Page 92 of War Games

“We’re not having any argument. It will be forever known that Heath Everson, member of the Tribunal, was yelled at by his recovering fiancé, who is also my daughter,” Hasan said quickly, waving a finger at me to follow him up the stairs as he practically tried to run from the room. “Let’s not give the rest of the world any more comedy from our families today. Give him and his son a minute to get him Changed, and we’ll have the family discussions in your territory.”

I almost said no, but when he turned to fully look at me, already closer to Subira than me, an image flashed in my head.

It was odd to reconcile this powerful man with the broken body I had seen in Subira’s memory. A broad chest that had seemed caved in. A trim abdomen that had been unable to holdall the parts in. His perfectly attractive face that once had a mangled, broken jaw.

How he’d been put back together was beyond me. How he survived the toll of it, I would never understand.

He didn’t smell or look angry. He didn’t seem surprised by the events of the day. He didn’t show any indication that he was getting his proverbial teeth pulled to have to do this.

“Okay,” I said, starting back up the stairs.

Heath and Landon didn’t take the time Hasan provided for him. Before Subira could close the door, Heath was limping up the stairs in wolf form, Landon carrying all of his clothing.

“Hey, we still got that witch around here?” Landon asked loudly.

Hasan didn’t seem surprised hearing that, which confused me more. Olivia approached, meek and scared of the large man who was suddenly with us.

“Hello,” Hasan greeted, studying her, a little wary of the timid woman.

“She’s good,” Subira said, patting Hasan’s arm, and he relaxed. “Here, sweetheart. A bit of power to put that one right again.” She pricked her own hand with a nail before holding it out to Olivia.

I stopped watching that and started watching Hasan. There were a dozen werewolves around, and Heath was injured, so there were some getting on edge between that and Hasan’s presence. Niko was pushing through them as they all backed away slowly.

“Father,” Niko greeted, smiling. “How are you?”

They exchanged a hug with all the masculine back-patting involved.

“Good. It’s been an interesting couple of days, sending those two in circles over what was going on,” he said, chuckling afterward.

“Can you explain that?” I asked, frowning.

“You were hurt, which meant all bets were off,” Hasan answered, smiling with gold eyes. “You deserve the full story, though. All of you do. They told me they were going to act, not specifically saying Heath’s name, but also not needing to. They promised you wouldn’t get hurt. My hands were tied because they needed to handle the packs, and Heath was an active problem. To stop them would have been undermining their entire position on the Tribunal and putting all of us at risk of being disorganized with witches running around trying to control us.”

“He warned me of this as well. He wasn’t trying to keep it a secret. He shouldn’t have told me, truthfully,” Subira said, holding a small tissue to her palm now.

“Okay…” I waited for more as Hasan adjusted his sleeves, rolling them up to his elbows.

“I didn’t tell them you were hurt because it pissed me off. I went to Alvina for information.”

“This I knew,” I said.

“Good. Heath reached out to me because I could make a meeting with the Tribunal. I got him to tell me the why of it so I wasn’t in the dark. I intentionally didn’t speak to Callahan and Corissa about why the meeting was going to be called, asking others to pass it along without the full information. It was my petty way of throwing them off guard for Heath’s challenge. It was technically interfering…”

“But I got hurt.”

“But you got hurt,” he repeated, nodding. “And I knew with Heath, if he won, there would be no such worry about you getting hurt again. It was in my best interest for him to win.”

“That’s absolutely interfering,” Landon said, chuckling. We were still waiting as Olivia tended Heath and for him to Change.

“Oh, well. Everson, will you report me?” Hasan asked, turning to Heath, who was letting Olivia set his leg and focus on the healing spell she was trying to use to heal it.

Heath shook his head.

“Though it was interesting to hear that Callahan had intended to step down,” Hasan said, crossing his arms.

“Oh, please explain,” Subira said, leaning on her mate like he was a wall.

“If Heath had gotten through Oberon’s Test, that stupid fae poison Jacky ended up drinking, then Callahan intended to step down for him. Learning that Callahan never wanted to be on the Tribunal for the sake of the power was… less unexpected. He’s always been the weaker of the two politically. Corissa is the powerhouse on the Tribunal out of the two. I don’t know how I never saw it, though.”

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