Logan Chapter 24

-Logan-

What a goddamn disaster. Why does my fated mate have to be friends with a freaking tabloid writer? I glare through my window. The stars sure have a sick sense of humor, pairing the sweet, naive best friend of a gossip monger to a wolf shifter who is wholly dependent on secrecy from humankind. I look back at my computer screen. James, Oliver, Derek- they’re all ashen-faced and grim. I’ve fucked over all of us, now. This won’t blow back on just me. If this gets out, we’re all going to be under microscopes, just because we’re well-known to be friends. I’ve ruined not only our lives, but my brother’s, my pack’s. I think of little Lexi with her missing front teeth, of headstrong Mason. I have to get this contained, now.

“Considering the look on Emory’s face when I told her, I really doubt she’ll even tell her friend about it. Plus she…. Still doesn’t know my last name” I run a hand through my hair, then scratch at my chest where the beginnings of a mate bond are tethered to my heart like a tattered rope. It scarcely had time to form and I’ve already damaged it. I’ll probably have to damage it more before I get a chance to fix it. I try not to feel the heat in my face at the fact that my mate still doesn’t know my last name. Our last name, now, according to shifter laws rather than human ones. The last thought soothes my wolf just a bit.

James’ right eyebrow shoots toward his hairline while Ollie looks at me like I’m an idiot. I guess I am, at this point. “Dude, have you ever even met a woman? Cora will have your full name, social security number, and the last time you took a crap before the end of the night. How have you been helping your pack with relational issues when you don’t have three brain cells to hold hands and sing kumbaya?” I snarled a bit at that one. Ollie knows everyone’s buttons and isn’t afraid to go for the jugular on the insults.

This was too much for James, who had been restraining himself from ‘I told you so’ for the entire conversation. “If any of you knew anything they could have had this conversation a week ago! At least the part about his job. I admit the shifter news could have waited for last night, but at that point he would be coming from a place of having told her the truth at the beginning of the relationship and she might have some modicum of trust in him. Do any of you know the definition of the word trust? Do you know how it works? Obviously, my extracurricular activities might just be an advantage over whatever the hell you all have been doing all your lives. None of you act like you’ve talked to a woman since you were fourteen.” Trust is something James would have to know a lot more about garnering than I suppose most people would. His tastes ran a lot closer to the edge than any of ours. I didn’t realize that would be related, but in hindsight his advice would have been the best to follow.

“As much as I appreciate the multitude and varied ways you all are questioning my intelligence, the past is already done. There’s no need for a recap when we have present and future problems to handle- hopefully better than I’ve been handling everything else. I have a mate that thinks I’m some psychotic asshole that likes wounding people during sex without consent, and her best friend whose one job is to shovel everyone else’s dirt to the masses. What do I do here?” There’s a long pause while we all think on it.

After a few moments of silence, Derek speaks up. “We could just go ahead and take care of the friend. She’s just human, fragile enough.”

“What is this, the middle ages? We can’t get away with that anymore. Our saliva is different from regular wolves’. And who’s going to believe a savage animal attack in the middle of New York City, anyway? You all would have me working for a week straight just to scrub the footage from every traffic cam in the area. We’d just be adding to the problem by taking the chance that some moron points his phone out the window and posts your wolf on all his socials” Oliver comes in with some really good points, especially since it seems like all our minds went to the same place. “Maybe…. Could you pass it off as a sex thing, Logan? Roleplay or whatever?”

I feel the face that I’m making at the thought of coming out as a degenerate for the sake of the pack. It would be worth it, if humiliating. “I’d rather find a way to deal with the friend. Can you get Jeffries on her, see if we can dig up any leverage for her personally? That could be the angle we work with.”

James gives a slow nod at this point. “I think that might be the best option if we can swing it. We’ll give Jefferies 48 hours to do some digging on…” he looks at a folder on his desk, “Cora. Then, if he finds nothing worth using, we’ll get back together and either make something up or make Logan a furry. Until then-” here, he pins the camera with a stern look. “I know you’re already uncomfortable, Logan. You’re scratching like an addict. I also know you don’t want to hear this, but Emory is going to feel worse than you do and you’re going to have to let her. She needs to realize it’s not some flu or whatever and that your cock is her cure. She has to come to that realization herself or she’ll never believe it. So you just have to let her suffer. Give her those same 48 hours, try to stay out of range of her. At the end of it, find her and let your mere presence fix what ails her.”

James is right. I do hate hearing that. Not listening to him has already bitten me in the ass, though. Somehow the most taciturn hardass of the four of us is the best at relationships, and it makes sense to listen to him. I catch myself scratching at the mate bond again. “Fine. I’ll stay out of sight and not touch her for a couple of days, but no way is my wolf letting her out of my sightlines for that long. I’ll have to put in some sick days at work and keep an eye on her. Do you all need anything from me before I shift for a couple of days?”

They each shake their heads, so we sign off and I resign myself to breaking into Emory’s apartment building without thumbs. It’s going to smell even worse in there through my wolf’s nose, but he’s looking forward to proving himself worthy of protecting her. She’s ours to protect, more so even than our pack. I’ll start with a run that way to update Landon on his duties for the next two days and my impending staycation. I’ll leave an email for Anna on the way so she can start rearranging Monday’s schedule as soon as she comes in.