Page 70 of War Games

He found it charming from the werecats, especially Jacky, even if it made him feel like he was going to have a heart attack.

He was grateful he had more control over the werewolves. Nearly perfect control. Whoever betrayed him and Jacky had found loopholes or had something that would give them a reason to fight his long-standing orders of loyalty. He didn’t like taking away a werewolf’s free will, finding it difficult to maintain. It could be cruel. He’d seen other werewolves do it. It was all too easy for an Alpha to become a dictator, robbing someone of even the power to speak up for what they needed. Heath knew all too well that if he ordered a werewolf to starve to death, there were many who wouldn’t be able to fight that order.

He’d been lax. He’d hoped and believed in his werewolves. That hadn’t been entirely misplaced. Most of his pack had remained loyal.

However, most wasn’t all. It hadn’t been perfect. After everything Jacky had sacrificed for them, at least one of them had betrayed him and her. He’d been able to reconcile what happened with Fenris. He’d always been as mad as a hatter, and knowing there was fae magic and a relationship with another werecat only added to the problem of tenuous sanity. Those secrets had been kept from everyone, even him, who had knownFenris for years. Through all of that, the best reason he had been able to reconcile that was becauseFenriswasn’t the one who betrayed the pack. Rainer hadn’t been a member of his pack. Hadn’t been Jacky’s friend.

Whoever betrayed them was. He knew this wasn’t going to be a case like Fenris and Rainer. They had betrayed the pack for entirely selfish reasons after everything she had done for them.

He had to fight the urge not to punish all of them with the sort of control and domination that went against his morals. Landon would kill him for it, but that wasn’t enough of a threat to stop him. Landon wasn’t one to like packs and other werewolves, but Heath knew Landon would hate him even more if he did it.

What really stopped him, though, was the woman who couldn’t speak up for these werewolves. Jacky would never look at him the same. He wouldn’t be the man she fell in love with. If she lived, that was really important to him. No matter how much the urge came to him, he just had to think of her and know she would hate him for it. It was the best protection he had from losing himself to this.

He walked into Kick Shot, continuing to take his time. He found Landon, Shamus, and Ranger sitting together, each of them with everything they needed to present to him.

“How is everyone today?” he asked, sitting down with them, his tone cool, but not because he was upset with any of them anymore.

“We have a lot,” Landon said, pushing forward the first file. “Ranger reviewed the footage. There are two places of note where someone might have tampered with either the bottle of bourbon or Jacky’s glass.”

“Which two?” he asked, pulling the first file closer and flipping it open to see the printed frames.

“Roselyn and Jenny,” Ranger said, clearing his throat. “Roselyn with the bottle of bourbon. Jenny with both the glass and the bottle.”

I still can’t take one of the couples out of the equation, then.

“Jenny’s is more suspicious. Neither are caught by the cameras pouring anything in, but she was there longer, and there are some strange movements.” Ranger reached out slowly, but Heath didn’t need him. He flipped the pictures on his own, seeing the chain of events of how Jenny messed with practically everything on the table, pretending to clean it up while there was no staff around. Everyone was dancing and laughing, no one looking her way, not for long.

“I see,” Heath said, knowing with all the movement and what Jenny had worn, it would be too easy for her to sneak whatever she needed into the bottle of bourbon. “She’s good.”

“She is,” Ranger agreed.

“I want the rest,” Heath said softly, closing the pictures.

Jenny… Oh, I know what Callahan would have promised you…

“I couldn’t find anything suspicious in either home. Jenny, though, has a fire pit in the back,” Landon said. “And her neighbors said she likes going out to grill hotdogs and shit regularly.”

“You talked to the neighbors?” Heath was surprised his son would go that far.

“Neighbors are human and know they live next to a werewolf. They’re all too willing to pay too much attention in case the monster next door does something they might find strange. Roselyn and Piper have no notes from their neighbors except for the fact that everyone was almost disbelieving that they couldn’t think of anything to say about the couple. They know how to stay out of sight and out of mind for the humans near them, just like they are supposed to.”

“Good job. Carlos?”

“Nothing about Carlos from his and Jenny’s neighbors. Only her.” Landon snorted. “She’s good, but not that good. No idea if he’s involved or not.”

“Shamus, how have they been acting in their cells?”

“They all have a reasonable amount of fear. None of them are acting guilty, not even her. They’re all waiting like we did while you were clearing us. They know they are the last options, that one of them is a traitor. They haven’t spoken, but the distrustful looks have been thrown around by all of them but Carlos.”

“I hope he’s not involved,” Landon said softly.

“Agreed.” He couldn’t put it on Carlos. It would be real madness if Carlos had done this.“Bring me Roselyn first,” Heath ordered.

Shamus went to get her. Landon and Ranger moved to another table. Heath kept the printed pictures from the security cameras, ready to show them to Roselyn.

When Roselyn was sitting in front of him, Heath smiled, opened the file, and pushed it to her.

“Explain,” he ordered, letting the power roll through him.

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