Shades of Hate (Jacky Leon Book 5)

by K. N. Banet

  “Well, in reality, we just infect them with the same curse that causes us to turn into beasts on the full moon.” Heath shrugged. “But turning isn’t the normal word packs use. Let’s stay on topic, though. Someone told you Jacky was a threat to the pack, and if you killed her, you would join the pack.”

  “Yes,” Sam answered, nodding vigorously.

  “Your knee is getting worse?” I asked, and this time, Sam went pale, and I saw a bit of his anger and could smell it on the air like faint rot.

  “I did everything for it, and it gives out on me. The pack is like the military, and I…I need that community. I have nowhere else to go. My knee won’t let me go back to the military, and private security firms…” He shook his head.

  “They’re not the service.” Heath was sympathetic to the plight of this veteran. “You seem like a good man, Sam, so I’m going to ask you to look at her.” He pointed at me. “She was born and raised in this country. She leads a quiet group of people, all trying to live their lives, enjoy their freedoms, and work hard not to hurt people. In fact, unless someone forces their hand, she’s part of a very peaceful family who preach peace and unity. The only pack that would be threatened by her is one that doesn’t believe in those ideals, and that pack misled you.”

  Sam narrowed his eyes on me, studying me. “How can I believe that?”

  “Someone asked you to commit a murder,” I said, countering his question of our trust with some logic of my own. “Murder, Sam. When the pack faces a threat, the pack fights together. It’s the werewolves’ greatest strength and the way they win against things like me. Yet, for some reason, whoever told you to do this didn’t send you with the pack. They sent three humans to kill a supernatural with silver bullets and no real plan. Does that make any sense to you?”

  “He…” Sam looked between us. “Oh my God.”

  “He used you,” Heath whispered kindly. “Preying on your need for community and healing for your knee. He didn’t think any of you would live through this. He expected you to kill her, then to die for it.” Heath reached out and touched Sam’s shoulder, kneeling in front of the man. I now saw Heath had never planned on torturing anyone. He found the weakest link and did what he was good at. He was their Alpha for a moment, offering them wisdom and comfort, guiding them to where he wanted them to be.

  “Why don’t you tell us the entire story?”

  “I got a part-time job as a parking garage security guard. Alpha Price and the Boston pack used it for a lot of things. We got talking a couple years ago, and eventually, he gave me a job in the pack, and I put in a package to get…Changed. I was never picked, but, uh, a week ago, he said he knew something I could do to get to the top of the list. He would Change me the moment it was done. He had them, too.” Sam jerked his head toward the door. “She was going to destroy the werewolves, and if we killed her before she had the chance, we would be werewolves, too. That’s it. I agreed to put everything in my name, so the other guys could be covered. Thought I was doing something…something good for the pack. I don’t know how all this supernatural stuff works.”

  “Have you been having second thoughts?” Heath asked softly.

  “Yeah, of course,” Sam said quickly, the truth apparent through his scent and the pained expression on his face. “I was getting drunk when you showed up because I was getting cold feet, you know. We tried twice, and she’s…right there.” He nodded at me. “And like…she was hanging out with that little girl and you, and she’s got the bar. I just didn’t understand. David and Jacob said she must be good at keeping it secret, but…” Sam shook his head. “I was planning on leaving in the morning and telling Alpha Price I couldn’t do it. We tried twice, and she was still alive, but sometimes missions fail.”

  “Most supernaturals are notoriously hard to kill. Don’t feel bad about it.” I honestly felt for this guy, something I didn’t want to do. He’d shot at me and run me off the road. He or one of his buddies took a cheap shot at me, which was now aching painfully, thanks to the rush of activity. My neck burned, something I hadn’t even looked at yet.

  And Sam gave me the name I needed, so he wasn’t too bad of a guy.

  Alpha Price.

  “We’re done,” Heath decided. “We’re going to take you back out to the dining room. Landon will get you some water and keep you away from the others—”

  “They won’t talk to you, but I can tell you everything,” Sam said quickly. Heath waved for him to continue. “David was the one with me when we opened fire on your car.” He directed it at me. “I drove, and he shot at you. He told me to ram your car, so I did. He was the one who tried to kill you at the movie theater. I mostly drove us around and put stuff in my name. Now that I look back, I was the fall guy, wasn’t I?”

  “Probably,” Heath agreed. “Someone got your license plate, which led us to your name. Then we saw the credit card charges for the motel. They were using you to keep all the evidence in your name. It could have been any two people off the street in that truck with you.”

  “Jacob’s laptop will get him. He’s a POG.”

  “What’s a pog?” I frowned this time.

  “Person other than grunt,” Heath answered, chuckling softly. “Supply and tech guys, people who don’t see combat very often, if ever. Grunts call them POGs. It’s an insult.”

  “Ah…” I nodded. “What was Jacob doing on his laptop?”

  “Tracking your phone.”

  I growled softly, and Heath lifted a hand.

  “Let’s get Sam more comfortable somewhere else, then we’ll handle the others.”

  I stayed in the office as Heath and Landon switched who we had. Instead of going to David, the primary attacker, we took aim at Jacob, the POG, as Sam had called him.

  Jacob didn’t want to be in front of me. His hateful glare was one of those dangerous looks that told me I had made an enemy for life for the terrible offense of not dying.

  “We don’t need you to tell us who did this or why. I just want to know how you got my phone number.”

  “Fuck you,” he snapped. “You fucking stabbed me, and now you’re violating my rights as an American citizen.”

  I lifted my hands in defeat, looking at Heath to handle this one.

  “Why don’t you head home?” Heath asked softly. “You still have my keys, and now you have a name. Take it to your family and see what they say. I don’t know Alpha Price that well, so I can’t even begin to understand his motivation. I’ll decide what to do with these three without you. I’ll probably hand them over to someone we can trust to keep them alive until we can use their testimony.”

  “Of course. Call me tomorrow. Get in touch with Miller, too. See if Collins is okay.” I didn’t touch Heath or kiss him in front of this human, who would most definitely tell someone.

  “It’s on the to-do list,” Heath promised. There was a heat in his eyes that made my toes curl, so I waved for him to come closer to me as if we needed to get away from Jacob to say something.

  He followed me out of the office, and the moment no one was watching, I threw my arms around him, holding him tightly. He pushed me against the hallway wall and kissed me like our lives depended on it.

  “I needed that,” I said softly, leaning my forehead against his.

  “You and me both,” he said, chuckling as he lowered his lips to mine again.

  If I had all night, I would have stayed. In a heartbeat, I would have stayed there with him, letting him be my rock, my friend, and my lover. I would have watched a movie with him on his couch and pretended like none of this was happening.

  I didn’t have all night.

  I kissed him one more time before forcing myself to walk away and was able to get out the front door before I stopped to look at him through the window.

  33

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  It wasn’t hard for me to contact my family even though it was well past midnight my time when I reached out. I was exhausted, but I wasn’t done. Just because the
threat was over from the humans that Alpha Price hired didn’t mean this was completely over. I had a new target, and this one was an Alpha werewolf who tried to execute a member of the werecat ruling family.

  “Do you have news?” Hasan asked before any of my siblings could get a word in. Many of them were still trying to find their seats, confused why they were getting called in the middle of the night. I hadn’t sent an email or message, just called and let it ring until people answered. I cut the connection to Zuri, knowing she wouldn’t show up. She would get a brief from someone, and I was in a bit of a rush. So much had happened in less than forty-eight hours, and I had to get everyone caught up.

  “I accepted the deal with the BSA. They know I’m part of the werecat ruling family, but they don’t know who any of you are. We caught the humans trying to kill me and discovered they were hired to play-pretend for a werewolf Alpha here in the United States who wants me dead.” I rambled the information before anyone could interrupt. I took a breath and kept going. “Heath and Landon have the humans. One of the BSA agents was shot and is at the hospital as far as I know. The alpha is Alpha Price, here in Boston—”

  Hasan’s low snarl and the furious look in his eyes were supposed to tell me something.

  “Do we know the name?” I asked softly, looking around at the surprised and somewhat horrified faces of my family.

  “We were sworn to silence,” Jabari answered. “But yes, we know the name.”

  Sworn to silence. Werewolf Alpha.

  It hit me like a battering ram, a realization that shook me and forced me to sit down.

  “Is this the Alpha who was involved with Liza’s death? Who executed the wolves who did it, so…so he was let go? Is it?”

  “Because he took the appropriate action, we were sworn to secrecy,” Hisao said softly. “And promised not to take action against him, including encouraging others to be his enemies. We can’t tell other werecats who was the Alpha of the werewolves who killed Liza.”

  They were doing so in as many words.

  “Okay, this is all very pressing to deal with, but…” Mischa was glaring at me. “Jacky, you are bleeding!”

  I looked down at my shoulder and groaned. “It’s not bleeding anymore. I’ll have to peel my jacket off it, but it’s—”

  “You should go deal with it,” Niko said kindly. “Were you hit during the capture of the humans?”

  “Yeah, there was a third we didn’t know about. He was able to get behind me. I mostly dodged his shot. I was grazed, and it hit someone else. I’ll add it to the long list of times I’ve been shot or nearly shot.” I didn’t have that many scars, I didn’t think, but there was definitely a pattern forming.

  While they watched, I pulled off my shirt to show them it wasn’t bleeding anymore. I had a first aid kit in the office. The little red boxes were everywhere now—three at Kick Shot in my office, Oliver’s office, and the kitchen downstairs. There was one in my home, had been one in my car, and Heath kept them stashed in dozens of places as well. I was certain Landon would stash even more around his home once he got his own place. I knew Oliver and Dirk had one at their home.

  Sitting in my bra and jeans, I let them watch me as I cleaned the wound, unperturbed by their presence. I slapped a bandage on it and taped it down, then put my shirt back on, bloody but my only option.

  “Better?” I asked, looking up. “Look, there’s a case that maybe Liza wasn’t a one-off accident. He’s tried to kill me now, and I have humans telling the truth about who hired them. He offered to Change them in return for my death, but let’s be real, if they weren’t killed by any of you, he would have done it himself.”

  My family just stared at me as if they weren’t allowed to say the obvious, so I continued, understanding they weren’t just gagged because they promised. This was magic. Everything they had told me about Liza’s death was all they could tell me.

  In the name of keeping the peace, they had to deal with letting Liza die and never getting to investigate the Alpha, who just moved to another pack with the protection of other werewolves. This is the sacrifice of my family. No wonder Davor is pissed. He never got justice. None of them did.

  And they know it.

  “Just like he did with the werewolves when they killed Liza. This time, he tried to frame humans because if werewolves had attacked me, there would be no recourse for him, not again. We would have put it together.” I pointed at them. “You could have told me you were magically gagged.”

  Hasan opened and closed his mouth, trying to say something. His face contorted, and he growled.

  “We never saw a reason to. Do you really think it’s something we like? We thought the situation was put to rest, Jacky. Liza’s death has always been hard for this family. If we believed otherwise, we would have said something, put you on the investigation, or found some way to tell you more. But with the vow of secrecy, technically a geas, we’ve told you the story everyone knows. We believed it was true and agreed to it. A group of young werewolves thought they were doing something good by killing Liza. By the time we got there, our hearts broken, the Alpha involved had already executed the traitors of his pack who had acted on their own. Callahan and I both verified the Alpha hadn’t lied about his lack of involvement, and we agreed to protect the Alpha’s identity. Everyone who knew of the incident was put under a large spell by Alvina, a geas to protect his identity. Everyone who didn’t know was free to learn the public story.” Hasan rubbed his face. “Now, you’re bringing evidence that we were all fooled, and this Alpha has acted again.”

  “Alpha Price,” I said, repeating his name just for the hell of it since no one else could. “I know you can’t confirm if it’s really him, but I think we can get him for trying to kill me. I just need a meeting to be set up. I need to talk to the NAWC anyway about the deal the United States of America and the werecats have come to. I need to make sure they’re clear the rules that apply to them and to us are different and for good reason.”

  “I can make that happen,” Hasan said softly. “But why? Why do this? To you or to Liza?”

  “I…don’t know, but I have some theories. I’m sure you all can put it together, but I’ll say them if you can’t. I’ve made enemies here in the States among the werewolves, possibly around the world after my visit to Russia and getting involved in that pack’s internal business. There’s a chance he just thinks I should die for it. It’s not unreasonable for him to think if he pinned it on humans and the BSA, he would be crippling our family in the United States for years to come. Even a century after Liza died, this family is obviously still not over it. Hasan gave up his Tribunal power for a hundred years and only came out of grieving for me. Imagine what losing a second young daughter would be like? Before me, Liza was the most vulnerable, and now I’m the most vulnerable out of us, especially with the exposure I brought on our people. He might just hate us, Hasan. He might hate everything we stand for, hate werecats. That could be it. He might even be the wolf who gave up my name to the BSA to kick this off, to make a situation where my death seemed likely.”

  “We never did find out which wolf gave up your name,” Hisao commented. “It seems as though it really was accidental, an overheard conversation. There was no malicious plot we could find in that aspect, but this Alpha seems very adept at covering his tracks.”

  “If it’s not him, and my exposure is really just all my fault, I’m willing to accept that. I’m glad the BSA isn’t as terrible as I thought, knowing they have some procedures I don’t agree with. Hopefully, I can have a strong working relationship with them going forward. But let’s go back to the part where someone tried to kill me.”

  “It would cripple us,” Jabari said softly, leaning over. “We couldn’t do it again and let the people walk away without proper investigation. We would…”

  “Executions,” Hisao whispered. “I’d kill every single one of them.”

  “Then we’re off to the races for war,” Mischa said softly, opening her hands as if
I should have known to expect this.

  “I figured.” I wasn’t surprised. Hasan believed family was the most important thing and had pushed that into most of his children, which spiraled into more complicated things. An attack on this family was an attack on all werecats, a direct assault on the leaders of the werecats.

  “I can set up a meeting,” Hasan said, the fury in his eyes a bit scary. “I’ll set up a meeting with Alvina, Callahan, Corissa, and the Alphas from the council.”

  “Alvina? The Fae Queen on the Tribunal?”

  “Yes. She’s the one who swore us all to secrecy, including the werewolves from that Alpha’s pack. With her, we can lift it for a long discussion.”

  “Do you think we can get Alpha Price for this?” I asked, crossing my arms. “I have witnesses who will testify, whether they want to or not, or I’m willing to let Alvina rummage in my head for my secrets if that’s needed to verify the truth of my words.” I knew the fae could do that and some witches as well. They would go into memories and witness what I had seen and heard.

  “She might want to,” Hasan warned. “Are you prepared for that?”

  “I’ll have to be if it gets justice for this family,” I said, leaning back in my chair. I knew what I was risking and could only hope Alvina would protect secrets she had no business having. She was the fae queen, though, so I couldn’t really know how it would turn out.

  My family deserved justice. Alpha Price couldn’t get away with this again. Hasan and my siblings had fought for peace. They had allowed the werewolves to internally handle Liza’s murderers, a token of peace to not further escalate the issue. They were living what they preached, and I had to protect that, just like I had to protect them from exposure to the humans.

  “Set up the meeting,” I said softly. “Oh, and the humans, they actually attacked me a second time. They shot me in a parking lot. Special Agent Collins was able to get me flown to Dallas for treatment. I was treated and discharged the same day. It wasn’t a good shot. I got lucky. These humans aren’t professionals. Figured I should mention that before someone else does since a Dallas werewolf saw me.”