This Redhead Needs No Protector

When I got back to my seat, Kieran was turned around, talking to the girl behind him.

He saw me and asked the way he always did, “Where’s your hat?”

I touched my hair.

Without the dark gray knit cap, there was no hiding the red I’d been born with. Afternoon sunlight caught the ends, bright as a flame that refused to go out.

“Lost it.”

He frowned and pulled the curtain beside me shut, blocking the looks coming in from the hallway.

“Wait for me tonight. I’ll walk you home.”

For a moment, I almost believed I’d misheard him on picture day.

Most werewolves in the Blackpine Pack had brown or black hair. My red hair came from my human mother. It didn’t prove anything by itself, but to anyone who knew me, it was a reminder.

Half-blood.

My father was a full pack member, and I’d lived in the territory all my life. My ID still listed me as a “Dependent Resident.”

I could shift, but I’d never been able to access the pack’s shared mind-link. I couldn’t hear territorial alerts. I couldn’t hear patrol orders sent through the woods.

That meant I wasn’t allowed to take the forest shortcut between the academy and the residential district alone after dark.

Kieran was my registered escort.

His name had been on the paperwork since we were fifteen.

After school, someone came to get him.

He picked up his jacket, reached the door, then looked back.

“Wait here a little while. I’ll be right back.”

So I waited.

Two full hours.

I wanted to call him, but my phone had died.

Outside, the sky slowly darkened. People left the building one by one. Eventually, even the custodian wheeled her cart away.

A teacher passing the classroom stopped when she saw me.

“Ivy? Why aren’t you home yet?”

She knew about the restrictions on my ID and offered to take me through the checkpoint.

I shook my head.

“Kieran said he’d come back. I don’t want him to miss me.”

She looked at my dead phone, then used her own to call him.

Twenty minutes later, Kieran appeared in the doorway, slightly out of breath.

“I texted you. I told you to go ahead.”

I held up my phone.

“It died.”

He looked at me for a long moment. His lips parted, but in the end, he offered no explanation.

“Let’s go.”

He barely spoke on the way home. Most of the time, he was answering messages.

There was an unfamiliar scent on him.

Juniper, mixed with something green and faintly bitter.

It hadn’t been there that morning.

At the entrance to the residential district, someone called his name.

A few people stood beneath a streetlight. One girl wore a pale coat, her blond hair falling over her shoulders.

The same scent drifted from her.

Kieran hurried over.

“What are you guys doing here?”

“The place we’re going is nearby. We thought we’d pick you up.”

Her voice was bright and clear. I’d heard it plenty of times.

Viola Hale. The daughter of a pack council member, and the most popular pureblood girl at the academy.

“Give me a minute. I need to walk her in.”

A boy beside her gave an impatient laugh.

“We’re already in the residential district. You have to take her to the door? She’s got legs.”

One of Kieran’s friends explained, “Ivy’s ID won’t get her through the inner checkpoint.”

“Isn’t her dad a werewolf? How long is she going to use those rules to keep Kieran on a leash?”

The boy glanced at me.

“It’s Viola’s birthday, and he still had to come all the way back to pick her up. You think she does it on purpose?”

I stood where I was, my fingers slowly curling into my palms.

When Kieran came back, I kept my voice low.

“Go with them. I can manage the rest.”

He hesitated.

“You sure?”

“I’m sure.”

I turned and walked into the residential district.

Their voices followed me.

“Hey, Kieran. Not taking your little half-blood girlfriend back to her den?”

“She’s my friend. Knock it off.”

My feet stopped.

In all the years we’d known each other, that was the first time he’d been so quick to set anyone straight.

People had teased us before. He’d never bothered explaining.

Why did it matter now?

Because Viola was there?

I followed the path deeper into the district. It wasn’t until I reached the inner checkpoint that I remembered the night patrol had already started.

The guard glanced at my ID.

“Where’s your escort?”

“He had something to do. I can—”

“No. Wait for him or take the outer road.”

I took my ID back. As I turned, my heel caught in a gap in the drain grate, and I went down hard.

My palm scraped across the rough stone, burning with pain.

I sat there, suddenly unable to understand how I’d ended up like this.

Kieran hadn’t always been this way.

Our families lived next door to each other. When we were little, he’d hold my hand on the way to the academy. When other kids pulled my hair, he’d step between us.

During our first shifting lesson, the other pups had left me on my own. He’d broken away from his group and settled beside me.

“Then I’ll be on your team,” he’d said.

When had I become a chore?

“Ivy!”

Quick footsteps sounded behind me.

Kieran crouched and helped me off the ground.

“This is what you meant by managing?”

His voice was sharp, but his hands were gentle as he checked my wrist.

Then he showed the guard his ID, took my arm, and led me through the checkpoint.

Just as he had countless times before.

I looked at his profile, and the hope that had almost gone out in my chest began to glow again.

He still cared.

I told myself that.

At least he’d come back.