Deja Vu: The Healer

Chapter 44: Ready to Talk

WILLIAM

Jeremy's ready to talk. Meeting in council room three in fifteen minutes. Eric's link directed.

I would not have Kara getting caught up any more in this mess, so I got her set up with a project at home and headed down to the council room.

Walking in the large grey-blue boardroom with one wall taken up by a white board, I sat at the long rectangular table to Eric's right, and placed my files down. I looked over the oak table and all the nail scratches from previous shifts, some even my own.

We were still waiting on John so I absentmindedly stared at the long bench behind Jeremy and Garrett. It was built-in to the wall, wide enough a wolf could prop there if they shifted. Jer and Garrett were chatting on about some tv show Jer watched last night, and Tarin was checking something on her phone. This would most likely be her last council meeting as she was just filling in for Blake as Head Tech.

Eric looked up from the head of the table. "Where's Kara?"

"She's busy at home."

He seemed disapproving. "Don't you think she should come to this meeting?"

"This isn't about her. This is about Jeremy. She doesn't need to be caught up in this."

Eric looked at Jeremy down the table for a flash. "She might already be."

"She's busy. I'll tell her anything she needs to know. She's still adjusting." Though that was a lie. Seemed like she was adjusting fine. I just couldn't have her hearing whatever Jeremy had to say and feeling like she needed to race out and kill herself trying to save all those creatures before she was ready.

I took a moment and started sliding mine and Kara's connection closed as best I could make it without feeling too sealed. Just enough that she couldn't watch what was happening. It tightened my chest, but hopefully she would be too busy with painting all day to notice.

Eric sat back in his chair and shrugged. "Your funeral dude."

I scowled. "And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Just that Andrea would skin me alive if she thought I was holding something out on her. I may be the formerly scarred alpha, but next to her I might as well be a poodle."

Garret and Jeremy laughed.

I did not. "Kara is fine."

"I know she's fine, but she needs to know..."

I caught Eric in my glare. "I will not have her being worried about this."

Tarin cut in her two cents. "Will, if this is about keeping her protected, she needs to know what's coming."

"I can keep her protected!" My fingers clenched around the arm rests of my swivel chair.

She sat back and rolled her eyes. "Alright."

Jeremy shot me a look from across the table. "Will. Bro. Stop acting like a raging teenager that needs to shield their mate. You're thirty. She can defend herself."

As if I needed reminding, Eric mentioned, "she jumped out of a four-story window and walked away ten seconds later."

Jeremy added enthusiastically, "and she even got shot!"

Eric grinned over to him, eager. "I haven't heard that story."

"This conversation is over," I stated finally.

"That punk vet...." Jer started.

"Gentlemen!" I scolded. "We are done with Kara!"

"Okay, okay," Jeremy conceded. "But don't come crying to me if she freaks out that you kept her in the dark."