by Stormy Glenn
“Occupied?” Love asked. He felt confused by the high-handed way Logan seemed to be taking over his life, and just a bit angry. Sure, he liked the guy, but he never said he would turn control of his life over to him. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“I guess you could say that I’m the vice president for my family’s business and—”
Love stopped walking and turned to look at Logan. “I’m happy for you, but what does that have to do with me?”
“Everyone works in the family business in some manner.”
“And?”
“You’ll be expected to put in your part, too.”
Love stared at Logan. He felt like he listened to someone speaking a foreign language. Logan made no sense. “Logan, I have a job. I told you that.”
Logan dropped the backpack to the floor and crossed his arms over his chest. He regarded Love in only what could be seen as an indulgent look. “And what kind of job do you have?”
Love opened his mouth and started to tell Logan exactly what he did for a living, but the smirk on Logan’s face made him change his mind. “I work in a hospital, and I go to school.”
“Perfect,” Logan said. “You can help out in the infirmary. I’m sure our doc will enjoy the help. He can teach you a lot, too. Before you know it, you’ll be able to heal people just like him.”
Love seethed. Yes, he had a job and attended school, sort of. He was a registered nurse. He was also attending the university to further his education and become a doctor. “Why do you insist on treating me like a simpleton?”
“Am I?” Logan asked.
“You know you are.”
“That is not my intention, Love.”
“Just what exactly is your intention then?”
“Love, I don’t want to argue with you, but—”
“Good.” Love crossed his arms over his chest. “I don’t want to argue with you either.”
“Love, I really don’t have time for this.”
Love’s heart ached a little, but Logan’s message was getting through to him. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d fallen for a guy that didn’t want him for long term. Somehow, Love doubted it would be the last.
He seemed to be glutton for punishment. No matter how much he tried to tell himself he wouldn’t fall for the next muscled body that came along, he always did. And he always ended up walking away with a broken heart when they left.
Love sighed deeply, wishing he had a lollipop to suck on, and walked over to the nightstand. He knew there was a pad of paper and a pen in the drawer with the phone book. He’d seen it earlier.
He opened the drawer and pulled it out, quickly writing down his phone number. He doubted Logan would call it, or even remember who he was the moment he was gone, but Love could hope.
“Here,” Love said as he crossed the room again and held the paper out to Logan. “I should be here for the rest of the weekend. Why don’t you call me when you do have time?”
“That’s not how this is going to go, Love.”
“It’s not?” Love was a little surprised but not much. As much of a dominant as Logan was, he would change his mind on a dime to get his own way. Love loved dominant men, but they were so high maintenance.
“No, it’s not!” Logan snapped as he leaned down to grab Love’s backpack. He swung it up on his shoulder then reached for Love’s arm.
Love wasn’t stupid. He jumped back as fast as he could. When Logan growled again, Love quickly held up his hands in a submissive gesture. “Now look, Logan—”
The sudden darkening of Logan’s eyes as he set the backpack down on the floor send a thrill of excitement and fear up Love’s spine. He started backing away, but Logan matched him step for step.
“Logan.”
Love frowned when Logan’s face seemed to shimmer like if he were looking through blurry glasses. There seemed to be more of a point to his face, more…hair? When Logan grinned and his mouth suddenly seemed filled with longer, sharper teeth, Love bolted.
Fear raced through him at the loud roar that sounded behind him as he ran into the bathroom and slammed the door closed, turning the lock. Love’s heart pounded frantically as he leaned back against the door. There has been something not quite right in Logan’s face when he roared. Hell, the roar wasn’t quite right. People shouted. They yelled. They might even scream.
Who roared?
Love jumped and ran to the other side of the bathroom when Logan pounded on the door. He looked around for a place to hide, but there was no counter under the freestanding sink, and the place didn’t have a tub, just a shower.
The only thing Love could see was a small window. It would be a tight fit, but he might be able to squeeze through it. Love pushed the window open and looked out. The distance from the window to the ground made him groan. He just knew he was going to break something.
The sound of the wooden door cracking cemented Love’s decision. He jumped up and started wiggling out the window feet first. Love shimmied back and forth until he could get his body through the small opening. He grabbed the edge with his hands and let himself hang down against the outside wall.
Just as he closed his eyes and let himself drop, Love heard the bathroom door crash open. The ground came up fast. Love cried out as he landed, his foot twisting under him. He rolled to a sitting position and checked over his ankle.
Damn, it hurt like hell, but it didn’t seem broken. Love rubbed it, hoping it was just a small ache until he heard the loud roar above him. Love didn’t care how badly he was hurt. He wasn’t sticking around.
Love got to his feet and tested his ankle. It hurt, but he could use it. With the sounds of Logan’s rage ringing in his ear, Love hobbled down the path behind the building. If he could get to one of his friends, he could get home. He’d have someone else go back for his bag. His long weekend away from home was over.
Just as Love turned the corner of the building, he heard another loud roar, this one more agonized then the previous ones. He glanced back just as Logan leaned out the window. Fear had Love quickly dashing out of sight.
“Love!” Logan shouted.
Love had no intention of going back, no matter how much his heart ached to see Logan again, to feel the man’s hands on his body. There were some things in this world that just weren’t worth it. Being someone’s slave was one of them.
He wanted to be loved and cared for. He didn’t want to be under someone’s thumb, having to ask for everything in his life. He liked dominant men, yes, but even he had limits, and Logan Stone just found them.
Chapter 4
Logan was going out of his mind. Love was out there somewhere, maybe hurt, maybe dead. He didn’t know. He did know that his mate wasn’t where he was supposed to be, which was by his side.
How was he supposed to care for Love and protect him if the man wouldn’t stay put? This was exactly what he didn’t want. He should be attending to clan business right now, but all he could think about was what could be happening to Love.
Logan had searched the entire area, each alleyway and back lot, every road in and out of the compound. He’d even searched several buildings and fenced off areas. There was still no sign of Love, and Logan didn’t understand that.
There should have at least been a scent of the man that would lead Logan right to him. Logan had smelled him a few times, but the trail always went cold before he found him. It was like the man disappeared.
Logan didn’t want to admit to anyone, especially those in his clan, that he had lost his mate. He would be a laughingstock, and he knew it. But he was getting desperate. Love had been missing for several hours now, and it was in the middle of the night. There was no telling what kind of trouble he could get into.
Leaning against the brick wall of the building Love had been staying, Logan finally admitted to himself that he needed help. He couldn’t find Love on his own. If something happened to Love before Logan could locate him, he would never forgive himself.
Logan pulled
his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed his brother’s number. Not only was Reed his brother, he was also the clan enforcer. If anything happened to Logan, Reed would take over until their alpha returned.
“What?” Reed mumbled into the phone, obviously having been woken up by the phone ringing.
Logan grimaced. “Reed, I need help.”
“Logan?”
Logan could hear the sleep and confusion in his brother’s voice. He supposed his call was unusual. He didn’t often call in the middle of the night, and he never called for help. His only justification was that he’d never had a mate before.
“Yeah, it’s me,” Logan replied regretfully. “I’m down at the guest compound. I need you to get the boys down here as soon as you can.”
“Trouble?” Reed’s voice was perfectly clear now. Logan could even hear the man in the background as he got dressed.
“Yeah, just a bit, but I want to keep it under wraps for now, okay? Just bring the boys down here and I’ll explain everything to you when you get here.”
“All the boys or just Cáel and Garen?”
Logan rubbed his hand over the back of his neck to relieve the tension gathering there. “Yeah, just the three of you.”
“We’ll be there in ten minutes.”
Logan snapped his phone closed and leaned his head back against the hard brick, closing his eyes. Heartache and longing filled him. This wasn’t how a mating was supposed to go. Mates were supposed to be together.
The mating heat that a wolf went into after they mated was a dangerous time for everyone. Wolves were very territorial creatures. Logan would need physical contact with Love often during this time jut to be able to keep his wolf under control.
Any perceived threat to his mate, not matter how trivial, could be met with a wolf in a mating rage—the most dangerous of wolves. The current situation had the potential to send Logan into a mating rage. It was all he could do now to keep control of his wolf. Logan could feel him just beneath his skin, pacing, growling, wanting out.
Logan opened his eyes and pushed himself away from the wall. He started pacing up and down the sidewalk in front of the stairs that led to Love’s room, unable to stay still. His skin itched. He was drawing ever closer to shifting. Another few hours of not knowing where his mate was and even he wouldn’t be able to hold his wolf back.
“Logan.”
Logan swung around, a growl emanating from low in his throat. He quickly retracted the claws that had slid out when he saw his brother and inner circle standing on the sidewalk several feet away. He let out a deep breath and walked toward them.
“What’s going on?” Reed asked cautiously.
“My mate is missing.”
“Your mate?” Reed asked. “What mate?”
“I met him tonight at the moon festival. We went back to his room to get some of his stuff and had a little argument. He took off.”
“Well, congratulations. This calls for a celebration.” Reed frowned. “I think.”
“If we don’t find him, there won’t be anything to celebrate.” Logan rubbed his hands up and down his arms. “I can already feel my skin starting to itch.”
“We need to start back at the beginning,” Reed said. “Which building was he staying in?”
“This one!” Logan snapped. He would have thought that was obvious with the way he stood in front of it. Logan rolled his eyes and pointed upstairs. “His room is up there.”
Reed arched an eyebrow but didn’t say anything as he started up the stairs. Logan rolled his eyes and hurried up the stairs after his brother. There was a reason that Reed was the clan enforcer. Reed had a cooler head than Logan. He needed it to be the clan enforcer.
Logan was stronger, faster, and more agile. He could think quickly on his feet and strategize with the best of them in a split second. He did have a bit of a temper though. Reed had talked him out of more than one tension-filled situation in the past. He’d probably do it in the future.
Which was why Logan had called his brother. He was starting to lose his objectivity, if he had any in the first place where Love was concerned. The mating heat natural to his kind was starting to set in, and Logan felt like he was crawling right out of his skin.
“Which room?” Reed asked when they reached the second floor.
Logan pointed to Love’s room.
Reed walked over and opened the door, sniffed the air, then cautiously stepped inside. Logan walked in right after him. His heart sank as he remembered a quite different scenario the last time he walked through the very same door.
Reed slowly walked around the room. Logan knew the man was taking in every detail—the smell, the placement of each object, even the sounds in the room, which at this point were just breathing. It was the lack of detail that freaked Logan out.
When Reed walked into the bathroom and came out a moment later, a look of astonishment on his face, Logan flushed.
“Just what did you two argue about?” Reed asked.
Logan sighed. “I told him he was coming home with me.”
“And?”
Logan rubbed the back of his neck and looked away from his brother’s questioning look. He felt like a schoolboy caught skipping school. No way in hell did he want to explain himself. Hell, he shouldn’t have to. He was the beta after all.
“We just argued, okay?”
“Did you attack him?”
“What?” Logan shouted, his eyes snapping over to glare at his brother. “Of course I didn’t attack him. I would never hurt Love.”
Reed looked back at the shattered wooden door leading into the bathroom before glancing back at Logan. “Does he know that?”
“Of course he—” Logan suddenly remembered the fear on Love’s face as the man ran for the bathroom and again when he was running away down the dirt path behind the building. “Well, sure, I mean, he has to know, right?”
Reed just looked at him.
Logan sat down on the end of the bed and dropped his head into his hands. Love really had been terrified of him. Logan always gloried in being a wolf. He enjoyed the strength and power that came with it, the senses he had that humans didn’t.
Until now.
Knowing he had terrified his mate to the point that the man had run from him made Logan ache. This was the first time in his life that hated what he was and wished that he was just a normal human that Love wasn’t afraid of.
Logan felt his wolf shift under his skin and knew his feelings of self-loathing were being communicated to the wolf. His wolf wasn’t happy. It wanted out. It wanted to find its mate. Logan clenched his hands into fists as he fought his wolf for control. He wasn’t going to shift. He wasn’t!
“Logan!” Reed shouted. “Snap out of it, damn it!”
Logan blinked. He realized that he was growling deeply, his teeth bared. His claws had extended and dug into the palms of his hands, drops of blood falling to the floor. His skin itched where sprouts of golden fur had started to grow.
He closed his eyes and drew in several slow, calming breaths as he felt his wolf slowly recede—first his claws, then his teeth, and finally, the fur on his arms. Once Logan felt that he had regained control of himself he looked up at his brother in desperation.
“What am I supposed to do, Reed?”
“How badly did you scare him?” Reed asked as he crossed his arms over his chest.
“He ran from me,” Logan whispered. He folded his hands together and let them hang between his knees. “Isn’t that enough?”
“Does he know what we are?”
“I thought he did, but now I’m not so sure. I mean, I found him at the moon festival, and things just kind of snowballed from there. Before I knew it, I had claimed him and we came back here.”
“Where you scared the shit out of him.”
“Yeah.”
Logan knew he was the biggest dope in the world. He had been granted his mate by the gods and fucked it up, all in one evening. He’d be lucky if Love even spoke to him
again. Logan wouldn’t blame the man in the least if he ran for the hills.
He suddenly remembered Love’s green backpack and glanced around for it. It should have been right by the door where he dropped it before chasing after Love. It wasn’t. He jumped to his feet and ran to the bathroom to look around. When he didn’t find the backpack there, he walked back into the main room.
“Logan?”
“His backpack,” Logan said as he lifted the comforter on the mattress and looked under the bed. “Love had a green backpack that he put all of his stuff in. I dropped it on the floor right before he ran into the bathroom. It’s not here.”
“Love?”
Logan’s head snapped up. “Yes, that’s his name. Do you have a problem with that?”
“No, no, you don’t understand,” Reed said quickly. He shook his hands in front of Logan. “Are you talking about Love Star?”
Logan stood to his full height and growled. “Yes.”
“Well, fuck a duck!” Reed started to laugh. “Logan, Love is with Matt.”
“What?” Logan’s heart slowly began beating faster. Love was okay? He wasn’t hurt? He wasn’t lying in some ditch somewhere with his throat ripped out? He was alive and well and at Reed’s house?
Wait!
Logan frowned. His hands clenched as a wave of jealousy shot through him. “Why is Love with Matt?”
“Love and his friend, Drea, came up to spend spring break with Matt. They all know each other from college. They live in the same apartment. I guess Love called Matt right before I went to bed and asked if he could crash at our place.” Reed patted Logan’s shoulder. “Bro, your mate is in my spare bedroom.”
“And you didn’t think anything of Love asking to crash at your place instead of the guest compound?”
“Matt said Love was upset over something and didn’t want to stay by himself. I didn’t know he was running from you.”
“He wasn’t running from me!” Okay, he was, but Logan didn’t like it when Reed said it. He liked it even less when Reed merely arched an eyebrow at him. Logan rolled his eyes and tried to remember how upset his parents would be if he ripped his brother’s throat out. “Fine, he was running from me.”