Logan Chapter 77

-Logan-

Silverson gets us back to the pack house in record time, and every attempt at conversation with Emory has resulted in short or nonsensical replies as she tries to work through her nerves. I would almost be wary of her family if I didn’t know the nerves were from just how much she loves them. It sounds like her mom and brothers are going to be the main obstacles. Emory thinks it’ll be her brothers, but from what she’s told me before I know that her mom runs the entire family. The boys will fall in line if she approves. Game plan firmly in place, I take one last moment to hope that Landon actually picked up the right family and got them here without any hiccups. He texted me a thumbs up about twenty minutes ago, but who knows if that means he picked them up without a hitch or he got them to the pack house and ran because they were so mean to him.

As Emory and I pull up, she takes three deep breaths and turns to me. Clearly, she’s been thinking about these instructions the whole car ride, because she delivers them all in one breath. “Don’t let Bryan goad you, Hunter will like you if you can just get him to laugh, Mama already loves you, and Dad will fall behind her. Ignore Elliana, because she’s already doing the same to everyone else.” With that said, she motions for me to open the door before she loses her nerve. I stifle a laugh and indulge her. She acts like her family is an assassin’s guild instead of normal Americans.

We walk in the front door and I immediately hear Landon and Hunter laughing uproariously. That’s a good sign. Emory’s dad spots us first, and he nudges his wife with a nod our way. She starts, then runs towards us. It’s like watching a chihuahua sprint in a room full of great Danes. She’s the only one in the room less than 5’7”, and Emory is the second shortest by a wide margin. Even Elliana is close to six feet, in a willowy way. “Oh, sweetie, I’m so sorry she was such a mean girl. Come here, baby.” The shorter woman just about tackles Emory in an effort to pull her into a cradle position. Over Emory’s shoulder, as she’s patting it, she looks at me with an apologetic smile. “I’m Terri, and you must be Logan. So glad to meet you, so sorry it’s in these circumstances. I’d shake your hand, but my baby needs me.”

I try to hold in my chuckle as Emory protests. “I’m fine, Mama. We’re working on fixing the whole mess and it’ll all be alright.” Her accent is thicker with her mom than it has been with me.

“Nonsense, you’re fine. You were nothing but kindness to that girl and look what she did. She published scandalous pictures of you for everybody to see and your brothers are just beside themselves. She’s disinvited from Thanksgiving, that’s for damn sure. She’ll end up just like her mother, mark my words.” Emory is trying to both pat her mom’s back and extricate herself from the awkwardly hunched position required to put her head on the shorter woman’s shoulder. I stop restraining the smile on my face. “Bill, greet Logan, would you? I’m busy.” Emory’s dad rolls his eyes good-naturedly where Terri can’t see him, then comes to shake my hand.

“Good to finally meet you, young man. You’ve met Terri, but these are my sons Bryan and Hunter, and my youngest girl Elliana. Everybody, come be polite, now. Show’s over.” He waves over a basketball team of gingers. They must get their coloring from him, though what hair he has left is white now. Terri looks like a brunette that dyes her hair blonde, and their children’s hair ranges from Hunter’s carrot orange to Elliana’s deep auburn. Emory and Bryan hit somewhere in the middle, with him more toward a dark copper and Emory’s almost scarlet. None of them have to look up to meet my eyes, which is a bit of a new experience for me.

“Great to meet you all. Emory has told me so much about you.” Hunter snorts a laugh at this and Elliana rolls her eyes, but Bill smiles sweetly at his daughter.

“She’s a good one. We just had to come up and support her. We couldn’t leave her all alone to deal with those leeches with cameras all the time. You need family in times like this.” I can already tell I’ll get along with Bill and Terri just fine. Hunter and Landon seem to have already hit it off, so I know he and I will at least be cordial. Elliana hasn’t actually looked up from her phone a single time, but anytime Landon walks too close to her or turns her direction, she blushes. I’ll have to keep an eye on that. There’s only one person I truly need to worry about, and he walks up, unamused.

“So you’re Logan.” Bryan says, offering a handshake that’s sure to actually be a dick measuring contest.

“That’s me. You must be Bryan. I appreciate you dealing with the logistics on your end.” Let’s try to start off polite, at least. I was right in my estimation about the handshake- he squeezes my hand with a flat look on his face, refusing to let go.

“Unfortunately, I saw those pictures. I don’t appreciate the way you clearly treat my sister.” I hold in my wince. My wolf gets angrier every time I think about the fact that so many people have seen so much of my mate. Of my marks on her.

“Well Bryan, she’s decided to stay with me, so it seems she disagrees with your assessment. I’m angry that those pictures were ever taken. We’re pursuing legal actions about them. They were our business and no one else’s, but there’s no fixing the past. There’s only now and the future.” I almost wish that I had already gotten the go-ahead from the elders to let them all know about the pack, just so they’d understand the undercurrents of this discussion, but I’m also not looking forward to explaining to them that Emory is stuck with me no matter what. Maybe we can find a delicate way to put it tomorrow.

I can see from the red climbing Bryan’s cheeks that no reply I could give him would be the right one, but that this one might have been especially wrong. Should I have tried groveling? His hand tightens even more on mine. “It might have started your business, yes, but not telling her who you were has made it the business of the whole damned country, asshole!”

“Bryan!” Terri’s head whips in our direction at the swear word. Shit. I see where Emory gets the eyebrow thing.