Chapter 33

Chapter 33

What was it with border towns all being dens of iniquity? Kate and I had traveled through the neutral territory to the Shadowmoon border, where they ran into the war-torn, dilapidated, fateful town of Caswald, where my father had famously betrayed Mason’s.

“It even smells like dark deeds,” Kate said, wrinkling her nose.

I shook my head. “It smells like cu-

“As I said, dark deeds. Goddess, no need to spell it out.” Kate made a face.

With a laugh. I pushed open the door to a seedy motel. “Well, hold your nose. I’m sure it only gets worse.”

We went to the counter where a scrutly, smoking little bald man was seated behind protective glass. “Prices are posted on the sign,” he muttered without even looking up from whatever he was reading. “Don’t need your real name, but need something to hold the room.”

“Might as well announce myself.” I said to Kate. “With any luck, my old mate will find out I’m here, and we’ll be able to negotiate something.”

Kate’s brow pinched. “I’m not sure that’s such a good ide-

“Kora Monroe,” I announced to the little man.

He paused, then blinked owlishly up at me. “Monroe?”

I nodded. “Yes, that’s me.”

“Kora Monroe?” he repeated.

I wondered if he was coming out of some sort of alcohol or drug-induced stupor. “Yes. Kora Monroe.”

The little bald man flicked his eyes down to the ledger. “I’ll call you ‘Jane Smith.” He scrawled the name down.

“What? Why?” I asked, trying to sn atch at the pen.

But the little man kept the ledger on his side of the glass. “Nope. Don’t want that kind of trouble here. Plus, your father would kill me.”

I stopped trying to get at the pen. “My father?”

“Oswald Monroe,” the little man provided, as though I didn’t know.

I exchanged a glance with Kate. “Yes, I know who he is. How do you know him?”

“Good man, Oswald,” the little man murmured to himself. “Shame you came here. It’s late, so I’ll let you stay the night, but then you best turn around and go back home.”

1 tapped the glass impatiently, trying to get his full attention. “HOW do you know my father?”

“Well, he’s in the Shadowmoon Pack, now isn’t he? Their lot is always coming through here, carousing, breaking furniture. But he’s a civilized man. Pays in full, doesn’t expect any special favors, and keeps the room clean. Just takes a wench up, does his business, and leaves.”

Some of these were things I did not need to know about my own father. “My father is a member of the Fulbright Pack,” I replied proudly. “At least… he will be again once I get him out of here.”

“Wait, we came for Shawn! How are we going to get them both?” Kate burst out. “We’re going to have to try. I can’t leave them here,” I said.

Kate groaned. “I just knew this was going to get more complicated than I thought.” The little man, meanwhile, was making a wheezing sound, his shoulders shaking. I realized it was a laugh.

“Oswald Monroe ain’t no Fullbright Pack member. Never was. The Luna Regent found him when he was just a boy and raised him up to be a spy. Didn’t have no chance, poor kid,” the little man said.

My head whipped back around to the little man. “Huh?”

“Good man, Oswald Monroe. Didn’t do you d*rty,” the little man nodded. “Left you in a good pack. Didn’t want you under the witch’s influence.”

“What are you talking about? My father was Fullbright’s Beta!” I argued.

“Might be so, but that ain’t how he started,” the little man said.

I took a step back from the glass. “I don’t understand. H-How do you know all this?”

The little man took a long drag on his cigarette. “Everyb*dy needs a friend, Kora. Seems you got one right there. Your father ain’t got a soul in the whole Shadowmoon Pack. Sometimes, two old fogies got to shoot the sh*t together before our memories go.”

“But my father would never betray Alpha Hale,” I insisted. “There must be some mistake.”

“Only mistake he made was trying to get out from under the witch’s influence. Don’t you know you can’t be messing around with magic? He surely did love that Fullbright Alpha, but that ain’t stronger than magic. That ain’t stronger than the love of a child,” the little man said.

“I don’t understand,” I replied.

“Well, sure as shootin’ that witch was gonna threaten you, now wasn’t she? When her little puppet started pulling on his strings,” the little man explained.

My heart thundered in my chest.

“My father killed James Hale… to save me?”

“Can you

think of a better reason?” the little man countered. “Now, you go on up to room six before someb*dy sees you, and you leave in the morning. You turn tail and run the hell out of here, fast as your legs will carry you. ‘Cuz I ain’t gonna be telling Oswald Monroe that his daughter went and sh at all over his sacrifice.”

Kate came up next to me and put an arm around my shoulders. “Maybe he’s got a point. If there’s a witch with her claws in your father…”

I shook her off. “No. We’re getting Shawn, and we’re getting my father, and we’re not going home until we do.”

The little man wheezed again. “You two little girls are gonna go up against the Luna Regent Deborah Shadowmoon, with the whole of the Shadowmoon Pack behind her, and expect to come out the other side with two of her toys? Not likely.”

It was true. The odds did seem impossible. But I couldn’t… I just couldn’t leave my father here, or Shawn, to suffer.

“Look,” the little man said. “They get three squares, and they do a few unsavory things, and they get taken care of. She don’t beat your father the way she used to. And whoever this Shawn is. I promise you, he’s better off dead.”

Kate growled and took a step toward the glass. “Don’t say that!”

“They captured him, right?” the little man asked, not the slightest bit threatened. “Part of that group of scouts they just rounded up. I expect.”

“Yes…” I said, wondering how the little man knew all of this.

“You hear things when drunken soldiers pass through, clapping each other on the back and congratulatin’ each other on a job well done. If he ain’t killed outright. they’re gonna torture him ’til he ain’t got no mind lett. The little man waved a casual hand. “Best Alpha Lyle rip his throat out like usual, and let the poor thing die peacefully.”

Kate thumped a finger on the glass. “Listen here, you… you…

“Jim,” the little man provided.

“I was going for a shole. but okay, Jim. You listen to me. Shawn is our friend, and we’re getting him out!” Kate yelled.

Jim sighed. “No, girlie. You’re going to room six, you’re going to spend a tough night on a lumpy, smelly mattress, and you’re goin’ home in the morning.”

“We’re staying, Jum,” I said coldly. “And that’s that.”

Jim looked from me to Kate, and back again. Then he shook his head and slid a key under the glass. “Suit yourselves.”

Kate sn atched the key and began stomping down the hall

“Kora?” Jim said, stopping me.

I turned. “What?”

“Be careful.” He looked genuinely concerned. “Oswald’s a good man. He won’t want you gettin’ hurt.”

“In the next few days, he’ll be able to tell me that himself,” I assured him. I followed Kate down the hall.

I didn’t see Jim pick up the phone.