Jules began pulling the chairs down, but Gabriele just stood off to the side, watching. “Why do you do that?” he finally said.
“I’m the first one here.”
“Are you the lowest in the clan?”
He shrugged. “Jane might be lower than me,” he said. “Remy would know. Jane and I never really fought it out. There was no real need.”
Gabriele shook his head, his mouth edging towards a sneer before settling back into a mask of neutrality. Jules tried to pretend he hadn’t seen it, that maybe he was misreading the situation. Kaylee’s making you paranoid, he thought. Dad’s not a bad guy. If that’s the case, why did you feel the need to get out of that little apartment? You felt trapped, and you know it.
“Thanks, Jules,” Remy said from the doorway. “Good evening, Gabriele.”
“Hello, Remy. I hope your clan is on time tonight.”
Remy frowned. “Why? Is there a problem?”
Gabriele shook his head and smiled, but it was insincere. “No. No problem.”
Philippe and Jane arrived together, as they often did. They lived in the same neighborhood and often carpooled. Brock was the last to arrive and everyone rounded on him. “Did the baby come yet?”
“No,” he said. “No baby. But the city budget report is going to drive me crazy.”
“Ach, politics,” Remy said. “We want the baby to come.”
“You and Gia both. She says even her ankles are fat. I don’t see it, but I know better than to argue about it.”
“Smart man.”
Brock looked past Remy and nodded. “Gabriele.”
“Brock. Sorry I missed the shower.”
“I won’t take offense.”
Jules kept his mouth shut. He had the distinct feeling that Gabriele had purposefully not been invited and would not have been welcome.
“Everyone’s here,” Remy said. “And the meat is already in the barrels. The sun is setting and soon the moon will call us all. If there’s nothing to discuss...?”
“I have something,” Gabriele said.
“More news of The Human Order?” Remy said.
“No. An official challenge.”
Remy just stared calmly at Gabriele while behind him Brock bristled. Jane and Philippe exchanged a dark look, and Jules felt all his hopes straining towards breaking point. He held his breath.
“You cannot issue a challenge here,” Remy said. “You are no longer a part of this clan. Visitors have no rights.”
“I can if I have support from someone within your clan,” Gabriele said. “My son Jules will back up my claim and second my challenge.”
All eyes turned to Jules.
In the silence, he looked at each of them in turn. Jane was angry. Philippe had somehow managed a poker face, not surprising really since he worked as a bouncer. Brock’s rage was seething just under the surface. He looked even angrier than he had when The Human Order had kidnapped Gia, if that were possible. Remy’s whole face was a mixture of hope, questioning, and disappointment. His father looked smug.
The anger he could deal with. The smug triumph he could maybe forgive. The disappointment coming from Remy, that was the worst part. Remy had taken him under wing when Gabriele would not. He wasn’t old enough to be a father figure, more an older brother, but it was Remy who had celebrated his graduations with him, Remy who had taken him for drinks when he got the job at the print shop, Remy who had backed him up through The Human Order’s manipulations and the blackmail scandal.
Where was your father through all that?
There was a bitter taste in his mouth.
“You fucking asshole,” he said. His hands clenched into fists. His voice was surprisingly calm. “You fucking used me. This was the plan all along, wasn’t it? You never cared when I was young. How could I ever have believed that you would care what happened to me now?”
“Jules, I’m doing this so we can be a family again, so I can move back to New Orleans and spend time with you.”
Jules shook his head. “No. No. You were here for the first nineteen years of my life and you never wanted to be a family. You never wanted me in your family.” He voice was rising now. “But what the hell, I gave you a second chance.” He spat at his father’s feet. “Go to hell. I won’t second your challenge.”
“Then this matter is at an end,” Remy said. “There will be no challenge tonight.”
The others stepped back. They would move to the outer edges of the room to begin the change now. And tomorrow morning Remy would force Gabriele to leave. That was all that mattered to Jules now. With Gabriele out of the city, he could focus on patching things up with Kaylee—who had been right all along.
Because he was the slowest to turn, he was the only one who saw Gabriele’s body tense like a coiling spring. He angled towards Remy, his knees bending, and then he launched at the clan chief.
Jules didn’t have time for any sort of fancy lunge. He barreled forward, slamming into his father’s side and sending them both to the floor.
Gabriele snarled. He and Jules clamored to their feet. There were no words now. They fought as men with their bears raging just beneath the surface, desperate to get out. Their gold eyes glittered, Gabriele’s with a nastiness Jules had never seen before, Jules’s with a rage-fueled need to protect his clan.
Gabriele was not a small man, and being a shifter made him stronger than he looked, but Jules was bigger and Jules had grown up in a rough neighborhood, not some safe, middle-class suburb. He’d been in fights before against boys older and bigger than him. He’d been in fights since before his first change. He hadn’t been in a fight in years, but there were some instincts that the body never forgot.
They grappled. They swung punches. They lashed out with their feet. At one point, Gabriele grabbed a chair and slammed it over Jules’ shoulders like a scene from a bad movie. Jules hit the cement floor with enough force to knock the air out of him. He pushed himself up, and his father kicked him in the ribs.
“You’re a failure. A disgrace.”
“I don’t give a fuck what you think of me,” Jules growled. The bear was struggling to be free, but he had to finish this fight first. He had to prove that he had at least that much control.
Gabriele kicked him in the head and sent him reeling. “If you weren’t a shifter, I’d never believe you were my son.”
“Good,” Jules said, finally pulling himself to his feet. He spat blood on the floor. He opened his mouth as if he were going to say more and punched Gabriele on the side of the jaw without warning. The older shifter’s head snapped up and back and he crumpled to the floor.
Remy grabbed Jules, steadying him. “Back up,” he said. “He’s going to wake up a bear, and the bear is going to be pissed.”
“Me too,” Jules said.
Remy nodded. Out of the corner of his eye Jules could see that the rest of the clan had already shifted. He shucked his clothes aside, swearing as his pants caught on his shoe. He just barely made it before the coarse hair started sprouting down the length of his arms. He dropped to the ground and let the bear take over.
Jules had never experienced a full moon quite like this. The familiar bears of his clan stayed close to the barrels. They rolled them about and dug the meat out of them. Jules found a whole fish in one and squabbled with Jane over it. On the other side of the warehouse, the bear that was Gabriele paced back and forth. He made snuffling noises and vocalized in their direction. The only time they paid attention to him was when he tried to come closer.
Remy stood up on his hind legs and bellowed. Gabriele backed down and went back to pacing. He had to be told more than once.
At some point in the night, Jules lay down, resting his head on his great paws. The others lay down around him and the bears slept.
They woke up in the wee hours of the morning, all human and all naked. They dressed in silence. Remy disappeared for a moment and came back with a pair of sweats and a t-shirt. He handed them to Gabriele.
Gabri
ele glared but took the offered clothes. His were in tatters.
When they were all dressed, they gathered together in the middle of the warehouse. When Remy spoke, it was with the power and authority of a clan chief—they could all hear it in his voice. “Gabriele, you will return to your own clan. You will leave today. I will contact your clan chief. You are no longer welcome in New Orleans for so long as this clan is under my protection.”
Gabriele turned to his son. “Jules, I…”
Jules shook his head. “I’m at the bottom of this clan and even I beat you in a fair fight. You are not strong enough to be clan chief. I won’t follow you. I won’t back you. I won’t leave with you. This is my clan. This is my family. You didn’t want me, so just leave. Don’t pretend you want me to come with you.”
Gabriele’s mouth was a thin line, but he nodded. He backed away from the group and then turned and stalked out.
When Gabriele had gone, Jules dropped into one of the chairs he’d pulled out the night before. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I was blind to what he was doing. I shouldn’t have let him stay this long.”
“We are a young clan,” Remy said. “My parents, Brock’s parents, and your father, were the oldest bears here. When my parents retired to Florida, your father assumed he’d be next in line to lead the pack simply based on his age. He didn’t realize how dominate Brock and I were. Or how low in the pack he actually ranked. As we all came of age we all became more dominant than him. He resented that. A lot. Turns out even you are stronger than he is.” Remy laid a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry that it came to this. I’m sorry he used you like this.”
“I’m going home,” Jane said. “I’m only going to get another two hours of sleep before work.”
“Me too,” Brock said. “Gia probably tried to wait up for me again.”
“I don’t have to be at work for fourteen hours,” Philippe said, stretching lazily.
Jane punched him.
“Go home,” Remy said. “All of you.”
Jules nodded and followed them out. His feet dragged and he kept sighing. But his thoughts were not on his father and the clan drama. His thoughts were on Kaylee.
Kaylee got off the bus at the corner of her block still feeling bummed. Last month Jules had texted her in the middle of the night just to tell her everything had gone well at the full moon clan gathering. Last night her phone remained silent. She’d debated calling Jules a few times these last few days, but she wasn’t sure she was ready to apologize—and she wasn’t sure he was ready to be reasonable.
She turned up her walk and heard a crash from inside the house followed by shouting. “Shit.” She shoved her phone in her purse, sprinted up the walk, and took the porch steps in one stride. She burst in the door.
Frannie was standing in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room with a split lip and a look of sheer determination on her face. All three kids hovered behind her. In the middle of the living room stood the reason for the split lip. He had his back to Kaylee, but she knew him immediately.
Her father.
“Get the fuck out!” Frannie was screaming.
He took a step towards her. “It’s my house! You can’t kick me out.”
“It’s not your house anymore. Get out.”
He grabbed Frannie by the shoulders and threw her into the living room.
Tony shouted, “Leave my Mom alone, you asshole.”
Kaylee saw the wind up. She dropped her purse and darted through the house until she was between her father and her younger siblings. The kick that had been aimed at Tony caught her on the calf. She spun to face her father. “Some big tough guy you are, trying to kick a twelve-year-old.”
He back handed her. “Don’t talk back to me.”
“Or what? You’ll split my lip and throw me around too? I’m not a little kid anymore, so there’s no way in hell this is discipline. You get the fuck out or I’m calling the cops.”
“I’m not going anywhere, and you are going to learn some manners.”
Several times throughout the day, Jules had almost picked up the phone and called Kaylee. He missed the sound of her voice, and he knew it was up to him to make the first move. Some apologies were best said in person though, so he resisted the urge and waited for the end of the day. He was shutting down his computer when Remy appeared at his cubicle.
“Just letting you know, it’s been confirmed. He got on a plane today. I’ve already spoken with his boss. He won’t be back.”
“Thanks, Remy.”
“No, thank you. Thank you for standing up for me. I can’t imagine having to make a choice like that.”
“Wasn’t actually that hard a choice to make,” Jules said with a shrug.
“Still, if I had handled it he’d be likely to show up again with a walker and try this stunt again when I retire.” He smiled. “I’m proud of you, Jules.”
“That’s why it was an easy choice,” Jules said. “Look, I gotta run. I need to see Kaylee tonight.”
“Sure. Just be careful. Day after and all, I don’t want to hear your name on the news tonight.”
“No, sir.”
Traffic was backed up and he ended up in the wrong lane and missed his turn. Muttering swears under his breath, he looked for a place to turn around. He still couldn’t change lanes, but at the next intersection there was a grocery store on his side of the road. He turned in, intending to turn around in the parking lot and then make the left at the light and double back to his turn. Instead, he parked and went in. He came out with flowers and was on his way again.
He parked the car and crossed the street to Kaylee’s house. He could hear raised voices from the sidewalk, one of them male. He spotted the open door, and his heart leapt into his throat. Right away the bear was on high alert, pacing around Jules’ mind, waiting for some sign to calm down or to fight.
He ran up the steps on predator-silent feet and skidded to a halt in the doorway. There was a strange man in the room. Frannie was sprawled on the living room floor. The kids were backed in a corner in the kitchen. And Kaylee stood between this stranger and her siblings.
“I’m going to teach you a fucking lesson.”
“Why don’t you teach me instead?” Jules said.
The man spun. “Who the fuck are you? Get out of here. This is none of your business.”
Jules filled the doorway and this man wasn’t even flinching. Stupid, he thought.
Then he turned his back on Jules, as if he were unimportant, as if he would simply obey.
Even stupider.
“Who the fuck is this asshole?” he shouted at Kaylee.
“My boyfriend,” Kaylee said. “You’d better get out of here—now.”
He backhanded Kaylee hard enough to throw her off balance. “Don’t you dare threaten—”
Jules slammed into his side, throwing him to the floor. “You okay?” he asked between deep gasping breaths. He bent double.
“Fine,” Kaylee said. “What’s wrong?”
Kenny (Shifter Football League Book 2) Page 55
