by K. N. Banet
And I was glad to have him on this trip.
“Hmm,” was all anyone had to say, and it came from Zuri.
“Uh huh,” Mischa replied with. “Well, now we know more about this Heath.”
“If that’s all, I’m tired and hungry,” I told them, hoping to cut the conference call short. “There’s really not much else. I’m going to question the ranger the pack uses to contact the werecats and maybe the others as well. I’ll have more to tell you tomorrow.”
“Of course. Keep a close eye on that wolf,” Hasan ordered. “Be safe.”
“I’ll try,” I promised. “I really will try.”
“Try your best,” he said with that stern fatherly tone. “Go find something to eat.”
I hung up on them before anyone else could talk to me. Davor hadn’t been an asshole, for the most part, something I wasn’t going to test by staying on any longer than necessary. I was sure if they thought of anything important, they would text me. At least, I was hoping they would text; I didn’t want to answer the phone while trying to eat.
I shuffled over to the adjoining door again, unlocking and opening it without so much as a knock. I didn’t look in, though, just called out.
“I’m ordering room service! Do you want anything?”
“I can pay,” he quickly offered. I heard the bed creak, and he showed up in front of me, with a shirt on, a second later.
“I have money,” I reminded him. “Plenty of it.”
“Really? I had no idea,” he said, smirking. I rolled my eyes. “How were your calls?”
“Good. They reminded me I should ask about the state the bodies were found in. Jabari had probably asked already, but maybe I can get new information. I was told to stay out of trouble.” I shrugged, stepping back from the doorway. I nodded my head to let him know he could come in. If I was going to order in, he could eat in my room—as long as he remained clothed. “How was yours?”
“Landon was interested in what I had to tell him,” he answered without telling me anything. “So, do I get to restart my twenty questions now?”
“Let me order some damn food,” I muttered, shaking my head. I grabbed the hotel phone and the little menu propped up next to it. “I’m getting us burgers, steaks, or whatever I can find that’s meat.”
“Thank you.” That sounded sincere.
I swiftly ordered four ribeye steaks, all with hearty vegetables as the sides. Then I added a dessert for myself, looking at him to see if he wanted something specific. He shook his head, so I finished the order with drinks.
“Want to hit the hotel bar later tonight?” He sat on my desk chair, ignoring my laptop. I sat on the bed once I hung up and sighed.
“Yeah. Alcohol might soothe my aching nerves. It’s not easy being so far from home.”
“I can’t imagine being so connected to the land you live on, then having to leave it. I hate being away from Carey and Landon like this, but I promised to help.”
“And now you’re roped into the local pack’s problems. How long do you think this is going to take? I’m praying less than a week, but who knows?”
“It could take a month,” he whispered. “Landon was upset I offered myself for the job of investigating the missing wolves. His words were something along the lines of how bad the Alpha here must be if he can’t do it himself.”
“Really?” I raised an eyebrow. “I do remember a wolf or two needing help in Dallas with a certain half-witch.”
“You were there to help Carey. I could have handled Emma, Dean, and Richard on my own with my own wolves. I didn’t have you track my people down.”
“Touché.” I couldn’t argue with that. “I hate this waiting shit. I don’t want to be out at night, and it’s swiftly approaching, but fuck, waiting until tomorrow to talk to more people sucks.”
“And it’s only going to get worse for you if you’re going to wait on your brother to come out of those woods.” He leaned back and kicked his bare feet out. Catching me looking at them, he laughed. “Don’t tell me those are nice to look at too.”
“Oh. Ew. That’s disgusting.” I gagged. “No, I just noticed them. And can you please stay serious? You always do this. You always find some way to…” I waved a hand at him. “You did while we were in Dallas, too, when someone was trying to kill you and had kidnapped your daughter. What is with you?”
“I’ve lived long enough to remember I need to laugh sometimes,” he countered, the pleasure of teasing falling from his face. “I’ve seen enough people die at what felt like random times. I know what it means to take a chance to smile with a friend when there might not be many chances left.”
The words hit me like a wrecking ball. I stared into his grey-blue eyes, wondering what was torturing him at that moment.
“Who didn’t you smile enough with?” I asked softly.
“Everyone, so far,” he answered, taking a deep breath. “You?”
“Same.” The word didn’t come out of me without a fight, but I knew it was the truth. “There’s never a good time to lose them, is there?”
“No, there isn’t. So, I take my chances and try to have good moments during the bad ones. I’m sorry if it gets frustrating.”
“No…I’m sorry,” I murmured, looking down at my hands. “You wanted to play twenty questions?”
“Why don’t you tell me about you? I know…a lot already.” He sheepishly smiled at me.
“Well, I told you about Hasan and the family. My family…I guess. There’s something. I have a hard time thinking of them as my family. My human family is still alive out there, and it just feels wrong sometimes to think of others as my family. I can see why werecats do it, though. Why they make these attachments…” I sighed. “There’s no one else. We can’t go home. We can’t…meet new people very well or anything like that, so we treat those we can as a family. I understand that, it’s just hard to do sometimes.”
“It’s a hard world to join,” Heath agreed. “It’s the same for a lot of wolves. Many walk away from their human families entirely because it’s easier in the end. You don’t watch them grow old and die. You don’t have to watch them try to Change and die in the effort. Before we went public, it was the life of many wolves. We learned to make bonds away from the human family we built and walk away from the mortal life.”
“I rejected my new family for a long time,” I admitted. “I still do, in some ways. Some core piece of me fights it while other parts of me…really want it. You know, I’ve gotten into so much trouble with the werecats out there, I was convinced my siblings were going to hate me forever. It’s been strangely relieving for them to just welcome me back in and give me a chance.”
“Why did you run from them and Hasan to begin with? You mentioned you left the werecat who Changed you much earlier than most werecats.” He tilted his head in that confused dog look.
“I…learned something,” I whispered, looking completely away from him. “That’s too personal.”
“All right.”
We sat in silence until the food arrived. He answered the door and brought it in. Grabbing another chair, I sat at a small table with him to eat. I considered telling him more about my problems with Hasan but couldn’t bring myself to continue the conversation.
“What’s your favorite color?” he asked softly. I snorted, nearly dropping food out of my mouth. When I looked at him, he shrugged. “Try.”
“Uh…Orange. Sunset orange.”
“Music type?”
“Rock, mostly.” I shrugged. “Country plays at the bar because they like it.” He knew what I meant by ‘they.’
“Why do you like hanging out with my daughter so much?”
“She’s safe,” I answered immediately. I looked up from my food and saw his concentrated look. “She’s not a threat. Physically or emotionally. And she’s so goddamn unique. She’s a great kid.”
“Did you ever want kids?” He was hitting hard now.
“Yes. If my fiancé and I had been doing our jo
b right, and what happened didn’t happen, I could have had one roughly her age, maybe more,” I whispered, knowing how it might look. “I knew when she showed up, she could have been mine. She was someone’s. Nothing else mattered except someone’s baby was there, she could have been mine, and I would want someone fighting tooth and fucking nail to keep any of my children safe.”
“He died in a car accident, didn’t he? Your fiancé?” Heath rested his arms on the table, ignoring his food.
“Yup. I should have, too, but the official report was that he was driving to meet me somewhere and went off the road. It was written so I was never in the car to begin with.” I chuckled darkly. “It was eleven years ago. You would think I would be over him and it by now.”
“No. It took me decades to get over the loss of my first wife.”
“The one who chose to remain human.”
“Yup, and when I finally did, I barely had any time with the second. She was in and out of my life faster than I could blink. She’s the one I never really got over. I never had a chance to say goodbye.”
“Same. There was no goodbye. We were having a good time, then…we weren’t.” I grabbed a napkin and pressed it to my eyes. I would not cry, not after eleven years damn it, and not in front of Heath Everson. “Change the topic.”
“I think I know enough,” he murmured. “You’re never what I expect.”
“Really?” I snorted. “To my family, I’m exactly the fuck up American some of them think I am. Both families. You did all the research on my human family, you can tell me what impression you got.”
“Your twin is an overachiever,” he commented, leaning back again and grabbing his fork and knife. “A huge overachiever. You know she’s a heart surgeon now?”
“Of course she is.” I resisted rolling my eyes. “Does she still look exactly like me?”
“Like you in ten years.” I didn’t know what that would look like. “You still look like the twenty-six-year-old you were when you were Changed, Jacqueline Duray.”
I groaned. “I always hated that last name. It makes me sound like I should be buying bread at some bistro on a corner in Paris.”
“It does, doesn’t it?” He chuckled even more, and I wanted to reach across the table, take his knife, and stab him with it. “Why Leon?”
“It’s French without being ridiculously obvious, and my family was always proud of our French heritage. I was going for a laugh, honestly. I needed a new last name, and I liked it. It’s been my last name for…nine years now. It suits me, I think.” I had already been planning on changing my last name once I was married, so my attachment to my maiden name had faded. While I never got the last name I truly wanted, I was at least able to give up Duray.
“So, you’re Jacky Leon, the werecat from Jacksonville, Texas, daughter of Hasan.”
“Yup. Write it down, and don’t forget it.”
“I think I like Jacqueline better.”
“Oh fuck, not you too.” I shook my head as he laughed and began to eat. Damn wolf. “Really, only parents call me that or grandparents. Don’t categorize yourself in that group of people. You might be two hundred and fifty some odd years old, but please.”
“It’s a really nice name,” he said between bites of his first steak. “But fine, Jacky it is and will stay.” He chuckled. “So, what else…”
“There’s not much to know,” I reminded him. “Imagine my twin and put me a few steps below her for everything—heart surgeon - EMT, high school sweetheart with three kids - lonely werecat with a dead fiancé.” I snorted. “I love her, though. I was always proud of her.”
“Sounds like you resent her,” Heath pointed out mildly, the accusation softened but not ineffective.
“I resent me,” I explained. “I resent I never did those things. I was never…as motivated, as dedicated, as…perfect as her. No, she’s an inspiration, and I resent myself for never pushing myself to her level.”
“You have years to figure it out,” he said gently. “More than her now.”
“Yeah. That’s something, I guess. Sorry, this went off the beaten path. I’m feeling a bit whiny and mopey recently, I guess.” With everything going on, the concept of living up to my siblings and my family’s reputation weighed down too heavily. “I went from her to…well, them.”
His smile was friendly. “No, life didn’t get easier for you, that’s certain.”
“Did you have siblings?” I asked, trying to push the conversation off my woes.
“I had a brother who died early in the Revolution. A sister who married and went to London. She was for the monarchy, and it caused a rift. I didn’t keep track of her or her family, but I hope she lived a good life.”
“I’m sorry for both of them.”
We sat quietly after that, eating our food without bothering each other. As plates were cleaned, we stacked them up to keep the mess from becoming obscene. The steaks were good quality and a perfect medium rare. The veggies were fine, though I continued to think they needed more seasoning.
“Do you want to hit the bar? We can talk a bit about the area…” Heath sounded cautious, but why I didn’t know. “You won’t have to serve the drinks.”
“Yeah, let’s go.” Shoving away from the table, he followed behind me. At least we could relax on the trip in the evenings. Too bad it didn’t make me feel any less stir crazy.
14
Chapter Fourteen
The bar was damn near empty. Only two businessmen, I assumed by the suits, were sitting at the bar proper. I pointed to a small corner table. Between the distance and the music, our conversation would go uninterrupted and unheard.
“What would you like to drink?” he asked, leaning over me, his hand finding my lower back. I tensed, feeling the warmth through my shirt. Instead of removing the hand, he curled slightly, acknowledging he knew what he was doing. “Darlin’, what do you want to drink?” His Southern accent grew heavier, and there was an intimacy in his tone.
I picked up on it quickly and hissed softly. “A whiskey, but this is completely unnecessary.”
“I’m just trying to make the humans think we’re nothing important.”
“And if a wolf sees us? Or anything else?” I snapped, stepping away from him. “Last thing we need is to give the impression we’re something when we aren’t.”
“Fine.” He raised his hands and walked to the bar.
I took my chance to get to the table and made sure there were only two chairs, and they were far apart. I refused to think about how his hand had felt…good. Warm and comfortable, just like when he tended my injuries. Gentle, just like every time he touched me, moments I could count on one hand and recall with perfect clarity.
I slid into my seat and sighed. I didn’t need to get snappy with him. When he came to the table with our drinks, I took mine with a quiet thank you.
“Sorry,” he murmured. “When I’m with other wolves, we try to act…like something human. Guys out to watch the game when we don’t care. That kind of thing.”
“I’m not used to being touched,” I quietly explained. “It’s not bad thinking, though. I just…I’m not a wolf, Heath.”
“You’re right.” He sipped on his beer, and I reached out to pull my whiskey closer. For a while, we concentrated on our drinks. Heath shifted in his seat, and I wondered if his frame was too bulky to feel comfortable on the bar stool. I never saw him act uncomfortable at my bar.
“You okay?”
“Thinking. Seattle is like most big cities. It has a sizable werewolf pack, but there’s other players in most cities that we didn’t have in Dallas. Down South, we don’t have much of a vampire population. Don’t ask me why, but none ever tried to set up in my cities. Some cities have a gateway, a portal, to the fae realms. Seattle is one of them, which means there’s a fae population. It’s never very big since they don’t often settle in this realm, but they manage their gates from both sides.”
“Yeah, I know about the fae,” I said softly. “So, you’re
saying there’s a lot here, and possibly anything could be part of this?”
“I’m saying we have to keep our minds open,” he replied, sipping his beer. “The likelihood something else is involved is slim, but it’s a possibility.”
“So, we have the Big Four in Washington. Werewolves, werecats, fae, and vampires. Anything else?”
“Possibly a coven of witches or warlocks. Outside of that, I have no idea,” he admitted. “The smaller species don’t announce their presence anywhere, kind of like werecats, though you are considered a big threat, and they’re just considered…a possibility. An Alpha wolf should know all the players in his city, but some come in, passing through or working, and leave without us ever knowing.”
“That’s not helpful,” I groaned. I took a long swallow of my whiskey, relishing the burn for a moment. It wasn’t nearly enough alcohol to soothe my nerves, but it was a start. It tasted like home, at least. “We’re in for a long day tomorrow.”
“Yeah, it’s going to be a long drive. I texted Geoffrey and asked him to have a vehicle ready for us by seven. We should be there by nine if we get out of here by then. Faster, if we don’t hit too much traffic and don’t need to make more than one stop.”
“Fuck.” I leaned over and put my head on the table. “Why couldn’t Jabari call in like he was supposed to?”
“You’re fine with going toe-to-toe with an Alpha werewolf, but a two-or-so-hour drive is what kills you?” He was chuckling again.
“Yup, but it’s not because it’s a long drive,” I retorted. “It’s a long drive with you. Another one.” We had just done a long drive that morning to the airport.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” He was laughing now, that full thing that was probably making his chest and shoulders shake. He sobered, though, faster than I expected. “We have two confirmed dead werecats, one missing werecat, and four missing, probably dead, werewolves. We can suffer a long drive together.”