Patrick winced, chewing on the end of his cigarette butt. “Fuck you.”
There wasn’t any heat in his words though, and the guys knew it. They stood in silence for another minute or two before Keith finally sighed, blowing out the last hit of smoke from between his lips.
“The Old Man gave us a mission. I’m not keen on changing up the status quo in the middle of a fight,” Keith muttered, scuffing his foot against the snow.
That sounded a lot like they’d refuse to let Gerard leave the team. Patrick opened his mouth before snapping it shut. It was their choice to make, not Patrick’s. He was no longer active duty, and the team needed to do what was best for it. If that meant keeping Gerard as their captain and keeping his secrets, then Patrick would only hope for the best outcome. He was mad, but not mad enough to wish ill will on his old friends.
Movement out of the corner of his eye had Patrick turning his head. Sage stepped onto the roof, squinting against the dull sunlight and the hard-blowing wind. Her hair was braided back, and she didn’t wear the pendant that would hide her scent since she was home.
Patrick flicked his finger against the mageglobe, drawing down the silence ward and the shield. The howling of the wind and sound of traffic filtered over everyone again.
“We need all of you downstairs to plan what to do next, and Jono said we can’t talk about it without a silence ward in place. The sorcerer on the team is willing to cast one, but Jono wants you to do it, Patrick,” Sage said as she approached.
“Sure,” Patrick said.
“Don’t leave your trash on my roof.”
Patrick drew one last drag off his cigarette before kneeling to put it out in the snow. The other guys did the same, and Keith was the one who gathered up the used cigarette butts to carry back downstairs and throw away in the trash.
Sage didn’t move, and Keith was adept enough at reading a situation that he caught Arthur and Darren’s eyes before jerking his head at the door. “We’ll meet you downstairs.”
The three left. Sage eyed Patrick for a moment before shaking her head. “You’re still angry.”
“You can’t smell that,” Patrick said, because he’d locked down his shields before they even arrived here.
“I don’t need an enhanced sense of smell to know all of you are pissed off, even while your anger stinks up my home. Your body language speaks volumes.”
Patrick scowled at her. “Me being pissed at Gerard doesn’t concern you.”
“It does if you’re going to do stupid shit.” Sage tucked her bare hands into the pockets of the too-large winter coat she wore. It looked like one of Marek’s. “Jono wanted to come up and talk to you, but I told him I would. Jono will always side with you, but I’m your dire, and it’s my job to tell you when something is wrong with the pack.”
“Jono calls me out on my bullshit all the time.”
“Not as often as you think.”
“Why aren’t you angry at Jono?”
Sage didn’t blink at that accusation. “You may want to ward us again.”
Patrick shrugged and did as she asked, conjuring up another mageglobe and filling it with a silence ward. Her request made him think the others who’d been with them across the veil hadn’t revealed Jono carried Fenrir in his soul even as Gerard’s true identity got picked apart.
“I was angry. I still am, to a small degree. But I know why Jono kept quiet about his patron, and I’m choosing to follow my alpha’s lead because I trust him,” Sage said.
Her words needled Patrick in a way he didn’t like. “I have a therapist.”
“I’m not here to psychoanalyze you. I’m here to tell you to stop thinking with your heart and start thinking with your head. We all got revelations thrown at us we didn’t like, but you need to move past being pissed off.”
“Wow. That sounds an awful lot like fuck you.”
Sage didn’t react to his veiled insult. “I’m your dire, Patrick. My job is to make sure the pack as a whole is safe. I know we won’t be if we follow you into this fight when you’re like this.”
It stung being told she didn’t trust his state of mind at the moment. Patrick’s instinctive reaction was to argue that Sage was wrong, but he knew deep down she was right.
“Okay,” Patrick said through gritted teeth. “You made your point.”
Sage arched an eyebrow. “I’m not sure you listened.”
“I’m not going to sabotage our side of the fight before we even make it into the field. I know better than to do that.”
