Logan Chapter 128

-Emory-

When Hammer and I arrive back at the pack house, he leads me directly back into the sitting room. He gestures at me to sit in my favorite seat- a rich burgundy wingback chair with vintage scrolling in the fabric that’s small enough for me to be comfortable in it- and paces in front of me as I settle in. Once I’m still, he pulls a taller chair across the room until it’s directly in front of mine and sits in it backwards. I don’t tell him that sitting like that makes him look like some mutated youth pastor, but I want to.

He folds his arms on the back of the chair and looks at me frankly for a moment as I try not to fidget. “You know what I need to know. Talk.”

I smile sheepishly, unsure where to begin or how much Logan would even want him to know. “I’m confused about a lot of it. I might not know much more than you do. Can we wait until Logan gets home and can help explain?” He’s a little later home than usual, but he texted to let me know he’d be visiting Derek’s brother- Arthur, I remind myself. Names are important.- for answers on my new… development? Ugh, that sounds like I’m going through puberty all over again. Getting a wolf body complete with an alter ego is not the same as getting boobs.

Hammer looks at me consideringly for a moment before he nods and sits back a bit. “Fine. Then we wait.” He pulls out his phone and starts scrolling. Clearly, we’re waiting right here and doing nothing else until Hammer gets his answers. Great.

___________

It’s only about thirty minutes later when Logan gets home, but the silence in the sitting room made it feel like hours. Hammer seems to be feeling a bit betrayed, and we’re all going to hear about it before we can move on with our lives. I hear Logan pull up and search for me through our connection. *We’re in the sitting room, if you could go ahead and join us*.

I catch Logan’s confused acknowledgement as he walks in the front door. He’s glad we’re already both here, because he wanted to talk to me about Arthur anyway. He grabs a handful of my hair and tips my head back for a quick kiss of greeting before he nods to Hammer. “Well. You all called this meeting- what’s on the agenda?” He smirks a little, amused at himself.

Hammer clears his throat. “I wasn’t given information that affects my ability to guard your mate. Care to explain to me what’s going on so I don’t have to scramble to diffuse her temper next time her authority is questioned as a tiny, seemingly human, woman?”

I restrain a growl. “I am actually kind of tall for a human woman. I’m not tiny.” Hammer raises an eyebrow and Logan smiles down at me like I’m being cute. Ugh. Whatever.

Hammer continues. “Imagine my shock when Emory’s scent suddenly explodes with wolf shifter, and she starts growling at a disrespectful man in broad daylight. What am I supposed to think in that kind of situation? Why was I not briefed on this before we left these grounds?” He’s well and truly angry, mostly borne of his frustration. I’m sure that a partial shift wasn’t in any of his plans for the day.

Logan has the grace to look chagrined, and I can tell my face is doing something similar. “It’s a new development that we’re still looking into. I actually just arrived home from my own fact finding on it. We believe Emory has some shifter ancestry that she wasn’t aware of, and our full moon ceremony seems to have activated the genes.” *Who disrespected you, baby?* I wave him off to tell him it’s not important, not bothering to pretend he’s not talking to me telepathically.

Activated. Like I’m some sort of sleeper agent wolf. *You have to admit you kind of are, little rose. I can’t wait to see how far the shift goes for you. Imagine if we could run together*? Logan proceeds to fill our minds with images of us playing chase through the park until he catches me and overpowers me. I fight down the blush and focus back on the conversation at hand.

Hammer wrinkles his nose at the change in our scents. “So what is the plan for mastering the shift? We can’t have a woman explode into a wolf anytime a human doesn’t acknowledge her Luna status”

Logan tilts his head to the side, thinking. “The only path I see forward from here is helping Emory shift, if she’s even able to, and integrate with her wolf enough to get a feel of how to stay in the right body at the right times.”

With a curt nod, Hammer stands up. “Fine. We commence training tomorrow. Since you already asked about self defense training, Emory, we’ll do both at once.”

Logan raises his eyebrows at me, surprised at my interest in learning to fight, but I can feel his approval of the idea. Suddenly, I realize that I’m actually going to be doing some kind of training now, and that’ll probably be a ton of physical exercise. I also need to continue getting a handle on my Luna duties. The pack desperately needs me to fill that role. I’m staring at a lot of very long, exhausting days in my future. “Great. Thanks, Hammer.” I reply weakly. Guess I’d better get lots of sleep tonight.