Page 37 of Secrets and Ruin

“I don’t know. Niko never told me the names of his biological family. They’re all dead. He said his father was the Alpha of the pack. His mother was human. Any of the werewolves who didn’t die that night were conscripted into other packs, and he hunted them down during the War. I think…he would have seen them as giving in to the evil that destroyed their home and lives. He saw others as the traitors, not himself.”

Shaking my head as I leaned back to stare out of the window, I felt the heavy sensation of guilt, a sinking stone in my stomach that made me feel ill.

“He never told me names, though. None of them have. I don’t know how Rainer Brandt is related to Niko, but the signs all point in that direction. They’ve fought before, so Niko probably believes Rainer is dead.”

“And Fenris is the one who walked away from the battle,” Landon nodded. “New name, new identity—”

“New magic,” I growled softly.

“And that. Then he waited, about eight hundred years of waiting, all so he could get into position to fight Niko again.”

“And I handed it right to him,” I said softly. I threw up a hand as Landon’s mouth opened once again. “Don’t argue with me. I did. I kept Dirk, didn’t protect him well enough, and led to him becoming a werewolf, then I sent him back to Niko with a big red arrow… Rainer has everything he needs to bait Niko into a fight if Niko is his goal.”

“There’s no way he’s not. Nikolaus Brandt, the Traitor, son of Hasan… and Rainer Brandt, probably originally a member of the same pack. This is a grudge match that is centuries in the making.”

I heard something crack to see that Landon was holding his phone too tightly. A long line over the screen made me reach out and pry the phone from him.

“We might need that,” I muttered, putting it in a cubby for safekeeping.

“You know what I thought about on the drive here?” looking unperturbed, Landon didn’t argue about the phone I had taken it from him. “When he met you, I heard he tried to kill you when no one was there to back you up. He had the chance a year ago but didn’t take it. You let him out of the cage, and he had the control not to do it. He worked with you. He kept working with you. He was mouthy, but he always was.”

“I had given him a chance, and he gave me one… The situations were different, and I was on the same side as him, so—”

“Jacky, you had been helping on the same side of the coup the first time you met. The idea that you were helping the right side isn’t good enough. Do you know what really changed?”

“Tell me.”

“No one knew you were one of Hasan’s children all those years ago. That came out to the public while you were in Seattle…after he tried to attack you, and Pa put him in his place.”

For a second, it was difficult to breathe.

“Are you saying he conned me from the first moment in the basement of the pack’s mansion?” I asked once I could find air again. “That everything has been a lie?”

“I think we can’t leave it off the table,” Landon murmured. “It makes the most sense. We have no idea what sort of magic he can do, so… it could have been easy for him.”

I only nodded because he was right.

I just hadn’t wanted it said out loud yet, hadn’t been ready for it yet.

As we took off, the city growing smaller underneath us, Landon and I stopped talking entirely. All I could think about was every smile Fenris had ever given me. Every good-natured joke was suddenly stained with the truth.

Each moment only made me angrier.

16

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

“We’re two hours from Berlin,” an attendant said quietly as she refilled our drinks.

“Do you want to reach out to your family now?” Landon asked as she walked away.

“Not yet,” I answered before sipping my drink, my mouth and throat dry. I didn’t like these long flights. I had taken several at this point, and it never got easier, no matter how comfortable the plane.

“They could send us some backup,” Landon pointed out, not looking at me as he read something.

“And they will, but I know when I want to reach out to them. I know I have to, but it can’t be too quickly. A werewolf from my territory is probably a threat against a member of my family. For all we know, Fenris or Rainer, whatever we want to call him, is probably playing some fucking game with them right now. Or Niko is already dead. There’s no way to know. Dirk could be hurt, but unless he’s been killed or pulls out of Heath’s pack, Heath only knows if he’s alive or not. You and I are going to get to Niko’s territory and start figuring out where we stand before I ask my family to come. We have to or… worst-case scenario, they’ll think Heath planned this, andno onewill be safe. Best-case scenario, I’m incompetent for trusting anyone, and the rift growing in my family gets worse.”

“Why would my father plan this?”

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