Page 17 of Scarred Resolve

“Sure.” Heath looked between me and Niko, clearly curious, but he didn’t make any effort to pry.

“I have to be at the BSA with a plus one tomorrow at five in the morning. I wasn’t allowed to bring you or any other werewolf?—”

“Stop,” he said suddenly, the smile disappearing as quickly as he had lifted a hand to cut me off. “Don’t say anymore.”

“Oh, he knows something,” Niko said softly, moving in a semicircle around me and my fiancé. “Well, that’s even more interesting than this already was.”

“Heath?” I asked, concerned now that I was walking into something bad.

“Follow every recommendation and order they’ve said, and don’t pry,” he said softly, leaning closer to me. “Don’t make theories, and don’t talk about ideas of what might be happening. If they haven’t said you’re in trouble, you aren’t, so don’t even consider that. Just be there.”

“O-Okay.” I was stunned by the shift in my fiancé’s behavior, who looked deadly serious.

“I love you, and I should go now and get back to my own plans around the city. I’ll be done by the end of the business day and will head back to Jacksonville, so there are no issues with me being too close.” He kissed me almost fervently before grabbing his laptop. He waved at Niko as he walked out.

“He definitely knows something,” Niko pointed out again. “Do you think he ever got a suspicious phone call to go to a mysterious meeting before?”

“I would guess he has.” I tried not to take Heath’s quick exit personally, but it was certainly out of character.

He would never do that unless he thinks doing otherwise would put me, Carey, or Landon in danger. I get it, Heath. I’ll listen for now.

“Let’s just settle in and get some food ordered. We’ve got to be up early.” I grabbed my bag and headed for the stairs, leaving Niko in the kitchen with his water. Once I threw my bag into my room, I ordered enough food to cover for me and Niko through the next morning so we could have breakfast. When it arrived, I stashed it all in the fridge and went to hunt down Niko again. He wasn’t on the main floor or in any of the rooms on the second. I didn’t find him in the backyard, so I went down into the basement, finding him standing in the meeting room.

“Food is here,” I said, watching him look around the simple room where I had held meetings with the werecats of the New World.

“This room. It didn’t always serve this purpose, did it?” he asked, not looking at me as he continued to study it.

“Uh, no. It was the… It was where they caged werewolves when they got out of control under their Alpha after Heath. Since it’s a secure basement, I decided to give it a new purpose.”

“This is where you freed him,” he whispered, moving a table to stop at a specific point in the room.

“Yeah, but how… How do you know that?” Crossing my arms, I tried to fight the uneasiness as Niko looked at me.

“I don’t know,” he said honestly. “I know the story of how you rescued him from this place. I’m a little sensitive to certain things, I guess. In the Black Forest, the vibe of something altered by the fae blends in with the rest of the world, but right here, Ican feel it. There’s just the smallest bit of residue that no amount of cleaning could get rid of.”

“He was caged against his will because he was a threat to the witches trying to take over the pack. He was agitated. He and I exchanged some words, but I wanted to let him out, so I did. He stopped me from getting taken like Heath was by locking us down here since it has its own ventilation that’s not connected to the rest of the mansion.”

“Heightened emotions like fear, anger, and surprise… that makes sense.” Niko nodded, licking his lips as he studied the spot again. “It’ll finish fading away one day, but he really left a mark on this spot. Sorry. I never came down here during previous visits. Didn’t know that Fenris was Rainer, obviously. I’ve scarred a lot of werewolves, and I hadn’t seen him in a long time.”

“He was unstable, so when the family came close to my territory, we kept him far away from everyone. He and Subira came across each other, but she didn’t know about Rainer, did she?”

“Not at all, and considering what he had done to himself, there’s a chance the fae magic protected him from her own abilities magically. To think my brother was so close and so far for so long…” Shaking his head, he came toward me. “Let’s eat.”

Nodding, I made sure he went up first and locked the door behind me. If there was just a little of Fenris left in that room somehow, I didn’t want it disturbed.

8

CHAPTER EIGHT

Avintage band tee tucked into a pair of nice jeans, a leather jacket, and black boots. That was my choice for the day. Looking at myself with only light makeup on, I looked like a slightly cleaned-up version of myself. There was a level of stubbornness in my choices. They hadn’t set a dress code for this meeting, so I wasn’t going to try to impress. Part of that stubbornness was fueled by the fact that it was four in the morning. I preferred staying up late and sleeping in over going to bed early and waking up earlier.

I found Niko downstairs, already putting breakfast on plates for us. I ate mine in silence, growling and grumbling the entire time. He made sure we had coffee as well, which helped. He chuckled as I rinsed my plate and growled before loading it into the dishwasher.

“Not used to meetings that happen before the sun comes up?” he asked casually.

“For some reason, this one is making me feel particularly cranky,” I admitted. “I’m used to meetings at all sorts of hours, staying up longer than is healthy, and sleeping like the dead when I need to. The BSA knows there are better times to askme to come in. I don’t like how this entire thing is beginning to make me feel. Asking us to come in before the sun is even up, as though they don’t want anyone to see us in the light of day.”

“That’s exactly it,” Niko said before taking another bite of his breakfast. Then he held out the plate for me, and I sighed, taking it from him to rinse and load.

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