Page 11 of Cruel Revenge (Jacky Leon #12)

CHAPTER EIGHT

I was up early the next day, even though Heath and I had stayed up far later than we should have.

The time to ourselves the evening before had been rejuvenating.

As we got through the morning, neither of us was tired.

Giggling over coffee and arguing for the privilege of making breakfast. He grabbed my hips and kissed me as I tried to reach for the eggs, keeping me away from them.

I got him back by making the bacon while he couldn’t stop me, if he didn’t want to burn the eggs.

“Gods, they are gross sometimes,” Landon said, clearly humored by us.

“Yeah, it’s like a bad movie,” Dirk agreed.

“If you two say anything else, you will be kicked out of the house,” I said in a cheery tone, not letting them bring me down with their teasing, childish act when we all knew they were just as bad when no one was looking.

“Sorry,” Dirk said quickly while Landon only laughed loudly, both finding seats at my dining table.

“Thank you for listening to Jacky,” Heath said as he piled more finished scrambled eggs onto a plate.

Carey came out next, taking her seat with only a quiet good morning to everyone.

“Good morning, sweetheart,” Heath said, kissing the top of her head as he put down the full plate of eggs in the center. Before he came back to help me, I saw him point at the werewolves. “Wait for everyone else to dish their plates first,” he ordered, putting some power in the words.

“Wow, making it a real order. Pa, come on,” Landon muttered.

“That’s what you get for teasing Jacky.”

“Fair enough,” Landon mumbled, almost sinking into his chair.

Shaking my head, I brought the large plate of bacon. It was a simple breakfast, but at least it wasn’t something out of a wrapper that someone could find in a vending machine.

“There. Now we can dish up and have breakfast,” I said, finding my seat. “Why are you two here for breakfast today?”

“Pa has the NAWC meeting today. I’m going with him, so I figured I would drag Dirk along as well.

” Landon shrugged. “Figured we’d get here early so we could discuss everything we might want to mention at the meeting, if there’s something important, and what sort of reactions we’re expecting from the members of the council.

Even though Callahan is going to manage the councils for Pa, we still need to be prepared for any meeting we plan to attend with them.

This is the North American Werewolf Council, the strongest council in the world.

There are more werewolves in North America than in any other continent in the world right now.

And this is something Hasan can’t swoop in and fix for us like he’s apparently done with King Brion. We need to be prepared.”

“Alright,” I said, shrugging. Then I remembered something important. “You know, speaking of Hasan. He promised to return my charm to me?—”

“Oh, I knew I forgot something,” Heath said, mumbling a curse.

He went to his coat near the door and pulled out a charm I knew well.

“They wanted me to pass this along to you yesterday. Subira said it’s good as new.

” Heath held out the charm that I had gotten used to wearing.

It had been made when my brothers and I went to Alaska but had gone unused.

“When I told them you wear it every day, even when there're no raids, Subira was pleased, but also offered to give you some of the family jewelry if you wanted to wear a keepsake.” He kissed my temple as he sat down.

I put on the charm, resting a hand on it for a moment, grateful it was back in place.

Somehow, it felt more now that Subira had it.

Hasan must have noticed what I hadn’t about her magic in it fading and knew what that meant.

Now I understood, the full weight of her magic sitting on my chest, but not heavy.

Just present , like she was in the object and in the room with me for a moment.

“I like this one,” I said, not wanting anything else.

The charm meant a lot to me. My human mother went out of her way to make me the problem, never offering me protection because I was wrong .

Subira was protection and love, and the charm was evidence of that, physical and real.

“I don’t need anything else. I can let them know that. ”

“Okay, love,” Heath said as he made us two plates. Carey was already eating her own breakfast, and the men were waiting on Heath and me. Once a plate of food was in front of each of us, Landon and Dirk quickly took their own portions.

Once I was done with breakfast, I sighed and pushed the plate away.

“You two are doing clean-up,” I said, pointing at Landon and Dirk.

“Okay,” they replied, almost simultaneously.

I looked at Heath, raising an eyebrow. He nodded, and I knew he’d make sure they properly cleaned up everything from breakfast. With that, I left them to call Zuri, hoping my sister would return and help me figure out all the wedding stuff while we had some time.

I knew eventually there would be more from Davor and the rest of the werewolves looking over the information to find a new location to raid.

Until then, I had to get as much done as I could if I wanted a proper wedding.

It surprised me how much I wanted a proper wedding. I wanted all of it, from the dress to the reception to being walked down the aisle and dancing until my feet hurt. The problem was that weddings took ages to plan, and so did trying to find the witches we were at war with.

Well, thankfully, I have Zuri, when she’s not doting on our other siblings.

I called her from the secure system on my computer, with it ringing several times. I hovered over canceling the call and admitting defeat when she finally answered.

“Hi Jacky! Sorry for the slow answer,” she said, smiling into the camera. I couldn’t tell where she was. “Heard the raid went well. Jabari got a full rundown from Father and was very impressed with the efficiency of it.”

“I’m glad I could impress the General,” I said, smiling. “Now, when am I getting you back to help with the wedding plans?”

“Carey was asking me the same thing yesterday,” she said, chuckling. “Are we still trying to get the venue sorted?”

“Carey didn’t tell you? I guess she was distracted with her new duties as maid of honor.

” I couldn’t stop laughing softly at the idea of that.

Carey immediately jumped in with both feet.

“Heath called them and did that. We’ve got to move on to invitations or whatever we have to send first. Save the dates? ”

“We don’t have time for save-the-date notices. We’ll go directly to invitations,” Zuri said, nodding. “And good on him for doing that. What spurred him to get involved when you two made the deal that he wouldn’t?”

“We caught Dirk, Landon, and Carey trying to deal with the venue and caterers for us when we got home,” I said, grinning. “It was quite the scene. Heath realized we didn’t even have a proper date because of it.”

“Yikes. Okay, yes. Because Mischa and Hisao threw us out, Jabari and I have been trying to figure out what to do next. I’ll come back to you, and we’ll get all of this sorted.

I can probably get back to Dallas in two days.

I’ll bring Jabari along. He probably won’t stay long, but he hasn’t seen everyone over there in a while. ”

“Carey would love to see him,” I said, knowing that Jabari was Carey’s favorite almost-uncle. The only person in the family who could compete was Zuri, her favorite almost-aunt. “Are you going to stay in the Dallas mansion again?”

“Yeah, the drive to your territory isn’t far,” Zuri said. “He can stay there, too. It’s actually kind of nice that your family house isn’t in your territory. Gives everyone some space from your werewolves and gives them space from us.”

“Exactly. With that settled, have a good day. I’ll see you in Dallas in two days.”

“You as well, little sister,” Zuri replied before we both hung up.

Okay, two days before I get back into the wedding in full force. Let’s see if I can get anything settled before she’s here.

I went to my binders, looking over the pictures for inspiration that Zuri and I had put together. When I got to the dresses, I sighed, running my fingers over one of my favorites. I still hadn’t tried on dresses yet because it was impossible to get everyone together for the trips.

I have to take Carey, Zuri, and Subira. I want to take Mischa.

It would be a good olive branch. She and I have been through a lot, and maybe she would like it.

She likes those sorts of things. With Zuri and Subira there softening it, then maybe we can have a real conversation.

When Zuri is here, I’ll ask if she thinks Mischa is up for it…

After a few minutes of pondering, Heath walked into my office, a knock announcing his arrival, which gave me just enough time to close the binder. There were pieces of the planning he wasn't allowed to see. Dress ideas and inspiration were off limits to all male eyes.

“Hi,” I said, smiling with a curious tilt of my head. “Shouldn’t you be leaving with the guys for the Tribunal?”

“I have an update already,” Heath said as he leaned on my desk. “I can start taking the pack in. We’re setting everything up today after the meeting with the NAWC. Everything is going to be really busy this week because of it.”

“Not that it wasn’t already busy,” I pointed out.

“What I mean is the only werewolves you’ll have here during the days will be Stacy, Kody, Arlo, and Benjamin. Everyone else will be at the Tribunal for at least this week. It’s going to be a lot of late nights for everyone.”

“Oh,” I said, blinking. “My territory is going to feel pretty empty, then.”

“It is,” he agreed. “It also means… I need to ask you a favor.”

“If Carey needs to leave the territory for class, I should be tailing her as well as the werewolves?”