by Riley Storm
Heather just nodded, not trusting her own voice at the moment. Everything that had just happened: nearly seeing Logan killed, the fight, the kiss, it was a lot for her to process.
“By the way,” Logan said with a frown. “What was it that brought you here in the first place? I don’t believe for a second it had to do with the Krait.”
“It doesn’t matter,” she said weakly. “Like you said, there are bigger things than us right now. I should go,” she added, hurriedly backing toward the door to the passageways. “I’m glad you’re alright.”
She didn’t stick around for an answer, fleeing into the warren of passages beyond, easily avoiding the guards searching areas in front of her now, until she was back in her own quarters.
Heather made a beeline for the showers, turning the water on cold and dousing herself in it. Immediately, her skin puckered and tightened, the shock blasting away any remaining adrenaline. As she calmed, she slowly turned the heat up, until it began to relax her.
“You’re an idiot, Heather. A big idiot. So much for talking to him.”
There were two things she had to do now to ensure everything was okay. First, she had to not tell anyone what had happened and act surprised when she found out. That was easy to do, since living under Miriam her entire life had ensured Heather became a supreme actor.
Secondly, she was going to have to stop thinking about Logan entirely. Put him out of her mind, forget him.
Which would be a hell of a lot easier if every time his name came up, her body didn’t start to burn with the imprint of his hands and where they had just been running across her skin.
16
Not long after Heather departed, someone started banging on the door to his room. The main door.
“Who is it?” he called, moving closer.
“Linden.”
He unbarred the door and let the Captain of his House inside.
“My King,” Linden said, dropping to one knee. “I have failed you. I hereby resign from the position—”
“Oh, enough of the theatrics already,” Logan said, irritated. “Right now, I need you where you are, doing your best to figure out how the damn Krait got in here, and coming up with a plan to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
“But, my King…” Linden protested. “You were nearly killed! I’m in charge of the House Soldiers and your guards. It is my duty to ensure you’re protected. I did not do it.”
Logan fixed his man with a stare. “Name me someone truly better suited to the job than you. Leaving out all your woe-is-me bullshit because you feel guilty right now.”
Linden’s mouth snapped shut, having begun to speak before Logan was finished.
“That’s what I thought,” Logan growled. “You’re my Captain until you’re dead or I find somebody better. Considering you’re the best I have, which is why you’re in that position to begin with, I suggest you stop feeling ashamed and start doing your job.”
“I won’t fail you again,” Linden said fiercely, snapping to attention, slamming fist to chest.
“I know.” Logan looked around thoughtfully. “Call in some of your guards. Have them inspect where that goes,” he said, pointing at the rope that had dangled above his bed. The Krait had used it to lower himself from the ceiling, which suggested that he hadn’t come through any of the doors.
At least, not any of the doors they knew about.
“I bet you the Tyrant King had something installed up there for just such a possibility,” Linden ground out as he barked orders at some of the guards outside.
“That bastard just tried to assassinate me,” Logan snarled as the realization of what had happened set in. “He made things personal. I’ve only ever gone after him in combat. Never something like this. The coward.”
Linden nodded, watching as one of his men scaled the rope, calling out that he’d found a trapdoor in the ceiling.
“Follow it,” Linden barked.
“This needs to stop,” Logan said, only partially successful in holding back his temper. “We need to end the fighting, to stop having to look over our shoulders, so that we can heal, become one pack again. I can’t do that with that man out there causing trouble like this.”
“I know,” Linden said softly.
“I need to be able to demonstrate strength to them, or else others will think me weak, and start plotting for the throne themselves.
“How do we do that?” another voice asked from the doorway.
Logan motioned for Lucien to enter. “You’re up to date?”
“Yeah. Guards told me a Krait tried to take you out,” Lucien said, folding his arms in front of him and surveying the scene.
“Almost did. If it weren’t for—” Logan cut himself off abruptly. “If it weren’t for some good luck, I’d be gone right now,” he amended, ignoring the strange looks the others gave him.
“So how do you want to go after this guy?” Lucien said, his eyes lighting up with anger.
“I don’t know,” Logan admitted. “The Tyrant King is showing unusual intellect and ability to evade our scouts and avoid being detected. We know he’s somewhere in the area, but that’s a lot of ground to cover. It’s much easier to hide the dozen or so of them than it was for us to keep the farm hidden.”
The others nodded, reminded of the hideout they had employed back before Moonshadow Manor had been retaken.
“I don’t know,” Logan repeated. “But we need to find a way to end this, and soon. Before it’s too late.”
17
By the time morning rolled around, Heather’s anger at herself had morphed into anger at everyone.
Hating herself was easy, given her recent actions. She was still supposed to be pissed at Logan for what he’d done to drive her away years before, and yet last night, Heather had wanted to be in his arms. It was as if the past didn’t matter to her anymore, and she hated that he had that sort of effect on her. It was unfair, and she didn’t like it.
Which is what led to her ire at Logan. The man couldn’t do anything right. When she wanted him, he screwed it up and sent her away. He never called, texted, never tried to get a hold of her. Now, however, she didn’t want him, and he suddenly wanted her? It wasn’t fair.
The anger at her mother was tied up with Leonen, and how the two of them seemed determined to use her as a pawn, with no care for the fact Heather was a living, breathing human with her own desires and ambitions, none of which had anything to do with being a baby factory or a politician. It wasn’t fair she had to be subjected to such a life simply because she’d been born a female shifter and was possibly infected with a disease from birth.
All in all, she decided, it boiled down to nothing being fair, and her railing against it, knowing there was little she could actually do to change it.
“Knock knock,” her mother called from outside her door.
“What is it?” she asked, really not wanting to be bothered.
Her mother waltzed into the room, not caring that she hadn’t been invited in. Heather often didn’t benefit from anything resembling privacy, but she was used to it.
“I have some good news for you,” Miriam said, smoothing out the bed covers before sitting down.
“Really? What’s that?” Heather asked dryly. “Did Leonen somehow convince Logan to move up the mating ceremony even more?”
“No,” Miriam said, wagging a finger at her. “And if he did, you should be grateful that you get to be with such a lovely young man that much sooner.”
Heather just nodded at the lecturing, tuning it out. She’d heard variations of it a thousand times before on a hundred different subjects.
“No, this is different,” her mother continued.
Heather lifted her eyebrows, wondering what it could be. “What is it?”
“I thought you might like to know Melissa arrived at the Manor this morning,” Miriam said, moving away from the bed as Heather violently thrashed her way free of the covers in excitement.
“What?” she yel
ped, jumping to her feet. “Are you serious?”
“Very,” Miriam said in a perfect mockery of Heather’s dry tone from earlier.
“Ha ha, very funny. Where is she?”
Melissa was her best friend, someone else she hadn’t seen in three years, although unlike Logan, the two of them had kept in close touch during their time apart.
“I assume she would be in her quarters, but I can’t rightly say,” Miriam said. “Her family arrived back at the Manor just this morning like I said; now that things are safe here again, I’m sure they will be but the first of many returning.”
Heather nodded, barely hearing a word her mother was saying. Melissa was the youngest daughter of shifters, and like many females born with a shifter parent, she was completely human.
Very few female shifters were born, and of those that were, a large portion would succumb to the Loup-Garou virus in their teens as they learned to cope with the changes coming over them.
As an adult female shifter very nearly to the age at which the virus would remain inactive for the rest of her life, Heather was very much a rarity. An oddball.
A freak.
But it didn’t matter, because Melissa was here and she finally had someone to talk to! Tearing through the halls, she arrived at her friend’s old quarters, assuming she would probably be given them again. Much of the Manor had remained empty during the split, rooms having stayed preserved even as families and individuals fled the premises.
Banging her knuckles off the door excitedly, she waited, bouncing back and forth, feeling like she was a decade or more younger.
The door flew open to reveal a sable-haired beauty several inches taller than Heather. Her face lit up with happiness and in a flurry of very girly shrieks completely and totally unbecoming of women their age, the two embraced happily.
“It’s so good to see you,” Michelle gushed, pulling her inside. “Come in, come in. So much to talk about!”
Heather sagged into the room with great exaggeration. “You have no idea,” she said, making it clear that there was some shit about to go down that Michelle needed to know about.
“Oh dear. Okay, tell me everything!” Melissa said, grabbing her by the arm and dragging her in to the nearest couch where they could sit and talk. “It’s been far too long since any gossip was about anything but the split.”
“It’s bad,” Heather said. “Real bad. You know how my mother is right?”
“Miriam up to her power-hungry tricks again?” Michelle asked knowingly.
“Oh no. You see, she’s upped the ante this time,” Heather explained. “With things being so chaotic, she’s itching to make her own move for more power.”
“You think she wants a seat on the Council,” Melissa guessed.
Heather smiled. Over the years, Melissa had gotten a very good idea of just how Miriam liked to operate, and it seemed her instincts on the matter hadn’t faded with time.
“Either that, or she wants to put her own candidate on the throne,” Heather said.
Melissa thought about it briefly, then shook her head. “Unless things have changed drastically in the past week or so, she doesn’t have anywhere near the power base to do that. Neither does Leonen’s bloc. Why, you’d have to…” Melissa’s voice faded away as she watched her friend. “Oh no, what’s happened?”
Heather grimaced. “Guess who gets to be mated to dear old Leonen.”
“Serious? Miriam expects you to mate that slimeball?” Melissa frowned, her brain obviously still processing. “Of course, she does. You’re still a year away from being cleared of the Loup-Garou, and until then, she knows you’ll do whatever. Which gives her a year to mate you off to Leonen, absorb his power bloc, and then give herself as much power as possible before you leave him.”
Heather snapped her fingers into a thumbs-up. “Got it in one.”
“Well shit, that sucks,” Melissa said.
“It gets better,” Heather added.
“It does?”
Heather inhaled deeply. “Logan’s on the throne,” she said, in case Melissa hadn’t heard.
“I know.” Melissa knew all about the history between them.
“He wants me back. But won’t, because he thinks the House is more important than either of us.”
“That sounds about like him. How did you find that out?” Melissa asked.
“Last night, I went to his quarters, foiled an assassination attempt and ended up making out with and nearly sleeping with him,” Heather said bluntly.
“Oh.” Melissa paused, mouth working several times. “Oh,” she repeated as the bigger implications hit home. “That’s a whole lot of shit going down,” she muttered, glancing at the wall. “And it’s only been five minutes.”
Heather laughed. “Yeah.” She sobered almost immediately, looking at her friend, feeling desperation fill her. “What do I do, Mel? I’m so lost right now. I…I just don’t know.”
Melissa gathered her up into a hug, but she didn’t answer right away. Heather could tell from the distracted way her hand was rubbing her back that Melissa was deep in thought.
“You need to find a way to delay the mating with Leonen. Delay that. Or find where the Tyrant King is. Once he’s gone, then Logan’s base of support should be strong enough that he can protect you, instead of your mother, if he truly wants you. Then neither of you will need Miriam or Leonen.”
“Of course, you’re assuming I want to be with Logan,” Heather pointed out.
Melissa rolled her eyes. “You’re just waiting on him to apologize for three years ago. If he can realize what he did, and change his ways, you know the two of you would be perfect together.”
Heather laughed. “That’s asking a lot of him, don’t you think?”
“Absolutely,” Melissa agreed. “But wouldn’t you rather hope for that outcome over any other?”
“You’re right.” Heather cocked her head sideways. “So um, what the hell do I do in the meantime though?” she asked with a laugh.
“I’m going to need more information,” Melissa said. “And for that, I need food. So come on, let’s get something to eat, and you can fill me in on all the crazy shit I seem to have missed.”
Heather grinned, getting up from the couch in agreement. There were a lot of things she hadn’t told her friend, though none of them nearly as important as the pressing matters at hand.
It was nice to have a friend around again, someone on her side, in whom she could confide.
One thing, at least, was going her way.
18
“Your body looks so good in that dress.”
Heather tried not to shudder. It wasn’t ‘you look so good in the dress’, because that would imply Leonen actually thought of her as a person. No, it was her body, which to him seemed to be all she was good for.
I should never have listened to Melissa.
The two of them had spent ages brainstorming how to get Logan to wake up and start taking what he wanted, namely, her. The trick was, Heather absolutely refused to throw herself at him. That wasn’t the sort of woman she was. He would have to come about on his own, make amends for the past, and find a way to get her out of this ridiculous pre-arranged mating.
Hopefully, it wouldn’t take too long, because the longer it went, the harder it became not to knock some manners into Leonen. Leonen, with whom she was going to the welcoming ceremony, who even now had her arm held tight to his side, like he was her boss. Like he owned her.
The idea was to make Logan jealous, and truthfully, Heather was mostly on board with it. She was still smarting from being tossed from his quarters after discovering the depths of the emotions she still felt for him and vice versa, and there was plenty of anger there for her to use. She couldn’t speak up, couldn’t tell him how she felt any more than she already had, which meant he had to do all the work.
And up until now, he’s not been overly eager to rock the boat.
“Thank you,” she said, giving Leonen a smile she hoped didn�
��t look too fake.
They were in the main hall, part of a long line of guests waiting to file into the formal ballroom where the King and Council waited. So many shifters had come home over the past week, starting with Heather, her mother and many of Miriam’s supporters, and finishing with the group that had included Melissa.
It was enough that the King had decreed there to be a ball, a formal celebration of the event, marking the return of Moonshadow Manor to peace and a welcome that had been its hallmark for many centuries.
Some of the fancy language was a stretch, she had to admit, but the idea behind it all was one she could support wholeheartedly. Heather hadn’t been around during the split. Being so far away from it all, she only had reports and witness accounts to go on about what it was like. The fighting, the bloodshed. She hadn’t experienced it first-hand, but she could sense the tension lurking below the surface as people tried to mend those bonds, to return to peace and live under one roof.
Logan was right, she thought morosely. The House needed unity more than it needed anything else right now.
But why couldn’t her mother just mate her to Logan? That would form an even bigger power bloc!
Because Miriam would never have a chance to rule that group. Logan and his allies would be in charge, effectively making Mother powerless.
Heather shook her head angrily.
“Is everything okay?” Leonen asked as they walked forward at a slow pace, each couple at the head of the line being formally introduced at the door and then allowed to enter.
“Yes, everything is just fine,” she said tightly. “Just wish we could be inside already. I was never a fan of this sort of circus.”
Leonen laughed. “I agree, my dear. But sometimes, traditions must be observed, don’t you think?” He gave her arm a squeeze as he spoke, making it clear he meant their traditional arranged mating as well.
“Of course,” she said demurely, hating herself the entire time. “No argument from me.”