Page 26 of Bitter Discord

“Stay safe, Jacky. Please.”

“You know I will. You do the same. We’re only a couple hours away.”

There was one more kiss before he closed the door for me, and I got Zuri and me back on the road.

“I’m glad we could steal some time with them,” Zuri said as I drove down the long highway to the city. “A lovely family.”

“Yeah, they’re pretty great. I wish he saw them the way I do.”

“I understand. I’m glad you’re my sister, Jacky. I wouldn’t say I’ve alwayshatedwerewolves, but I would have never given them the chance you have, even on my best days.”

“They’re just like us, Zuri.”

She didn’t reply, and I didn’t waste my mental energy trying to continue the conversation. At the mansion, she and I unloaded our luggage and claimed our rooms. The remodeling had been to turn it back into a normal home. No more bunk rooms for multiple werewolves to sleep over. There were now normal beds. I had taken a page out of my family’s game plan, trying to style the rooms for each sibling as best I could. When I showed Zuri her room, she smiled.

“Oh, I like this. It’s you and me.”

“I tried,” I promised, wondering if it disappointed her.

“You did perfectly,” she said as she put her suitcases on the bed. “Are you planning on asking us to come to your city often?”

“No, but… if Dallas is going to be mine in some fashion, and this is going to be my mansion, I should give you guys a place to rest.” I left to put my suitcases down, then went back to her door.

“It’s thoughtful of you to think of us with everything going on,” she said when she saw me again. “I see a door.” She pointed.

“A walk-through bathroom to a nursery.”

“Verythoughtful of you,” she murmured.

Uncomfortable, I thought of what else I could tell her about my changes to the mansion I had acquired through a hostile takeover.

“I got rid of the cage prison in the basement and turned it into a secure meeting room. It’s massive. It’ll fit all the werecats we want to bring here and give the family a meeting room if we need it. My territory is crowded.”

“We needed a base of operations in the United States, and this is a good one,” she said, nodding appreciatively as we left her room and went back to the car. “You could have used the property you own in Seattle.”

“I only keep that property for its value. I don’t have a mortgage on it, so it helps to sit on it. I’ll probably sell it one day. Maybe to vampires. That would be funny.”

“They would love and hate that,” she said, laughing. I started pulling out of the drive, only to be stopped by the sudden appearance of someone at the end of the drive, directly in the middle.

“Who is standing at the end of the drive?” I asked softly.

“I don’t recognize him,” Zuri answered, undoing her seat belt. I followed her lead and got out of the car with her.

“Is there something we can help you with?” I called out. We were too far away to catch his scent.

“May I approach?” he asked in an accent I recognized. Not that I knew where it was from, but I was certain I had heard it before.

“Come closer, and introduce yourself.” Zuri ordered.

“My name is Coyotl,” he said. As he came closer, I got a good look at him. Dark tanned skin and darker eyes, with black hair falling down over his shoulders. He seemed oddly out of place, as if he was uncomfortable with where he was.

“Oh, it’s nice to finally meet you in person, Coyotl!” I smiled. “You’re a bit early. Many of the werecats aren’t arriving until tomorrow.”

Heath was right. We have at least one early visitor.

“Yes, I know—”

“Your full name, Coyotl?” Zuri inquired. He didn’t appreciate her question, his eyes shifting to amber.

---