by K. N. Banet
“You can, but I can’t condone this—”
“You literally saved a werewolf’s life!” I snapped, turning to her. “Ivan, that poor beaten boy? He’s a werewolf, Mom. He was beaten because he tried to rescue his sister from being abused. He killed a man as revenge when they killed her. He was a hero who fought for his family, and they beat him regularly. And he’s a werewolf. What? You can touch him, but you can’t talk to me?”
She turned to me. “Which one were you?”
“Which werecat? I was the tawny, striped one, smaller than the black one.”
“Ah. You looked back while we were going up the stairs,” she said, nodding slowly. “So, what now? You’re a…werecat. Do you have a job, a business, money? Was all of this your fault?”
“I have what I need to get by.” I wasn’t telling them about the family fortune. “No, none of this was my fault,” I promised, looking at Gwen for a minute.
“I just told them they were kidnapped to get back at you and me,” she whispered. “They’d been asking so many questions, I didn’t have a chance to flesh out the details.”
“We’ll need to fix that,” I said, eyeing her, then going back to my mother. “Gwen called me and asked for help. The werewolves who took you didn’t know she and I are related. They didn’t know until shortly before they put you on the plane to Russia. Or so the story goes. It doesn’t matter anymore when they knew. I never acted against them, Gwen did. So, they had no reason to come after me.” I sighed at the end as no one said anything for a minute. Daniel was quiet, listening but not really. This wasn’t his family.
“This was Gwen’s fault?” Michael was pissed, but I didn’t wince as I would have when I was human. His fury and disbelief didn’t scare me anymore. I had Hasan, whose quiet nature made his fury more terrifying. I had Hisao, who was a proficient killer. I had Mischa, who could do real damage.
No, I wasn’t scared of my human father anymore. His reaction, his disbelief that his perfect daughter was the one who caused this was the last cut I could take, though. He had wanted it to be my fault. He had been hoping Gwen couldn’t fall more, and this was all something that I did.
I wondered for a moment what I ever did to make this father unable to love me once I started growing up and becoming my own person. Then I realized it didn’t matter anymore.
I have a father. He holds me when I cry. He believes me when I speak. He gets frustrated, but he cares. He doesn’t expect perfection, and he allows me to make my case. He apologizes. He’s not perfect, but he’s a good father.
And his name is Hasan.
Privately, staring at Michael Duray, I let go of the pain and rejection I had felt in my human life. I had my werecat family. It would never be perfect, but it would be, and always was, better than this.
“Gwen,” I whispered, turning my back on the family. “If you have anything you want to tell them, anything at all—stuff you’ve always wanted to say, but feared how much it could damage your relationships—now is the time.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m going to have their memories wiped of everything that’s happened—the kidnapping, being hostages, me, all of it. My family will get the right people to do it, and it’ll be better for them in the long run. Your kids should be able to have normal lives.”
“You don’t want to see us anymore?” She took my rejection of them as a rejection of her.
“Not you,” I promised. “I think I figured out the root of our issues. Them. They’re the problem. It was never us.”
“You can’t do that,” my mother said, looking between us. “You can’t blame your mistakes on us, and you can’t wipe our memories without our permission.”
“I can do both,” I said with a tight smile. “You won’t remember, and it’s for the best.” I wanted to laugh as I gave that line. “Do you really want to remember any of this? You’ll never be able to go back to a normal life. We’ll have to manage you, keep an eye on you to make sure you don’t expose our secrets. And if you did expose us? Being my human family wouldn’t stop a werecat or any other supernatural from killing you in retaliation. It’s dangerous. Don’t be a fool.” Now I was ranting. “And as for blaming you for our mistakes? Gwen and I were equally good kids. We loved each other, and we loved you, but you two were awful, and we ended up turning against each other. Dad just proved it. Gwen’s at fault, but he wants to blame me. I don’t know what I ever did to upset you two, but you hate me, and that’s okay. Fine.”
“You caught him cheating on me,” my mother hissed, glaring, her green eyes like acid. “At ten. And even when I told you I didn’t want to know, you felt like you had to tell me. You confronted your father. You tried to break our family because you thought your dad was a bad person. I loved your father. I have always loved your father, and I do not believe in divorce, so we worked it out. Then you had the gall to ask me why I would want to keep a bad husband. You created more problems in our family than any of us could have ever dreamed. It didn’t end there, either. You started acting out after that. You always think the world needs to be the way you want it to be. You didn’t listen, didn’t understand the world didn’t work that way, so you acted out.”
“You two resented me,” I whispered. I didn’t remember being ten.
The overwhelming silence that filled the room was broken when my niece screamed in her sleep and started kicking. Gwen and Daniel rushed to her, helping her up and whispering that everyone was okay, and they were free and going home soon.
When I looked back at my mother, I glared at her.
“Take the memory wipe. If not for me, then for them.” I tilted my head to my niece and nephew. “Because they don’t deserve to grow up like that.”
I turned on my heel and walked out, closing the door softly to keep from scaring the children. Mischa was waiting for me on the other side.
“Closure?” she asked, then opened her arms and waited for me to either speak or grab her.
I’m strong. I have a family, and it’s not Helene and Michael Duray.
I truly believed it.
I opened my mouth to tell Mischa the same thing as tears welled up in my eyes. She wrapped her arms around me as I leaned into her shoulder.
I cried away my human parents one last time—a final goodbye.
31
Chapter Thirty-One
Not even a day later, most of my human family was gone. Hisao put them on his jet, and they left for Japan. When Mischa and I talked to Hasan, he knew a person who would manipulate their memories of the event.
“They’ll be on vacation,” he promised. “The memories will always be there, but they can be buried and covered with something else. With humans, the manipulation is normally very strong, hard to break. Children are a little different. It could root in their subconscious permanently, but if they start having nightmares, therapy is useful. They should be healthy as they get old and just think of them as childhood fears.”
“Thank you,” I whispered. “Are you okay with...?”
“You and Gwen can stay in touch. It could be good for you to have a connection with your twin. Jabari and Zuri certainly think so. However, I’d recommend not exposing yourself to her children. That could be a trigger that snaps through the magic done on them.”
When I was done crying on Mischa, Gwen and I had talked again, just the two of us, wanting to keep our rediscovered sisterhood. I wanted to repair everything, and so did she. As an adult with long-term exposure to the supernatural, she couldn’t get the same treatment as her children, ex-husband, or our parents.
So, we exchanged numbers. She promised she would keep me up to date on whatever she planned going forward. She was unemployed now.
“What’s next?” I asked, looking at my father on the screen.
“Someone will be coming to open a door for you to come into the Tribunal’s space. All four of you. We’ll be talking to Callahan and Corissa. We need to wrap up the issue with the werewolves, then you can go home.”
<
br /> I smiled happily at the idea.
Exactly twenty-four hours after I had woken up, the group of us saw someone who didn’t belong come through a door. Some fae no one knew just stood there, watching us, waiting for us to go back through the door with him.
“They’re really good at this pocket space thing, aren’t they?” I asked my sister, frowning at her.
“I always hate when they have to do it in my house,” she said, shaking her head. “But they are really good at it.”
We walked into the dark doorway, and it didn’t lead to the closet it was supposed to. We entered a room dripping in ancient wealth. Ancient artifacts sat on a mantle over a crackling fire. One wall had a collection of ancient texts, another had a set of dining ware, all gold. Hasan was seated with his back turned to us, opposite two werewolves I recognized from my last run-in with the Tribunal, Callahan and Corissa. Behind them were eight werewolves, probably all ancient as well, dressed like security guards.
“Welcome,” Hasan greeted us, looking over his shoulder. “Why don’t you all take a seat. We’ll try to get through this quickly.”
“There have been stories of chaos coming from the Russian pack. Another Alpha dead,” Callahan growled. “We need that region stable, Hasan.”
“Maybe he shouldn’t have taken my family,” I muttered. The Alpha werewolf glared at me, but Corissa reached out and patted his hands.
“She’s right,” the female said. “Alpha Sergey took her family hostage. Hasan and his children have never allowed anyone to put them in a place of weakness. Their move to take their family back was justified. If Sergey tried to stop them, he got his due. We would expect the same action from any of our children.”
Callahan didn’t seem pleased by his mate’s words but didn’t say any more until after everyone was seated.
“So that’s it? You ruin a long-standing pack in Russia, and we need to let you walk away?”
“Well…there are those files,” Hasan pointed out. I hadn’t seen it walking in, but there was a laptop in the center of the room on top of a coffee table between the two main couches.
“Yes…” Callahan stared at the laptop. “We’ve reviewed them, and I heard the story of how they came to be.”
“Those are what I want to discuss as well,” Corissa said with a tight smile. “Doctor Duray, would you care to give testimony on Devora’s state when you met her?”
Gwen stood and began to speak, using medical jargon and describing every detail of Devora’s injuries and the nature of the girl’s story. When she was done, she sat down.
“Now, Alpha Everson, I want to ask you something.” Corissa turned to him. “You are one of our more exceptional Alphas in North America. We were sad to see you retire, and the events around your retirement were regretful.”
“I’m having a good time raising my daughter…”
“I’m certain you are, but for some reason, everyone keeps finding you following Jacky Leon around,” Callahan growled softly. “Want to explain that?”
“The NAWC gave me an open-ended job description, sir,” Heath growled back. “Be a representative between the council and the werecat daughter of Hasan, who resides in North America. I have tried to use my loyalty to the werewolves and my respect for her to stop fights and foster communication. I introduced Jacky and Alpha Lewis in Seattle, which led to us having the ability to dissolve suspicion that the pack had killed the werecats, or the werecats had killed the missing werewolves. I came on this trip with Miss Leon in an effort to keep her and the Russians from going head to head. Sadly, the opportunity never arose, and I ended up assisting in the freedom of her human family.”
“Why?” Callahan’s suspicion of Heath was obvious. “And when did you get dominant enough to look me in the eye? No one in the NAWC is that old or strong.”
Heath’s eyes dropped quickly. “I helped her because she had done it for my family, not just once, but twice. Jacky has put the safety of my children before her own safety, when both times, the danger to her life was real. I wanted to give that back to her. My growing dominance could be explained by the fact the NAWC has repeatedly requested I move out of her territory and cut off contact, but I don’t find that in the best interests of the werewolves in the long term. I want to see us progress, not keep the status quo we have existed in for centuries.”
“Hmm.”
“Callahan, let me speak to him,” Corissa ordered gently. “Don’t ever overtake one of my conversations like that. You know how much I dislike it.”
Callahan visibly winced. “Sorry, my love. I’ll do my best.”
“Alpha Heath Everson, you were known to memorize intel during your time on the council. You liked to know things. Tell me, what is the current knowledge the North American Werewolf Council keeps on the Russian werewolf pack? Or current while you were there? It’s been nearly two years since you left the council, but you probably have contacts that keep you informed..”
“We knew there were issues between submissives of the pack and the higher-ranking wolves. That became clearer when Alpha Vasiliev drove a beta to stab him. We heard rumors of bad living conditions and abuse. We never had any hard evidence for the charges, however. We could only continue to keep our eyes and ears open until we had what was needed to bring to both of you.”
“And…did any of you ever meet Alpha Vasiliev? Or visit Russia?”
“No, Alpha.”
That surprised me. I had no idea Corissa was an Alpha in her own right.
“Who did?”
“Their Alpha sent members of their inner circle to tour North American packs. My son and second, Landon Everson, met with their seconds. He also had a handful of encounters with Alpha Vasiliev, but they never amounted to much. From his testimony, the Alpha was rude, outdated, and hated all things different. For my son, that’s dangerous. I never exposed my son or my pack to the Russians again after the last one was argumentative because Landon was losing his patience.”
I couldn’t imagine Landon losing his patience, but it was Heath’s story, and I didn’t see Landon nearly every day in every situation.
“So, no one visited Russia…” She hummed. “You know, the representatives from every werewolf council in the world have told me the same thing. None of you ever visited. Why is that?”
“It was made clear to us we weren’t wanted.”
“So, who checked in on the pack?”
“Alpha Callahan of the Tribunal.” Heath swallowed, and I noticed his face begin to lose color.
Corissa stood, nodding slowly. “I have already reviewed all the files. I apologize to all of you for seeing the worst the werewolves have to offer. I’m also thankful for your willingness to work with us and would be honored if this information stayed in this room.”
I didn’t say anything. Hasan nodded politely beside me as Heath continued to lose color. Now, he looked like a glass of milk.
What does he know that I don’t?
Corissa turned on Callahan, who tried to stand with her as they stared at each other.
It was like a lightning crack. Corissa slapped Callahan so hard, he fell sideways on the couch, looking like he had just seen the face of God.
“Don’t come to me tonight. You will keep your head low for as long as I want you to, mate. You let those females be abused because you were protecting yourself from the instability that would be caused by fixing the problem. You were more worried about staying prepared for another war none of us want than you were about the lives of our most innocent people!” She was screaming at the end.
“I’ll fix this,” he promised.
“No, I will fix this. I will go to Russia and clean this up. I will teach those wolves it doesn’t matter what’s between their legs, they all die the same. You will begin planning an initiative you will launch worldwide for all werewolves to honor and strengthen our females and submissives by getting them educations and wealth of their own. All of this will be done so they no longer need to be dependent on a mate or an Al
pha in case they find their mate or Alpha to be abusive. You will do this, or you will find yourself alone for a very long time. Am I clear?” She screamed at the end again.
I sank into the couch with each word. Hasan reached out and took my hand, and I grabbed Gwen’s. Mischa wrapped an arm around Gwen, holding her. When I looked at Heath, he was on his knees, dropped by the dominant power that was Corissa of the Tribunal, his eyes wide with fear. This was the power of an Alpha that could not and never would be denied.
The beautiful woman took a deep breath and sighed.
“Forgive me for the outburst. Alpha Everson, you did good work exposing this. Hasan, you have a wonderful daughter with an eye for those who need her and for trouble. Good luck. I feel only more trouble for you will come from her. The best children are often the ones that make us worry the most.”
“Have a good evening,” Hasan said, standing and nodding respectfully at Corissa, which she mirrored back.
He led all of us out of the room, and we ended up in his office.
“Sorry, Mischa. You can go back in and take a shortcut home.”
“It’s fine,” she said, sitting down on the solitary couch. “She’s still everything she was in the War.”
“Corissa is still the dominant power,” my father agreed. “Heath, are you okay? Brandy?”
“Please,” my werewolf croaked. “I knew she had set him up, the moment she started asking about who goes to Russia. It was only ever Callahan.”
“Did you know she was the dominant Alpha?” Hasan asked, obviously curious. He was testing Heath in some way. I knew the look on my father’s face well.
“When she made Callahan wince, I figured it out. That’s not public information.”
“I thought the Tribunal members were all equal.” I kept my volume low, almost afraid to speak.
“For everyone except the werewolves,” Hasan said, smiling at me. “Heath, how many Alphas can rule a single pack?”
“One.”
Hasan pointed at the wolf, still looking at me with his sly smile.