Logan Chapter 149

-Logan-

We head into the cabin, and I feel like shit. I show Emory to one bathroom before I make my way to the master bath. I can’t help the deep breath I take, checking for Cora’s scent. Nothing but some new construction smells- probably from whatever renovations Landon did. Now that it seems like he didn’t spend all this time doing recon for a kidnapping, I’m curious what updates he made to the cabin. I don’t see anything different in the bathrooms, and the kitchen is the same- gas stove, vintage refrigerator, handmade cabinets. There’s no internet or cable here, so it’s not like he made a new entertainment center.

I show Emory around the cabin- there isn’t much to it, truthfully. She’s in awe of the high ceiling and exposed beams in the living room, with plush couches centered around a massive fireplace. There are three bedrooms back behind the living room from the perspective of the front door and three more on the second floor with a balcony connecting them that overlooks the fireplace seating and massive windows that span the whole back wall, making the lake part of the decor. The kitchen and main bathroom are to the right of the door, tucked back into the corners of the massive open space. It’s rustic and wonderful, and we’ve always loved coming here for the brief vacations an Alpha’s family can take through the years.

Emory takes a solid hour to coo over fabric and color choices, and I smell every corner of the place until I find the rock wall Landon put into one of the downstairs bedrooms. Of course. Feeling like even more of an asshole, I take Emory out the back door and try to get Landon’s attention from where he’s overflowing his rowboat in the middle of the pond. He’s holding a fishing pole like he can’t be bothered whether he actually catches anything or not. I doubt there’s any way he doesn’t hear me, so when I get tired of being ignored, Emory insists I leave him a note before we head home.

Landon,

I’m sorry, man. I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions. We’re all each other has had for so long, and you’re my baby brother. I guess I’ve been trying so hard to keep you out of trouble and take care of you that I forget that you can stand on your own. You might not need me like that anymore, but I still need you. I love you, bro. Can’t wait to hear about the biggest fish you caught.

Be safe. Come home soon.

Logan.

I know Landon is hurt. I know it’s going to take awhile to mend this between us. I can’t believe I’ve been such an overbearing asshole that he felt like he had to be all cagey and secretive about putting a freaking rock wall in the cabin. He just wants to have fun while he’s out here, and he’s always wanted to get into rock climbing. It’s such a classic Landon pastime that I almost smile getting back into the car. I need to learn to trust him more. If he’s responsible enough to be my Beta and help me take care of the whole pack, then surely he’s responsible enough to know not to kidnap people. I’ve fucked up.

Emory lets me stew in my self-recrimination for most of the car ride. She’s disappointed in me too, and hates that we’ve pushed my brother away. She’s really feeling the lack of family connection lately, and it’s all a result of my influence on her life. She spends an hour pondering a way to put up a wall on our mind link, just in case we need it later for some reason. Nothing she tries seems to work, thankfully. While we might need to block each other one day to cut out distractions or something, I also like having access to what Emory is actually thinking.

After the both of us get bored of the silence, Emory turns to me. “Landon will come around, love.” The bond is such that if one of us is miserable then we both are. “He has to know that his track record is what led you to ask about it. I guess that Cora really did run off. The police can’t do anything to us if we’re innocent, right?” She sounds hopeful. She’s been holding onto hope this whole time. She was right about Landon, to be fair.

“I hope so. People get wrongfully accused of things all the time. We’ll just have to be careful and pay attention. They seemed to be leaning toward her just running off, anyway.” As long as that’s what they stick with, we’ll be good. I’m not looking forward to Cora being found and dragging us all back into the news, but this will probably help us convince the rest of the world that she’s lying about wolf shifters. There’s a silver lining, at least.

Emory is quiet for a moment, pondering the twists and turns our lives have taken lately. She pauses when she has a scary thought. “You know… Landon never said outright ‘I didn’t kidnap Cora.’ He got mad and threw around a lot of accusations but… everything was a question. Do you think… maybe he did it? Could he have stashed her somewhere?”

I shake my head. I don’t want to go through the whole thing again when we’ve already offended him and searched the cabin. “No. The cabin doesn’t have a root cellar or anything like that. I smelled new construction, but he put in a rock wall. Probably for if he gets bored while it’s raining or something. I didn’t smell Cora anywhere in that cabin, either. You weren’t able to tell before you shifted, but she reeked of lies all the time. That smell would’ve cut through anything else in the cabin. I don’t think he did it. I think he just knows that I didn’t trust him when I should’ve.”

Emory sighs, glad that we’ve put it all to rest. “Well. He’ll come around, and we don’t have to worry about him getting arrested. He knows we love him. Oh! Maybe we can do something nice for him when he comes back. That should help!”

“Yeah. He’ll come around.” I try to table my guilt and worry as Emory spends the rest of the ride thinking about nice things we could do for Landon- foods he likes, things we could get him for his room, an actual salary as Beta. I spend the ride hoping I don’t have to contemplate life without the only family I have left.