“You realize I can’t do my job if you pull me away like this?”
Rodolfo actually sounded pleased. “I don’t care about that right now. How long has that coyote been with them?”
“Today is the first day I’ve seen her. They all returned from wherever they’d gone last night. Their cars were back when I started watching the house this morning. She was with them, so she must have come with them. I’ve never seen her before.”
“Excellent. You can stop following them for now.”
“What? Have you lost your mind?”
“Do not argue with me. I have calls to make. I might not be able to obtain the Pardie woman the way I wanted, but this serves me better. I can use their own Council to force them to hand over her, as well as the coyote.”
“Why do you want the coyote?”
“None of your business!” Rudolfo roared through the phone, forcing Marston to pull it away from his ear. “Go and sit in your hotel room and await my further instructions.” He hung up.
“Bloody bastard,” Marston swore as he tossed his cell phone into the passenger seat. “Who the hell does he think he is?”
Chapter Thirteen
Daniel and Callie showed up at Jocko’s house a few minutes before seven. He smiled and let them in. Daniel’s mouth watered at the delicious aroma of pot roast in the oven.
“Make yerself at home,” Jocko said, waving them toward the living room. “We’ll be eating in a few minutes, but I want to talk with ye first. I’ll be right back.”
They settled themselves in his comfortable living room, where the TV was tuned to a Dirty Jobs marathon on the Discovery Channel.
“What do you think he wants to talk about?” Callie nervously asked Daniel. “Do you think he’s upset about us not saying anything to him when Lina and Elain were up here?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know, pet. I’m sure we’ll find out here shortly.” Inwardly, he smiled. At first, Callie had a hard time adapting to life as a human. Well, as human as she could be, considering she was an immortal like her sisters, Baba Yaga and Brighde. When they mated and he marked her, she agreed to submit to him.
So far, that part of life she had easily adapted to.
He slung an arm around her shoulder as they sat on the couch. Placing a kiss on her forehead, he said, “Whatever it is, it is. Relax.”
Jocko returned a few moments later and sat in a chair across from them. “Now, ye know I’m getting along in years, Daniel. I ain’t getting any younger. None of us are.” He looked around the room, then back at Daniel. “In some packs, they pass leadership down the ranks through blood kin. We haven’t done that for a few hundred years now, ye know that. I want to nominate ye as my replacement on the Clan Council.”
Daniel blinked, stunned. “Me? Why?”
“Don’t go on with false modesty, there. Ye damn well know why. That stuff with the dragons, for one. Yer practically kin with ’em. The fact that them damn cockatrice are still on the warpath and ye know as well as I we’re due for another run-in with them anytime now, according to what Lacey and Lina said. And them damn Abernathys. What few blood kin I still have, not a single one of ’em I’d want running the Clan Council. Especially not at a time like this.”
Jocko nodded toward Callie. “Ye got a good mate there, Daniel. A powerful woman in her own right. We need all the strength we can get on the Council. I know a couple of the other members are going to nominate some younger blood to replace them here in the next few weeks. Lacey told us time’s growing short, and we want as much time as we can get for the new leadership to take our places. The dragons are doing the same thing. This is a war from the past that only youth will be able to wage.”
This was a huge responsibility. They had five members on the main Clan Council, and representatives throughout the world who reported to them. Unlike the Abernathy Clan, they’d done away with a single leader to prevent stupidity and stagnation from taking over and running the Clan into the ground.
Much like Rodolfo Abernathy had done to his Clan.
“Wow,” Daniel said. “I’m honored.”
Jocko waved his gratitude away. “Don’t give me that crap. Will ye, or won’t ye? I need an answer sooner rather than later, because honestly? I don’t have another choice in mind.”
He looked at Callie. “What do you think?”
“I think you should do it.” She grinned. “Does this mean I can now blow up cockatrice at will?”
Daniel smiled. “Ah, my vicious little pet. What will I do with you?”
“I can think of a few things.”
“So can I,” Jocko interrupted, “but can we get back to the matter at hand before ye two start going at it like a couple o’ bloody rabbits?”
Daniel nodded. “I’ll do it.”
Jocko clapped his hands together. “Terrific!” He hauled his bulk out of his chair. “Now let’s eat. I’m famished.”
* * * *
As always, dinner tasted delicious. Jocko’s other passion, besides Clan genealogy, was cooking. He never let a guest leave his table hungry. “The Council is meeting tomorrow morning,” Jocko said. “I’ll be telling them my decision then. Expect a phone call.”
“Wow, that’s…fast,” Daniel replied.
“I told ye, we want to get a new bunch in as soon as possible. Any dickering around could cost us in a big way. I don’t need to tell ye what I mean, do I?”
Daniel shook his head. “No. I know what you mean.”
“Good!”
Callie let out a nervous laugh. “I was afraid you were going to yell at us.”
“Fer what?”
“For meeting with Lina and Elain while you were gone.”
He smiled. “I didn’t say this, but I suspected Lacey had something up her sleeve. It’s not often she tells me to pack a bag and get the hell out of town, but when she does, I listen.” He laughed and winked at her. “I can’t be responsible for something when I wasn’t here, now, can I?”
He let out a sigh. “Eh, Rodolfo Abernathy’s crawling up my kilt demanding a meeting. I suspect I know exactly what that meeting is about. For starters, he’s gonna demand we hand Elain Pardie over to him. And I can tell ye, knowing the Lyall brothers like I do, that it ain’t happening. Rightfully so.”
The humor completely disappeared from his face. “Let’s quit pissin’ around in the garden, shall we, Daniel?” He tipped his head toward Callie. “Yer mate is a right powerful woman. Lina is a goddess. Apparently, Elain Pardie is a Seer and an Alpha shifter. I don’t think it’s any mistake events are converging the way they are.”
He shook his head. “There’s gonna have to be a Council meeting to hear the challenges. There ain’t no other way around it. And it’ll have to play out however it does. I can’t imagine Rodolfo Abernathy, after waitin’ all these years to collect on that oath, would simply settle for a check and a friendly handshake. He’s gonna want a woman or blood. We’ll have to wait until after that part of fate plays out to figure our next move.”
He leaned forward in his chair. “I would never tell ye to openly dishonor a blood oath. The risk of a Clan war is too great. But that’s not to say after a challenge is issued and a ruling decreed that something can’t…happen to make Elain…disappear, as it were. Ye following me, boyo?” He glanced Callie’s way before arching a shaggy eyebrow at Daniel.
Daniel slowly nodded. “I am.”
“This very likely is Abernathy’s last stand.” He scratched his chin. “In fact, last time I saw the bloody bastard, back in Brussels, I told him I’d take his fucking nose off if he came sniffin’ around our pack.” He smiled at Daniel. “So don’t feel like ye got to hold back around him and be all diplomatic like. The arsehole only understands brute force.”
His expression turned downright grim. “I also talked to Andel Wattersson yesterday, and he said he found out there’s a new nest of cockatrice popped up somewhere in New England, hereabouts. He’s not sure where yet, but they’re working on it. He hasn’t
told Lina about it yet because he’s worried about her condition and knows this needs to get settled first. But it will be yer next big business, and we’re gonna need yer leadership. And I also talked to Ortega Montalvo after I got off the phone with Andel.”
“Who?” Daniel asked.
Jocko smiled. “An old near and dear friend of mine. His jaguar Clan is in Bolivia.”
Daniel and Callie both put the pieces together. “Ahh,” they said.
Jocko nodded. “He gave sanctuary to Liam for all those years. I called him up to thank him and offer him my gratitude.” His smile turned to a predatory grin. “I don’t suppose ye recall a story about a Gathering last century, do ye, Daniel? About a certain wolf gettin’ himself in trouble with the jaguars?”
Daniel arched his eyebrows. “Oh, fuck me, I’d forgotten about that!”
Jocko cackled with glee. “He asked me to keep him informed of Rodolfo’s whereabouts. I told him I’d be happy to oblige. Liam was very helpful to him over the years, and he wants to make Rodolfo’s life as miserable as possible in the meanwhile.” Jock slapped his thigh. “Wouldn’t you just know it, he’s coming up here to Maine in a couple of days for a long, extended visit. He’s interested in talking with the dragons about hunting down some cockatrice that caused havoc for a cousin of his in Brazil a couple o’ years ago. Ain’t that something?”
“That’s something all right,” Daniel agreed.
Jocko’s good humor dissipated again. “Yer gonna need a strong stomach and a brassy set of balls fer what’s ahead, boyo. Yer gonna be named head of the Council. Ye ready for it?”
He looked at Callie, who smiled at him. He turned back to Jocko. “I’ll be ready for it.”
* * * *
Daniel didn’t have to wait long for the call. Jocko rolled him out of bed at six eighteen the next morning.
“Didn’t wake ye, did I, boyo?”
Daniel squinted at the clock. “Holy crap, I knew you said you’d meet this morning, but I thought you meant after dawn.”
Jocko’s laugh rolled through the phone. “I called everyone last night. We all agreed unanimously to put ye on, effective immediately. Oh, and yer the new Council leader. Congratulations.”
That dragged the last of the sleep out of Daniel’s system. He sat up. Callie mumbled something at him from the other side of the bed and rolled over. “What?” Daniel asked.
“Yer the new head o’ the Council, effective as of last night. Thought I’d let ye get some sleep before I told ye. Meeting at nine this morning, my house. Eh, leave yer mate at home. I know she’s got powers, but this is special. No offense.”
“None taken.” He glanced over at Callie, who’d gone back to sleep. She wouldn’t be happy, but she’d understand. “I’ll be there.”
“Good. See ye then.” Daniel was listening to a dial tone in his ear.
He hung up the phone and decided against trying to go back to sleep.
* * * *
Daniel studied the faces in Jocko’s living room. “So what’s this really about?” he asked. “What didn’t you tell me yesterday? I distinctly remember at one point you said ‘challenges,’ plural.”
None of the four men and one woman looked happy to be there. Jocko’s normally friendly demeanor had fled. “It’s serious, boyo. We needed to make sure ye were on board before we told ye everything.” He looked at the other Council members, none of them younger than two hundred, before he continued. “As head of the Council, it’s yer job to handle this.”
“Handle what?”
“There’s another wrinkle in the situation with Rodolfo Abernathy. He called me yesterday morning, before I met with ye, screaming his fool head off not just about Elain Pardie, but about some coyote girl, too.”
Daniel arched an eyebrow. “Girl?”
“Well, she’s twenty-one, but might as well be a pup.”
“Why doesn’t he call her Clan? We’re on good terms with coyotes, as far as I know, but they’re not our Clan. I mean, I thought we were on good terms with the coyotes, or is that something else you didn’t tell me?”
“We are. But Rodolfo’s great-grandson, Paul Abernathy, knocked her up. Rodolfo’s demanding we hand her over.”
Daniel thought he misheard something. “Wait a minute. We?”
Jocko nodded. “I’m getting there. This is why it’s our business. He also now knows for certain Elain Pardie is mated to the Lyalls. He’s had someone down there followin’ everyone around. He’s demanding a hearing before the Council. He’s issuing two challenges.”
“Aaand… I’m guessing that’s a bad thing?”
“Ayuh.”
“I don’t understand. If the coyote was mated to this joker, why’d she leave? And again, why do ‘we’ have to hand her over?”
“I said I’m getting there. She wasn’t mated to the guy. Wasn’t marked, either. But she is now. And not to her pup’s father.”
Daniel’s train of thought had arrived at the station. “Don’t tell me she’s mated to the Lyall brothers, too?”
Jocko shook his head. “No. Micah Donavan claimed her. You know who he is. I got that information from Lacey.”
Okay, train of thought derailed again. “Huh? But he’s mated already. He marked that guy, didn’t he?” That amusing gossip of Micah’s mating to a man had spread throughout the Clan faster than a prairie wildfire in high winds.
“Ayuh. See where this gets complicated?”
Daniel suspected he must have missed something. “Can we please start over?”
Jocko wryly smiled. “It’s as complicated as it sounds. Micah Donavan and his mate, a human, were both straight men. Micah claimed him as his One. Apparently, the girl was shifted and stowed away in one of the cars when Lina and everyone left here to go back to Florida. When they returned to the Lyalls’ place, Micah immediately knew she was shifted and went after her, just to ping on her as his mate, too.”
Daniel sat there for a moment, trying to absorb that information. “So he claimed her? What about the Code? He wouldn’t violate that.”
“Ayuh. He didn’t. She was neither marked nor mated when he claimed her.”
“But… he already had a mate?”
“Yep.”
“Buuuut… she’s pregnant by Paul Abernathy?”
Jocko nodded. “He’d ordered her to get an abortion. They weren’t really a couple. He was just, eh, using her for a piece of tail, forgive the pun.”
Daniel rubbed at his forehead. “Fuck. Me. Is it too early to start drinking?”
Jocko heaved himself out of his chair and headed for the kitchen. “I’ve got some scotch I been savin’ for just such an occasion.”
“What, to toast the passing of the torch to some poor schmuck who has to deal with a bunch of shit?”
Jocko turned. “Nope. To the beginning of the end of the Abernathys.”
* * * *
Daniel wasn’t looking forward to making these phone calls. He’d have to follow protocol and contact Mark Telford first, then Aindreas Lyall.
During the drive home a couple of hours later after being filled in on a bunch of other stuff he wished he didn’t know, he had finally gotten over the worst of feeling like the sacrificial lamb. As Jocko and the other Council members had explained, they wanted new blood. Fierce blood.
Someone with a dog in the fight, as it were. He was friends with Lina and her crew, as well as the Lyalls. And his parents had been killed by the cockatrice.
Jocko wasn’t fooling him in the least. The Council was smart enough to know they didn’t want to appoint an entire new Council without ensuring the elected leader had a personal and vested interest in doing everything possible to make sure they didn’t just roll over and show their bellies to the Abernathys in the interest of maintaining peace.
But they were all long in the tooth and not up to leading a battle. They’d paid their dues, some of them literally in blood, over the years.
Daniel pulled his truck into the drive and sat there for a mome
nt. Along with having to deal with this mess his first day as head of the Clan Council, he’d also been secretly charged with coming up with other names to fill the remaining positions. People he knew shared his views. People he trusted.
People who wouldn’t be afraid to kick a little ass.
He walked inside where he found Callie in the kitchen and making a batch of banana bread from the recipe Lacey had given her. She tipped her cheek to him for a kiss, then frowned when he stepped away.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Technically, I’m not supposed to say.”
She arched an eyebrow at him. “Oh, reeeeallly?”
He smiled and gave her another peck on the cheek. “Down, pet. Of course I’m going to tell you.” His expression hardened. “You cannot, however, tell anyone else.”
Her eyes widened. “You’re Prime edicting me?”
He didn’t answer. He reached out, hooked a finger through the chain collar she wore locked around her neck twenty-four seven, and gently tugged.
Nothing else needed to be said. Message received. She cast her eyes downward. “Yes, Sir,” she meekly said.
“Good girl.” He released her collar after kissing her, this time on the lips. While she continued mixing, he filled her in. By the time he finished, she’d forgotten about the batter she was preparing and stared at him in astonishment.
“Is this what Lacey and Lina were warning us about?”
He leaned against the counter, arms crossed over his chest. “I believe so, pet.”
“You look pretty grim.”
“I feel pretty grim. I’m not looking forward to making these calls.”
“They’ll understand. I’m sure they will. They know all about the cockatrice. And from what I understand, they’re no strangers to Rodolfo Abernathy’s reputation, either.”
“Yeah, but I know if someone called me and told me there was a challenge about my mate, I’d want to reach through the phone and rip his balls off. Times that by two.”