Page 86 of War Games

“Leave the body. She’s not important,” Landon said, stepping around Jenny’s corpse to stand next to Heath once again. Heath wanted to question his son about the callousness, but it was a small urge, overwhelmed by his coldness at her betrayal and his focus on what he had to do next.

The werewolf growled softly at Landon, but Corissa shook her head slightly, and the werewolf backed way.

Landon dared to growl back.

“Before Landon and my pack start picking fights with each other, why don’t you tell us what is going on, Heath,” Corissa said, glaring at him.

You don’t know, but you have a feeling.

“I am here to challenge Callahan, member of the Tribunal, for his position,” Heath announced loudly. In a room full of warriors and politicians, most of them had near-perfect poker faces, but they couldn’t hide their scents.

Corissa was angry and scared, the latter being something Heath had to focus on for a second to catch. Hasan was impressed, amused, angry, and frustrated. It grew so complicated and unbelievable, Heath had to ignore Hasan’s scent. The vampires were bored, barely amused, clearly distracted, and looked as if someone had interrupted their beauty sleep. Alvina was more expressive than Brion where they sat next to each other, the current King and Queen of the fae. Brion was responsible for the only other two times a change of leadership had happened in the Tribunal. First, when he disappeared and abdicated the throne in the process, and the second, when he needed to step up, kill his brother, and take the throne back, along with its position on the Tribunal. Heath had been there for the second, at least part of it.

The witches, Johann and Matilda, were humored.

While he judged their reactions, ignoring anyone not on the Tribunal, he walked into the open area, knowing thiswould be where he and Callahan fought. He wouldn’t take this back to Jacky’s home, nor would he go to Callahan’s city or some random place where he couldn’t reasonably get home if something turned sideways. He wanted to do this here. If that meant painting the walls of the Tribunal’s main chambers red, then so be it.

“You think your moon cursed are going to war, and here we are, watching the infighting,” Matilda taunted softly.

“Challenge accepted,” Callahan said, ignoring them as he stood.

“Now, wait. We can talk about this,” Corissa snapped, grabbing Callahan’s arm as he tried to step away from his seat to meet Heath. “Callahan, we had a plan!”

“I won’t deny Everson the pound of flesh he deserves,” Callahan said, gently pulling his arm away. “You shouldn’t either.”

That made Heath narrow his eyes. Callahan looked at him, sighing.

“Jacky wasn’t the target,” he said, shrugging one shoulder. “And I should be furious, but you killed the werewolf who decided to gamble with lives unnecessarily, as any of us would. When someone takes a job, it should be done right.”

“You’re talking about poisoning a rival Alpha who hasn’t acted against you,” Landon snarled.

Heath held up a hand, telling his son not to speak out of turn again.

“He hasn’t?” Corissa, not nearly as calm as she normally was, turned her hard glare on Landon. “He has, though. Going rogue was acting against us, but we let it go. However, we can’t abide by a werewolf stepping around us, working for other supernaturals in a position of power. Like Heath did in Oregon, using his reputation among humans to do something for thewerecat ruling family without going through us. We would have done it, but it undermined us and our position on the Tribunal.”

“And other werewolves noticed,” Heath concluded, speaking up to get her attention off Landon, her hard eyes turning on him as he hoped. Corissa nodded, putting her hands in front of her on the table.

“Oh, yes, they did,” she said. “Some have been wondering why more packs can’t be rogue and handle things their own way while we’ve been trying to work with Hasan and the rest of the Tribunal about the idea that witches are taking control of our kinds. It clearly worked out for you, and we haven’t done anything about it. Some of them are using your position to say that if you can decide your own allies outside of the werewolves, like powerful forces like Hasan and his family, then they should get to decide their own allies and who they would rather just kill.”

“I knew I would be a target one day. I expected a different route, but I knew I would be one,” Heath said, removing his blazer slowly. “But we can talk about what plan you had after the fight.”

“Callahan, just step—” Corissa was turning to her mate again.

“We both knew this could go wrong. We didn’t expect this way, but it was one of the things we considered. We thought the risk was minimal, hoping that little werewolf would just do what we needed her to do.” Callahan smiled at his mate, and Heath could see the sadness in it, smell it from across the room. “I will be fine, my Venus. Will you stand as my second to discuss with his?”

“I will,” Corissa said, losing the battle with Callahan that Heath didn’t fully understand yet. He would get to the bottom of it if he was alive to do so after the fight.

“I’ll make sure we have the space for this,” Brion said, standing up. With a strain that Heath had never seen fromthe fae king before, he pushed his hands apart, and the room literally stretched, making the open space half the size of a football field.

“Thank you,” Callahan said, nodding to the fae king. “I’ll take this end, Everson.”

Heath went to the far side, where the werewolf had been. That werewolf was finally getting Jenny’s body off the floor, taking her to the rooms away from the main chamber, most likely to dispose of her.

As he and Callahan took their positions and started to strip, Landon and Corissa met in the center. He was immensely proud of his son for a moment, the fearlessness of Landon helping him stand tall in front of the strongest werewolf in the world. Corissa was the most dominant wolf, but the fact that she was having issues with problem packs now was actually a positive to Heath. She also didn’t wish to rob the will of other werewolves, and she could certainly try to force everyone in line. She could shut down dissidents by using an iron fist, but she hadn’t, and Callahan hadn’t tried that, either.

Instead, they had a plan to deal with me, the real source of their problems. It’s better for all werewolves for them to have gone this route. But Jacky got hurt, and it seems Callahan understands that no matter what, this fight is happening.

It was a fight that had been brewing between them for some time now, but Heath had to give the challenge as the lower-ranking werewolf, and he hadn’t wanted to. He never thought of taking the Tribunal seat until this. He had never wanted more werewolves to deal with. He wanted to protect his family. He thought he could do that from the position he’d been in, keeping out of the way.

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