Page 68 of War Games

A thunderclap made me jump up, trying to find out what was happening. Gwen was standing next to me, glaring in a direction. The werecat growled viciously in the direction of the echoing voice.

“I guess your second chance at having a mother has decided she wants to say something to you,” Gwen said, smiling cruelly as she spoke, the rage in her eyes not leaving. “Can’t wait to see how you finally disappoint her. Or you can just accept your truth right now, Jacky, and leave the hope and pain of what is to come behind before the cycle can start again. Youknowhow it ends.”

Subira walked through the dark, growing closer. I looked at her, then Gwen, then the werecat, before resting my eyes back on her.

Did I want to do this again? Did I want to disappoint her? Did I want to look in the eyes of yet another person I craved love and affection from only to see disappointment and anger? Could I handle that all over again?

“I said that’s enough, Jacky!” She lifted her staff and brought it down, another thunderclap, but this time, it felt like it made a direct impact with my head, blasting me to the ground. It was a painful landing, sending me skidding on the ground for several feet, leaving me separate from her, Gwen, and the werecat.

Ringing in my ears, I pushed myself back up and got to my feet, knowing everything had just changed. The scene in front of me hadn’t, with Subira, Gwen, and the werecat, but something was different.

Me.

I remembered everything.

26

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

HEATH

Heath prowled around for twenty-four hours, hoping for Subira to bring him word about Jacky, but she had gone to sleep, doing something none of them understood. He received reports from Dirk and Niko about how Olivia had healed his fiancé, using Subira’s blood to power the delicate process. While Subira was doing something only she understood, he was grateful there was some progress thanks to Olivia, the witch he couldn’t do anything about. He didn’t want to trust the witch, but with Dirk standing in his way, he just had to let it be. Subira’s immediate trust in Olivia was a good sign.

After talking to Landon about what they were facing, he and Landon had intentionally slowed everything down. With Teagan, Shamus, and Ranger all proven to them, along with the younger members Arlo, Benjamin, Stacy, and Kody, they had most of the pack.

It left four options. He hated all of those options.

Roselyn, Piper, Jenny, and Carlos.

Ranger was digging into their accounts, trying to find transactions, emails, secret accounts, anything to give them a clue which one it was.

I want all of it, not just the confession from whichever one is going to disappoint me. I need all of it.

Landon was looking around their homes. Fenris had secrets in his home, and there was no reason to think the traitor wouldn’t have the same.

Heath prowled, knowing he wasn’t in the right headspace to calmly look through things without potentially destroying the very evidence he hoped to find.

He paced as he plotted his future moves, knowing there were decisions only he could make. Not Landon, not any of the pack, not any of Jacky’s family. Only him. There was something important only he could do, but it required steps, and each one was going to be harder than the previous.

With everyone working on their parts, it’s time for me to get my part started.

He made a call on Jacky’s computer, using her account to reach out to the only person who could get him where he needed to be when he needed to be there.

“Everson,” Hasan greeted.

“Hasan.” Heath looked up to see the tired gold eyes of the Tribunal member, patriarch of Jacky’s family. Subira’s mate. The father of some of the most dangerous individuals in the world. He himself was in the top ten of those types of supernaturals.

There wasn’t a werewolf in the world who wasn’t afraid of this type of conversation.

“I know what’s happened,” Hasan said before Heath could find a way to start the conversation. “I… can’t tell you anything. I can only pass along information that can help Jacky, and that can only go to my family members.”

Heath caught the hesitation, wondering if Hasan did want to tell him and regretted being unable to.

Surely not. He hates me with his daughter. He wouldn’t want to help me with much of anything. I know this call is a gamble just for that alone.

“I have no contact with the Tribunal outside of you. I’m not calling as your daughter’s lover. I’m calling as a supernatural needing to speak with our ruling government,” Heath explained, dancing around the issue of their connection through Jacky into the political space he knew Hasan thrived in.

“Oh?” Hasan tilted his head to the side, everything about his expression changing into something more cunning and calculated as he seemed to take in everything Heath was and could ever be. There was something haunting about those gold eyes in Hasan’s face and not Jacky’s. He wondered how Subira handled it, knowing they shared such an exact match.

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