Page 4 of War Games

Teagan was still our lawyer, both in human and supernatural law. If we needed him to argue a case in front of the Tribunal, he would be ready. And it would happen eventually. Eventually, a witch, werecat, or werewolf was going to die, and we would need to answer for that death. Everyone knew a silent war was being waged. There were no armies. There was no violence in the streets. The human world had no idea something was happening. And in wars, people died.

Dirk was still my head of security and was now a recognized member of the werecat ruling family. It didn’t matter to me or Niko that he was a werewolf. It didn’t matter to most people in the family. He was my nephew, Niko’s son, and most importantly, Subira’s grandson, and she was the one who made the final call. It was a difficult position for Dirk, who also needed the pack, answered to Heath, and was mated to Landon, but it gave him another layer of protection. It told the world it didn’t matter if other werewolves and werecats hated each other. The werecat ruling family claimedthiswerewolf and would retaliate in the same way as an attack on one of the werecat members. And the family would have help from his pack.

Considering the war was against a group of witches, it was important that at least one group of Moon Cursed could show proper unity. To show that werecats and werewolves worked together for the success and survival of both.

I was feeling confined as I watched them, but I knew I couldn’t join. I overpowered everyone in the pack except Heath and Landon, neither of whom could bring themselves to spar with me. Heath because he hated seeing me in pain, even if he accepted the need for me to get more practical training. Landon because he hated pissing off his father, or so he said.

“Stop tapping your foot like that. It’s annoying,” Niko said, shaking his head.

“Get the fuck out of my house if you have a problem,” I snapped in return.

Niko didn’t respond as he turned to me slowly, taking me in with a long look that went up and down my body. If I wasn’t his sister, I would have had a hard time deciding if he was sizing me up to kill me or checking me out like I was at a bar.

I was his sister, and he was definitely deciding if killing me for my snappiness would get him in too much trouble with our family.

It made me smile.

Everyone with siblings wanted to kill them sometimes.

“Sorry,” I said, losing the smile as I sighed. “I’ve been in a mood.”

“I’ve heard,” he said, crossing his arms. “Dirk says you’ve been prowling around here and snarling at everyone. That it started when we came back from Alaska and has gotten steadily worse since.”

“I’m waiting, and I’m frustrated with waiting,” I answered, leaning closer to the large glass windows of my office. The werewolves couldn’t see me, but they all knew I was there. I was always there.

“Tomorrow. Tomorrow, Hasan will be joining us and disseminating everything he can from the already ongoing Tribunal investigation into the Dallas incident. Tomorrow, the family gets to work on our own and gets to do things our way,” Niko reminded me.

“I know,” I said softly. Politics moved slowly. After Dallas, Hasan and I had cornered the Tribunal witches, Matilda and Johann, into helping investigate the family who started all of this and others who might want to enslave the Moon Cursed. Looking back on Alaska, I was certain they either intentionallyignored clues to the situation or were just that ineffective to be properly helpful.

Or perhaps the Tribunal had someone inside who told the witches how to hide from the Tribunal. It didn’t have to be Matilda or Johann, even. Every single member of the Tribunal had a large staff, sharing with each other and across most of the supernatural species. There were also people who worked directly for the Tribunal as an organization, where any one of the leaders could pass down orders to someone who worked for the interests of the entire supernatural shadow government.

I also knew that others felt differently than me. Many, including a few in my family, believed the excuse that there were too many witches and too many ways to hide. There were billions of people on the planet. There were millions of witches, ranging vastly in power, expertise, and how much they engaged with the supernatural world. Some had formal training and were involved as deeply in the supernatural world, similar to someone like Hasan. Others were self-taught and used it to live mostly normal human lives with some extra help, staying away from everyone.

Even knowing that rational explanation, I was still furious, always on edge, always looking over my shoulder, wanting blood. I had my reasons for feeling the way I did. Multiple, endless reasons, but only one mattered.

“This werecat was probably no older than Makalo, maybe no older than Carey.”

For that nameless boy. I wanted blood for that nameless boy.

“You just got really pissed off. What are you thinking about?” Niko asked, pushing off from the window we were both leaning on.

“How a boy is dead, and I’m nowhere closer today than I was the day I killed him to finding out who did that to him,” I explained. “Or even his name.”

Niko flinched. He’d been there. I wasn’t the only one in Alaska. Niko and Davor had also been asked to help me find the werecat in the Last Change and deal with the problem.

“Davor is the one looking for who he was and where he came from,” Niko said, no longer looking at me. “We have to trust that if there’s a crumb or clue out there, he’ll find it and follow it. Or he’ll put out the right feelers and hope an elusive werecat admits they lost their son. They’ll answer, knowing his words are really coming from Hasan and Subira.”

“Isn’t there any sort of magic Subira could do?” I huffed. I wasn’t angry with her. I was just angry.

“Ask her tomorrow. She might not have had a spell when this happened, but she might have been working on something since it happened.” Niko shook his head, a sad move that conveyed everything about how he felt about the boy. “We normally know. We might not monitor and know every human child under the care of a werecat, but once someone makes the Change or if they’re born a werecat, we know. Normally, the adult introduces a child to whoever lives closest, a point of contact to the family, so we know there’s another werecat out there. We don’t know them all well, but we learn their name, say hello.

“For many werecats, that’s the closest they ever come to knowing our family. They make their own friends, find a territory or run rogue, and we don’t need to remember them unless they come up as a troublemaker.” Niko closed his eyes, shaking his head again. “A young werecat like that? We normally know. People would tell us just to celebrate their good fortune of having a baby that was a werecat instead of a human. We definitely would have been told when he went missing from his family. Anyone who talked to his family would have reached out if his parent or parents were missing…” His eyes opened once again.

“Because even if we’re solitary, going completely off the grid is a recipe for trouble,” I said, nodding as I recognized his point. “Easier to get killed or captured without any help. Lack of resources or important news. The gossip-mongering web of the werecats is how we spread information they need to know.”

“Exactly. The fact that this boy is a mystery…” Niko’s low growl revealed I wasn’t alone in my feelings. “Yeah, it’s frustrating, Jacky, but you can’t take it out on everyone. We’re all upset.”

“Yeah,” I mumbled. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, counting to ten, trying to center myself. “Tomorrow, we’ll have our orders.”

---