“Option one: you take your time looking around, poking your nose into my business and feeling out all the members of my pack, and it finally sinks in that I was right and this was all just a big waste of time. You’ll decide that I am the alpha of my pack, and you’ll go back to New York and tell your boss exactly what I told you in the beginning: Honor Tate holds the White Paw Clan. True.”
He growled at that, and the deep rumble tickled the hairs at the back of her neck. “If you think I’m going anywhere without my mate, you’re operating under some serious delusions, Honor Tate. You can’t get rid of me that easily. You can’t get rid of me at all.”
“Which brings us to answer number two.” She wanted to believe him. Hell, part of her did believe him. Her wolf knew Logan wasn’t lying when he said he was her mate. Her nose wasn’t broken. She could smell the truth for herself. What she couldn’t do was see any possible way in which the two of them could end up with a happily ever after. Some things just weren’t meant to be, and she’d given up on happy a long, long time ago.
“Two A goes like this,” she continued, shoving back a pang of grief she had no right to feel. “You decide I’m not fit to be alpha of this pack. If that happens, you undermine everything I’ve spent the last decade of my life establishing. You tell the males in my pack that you think one of them can challenge me and win, which means they will likely all challenge me. One at a time, I can defeat any male in this pack. I’ve already done it with two of the strongest, and I’m not going to back down from any of the rest. But, if they all come after me at once, there’s no way I can win. Even if they come at me one after the other in honorable challenges, eventually I’ll exhaust myself, and one of them will be able to get through my guard. Either way, I’m dead, so the White Paw Clan really would get itself a new alpha. I just wish I’d be around to tell you I told you so when that new alpha leads the pack down the road to hell within the first three months. Maybe I’ll get lucky and be able to haunt you.”
She saw the roar building up behind his expression and raised a hand. She needed to make him understand what she was saying. She didn’t have time for knee-jerk denials or macho possessive-mate bullshit. This was too important.
“Two B is the one where I don’t die, but listen for a second and then tell me if you really think it’s a better choice. Listen carefully.”
She leaned in close, so close she could see tiny pinpricks of silver in the brown of his eyes where the gold had not completely taken over. Even as she watched, they disappeared, his wolf steadily eroding his control and rising to the surface.
“This is the one where you get your wish.” She twisted the arm he still grasped until her own fingers could curl around his wrist, clasping him in return until his eyes flared an even brighter gold. “In this one, I admit you’re my mate. In fact, I proclaim it in front of my whole pack. Anyone who steps up to challenge me is forced to realize that they can’t try to harm me without my mate stepping in to defend me. Since I would only agree to call a male my mate if he supported me in everything I do, I’d still be alpha of this pack, because even though you had called me unfit, your presence at my side would keep me in the position simply because no one would be willing to challenge both of us together. Which would make you, as the mate of a female alpha, not the beta of the Silverback Clan, but the White Paw Clan’s Sol.”
She paused and watched the truth begin to dawn on this stubborn, arrogant man. Her lips quirked in a bitter half smile.
“So that’s false, Hunter. Now which one is it going to be?”
Seven
Sol.
Male mate to the female alpha.
The title had every one of Logan’s instincts rebelling in an instant. How could she ever imagine he would accept a position as any pack’s Sol? Unlike the Luna of a pack—the mate of a male alpha—the Sol lacked any power or authority. Sure, he was allowed and expected to defend his mate against a direct physical threat; he was still Lupine after all. Outside of that, though, he had no place in the clan’s hierarchy. He was not considered his mate’s beta, he wasn’t an elder, or even a storyteller or lorekeeper, since those were positions requiring age in the first case, and specialized knowledge and training in the others. He’d be the Lupine equivalent of a boy toy, with no power and no identity outside that of his mate.
He’d sooner suffer some sort of comic book–style radiation mishap and wind up a cat. At least then he could pretend to have a little dignity.
His mate’s soft snort brought him back to reality.
“Yeah. That’s what I thought you’d say.” Honor eased her wrist from his lax grip and pushed back her chair. “There’s only one easy way out of this, Hunter, and that’s to name me alpha and then get on with your life. In the city. Keep that in mind while you go around asking questions. Sometimes there aren’t any good answers.”
This time he didn’t try to interfere when she thrust to her feet and addressed the crowd.
“White Paws.” Her voice rang out in the large room, quieting the conversations and drawing all eyes her way. Their way. He saw plenty of curious glances darting toward him, but they all eventually settled on Honor. “I have an announcement to make. I’m sure some of you have already noticed that we have an unfamiliar male in our territory. His name is Logan Hunter, and he’s come here from the Silverbacks to acknowledge the passing of our old alpha and witness our transition into the future.”
Whispers and murmurs swept down the tables, but no one raised a voice or a question. Logan, though, could feel their curiosity and the tension of uncertainty. This was an isolated pack, unused to entertaining visitors. They had also been through quite an upheaval lately. And he was only here to cause more.
“I have granted Hunter permission to stay among us until Sunday and to witness our gathering on Saturday’s full moon. I expect each and every member of this pack to treat him with the courtesy due to anyone visiting under my authority. If an individual behaves otherwise, I will deal with them appropriately.”
She swept the room with a cool stare. No one said a word.
Finally, she nodded. “Good. Now enjoy your dessert. Smells like pie.”
Without another word, she strode across the hall and out the wide double doors, leaving her dinner mostly untouched and Logan still slightly stunned. What the hell was he supposed to do now?
“Here, son. Have some pie. It’s apple.”
Logan blinked down at the dessert plate that appeared in front of him, pushing aside his bowl of cold chili. Raising his eyes, he watched as an unfamiliar older male pulled a chair up opposite him and settled down with his own slice of pie.
The man raised overgrown gray eyebrows and jerked his chin. “Go on. Dig in.”
Slowly, Logan reached for his fork.
“For Pete’s sake, I didn’t poison it. I think you’d have to worry about that more if Honor had delivered it. Me, I got no grudge against you at the moment. And if I did, I’d sure find a way to show you that didn’t involve poison and the waste of a perfectly good piece of pie.”
The scowl was what finally won Logan over, perversely enough. It reminded him a little of Honor. He’d seen precious few other expressions on the woman’s face since his arrival, so he’d become something of an expert.
“I’m Logan Hunter,” he offered, extending his hand to the elder.
“Yeah, I heard.” The Lupine shook hands briefly, then went straight back to his dessert. “Name’s MacDuff. Hamish.”
“Nice to meet you.” Logan chewed a bite of flaky crust, crisp apples, and cinnamon-laced sugar. He grunted in appreciation. “Thanks for the pie. This is good.”