Page 116 of Poet & Protector

I leaned against the stage. “Guess who doesn’t have to take his packmates home anymore?”

He walked over and crouched in front of me. “If it’s not you, this is a terrible lead-in.”

I laughed, then lowered my voice. “Should I wait for you downstairs?”

He nodded, briefly running his fingers over mine before returning to his equipment.

I’d never imagined a scenario where I’d be grateful to a human, but Shay’s simple favor had given me exactly what I needed. Even more surprising was the sharp bite of regret I felt, knowing I could never help him get what he wanted most. It was another painful reminder that, as Guardians, our lives and choices didn’t always belong to us. But at least tonight, thanks to Shay, I was free to choose love.

Twenty

The Mountain School

Monday

NEV

Dax: Commons at 3:45. Pack business.

The message from Dax was odd. Ren usually called any pack meetings, but our alpha was focused on the upcoming union and it was clear as hell Shay was getting to him. Passing off some tasks to his second made sense.

I was the last to arrive, aside from Ren, despite walking into the commons at precisely 3:45 p.m.

Dax and Sabine were standing together, talking. Cosette hovered nearby, listening but not participating as far as I could tell.

I didn’t like being back in the commons. The last time I was here was when Logan summoned his wolves together for the first meeting of the Haldis pack, but I wasn’t surprised Ren wanted us to meet and it made sense to do it right after school.

To say that things in our pack, in both packs, were tense was an understatement. We were all reacting to Shay’s sudden presence in our midst, but those responses ranged from outright hostility—see Ren, Dax, and Fey—to genuine attempts at friendship—witness Ansel, Bryn, and Mason.

Sabine and I fell somewhere in between those two camps. Sabine was wary of outsiders and territorial on our alpha’s behalf, where I leaned toward friendship simply because where Mason was, I wanted to be. That, and Mason told me how Shay stood up for us on Friday during the whole Dax blowup. Shay was also the reason Mason could stay with me after the show, which I was grateful for. Both of those things made it hard not to like the guy.

The twin debacles at the Burnout Friday night, Shay’s presence and Dax’s spat with Mason, had been unfortunate but hardly surprising. I was curious what Ren had to say about all of it.

When it came to Shay, no matter what Ren wanted, he had no choice other than to set his personal feelings aside because we’d been ordered to protect the Keepers’ human. My suspicion was that Ren had a plan to implement that protection in ways he preferred, namely asking Ansel, Bryn, Mason, and me to keep Shay occupied so he’d spend less time with Calla.

It was a good idea in theory, but considering the way Shay looked at Calla, the effort would be futile. That, and Logan specifically put Calla in charge of Shay’s safety. Despite Ren’s frustration, Shay and Calla would be in close quarters until the Keepers decided otherwise. I wondered how long that would be.

It was strange as hell that our masters had a human tangled up in their affairs, and even more odd that they’d involve us. But I wasn’t going to waste time speculating about why Shay was in our lives. We didn’t have any say about it, and I preferred not to think about what the Keepers’ motivations for anything were.

For the Dax situation, I kind of assumed Ren had already dealt with that by reprimanding his second on a one-on-one basis right after it happened. But it made sense that he’d want to set some new rules for the whole pack to prevent a repeat of that disaster. This meeting was going to be uncomfortable. Hopefully we’d get through it without Dax and me coming to blows. I still wasn’t certain what exactly happened on Friday. Mason didn’t want to get into the details. When I pressed him, he shut down and I decided to leave it alone for the time being.

“Oh good, you’re here,” Dax said when I joined them. “We can do this.”

I glanced over my shoulder, expecting to see Ren, but he wasn’t there.

“Isn’t Ren coming?” I asked. “Didn’t he call this meeting?”

Dax shook his head. “I called it.”

“You called it?” Sabine’s brow furrowed. “I assumed you were the messenger. Since when do you decide we need to have a meeting?”

“Since now.” Dax straightened and rolled his shoulders back, emphasizing his height and bulk. “I called the meeting because we need to have an intervention.”

“We’re having an intervention?” I didn’t like the sound of that. “Wait, is the intervention about Ren? I know he’s a little crazed because of the whole Shay thing, but he’s our alpha, man. We can’t go behind his back.”

“Nev’s right, Dax,” Sabine agreed.

Dax let out a frustrated noise. “It’s not about Ren.”