do anything?” The senior soldier had to know Kenji’s physical isolation was dangerous.
“She talked to him, said he seemed fine. No edge, no sudden temper or mood swings, same Kenji he’s always been.”
Garnet had to admit Kenji looked fine, but as she’d already remembered, Kenji Tanaka was great at putting on a front. He’d done it all the time as a child while his parents were yelling down the den and snarling at one another. Satoshi and Miko Tanaka were a rare changeling couple who’d been together and stable long enough to produce a child, but who now couldn’t stand one another.
They’d separated for good when Kenji was twelve, but their relationship had been a battlefield long before then. Kenji had never seemed affected by the loudness of their fights or how passionately they made up. He’d always been the fun kid, the one who could make everyone laugh—and who could play the violin with so much wild emotion that it made adults weep and children dance.
Garnet had seen below that talented, laughing surface only because she’d caught him out when he was ten and she was eight.
She’d found him curled up all alone behind a tree by the lake, crying so hard his body shook. It had hurt her to see her friend so sad. Going up to hug him hadn’t even been a question, and Kenji had let her. He’d always let her hug him, no matter how annoyed they might be with each other. She’d take advantage of that.
“All right,” she said in a meticulously even tone. “Go find out about Mitchell.”
Revel nodded.
She touched his forearm as he went to open the door, his skin lightly dusted with dark hair. “When you do meet her, she’ll be a lucky woman.”
A cocky smile she might’ve expected from Kenji but never from Revel—which showed exactly how deeply she knew one man and not the other. Because if her normally serious right-hand man had such cockiness in him, he needed a mate who could bring out that playful side . . . just as Kenji needed a mate who saw beneath the carefree face he presented to the world, a woman he could trust with his hurts as well as his joy.
“I know,” Revel said, grazing his fingers over her cheek.
Leaving the office, the two of them headed in different directions. Garnet decided to go to the packmate who was in charge of the junior soldiers, see what he had to say about Eloise.
“Good kid,” was Yejun’s summation. “A little too straitlaced, but she’s loosening up.” His grin made it clear the experienced trainer liked Eloise, regardless of her straitlaced nature. “You think she had something to do with what happened to Russ?”
Garnet kept her answer simple, uninflammatory. She had no intention of causing Eloise any trouble if her young packmate had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. “She found him—I have to clear her.”
“Right.” Yejun’s nod made the simulated sunlight of the den gleam on his cleanly shaved head. “Well”—the grizzled old wolf scratched his stubbled jaw, his brown skin lined with life—“I can’t see her getting heated up over Russ.” A dubious expression. “That girl has the pups trailing after her with their tongues hanging out.” He shook his head. “Boys these days, they have no pride when it comes to a strong woman with dangerous curves.”
Garnet wasn’t about to fall for his morose tone. “Did you at that age?”
A big laugh, eyes glinting mischievously. “Hell no. Pride gets you a lonely bed.” His expression turned smug. “My bed is filled with a gorgeous armful of strong woman with highly dangerous curves—you think I lassoed my mate by being a shrinking violet? Hah!”
Garnet’s lips twitched. Since Yejun’s mate, Sabrina, was a powerful wolf who’d held Revel’s position until she decided to semi-retire—emphasis on the semi, Garnet had a good idea of what their courtship must’ve involved. “Anything else I should know about Eloise as it applies to this situation?”
Tinkering with a small device he was apparently fixing, Yejun took a moment to think. “I know Eloise is studying as well as doing her soldier training. I’m fairly certain it involves math, so she could’ve been a student of Russ’s.” Lines formed between his eyebrows. “And yeah, she picked up a few hours of work with the den maintenance team to save up for a special trip.”
“Thanks, Yejun. I’ll check it all out.” She touched his shoulder as she left—just because he was a mature