“Does it involve you catching the next green light back to the city?”
“No. And that’s not just because I have lousy luck with traffic signals, either.” He saw her looking around for the remains of her T-shirt and felt a twinge of conscience. He handed her his mostly intact, if buttonless, shirt and watched her shrug into it. “I intend to stay until I find out what I came here to find out.”
“It doesn’t matter what you say. This pack is not going to change, and I’m not going to give it up and make a graceful exit no matter what you think your job is or what you decide is best for us.” She tied the ends of the shirt into a knot below her breasts and reached for her jeans. “You’re wasting your time.”
All of a sudden he realized she’d never been wearing a bra and his body responded in a pretty predictable fashion. He drew one knee up to his chest and rested his forearm across it. In spite of the pleasurable interlude they had just shared, he still wasn’t sure if it was safe to leave any of his body parts sticking out and vulnerable around this testy female.
“It’s my time to waste, but I don’t think that’s what I’ll be doing, anyway. But here’s what I’m thinking.” He waited until she fastened her jeans and turned to him with an impatient expression. “The full moon is in three days.” Along with the peak of her heat, but he wasn’t thinking about that, and he certainly wasn’t going to mention it. “It will be the first Howl since your father’s death. It would be a perfect opportunity for me to see the dynamics of the pack and to get the answers to the Silverback alpha’s questions. If you can put up with me for another seventy-two hours, I’ll leave after that without a fuss.”
“Why? Give me a good reason. I have every right to order a nonmember out of pack territory. I don’t have to let you stay.”
“You do if you want to avoid a clan war.”
He saw her pause, saw his words sink in and make her think. He kept his gaze level, but unthreatening. He needed her to know he meant what he said, but he didn’t want to come across as any more hard-nosed or unyielding than he had to. He walked a delicate tightrope, but his balance had always been good.
“Winters would really take it as far as a war? That’s insane. This pack isn’t big enough to make a difference to him. It shouldn’t matter to the Silverback who leads the White Paw, so long as they aren’t intending to lead it into his business. And trust me, I’m not. So why is this suddenly a life-or-death situation?”
“The White Paw pay fealty to the Silverback. It’s his job to care.”
“That’s bullshit. Even if it’s true, it’s bullshit. It’s his job to make sure my pack doesn’t pick a fight with his, reveal ourselves to the local human population, or otherwise compromise the safety of the larger Lupine community. Anything more than that is just someone with too much time on his hands and an overgrown side of busybody.” Honor’s gaze searched his expression for a minute, then rolled her eyes. “And even if you agreed with me, you’re too loyal to say so. Right. Well, I just don’t need this crap. Not now. Not here. Not a fucking chance.”
Logan shrugged. “You’ve got it anyway. Now what are you going to do about it?”
She slammed her feet into battered hiking boots with a snarled curse. “Right now, I’m going back to the house to change, and then I’m going back to work. Some of us have real jobs where we have to be constructive and accomplish things.”
He suppressed a smile at that dig. She was cute when she was mad.
And she’d probably rip his intestines out through his nostrils if he mentioned that fact.
“Gotcha. I think I’m going to go get a shirt at least, and then maybe take a look around. See if I can meet some of the pack. You know, basically stick my nose in where it doesn’t belong. See you at dinner?”
Logan watched her stalk off back toward the house and grinned a wolfish grin. He hadn’t come here expecting to find his mate, but damned if it didn’t appear that was exactly what he’d done. He wondered what she’d say when he informed her they’d be getting married and having cubs together. If he knew her at all, he guessed what she’d say didn’t bear repeating. But what the hell? Logan Hunter loved a challenge. And this one looked to be a doozy.
By the time Logan gathered and donned what was left of his clothes—namely his blue jeans, his boots, and one sock—and made his way back to the main house, Honor was long gone. He hadn’t really expected anything different, but some days, he just couldn’t quell that involuntary burst of optimism.
He jogged up to his room, which he’d learned was across the hall and down three doors from Honor’s, and grabbed a change of clothes. It took a second to brush himself free of the debris he’d picked up from the ground in the stone yard, but he figured it was better to take a moment now than spend half the day fighting with a twig in his trousers.
He was still buttoning up a new shirt as he made his way downstairs and into the kitchen. All his exercise from this morning had made him hungry, even if it was still technically an hour or so till lunch. He didn’t find Joey in the kitchen as he’d expected, but he did find a brief note on the counter explaining the timing of meals, the contents of the refrigerator, and that he was free to help himself to anything that wasn’t on the neatly printed menu beside the note. He took Honor’s cousin at her word and foraged in the fridge, emerging with half a rabbit and a full duck breast, cooked beautifully rare.
Sitting at the small kitchen table, he made short work of his snack before he wiped the grease off his hands with a dishtowel and pulled out his cell phone. He noted gratefully that he still got a pretty good signal out here in the woods and dialed Graham’s direct line at Vircolac.
“Vircolac,” a perky feminine voice announced. “We bring good things back to life.”
Logan snorted out a laugh. “What, is that a new ad slogan?”
“It’s still in testing. The first focus group yielded mixed results. How are you, Logan? Arrived safely in the wild, untamed north?”
“Missy, I’m only a hundred and fifteen miles outside of Manhattan, and the last yeti from these parts became a stockbroker back in eighty-seven. But I’m fine. Thanks.”
“Spoilsport.” She sounded remarkably unfazed by the correction. “How are things going so far? Did the new alpha make a good first impression?”
Logan’s mind instantly conjured up the sight of Honor silhouetted in the bathroom doorway the instant before she had noticed him. The light and steam behind her had outlined her in lush detail, emphasizing the soft curves of her breasts, those long legs, and the luscious flare of her hips. He felt his body stirring at the memory and cleared his throat. No need to tell the Luna just how impressed certain parts of him had really been. “I’m reserving judgment.”
Missy snorted. “Just like a man. I assume you called to talk to my mate, not to me, right?”
The question caught Logan unawares. Not because the answer wasn’t yes, but because he realized that for the first time since he’d originally met Missy Roper Winters, he really would rather talk to her husband than to her. The epiphany almost knocked him over. Missy hadn’t caused the erection he could feel straining against his jeans—zip front, this time—as they talked; Honor had. He’d been fine until his mind had conjured up that image of the lithe brunette poised in the bathroom door wearing nothing more than a towel. And when he let his mind wander along its favorite path, he imagined Honor’s pale, creamy skin and dark, curling hair, not Missy’s blond mop and curvy figure. It amazed him.