Logan Chapter 138

-Emory-

I don’t want to steal the attention from Derek on his birthday dinner, but Logan seems to think this is the best time to tell everyone about my…passenger? Alter ego? Body double? I’m making less sense as I try to figure out ways to explain it to myself. I am perfectly content to let everyone else talk about their lives around us while I just absorb the atmosphere. Logan and his friends have been close for a long time, now, and they’ve been closer than most friend groups would be as a result of the secret they share. It’s nice to watch the brotherhood between them, the respect they have for what each other has accomplished. They tease and joke, of course, but there’s that underlying affection beneath it all that has me feeling sentimental.

Ollie is the first to catch me with a sappy smile on my face, and gives me a curious head tilt. He interrupts whatever Deek’s sister is saying to ask me about it. “You alright Em? You have a weird look on your face. Are you constipated?” Way to ruin it.

“I’m fine, don’t worry. I’m just… basking, I guess.” This gets everyone else’s attention, and suddenly I’m in the spotlight. “What?”

Derek squints at me. “Are you going to explain why you smelled different earlier?” He speaks in almost a murmur, loud enough for the people at our table to hear, but no one that might be eavesdropping.

“Oh shit!” Ollie says, much louder. “Are you pregnant?” He’s practically yelling, and the rest of the diners glance in our direction.

“No!” I tell all of them, including the nosy people a couple of tables over. “I am not pregnant, Ollie, stop saying things like that!” I reach over and flick his ear, which he dramatically claps his hand over as if I’d chopped it off.

James is tuned into the dinner and fully present for what seems like the first time this evening. “Explain what changed, then.” It’s a demand, and I feel more compelled to follow than I ever was as a regular mostly-human.

I make a frustrated sound. “I was getting to that part if you all would let me talk! I didn’t want to steal the show at Derek’s birthday dinner any more than Logan already has, but you all are so nosy I know you won’t drop it until I explain.” I take a deep breath as I order my thoughts around the best way to say it in public. “It turns out, I’m a lot more like you guys than we even realized. Logan and I went on a… run last night.”

Ollie and James are the most surprised, of course. They weren’t there for the research Logan and Arthur had been doing. James’ eyebrows shoot almost to his hairline, and Ollie’s eyes and mouth all widen into large O’s. Derek’s sister doesn’t seem to care much either way. I don’t blame her- we only just met today and haven’t had much interaction. Arthur nods as if he knew all along exactly what would happen, and Derek just congratulates me with a smile. Everyone’s over-the-top reactions are overwhelming, so I have to give everyone a minute to calm down before I elaborate at all.

“It turns out that my dad’s mom has some interesting history that I need to hear more about, and getting together with Logan just put things over the threshold, I guess. It was really just a short run, just to see if I could. Now that we know that I can, we’ll have to plan some get-togethers.” In the new “Luna” section of my brain, I even think it might be good to get the four packs together every now and then, to give the pups a chance to build relationships. There has to be some worry about the family tree becoming more like a wreath after so long in isolation. I can hear Logan’s amusement at me getting ahead of myself through our mate bond, but I don’t even care. The Alpha Alliance shouldn’t just be an inside joke. I think it would be a benefit to all of the packs to pull together.

I tune back into the conversation to receive congratulations from James and Ollie and Arthur, and to promise them to let them meet my “new friend” as soon as possible. I suppose the Summer Moon party would be as good a time as any to get all the packs together, but that’s a lot of wolves in a very urban Central Park. The need to find somewhere new to run is an itch under my skin.

The rest of the dinner went much more smoothly than the beginning of it, besides Logan convincing me to eat way too much dessert and having to basically roll me out of the restaurant. Derek ordered one of every dessert they made and insisted on at least one bite of all of them, then everyone else split them how they wanted. He even brought a candle for himself and shoved it into a massive slice of cheesecake, which ended up being the dessert he chose to keep to himself. After having a shitty friend that isolated me from everyone else for a solid decade, I so appreciate a good group of friends that support and love one another. It’s such a refreshing change for me.