Page 2 of War Games (Jacky Leon #11)

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CHAPTER ONE

AUGUST 3RD, 2023

“ H e has them training hard,” Niko muttered as he leaned on the glass beside me.

“He does,” I said with a single nod, the only acknowledgment I would give to my brother, who I didn’t invite into my house. He just showed up and decided to hang out.

I had been watching the daily training session of the werewolves, Heath and Landon leading them through drills, first in their human forms, then their werewolf forms. With the discussion of war, they had all changed their lives to accommodate the new reality. Every single werewolf with a job quit it, with only a couple of exceptions. They wanted to focus on how to protect themselves, each other, and all of their loved ones. Heath was paying them all a wage now, not just for simple pack duties like the guard shift, but full-time employees, making sure all their needs were met while their careers and livelihoods ground to a halt.

He and Landon remained working, but they were business owners and had to fund the pack. Luckily, both had wealth accumulated over the years. So did I, and I made sure Heath knew he could dip into it if the pack’s finances grew tight. Teagan and Dirk were the notable two still working, outside of the Alpha and his second.

Teagan was still our lawyer, both in human and supernatural law. If we needed him to argue a case in front of the Tribunal, he would be ready. And it would happen eventually. Eventually, a witch, werecat, or werewolf was going to die, and we would need to answer for that death. Everyone knew a silent war was being waged. There were no armies. There was no violence in the streets. The human world had no idea something was happening. And in wars, people died.

Dirk was still my head of security and was now a recognized member of the werecat ruling family. It didn’t matter to me or Niko that he was a werewolf. It didn’t matter to most people in the family. He was my nephew, Niko’s son, and most importantly, Subira’s grandson, and she was the one who made the final call. It was a difficult position for Dirk, who also needed the pack, answered to Heath, and was mated to Landon, but it gave him another layer of protection. It told the world it didn’t matter if other werewolves and werecats hated each other. The werecat ruling family claimed this werewolf and would retaliate in the same way as an attack on one of the werecat members. And the family would have help from his pack.

Considering the war was against a group of witches, it was important that at least one group of Moon Cursed could show proper unity. To show that werecats and werewolves worked together for the success and survival of both.

I was feeling confined as I watched them, but I knew I couldn’t join. I overpowered everyone in the pack except Heath and Landon, neither of whom could bring themselves to spar with me. Heath because he hated seeing me in pain, even if he accepted the need for me to get more practical training. Landon because he hated pissing off his father, or so he said.

“Stop tapping your foot like that. It’s annoying,” Niko said, shaking his head.

“Get the fuck out of my house if you have a problem,” I snapped in return.

Niko didn’t respond as he turned to me slowly, taking me in with a long look that went up and down my body. If I wasn’t his sister, I would have had a hard time deciding if he was sizing me up to kill me or checking me out like I was at a bar.

I was his sister, and he was definitely deciding if killing me for my snappiness would get him in too much trouble with our family.

It made me smile.

Everyone with siblings wanted to kill them sometimes.

“Sorry,” I said, losing the smile as I sighed. “I’ve been in a mood.”

“I’ve heard,” he said, crossing his arms. “Dirk says you’ve been prowling around here and snarling at everyone. That it started when we came back from Alaska and has gotten steadily worse since.”

“I’m waiting, and I’m frustrated with waiting,” I answered, leaning closer to the large glass windows of my office. The werewolves couldn’t see me, but they all knew I was there. I was always there.

“Tomorrow. Tomorrow, Hasan will be joining us and disseminating everything he can from the already ongoing Tribunal investigation into the Dallas incident. Tomorrow, the family gets to work on our own and gets to do things our way,” Niko reminded me.

“I know,” I said softly. Politics moved slowly. After Dallas, Hasan and I had cornered the Tribunal witches, Matilda and Johann, into helping investigate the family who started all of this and others who might want to enslave the Moon Cursed. Looking back on Alaska, I was certain they either intentionally ignored clues to the situation or were just that ineffective to be properly helpful.

Or perhaps the Tribunal had someone inside who told the witches how to hide from the Tribunal. It didn’t have to be Matilda or Johann, even. Every single member of the Tribunal had a large staff, sharing with each other and across most of the supernatural species. There were also people who worked directly for the Tribunal as an organization, where any one of the leaders could pass down orders to someone who worked for the interests of the entire supernatural shadow government.

I also knew that others felt differently than me. Many, including a few in my family, believed the excuse that there were too many witches and too many ways to hide. There were billions of people on the planet. There were millions of witches, ranging vastly in power, expertise, and how much they engaged with the supernatural world. Some had formal training and were involved as deeply in the supernatural world, similar to someone like Hasan. Others were self-taught and used it to live mostly normal human lives with some extra help, staying away from everyone.

Even knowing that rational explanation, I was still furious, always on edge, always looking over my shoulder, wanting blood. I had my reasons for feeling the way I did. Multiple, endless reasons, but only one mattered.

“This werecat was probably no older than Makalo, maybe no older than Carey.”

For that nameless boy. I wanted blood for that nameless boy.

“You just got really pissed off. What are you thinking about?” Niko asked, pushing off from the window we were both leaning on.

“How a boy is dead, and I’m nowhere closer today than I was the day I killed him to finding out who did that to him,” I explained. “Or even his name.”

Niko flinched. He’d been there. I wasn’t the only one in Alaska. Niko and Davor had also been asked to help me find the werecat in the Last Change and deal with the problem.

“Davor is the one looking for who he was and where he came from,” Niko said, no longer looking at me. “We have to trust that if there’s a crumb or clue out there, he’ll find it and follow it. Or he’ll put out the right feelers and hope an elusive werecat admits they lost their son. They’ll answer, knowing his words are really coming from Hasan and Subira.”

“Isn’t there any sort of magic Subira could do?” I huffed. I wasn’t angry with her. I was just angry.

“Ask her tomorrow. She might not have had a spell when this happened, but she might have been working on something since it happened.” Niko shook his head, a sad move that conveyed everything about how he felt about the boy. “We normally know. We might not monitor and know every human child under the care of a werecat, but once someone makes the Change or if they’re born a werecat, we know. Normally, the adult introduces a child to whoever lives closest, a point of contact to the family, so we know there’s another werecat out there. We don’t know them all well, but we learn their name, say hello.

“For many werecats, that’s the closest they ever come to knowing our family. They make their own friends, find a territory or run rogue, and we don’t need to remember them unless they come up as a troublemaker.” Niko closed his eyes, shaking his head again. “A young werecat like that? We normally know. People would tell us just to celebrate their good fortune of having a baby that was a werecat instead of a human. We definitely would have been told when he went missing from his family. Anyone who talked to his family would have reached out if his parent or parents were missing…” His eyes opened once again.

“Because even if we’re solitary, going completely off the grid is a recipe for trouble,” I said, nodding as I recognized his point. “Easier to get killed or captured without any help. Lack of resources or important news. The gossip-mongering web of the werecats is how we spread information they need to know.”

“Exactly. The fact that this boy is a mystery…” Niko’s low growl revealed I wasn’t alone in my feelings. “Yeah, it’s frustrating, Jacky, but you can’t take it out on everyone. We’re all upset.”

“Yeah,” I mumbled. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, counting to ten, trying to center myself. “Tomorrow, we’ll have our orders.”

“It’s not that we haven’t started yet,” Niko pointed out. “I’ve been talking to everyone I know, and so has everyone else. You put out a message to every werecat in the Americas to help identify that young werecat. We’re not sitting idle on that front.”

Outside, the werewolves launched into a particularly vicious training fight. I saw that it was Ranger, who, even on three legs, was able to really give Shamus’ kids, working as a pair, a hard fight. He was a fair bit bigger and had several decades of experience on them.

“And tomorrow, we begin working on the rest,” Niko said softly. “I never thought I would see a three-legged werewolf give a couple of healthy ones such a hard time. Speaking of your werewolves, has Heath considered what he’s going to do? I know Hasan is talking with Callahan and Corissa about their side of the investigation. They’re looking for who those werewolves were, when they might have gone missing, and how long they’ve been under the radar. They’re also making sure there are no packs still working with any witches who haven’t been proven trustworthy. We’ll find out more about it tomorrow.”

“Heath and I were going to talk to you later today about it, actually,” I said. “Why don’t we wait for him to come in from their training before I jump into it?”

“Absolutely.” Niko stepped back from the window finally, leaving me to my watching, but he didn’t leave me alone. “Why hasn’t Dirk been out there? He hasn’t said anything to me about it, and I don’t want to ask him, but that’s his pack. He should be out there.”

“The same reason I haven’t been training with the werewolves. The Everson men don’t want him to get hurt.” I snorted. “Well, it’s a little different for Dirk. I can only really train with Heath and Landon, but Heath doesn’t want to hurt me himself, and Landon doesn’t want to piss off Heath when we’re all on edge. Dirk isn’t even close to the oldest or strongest werewolf. Landon would maim someone who accidentally hurt him in training. Heath sees no reason to push Landon like that and risk someone’s safety.”

“Do you and Dirk want that sort of training? I know you were trained to fight as a werecat by Hasan, and you’re more than effective in that form, so you don’t need that training,” Niko said, nodding to the werewolves, who were fighting in their wolf form at that moment. “But other kinds. Weapons, hand-to-hand…”

“You trained Dirk in that before he Changed, didn’t you? You taught him to fight the human way.”

“I did. He needs more experience in his wolf form, and I can’t do that for him… Well, maybe I could. I know those types of drills. I grew up watching them. I know them from fighting against them, too.”

“Not afraid of hurting him?”

“Not really,” Niko said, chuckling. “Do you think Hasan was ever afraid of hurting you when teaching you to fight in werecat form? Did he ever actually hurt you worse than bruising and a few cuts that would heal in the Change?”

I thought back to those years living with Hasan, and while I didn’t notice it at the time, Hasan had been exceptionally gentle considering his size and power when I was a freshly Changed werecat.

“No, he never really hurt me.” I chuckled sadly. “Of course, he was gentle with his new daughter…”

“He was the same way with me. I’m experienced enough to do that with Dirk. They’ll never know if you and he don’t tell them. Let me train Dirk in that. I can make sure he gets some experience in his wolf form.”

“Do you think they’re being a little too soft on us?” I asked, humor and annoyance filling my words. I was a little annoyed, but not enough to fight with Heath about it. “Or on Dirk specifically?”

“No,” he said, letting me take that in with a long silence. With my eyebrows rising quickly, he continued. “I think they’re right in their call with Dirk. It was actually the answer I was hoping for. Werewolves don’t Change people they love; they ask another werewolf or an Alpha they trust. After that, they have severe issues with sparring and play fighting becoming dominance fights that can be deadly. Any insult or perceived insult in training, like a bite too hard or a mean tackle, can become a vicious, bloody fight. Heath and Landon have to make sure all of those werewolves don’t do that to each other, and with them, they don’t have personal skin in the game.

“With Dirk, Landon wouldn’t approach it rationally. He’ll kill someone. Because of what he is, Heath wouldn’t be able to physically stop him in time like he could toss most of them around. He could throw out an order, but werewolves like Landon can toss that aside sometimes if the need is great enough. Well, every werewolf can when they feel the need is great enough, but it would be a lot easier for Landon. With everyone on edge because of what’s been going on with the witches, it’s too much of a risk.”

With a sigh, I nodded in understanding after I silently listened to his explanation, not wanting to break his chain of thought by interrupting. He answered any question I had as I thought of it.

“Come train with me,” Niko said simply before I could think of anything to say.

“What?” I blinked a couple of times.

“Train in hand-to-hand and weapons with me. Give yourself something to do when you’re feeling moody, like you have been today. Get that excess energy and emotion out by working your body. Plus, you need it.”

“I have been doing just fine over the past few years,” I retorted, feeling a bit talked down to.

“You fight like you are brawling in a bar. You don’t know how to properly use a dagger, sword, spear, or anything of the like, which will come in handy in the future, I promise. You need to be able to wield some iron or silver, Jacky. I’ve seen you fight a few times now. You are exceptional as a werecat. In your human form, you struggle because you aren’t proficient with anything. I won’t be able to get you that good very fast, but you need some basics because anything Hasan might have taught you about fighting in human form has either been forgotten or is rusty beyond belief.”

I growled softly, disliking his judgment of my fighting abilities. I wasn’t dead; therefore, I thought I was doing just fine.

“You can bring Dirk over tomorrow afternoon. We’ll begin training after the family meeting.”

“I didn’t agree.”

“Don’t make me tell our mother,” he quickly retorted as he turned away, humor in his words.

I had nothing to say to that. He would. She would agree with him, and I would have no defense. While my ego was stung, he wasn’t wrong. I did fight mostly on instinct, not skill, like most people.

“Saturday. We’ll come over on Saturday to start.” I leaned over, knowing someone had been hanging out for the entire conversation just outside the door. “Dirk, did you hear that?”

“Yeah,” my nephew mumbled a little petulantly from somewhere in the living room.

Niko, his hearing just as keen as mine, chuckled at his son as he opened my office door and stepped out.