Page 65 of Secrets and Ruin

She lifted a hand.

“Why?” she asked.

“For not knowing who Fenris was and for never looking into him further. This was my oversight, and I’ve brought a valid danger to both our families.”

“If I was a younger or stupider person, I would agree with you. I would say we’re both to blame. How could I not recognize one of Niko’s blood family? How did I miss it?” She gave me a hard look. “Or we can blame Jacky, who our father has told to remove all the werewolves from her territory, regardless of who they are, but darling Jacky likes to see the best in people. She denied an order from our father to keep all of you and now gave someone a way to get revenge on one of us.”

“You can’t blame her,” he growled. He wouldn’t allow it. “I vouched for every werewolf we brought in and promised her I would keep them in line. I promised her I would deal with them before they could do anything.”

“I’m not blaming her. I’m telling you why you can’t blame yourself,” she said, her expression softening. “Just like I won’t blame myself. I never met one of Niko’s blood family, so I would have no idea what they look like. My oversight. Niko has killed a lot of werewolves. The idea that one of his biological family survived is the least likely scenario. We knew he wanted to kill all of them who ended up on the other side of the War. We talked softly about how he was tracking another one of them here and there or when we would see him come back from one of his personal missions, half beaten and bloody from a fight. But we never joined him. An oversight made by our entire family.”

“How does that mean you’re not blaming Jacky?” He didn’t care about himself.

“Because at least you and Jacky committed your oversights out of the goodness of your hearts and not the quiet neglect most mistakes in my family can be blamed on. I’m going to call Niko’s home and try to get hold of someone, anyone. Perhaps one of his staff can give you the update you need, and I can figure out how the family might help…without making all of this worse.”

“I should have—”

“No, it was better you told me first,” she said simply.

Heath saw a third account enter the call, Zuri attempting to contact Niko.

It wasn’t Niko that answered. It was Davor.

“Zuri!” Davor smiled, but Heath felt something was off. Why was Davor there? He didn’t like it. It took two seconds for Davor to see Heath, and his fake smile fell into fear. “Alpha Everson.”

“Davor, brother….” Zuri leaned in. “What are you doing at Niko’s home?”

“Covering for Jacky,” he answered quickly, scared of his sister even though there were probably thousands of miles between them. “Jacky and his son, Landon, went into the Black Forest to find Niko and Dirk. I don’t know all the details, but I know. I know who’s out there and some other stuff. They reached out to me because I was a secret keeper for something of Niko’s. She’s going to be so disappointed that I wasn’t able to cover for her longer.”

“You didn’t want the rest of your family to realize what’s wrong,” Heath realized, his eyes going wide as he figured out what Davor meant.

“Yeah,” Davor said, nodding. “Would you want them to?”

“It took me days to get desperate enough to call Zuri. They haven’t gotten in touch with me in days,” Heath said quickly. “Have you heard from them?”

“No, I haven’t,” Davor said, shaking his head. “I wasn’t expecting to. Out there… things go wrong more often than not. They either come out, or I finally call in the entire family. Tomorrow morning is the deadline.”

“Why?” Zuri snapped. “What do you know about that place? What don’tIknow?”

“Only what Niko told me, and he was always really sparse with information. It’s the Black Forest, and it’s the only place he knows of that the fae realm and ours exist in the same time and place. It’s dangerous.”

Heath rocked back, finally understanding the horrible reality of what he had sent his fiancée and son into.

27

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Iwoke up groggy. Before I even tried to move, my head hurt. My back hurt.

Trying to move made everything hurt.

“Hey, woah,” someone said softly, touching me.

I hissed viciously, knowing I wasn’t anywhere safe enough to be touched by people while I was in pain and half-asleep.

“Jacky.”

Finally realizing the voice was masculine, I blinked and tried to see who it was, but something was over my eyes. I went to yank it off, but it was removed before I could.

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