by K. N. Banet
“I know. How are you? With the baby and the man? I know we only talked yesterday, but…I’m still trying to wrap my head around it.”
She laughed. “Yes, well, it’s been fairly life-altering. Werecats, I have learned, are not immune to morning sickness. That was lesson one.”
“Wait. You had a son before.” I was sure I wasn’t misremembering that.
“I did. He was adopted. This is my first blood child, not that it matters. When the time comes, this one will know about their older brother and what he did, all of it. This is the first time I’ve gotten pregnant. The dangers for women concerning childbirth are the same across most species, so I had decided never to have a blood child, one from my own womb. This was a surprise I decided to roll with. I have the resources, a mother with lots of experience with it, and a man willing to be a father to the baby. He was surprised as well, but as you could tell, he’s definitely not unhappy.”
“Yeah. Where are those two?”
“Running errands, getting supplies. The birth isn’t for months yet, but you know, stocking up in case I pop early. Plus, Mother wants to know him better, hard to do when I’m always around, and he’s focused on me and this.” She ran a hand over her baby bump. “Plus, I couldn’t call you until I got them out the door. I couldn’t let Mother know you were hurt before I heard more about it. She would have gotten hold of Father immediately. She gets incredibly angry when one of her children is hurt.”
“That’s really weird because I’ve only met her once.”
“You don’t need to call her your mother, but I recommend accepting that she thinks of you as her child, even if she can be a bit absentee.” Zuri looked around, seeming to check for them. “I’m glad you’re not too badly hurt, though. Is there anything else you wanted to talk about?”
“Actually…” I remembered the odd timeline of the event, how the pieces didn’t fit. “Did you see how they tagged my bar?”
“Yes, I saw the picture.”
“What do you think about it? Something…felt off. The timing was wrong. Heath agreed with me, but…it slipped my mind after he and I got a laugh about how it was probably just these humans being idiots.”
“I think you might be paranoid, which is a natural response to what’s going on. I’m scared for you. I agree our family shouldn’t go to your territory right now and wish this wasn’t happening, but I don’t think that means anything. They know you survived and were warning you. You’re the one who foolishly decided to go to the movies with a werewolf and a human girl after that.”
I winced.
“Yeah, I was holding that one back. Sorry.” Zuri sighed. “I understand why you did it. They don’t deserve to force you into hiding, and after seeing you on our last call, I’m also glad you made the decision to get out of the house and try to reclaim your territory for yourself. I’m conflicted. You haven’t told me anything that would make me think it’s not humans, Jacky, but…if it continues to bother you, look deeper. The only thing I can think of is a werewolf leaking your information instead of the BSA, and no werewolf is that stupid. We don’t play those games.”
“What if we do?” I asked quietly. “What if I finally pissed off the wrong person, and they decided it was worth the risk?”
“Then someone is going to die,” Zuri answered. “Hopefully, it’ll be them before it’s you.”
I didn’t disagree.
27
Chapter Twenty-Seven
I couldn’t shake it, even if it didn’t make any sense. When I woke up the next morning, I was still thinking about the odd inconsistencies, the silver bullets, and that none of it made any fucking sense.
It was almost too easy to write this off as humans when I had enemies among the werewolves, but were any of them so stupid to hire humans and break secrecy Law to come after me? Especially since the BSA was hovering, and I had Heath at my back? Or even more pressing, the fact I was one of Hasan’s children, helping him rule the werecats?
Not that I do that job very well.
From my understanding, my siblings had it harder, but they all had more experience. The werecats in the Americas were all fairly well behaved and came out this way to get out of the more populated areas of the “old world.” I certainly didn’t have to talk to anyone in my region more than once every few months, and most of those were courtesy calls to see how people were doing.
I never got around to calling them myself when this started. Maybe that’s what I’ll do today?
I had no idea what was on my list of things to do. I was still tired, recovering from being shot, but I didn’t have the energy to Change again. Three times was enough for one forty-eight-hour period; four would be pushing it.
There were people trying to kill me, which took me back to the insistent feeling I had the moment I got out of bed and made my way down to make coffee. Something about all this was off, and I was on edge. I tried desperately not to show it, but I had nearly cracked in front of Dirk before I’d composed myself and been ready to talk to Zuri.
Now, I was alone, a mug in my hand, and no one around.
Sitting, I took a shaky breath. I didn’t need to have another breakdown. People had tried to kill me before. Just because this was in my territory and the world was falling apart didn’t mean I needed to break down again.
I exposed my kind, I’ve made more enemies than I even know, and someone is trying to kill me in my own territory.
Again.
I caught my reflection in the window—still looked barely thirty, as though I was youthful and vibrant, as I always would. No one could guess I was turning thirty-nine in only a few months.
I’m going to be lucky if I make it to forty.
It had nothing to do with Heath, though my feelings for him certainly complicated things. It was my decision to go to Dallas, my decision to put my middle finger up because I thought I had some sort of moral high ground. It was my decision to protect Gwen and go against the Russian pack instead of just taking the trade for my family because I felt as if I was too good for the easy solution.
I didn’t regret those choices, but I knew, no matter which way I looked at it, I was paying the price for them now. The BSA had already made that clear.
Checking my phone as I poured another cup of coffee, I scrolled through my texts with the other. There wasn’t much news. Heath had sent a text that he’d arrived at the bar, and Landon was going to run the property. He’d sent it around two in the morning. When I hadn’t responded, he sent another, telling me to sleep well.
I smiled as I took a sip of my second round of coffee.
Was I going to feel the consequences of our relationship in some painful way? Yeah, probably.
Would I regret it?
Probably not.
I texted him back, saying thank you and good morning. He sent a picture back of him sitting in my office without me.
Well, if he’s still around…
I put the mug down and hurried to get dressed, taking less than ten minutes to get presentable. I took my coffee with me. I was at Kick Shot in less than twenty minutes and found Heath standing in the doorway of my office.
“Good morning,” I greeted. “I think I have a meeting.”
“Do you?” he asked, giving me a hooded stare. “What’s on—”
Landon stepped out of Oliver’s office, fixing his shirt. He looked between us, shook his head, then moved around me to get down the stairs. I heard the back door open and close, then his truck fired up. I met Heath’s humored stare and started laughing.
“He’s a prude,” I commented lightly.
“He’s not. When we moved back in together after Carey showed up, I made a promise to both him and Richard that I wouldn’t,”—he gestured at me—“have a bunch of lovers in and out of the house. They made the promise in return. We just don’t want to see it with each other.”
“You had a bunch of women in and out of your house before?” I walked slowly down the hall, letting my fingers drag.
“I was a terrible man. Are you going to do something about it?” he asked as I took the final step. “Absolutely terrible.”
“No, I really don’t care,” I admitted, shrugging. “I met one of those exes in Seattle. You know, funny enough, she thought I was into you. I’m still not sure what to think of that.”
“Ah, yeah.” Heath chuckled, then stopped. “You know…thinking about it, I see why so many women thought they could use Carey to get to me. I wasn’t exactly hard to get before she was born.”
“You were a single, attractive man, in an obviously lonely position. You had already lost two wives and had two adult sons. Why wouldn’t you enjoy yourself? Doesn’t sound like anyone was too hurt by it.” I shrugged again. “And you aren’t giving me any reason to think you’re going back to that.”
“I never made promises. I was always very clear about the sort of relationships they were, but…I’m glad to have found something a bit more committed.”
“Me, too,” I whispered, stepping around him to get into my office. “Do we have any plans today?”
“Daniel and his partner will be calling us around midday. It was a late night, and they still needed to run a check on who this Sam Blake is. They’re hoping to know more for us by then. If not, they’ll let us know we can hold off on another meeting.”
“Heath…” I sat in my chair as he closed the door and sat across from me. “I’ve been really bugged by the inconsistencies.”
“The door thing?”
“And the silver bullets. You said the humans didn’t normally have silver bullets. Did you tell the NAWC about that?”
Heath shook his head. “Not until this is over. I know I should have informed them the moment I knew, but if they don’t know you’re under attack, I’m not going to give them reason to think you are. Besides, they don’t know I know. You’re the one being attacked.”
“It doesn’t make sense.” I tilted my head to the side as I frowned, still uncomfortable with the strangeness, still wondering. “I mean…it’s farfetched, but what if it is a werewolf?”
“Yes, you have upset people on the NAWC. Yes, one of them is Callahan, and he's got influence as the Tribunal werewolf, but he is still Tribunal. Do you think anyone could get away with it under his nose?”
“Look at Russia,” I huffed. “He knew about that.”
“That only hurt werewolves. As sad as that sounds, it only hurt werewolves, the people he rules. Letting someone or planning an obscure attack against you? That’s an act of war that would destroy the Tribunal he helped create. Do you think he’s that ballsy?”
“What if someone—”
“Jacky, I’m not going to tell you that you’re wrong—you have an instinct and should trust it—but I was on that Council for years. I am genuinely uncomfortable with the idea they would pull off an assassination like this as a collective. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but I…I can’t see it, no matter how much I’ve fallen from grace. If it was them,”—he pointed to himself—“do you really think they would let me suffer another breath for defying them and staying here? For just being your ally? To them, I betrayed years of friendship by moving here and working with you, even if it was initially to protect my daughter when I didn’t have a pack anymore. I wanted to retire, and they never understood that.”
“No,” I whispered. “You’re right about that.” I leaned over and put my head in my hands as I looked at him. “What if it’s not the Council? What if it’s just one werewolf?”
“Silver is expensive. It would need to be an Alpha, but I’m at a loss as to which Alpha would be your enemy and not mine.”
“Unless it’s not my enemy,” I said, letting that idea dawn on me. “Unless it’s a werewolf who is Hasan’s enemy. Then I’m just an easy target.”
“It’s a possibility. We’re not at war, but it may be a sharp reminder to him, when one of his children steps out of line, they’re willing to step in and correct it.”
“Exactly.” I dropped my hands. “And maybe they used the BSA coming by as a cover?”
“It works. Stage it as non-professionals. Would explain the odd little mistakes.”
“They were cheesy…as if it was a standard dialogue. There’s been nothing personal about the threats.” I took a deep breath. “Are we overthinking this?”
“I don’t know. It sounds plausible.”
We stared at each other as the reality sank in.
There was a chance this wasn’t humans committing random violence. There was a chance we were dealing with something that came back to the same issues we always faced—the delicate balance between two species who couldn’t find common ground and with an explosive ability to hurt each other.
“Do we tell the BSA? It could be important.” I stood and began to pace. “Who could it be? I’ll take your word Callahan isn’t an option. The Tribunal is too fragile, and if he attacks Hasan, Hasan will retaliate. With humans involved, the situation is too delicate.”
“Could be anyone,” Heath countered. “The last time—the only time—Hasan lost a child, that Alpha wasn’t involved. I remember hearing the news of a young group of werewolves executed for it. I was around for that, and they kept a chokehold on that information. The identity of the pack and the Alpha was never made known, and anyone who was involved was sworn to secrecy, then the entire pack was split up. That’s how serious we are about peace, Jacky.”
“Liza was innocent,” I whispered. “That’s why. I’ve never heard someone say a bad word about her. I’m not her…I’ll never be her. Someone could hate me a lot more than they could have hated her.”
“It would be a crushing blow to Hasan’s power if he lost a second child, though, especially since you’re you. You’ve proven yourself to be an active player and a dangerous one.” Heath stood and walked behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist. “That’s the danger of fighting for what you believe in.”
“Do you have enemies who may show up one day?”
“We met because some in my pack were angry with me,” he reminded me. “And yes, I’ve made enemies, but I’m a werewolf, and my enemies are werewolves. Right now, I’m not a threat to them. If I become an Alpha of a large pack again or they find out about us? Yeah, I’ll have problems.” He held me tightly as my heart thumped in my ears. “But those are the risks we take.”
“Some would call us idiots,” I whispered. “You, over two hundred years old. Me, nearly forty. We both know the risks. It’s not as if we’re stupid teenagers who think love conquers all, or that things will be different for us.”
“Who knows? Maybe things will be different. Zuri is on our side.” He kissed my neck. “But let’s get back on track. Someone wants you dead. Now we have options. It can be either human extremists, who have your information thanks to a leak within the BSA, or there’s a slim possibility a werewolf is staging this to pin your death on the BSA and other humans to get away with killing you to get at Hasan.”
“Do we tell Collins and Miller?” I asked, turning around in his arms.
“If we think there might be werewolves when we find these guys, yes. If we catch the humans, we can interrogate them, and if it turns out to be werewolves, we’ll ask the BSA to kindly step aside. There’s nothing they can do at that point that won’t make the situation worse. The NAWC won’t like seeing a werewolf arrested publicly for trying to kill you.” He released me and sat down in my chair. “Did you look over the deal? Do you think you’ll take it?”
“Probably,” I admitted. “Zuri knows some are necessary evils, like pictures of our kind being released. They have to tell the American people something, right? When I was human, we wanted transparency. Funny being on the other side of things.”
“Yeah, when the positions switch, it becomes harder to live up to those ideals. You understand the dangers better. What about the rest of your family?”
“I haven’t heard from them yet, but they might be waiting on Zuri or Hasan to make the call. She made the call to me, but k
nowing them, there were discussions when I wasn’t included. They’ll come back to me when they have a consensus on the path forward. Luckily, I’m not making a decision today. Today, we need to find the guys trying to kill me. Did you or Landon run into anything last night?” I looked down at him, enjoying the way he stretched his legs out, unafraid to take up space in my office, to be there and make sure I knew it.
“It would have been the first thing I told you,” he promised.
“I’m amazed you’re not mad at me for getting shot in front of Carey. It was stupid and overconfident to think we could get away with a trip to the movies. My territory or not, it was stupid.”
“You weren’t the only one thinking it was safe. I didn’t think they would hit you with me and Carey around. When they attacked you on the highway, you were alone. They tagged your bar. I didn’t think they were bold enough to shoot you in broad daylight in town, with an Alpha werewolf and a human girl around. If they had hit Carey?” Heath growled. “They can’t be foolish enough to think there wouldn’t be retribution coming down on them hard. What they did was insane, Jacky, and they’re going to pay for it.”
“I know. So, what are you doing for the rest of the morning?”
“I need to get home, shower, and change. Then I’m meeting with the contractors all morning. They want to start getting your new security in the trees. I want to see how much space they can cover and make sure it’s done right.” He stood up and kissed me softly. “We’ll spend the afternoon with Daniel and his partner. We’re going to find these people. I don’t care who sent the humans—they’re going to pay for it.”