Page 19 of Bitter Discord

Zuri finally smiled, but not the political smile that said she was better than you. This was her big sister smile, a broad grin.

“Junior, do you hear this?” Zuri laughed.

The baggage guy finished loading, slamming my trunk shut before going to her side.

“I do,” he answered, his accent thick. “You should stop messing with her. She must not know Kushim and my father have matching dirty pickup trucks, and you like driving into the bush with them. You don’t bring sports cars home.” He looked at my car. “But this is a box.”

I flushed.

“Junior is Erevu’s son. Erevu, if you’ve forgotten, is in charge of my home in Tanzania. He’s too old to travel anymore, so Junior accompanies me if I leave Tanzania. He and his sister have been helping in Mozambique since Kushim and I have been there frequently recently. Erevu and his family have worked for me in Tanzania for a very long time.” Zuri patted the man’s arm. “Head back to the plane and stay with it. If you find yourself in any trouble, call me, then call Kushim.”

“I will also send a text to the emergency group chat,” Junior promised, nodding. He waved to me, smiling as he walked away. “Nice to meet you, Jacky.”

“Nice… to meet you too.” I waved lamely.

“Let’s get going. We’re meeting werewolves, and I shouldn’t be late to an official meeting with a pack.”

“It’s not that serious,” I said as I climbed into the driver’s side. Zuri chuckled.

“It might not be to you, but it is to me. We’re in different positions here, Jacky. You and this pack? You’re friends with them. I’m here as your sister, but to them, I am the envoy for our family and have to follow the rules.”

“Heath’s pack is a rogue. They won’t report you to Callahan or Corissa for being fifteen minutes late,” I countered as I put my seatbelt on, hearing hers click into place.

“Fuck the Tribunal,” Zuri growled, her calm and happy scent flipping to annoyance and anger in a flash. “I don’t care about Callahan and Corissa right now. I want to make a good impression on Heath Everson. Being fifteen minutes late to officially meet my sister’s fiancé would leave a bad impression. Our father might blow him off, but I will not.”

The words stunned me.

“Chop, chop.” She clapped her hands twice. “I would have driven myself if I knew you were going to dawdle,” she said.

I shoved my keys in and turned them, hitting the gas to peel out. We weren’t in the traditional crowded airport parking lot but a tucked-away, supernatural-only lot. Leaving the airport was easy when I could skip half the traffic.

It took twenty minutes to get back to our conversation.

“He doesn’t need you to take it so seriously,” I said softly. “I don’t, and he would be okay with it. Thank you, though. We just want… everyone to be family.”

“I know,” Zuri whispered, and I caught pain in her words, though it was buried well in her scent. “If this year wasn’t as terrible as it was, I would be more relaxed, but I’ve seen something that scares me. Jabari sees it, too.Everythingis serious now. For centuries, Jabari and I trained ourselves in the skills required to delicately dance among those who would see us fall. He and I, our family….”

“April, then July…” I shook my head. It had been a bad year.

“April was terrible. You discovered witches who could cover the scent of magic and wanted to take total control over a werewolf Alpha. With him, they could have built an army. That’s… immensely troubling on a global scale. Everyone in the family is on high alert with all witches we’ve done or are still doing business with. I don’t think our father gave you enough credit for that.” Zuri crossed her arms.

“You saved a continent. You saved supernaturals all over the Americas, and he decided he would yell at you for sleeping with your intended instead of planning parades in your honor for other werecats to see what you were willing to do for everyone. How far you could go for someone so young. It was a testament to the relationship you have with Heath that you did it together and saved moon cursed from an outside threat.” Zuri growled softly. “I was already cranky about his decisions about you when we found out about Aisha and Makalo in Mozambique.”

Tightening my hands on the wheel, I thought about Mozambique. I had been a simple bystander on a family call Jabari wanted, saying he had important news. It came at a strange time. I had just gotten through the tough call of telling my family I was properly engaged. I had still been adjusting to having fifteen werewolves in my territory, something I was more used to now. I’d had so much on my plate, but I got on that family call. I would never miss a call from my family when they said they had important news.

I tried to only remember Mozambique for its precious good memories, but Zuri was referencing the bad events her twin went through for us to get to that good place. Like Zuri with Kushim, me with Heath, Jabari went on a secretive, private journey of love and discovery. Like me, when the family found out, he was met with our father’s immediate rejection.

That family call…

Jabari had explained that he once had a year-long, passionate affair with a rogue. He broke it off for personal reasons that had little to do with Aisha doing anything wrong. If anything, the little rogue werecat did everything too right at the time. He left her in Mozambique before either of them realized she was pregnant. This nobody werecat named Aisha had hidden her son Makalo through her entire pregnancy, all the way up until he was fifteen, and he developed the family magic. The magic from Subira’s mother passed through her to the twins, then to him through Jabari.

Aisha’s intentions in hiding Makalo from the family were honorable from where I was standing. The decision wasn’t a perfect one, and she accepted that, but it came from a loving place. That much was clear to everyone. In the end, it was a decision that could only be judged by three people—Aisha, Makalo, and Jabari—and they all seemed pretty damn okay with it by the time I knew what was going on.

Hasan had been decidedlynotokay with it.

Needless to say, Hasan’s temper blew up like a nuclear bomb, and it was all directed at Aisha. Jabari stepped in, but he was now in the perilous position of being mated to a woman our father despised, and she hated him in turn.

Hasan’s temper hadn’t been the only thing to blow up that day. Witches were after Makalo to steal his power, and it was only Subira’s sudden appearance that saved lives that day.

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