“ I s this a proposition you should have run by me first?” Yelena asked.

“Probably” was my only reply.

Yelena rolled her eyes and gestured for me to continue. “Carry on.”

“I think you should make Logan a Protector.”

Squawks of “ What?!” sounded all around the table.

“What are you talking about?” Logan asked, pawing at my arm.

“Just hear me out,” Caden insisted.

Once the table fell silent, I explained, “Protector Calliope can only fulfill partial duties right now, and there is a literal monster at your gates. We all need those wards to hold, and Logan, so far as we know, has the power to do that. We need a safe haven, and you need her power to keep this place just that. I’m not suggesting that it be a permanent arrangement by any means.

We don’t want to stay here, but while we are here, it would be a show of trust.”

“You want her to replace me?” Calliope asked, eyes shiny.

“Not at all. I want her to help you. Having temporary assistance to do the things you can’t do while you’re taking care of your body and awaiting your cubs sounds like a good thing to me.”

Calliope chewed her lip, and Murdoch laced his fingers with hers. “I suppose I wouldn’t mind some help.”

“You can’t be serious,” Kendrick said. “These three are the reason we’re in this mess. They’ve been here a matter of days, turned our whole fucking world upside down, and now they want a seat at the table?”

“Yes,” I said calmly. “None of this is ideal for anyone. But your whole job is to protect the people of this nest. Do you think you’ll be able to do that if the wards fail?”

Kendrick pressed his lips together.

“This is ridiculous,” said Shakti. “You’re pets, not Protectors.”

“I’d be willing to entertain the idea,” Yelena added. Her gaze was like fire when we made eye contact. Was she…trusting me?

“Me too,” said Velda. “At least temporarily.”

“For fuck’s sake.” Kendrick ran a hand through his hair. “This is bullshit.”

“Calliope, what do you say?” Yelena asked. “You’re the tiebreaker.”

“I guess. But only until I can return to duties.”

“You’re all out of your minds.” Kendrick crossed his arms, lips pouting as he focused on Logan. “You’d really give your panthers to Yelena for this?”

Logan had been sitting frozen next to me through this. “What do you mean?”

“You can be on level with us, but those two,” he said, gesturing to Seth and me, “they belong to Yelena, no matter what position you hold.”

Logan’s gaze whipped toward me. “Caden?”

“We’ll discuss those details later, precious,” Yelena said. And you and I will be having a discussion as well.

Well, at least I knew Yelena was pissed. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

“We should have a ceremony to induct her,” said Velda. “The nest will need to know about her new position.”

“This is absurd.” Shakti hurled a muffin at Logan and I whacked it out of the air. “You can’t just vote in another Protector. This should be unanimous.”

“We’re never unanimous on anything because you and Kendrick get your rocks off being contrarian,” Yelena sniped.

“Well, excuuuse me for offering a different perspective.” Shakti crossed her arms with a huff. “Someone has to with you three up one another’s asses.”

“Having similar opinions doesn’t mean anyone is up anyone else’s ass.”

Velda growled. “It’s temporary anyway. What’s the big deal?”

“The big deal is that we can’t set the fucking precedent of pets becoming Protectors.” Kendrick looked like he was about to have a stroke. “How do we know she didn’t bring the monster here on purpose to leverage herself into this position.”

Logan let out a squeak. “I wouldn’t!”

Haru’s howl rippled through the room, cutting the fight off. Have some dignity. Act like you deserve the positions you have.

If we had done anything on purpose to gain control, the Protectors had certainly exposed their fractures that would make it easy to do so.

The lines seemed to be drawn pretty deeply in the sand with Shakti and Kendrick on one side, Yelena and Velda on the other, with Calliope set up as the tie breaker.

If they allowed Logan to be a Protector, even a temporary one, that power dynamic would shift fully to Yelena and Velda.

At best Kendrick and Shakti could hope for a gridlock in the votes. No wonder they were reluctant.

“I don’t even know what all a Protector does,” Logan said tentatively, “but I do want the nest to be safe, and that’s the biggest part of the job, isn’t it?”

“There’s no need to show off your ignorance, witch,” Shakti replied.

“This is exactly why it’s a terrible idea,” Kendrick added. “We put our fortunes and our power into this nest together. A shifter nest, might I fucking add. A witch shouldn’t even be here. If the monster is here because of her, maybe we should toss her out and get rid of the problem.”

I stood up so fast the chair clattered to the floor behind me. “If you even try, I will hunt you down and eat you for breakfast.”

“Yelena, control your pets!”

“For fuck’s sake.”

Calliope banged her mug down on the table like a gavel until everyone fell silent.

“Everyone shut up! Stress is bad for the babies and you’re all wigging me out.

” She took a deep breath when the room was fully quiet and everyone was still.

“Good, now, we’re all going to listen to me, because I’m the one who would be temporarily replaced, and I think I should get final say in that.

I’m willing to give the witch a chance and see how this pans out.

We all know I could use the help right now.

No one can go anywhere with that monster out there and we are not going to sacrifice anyone who came here for a safe haven.

Otherwise what’s the fucking point of the nest to begin with?

If Yelena will part with Logan, then I’m casting my vote for her to be a temporary Protector until I can resume full duties again, or until they can solve the monster problem and want to leave. ”

“Where is she supposed to live?” Kendrick asked. “We only have suites for the five of us.”

“She can continue staying with me,” said Yelena. “Besides, she’ll need to be trained, and Calliope needs to rest. I can handle the training, and Logan will still have time to work on her task of learning her magic and trying to get rid of the monster for us.”

“Logan—” Velda drew everyone’s focus. “—you’ve been pretty quiet through this whole exchange. What are your thoughts?”

“It feels like there’s too many to voice.”

“Let’s work through them one at a time, precious.”

Logan took a deep breath and squeezed her fingers in mine.

“Okay, well, for starters, I don’t have any fortune to put behind a nest. I’m taking a leave of absence from work right now for what they think is a family emergency, and if I want to continue getting paid I’ll have to start doing that again sometime soon. ”

“Fair point,” said Yelena. “What else?”

“I don’t really have any leadership experience, but I’m definitely willing to learn.

Whatever power I know how to use is pretty much at the disposal of the nest, but I’m probably going to need help with research and figuring out the full extent of my magic.

I will also need help getting into contact with other witches.

I know that they can’t come here, but if I could do a call or a video chat and try to get some more answers…

I don’t really know any personally, except for Melinda Kyle, who helped us on the way in, but she’s in Europe now, so I have no idea who to reach out to.

Oh, and we need to find Anya, but we don’t know anything about her.

I think she’s some sort of witch archivist… ”

“So we’re all supposed to drop everything and help you with this?” Kendrick asked.

“What else were you planning to do while we’re on lockdown?” Velda asked.

“I’m really not here to step on anyone’s toes,” said Logan.

“We came here because we were desperate to save Seth and didn’t know where else to go.

We’re all alive right now because of this nest, and I want to keep everyone here safe.

I don’t even need the full authority, just some autonomy.

The sooner we can figure all this out, the better for everyone, right? ”

“I’ll entertain it if I can train her,” said Kendrick.

Logan stiffened next to me. Even if we hadn’t already heard all about Kendrick from Yelena, he had given a shit impression of himself today.

“We will all train her, if you’re going to insist on being part of it,” said Yelena. “I can agree to you doing some of the training, but you’re not going to be alone with her.”

Logan relaxed a fraction, and while Kendrick did pout, he eventually agreed.

“Now that we’ve decided, I think we should let things settle for a few hours. We’ll go to my suite for now and have a meeting later once everyone has had a chance to cool down. Calliope, thank you for a lovely breakfast.”

The five of us departed back down the hall and safely behind Yelena’s door. She spun around, looking like she was ready to knock me into next week.

“What the fuck was that? Do you have such a problem with authority that you couldn’t even be bothered to run your idea for the future of my nest by me? I shouldn’t have to be told to get a handle on anyone who belongs to me. I expect better behavior.”

I bristled. “What would you have said if I had gone to you first?”

“I guess we’ll never know since you didn’t do that.”

“Why didn’t you ask me first?” Logan asked. “You kind of put me on the spot there.”

I sighed, rubbing my hands over my face. “In all fairness I didn’t know I was going to say anything when we walked in. I’ve been mulling over the idea, and then I just felt the urge to open my mouth. I’m sorry. That’s not something I should’ve sprung on anyone.”

“Apology not accepted,” Yelena snapped. “If you undermine my authority again, especially where others can see it, there will be consequences. In fact, your consequence for this time is that you will not be accompanying Logan on any of her training.”

“You can’t do that,” I insisted. “She needs me.”

Yelena growled, and while I wanted to push back, the display cowed me.

“You have no idea of how tenuous the balance of power is here. You can’t just do whatever the hell you want. Haru will accompany Logan and you will remain here.”

Seth let out a choked-off laugh. It looked like he tried to silence it, but it snuck out anyway.

“Speak your mind, panther,” Yelena said, leaning up against the wall.

“So he’s grounded?”

The question brought a smile to Yelena’s face and a rush of heat to mine.

“Closer to house arrest, but yes.”

“For how long?” I asked.

Yelena shrugged. “That depends on how fucking insufferable Kendrick is going to be because of you.”

My shoulders scrunched up by my ears and Logan hugged onto my arm. “You were trying to help. More communication would’ve been nice, but I know you’re scared here. I know the lack of control freaks you out because I feel it too. We have to trust a little more than we have been.”

“Precisely.” Yelena moved to stand directly in front of me, her dark eyes flashing gold with power.

“I know you don’t like the way of things here, but I need you to trust that I take care of what is mine and while you are here, you are mine.

I won’t be surrendering you or your brother to Logan. Call it an insurance policy.”

“So what happens now?” Seth asked.

“You will continue healing, your brother will help Logan with whatever she needs within the confines of this suite, we’ll get Logan set up for her job, and I will get both our librarian and Cora on the task to find people who can help.

Other than that, we’ll have to figure out what duties are being taken over for Calliope, and we’ll have to do a full education on the workings of the nest.”

“When am I supposed to sleep?” Logan asked playfully, trying to defuse the lingering tension in the room.

“Unfortunately, precious, you’ve already seen that sleep can be a luxury for us. I will get as many people as I can to assist, but this won’t be easy.”