Logan Chapter 124

-Emory-

I’m drooping over my waffles the next morning, trying to ignore the cooks flirting more and more outrageously with Hammer while I imagine him standing over my shoulder as I shop for underwear- or worse, menstrual products. What if I get stomach issues and he has to come with me to buy stuff for constipation? Will he have to come with me to appointments? What if I have to go to my gynecologist? Surely he’d stay in the waiting room, right? The office I go to is pretty small… would shifter hearing make his seat in the building irrelevant? I’m not sure I can deal with that.

I didn’t think about the privacy I would be giving up when I moved into the pack house, but I didn’t really have a choice either way. I’m starting to see the last bits of privacy I had slip from my fingers. At least everyone else is having a good time, I think venomously as I hear Hammer’s laugh ring out over the hyena giggles of the ladies cooking. Apparently he’s a lot more fun with people who aren’t his job. I guess I can’t blame him, but I can surely be put out about it.

When I finish up my breakfast, we’re creeping up to 9AM already, so I drag my ass into the sitting room to talk with Hammer about what babysitting me actually looks like. It takes him an extra couple of minutes to extricate himself from the clinging of the women (Should I be calling them females instead? I just hate how that sounds) in the kitchen, but he manages it and sits down in the chair across from me right on time. I take a second to be grateful that the furniture here is scaled for Logan, as the chairs I was looking at to go in here would have fallen apart beneath him. If he’d have fit in them in the first place.

“I know you’re not excited about working with me, but I appreciate your cooperation. If we can work well together, you’ll hardly notice me.” I eye him skeptically. That doesn’t seem possible.

“Please understand I have no problem with you specifically. You seem like a very nice man.” His mouth twitches in amusement. “But I just don’t think all this fuss is necessary. I really don’t do much. I mostly stick around here and take care of logistics. I’m basically a trophy wife. Trophy mate?” I can feel myself fidgeting, uncomfortable with the whole situation.

He’s still smiling when he replies. At least I’m funny. “Then I’ll get paid to do an easy job. I can’t be mad about that, and when you do eventually have to leave the pack lands, we’ll talk through it to keep you safe. It’s not often a human gets to be Luna, let alone to such a high-profile Alpha. You’re special enough to protect, ma’am. It’s not an imposition for me to do my job.” I finally take a deep breath after that speech. He’s actually very sweet.

“Thanks Hammer. I forgot to ask yesterday- are you going to teach me self-defense, too? That way I can do what needs doing even if Plan Z fails?” Huh. The guys talk about everything being an operation and Hammer talks about everything in plans. Did they all get it from James? From what I’ve seen of the rest of the pack, it has nothing to do with the general shifter psyche.

Hammer’s eyebrows shoot up. “I could do that, if it wasn’t something your mate wanted to take care of. I would be better qualified for it than he would be, but it can involve bodily contact and I know a lot of mates wouldn’t be alright with that.” I think about what would happen if we ended up looking more intimate than we are when Logan walked in one day, and I concede his point.

“I’ll ask Logan about it when he gets back from work. For now, let’s see how this planning thing goes. I need to break the lease on my old apartment and get my stuff out of it. I want some time to sort through what I’m keeping and what I’m getting rid of, if that’s possible. Where do we start?” Hammer looks pleased that we can get started, and I mentally pat myself on the back for being a good charge.

We spend most of the morning going over my apartment building, my time estimate for sorting and packing, how I would need to let Hammer enter rooms ahead of me to clear them and expectations for my behavior in general. After going over those things and what expectations I can have for him, we discuss routes and he calls Silverson so they can have a long conversation about driving techniques. Hammer explains that we won’t go over all of this every time- this is just a tutorial of all of the things he takes into consideration for each “outing.” From now on, I can just tell him where I want to go the next day and what I want to do, then he’ll give me any special instructions and take care of the rest of it on his own.

I appreciate the look into Hammer’s job and how I can make it easier for him, but it just makes me feel guiltier for making all this work every single time I want to be in public. I need to figure this shifting stuff out and learn how to fight. Hopefully Logan will agree.