Chapter Eight

Avintage band tee tucked into a pair of nice jeans, a leather jacket, and black boots. That was my choice for the day. Looking at myself with only light makeup on, I looked like a slightly cleaned-up version of myself. There was a level of stubbornness in my choices. They hadn't set a dress code for this meeting, so I wasn't going to try to impress. Part of that stubbornness was fueled by the fact that it was four in the morning. I preferred staying up late and sleeping in over going to bed early and waking up earlier.

I found Niko downstairs, already putting breakfast on plates for us. I ate mine in silence, growling and grumbling the entire time. He made sure we had coffee as well, which helped. He chuckled as I rinsed my plate and growled before loading it into the dishwasher.

"Not used to meetings that happen before the sun comes up?" he asked casually.

"For some reason, this one is making me feel particularly cranky," I admitted. "I'm used to meetings at all sorts of hours, staying up longer than is healthy, and sleeping like the dead when I need to. The BSA knows there are better times to ask me to come in. I don't like how this entire thing is beginning to make me feel. Asking us to come in before the sun is even up, as though they don't want anyone to see us in the light of day."

"That's exactly it," Niko said before taking another bite of his breakfast. Then he held out the plate for me, and I sighed, taking it from him to rinse and load.

"They could always just come to my house. They have before," I muttered. I was just complaining at this point, but it felt good to complain. I had to get it out of my system before I walked into their building.

We finished our coffee and loaded back into my car. I knew the trip well enough to get there in good time, arriving five minutes before five. I parked in the main parking lot instead of going to the nearby parking garage. As we got out of my car, there was already someone walking up to us. A man, his pressed suit and stiff demeanor telling me he was an agent, there for something official.

"With me," the agent said quickly, waving for us to follow him.

I glanced at Niko, only to nod, letting him know this was okay. He fell in step beside me as we followed the agent, who was hitting that walking pace that almost broke out into a jog. He didn't slow down until we entered the building, and then it wasn't by much. Looking around, I couldn't see Beth, which left me wondering if she was invited to the meeting or if I was going to have to deal with agents I didn't know.

We were led into a back hall, one of many I had seen before. He turned and scanned his card, unlocking a door into another hall. There were only two doors, and the hall wasn't particularly long, ending at an elevator. The agent stopped at the end and hit an elevator button that only had a down arrow.

"Where's Bethany?" I finally asked, looking back down the empty hall and not seeing anyone else. Everything smelled suspiciously clean, as if they had just come in and neutralized anyone else's scents with heavy cleaners. The ventilation must have been top of the line as well because the heavy cleaners weren't offensive to the nose like they normally would be.

"Already down below, Miss Leon," the agent said quietly, not lying to me. "She'll be in attendance for the meeting as well."

"Good." I wouldn't go into a basement without that confirmation, and I couldn't smell any evidence of her having come down the same hall before me.

As we got into the elevator, Niko stood close to me. He was presenting himself very carefully this morning. He was also casual in his clothing choice, with the exception of throwing a blazer over his own tee, which had a German band, I assumed, on it. He had a rockstar look to him, but it was undercut with a seriousness in his attitude that wasn't cavalier or nonchalant.

It felt like we went down two stories, and with the classic soft ding, the doors opened to a security checkpoint, metal detectors and all. Beyond that was another security door that would probably require someone to use their ID to unlock.

"We'll need the name of your plus one, Miss Leon," an agent said as I approached slowly, looking at me as she held a pen to a pad of legal paper. Our guiding agent held the elevator until Niko and I had stepped out then went back up with it. Everyone was looking at us, but many were trying their best to look curious and casual instead of nosy or wary. My nose told me that every single one of them was wary and afraid.

"Nikolaus Brandt," he answered. "I go by Niko."

"Relation?"

"Her brother," he continued.

The agent's eyes went wide, and I smiled as I nodded in confirmation of his information for them. It also made everyone else drop their acts, their wariness now coming through clearly on their faces as well.

"He's recently moved to the United States and lives near me. I was planning on setting up a meeting myself very soon with Bethany, but then I got this call, so…" With a shrug, I let them put the rest together.

"I see," the agent said as she scribbled down notes on her pad. "Do you have any weapons, illicit substances, or anything else we should know about?"

"Nope. Only have my bag to hold my wallet and keys. Niko?"

"Nothing at all," he said, smiling innocently. The fact of the matter was neither of us needed weapons.

"Good, right this way."

We were led through the security, my bag searched, and both of us were pat down, even after we cleared the metal detectors. She lifted her ID and scanned it, making a little light go green, then grabbed the handle.

"It's unlocked from the inside, so you can leave at any time," she explained as she pulled it open for us.

That was when I realized how big of a deal this meeting was.

The BSA had snuck the entire North American Werewolf Council into the building already. Their scents hit my nose before I could see anything or anyone else in the room.

With no small level of pettiness, I decided to look around the entire room before I looked at the werewolves. There were two rectangular boardroom tables on each side of the room, with chairs only on one side of them, toward the outsides of the room looking to the center. An old laptop hooked up to a projector sat in the middle of the room, already turned on, and was the source of the majority of the light in the room. Two agents hovered around the laptop, and a handful more were scattered around the room, Beth included.

We were entering behind the projector, and I cut right to the empty table, allowing my entire back to be turned on the werewolves as I found where Niko and I could sit on our own side. The humans were tense, but I was paying attention to the werewolves. There was wariness, and seeing my back shocked them. I knew the moment Niko was visible to them as that shock escalated into surprise and outrage. They made no sound, giving the humans no idea that the entire mood of the room had shifted, but I knew. The scent of Niko's own wariness was obvious, but it wasn't as saturated as the wolves'. His wariness was also accented by humor. Something about this was a little funny to him.

I looked at the werewolves fully as I pulled out a chair and sat down. In the center was a face I forgot I could possibly see, but not a complete surprise with the council there. Callahan was more composed than I normally saw him, his hands closed together on the table, his eyes on mine. All of them were wearing several-thousand-dollar suits as I broke eye contact with him to look at the others. When I reached him once again, I locked eyes with him and didn't let it go. He was, in public, the Alpha of the LA Pack. He was just one member of the NAWC. To humans, he had no more power than anyone else at their table, not politically. However, every supernatural in the room knew otherwise. He was Callahan, a member of the Tribunal, the secret government of the supernatural world. He controlled the NAWC fully, all of them loyal to him and his mate, Corissa, the female werewolf on the Tribunal. The only person in our family who ranked as high as him in the supernatural world was Hasan, and Hasan wasn't in the room.

Fuck it. He's here as a member of the NAWC, and that's how I'll treat him. He can complain to Hasan if he's offended by it.

"What a surprise," I said, quite honestly, but with a snappiness that wouldn't go unnoticed by anyone in the room.

"Agreed," Callahan said, his displeasure coming through just as clearly.

The door shut and left us in the room together, the humans beginning to pick up on what they were in the middle of.

All I could think about as I stared at Callahan, though, was Fenris.

"I'm Agent Doug Miller, and you may call me Agent Miller. For those who have never been to one of these meetings, allow me to explain a few things," the agent started, looking between both tables. Needing that information was the only thing that forced me to stop staring down the werewolf across the room. "First off, there are no recording or listening devices in this space. What will be discussed here is considered a matter of national security, something none of us want leaked to the public. You are perfectly safe here, as well. There's an entire story of reinforcement over this room to keep the building from coming down on it. You are free to leave at any time, but entry requires an agent with proper clearance. There are coffee pots in both corners for each party, so please do not go to the other side of the room. We know of the tension between your groups and would ask that you set it aside for this meeting."

I turned to see the little drink tables in the corners nearest to the door since I had missed them as I came in.

"Are there any questions?" Agent Miller asked, looking around.

"You know why every werewolf is allowed into these meetings. I understand why Jacky Leon was invited if you felt that was the right call… but what is he doing here?" Callahan asked, pointing across at Niko. Niko chuckled but didn't say anything as the agent looked between him and Callahan.

"We felt giving Miss Leon a plus one was in the best interest of her right to feel safe enough to attend this meeting," Agent Miller responded after leaving the silence long enough to concern me. "If she had walked in and seen all of you, she would have been well within her rights to leave and refuse to attend, but we need her here. We have to trust her judgment on who she has brought with her to attend. We asked her not to bring any werewolves, knowing there are some conflicts there."

I crossed my arms with a smile at Callahan and leaned back.

"Did she know we would be here?" he asked softly.

"No, I didn't," I answered before the agent had the chance. "My brother lives nearby now, which meant I didn't need to call in anyone else and force them to take lengthy flights."

"You probably heard that I left my home in Germany in April, and I've been settling down here in Texas. I wanted to live closer to my son, you see."

"Dirk Brandt, correct?" one of the agents asked suddenly, sounding innocently curious. "He's the younger adult werewolf in the Everson pack, isn't he?"

"The very one," Niko confirmed. "Adopted son, but Jacky's probably explained how we don't often make the distinction when it comes to our families."

"She has," Beth confirmed, sounding more at ease than anyone else in the room.

"Lovely," Callahan muttered.

"We don't have time for introductions and gossip," Agent Miller said, standing by the projector and clearing his throat. "We need to get down to business. This is time sensitive."

I waved for him to start and saw Callahan do the same. With confirmation from both of us, he hit the laptop's keyboard, and an image came up on the projector, glowing on the wall where everyone could see it clearly.

I whistled softly as I took in the destroyed campsite, looking like a bear had torn through it with a righteous amount of anger. Niko muttered a curse in German, leaning forward, his elbows on the table.

"How many dead?" one of the werewolves asked softly.

"A couple, married for ten years, from Portland, Oregon," the agent said, sighing. "Two weeks ago, they went camping in this region. They were experienced campers, going out to remote camping spots around the world. They even had a blog." A second image replaced the first, a map of Alaska with a red circle narrowing down what we needed to be looking at. "This is what they had posted when telling their readers they were going to Alaska. This wasn't their first time camping in this area." It was so far north, I wasn't sure how they even got out there, but something bothered me about the location.

"We have a pack in Alaska, but not in that region," Callahan said, frowning. "They're in Fairbanks."

"This is in the Noatak National Reserve," Agent Miller clarified. "Remote, but not unreachable. This came on our radar because this reserve had never had a recorded bear attack. When we saw images of it, it certainly seemed bear-like, but we had to look closely. The rangers in the region were smart and took as many pictures as they could. They came across a print that they weren't sure how to identify."

Oh no.

The next image was exactly what I feared it would be—a large werecat print sinking deep into the dirt. National parks, reserves, and remote land were prime territory for my kind. I was pretty sure I could find emails for werecats that told me they lived in Alaska.

"It was the only one like this they saw," the agent explained, looking at me. I opened my mouth, but he held up a hand, stopping me. "There's more you need to see before you say anything." He hit the same button, changing the image once again.

This one made my stomach drop. The scent of fear rose in the room like the tide, rising above my head. Me, Niko, and the werewolves, even Callahan.

"I've never seen the werecat version of this print," the agent said softly, turning to the picture. "Is our hunch correct, Miss Leon?"