Page 72 of Poet & Protector

Dax glowered as I shrugged and slouched in my seat, pulling my cap over my eyes. My careless acceptance of Ren’s praise would piss Dax off even more. Bonus.

To my packmates and anyone else who happened to look over, I was napping. In truth, whenever I wanted to check out and be left alone it was usually because my brain was busy composing a new song. Just as a new series of harmonies were crystalizing in my mind, I was jarred back into the cafeteria by a shout coming from the Nightshades’ table.

“Hey, Ren!”

I didn’t sit up, but I returned my cap to its usual position and slid my gaze to where Calla sat, her eyes locked on my alpha.

Her call-out caught Ren off guard and he took a second to recover before he answered.

“Yeah?”

“Push our tables together?”

Once again Ren had to take a beat at Calla’s brash suggestion, and I barely stopped myself from snorting with amusement. Ren started this new game of ‘let’s be friends’ with his invitation to Eden, but Calla had already come up with a countermove to keep him on his toes.

“Of course,” Ren replied, then signaled to Dax to make it happen.

Dax went to the Nightshades’ table. Instead of picking up the table, which he was strong enough to do easily, he had to be belligerent about it and drag their table across the cafeteria floor until it bumped up against ours. The prolonged screeching of metal on tile was god-awful and had the rest of the student body staring at us. Both alphas seemed pleased about the disruption of a normal lunch period, which made sense given they were trying to prove something to the Keepers.

I wondered how Mason would play this and had my answer immediately when he carried his chair over and happily plopped it beside mine.

“Hey, you,” he said. “Surprise.”

I smiled at him, pushing my chair back to make room. It seemed we were skipping over any pretending we didn’t like each other and going straight to friendly. That was fine by me.

Mason waved Ansel over. The pup was practically giddy as he placed his chair next to Mason’s.

I extended my fist. “Ansel. Good to see you.”

“Likewise.” Ansel bumped my fist with his. “Does this mean we finally get to hang out?”

“Sure,” Mason said, shooting a look at Calla as she took a seat beside Ren. “Unless those two start fighting and call off the truce.”

“I hope not,” Ansel remarked. “I’m excited about Eden. Have you been there before, Nev? Like, do you guys go to Efron’s clubs a lot?”

“Not a lot,” I answered. “But yeah, I’ve been to Eden. Efron likes to throw parties and we’re usually invited.”

“Lucky,” Ansel grumbled. “Calla almost never lets me go out with the pack.”

“And she’s letting you come to Eden?” I asked.

Eden wasn’t just one of Efron Bane’s clubs, it was the most exclusive and had the most salacious reputation.

Ansel nodded enthusiastically, then slowly, then stopped nodding altogether. He turned to Mason in alarm.

“She’s letting me go, isn’t she? Isn’t she?!”

As he began to panic, he snuck a glance at Bryn. “She has to let me go.”

Yeah, our young friend had an ulterior movie for wanting to be at the club.

He looked at Mason again. “Did Calla say anything to you?”

“Ansel.” Mason sighed. “I found out about the invitation exactly when you did, which was five minutes ago. When would your sister have said something to me?”

“I don’t know.” He frowned. “She’d better let me go.”

“Don’t worry,” Mason told him. “She’s brought you along the last few times we’ve been to the Burnout.”