Becoming the Enigma (The Loup-Garou Series Book 2)

by Sheritta Bitikofer

  Gregory’s command held just enough sway for his son to let Katey go. Like a dog with his tail tucked between his legs, he fled to his father’s side.

  She coughed and sniffled back the urge to cry as the pain slowly died away. Her senses and the wolf remained on alert as she rubbed at her tender shoulder. When she looked back, Gregory and Erik were gone but she knew they hadn’t returned to the ballroom.

  Within seconds, Dustin came barreling around the corner.

  “Are you okay?” he insisted, his gaze darting from her golden eyes to her hand that massaged her shoulder muscles.

  “Erik,” she replied. “He cornered me again.”

  Dustin took her hand away from her shoulder and inspected it, tugging back the cloth of her blouse to make sure that no skin had been broken. Even if it had, Katey was sure it would have healed by then.

  “What did he want?”

  She shook her head. “Just me. He seems to think that I’m still up for grabs, even after what happened at the match.”

  Dustin nodded. “Darren told you why, right?”

  Katey also nodded. “Yeah, I know.”

  With a sigh, he gave her another once-over and gestured to her eyes. “You might want to take care of that.”

  She squeezed her eyes shut, though she never wanted her eyes to be another color ever again. At least then she would know that the loup-garou spirit was not dead in her yet. To feel so much and sense everything was a welcoming thing again.

  For whatever reason, her abilities decided to go dormant, but when Erik rekindled that part of her soul, they were activated. But, for how long? If she changed once, perhaps it would all hold permanently, and she couldn’t risk waiting until they arrived back in Florida to try.

  Negating her earlier decision, she looked up to Dustin with her human green eyes. “I want to go to the gathering tonight,” she proclaimed.

  His expression was unreadable at first, but he slowly nodded his understanding. “Okay. We’ll make it happen,” he told her.

  19

  Logan let Katey into the room first. Waddling toward the bed, she sat down heavily on the edge and went straight to unlacing her high heels. Once they had been peeled off of her feet, Katey massaged the skin and sighed.

  Though Logan had never worn high heels – or anything so uncomfortable for that matter – he thoroughly enjoyed the blissful look on Katey’s face as she tried to alleviate the pain. He threw his jacket on the opposite bed and sat beside her.

  “Come on,” he said, flipping his fingers in a beckoning fashion.

  Katey grinned and swiveled around until her feet were settled in his lap. His hands kneaded into her panty-hose clad skin, applying just enough force to work out the aching muscles, but not too hard to snap the tiny bones in her feet.

  She let out a grateful moan and flexed her toes. There was a certain fulfillment in satisfying her and Logan let a smirk spread over his lips as he massaged his way from the balls of her feet, up to her ankle, and into her calves.

  When he looked up to her face, her eyes were closed and head thrown back. Dark, wavy hair hung behind her and he could see the subtle streaks of blonde that he had given her weaving through the locks.

  He felt her muscles clench and loosen under his grip as he made his way farther up to her knees. As every time before, he could smell her arousal. But this time, the scent was stronger, since there was little material between her legs to diffuse its powerful and enticing aroma. He had never understood how a woman could find so simple a touch so erotic.

  It was when her eyes opened and Logan saw the hints of red in her pupils that he let his hands slip back down to her feet. Chances were, if he could smell her arousal, then the others downstairs could too. And even though John and his sons knew that Katey was off limits, he wasn’t going to take any chances. It was clear from the moment they stepped into the lodge that she had caught the eye of many single loups-garous, increasing the urgency of coming to an understanding with Katey before that evening.

  Katey’s lips parted and he could hear her heartbeat quicken as he kneaded his thumbs along the top of her foot. Slowly, he slid his hands away and brushed his fingertips along the ticklish underside of her feet.

  As intended, she giggled and squirmed away. The lustful color faded and they were out of danger, though her heady scent lingered in his mind, reminding him of all the reasons he should mate with her and all the reasons why they couldn’t act on such impulses. Not yet.

  “I have half a mind to tell you to shower to get that stench off of you,” he said, referring to another smell that reminded him of something a little more unpleasant.

  On the way back to the lodge, Katey and Dustin had recounted the group about Erik’s offense. Logan could still smell the potent traces of his rival on her and it made him mad enough to kill, just knowing that Erik touched her. It was almost too much to even be around her, but her spirit called to him too strongly to be anywhere else than by her side. It would have been so easy to track the rougarous down, but he knew there wouldn’t be a right time for that until after the gathering.

  “I wouldn’t argue,” Katey replied. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood to her feet to begin shedding her clothes.

  When her blazer dropped to the floor, Logan made a beeline for the door. His hands hesitated over the knob and he debated on locking them in the room together instead of fleeing to give her privacy. He wanted to face her, to watch her disrobe and see the soft smooth skin hidden beneath her clothes. Torn between his respect for her and the primal need for what he had denied himself, Logan swallowed hard.

  He rubbed the back of his neck and took a deep breath to clear his head, but it was no use. Katey consumed him and his thoughts slipped into a risky place. It would have taken the command of a mighty alpha to get him out of that room.

  “Can I burn the clothes, too?” Katey asked from behind him.

  He chuckled. “I wouldn’t argue with that,” he replied, questioning whether to turn around and take her like he had wanted to just moments before on the bed.

  Instead, he helped her. The bathroom door closed and he heard the soft click of the lock turning to shut him out. Logan let out a long sigh, thankful that one of them had enough self-control.

  With the prospect of intimacy eliminated, Logan exited the bedroom and made his way downstairs. He needed to talk to Darren anyway and while Katey was distracted upstairs, this was his chance.

  Darren had taken a seat on the sofa in front of the fire, his jacket shed and tie loose around his neck with his hands laced behind his head. John was still in full formal wear, lounging in one of the arm chairs next to the hearth.

  He could hear Ben and Blake chatting in the game room, setting up the pieces for another chess game. Dustin had dressed down so far that all his shirt buttons were unfastened to display his chest and core beneath as he stood in the kitchen, leaning against the counter with his hands propped behind him.

  The sound of drawers opening and closing came from one of the suites and he could only assume that Noah was changing clothes completely.

  “We were wondering how far you were going to take it,” John wisecracked.

  The clever grin on John’s face told Logan that the alpha was only teasing, but Logan wasn’t laughing and neither was Darren. The last thing they needed was a pregnant loup-garou.

  “Is she all right?” Darren asked as Logan sat down next to him.

  Logan pulled at the knot in his tie and unfastened the top button. “As far as I can tell.”

  “Why did she get up and leave like that at the luncheon?” Dustin asked from the kitchen.

  His grandfather didn’t have a knack for being serious when it was needed, but when the well-being of the pack was under question, he came to his senses.

  “I don’t know. I was hoping one of you could tell me.” Logan leaned back against the plush cushion. “I felt her sadness, but she hasn’t given me any clue as to why.” He looked to Darren beside him.
“What did you say to her before we left. That’s when this started.”

  Just then, the suite door opened and John’s middle sons, Aiden and Liam, entered. Their clothes were saturated with the scent of feminine perfume, beer, and sweat. Though it was only midafternoon, they looked like they had spent the whole night on the town. It was a wonder that any bars were open this early in the day.

  “About time you two showed back up,” Ben bantered from the game room.

  Liam walked into the room, pounded on his chest, and held his arms out in a gesture that Logan recognized amongst wrestlers. It was an open invitation to fight, but he knew better, neither loup-garou would take his offer. Not even Logan would dare to challenge a burly man like Liam, unless he wanted his spine snapped in two.

  Aiden chuckled and stood behind the couch, leaning on the polish log frame. “Well, look at all of you in your suits. How was the luncheon?”

  John folded his hands over his stomach. “If you came, you would have known.”

  Logan didn’t have to look over his shoulder to know that Aiden rolled his eyes.

  “Hey,” Dustin barked from the kitchen. “Did you bring any of your special brew?”

  “Sure,” Aiden replied. “I’ve got two six-packs in the fridge.”

  “Sweet.” Dustin turned and pulled out two glass beer bottles from the shelf. “I need to see how much you’d charge to ship some of this gold down to Florida every once and a while.”

  Aiden scoffed. “For you, a thousand dollars.”

  Darren chuckled as Dustin’s jaw dropped. “That’s not right, boyo,” he complained in his thick Irish brogue. “I got as much right to his lovely stuff as any of your other customers.”

  “You can’t even get drunk,” Logan remarked. “Why bother drinking?”

  Dustin pointed a finger at his grandson. “Just because you’re a teetotaler doesn’t mean I have to be.”

  He used his teeth to pop off the cap and offered the unopened beer to Aiden, who gladly took it and made his way to the game room to join the others.

  Noah came out of the suite wearing a pair of sweats and a shirt that hugged his body in a way that would have made Logan nervous if Katey was present to see him. He jerked his head in greeting to Aiden just before he disappeared into the other room and sat down in the armchair across from his father.

  Logan looked to Darren and waited for him to answer. He noticed the way his jaw worked, his molars grinding as he deliberated some secret thought.

  “I only told her about the gathering tonight and about the importance that you two come to an understanding about your future together. Nothing I said would have given her cause to be upset…” Darren looked up to the mantel above the fireplace. “Unless it had something to do with… No, I don’t think so.”

  “What?” Logan contended.

  Darren shifted and lowered his hands into his lap. “She wondered if we didn’t want her to come tonight. I told her that it had nothing to do with what we wanted, but with what was necessary.”

  Logan wiped at his mouth, also unsure whether that would have been the underlying cause of her distress.

  “She said that she did want to come to the gathering,” Darren added. “She seems adamant to prove herself.”

  “Prove herself?” Noah questioned with a note of interest.

  Darren nodded. “To prove that she can change.” He looked to John. “I don’t know if she heard you earlier this morning. If she did, perhaps that’s where this determination came from.”

  Dustin shook his head. “She was determined back in Florida. Remember how excited she was when she finally got the hang of running at top speed?”

  “What if it has nothing to do with changing?” John offered with a flick of his hand. “What if this is about mating? Women, especially young women, don’t see marriage the same way they used to. One of my wives was sixteen when we mated. She had Noah at seventeen. Nowadays, it’d be considered barbaric to take a wife so young. Even at eighteen, it’s frowned upon. Perhaps Katey’s second guessing the prospect of marriage.”

  Logan folded his arms over his chest as his stomach turned hard. He didn’t want to think that Katey was doubting their relationship, but there was a certain hesitance in her since they made their way back from the luncheon. Yes, she was turned on by his massage, but she also locked him out of the bathroom. They were completely polar-opposite messages and Logan was nowhere near savvy with women to understand what she wanted.

  “Have you proposed yet?” Dustin asked before taking a swig of his beer.

  Logan turned with a sneer. “Does it look like I’ve had the time?” he growled.

  Darren smacked the back of his hand against Logan’s thigh in warning. “You have a few hours before sunset,” the alpha reminded. “How are you feeling?”

  Logan took a moment to reflect. Past the anxiety that Katey would reject him, past the worry that something was terribly wrong with the woman he loved, he could feel the beast begin to stir. Tonight was his night to change and he was hours away from the shift.

  He nodded and took a calming breath. “I’m all right. Can I take Katey out?” he asked, looking to the two alphas. “We need to talk about this. We’ll be back before everyone leaves.”

  The alphas looked to one another for a long moment, as if silently communicating on some telepathic line that Logan couldn’t link to. All he knew was that he needed to get Katey alone, away from the pack and away from everything that would hold them back this evening. If he could get her alone, maybe she would open up.

  John was the first to nod his consent. “Do what you need to do.”

  Upstairs, the running water stopped and he heard the curtain rings grind against the rod as Katey stepped out of the shower. Logan stood to go to her, but Darren grabbed at his wrist before he could run.

  “Don’t do something you’re both going to regret, got it?”

  Logan understood what his alpha meant and he nodded before tearing away to climb the stairs.

  Katey wrapped the robe around her and cinched the belt tight to keep it all in place. Outside the bathroom, she heard the bedroom door open and voices downstairs that she purposefully tuned out so their conversation would be private. She took a moment to drink in Logan’s masculine scent, thankful that she could detect it through the clouds of steam.

  Foolishly, she didn’t bring any of her fresh clothes into the bathroom with her. The door was still locked, but she couldn’t stay there forever. She’d have to step out, naked beneath her robe that only reached down to her mid-thigh.

  She remembered the way his hands felt on her legs and how she secretly wished they would travel up farther and caress the curves of her body that he had sworn off until marriage. If all went well, and if he asked, Katey knew she would say yes. Even if accepting his proposal would throw away her chance at freedom, Katey knew that Logan would never keep her bound like that.

  If she wanted to go to college, he would support her. If she wanted to wait for children, he would wait. If she wanted to travel, he would do so with her. She knew these things because she knew that he loved her. And that love was reason enough to follow him to the ends of the earth. Marriage was just another stepping stone.

  She unlocked the door and released the steam from the bathroom. The cold air of the hotel room hit her legs and chilled her damp hair that spiraled in loose waves down her back. Logan stood by the window with his back to her.

  In a daring move, Katey silently approached from behind and placed her hand between his strong and tight shoulder blades. She felt the tremor rise up his spine and let her fingers trail down the crisp surface of his white shirt. No man ever looked better in her eyes.

  Logan turned and his gaze traveled up and down her body, but he wouldn’t reach out to take her. His face was nearly unreadable, but she could sense the longing within him. He wanted to touch her, to hold her tight, but he kept his hands to himself. When she stepped forward, he retreated until the back of his knees hit the windowsil
l.

  Katey bit her lips together and let her arms hang at her sides with her fingers shaking, torn whether to pursue or to withdraw. His words from the other night came back to her. He wanted to save themselves for marriage, but how long would it take? How much longer could she hold out on fulfilling such forbidden desires?

  With great hesitance, she took one step back and then another.

  Logan surprised Katey when he bounded forward to retrieve her. An arm wrapped around her waist to pull her close, his lips claimed hers in a fierce kiss that she melted into. Her body went limp against his as her hands found their way around his neck.

  But the bliss was short lived as Logan abruptly pulled away, his teeth giving a playful nip at her lips. “You need to get dressed,” he breathed.

  “Can’t we stay here?” she whispered, lifting herself higher to meet his mouth again, but he remained allusive.

  When she opened her eyes, Logan’s gaze was bright red and that told her exactly why they couldn’t stay there.

  She tried to hide her disappointment as he released her. They both wanted what they couldn’t have and she felt a complete idiot for not respecting the reasons why in the first place. She shouldn’t have touched him when she came out of the bathroom, but he shouldn’t have looked so damn irresistible.

  Katey turned away and stole a pair of jeans and a blue button-down blouse from her bag along with undergarments, and went back to the bathroom to change. After she splashed her face with cold water and dried her hair a little more thoroughly, she came back into the bedroom to find Logan staring out the same window. He had taken the time to change too and his powerful and appealing back muscles were made ambiguous by his jacket. She smiled when she saw the hint of a bandana around his neck; the same one he wore when they first met.

  “I’m sorry if I crossed the line,” Katey apologized as she sat on the bed to slip on her socks.

  Logan gave her a mirthless chuckle. “It’s not entirely your fault if I took liberties that weren’t mine.”