Logan Chapter 22

-Logan-

“I fucked up, guys. This whole plan was a disaster waiting to happen.” I set my glass of scotch down on my desk in my “home” office as I wait for any more advice from the guys. This is an Alpha Alliance level threat and Deek’s fault, besides.

“I usually like being right more than I do at this moment.” James muses. “But, tell us what happened, anyway, and we’ll see what kind of damage control can be done.”

“Well.” I said, trying to figure out what did happen, what set Emory off in the first place. I take another long sip of scotch and relish the burn. I have a feeling I deserve it. “We were having a great night. I had to fight my wolf back the whole time and…I guess I got carried away in the midst of it all, and I marked her.” I rush the last sentence out, wincing.

Ollie’s brown eyes widen almost comically large at this. “You mate marked her? In the ‘midst of it all’ as in you didn’t ask for consent first? As in, you didn’t make sure she wanted forever with you first?” I winced harder at Ollie’s incredulous outburst. If only he knew how bad it really is.

“Well. I couldn’t exactly tell her about the mate mark before I told her I’m a shifter. So I really wasn’t able to before my wolf took over mid-thrust and just…. Claimed her. “

“Wait a minute. Without telling her first? Without her even knowing what we are? What were you thinking, Logan? That’s forever shit, and you just sprung it on her? Does she even know the implications? Your wolf is acting like a jock on prom night!” Derek blows a big breath out and shoves a hand through his hair. He’s let it get too long again, I bet the curls are driving him nuts. “When I suggested you not start out with all your nitty gritty shit, I didn’t mean that you would never tell her. How did she take it? Did she hop off and run out right then?”

I don’t appreciate how crude he’s being, but I bite back my growl, if only because I deserve all that and more from them right now. I handled all of this in the worst way possible. “No, she was having a great time, had a great time all night. It wasn’t until we got up this morning that things went sideways. I guess…. She got up to go to the bathroom this morning, and I think when she saw the mate mark in the mirror she realized that I had broken the skin. Apparently, that was a huge deal, and I could smell her fear through the bathroom door. She’s my mate. And she was terrified” I have to clear my throat as I remember my moment of reactive panic.

“Let me guess. You broke the door down.” James says drolly, just barely restraining himself from rolling his eyes. “Just like any human man would at his girlfriend’s fear that he can’t smell.”

“Yes, I broke the door down! What if she had been in danger? I knew she was safe in my condo, but tell my wolf that! I broke down the door and that freaked her out more, and she started talking about infections and having to go to the urgent care and she just… reeked of terror. She was scared of me. Because I drew her blood and broke down a solid wood door. I just wanted her to calm down. She was so worried about infection… so I told her I was a werewolf and she didn’t have to worry about that. That…. Didn’t go well.”

Derek jumps in and talks over whatever James was going to say. “You told her you were a werewolf after you bit her and drew blood? After she was already afraid of you because you were acting like a crazy person? You busted in with your already questionable sanity from her perspective and claimed to be a creature that she doesn’t think actually exists? What did you expect to happen, Logan? What would you have done in her situation?”

I’m not sure, myself. I just wanted to get everything out of the way. I wanted to come clean with my mate, to have no secrets between us. “I… don’t know. I just… she’s my mate. And now she’s out there without me and I had no time to tell her that she would need my proximity or we’d both suffer.”

James sighs. “Well. There isn’t very much we are able to do from here until that happens. Once she has the inevitable and inexplicable discomfort, she’ll probably be a little more willing to listen to you, to let you show her your wolf and make her understand.”

“I don’t want her to have to feel that, though. I just want to keep her safe here with me. I want to introduce her to our pack. To you guys.” I’m half in love with her after a week. I already can’t imagine trying to get through the next few days without her, even before I think of all the discomfort she’s about to go through. I’m already starting to feel like my skin is too tight, my forehead clammy. I know this is only the beginning, and that she’ll be feeling much worse than I do very soon.

“That’s too bad. You screwed this one up pretty good, Lo. You need to find a way to act like a grown ass man about this instead of an angsty pup. You’d better hope she doesn’t go to her muckraker friend with your weirdness. Did you spill that you’re technically her boss, too? You could be paying legal fees on this one for a long time.” Ollie opines.

“No, I didn’t get so far as to talk about my company. We really kind of got stuck on- wait. Her what friend?” Isn’t muckraker some ancient term for sleazy journalists? Emory mentioned that her friend was paying her dues in journalism, but I took that to mean that she spent her days fetching coffee. Oliver isn’t usually one for antiquated language, either.

“I guess paparazzi is a more accurate word, maybe. Her friend Cora works for the tabloids. She didn’t tell you about that? It’s in my report from Jeffries.” Derek and James are grimly silent, having already read the same report. The report I didn’t want to see because I wanted to get to know Emory the old- fashioned way. Because I was keeping so many secrets from her that it didn’t seem fair not to let her keep her own in return. Fuck. My wolf starts howling in the back of my head, finally breaking out of its pout from our mate running from us. This is mostly on you, buddy. If you’d stuck with my timeline we wouldn’t be in this mess.