Logan Chapter 40

-Logan-

Thank the stars I’m finally back on two legs! I don’t know how James knew to come help me, but it’ll have to wait. “James, you have no idea how thankful I am that you came here, but now I need you to leave. You, on the other hand, need to get your ass over here, little rose.” I grab Emory to me and kiss her like I’ve been wanting to for days now, if not weeks. She’s surprised at first, but once I use my grip on her hair to tilt her head the way I need it, she gets on board with a moan. I’ve been marinating in her scent and presence this whole time and unable to do a single thing about it, so I pour all of my frustration and dominance into the kiss. Next thing I know she’s fully melted against me and I have her pressed to the wall so we both don’t end up on the floor.

After a few moments of this, as I’m working Emory’s shirt up her stomach so I can feel her skin against mine, I realize that James didn’t leave when I asked him to. With a ripping sensation, I remove myself from Emory’s hair and mouth. “Seriously, James, drinks are on me next time. Can we catch up later? Did your driver leave you here? What’s going on?”

He shoots me a dry look. “What’s going on is that your brother messed up and you need to get in touch with the press to do damage control. Cora went public with a story that hints at what we are but doesn’t say anything outright, which is worse than if she claimed to have proof we exist.”

I can feel the blood leaving my face, as well as my dick, unfortunately. “What the hell did Landon do? How could he fuck up this badly? I told him to just put the elders off for a couple of weeks, how did that translate to taking wolf shifters public? What the fuck?” I vaguely notice Emory sliding down the wall and pulling her knees to her chest in my peripheral vision as I try to imagine just how Landon could screw over all shifters so spectacularly in less than a month.

“He let Cora walk around your property with a camera until she saw the pups shift. Add that to the pictures of the number you did on Emory’s neck, and you have one ruined reputation with ramifications for thousands more. Do you have a phone here?” James is still all business, but I can’t help noticing that Emory is on the verge of hyperventilating. I kneel down to take care of her first. I’ll always take care of her first.

“Emory, baby, I need you to just breathe for a minute, okay? We have to take care of this but then we can talk and fix-” I’m cut off with a slap to my face. Unexpected, honestly. When I sit back to process the stinging in my cheek, she pops to her feet in front of me. I’m left kneeling in supplication at the feet of an angry goddess.

“Breathe?! You want me to just breathe? You asshole! I bought you all this shit for dogs, and your fucking fur is all over my clothes and furniture, and you WATCHED ME CHANGE! You watched me change twice a day for a freakin’ month, what in the hell d’ya think I’m gonna do? Just breathe! All men are fuckin dogs and I still can’t even trust you to do that right!” I love when her accent comes out, and I really do get it. If I had done it on purpose, pretending to be her dog for weeks would be a dick move. But I didn’t have any other choice, and she has to stop yelling before I’ll be able to convince her of that. James, apparently, has no time for this.

“Hysterics will not fix the past, Emory. I would like to request you give Logan a couple of days to protect the shifter race before you try to break his heart again. This is partially your fault as well, after all. I have to say that your taste in friends is… unhelpful. I understand you have a lot of emotions taking up a lot of space in your mind right now, but we do not have the space for them in the present.” I don’t think that’ll go over well, and for what seems like the first time in this whole debacle, I’m right.

“You don’t have space for my emotions at present, huh? Excellent, then get the fuck out of my apartment! There’s plenty of space outside. I don’t even know you! Who do you think you are, coming in here like y’all are my daddy? Fuck off!” Yeah, that tracks, but James’ voice cracks into the silence like a whip.

“What you call Logan is none of my business, but make no mistake, girl, there is more at stake than you here. Your complaints are valid and noted. Logan acted like an idiot because you’re his fated mate and we haven’t even heard of those in a century. Surely you can see why he got ahead of himself. All that said, you will have to wait. He has an entire race of people he has to dig out of a media nightmare. You can come with us quietly and get a chance to air your differences in a civil manner after the press conference, or I can show Logan how to keep you silent and compliant until we have time for you. Either way, you will come quietly and cooperate. Am. I. Clear?”

The apartment is silent before Emory takes a deep breath and replies more calmly. “Why would I come with y’all if you’re clearly superhuman and untrustworthy?” I hate not having her trust. I hate what it does to the inside of my chest, to my wolf, to her.

“Emory, the reason I got stuck as a wolf in the first place was the distance between us. If I’m going to be on two legs long enough to deal with this, we need to be close to each other and on speaking terms. Depending on when the next full moon is, we’ll work something else out after the crisis blows over, okay?” I’m greeted with more silence.