Page 28 of Virtually Guarded

Kyle returned and stayed in his chair in the corner of the room, listening and observing without a word. He had a gift for insight into people and how the werewolf world operated, and sometimes the Anax asked him to be present for meetings and discussions. Mandeep stood behind the Anax, monitoring and occasionally making notes. And I remained near the door, braced for any threat or conflict that would necessitate me defending the Anax. Fortunately, there were none.

As sunset and moonrise got closer, the Anax became noticeably agitated. Finally, he said, “Mandeep, let it be known that I’m no longer available to meet with anyone. I need to prepare for the hunt. Xavier, you’re dismissed. Kyle and I’ll be in our room.”

“With respect, Anax, someone needs to guard you even if you’re in your room,” I said. I wished that someone didn’t have to be me, but it was, after all, my job.

“Seth can. You should go find Ren.” He smiled, but there was a weariness in his eyes. “I need space. I’ll let Seth know I’ve set you off duty for now.”

“Thank you, Anax.” Seth would probably have a few things to say about that, but for the moment, I took advantage of the dismissal and went to look for Ren.

I found him in a corner of the parlor, seated on the floor with his knees drawn up to his chest. His face was turned up toward the window beside him, though I doubted he saw anything other than the sky from where he sat. I knelt beside him. “Hey. I thought Kyle was going to connect you with some people.”

“He did. I didn’t feel social.” He shrugged. “It’s getting worse. This whatever it is. The moon, I guess? I just want to be away from everyone, and there are too many people here. I didn’t know if it would be okay to go outside.”

“Should I leave you alone?” Sitting back on my heels, I tried not to feel rejected. It was completely understandable that Ren was overwhelmed. Even the Anax didn’t deal well with being surrounded by people on the day of the full moon, and Ren had more reason than the Anax to feel antsy among this many strangers.

He shook his head, and my heart rose. “I know I said I want to be away from everyone, but I wasn’t counting you as part of everyone.”

“Okay.” In that case, I decided to sit instead of kneeling. It would be more comfortable. I changed position and moved a little closer to him. “No one’s given you a hard time, have they?”

He shook his head. “The people Kyle introduced me to were nice. And Suzannah was around for a bit. I just couldn’t deal with people, so I came in here. Even though there are people here.”

“You didn’t want to go to your room?”

Again he shook his head. “Being alone felt worse. I don’t know what’s going on up here.” He tapped the side of his head. “Guessing my wolf and I are having a dispute about how to get ready for the hunt or something. I want to be alone but I want to be around others. I want to hide, but I want to be seen. I want…” He trailed off. “Never mind.”

“Yeah.” I had a sense of what he hadn’t said. On full moon nights, our wolves tended to take control even before we shifted. My wolf clamored for me to claim my mate, to take him upstairs and strip him and make love to him until there was no question that we were bound together.

I wouldn’t do it. Wolf or not, mate bond regardless, Ren and I had only known each other for a couple of days. And he’d been through plenty of hell in that time. Eventually, maybe he would accept me as his mate and allow himself to be claimed. But that wasn’t happening now, and I refused to let the moon have that much control over me.

“What happens on hunt nights?” Ren asked. “I mean, besides the obvious.”

Relieved at the change of subject, I settled myself and held out my hand. He didn’t take it, but given his tangible agitation, that wasn’t surprising. “Because of the gathering, tonight won’t be a typical hunt night. Usually packs each hunt in their own territory. City and Boston North are an exception; until a couple of years ago, they were officially considered to be a single pack, even though everyone knew Boston North was its own pack and not part of City. Weird werewolf bureaucratic bullshit.”

He snorted. “Even shifters have red tape? Okay. So they don’t hunt in their own territories?”

“Boston North can’t. Their territory is mostly just East Boston. There’s nowhere to run and hunt in the city.” The Anax had explained all of this to me when I first came to work for him. Since we lived just outside of East Boston, we also hunted with the two packs. “This house used to belong to someone in City Pack. She moved to Florida with her partner, a human who needed a warmer climate, and sold the place to the Anax last fall so he would have somewhere to host the national gathering. Or to run. City and Boston North always hunted together here, and now the Anax and Kyle and the rest of us hunt with them.”

“Okay.” He looked irritated. “So what happens on hunt nights, though? Like, any hunt night. Tonight. Every month. Whatever. I don’t know what happens, and I need to, or I’m going to lose my shit.”

His voice rose, and he clenched one fist in his lap. He wasn’t angry, though. I could feel that. He was scared.

Hopefully having information would help him calm down. His emotions were feeding mine, and the last thing I wanted was to lose my temper in front of him. “Some people will eat and drink to fuel up for shifting. You’ll need to be prepared to see people walking around nude. We can’t shift with clothes on, and as moonrise approaches, some people just plain can’t tolerate wearing anything. It doesn’t mean anything to most of us.”

“Thanks for the warning,” he muttered. “I’ll have to strip too, but at least I won’t be the only one.”

“Right.” I paused, trying to think of what else to tell him. “The Anax will tell everyone when to go outside, when to shift, when to run. Everyone is supposed to stay with a group. You can stay with me if you want. I’ll be on duty. All of the guards will be. But we hunt like everyone else, and I don’t think the Anax will mind if I have you in my group.”

“Okay.” He touched his tongue to his upper lip. “Okay. That will be good. At least I’ll be with someone I trust.”

“Mostly we just run,” I said to hide how much his statement warmed me. “Some wolves will catch prey animals and eat them. If our group catches anything, we share it with the group but don’t have to share it with anyone else.”

“Wait. You eat raw…” He gagged. “Okay. I’m down with the just running thing.”

“Wolves,” I reminded him. “When we’re in wolf form, we act like animals, because we are. But some prefer not to hunt. They just want to run. Like Kyle. He’s vegan, you know.”

“A vegan werewolf?” He raised his eyebrows. “How does that work?”

I shrugged. “Pretty well, for Kyle at least. You must have noticed the vegan foods on the buffets. Anyone’s allowed to eat them, but they’re there for Kyle.”