35. Chapter Thirty-Five

Everyone was silent as some of the North American werewolves I didn't know threw glances at each other.

"She shouldn't know it was me," Alpha Price said, his gravel voice dropping a few notes as he spoke in a whisper to Alpha Callahan. "Because I was innocent in the matter. Both you and Hasan verified I told no lie about the situation, yet it comes back to haunt me, this mistake of young werewolves."

"I'm not lying when I say three humans were asked by you to kill me," I said softly as I stood. "And that they needed to pretend to be human extremists, so the responsibility of the attack would fall on the BSA and the United States."

Callahan lifted his hand to me as he stared at Price. I closed my mouth, stopping anything else from spilling out in this room. While I disliked Callahan, he was a sitting member of the Tribunal, not just a werewolf Alpha I could get smart with.

"How dare you—"

Callahan moved the hand in front of Price, who also shut up before he could continue.

"Do you smell a lie?" Callahan asked. Alpha Price shook his head. "I couldn't either, and let me tell you, I wish there was one. We were already on high alert, knowing a species was currently negotiating with a human government about the exposure of their species. It doesn't matter if it's werecats, fae, or the fucking cambions and their nephilim, nagas, kitsune, nymphs, and trolls. When you add an assassination attempt to the issue, it is dealt with to the fullest extent of our power. Now, it's time to figure out what really happened, and since it's you, we have to remove the geas about Liza." Callahan sighed, looking back at Hasan and me for a moment, then turned to Alvina. "Remove it. I don't know how—"

Alvina's eyes glowed as power rushed into the room. I couldn't feel anything, but Price, Callahan, two other werewolf Alphas, and Hasan all winced. One went so far as to clutch his forehead. Then all of them sagged in relief, and Alvina's eyes stopped glowing.

"It's gone," she said, crossing her legs and relaxing, sinking into the couch. "Sorry for the discomfort. The geas was old, so it had rooted itself deep into your minds instead of staying on your tongues. That's what makes the magic so powerful. The longer a geas is on a topic or a person, the more embedded it becomes. Some of you may notice the topic is still difficult. You've been conditioned to speak of it in other ways. You'll have to work through those issues on your own."

"Thank you," Hasan said, putting a hand on his chest and bowing from his seat. I clenched my jaw. He'd told me never to thank a fae.

Alvina's eyes twinkled. "Now that the geas is down, I won't be putting it back up. You can deal with the consequences of the events that led to this day for as long as you all shall live."

Callahan nodded, but Price didn't look happy.

"Let's get to the full accusation," Hasan declared, standing. I walked around the couch to his side. We stared down the wolves, side by side. "Jacqueline, present your formal accusation."

"I accuse Alpha Price of attempted assassination and interfering with the affairs of a supernatural species, not his own." I looked around, and no one interrupted, waiting for me to explain the charges. "While I understand the last charge is normally most impactful against werecats, I believe it applies in the case of any species willfully trying to ruin negotiations of another species with humans."

"It was a malicious act, so the charge stands," Alvina confirmed. "Explain the other charge in full, please."

"Alpha Price convinced three humans that I was a threat to his pack, to all werewolves, and set them on the path to kill me. If they had succeeded, their reward was to be Changed and brought into the pack. They were instructed to make it seem as if they were fanatic humans who wanted to kill supernaturals. That would have removed blame from the pack and pinned the blame on humans and the BSA, who would have been believed to have leaked my identity to extremists in the middle of negotiations. It would have been disastrous." I rubbed my hands together. "When the humans were caught, they revealed it was Alpha Price who had sent them and exposed the deal. At the time, I didn't know the identity of the werewolf Alpha involved with my sister's death. The geas had prevented my family from telling me in so many words, but when I told them the identity of the werewolf who tried to kill me, they found a way to make it abundantly clear who it was."

"The geas itself gave it away," Alvina said softly, nodding. "The inability to confirm or deny—the problem with geas, something I warned both rulers in this room of."

I nodded. "Two plus two equals four. I had a two and a four. It wasn't hard to figure out the missing piece of the puzzle."

"So, how does your theory end?" Callahan demanded. "Start from the beginning of your theory, how her death is involved in this."

"My theory in full? I believe Price sent the young werewolves to kill Liza and covered it up neatly by using plays on words. He never told them to kill her, maybe only said she was a threat, and he hoped she would be dealt with one day. I think he then killed them himself to keep their words from getting back to someone else. When asked if he sent the werewolves to kill Liza, he could flat out deny it, and there was no one else to question because he had killed them. My family never had the opportunity to look further into the incident. Because they could smell no lie, there was nothing to be done except grieve. Now, a hundred years later and his identity protected, he wanted to strike again at the ruling werecats."

"Why you?" Alvina was curious, but not as if I was a child. She was genuinely interested in what I was saying, her eyes locked on me with that twinkle.

"I'm not the best of my family. I try to maintain the status quo, but I do what I believe is right, even if it goes against traditional ways of thinking and solving problems. That makes me dangerous. I exposed my kind because I worked too closely with a werewolf, a member of an open species." I didn't say Heath by name because it was familiar. I couldn't say Alpha Everson because he wasn't one. He had to remain unnamed and given no thought. "It makes some werewolves nervous that I'm willing to travel to Russia and help destroy that pack when it would protect my family. My human family. Imagine what I would do to protect my werecat family in a century. Imagine how much trouble I could cause."

"And you are the youngest and most vulnerable, for all the trouble you cause me," Hasan pointed out. I could only nod. "My youngest will get herself killed, eventually. I'm sure everyone in this room believes that. It would be all too easy to speed that process up and make it believable it was just the way things go."

"Price?" Callahan turned to his werewolf again, almost as if he expected Price to plead guilty. "How do you plead?"

"Innocent," he snarled, glaring at me.

And there was no lie. Everyone in the room was wide-eyed as they looked at Price, heads turning slowly. Hasan stepped forward, but Callahan was still between them.

He tells no lies.

"I think she may believe all of this, but those humans could have lied to her or been mistaken," Price clarified.

"Price, I have them," Geoffrey said softly. "They're in my custody. I could ask them right now. She wouldn't have been that bold if they were lying."

"Doesn't matter. Smell no lie on me," Price snapped. "I am innocent. I don't lie. I believe in the truth."

"What do we do now?" Alvina asked. "I've never seen this. How interesting." She leaned on an arm of the couch, bringing her feet up, looking downright cozy.

"I think this is an attempt for Jacky Leon to cover up her own bad behavior," Price growled, pronounced thanks to his already gravelly voice. "You exposed your people, you have foolishly run around, and maybe I should ask you to address the rumors of stealing werewolf magic." Price spit toward me.

"What?" Callahan snapped, turning on me.

"It's not the point, and I didn't steal anything," I fired back.

"Can you speak with telepathy in werecat form?" Callahan demanded.

"It's not the point," Hasan snarled next to me.

"It's a fucking important one!" Callahan yelled. "How did she get the magic of werewolves? What dark sorcery did you and your fucking mother do?"

Werewolves, who had been growling, went silent. The scents of the room varied widely—fear, anger, confusion, shock, and betrayal. There were so many, I couldn't identify who was feeling what.

He knows about Subira.

"It wasn't her. It was given to me by a fae," I corrected, trying to protect my family by throwing myself and Brin to the literal wolves. Alvina leaned forward, her eyes on me.

"It would take an incredibly powerful fae to gift such an ability," she said softly. "Who was it?"

"You met him…Brin from my trial." I looked at Hasan after I answered, wondering if I looked as scared as I felt.

"There's no lie," Hasan said softly to her, looking past me as he touched my shoulder. "We knew this would come up eventually, but Jacky has preferred not to speak about the meeting she had with this fae, as is her right. It was a personal moment."

Alvina nodded slowly. "We've never been able to locate him. Not terribly uncommon as many fae are very good at hiding, but if he's so powerful he can grant abilities such as this, he's someone I need to speak to…Brin." Alvina had a faraway expression as she settled back into a comfortable position, tasting the name as if it was a wine. "We'll come back to this."

"Why not deal with it now?" Callahan asked, glaring at his fellow Tribunal member.

"Because it's not why we're here," she snapped. "We're here to discuss one of your werewolves trying to assassinate her, and this…"—she smiled—"is a distraction tactic that even worked on me. Get back on topic." Her words were like a lash through the room.

Price was bold enough to speak first.

"And none of it changes the fact I am innocent," he growled.

"Maybe this is a misunderstanding, and another werewolf pushed this. We'll help you find out who." Callahan was just as confused as the rest of us.

"I can verify the truth," Alvina offered, "if both of the participants are willing. I would search their memories and find their personal truths—what they saw, smelled, said, and heard."

"I'm willing," I declared.

"I'm not. I've never lied to another werewolf, and I won't be subjected to a test of my innocence," Price countered. "My honor won't allow me to be subjugated by another species to prove myself."

Everyone raised an eyebrow at Price, who shook his head again.

"Price, it doesn't look good for you to be against this," Harrison said blandly. "While I hate Jacky, I wouldn't want to give her any more ammunition to keep coming back with this. Just verify the truth with the fae mediator, Queen Alvina, and move on."

"I'll do it, and I'll let Alvina verify that a fae gave me my ability. Just so you can't continue bitching about that," I said, glaring at the werewolf I knew killed my sister and tried to kill me. "What? Too scared to back up what you believe to be the truth?"

"I expect my fellow wolves to back me up because they know my honor is unimpeachable," Price snapped back.

Now the werewolves need to choose between protecting and trusting one of their own or throwing him into something he doesn't want. Good play.

The answer was obvious—the werewolves believed in doing anything for the pack.

"Price, you don't have to. I have faith in you," Callahan said, turning his narrowed eye gaze on me. "But you are more than welcome to."

"Yes, because my daughter's honor isn't unimpeachable. We all understand the implication. Don't try to be coy. You're not good at it," Hasan said, both insulted and insulting, not finding Callahan and Price as smart as they obviously thought themselves. He was a different man than I was used to. With his children, he was patient and kind but fierce. This was cold and removed, underscored with pure confidence that he was better than them in every way. He hadn't acted this way the last time we spoke to Callahan, but I had been the troublemaker then. That was the only difference I could find, except for Corissa's absence.

"How does this work?" I asked, looking at Alvina, who rose to her feet in one graceful, unbroken movement, which seemed to be both practiced and natural.

"Simple." She reached out and placed her hands on the sides of my head, covering my ears. "Close your eyes, and don't be scared."

It felt as if the ground fell out from under my feet the moment I closed my eyes.