to run.” Now my brother smiled. “He won’t make it very far.”
I wondered who he would call to fly out here and deal with it if he wasn’t going to do it himself. While I was capable of giving the threat, I wasn’t sure I was ready to kill a human.
“I asked them to Change me once…” Haley whispered. “Would either of you come back one day—”
“No,” we both answered. I looked up at Jabari, who gestured for me to continue first. “Changing someone into a werecat is adding them to your family. The werecat becomes your parent and must spend years making sure you can survive in this world. Neither of us is looking for that sort of responsibility, and you don’t want to invite either of us or our family into your life. You have a good life here. Live it. Leave the monsters to the monsters.”
“Is that why they said no?”
“Probably. Gaia seemed like she didn’t want much company, not even from her mate.” I shrugged.
“She…how do modern people put it? She strung him along for years and was constantly changing her mind like the turn of the seasons,” Jabari said softly. “Their romance was one for the ages, always back-and-forth, hot-and-cold. It was why their territories didn’t overlap. One decade, they would be the perfect mates, the next, she wouldn’t want to see him.” He chuckled sadly. “She never wanted children. Neither did Titan. They spent their centuries entertaining themselves with each other.”
“I’ll miss them,” Gina murmured, wrapping her arms around herself. “And John…how could he?”
“The possibility of death drives many to do things that seem out of character,” I said gently. “You two will be able to move on. It just takes time. Now, we have to go. It’s a drive back to Seattle, and we have things to take care of.”
“Of course. Thank you for…everything.” Haley reached out to shake my hand, and I accepted. I waved at Gina, who seemed utterly heart broken.
As we drove away, I watched the women console each other over the loss of not just two friends, but the betrayal of a third.
“What’s next?” I asked Jabari.
“We get to Seattle and contact the family. After that, shower, sleep, and spend a day taking care of ourselves. We haven’t eaten properly in days. Hasan will notice and chastise us both for not taking better care of ourselves.”
“After that?”
“We need to visit the Seattle nest and have a discussion with the Master. He threw out his vampires knowingly and left them to be someone else’s problem when he should have executed them himself.”
“All of that sounds fun. Care if I sleep on the drive?”
“No. Go ahead.”
I let the lull of the engine take me under. I was tired, but we weren’t done yet. A small nap wouldn’t kill anyone now.
28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Jabari woke me to ask what hotel I was staying at. I yawned as I told him, then stretched out.
“Why? Where are you staying?”
“I never got a hotel room since I wasn’t planning on staying in the city.”
“Of course,” I muttered, shaking my head. “My room has one bed, but there’s a couch that might pull out into a bed. I didn’t pay attention when I booked.”
“Thank you. Do you have any way to contact our family?”
“Yup. A laptop. Did you forget one of those, too?”
“I brought a cellphone and a satellite phone. I didn’t need a laptop. I was only going to report in nightly with Hasan.”
“Then the cellphone was out of service, and the satellite phone was broken. This is why you have backups,” I told him, crossing my arms.
“Says the one who walked into the woods and her ways out were sabotaged,” he retorted. “We’ll tell Father all of it, and he’ll judge us accordingly.”
“Joy, but since it’s my room with my money, I call the shower first.”
He sighed heavily. “But I was out there longer.”
“I don’t care.” Well, I did because he probably looked and smelled the worst. I was pretty sure we both reeked, but, in the end, I was getting my shower first.
He silently shook with laughter, something I wasn’t expecting. When we pulled up to the hotel, it all stopped as we saw several obvious werewolves hanging out at the front. I stepped out first, frowning.
“Can we help you?” I asked loudly. It probably seemed out of place, but I wasn’t walking closer or letting Jabari get near them. Not because I was worried about his safety—I was worried about theirs.
“We were just in