Scarred Resolve (Jacky Leon Book 10), page 1
SCARRED RESOLVE
JACKY LEON BOOK TEN
K.N. BANET
CONTENTS
1. Chapter One
2. Chapter Two
3. Chapter Three
4. Chapter Four
5. Chapter Five
6. Chapter Six
7. Chapter Seven
8. Chapter Eight
9. Chapter Nine
10. Chapter Ten
11. Chapter Eleven
12. Chapter Twelve
13. Chapter Thirteen
14. Chapter Fourteen
15. Chapter Fifteen
16. Chapter Sixteen
17. Chapter Seventeen
18. Chapter Eighteen
19. Chapter Nineteen
20. Chapter Twenty
21. Chapter Twenty-One
22. Chapter Twenty-Two
23. Chapter Twenty-Three
24. Chapter Twenty-Four
25. Chapter Twenty-Five
26. Chapter Twenty-Six
27. Chapter Twenty-Seven
28. Chapter Twenty-Eight
29. Chapter Twenty-Nine
30. Chapter Thirty
31. Chapter Thirty-One
32. Chapter Thirty-Two
33. Chapter Thirty-Three
34. Chapter 34
Dear Reader
The Tribunal Archives
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by K.N. Banet
Copyright © 2024 by K.N. Banet
knbanet.com
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
1
CHAPTER ONE
JUNE 5TH, 2023
“Do you need anything else?” Oliver asked as he hovered in the office door.
“No, I’ll get these things signed for you and get out of the way. Sorry for taking so long to get to them,” I answered, sighing as I stared at the mountain of paperwork in front of me.
“Just let me know. I’ll be right down the hall.”
I nodded until the door clicked shut softly, leaving me alone with the work I had avoided for several weeks. I had reasonable excuses as to why I was late getting to the stack of administrative stuff Oliver had put aside for me. I was busy helping Niko settle into his new home in Texas, making sure he secured his territory. We'd told the other werecats in the Americas that he had come to our side of the Atlantic permanently. Carey was done with her regular school year and was now taking early college classes for the summer. She would be graduating high school a full year earlier than most, and if I understood everything I was hearing, she would already be a year ahead in college credits toward her bachelor’s degree, no matter what her major would be. She was undecided on that front, but no one was rushing her.
We only cleared out Fenris’s house last week.
The thought made me tear up. I couldn’t stop it, the unwanted flood that hit me every time I thought of that mad wolf. His letter haunted me, still in my bag and taken with me everywhere. I couldn’t let it go, but I couldn’t think about it, either.
I pushed through the paperwork, not paying attention to what any of it was as I signed. I knew Oliver would never put something in front of me that really needed a decision. He would talk me through it and deal with it while he had my full attention. This was just standard stuff that I had probably signed a dozen times before and would need to keep signing or something.
Shoving the pile into the tray for him, I got up and started heading out, not wanting to linger in the growing bar and grill that my old dive bar had become. Since the sudden trip to Germany, I’d tried to keep a lower profile, wanting to focus on my family and the supernatural. The residents of Jacksonville, Texas, and the surrounding area weren’t on my list of people to care about. Two werecats had already visited since Niko’s move had been announced.
Announced. It sounded official, but nothing was really announced in the werecat world. I made a few phone calls. He made a few phone calls. By the end of a week, every werecat on the planet knew that he lived in Texas near me. The official reason was his need to spend more time with his son, Dirk Brandt, and that wasn’t a lie. It almost felt like one, seeing how we’d told no one what happened in Germany, but it wasn’t. Niko moved to Texas to live near Dirk… and to escape from the duties he forced himself to tend to after the death of his biological family and the original Black Forest pack. He didn’t have much of a choice in the matter with the Black Forest situation, as he had been told to leave, but he also had to be ready for that kind of change.
As for the visitors, one had been a friend of Niko’s for a couple of centuries before coming to the Americas, just wanting to check-in. The other wanted to make sure the status quo was maintained. I was still the main werecat from our family in the region, and I was still engaged to a werewolf. Niko didn’t completely give up everything he had in Germany, as he had spent hundreds of years building it up, and he didn’t want to upset the precarious balance I was maintaining. However, he couldn’t do much to help Davor in Europe anymore, either.
“Jacky?”
I was nearly down the stairs when Oliver’s voice reached me. I paused on the last step and looked over my shoulder to see him staring down at me.
“I’m done with everything. None of it was important, right?”
“Nothing you need to worry about,” he said, frowning a little. “Are you okay? You’ve been…”
“Busy. I’m just busy. You know how it is. Hey, do you know the time?” I had limited time to get out of the place before anyone showed up for the dinner rush. “I want to get out of here before any customers show up, so if you need anything else, let me know now, and I’ll handle it at home.”
“It’s Monday. The werewolves will be here in an hour,” he replied, tilting his head to the side in a mix of confusion and concern, stealing the expression from said werewolves and werecats he was surrounded by. It was one I got from a lot of people, no matter what species they were.
“That’s right.” I tapped the handrail, considering my next move. “I guess I’ll get out of here, so I’m not in their way.”
I was gone before Oliver could reply to that, not wanting to get caught staying for the weekly werewolf meeting. Heath wasn’t home. I could feel him through my territory magic with Landon and Dirk. Carey was listening to music in her room, so I snuck by, not wanting to disturb her, and got into my office without incident.
Slumping into my chair, not bothering to turn on my computer, I sighed. I turned and looked out the windows to see the trees. The full moon had only been the past weekend, and it had been a little tense. I could barely enjoy my trees anymore while the werewolves were worked up over the death of one of their own. Sure, it had been Fenris, the mad wolf, but he had been one of the small, defiant pack that followed my fiancé, Heath Everson. It didn’t matter how annoying some of them had found him, or scary, or any other issue he presented to them on any given day. He had been one of them, and now he was gone.
He was gone because I killed him.
Like Niko leaving Germany to live in Texas, it was more complicated than it sounded. I was haunted by it. Of everything I had gone through in the last several years, it was Fenris that haunted me like a ghost I couldn’t shake. Unlike Niko’s situation with his move, we were more honest with the werewolves about why Fenris was dead and what really happened to him in the days before he ran off to Germany to kill Niko. They knew he had been having blackouts, knew he was a product and the victim of messy fae magic that no one could properly predict. They knew he was once a man Niko had called his brother and what he had done to the Black Forest pack during the War.
I stared at the trees, lost in my thoughts, until a soft knock spooked me. It wasn’t often someone got to my office door without me knowing they were coming. I knew it was Heath before the door opened.
“Hey,” I said, trying my best to give a smile, but today it was harder. It had been harder for weeks now. It wasn’t the fault of the man in front of me, and he knew that. His own smile was sympathetic, gentle, and kind as he closed the door behind him.
“Hey. Do you want to come to the meeting today?”
“Why?” I frowned as he came closer.
“Just because.”
“You’re going to need to do better than that.” I saw no reason to disrupt everyone by joining the pack meeting.
He sat across from me, clearly studying me, but I wasn’t annoyed by it. I had been off for weeks, and he was being patient with me. I waited patiently as he smelled the air, studied my face, and formed his argument to get me to the werewolf meeting.
“You haven’t been getting out of the house too much, and I’m worried. I know werecats can handle being isolated. You’re all wired to be loners, but this is different. I can tell it’s different.”
“It is,” I agreed softly.
“I just want to see if you want to get out and try hanging out with the pack.”
“I killed Fenris,” I reminded him, swallowing as I l
“They’re not angry with you about that,” he countered. “They’re grieving. He was… a frustrating, concerning, and important piece of the pack. He shouldn’t have fit, but he did. They’re grieving, and it just takes time. You know that. They’re not angry. Under the same circumstances, any one of them would have fought for their life too and hopefully won.”
“They know I killed him, and I don’t want to sit around and try being one of them with that hanging over our heads.” I looked down at my hands, wringing them together in my lap. “When everyone starts feeling better, I’ll start talking to them again, but right now, I just want them to grieve without… me sitting there and reminding them of it all. I killed him. His blood is on my hands. His last words echo in my mind.” I gave him a desperate look, not sure what my face really looked like, as I locked eyes with him. “This isn’t forever. I’m just… not ready for them. Not ready for everything that might be in their eyes and scents.”
“Okay. I understand. I’m sorry if I overstepped—”
“No!” I stopped him before he could finish that terrible sentence. “You’re not overstepping, Heath. You can ask me every Monday, and I’m so grateful that you keep checking up on me and seeing if I’m ready. You can always ask me. You can always talk to me. Don’t… Don’t stop doing that. Please…”
I got my response from his sudden lean over my desk, grabbing the back of my head, his fingers threading through my hair, and a kiss that would keep me thinking about him for hours.
“I love you, Jacky Leon,” he whispered when it was over, his hand sliding out of my hair to cup my cheek.
“I love you, too,” I said, smiling, leaning into his hand. We stayed like that for what felt like an eternity, our own forever hidden in the seconds we stole before he had to go.
“Are you okay?” he finally asked, a question he asked every day and for good reason. He had to make sure the answer never changed, and I didn’t fault him for that.
I gave him the answer I always did.
“I will be,” I promised. Then I decided to break the moment, leaning back and taking a deep breath as if I was preparing to climb a mountain. “I think I’ll visit Niko while you’re with the werewolves. Since you’ll have Landon and Dirk, he’ll also be wondering what to do with himself.”
“When was the last time you saw him?”
“A week ago. I know he texts Dirk regularly, but he’s a werecat still looking for the perfect spot to settle down. I think he’s debating going rogue like Mischa and just not settling down at all.”
“Do you think it’s a possibility?”
“I think there is, but I don’t find it the most likely outcome. I think he’s taking a lot of care in his choice since it’ll be his home for a long time. He can’t go back to his childhood home, and he’s never claimed another place as a proper home before. From my understanding, he would leave Germany for years at a time but just wander until he could go back. Not technically a rogue because he still wanted his territory, but understandably not in it.”
“Avoiding the wars?” Heath looked like he had heard similar from several supernaturals before.
“Yeah,” I confirmed, nodding. “I’ll keep you posted, though, and see if I can help him. It would be good for him to settle down if we need to retreat from my territory. He can be a back-up place to run to. Also, he can build the guest house Jabari wants so badly.”
“Speaking of building… Tonight, one of the agenda items for the meeting is building a proper pack house. Nothing like what we had in Dallas, mind you. No one would live there.”
“Oh?”
“I was presented with a plan to buy the land across the street from Kick Shot. Teagan has been working on it to keep his mind off what happened in April.”
“Well, you talk to the pack about it, then tell me all about it,” I said, smiling. “Shoo. Go on. You’re going to be late.”
“I’m the Alpha. I’m never late to my own meetings. They’re early.”
“Don’t give me that line.”
He laughed as I poked his chest and was still laughing as he closed my office door, leaving me to attend to his own responsibilities.
Life was moving forward, and I knew I needed to do my best like everyone else was, so I texted Niko. It was time to get my brother to pick a territory and settle down or at least figure out what was holding him up.
2
CHAPTER TWO
“Jacky.”
“Niko.”
I sat next to him on my porch when he arrived, making it to my house in less than twenty minutes. It told me something important, but I knew to hold off on asking about it until he was ready.
“You wanted to talk?”
“I believe I asked if you wanted to hang out. Heath is at a pack meeting, as you probably know, and I decided I would hang out with you while we both had none of our werewolves.” I shrugged nonchalantly. I didn’t answer his question because I was telling the truth. I had initially just wanted to spend time with him. The idea of talking to him came moments later.
“No one in our family hangs out, Jacky,” he countered, chuckling.
“Lies. I’ve seen it happen. It’s rare, but we do.”
“We do when we all fly into an area and make it a vacation. Jabari and Zuri don’t meet up all the time just to watch TV and chat about old times.”
“Well, I’m going to change that,” I said, nodding as I made that decision without giving him any chance to offer more input on the matter. I could see the annoyance in his eyes, but his scent told me he was feeling grateful, not just annoyed. I had never been the little sister like this, and with it came a flood of power that felt new and exciting. I understood Carey for a moment, telling Landon what to do and watching him bend the knee to her demands because they came from her love for him. There was an understanding between Carey and Landon.
I wanted that with Niko. Suddenly and fiercely, I wanted to be Niko’s little sister, smiling as I watched him perform the mental backflips to try to change my mind even though he also felt grateful.
“Don’t argue,” I said suddenly, lifting a hand as he opened his mouth. “Don’t. This is a good thing. We both need it.”
“Do we?”
“Yes. When was the last time anyone else in our family has spoken to you?”
I watched his jaw clench, his eyes shifting to a feline nature, and his hands curled over the armrests.
“It’s been some time since I’ve gotten more than an occasional text,” he finally admitted.
“Exactly. Without each other, we don’t have much right now. Subira is getting help from Jabari and Zuri building in her territory and is rightfully too busy for more than a short phone call to check in. Hasan is in timeout and not going to speak to us, even if he wants to. Davor is busy getting a handle on Europe on his own. Mischa is MIA, and Hisao is…”
“Hisao,” he finished for me, nodding as he relaxed. “You’re right. They’re all busy, and we are at least here together. We might as well make the most of it.”
“And I promise you, Zuri and Jabari hang out. Maybe more recently than ever, but the point stands.” I knew this because Carey kept feeding me fun little stories she heard through Makalo. I had my first accidental spies, and I loved those teens for it. Hearing about how they were doing in Subira’s territory brought me joy and hope that things would work out one day, even if the family felt it was falling apart right now.
“I get it. You know what’s going on in our family, and you don’t want us to sit on our hands over here. I get it. Stop rubbing it in.” He finally lost the annoyed expression he had somehow maintained and chuckled. “So, what do you want to do, sister?”
“Why don’t you have a territory yet?” I asked, shifting the conversation fast enough to hopefully throw him off.
“I haven’t been looking,” he answered immediately, then I saw it dawn on him that I’d talked him into giving me information.
“Because you’ve been camping near my territory? Or staying in a hotel?” I asked sweetly as his face turned red.
“I want to live near Dirk,” he grumbled, looking away from me. His scent said a lot. He was mad he had fallen for what I had just done, embarrassed by the truth of his living situation, and confused. I waited until it became the most apparent thing in his expression, then waited longer for him to answer the important question. “How did you put that together?” he asked, finally turning back to me.
