viciousness no one was expecting. Some werewolf’s kid. She deserved better than that. “The consequence of her parentage doesn’t make her less human or less innocent, god damn it. And if you had a fucking feeling bone in your body, you would care too.”
There was silence on the call. I dared to glance at the video feeds. Hisao’s eyes were wide. Davor had leaned back from the camera, wary of something.
“Yes, she is,” Hasan agreed, the only one not shocked into silence. “But I’m not sure I’m comfortable sending you to Washington after Jabari. We don’t know what’s going on up there. If something is a risk to him, it’s very much a risk to you.”
I bit my lip hard, thinking of anything I could say. Then I remembered what Zuri had said on Sunday. “There was a cold shoulder from the werewolves up there when Jabari had tried to talk to them. I could—”
“The last place you need to be is in werewolf territory,” Zuri snapped. “You weren’t supposed to let everyone know what I’d told you.”
“When did you two talk?” Mischa asked, frowning. “Why didn’t you come to me, Jacky?”
“We’re not getting into this,” I said quickly. “I don’t have to go alone. I could ask Heath for a favor. He just needs to introduce me to—”
“You are not getting that wolf into our business,” Hasan snapped.
“She has a point,” Niko said softly. “Hasan, listen to her. Heath owes her for a lot. If that means we can use him to find out what happened to our werecats, we can use it.”
“You trust wolves too much sometimes,” Davor growled.
“You trust them too little,” Niko retorted. “Things have been changing. There’s no avoiding it. Werewolves aren’t ignoring us anymore, and we need to have one we know is our ally.”
“I can’t…promise that with Heath, but I’m pretty sure I can ask him to introduce me to the pack up there.”
“That’s all we would need him for this.”
“That’s it, then. You will go up, do some minor investigation to make sure the wolves aren’t involved. Stay in the area until Jabari contacts you and wait for him to leave.”
“She can use this as a vacation from that—”
“Don’t talk shit about my bar, jackass,” I snapped before Davor could finish. “Look, I know this could be retaliation from…whatever. I just want to help fix it, all right? I don’t want anyone else hurt because I—”
“I’m amazed you have a single ounce of personal responsibility.”
“You know what, Davor? Fuck you.” I couldn’t believe the kind of shit I was getting from this guy. He was like a thousand years old and was talking to me like a high school bully. “I’m not sure what the fuck I ever did to you, but I’m really damn tired of this.”
Someone clapped, and I rolled my eyes at Mischa, who had her hands right in front of her camera.
“Get him, girl. Father, when are you going to let me leash his misbehaving ass?”
“There’s a reason Davor keeps skipping holidays home,” Hasan said mildly, annoyance written plain on his face. “Davor, you’ll be nice to Jacky, or I’ll come get you and remind you who the biggest cat is in this family. Are we clear? She’s your sister and doesn’t deserve your abuse.”
“She—”
“It doesn’t matter,” Hasan growled loudly. “Leave it.”
“Father—”
“Jacky, be ready to fly out of Dallas by noon on Friday, with or without your wolf. Let us know as soon as you can if he will be going with you.” Zuri shifted into the leadership role as Hasan and Davor both dropped out of the call.
“What’s Davor’s problem with me?” I asked before anyone else could hang up. “I mean, except the obvious problem that I had issues with Hasan.”
“To put it lightly?” Zuri sighed. “He considers you an abject failure and thinks Father Changing you was a waste of time, energy, and space. He thinks you have no drive, no real education, and no goals in life.”
“Oomph.” Once again, I was hit directly in the chest by my siblings’ words. “Waste of time, energy, and space. I got the entire trifecta of being wasteful.”
“Well, he missed resources. At least he feels you need money and food to survive,” Mischa said blandly. “That’s something. He thought we should let Niko starve or hunt for himself for a long time. He loved Liza…” Mischa trailed off. “He’s just cranky with you. He doesn’t know how to deal with you and believes we have expectations to live