Logan Chapter 52

-Emory-

After walking me through a hallway full of pictures of Logan’s family through the years and a sitting room with more of the same on the walls and mantle, Logan shows me into a professional grade kitchen. I don’t even finish hoping he doesn’t expect me to cook for anyone when he whisks me through another, more formal sitting room and back around to the entryway to the foot of an enormous, highly detailed staircase. It feels like a fairytale to live in a mansion like this, but this is where I’ll be- at least until the next full moon, I remind myself.

I keep telling myself that I haven’t truly made up my mind to forgive Logan for his empty-headedness, but he’s just as mystified by everything going on as I am. It’s hard to be mad at someone when they’re just as confused about everything as you are. It feels better to work as a team to find all the answers and beat all the problems. Is that me, or is that the mate bond talking? Can I trust myself anymore? I know for sure I would have - should have- been much more afraid of Logan’s wolf form if not for the feeling in my bones that he would never hurt me. What else has changed about me in the slightly more than a month that we’ve sort of known each other?

“And this is my pack office. I try not to bring my Industries work here, because the paperwork for us as a pack is enough to drown me as it is. I keep thinking I need to get another Anna for here, but every time I’ve brought up budgeting for an assistant to the Elders they just told me to find a mate. Are you hiding some organizational magic from me, Little Rose?”

I think back to my binders at work with fabrics and paint swatches meticulously organized by color family and saturation. “I guess you could say that I’m kind of organized, yeah.”

He gives me a slow grin. “Interesting. That’s really good to know. It was hard to tell in your apartment just because of the circumstances, though I do remember some Sia-fueled cleaning that might be burned into my spank bank for the rest of eternity.”

I paste a dignified frown on my face despite the blush I can feel at the fact that he saw all of the terrible dancing, heard all of the terrible singing, and kept shedding on my floor just to watch me go. “It’s a girl power anthem and you can’t tell me anything different.”

“That it is, baby. Anyway, we can go through most of this together tomorrow afternoon. Landon isn’t as efficient at letting me know what the most important issues are, so we’ll have to wade through all of it after I sort out the shareholders at Industries.” I abruptly realize it must be weird and strange to call a company by name when you’ve named it after yourself.

“Hey, why did you name the company after yourself? You had to realize that would be uncomfortable to say.” Logan looks at me like I just got an answer right to a question I didn’t know he was asking.

“Because Úlfur is our pack name. The Alpha takes the pack name as their last name, always. It makes genealogy a little difficult but it’s the way we’ve always done things. Now that records are a little better, it’s easier to tell who had a takeover and who’s been in power for generations. Naming the company after our pack is a call to other wolf shifters that we can handle their business discreetly. Maybe you’d call it a code word.”

I stare at him, fascinated. There must be a whole society here that I’m just learning has existed outside of human society for hundreds of years. He kisses me on the nose like I’m being cute and finishes shuffling papers around.

“Come on, let me show you our room.” He says with a filthy smile. My stomach flips at the thought of sharing a room- a bed!- with him, especially when he’s in human form again and expects to see me first thing in the morning on a regular basis. I can’t wake up sexily rumpled all the time- there are going to be lots of days where I’m just plain rumpled. Plus, what if I get an upset stomach? What if I have morning breath? His sense of smell is so acute, and he’ll be sleeping in the same bed, no more than a couple of feet from me. It seems the anxiety about the pack wasn’t enough. I’ve always wanted nothing more than to blend in, and here I am helpless against the spotlight again.

Wait a minute. Is all of this insecurity Cora’s fault? I try to think back. I know now that any time I start to feel bad about myself, I’m hearing her voice, her opinions of me in my head. Suddenly, instead of being afraid or worried, I’m pissed. I can’t believe I let her do this to me. Why did I let someone shrink me down into this… this… half woman? Logan obviously thinks I’m worthwhile, whether that would’ve been his choice without the mate bond or not doesn’t matter. We do have the mate bond. The situation is what it is, and there’s apparently no changing it. I have an entire pack of people to help lead. They’ll depend on me to project power and confidence, so they know they can be confident in me. Logan doesn’t always make the right choice the first time, but he doesn’t second guess himself. He chooses a path that he thinks is the best in the situation and he takes it. I can do that, right? I can at least pretend to until I learn. I release a deep breath and let my shoulders finally relax as Logan takes my hand again.