16. Chapter Sixteen

Igasped as I stepped inside the boundary. My chest felt like it was hit by the emotional currents of the area. An immediate hostility made me want to back out. This wasn't a werecat I wanted to challenge. This wasn't land I wanted. It wasn't mine. It belonged to someone else, and I had to leave. The feminine rage that filled my senses terrified me. I wasn't an old enough werecat to handle this fight.

She's dead. Gaia is dead, Jacky. This land is free. All I'm feeling is the residual rage she felt. This was her last moment. She was enraged at an intruder. It's not me. She's not coming right now to battle me out of the territory.

I took several deep breaths as my logical brain fought against my primal instincts. I had never felt this sort of anger in Hasan's territory when I had lived with him. His territory had been welcoming. His emotions toward me changed the way the land felt.

This was the kind of signal I would send to a rogue who walked into my territory. Normally, it wasn't instantaneous. It took a moment for any werecat to feel something come into its territory and the mind to process the information. Then it took time for the werecat to send its message, warning off potential threats. By Heath's reaction, I learned something very important. Emotional currents were something wolves couldn't feel. This was werecat to werecat communication. This was our way of telling another werecat whether they were welcome or not.

"Is she okay? Her eyes went really big, and she looks like she's staring off into space." Haley sounded annoyed.

"Jacky?" Heath asked softly. "What are you feeling?"

"Gaia was pissed," I said as loud as I could. My instincts screamed for me to remain quiet, maybe she wouldn't find me. I had to get over it, but I was young, and a young werecat picking a fight was a dead werecat.

There's no fight, Jacky. She's not here. I'm safe. She's not coming to kill me right now for intruding.

Even if she was, this was not the same level of reaction a werecat would give to a rogue intruder. This was primal rage. This was more than facing a challenger. Unless she was unstable in some way, something no one had given me any reason to think. I got angry with rogues, but not like this. Never like this.

"How do you know?" Gina was behind me still. "What would she be angry with?"

"I don't know what, but I know because it's something werecats can feel. Territory magic is an intimate connection to the land. Everywhere that belongs to her will feel of her, however she's feeling. If she's angry, the entire territory gives off an angry message to intruding werecats. Heath, you don't feel it at all, do you?"

"Nope. I just know I'm in werecat territory. Not a place a wolf generally wants to be."

"You're in them more than most," I said with a weak attempt at a lopsided smile. "My brain is trying to convince my body Gaia isn't coming here to throw me out right now. Her rage is so…powerful. Something pissed her off before she died. Pissed her off big time."

"Good to know." Heath extended a hand. "Come on. Take a step."

I grabbed it and kept the little dirt bike up and rolling with my other hand. I was able to take a few steps and brave the anger. I couldn't imagine how Jabari must have felt if he walked into this. Was Titan's territory the same way?

"I'll be fine. Thanks for the support." I released his hand once I was beside him and his ATV again. "I've never locked up like that before, but then, I don't often wander into territories of other werecats." Shaking my head, I swung my leg over the dirt bike again. "Let's keep moving."

"Are you sure you're okay?" my wolf asked before moving as Haley started to leave us.

"I'm fine." I kicked off and left him. The dirt bike made travel easier, and I knew I wasn't headed into the center of her territory. It was a sixth sense. I would know how to find her den, her home. Some things meant the same thing to all werecats. The closest to the center of a territory was the safest spot and gave the werecat range of movement if any of the borders were trespassed. It was also our refuge. I never let anyone go to mine. Gaia hadn't let her mate go to hers if she had a second house for meet ups. Titan even had to leave his territory to visit her.

We were at the house soon enough, and I guessed right. It was on the border of her territory. If Titan wanted to see her, he probably had to come here and wait, feeling her reaction to his presence, which would tell him if she wanted to see him or not. It was genius, a nice trick to dealing with and loving another werecat.

When we parked, none of the humans left their rides while Heath and I jumped off without a second thought.

"No one goes in there," Haley told us as we walked by. "Hey!"

"We're going in. We can't upset the dead more than they already are," I said with a small snap. Haley's attitude was grating on my nerves more than I needed. She needed to remember who actually knew what was going on and what it all meant, not whatever she had guessed over the years. Gaia and Titan had obviously not told the rangers much and let the humans draw their own conclusions with the scraps of real information they did have.

I went in first, sniffing the air, with Heath following so close behind me I could hear him breathe. I caught whatever scents I could. Jabari had visited this place, and the other two werecats, definitely a male and female, had to be Gaia and Titan. There was no scent of wolves anywhere.

"Do you smell anything?"

"Two male werecats," he answered.

"One is Jabari. I would know his scent anywhere. It's like Hasan's." I walked past the living room into the very old-school kitchen. "They were living here two centuries ago," I commented, pointing at the oven.

"Out here, I bet there was no chance of them getting modern appliances, electricity, or gas. I bet there's a well dug somewhere nearby or a mountain stream where they got their water."

"Yeah…" I continued to look around. Only one bedroom, smelling of them both. Jabari hadn't gone in it. As it was, I just stood at the doorway, not wanting to disturb the private place where two ancient lovers once met together. It made my heart ache that there would no longer be clandestine rendezvous here. "I wonder how long they were together."

"Hm?" Heath walked up behind me, sniffing the space over my shoulder. "Hm…I have no idea. Sad to see it end like this, dead in their own homes."

"I wonder if there was a falling out…" I leaned on the door frame. "There"s no smell of wolves here."

"I noticed." His voice went gruff and thick. "We'll figure this out."

I only nodded as we backed away from the private bedroom and left the house. There was nothing to find.

"How did the bodies look when you found them?" I asked the moment I was in the fresh air.

"Broken necks," John answered. I must have looked surprised because John's face went a bit pink. "Honestly. I think Gaia's back was broken too…It had the look of it."

"You've seen that before?" Heath was more focused than me now. I was still trying to comprehend seeing a werecat with a broken neck and back. In human form, it was possible but still difficult.

"Fallen climbers and hikers. You know."

"Sure." Heath nodded, his grey-blue eyes darker than I had ever seen them. "No blood or anything?"

"No…" Gina whimpered, then sobbed. "It was so awful."

I sighed, turning away to let the humans console each other. I felt bad for not helping, but I was spooked.

"I want to see Gaia's house. Where she was found." I pointed out. "It's that way."

"Um…yeah, we use a trail for hiking over there…" Haley pulled away from John and Gina to come close to us. "You might be able to get an ATV on it, but it won't be easy."

"A dirt bike?" I asked.

"It can make it, but you both won't fit, and I'm not sure anyone should be walking around these woods alone right now."

I looked up and checked the daylight. It had to be close to noon, but the afternoon heat wasn't close to settling in. "Heath, you up for a hike?"

"We can make it there and back, I bet. How long do you think it'll take to walk out there?"

"It takes us about three hours?" Haley shrugged. "Might be less for you."

"It will be. Let's go. You all can wait here or head back and meet us at the service shack but leave us an ATV to take back. I want to check out her home alone."

"Wait…how do you know where it is?" Haley was frowning again. "And be careful where you step. We cremated her there."

"I'm a werecat. I know." I smiled tightly at her. "I'll be respectful of the land."

Walking away, I let Heath follow behind me as I set the pace. I took the trail only for convenience. It was worn down just enough to be walkable without major tripping, but the humans had been right. An ATV would be hard to take because it was very narrow. Heath and I couldn't walk side by side.

"Can you really find the center of her territory just by feeling?" he asked about twenty minutes into the walk.

"Yup. It's like…a beacon. It's the center. If a werecat didn't meet me for a challenge, it's where I would go to make them pay attention to me, to make them see me and respond. We don't fight over pitiful lines. We fight over it all. It's useless to take a piece of land from a werecat who can just reclaim it the next night or full moon or whatever. You have to force them completely out."

"So, you gamble it all. Is it ever fatal?"

"No, not very often. It can be if the challenger wants it to be or if the defender refuses to concede, but most werecats will back off from a lost fight, and dying over territory is frowned on. Killing for it is normally investigated. We don't have the numbers, and there's a lot of space in the world. There's no reason to kill or die for something unless it's that important."

"Is there anything that important?"

"I would die before I let another werecat take my territory, but it's not because of the land," I whispered. I glanced over my shoulder at him, seeing the thoughtful and sad expression on his face.

"You've died enough in the name of my family," he said gently. "There's no reason—"

"Don't make the decision for me. Don't ever make that decision for me."

With that, I turned back and kept trudging. On the path, I tried to scent another werecat or anything else, but aside from Jabari's old scent, I found nothing. Heath must not have either because he kept walking in silence behind me.

I checked my phone, even though it had no service. I wanted the time. Unless we took naps at Gaia's house, we should have plenty of daylight to get out of the woods, get cell phone service, and call the people we needed to call.

"I still haven't smelled any wolves," Heath said softly. "It's worrying. I can smell werecats and humans on this trail, but neither of those is out of the ordinary from what we've been told."

"Same. Jabari, Gaia, and those three. Not even a hint of Titan." I paused on the path, looking around. "Do you think the wolf disappearances are actually connected to this?"

"My gut says so. While I would love to hunt them down first, just to find out their fate, that's a harder chase than finding out what killed your werecats and could lead to the same answers. If those who know the land couldn't find the wolf campsite, there's not much hope for us. It's been a month, so the scents have probably died."

"Sorry. I know Geoffrey is hoping you can figure this out for him. Those werewolves deserve as much justice as the werecats."

"Thank you for thinking so." He smiled at me and continued down the path, leaving me behind him now. "Would your family think so?"

"I don't think they care past how it helps or hurts them," I admitted. "It's not that they're callous or anything with life, but they have a much-earned distrust for wolves."

"They're all from pre-War, aren't they?"

"Yeah." So far as I knew. From what little I knew about much of their lives, they all had experience during the War and had fought in it. "It's more than that. You know Hasan lost a daughter to werewolves. He told me what happened. It, uh, didn't look good on the part of the werewolves."

"Of course," Heath sighed. "There's good and bad in all the species, isn't there?"

"Yeah, I would assume so. With great power and all that shit."

He chuckled sadly. "And all that shit."

We made it to a small clearing with a cabin in only two hours. I kept walking, refusing to pause at the black section of the earth where they had cremated Gaia. Once I was at the house, I pushed in, sniffing quickly. Heath caught up and stayed near me. It was one bedroom with a tiny living room and kitchen, even smaller than the romantic little house the two werecats met at to be together. Everything was skins and hand done.

"She lived off the land all year," I commented softly. "What do you smell?"

"You, me, Jabari, Gaia, and human. Still no wolves or anything else."

"Yet she was found right in the middle of the room with a broken neck and back in her human form," I growled. "Heath, it doesn't make any damn sense. She was a werecat. Anything in her territory should have been easy to—"

"What if the humans lied about her injuries?" he asked, cutting me off. I let it sink in, trying to approach it from that angle.

"Why? Why would they kill and cover up two dead werecats, then call it in?"

"Haley is nervous," he reminded me.

"Haley is a know-it-all, and this is her world. We're outsiders. Her behavior makes sense."

"I'm not disagreeing, I'm just saying maybe we're disregarding the humans a little too soon."

I growled softly, not at Heath but his point. "They would have to have a reason. From where I'm standing, they worshiped these werecats."

"Maybe they thought the cats killed the wolves," he suggested, shrugging.

"I don't think they liked the werewolves that much," I countered. Hearing his sigh, I bet he agreed with me.

"So, what can sneak up on a werecat?" He leaned onto the kitchen counter, frowning. "You don't feel humans."

"No, we don't. They're like any other animal unless they're a witch or something. They have to have some sort of…magical signature." I groaned. "Heath, there's nothing. Nothing I can think of, anyway. I think I need to talk to Hasan and the family about this. I…I just don't know. What sneaks up on a werecat, kills her physically like described, then walks away without leaving a trace?"

He shrugged, and I could see a deep sadness in his eyes. He had no idea either, and it was killing both of us. Standing in the place where she died, the weight of her death hung heavy, and the idea of catching the killer seemed like a long shot.

"If the wolves didn't do it and the humans don't make sense, then who?" I yelled at the end, kicking a piece of furniture and sending it to the wall. "God damn it!"

"We'll find out. I promise you, Jacky. We'll find out who killed those up here." Heath didn't come near me, not that I blamed him. Failure taunted me. "Maybe since we're not learning anything here, we can leave for the day, stay nearby, then head out to see Titan's home tomorrow. Maybe it'll have some clues."

"Sounds like a plan," I muttered, storming out. Sure, I had learned more about what was going on than Jabari probably had before coming into the mountains, but I was no closer to knowing the murderer than I had been on the plane to Seattle. "At least there shouldn't be a war. If the werewolves didn't do this, and the werecats didn't kill the wolves, there's no reason for a war."

"There would still be a war if Jabari is dead or if you die," Heath said as he walked out behind me. "Maybe we can try to track your brother. He was obviously here."

"He was, but scent tracking isn't my strong suit. It's yours."

"My nose is better as a werewolf and in my actual wolf form. The full moon was only a couple of nights ago. A Change will be fast."

"But…can you talk to me in your wolf form? I know about pack magic, but I don't know all the logistics of it."

"Should be able to. Your mind is receptive to it in ways another werecat probably isn't thanks to…that gift you have. Have you used it since that night?" When I didn't immediately answer, he stepped around me and met my gaze. "Your eyes are gold right now, Jacky."

"Yeah…I'm pissed off…and scared. I'm not an old werecat. I'm very young, actually. If something can…kill them and make Jabari go missing, I have no chance against it. None."

"And neither do I. Maybe we should head back and start our search fresh tomorrow."

"Jabari could be dead tomorrow," I mumbled, looking out into the trees. "Fuck, he could be dead now. I mean, he's…literally, a few thousand years old, much older than Gaia and Titan but still…"

"That's older than dirt," Heath muttered, shaking his head. "How the hell do you cats stay alive so long?"

"I think I've said it before, but it's because we don't fight each other as much as you wolves." I sighed. "Let's go. I promised not to go into the woods, and I don't want to push my luck."

We started walking away, probably both thinking about the mystery we found ourselves in. When we reached the edge of the clearing, Heath asked me one more question.

"Did Hasan ever teach you about anything that would fit this?"

"Not that I can remember, but it was four years of lessons. If I remember anything, you'll be the first person I tell."

If that was our only hope, we didn't have much to look forward to.