Chapter Thirteen
The following morning, most of the guests were on edge. I didn’t blame them. I was too. The impending full moon tended to do that to us.
I let breakfast extend past the scheduled time while people came to talk to me in the dining room as they had the day before.
One of the first was Ren, which I was glad of.
Other than glimpses in the crowd, I’d barely seen him since the guests started to arrive.
Which, I realized, made sense since he was supposed to have stayed in the guest house I’d set aside for the Boston wolves during the hunt.
Every time I’d seen him, he was in the main house, usually with one of the guards.
“Anax, do you have a minute?” His face wrinkled with anxiety, he touched the chair closest to me.
“Of course. Have a seat.” I took a sip of coffee while he sat down. “Do you want to speak privately? This isn’t really the place for it.” People were walking around chatting, eating, staring at me. I didn’t want Ren to feel exposed.
To my surprise, he shook his head. “I don’t want to interrupt your meal, Anax. Here is fine. I mean, I know everyone can hear, but if they listen in, they get what they get.”
“Fair enough.” I drank a little more coffee. “Ren, didn’t we agree that you would be staying in the farther guest house during this gathering? I’m not angry, and you face no consequences, but I would like to know why my instructions were disregarded.”
“I’m sorry, Anax.” He bowed his head. “I did go out there the other night after the first guests arrived. It was…I can’t explain it.
Too much silence. I kept hearing things.
I was terrified that the guys who assaulted me had tracked me down and would, I don’t know, kill me or something worse. I had no one to protect me.”
I started to ask what would be worse than being killed but then realized what Ren meant. There were very few things worse than death, but living in a body that had been violated in the worst way imaginable was certainly one of them in my opinion.
“So you came back to the main house so you would be safe?” I studied him.
He was staring intently at his hands, almost as if he was afraid to look at me.
“Ren, this isn’t a formal meeting. Call me Tobias, and help me understand.
If you couldn’t stand being in that house alone, how did you manage to come back here alone? ”
“I didn’t.” He lowered his chin and his voice even further. “Xavier…I don’t want anyone in trouble.”
“Xavier brought you back over here.” That explained why Xavier had wanted to stick close to Ren, though I had a strong sense that there was more to it. “How did you get hold of him?”
“He gave me his phone in case I needed something over there,” Ren said. “He said he wouldn’t need it because he was off duty. He told me which guards were on duty at night, and I texted Laurits. I thought he would send one of the night guards, but he sent Xavier over to get me.”
A man and woman approached the table. Unsurprisingly, I couldn’t bring their names to mind. I was pretty sure they’d arrived with one of the Pacific Region alphas. They stopped a few feet from the table. The woman whispered something to the man, and they walked away.
“I see,” I said in response to what Ren had just told me.
I’d heard about none of it. I would have to have a little chat with Laurits.
Even to help someone, he shouldn’t have superseded my orders without checking with me.
If the situation had been an emergency, it would have been fine, but Ren spooking at forest noises wasn’t exactly an emergency.
“Please don’t consequence them, Anax.” Finally Ren looked up, though of course he didn’t look me in the eye. “They were only trying to help me.”
“No one’s facing consequences, and I just told you to call me Tobias.” I curved my lips. “There’s something between you and Xavier, isn’t there?”
“I…” He gulped, and his face reddened. “I think so. I don’t know. I don’t know if there can be. But I think there is.”
“You don’t have to sort it all out right now.” I still didn’t know whether they’d recognized each other as mates or just potential partners, and I didn’t feel the need to ask. Ren had been through far too much in the past few days.
Right now, his focus needed to be on recovering from his beating, emotionally in particular since the physical injuries that I could see were almost completely healed now.
A little more slowly than most werewolves healed, but I chalked that up to trauma and the severity of the wounds.
“Ren, werewolves live a very long time. Some of the ones you’ve seen walking around here are closing in on two hundred years old.
You have plenty of time, you and Xavier, to decide who you are to each other, if it turns out you’re anyone to each other at all beyond friends. ”
“That’s what he told me.” Ren’s expression relaxed. “He said he wants to start as friends and see if it goes anywhere, and however long that takes is fine with him.”
“Good.” Xavier respected Ren. I wouldn’t have expected anything less of him, but I was glad to hear I’d judged Xavier’s character correctly. “Was that what you needed to talk about? Xavier?”
“Part of it.” He frowned and looked down again. “The gathering ends tomorrow. Where…You said I could stay with you. I guess I need to hear it again.”
“You can stay with me,” I said firmly. “I can make a place for you in my household. We have one cook. Chloe. Those helping her here are temp workers.”
“But they’re human?” He looked confused
I chuckled. “Yeah, some lines get a little blurry, especially where high-ranked werewolves are concerned. The temp workers pledged secrecy about who and what we are. Humans in general don’t know we exist, but the Anax and some arkhons hire humans from time to time, with steps to ensure that they don’t reveal our existence.
Anyway, they won’t be around after the gathering.
We used to have someone—another werewolf—helping Chloe in our house in Winthrop, where Kyle and I live most of the time, but she left with her mate a few months ago.
” Alisa had never officially been put to work as Chloe’s assistant, but she’d taken on the role after I hired Connor as guard.
“You could assist Chloe or Luz, our housekeeper. I don’t think I’d be comfortable having you as a guard.
You’re too new to being a werewolf. But we could talk about that, too, if you want. ”
He rapidly shook his head. “I wouldn’t want to be a guard. I couldn’t even protect myself. But I’ve done cooking and cleaning before. I mean, mostly back home before I got kicked out, but I’ve done some as work, too.”
“This isn’t a job interview, Ren.” I grinned.
He seemed actually excited about the idea of doing housework.
Then again, it would mean living in a house, and I could see where he would be excited about that after shelters and the streets.
“If you want to come back with us to Winthrop and work with Chloe or Luz, we can arrange it. I give them final say over who works with or for them, but I don’t think it will be a problem. ”
“Thank you.” His face lit up. “Tobias, you don’t have to do all of that.”
“No, but I’m going to.” His reaction told me I’d made the right decision.
“You’ll get paid, too. Everyone who works in my household, whatever their role, gets a paycheck.
All of your living expenses will be covered.
The pay is so you have money to spend on yourself and, I advise, to save in case you decide you want to leave at some point.
You don’t have to spend it. You don’t have to save it.
It will be yours to do with as you please, but I want to make sure that everyone who works for me has options. ”
Two more werewolves came toward the table. To me, they were a minor annoyance, but Ren inhaled sharply and moved his chair closer to me, his heart pounding loud enough to hear. “Anax, that’s one of them.”
“One who beat you?” Enzo had assured me he’d taken care of those who had harmed Ren. Obviously he’d missed someone. “Which one?”
“The guy in the green flannel.” He shuddered. “He wasn’t…He didn’t actually hit me. He, like, stood guard while the others did.”
“Okay. Stay here.” I got up and walked over to the pair. The man with the green and black flannel shirt flinched and immediately lowered his gaze.
I recognized him, as I should have done the moment he arrived with his Alpha. “Gregory Malkin. And you are?”
The other man, shorter with blue streaks in his hair that I was reasonably sure weren’t natural like Gregory’s blond streak, looked confused. “Arian Davies, Anax.”
“I suggest both of you walk away right now.” I glanced over my shoulder. Ren, trembling, was staring at the table. “Gregory, I will be speaking to your Alpha shortly. It would be advisable to find him yourself and come clean with him before I fill him in.”
“What…” Arian stared at the other man, who turned and hurried away before Arian could finish his question.
“Arian, how long have you been a member of Connecticut Pack?” I asked.
“Seven years, Anax.” He looked past me. “Is that…Oh, shit.” His face went red, and he immediately looked at the floor. “Apologies for the language, Anax. I believe I understand what you need to speak to our Alpha about. I didn’t know Gregory was one of them.”
“Gregory and two other trackers came here only days ago trying to find Ren Torres and return him to Connecticut Pack,” I said. “I sent them away. Ren is my wolf now.”
“Good. He deserves to be safe.” Arian took a couple of shaky breaths.
“Anax, I am the one who changed Ren. I didn’t mean to.
He startled me. We startled each other. I attacked without thought and tried to minimize the damage when I realized what I was doing, but I had already wounded him too badly.
I got help, and we brought him to the Alpha to recover. ”