Page 7 of Poet & Protector

“A dollar?!” I gaped at him.

Even a dilapidated bar like the Burnout would sell for millions on the real estate market. Sale of the land alone would have made Bruce a fortune.

Tom nodded. “I couldn’t believe it either, but I wasn’t fool enough to refuse. I also knew I was making the old man happy by keeping his legacy alive. He gave me a job and a home and then he gave me the rest of my life. Not a day goes by where I’m not grateful to him.”

“Did you ever hear from him again?” I asked.

“Every so often I’d get a postcard,” Tom replied. “Last one arrived about ten years after he’d sold me the place. Alaska. Nothing after that. I’ve come to think ‘the Last Frontier’ was his, too.”

I wondered if I should offer my sympathies, but Tom’s expression suggested he thought it was the kind of end to life Bruce had hoped for.

“So was the Bunker something you inherited from him, too?”

Tom shook his head. “That came about not too long after Bruce’s final postcard. One night, late, two guys came into the bar. Big guys. They headed straight for the bathroom, but one of them looked really beat up. Bleedin’ bad. I kept an eye on the door ’cause I was fairly certain trouble would follow right after them. A few minutes later they came out of the bathroom and bellied up to the bar to order drinks like there’d been nothing odd about their arrival. There was also no sign that the hurt guy had been injured…at all. No bruises, no blood.”

“They were Guardians,” I said.

“Yeah, but I had no clue,” he replied. “That was back when I thought magic and monsters only existed in fairy tales. They enjoyed their drinks like any normal customers and left. I decided I must have imagined the injuries and wrote off the whole thing. But they liked the drinks or the Burnout enough to come back a second time. That night we had live music and I was on the drum kit. One of the guys approached me after the show. He was a musician, too—a bassist—and he’d been looking for a place to play.”

“Really?” That Guardian was brave. We were discouraged from extracurricular activities in general, but any involving humans were especially off limits.

Tom nodded. “I’m always looking for new musicians to play here, and I was happy to have him. I was even happier when it turned out he had talent. He became a regular in our live shows and that meant he was here late. He often helped me close up. Then we’d start talking. Those talks sometimes lasted until sunrise. There was that kind of connection that’s hard to describe, but when you have it with another person, you don’t want to let it go. Lucky for me, he didn’t want to let it go either.”

My eyes widened. This was a love story.

Tom caught my astonished expression and laughed. “Didn’t see that coming, huh?”

Embarrassed, I shook my head as Jackie’s laughter joined Tom’s.

“Did he tell you he was a Guardian?” I asked, unable to keep the shock out of my voice.

“Not for a while,” Tom answered. “A long while, though I think he was hoping I’d put it together myself. He didn’t hide a few things he could have if he wanted to keep me in the dark.”

He chuckled, stroking his chin, eyes alight with memories. “His strength should have been my first clue. I’m a big guy. Bigger than him. The way he could throw me around…don’t get me wrong, good times. But he shouldn’t have been able to manhandle me, if you’ll pardon the phrase, like that.”

Jackie was grinning at him. I couldn’t stop the blush in my cheeks. He was so open about who he was and his relationship with a Guardian. It was shocking. It was also wonderful.

“After a year, he sat me down and said we needed to have a talk,” Tom said. “No one wants to hear their partner say those words. They usually mean ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ is coming up next. But he said he’d been keeping a secret and he couldn’t anymore. That’s when he told me he was a wolf.”

I watched him, rapt with attention. I didn’t think I’d ever been this invested in a story. It was all so unbelievable.

“At first I thought he’d gone insane,” Tom said. “Then he shifted into a wolf…and I thought I’d gone insane. But he talked me through it, told me about the Guardians’ whole world, the Keepers, the war. There’s really no coming back from that.”

“And you stayed with him?” I asked. “Romantically?”

“A reasonable person would have ended it,” Tom replied, smiling wistfully. “But I’ve never been a particularly conventional guy. Plus, I’m stubborn as hell and I was in love. And the wolf…I couldn’t bring myself to let him go. The rest is history.”

He gestured to the space around us. “As well as the present. It was his idea to create this place. A refuge for wolves like him.”

Amazing.

“Thank you,” I said. “To both of you. This place…I’m glad it’s here.”

“And we’re glad you’re here.” He patted my shoulder. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to be a polite host and make the rounds. Have a good evening.”

“’Night, Tom.” Jackie smiled at him.

When he’d moved on, she turned to me. “He’s a good man.”