Page 71 of Virtually Guarded

Not feeling so great. After this, come upstairs with me?

Absolutely.

Thanks. Ren took a breath. “Whether it’s family-family or pack-family, some people won’t feel safe. They’ll be afraid they won’t be accepted. ‘Pack’ is a little less baggage-y, though. That’s why we’re calling this a pack.”

“I get it,” the Anax said. “That’s why I’ve gone along with the name. But you’ve just brought me to what I wanted to say, Ren. This group will be a haven for those who need it. Some people need more than that, though. A virtual haven won’t be enough. I want to put together a network of safe packs. Real-world packs with leaders who are…well, I can’t promise they have no prejudices, but they’re accepting of various genders, orientations, et cetera. Some of the people who will come to Virtual Haven not only won’t feel safe, they aren’t safe. We want to give them safety.”

“So that’s what Silas was talking about.” Quinn sounded pleased. “He said something about safe packs last time Malachi and I were at his place. I think it’s a great idea.”

“How would that work, though?” Ren tilted his head. “Sending werewolves to quote-unquote safe packs? I thought the whole point was so people wouldn’t have to come out if they weren’t ready to. So you and Tobias and the arkhons and alphas wouldn’t know who they are.” His voice rose, and he tensed, gripping my hand more tightly. “Are we supposed to just out them to you?”

“We’ve been talking about that.” Kyle held up his hand. “I hear you, Ren, and I have the same concern. The pack network would be put into play when someone legitimately can’t stay in their current pack. Like, their physical safety or even their life is at risk. I agree no one should be outed against their will, but maybe if it comes down to a choice between being outed or not surviving…” He shrugged.

“We wouldn’t have to out anyone,” Jamie said. “If someone joins the group and we have reason to believe they’re in danger, we could encourage them to talk to the Anax, or ask them if we can give the Anax their name. Then it’s still their choice. I think that would be a discussion for the admins of the group, right?”

“Sure.” Ren took a deep breath and pressed against me. I put my arm around him, and he relaxed. “As long as the admins agree that no one’s outed without consent. We’ll talk about that when we talk about Quinn’s recs for admins.”

“I agree,” the Anax said. “Anyone who needs to change packs comes to me of their own free will, or at least gives an admin permission to come to me on their behalf. We’ll fine-tune it as we go. My only contribution is getting in touch with the alphas whose packs I believe would be safe, and that’s what I’ll be working on today. I’ve already got Justin Ruel and Kirk McCoy on board. We know City and Boston North are safe.”

“Absolutely,” Trey said. “I have a couple of thoughts on how we can get people to the safe packs, but I’ll hold off on that until the admin meeting.”

“Which brings me to one final question, and then Tobias and I’ll leave you to it.” Kyle sat up straighter. “We’re launching tomorrow. The day after full moon, Virtual Haven will be open to anyone who meets the criteria. We’ve set up a sort of security checkpoint. Anyone who wants to join has to answer some questions and then speak, by video if possible or at least over the phone, with one of the admins. We have a confidentiality agreement that people who join will be asked to sign onto. All of you sitting here have agreed to be admins, at least while we get this off the ground. Are you still okay with doing that?”

“Keeping a low profile has saved my ass plenty of times.” Ren scoffed. “Guess those days are over.”

“So are the days of needing to save your own ass.” I hugged him briefly, and he took a breath. “I get it, though. We will all be out there. Which means we’ll all be out.”

“Not necessarily,” Quinn said. “I mean, yeah, people will assume we’re LGBTQ-something, but they won’t know for sure. We don’t have to tell anyone anything. I’m in, Kyle.”

“I didn’t say I wasn’t.” Ren sighed. “You know I’m in. I wouldn’t have spent all that time helping you build it otherwise.”

The rest of us expressed our agreement. In my case, it was mainly because I didn’t want Ren to have to deal with it alone. Not that he would have been by himself entirely, with at least four other admins, but he was still so new to all of this. I wanted to be there for his sake. Though the way he’d taken charge, he didn’t exactly need backup from me.

The Anax and Kyle thanked us all and left the room. “We should order pizza,” Jamie said. “Except of course Quinn and Russ wouldn’t be able to partake.”

“Yeah, and there’s no damn pizza delivery here in the middle of nowhere Maine,” Russ grumbled. “Though Max is trying to get his boss to start a delivery service. He works in a convenience store nearby.”

“We don’t get delivery here either,” Quinn said. “Or pizza, usually.”

“And just like that, the meeting turns from Virtual Haven to food.” Ren grinned. “Jamie, if you want to order for those of us who are here, go for it. I’ll chip in.”

“I’ll cover it. Y’all can pay me back later.” Jamie took out his phone.

“Meanwhile, confidentiality.” Ren lowered his voice. “We do have a confidentiality pledge members will be expected to agree to. Personally, I think we need to have stronger measures. Compulsion, maybe. And there needs to be more consequence than just ‘you’re out of the group’ if they break it. We don’t have to figure it out completely right now, but I want it on our radar. There will be people who join just to start shit. We want to weed them out and make sure they don’t cause harm to anyone else.”

“I hate the idea of compelling people to keep their mouths shut.” Jamie dropped his phone on the cushion beside him. “What’s the point of this group if we can’t trust its members?”

“Unfortunately, whenever humans are involved—or the human aspects of werewolves—people will be dicks,” I said. “I agree with Ren. Let’s set that aside, though, for now. Play it by ear. I know we want to avoid harm, but maybe we need to assume best intentions, at least with anyone who joins during the soft launch.”

“We’ll sort it out.” With a sigh, Ren pulled away and flopped back, arms folded. “This is a lot. Not what I expected to be doing when I showed up at the hunt house last month.”

“You’re doing amazing,” I said.

He rolled his eyes. “Thanks.”

“However we make it work, this is needed.” Russ spoke passionately, his emotions nearly palpable even through the computer. “I’ve been the person panicking about anyone finding out I was gay. About being kicked out of my pack, or worse. Hell, that fear made me lose a quarter-century with the man I love. If we help even one person not have to go through that, we’ve done good work.”

His voice trembled. All of us fell silent. Aside from Russ, I was the oldest of the group, but he had at least ten years on me. As bad as things could be for people like us, he’d lived through a time when in many places, it wasn’t safe to be out at all. As a werewolf or a human.