Page 95 of Secrets and Ruin

“You can help me manage Dallas,” I said, smiling at the thought. “I have a mansion there.”

“A werewolf mansion you won when you kicked out the pack,” he reminded me.

“Jabari would tell you it doesn’t matter how I got it. It’s still mine now.”

“Jabari gave you the deed of a vampire nest,” he said, rolling his eyes. “He thinks conquest is still a perfectly acceptable thing.”

“For the building and the land it’s on, but it’s up in Washington. That’s not close to Dirk.”

“Clearly.” Niko gave me an annoyed look.

“Look, I’m sorry about everything. Rainer, your home, your territory. All of it,” I said, leaning back in my seat. “You know that, right? Even if Brion didn’t tell you to leave, I was going to have to drag you out. I made a deal. Remember how we got separated?”

“So, there was a witch?”

I explained to him everything I knew about Adalni, watching him absorb it, his expression changing as I went. There was curiosity but also some pain as he heard how the woman had lived, thanks to the pack. I then explained what King Brion had told me.

“He told me that part,” Niko said, looking out his window. “It was about space, not about the greater good or anything like that. It was a job, not a purpose. Rainer being alive kept the bargain going.”

“We never had the chance to talk to Hasan about how Callahan had been hiding your brother,” I said, crossing my arms in thought as I looked out my closest window. Texas was going to be underneath us soon.

“No one talked to Hasan about much of anything when it came to what we actually went through and probably won’t for some time if Subira has her way, and she will.” I could smell how grateful he was for that and found myself feeling much the same. “We should tell her, though.”

“She shooed us out of Germany pretty quickly. I think she wants to get home herself.”

“She wants to stabilize,” Jabari mumbled, sitting up with his eyes barely open. “We’ll have to build her a home from scratch. There are things to do if she’s going to run the family instead of Father.”

“Are you going to build it with your bare hands or something?”

“No, but contractors who qualify to work on something like our mother’s home are probably hard to find.” He didn’t look excited. “Only the finest for her.”

“Okay, Jabari, son of Subira,” I said, smiling as he narrowed his eyes on me. I was trying to tease his momma’s boy attitude, and he knew it.

“Absolutely. Our mother is amazing.” He got up and went to the bathroom, leaving me and Niko alone with our sleeping family members.

“I am sorry,” I said again, catching Niko’s eye. “About Rainer.” I thought he would give me a platitude of dismissal or, like many others, tell me this wasn’t my fault. What he ended up saying took me by surprise.

“I’m sorry about Fenris,” he whispered.

It brought tears to my eyes.

Jabari said nothing when he came back out. The pilot let us know we had thirty minutes until landing. We started waking up, each taking one of the three still sleeping. Jabari got his son up, and Niko got Dirk. I was left with Landon, who was by far the snappiest of the three.

“We’re almost home,” I said, lifting my hands in a symbol of peace. “Almost home.”

“Did you call Pa?” he asked, rubbing his eyes. He had passed out the moment we had gotten onto the plane.

“I let him know we were coming but that I was exhausted. He told me to rest up. Did you know our wolves woke up the day after Rainer died?”

“No. That’s great,” Landon said, stretching.

“The curse wore off early thanks to its caster not being an extraordinarily powerful fae, so it faded after his death. The healers figured it out rather easily and told Heath. Everyone is doing fine.”

“Perfect. You know, I couldn’t have had a better partner through this. Thanks.”

“Thank you,” I said, patting his shoulder before I took my seat for landing.

We shuffled off the plane, and I felt the immediate relief of standing on my home turf once again. I threw my bag down and jumped at Heath the moment I saw him. He held me, not putting me down.

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