Page 45 of Cruel Revenge (Jacky Leon #12)

Hasan raised an eyebrow and turned his attention to the most dangerous-feeling werewolf in the room, the pacing Landon Everson.

Talented. He could adjust how threatening he felt.

He’d used it on Hasan more than once. He wasn’t certain if Landon properly controlled the Talent or not, but there was some level of control there.

It was probably more unconscious than conscious thought and manipulation.

Landon felt as though he needed to be terrifying; therefore, he was.

Landon made everyone bristle, even himself. Hasan hadn’t felt threatened by a werewolf in thousands of years, but Landon could make him feel like there was a fight he could lose. He’d done the same to Jabari when they had met. Zuri was the one who realized it was a Talent.

Hasan still bristled when he felt it, but he could control it better, understanding the young man better now. Landon despised him and would pick a fight if he was allowed, but he’d lose. And Hasan wouldn’t kill him. He’d deeply offended the young man, lashed out, and was foolish.

“Where’s Jacky?” Heath asked.

Hasan sighed, looking at the werewolf his youngest was so in love with. Heath had been in a difficult position all night. He was dancing on the same knife’s edge as his daughter, but he had to do it differently, and that meant there had been tears.

Hasan despised seeing his children cry. He hated whatever made it happen, even himself if necessary.

But he couldn’t punish Heath for dancing on the same precarious line that many of them were walking.

Even Hasan had spent a moment wondering if he was going to start burning the world to the ground when he saw Jacky on the ground, those spikes through her body, holding her there as she bled out.

He’d fought it again while seeing where they had attacked her in town.

The difference between him and Heath was that he could be insane alone.

Heath would take hundreds of werewolves with him until someone put him down.

Jacky wouldn’t forgive me if I killed him, either. I’m tired of being on her bad side.

Subira elbowed him in the stomach.

“I haven’t been able to get her location from her phone,” Davor admitted. “I’m hoping she’s just in a place with no service.”

“So, we don’t know where Jacky is?” Landon asked, his pacing coming to an abrupt halt. There was an edge of panic in his voice that also entered his scent. It knocked his Talent off, leaving him feeling much more normal.

“No, we don’t. But now that we’re here, I’m going to try calling her,” Davor said. “We didn’t want to start a panic in the car, you know?”

Hasan wondered what Landon knew that panicked him so easily, but then it came to him.

Landon was the one werewolf who knew that Jacky had much worse control issues than anyone thought.

His youngest had always been a little loose with her control.

Her eyes shifted too much, too often, and stayed too long.

Landon had known before Hasan that it was much worse than that.

“It’s dangerous for four werecats and two of them witches panicking in a small moving space,” Zuri explained to the room.

Davor was already trying to call Jacky as Zuri was speaking. Hasan held his mate as Davor’s face went pale. He tried again.

“She’s not picking up,” Subira whispered, only loud enough for the werecats to hear.

Niko came up on his other side.

“Did she get the same packet as the rest of us?” he asked, his words the same low volume just for them. Barely a breath, but enough to let an experienced werecat understand.

“It’s going straight to voicemail,” Davor explained, his words for the room. “And yes, Niko, she got the same packet as everyone else. Why wouldn’t she?”

Hasan took a deep breath as Subira’s nails bit into his arm. They both knew.

“Because you gave a list of places where Carey could be?” Niko fired back. “She might be going after her!”

“That would be insane!” Davor growled back. “She’s not stupid!”

“It is insane, Davor.” The room quieted as he spoke. “Because she’s not sane,” Hasan finally dared to say. “Which means all the plans must now change.”

Hasan ignored Heath’s expression. Had to ignore it. Landon walked up to his father, grabbing his shoulder.

“We can’t send in dozens of werewolves. If the witches are already dangerous, you don’t also want to be fighting a werecat who has lost her mind,” Hasan said, shaking his head.

People started to talk over each other, yelling about how it was dangerous, stupid, and more to change the plans now. How someone needed to wrangle Jacky.

It felt endless, and he wasn’t sure he could continue, not when it was one of his children. He didn’t want to tell them the truth of the matter. He was too protective of his children to be as honest as he needed to be about the situation.

He looked at Subira.

“Love…”

He didn’t want to be thinking about this. He had hoped Jacky would just make it here. Hoped that they had gotten her through the worst of her issues earlier in the night.

“ENOUGH!” she roared, her voice breaking over the crowd. He watched her take control of the room with one word and a look. She straightened herself, the smallest person in the room, yet she commanded the very air they breathed if she wanted to.

“Listen to me. If she’s not fully lost, it would be easy to tip her into the Last Change,” Subira continued for him.

“We cannot send in strangers with weapons. She’s probably only thinking about Carey, and if you make yourself a threat between her and her daughter, she will kill you.

If you try to hurt her or succeed in doing so without killing her, you know what would happen. We need to be careful.”

Hasan looked up at the sound of someone stomping and a door slamming shut. He scoured the room to find out who would dare leave while his mate was trying to tell them how to save his daughter’s life.

And realized that Heath and Landon were now also gone.

It was a second before he realized just what was happening. It was a stunningly bold move that he couldn’t quite believe.

He finally released his mate, her eyes wide as she caught on to his thoughts. He ran for the door and slammed through it, letting it bang off its hinges as he got outside.

He was too late. Heath’s truck was already leaving.

“Hasan…” Dirk called out.

Hasan turned slowly, knowing his eyes were gold. Dirk swallowed.

“Grandfather.”

That made Hasan relax, but only slightly.

“They won’t hurt Jacky. And I gave them comms. We’ll be able to talk to them.

We’ll know what’s happening.” Dirk looked around, then back at Hasan, but Hasan saw his eyes linger on Subira.

“But if Jacky is only thinking of Carey and her safety, if that’s the theory…

then Heath and Landon are the best bet. They’re the two people Jacky will trust over anyone when it comes to Carey’s life. ”

Hasan stared at the young man as his mate turned between them, from looking at Dirk to Hasan once more.

“He’s not wrong,” she said, sighing. “Zuri and I will be ready if they need to fight magic with magic, but it’s probably best no one else even gets close. Depending on how far gone Jacky is… two other witches might be a problem… And I don’t want Zuri and me to have to hurt her.”

“I’ll be damned before I hurt my little sister,” Zuri growled. “You know me better than that, Mother.”

“She might not see you as a friend,” Subira said softly. “Heath and Landon share a deep familial scent with Carey. It could break through.”

Zuri looked at Hasan. Everyone looked at him. Subira was the more powerful ancient, but he held the authority.

Hasan wanted to go himself, but he knew better than to argue with a mother werecat when it was time to kill someone for hurting her baby.

And Jacky is going to kill everyone near Carey if they don’t somehow kill her first.

“We wait for word from Heath and Landon,” he said, deciding to trust. Not a werewolf. Hasan wasn’t relying on a werewolf. He was trusting the man his daughter loves. Trusting the fellow Tribunal member. Trusting a father who wanted to bring his daughter home alive.

He trusted us to help save Carey. I can trust him to save Jacky.