“That sounds pretty crappy.”
He shrugged. “Sometimes it feels crappy. But I signed up for it, and I don’t regret it. Usually.” He touched his lips to mine. “I’ll probably be hanging around with the Boston wolves and Ren. If I can get Ren away from Xavier. There’s something brewing between the two of them.”
“More power to them if there is.” I didn’t even have enough mental bandwidth to be happy for them. “I’ll come find you when I have a moment. The arkhons will have to be instated in front of everyone, so if the process is done tonight, we’ll be meeting before bed.”
“Great. A late meeting filled with exhausted werewolves. That’ll be fun.” He rolled his eyes. “See you soon. I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Only five names from Pacific Region and four from Southeast were passed along to me as possibilities to take the rank of Arkhon. I sent each of the arkhons who’d recommended those people to summon them to my office, and I asked each Arkhon to sit in on the interview of their recommendation so I would have second opinions. When I narrowed down my choices to one for each region, I called their pack members in to get their honest opinions of their alphas. Ultimately, I chose Roy Ebenezer as Arkhon of the Southeast Region and Chris Jennings, Alpha of Job Peak Pack in Nevada, as Arkhon of the Pacific Region.
By the time that was concluded, it was nearly eight at night. Even though I knew some of my guests likely wanted to get to their rooms, I called the entire gathering to the auditorium. Speaking quickly so I wouldn’t have to contend with a bunch of restless werewolves, I instated Roy and Chris. Then I placed a video call to Solomon McMaster, the new Alpha of Salton Pack, and formally instated him.
And then, thank gods, I was finished for the night. Instating the alphas who would replace Roy and Chris could wait untilmorning. Trailed by Laurits, who had come on duty with the other night guards somewhere along the line, Kyle and I went up to our room. We undressed and lay down, and as soon as my head was on Kyle’s chest and his arms were aroundme, I fell asleep.
Chapter Thirteen
The followingmorning, 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 houseduring 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 anemergency, 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 moreslowly 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?”
