Lynx Northern Shifters 3

him.
“I’m Veronica, Trey’s niece.”
Okay. Veronica. Trey spoke fondly of her, and of all his kin, it sounded like Trey had the best rapport with her. But Jonah wasn’t entirely sure why Trey had given him her number instead of his. It was a sleight of hand, and he didn’t like it. “Do you know where Trey is?”
She sighed. “No. And that’s the problem.”
“He’s mentioned you.”
“Just mentioned?” she said dryly.
“Well…” Trey didn’t tend to discuss people.
“Never mind, Trey’s not a big talker, I know.” She switched topics. “Look, the thing is, we were kind of hoping he’d gone back to wherever you are. He’s been a bit secretive about your location. You know how he is.”
Jonah sometimes wondered if he knew how Trey was at all, but that was not a point to be debated here and now. “Do you have any way to contact him? His sat phone number, for example.”
She hesitated. “He doesn’t want us to use that, Jonah.”
“Explain to me why.”
“It’s been compromised. Whoever he used to work for has the ability to use it to trace it back to us.”
“Please give it to me.”
“He won’t be answering it anymore,” she argued. “It’ll be rerouted to someone else, probably someone dangerous.”
Jonah leaned his forehead against the plexiglass. “I don’t care who answers it, if they lead me to Trey.”
She didn’t say anything.
“Veronica?”
Her voice went smaller. “He’ll never forgive me if they harm you.”
Jonah strived to say the most persuasive thing possible, but all that came out was the truth. “He’s tired.”
“Pardon?”
“Trey is tired. Of working, of killing. He didn’t want to go back. He might need help getting out. I can help him.”
“Jonah, no offense, but you’re only human. You don’t understand what you’re up against.”
Here he smiled to himself. “Trey lied about that. I’m not only human.”
A long pause then, as though she was processing that information, weighing it. “I may never know if you’re lying or not.”
“ I don’t lie. Trey is the one who doesn’t know how to live without secrets and deception.”
She let out a long breath and it sounded like surrender. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, I am sure. I can help him. Give me the number, Veronica. Don’t you think he deserves some help? Don’t you think he takes too much on his own shoulders?”
He heard her swear to herself. Then she got defensive. “We considered one of us using the number, we gave ourselves a deadline of this October, because Trey’s been gone six months before easily. But we’re all raising families, we’re all interconnected. To put the children at risk…”
“I absolutely understand,” he assured her. “I have no children. I only have Trey. I want him back, and I can do this.”
“Are you a wolf then?”
He considered saying lynx, then remembered he was the only one known to exist and she might not believe him. So he said, “Cat.”
“That makes sense. Trey’s more cat than wolf, I sometimes think.”
She was obviously hungry to know more about Trey, and while Jonah wasn’t unsympathetic, finding Trey was the priority. “Veronica…”
He thought he’d have to ask again, but then she was telling him the number and he was memorizing it.
    If it were up to him, Trey would have left months ago. But first there’d been a feral wolf to be found and brought back to humanity, and then a dysfunctional pack to run until a member of said pack emerged as the alpha. So instead of returning to Jonah, Trey had been trying to save lives. The blood of too many feral or psychopathic werewolves were already on his hands. He had done what he could to avoid more.
    So as he washed the blood off his arms and chest, the irony of what he’d finished here didn’t escape him. Sure he’d just killed a murderer. Kingley wasn’t stupid. He only assigned wetwork Trey could stomach. But lately Trey found even that was difficult for him to carry out.
    Being with Jonah had made him soft. But he didn’t want to think about Jonah, especially not now. Instead he focused on what he’d accomplished in the past months. The feral wolf was back in civilization, living in a house with his partner, and the pack had a new leader who, while young, was strong and sane.
Trey should have been free to leave, having accomplished what he needed to accomplish for his kin. Instead of going home, however, Trey had gotten himself tangled in Kingley’s web. This time he didn’t know