Brenton silently stood in the hotel lobby, keeping an eye out for any agents he could recognize. Gabe had told him that Keith and his team all had rooms here for the duration. Keith was room 405. Brenton spent a second debating between taking the stairs or risking the elevator.

“Fuck,” he muttered distastefully. Brenton was about to beg a man he hated to help save his Pride, a Pride that included his daughter. He reached the elevator and waited. He hoped no one would call the press about his presence there. He’d already released a statement saying he was working with the authorities about the situation. He wasn’t, but he knew better than to say he was going to find who did it and murder them.

The authorities wouldn’t help anyways. Brenton clenched his hands. The SSTF would have told the Denver police department to stand down. A police chief somewhere was learning about shifters and being sworn to a lifetime of silence in exchange for not pressing this or making it more public.

Games. Rules. Players.

In the end, Brenton was trying not to strangle every single one of them. He wanted to toss the figurative game to the floor and eviscerate the opponent who refused to step out and show themselves.

“What floor?” A man asked Brenton as he stepped on the elevator with a small crowd.

“Fourth, thank you,” Brenton said, trying hard to maintain the calm he was known for. The mildness. He worked hard to keep it, since the lion under his skin was normally too intimidating. Brenton had mastered it when his father beat him for being more dominant than him. By the age of ten, Brenton could talk like a businessman that ran companies with a deceptively gentle nature. It was something he kept up over the years, as he noticed humans didn’t tolerate him very well when he wasn’t in control of the lion.

Brenton almost missed his floor, he was so lost in his thoughts, but being on Keith’s floor made him remember with sudden clarity, how he had gotten there.

Brenton was stumbling. He was unsure of himself for reasons he didn’t understand. Hunters. Riley. His feelings. Keith. The SSTF. Zachary. He couldn’t find the root of his uneasiness.

He’d never loved a woman like her. The Pride had always been his brothers, but now the stakes seemed higher, and he was failing.

He walked slowly to Keith’s door and pounded on it. He knew Keith was in his room. Gabe had confirmed it before Brenton entered the building. Security cameras had caught him going to the ice machine and returning.

The click of the lock being released made Brenton tense. The door opened slowly.

“Liam, I thought I told you-” Keith’s eyes went wide at the sight of Brenton.

“We need to talk,” Brenton said politely. Keith nodded slowly, opening the door completely and allowing Brenton to walk in.

Brenton looked around. He’d never been in a normal hotel room. The tiny, cramped one-room standard. There was a small kitchenette, a coffee maker, a bottle of Jack Daniels on the counter. A recently poured drink. Brenton took a long sniff, paying attention to what he caught.

Keith had been drinking, that much was obvious, now that Brenton was looking for it. He shouldn’t have missed it when the door opened, but he was very good at ignoring scents. Every shifter got good at it as they grew up, or they would be constantly distracted by things.

“Why are you here, Brenton?” Keith asked, locking his door.

“To ask for your help,” Brenton said quietly, letting that sink in for Keith before continuing. “The Pride is on its last leg. We do not know who is doing this. We do not know who shot Zachary. We do not know where Slater fits in on all of this. You are cleaning up the public side of this, and I am asking you for your help.”

“You want to know what we know?” Keith carefully inquired.

“Yes,” Brenton felt his heart clench. His pride was crushed at the idea of it. He’d never needed this. He’d never wanted to beg for help. “Keith, I have two guys in the hospital. One might be crippled if we are not careful, the other might never wake up at all.”

“Which one might not get up from it?” Keith asked, grabbing his drink.

“Andrew,” Brenton whispered.

“He’s the good one of you lot,” Keith grunted. “Damn shame.”

“Everyone loves to underestimate him,” Brenton sighed. “Slater did.”

“Why would I risk my career for this?” Keith scoffed. “Andrew is a good kid. But you? Brenton, you are your father’s son. Everyone in the SSTF knows it.”

Brenton snarled at that.

“See?” Keith pointed at him with his glass. “Violence first.”

“We have been trying a nonviolent approach, and it is failing. People are getting hurt,” Brenton growled.

“A bunch of renegades who never followed the rules,” Keith said with disgust. “You had to think it would catch up with you eventually. The bodies, the disrespect to other felines. Nearly a decade of it, you had to know that eventually one of the more powerful enemies you have would strike hard.”

“Your daughter.” Brenton snapped.

“Excuse me?” Keith stumbled, glaring at him.

“Your daughter is going to get hurt,” Brenton growled. “And she doesn’t fucking deserve that, no matter what you think about her actions. She is fierce and gorgeous and her heart is too fucking big to be destroyed. And here you stand, judging me and the guys I grew up with like you fucking know something.”

“She can walk away,” Keith mumbled. “She’s not in too deep…”

“Liar,” Brenton snarled. “We both know that is not true.”

“You never should have dragged her into your world,” Keith groaned.

“She never would have been, if you had stuck around for her,” Brenton hissed, a meanness settling in him. It was time for a slap of reality to the entire affair. “She would have gone to college and become a great painter. She might have gotten the Fever and shifted, but she would have had a father who fucking loved her-”

“I do love my daughter,” Keith roared, throwing the glass. “I just…”

“Have some real fucked up priorities,” Brenton snarled. “You went from wanting to avenge your dead wife to wanting to repair your make-believe honor over being tricked by her. And then you let the SSTF fuck your daughter sideways and leave her with nothing.”

“Don’t…”

“Don’t what? Tell you that the people you work for are just as corrupt as the rest of us?” Brenton roared. Riley had told them what Keith had said. It had all made so much sense. Brenton knew there was more than one feline at the top of the SSTF. It was something they would do. They didn’t out Riley for being Isabella’s daughter. Instead, they decided to make her life so hard that she could never rise up. With a stubborn mule of a father like Keith and Isabella’s pure cunning evil, Riley, in theory, was a threat to the stability to the feline world. Shit, the shifter world.

The Pride’s little cheetah was a force to be reckoned with. And she’d been brought to her knees by two men in hospital beds, a father who didn’t know how to love, and so much more.

“They screwed your daughter. They screwed your being in her life in the process. They could have set her up with a shifter family who understood her, who could have introduced her slowly to the world and kept her out of danger. Instead they threw her into foster care.” Brenton growled. “You blame me, her mother, all of this, for creating the girl who only ever wanted you to love her, but you refuse to take part of the blame or even level it at the SSTF. They fucked you. They fucked her.”

“Why does this matter?” Keith sighed. He looked at the shattered glass on the floor and grabbed a small bag. Brenton watched him begin to clean up.

“I’m trying to get you to understand that your career with the SSTF is meaningless,” Brenton snarled, “because it was built on the idea of using you against Isabella, and it was strengthened by the pain your daughter had to go through, so you could run off on your little quest. And now you hide behind it like you are somehow better than us.”

“Where is she?” Keith asked, slowly picking up pieces of glass.

“At the hospital, a complete wreck.”

“Does she know you’re here?”

“No.”

That made Keith look back up and narrow his eyes.

“Why not?”

“Because I did not want her to know if you turned me down. She does not deserve to hear ‘I love you’ from you, then know that you are okay with letting us die.” It was a harsh, bitter truth that struck Keith. The human’s hands began to shake. “Why are you drinking at ten in the morning, Keith?”

“Because I’ve been thinking about something Sheriff told me,” Keith sighed. Brenton could smell tears. “He told me I already failed the most important mission of my life… and he’s right. I’ve been here, watching you all fall, and trying not to remind myself that my daughter is a part of this. That she can… she will die with all of you. Because she’s too much like me… She’ll fight to the bitter end for what she wants.”

“You always compared her to Isabella,” Brenton said carefully. Keith was hammered, and it was beginning to show. Brenton wasn’t sure if he should use it against the poor, sad man or walk away before he accidentally broke him completely.

“Because I never wanted to admit that her temper comes from me,” Keith groaned. “Lily was calm, always so calm. She didn’t have that fire. She was a balm, easy going. Peaceful. Riley gets her temper from me. She’s… she’s so much my daughter that it hurts so goddamn much.”

“And you do not know how to fix it,” Brenton whispered sadly. “Fuck, we are more alike than we knew, Keith.”

“What?” Keith’s words were becoming slurred. Brenton went to help him clean up the glass and threw it away. He helped Keith off the floor and to sit on the edge of the bed.

“Keith,” Brenton sighed. “We can fix this. Not apart, but together we can fix this. I can stop people from hurting her and you… Damn, I can help you fix things with Riley.”

“We need each other,” Keith mumbled. “Fuck. I hate you.”

“I hate you too,” Brenton groaned. “Can you get me what I need?”

“Yeah,” Keith hiccupped as he said it. Brenton nearly pitied the man. He was destroyed by a woman he loved, then accidentally destroyed the other one. He’d been pulled into their world without ever realizing it. How could anyone have expected this man to pick up the pieces of his heart and just move on after losing his wife? He was intelligent, trained to figure it out and complete the mission.

“Did you drink after…” Brenton wasn’t sure how to phrase it.

“Yeah… Riley was too young to know, but I drank a lot after losing Lily. Suddenly I was a single father, no future ahead of me. My life’s work down the drain… Yeah, I drank a lot until I found the SSTF.”

“You should talk to Troy and Gabe, one day,” Brenton told him softly. “They both deal with addiction problems.”

“I’ve heard… Those boys are too young to have gone through all that,” Keith grunted.

“We all are,” Brenton murmured sadly.

“Fuck… you’re only twenty-nine…” Keith groaned, rubbing his forehead. “It’s easy to forget.”

“Do you want me to stay?” Brenton asked gently.

“No… I’ll get the information to the hospital… But, Brenton, this is closer than you realize. That I can safely say here.”

“Are we being listened to?” Brenton tensed and nearly cursed to himself as Keith shook his head.

“No, but it’s almost eleven. I’m about to have a meeting with my team I can’t miss.”

“Can you make it to that this drunk?” Brenton frowned at the older human.

“Yeah, half of them will be, too,” Keith chuckled. “We’re a bunch of fucked up fools, my team. We actually had to do your protection detail because we’re in trouble already for some other shit.”

“Good Lord, and you all are supposed to uphold the law…” Brenton groaned, running his hand through his hair.

“Get out of here before one of them comes to tell me everyone is ready. And Brenton?” Keith grabbed his arm.

“Yeah?” Brenton didn’t know what to think.

“Thank you for loving her,” Keith mumbled. “No matter who her mother was and what that woman did to your family.”

“I will never judge someone on the actions of their parents,” Brenton whispered. “And she is an honor to love. Help me keep her around.”

“Of course. If it gives me any chance to know her again, I’ll do it,” Keith continued to mumble. “Go on, young man.”

Brenton got out of the room faster than he thought possible. Tears were in his eyes. Keith was a broken man who had lost everything, from a combination of his own actions and a world he didn’t fully understand. Felines were getting out of control in their games, if the SSTF was sly enough use Keith like this and ruin, not only Riley, but also him as revenge against Isabella.

Brenton didn’t like thinking about that. The SSTF was not his concern. Keith, maybe, but not the organization he worked for.

He slipped onto the empty elevator and sighed.

Back to waiting.

Back to the games.

Back to wondering who the players were until Keith came through for them.