. You’ll be able to take more x-rays once she’s back in human form to verify how it went, but the metal really can’t happen.”

  The doctor looked at Heath, then back to me.

  “You own Kick Shot, yeah? My buddies and I go there sometimes. I didn’t think you were a werewolf,” he said, tilting his head as if he couldn’t wait to go tell everyone about this new and exciting piece of gossip.

  “Doctor-patient confidentiality means none of your buddies will know, right?” I asked, glaring at him. “I hate threatening people, but if it gets out, I’ll make sure you never work a day in your life.”

  “Of course, of course.” The doctor nodded quickly, going pale.

  “Don’t tell any of the nurses, either,” Heath ordered. “This is need to know, and they don’t. You’ll pull out the smallest fragments of bone, push them into alignment, then leave. Say you’re letting the painkillers kick in.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  He sat down and put my hand on a rolling tray in front of him. He didn’t seem comfortable, but the bleeding had slowed enough for him to work. I growled and whined as he pulled out chunks of my bone. He kept checking the X-ray, then went back to work. Once the broken bone chips were out, he gently pushed the remaining bits of my hand in the right directions, which nearly made me scream. Heath shoved the towel, once on my hand, into my mouth to bite into.

  “You’ve got this. It hurts worse because it’s silver. Do you feel any left in there?”

  I shook my head. If there had been any silver left in the injuries, I would know. Luckily, both had been grazes.

  When the doctor was done, he rolled away.

  “That’s all I can do,” he said, pulling off his gloves. “I’ll step out to give you time. Stick your head out to let me know when you’re done.” He left us there, and I started stripping, trying to do it with one hand. Heath came closer and helped, but when I looked at him, my face heated.

  He was helping me strip in front of his daughter. Even on a normal day, this would have been strange. Today wasn’t a normal day. From Landon and Dirk, then Zuri, then guns, Carey learning about us, and now this, the day was so far from normal. I wasn’t sure if I could ever go back to normal. Normal seemed like a faraway hope.

  I glanced at Carey to see her staring into her lap, tastefully not staring. I would bet money on Heath teaching her that at a young age. Just because it was practical for werewolves to take their clothes off didn’t mean they wanted to be stared at. I was grateful Heath was a thoughtful father and Alpha, and had taught his daughter that.

  Once everything was off, I backed up and pushed into the Change, whining as my wounds hurt. Everything hurt, like always, but my hand was a mess as it turned into a paw. It didn’t just need to reform, it had to regrow bone and figure it out. It took me longer to Change, thanks to my hand and the lack of a dangerous imminent threat, something that usually forced me to Change as fast as possible.

  There was a knock on the door as I finished.

  “Who is it?” Heath called out, glaring at the door, then put his body in the way in case someone tried to open it.

  “Special Agent Collins and Special Agent Miller of the BSA,” Collins answered.

  Heath glanced back at me.

  “Let those motherfuckers in to see what they’re dealing with,” I said using my personal form of pack magic. I moved to get out of sight, so Heath could safely open the door.

  I laid down as the door opened and watched them walk in, looking around at the typical adult height of looking. It was Miller who looked down first.

  I snarled as I stood.

  “Holy shit!” He reached for his gun, but Heath grabbed his wrist, stopping him.

  “She’s Changed to heal,” he said quickly. “She’s just giving you a scare.”

  “She? That’s Jacky,” Collins said softly, blinking several times as I leaned closer to him and sniffed. Carey giggled softly.

  “They’re scared of you, Jacky.”

  “Good. This is their fault.”

  She laughed harder, and damn, it felt good. She had stewed in silence since she shut me out in the truck.

  “What happened? We got a call you showed up with a woman and your daughter,” Special Agent Collins asked, trying to look away from me to meet Heath’s stare. It proved difficult. I was a very dangerous animal, taking up most of the room with my nearly five-hundred-pound, mostly muscle frame. “Why does she need to heal?”

  “That’s for her to tell you,” Heath replied, shrugging. “I’m not getting involved with Jacky and the BSA.”

  “Please, you’re involved with her—”

  Heath grabbed Miller faster than anyone could stop him.

  “My personal relationships aren’t for gossip. Neither are hers,” Heath warned. “You don’t know a damn thing. Anything you think you might know should be forgotten and never mentioned again. Okay?”

  “We won’t bring it up again,” Collins said, trying to get between Miller and Heath as my lover snarled at the hum
an agent. It was hard to do because Heath had the man by his shirt with both hands. “Please understand the only people who have seen the entire footage from Jacky’s property are in the room,” he said softly. “We only passed along the proof that Miss Leon is supernatural.”

  “And wouldn’t my relationship with her be evidence of that?” Heath asked, his glare still on the agent he was holding, even though his words were for Collins. I didn’t move, not wanting to upset an already delicate situation. No one liked a giant saber-toothed cat walking up to them in enclosed spaces…except Carey. She trusted me in this form almost more than she did when I was in my human one.

  “No. You’ve always had…relationships that weren’t our business. Being romantic with the woman who helps you with your daughter is something we expected. There’s no reason to verify it, and it doesn’t change anything.” Collins was trying his best, but he didn’t know what Heath and I would have to deal with if they leaked it. That had to change, but I didn’t want to give away everything, only the most basic of facts.

  “Tell them if anyone finds out, they’re putting our lives at risk.”

  Heath repeated my words in his own way, which caused eyebrows to raise. They had no idea things were hostile between werewolves and werecats. They had no reason to, something I had assumed from the beginning.

  “Now, please step out, so Jacky can reenter her human form,” Heath ordered.

  “We’ll be right outside.”

  “Meet us at Kick Shot,” Heath corrected, growling softly as he let go of Miller with a shove into a wall. The audible thump of the human’s back hitting the stone bricks made Miller wince. That had probably hurt enough to leave a bruise.

  “Fine.” Collins cast one last glance at me before leading his partner out.

  With them gone, I flexed my paw, testing my claws. Everything looked normal. There was pain, definitely, but it was dulled in this form. I initiated the Change, quickly getting back to a form that worked better in a human hospital. I flexed and twisted my hand, not enjoying the scar.