Dustin placed a comforting, but wet hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. He just needs time to get over it… But, in the meanwhile, can you finish us up?”
Katey sighed and nodded. She had never washed a dog before, but there was always a first time for everything. She gave Dustin the privacy of silently changing back into his wolf form before she set to giving them their baths.
One by one, she took each of her teachers and scrubbed them down with the sponge, lathering up their fur so thoroughly that she could see the pleasure radiating in their eyes. She wondered if she was better at this than Logan was. It was an awkward bonding moment and Katey oddly enough, enjoyed it. No words were exchanged. No words needed to be. Body language was their thing.
Dustin was still as playful as before and gave her a hard time as he refused to stand still while rubbing down his forelegs. Darren and Ben were much more cooperative and Darren even gave her a grateful lick on her cheek as a thank you. She smiled back and scratched affectionately under his long muzzle, much to his delight.
As Katey turned the hose back on and completely rinsed them down of the soap, letting the suds run through the blades of grass, Katey wondered if Logan was ok. He hadn’t shown back up outside to apologize for his storming off.
Did it really upset him so much to be reminded of his incapability to change? Her heart ached for him even more. It must have been hard being a monster – for lack of a better word – but to be a freak among monsters must be a living nightmare. She was just beginning to understand his brokenness, but it didn’t change the love she felt for him. If anything, it intensified the blaze within her and all she wanted to do was make everything alright again.
Chapter 25
It had been nearly three hours since Logan disappeared into the mansion after Katey’s comment. The teachers were all dried off and in clean clothes, but were busy grading papers in the dining room while Katey stayed downstairs watching television. She offered her help in grading, but the teachers refused.
She had been waiting for Logan to reappear, but as the clock ticked on, Katey began to think he wouldn’t come out of hiding by himself. Like a curious, but scared cat, Katey tip-toed her way up the stairs, keeping her ears open for any sound that may make her want to rethink her plan.
Katey made it to the second floor and walked slowly towards Logan’s bedroom door. She took a deep breath and knocked on the wood and the door cracked open a little with the force of her knuckles. She took a quick step back and waited, holding her breath.
“It’s open,” Logan muttered. Katey could detect no anger or malice in his voice. She let out the breath she was holding and gently pushed open the door.
The room reminded her of the woods with brown below the chair rail line and green above it, mimicking the color scheme of trees.
It was a little cluttered with his bed unmade and a few pieces of clothing scattered across the floor, but nothing compared to her old room back at Mary’s. The walls were covered in charcoal sketches and paintings, but across from the door, the window was half covered in thick brown curtains so she was unable to see all the subjects in the drawings clearly. It was quite dark inside to Katey’s eyes, but Logan must have been able to see perfectly with his keen vision.
Off to the left in the corner, Logan sat at his desk, bent over, busily stroking a pencil across a piece of sketch paper. One thing she noticed about the furniture was that it was different from the rest of the mansion. It was wooden of course and far from plain, but still a far cry from Victorian themed. Every piece had a different carving.
On the desk, Katey could make out old feather quills, inkbottles, scrolls, parchment paper, and books carved intricately into the wood. The end tables were carved with leaves and branches. The headboard behind the bed portrayed a beautiful nature collage that one might see in an old Native American craftsmanship.
It had all kinds of animals, mostly carnivores like wolves, bears, lions, tigers, foxes and Katey thought she even saw a leopard. Every detail down to their fur and spot shape was finely sculpted into the wood, giving the images their own life. The bedposts matched the headboard with the same type of animals, only on a smaller scale, climbing up the posts. The craftsmanship was so exact and realistic, Katey felt the creatures would come to life and crawl over the mattress.
His room was a piece of art in itself. Katey gazed around until Logan’s voice called her back.
“What is it?” he asked softly, his eyes still focused on his newest piece of art.
“I just wanted to apologize for what I said earlier. I didn’t know…” Katey’s voice trail ed off and she turned her gaze to Logan.
He had stopped working in mid-stroke and stared down at his project with a look Katey couldn’t describe. It was like his brain had stopped turning and he didn’t know what he was doing anymore.
Katey felt her face contort into a look of regret and sadness for him. She couldn’t imagine the emotional pain he’d gone through over the century. She knew when someone else reminded her of her failures, she felt like dying.
She wrapped her arms around her stomach and felt like dying right then too. “I’m so sorry, Logan. Can you forgive me?” Katey asked softly, trying to take the submissive position she saw Logan in earlier that day when he was talking with Dustin at school.
She hunched her back a little, bent her knees slightly and lowered her head, but kept her eyes on Logan. She felt a little foolish, but thought that perhaps it would help him forgive her and show him that she wasn’t just saying “sorry”, but truly seeking forgiveness.
Logan looked over his shoulder to Katey and let a small smile curl across his face as he saw the way she was standing. He couldn’t stay mad at her forever. Logan nodded his head and stood up, walking over to the window and opening the curtains more. Light flooded into the room and chased the tension away.
Katey straightened as she took another look around the lighted room. Everything had more detail than before and she could see that most of the sketches and paintings were mostly of landscapes and animals, predominantly wolves and dogs with a small inscription on the bottom of every sketch to give them titles. She could make out Logan’s scribbled signature in the corner of each.
She scanned through the artwork, in awe of his unique talent, and then spotted a very congested cluster of drawings in the corner of his desk, that of a girl who looked unimaginably beautiful.
He saw that Katey was straining her neck around and squinting at his drawings from her spot just inside the door and he had to chuckle a bit. “You can come in if you want. Nothing’s going to bite you in here,” Logan said as he sat down on his bed, watching her closely.
Katey felt a flash of heat course down her back from such a comment, but brushed it off with a smile. She cautiously stepped in and looked around more closely. Off to the right were bookcases filled with sketchbooks, regular books and countless music disc cases. She thought she even saw a few vinyl records.
He never struck her as the artistic type, but it was evident that he was. Logan’s eyes followed her with interest as she quietly roamed around his room, looking at everything. He didn’t mind her looking. Her presence was comforting and soothing, like a balm to the wounds in his heart that were slowly healing.
She stepped meticulously around his clothes that were on the floor and made her way to the drawings of the girl near the desk. Some of them were portraits of her doing things like writing and reading, some of her walking and talking with friends whose faces were shadowed out. It was clear Logan didn’t want them to be the focal point of the sketch.
A special one that was featured in the center of the collage depicted her sitting around with a pack of wolves lying on either side of her. Katey examined her features more carefully. She had long, dark, wavy hair and gentle, light colored eyes. In every picture she looked graceful and almost angelic. Whoever she was, Logan admired her greatly to draw her so beautifully.
“Who’s this? A past girlfriend or some
thing?” she asked teasingly.
“No,” Logan answered softly with a smile and subtle shake of his head. Katey could hear the slight amusement in his voice. He was probably lying too.
She scoffed at his answer, but kept her eyes on the portrait. It was bugging her not to know who this girl was. Katey wondered if she knew her. Maybe she was someone from the high school or if lived in town? Perhaps this girl was not even alive anymore. Logan must have met thousands of people in his lifetime and maybe this was someone he met decades ago.
“Well, who is it then?” She asked and was about to turn around, but Logan had suddenly appeared by her side. Katey gasped and something in her, perhaps her instinct, told her to stay perfectly still.
Logan’s nose was no more than a few inches from the side of her face. He was curiously examining every little part of her from her shoulders up. His head bent and maneuvered around her face, nudging his forehead against her as he stepped around to stand in front of her. Chills skittered up and down her spine, spreading through her limbs and over her skull. It was thrilling, yet terrifying.
He was so close, his sweet scent filling up her nostrils and Katey felt her eyes begin to water. She didn’t know whether it was from fear or from the overpowering sensations that coursed through her.
They locked gazes, their foreheads gently touching. Katey felt like her heart would explode from her chest, beating rapidly. Why is he getting so close to me? Logan’s blue eyes faded to their loup-garou gold and Katey could feel her body shudder with desire.
She dropped her eyes to his chest.
Logan could see the fear and excitement in her as Katey’s pupils dilated. The corners of his lips twitched into a weak smile, knowing exactly how he was affecting her.
His hand rose up and slid her hair out of the way of her neck. Katey gulped and tried to keep her breathing under control as it came out in tremors through her nose. He leaned his head down a little and let his nose brush against the skin on her jaw as she felt all the blood drain from her head and shoulders, breaking out in a cold sweat.
Katey closed her eyes and tried to stay completely calm as his hand gently gripped around the nap of her neck. His fingers lightly grazing the skin and sent her blood racing through her veins. His thumb stroked just along her jaw line as his lips skimmed against her ear. Katey shivered as she could feel the edges of his teeth slide against the delicate skin on her neck.
“Hey guys,” Darren’s voice came from the door behind Katey. Logan swiftly let go of her and leapt away to a safe distance. How could Darren sneak up like that without Logan so much as smelling him? He quickly commanded his eyes back to their normal blue so Darren wouldn’t suspect anything, though he knew it was a futile effort. The alpha was bound to have known what almost took place.
Katey would have crumbled to the floor if she didn’t have the clarity to grip the edge of Logan’s desk with her trembling hands to steady herself. She swiveled around to sit down heavily in his desk chair and look towards Darren leaning casually against the doorframe.
“We’re about to order Chinese. Ben is going to run and get it. What do you want?” His body language suggested that he was calm, but his eyes were suspicious and stern.
“My usual,” Logan replied. “Black pepper pork.”
Darren looked to Katey and waited for an answer.
She had to blink a few times to think straight. “Uh… Pork low mien,” she mumbled.
“Alright. I’ll get it ordered and we’ll be ready to eat soon… Are you two ok?”
Logan didn’t trust Katey to answer. “Yes, we’re fine.”
Darren’s gaze slid between the two of them. “Ok. Come down and pick out a movie to watch.” He turned and walked back down the hall towards the stairs.
Katey took a deep, shaky breath and turned a pair of frantic eyes to Logan. Her heart was pounding in her throat as her blood continued to race at the memory of how he touched her so sensuously.
“What the heck was that?” she shrilled, her eyes searching for answers in his but finding none.
Logan’s chest heaved just as much as hers, but he was doing a much better job at containing his excitement than her. “I’m sorry. Are you ok?”
Katey looked down to her trembling hands and nodded. “I think so.”
“Can you walk?” He stepped a little closer and a wave of panic flooded her senses. She shot her eyes up and he froze, not wanting to spook her.
Katey braced herself against the desk stood with its help, testing the strength in her legs with a few tender steps. She breathed slowly through her mouth and nodded to his question.
Logan motioned toward the door, hinting that they needed to go downstairs. He was acting like absolutely nothing changed, but that was not so for Katey.
Katey nodded, took one last look at the drawings of the mystery woman that started all of this and followed a few feet behind him downstairs. She couldn’t help but speculate what would have happened if Darren hadn’t come in and interrupted them.
When they arrived downstairs, Darren was placing the order over the phone while Dustin and Ben sat on the couch talking casually to one another. When the two appeared on the scene, all eyes were fixed on them.
“You feeling alright?” Dustin asked Katey, seeing that her face was still a little pale.
Katey stood timidly by the stairwell. “Yeah, I’m good,” she managed to say. It was almost convincing. “What movies do we have to pick from?”
“Right over there,” Dustin replied with a head gesture towards the two tall bookcases on either side of the television. “We’ve seen them all a thousand times so don’t worry about us being picky.”
Katey slowly walked across the floor as Logan lounged himself on the opposite couch from the teachers and slammed a pillow into his face.
“What, Logan? Hiding a pair of red eyes or red cheeks?” Ben teased.
Dustin sniffed the air and ribbed Ben. “Oh, is that what I’m smelling?”
Darren came walking back in from the kitchen after he had hung up with the Chinese restaurant. “Nothing happened, guys,” he said, “It was just imprinting.”
Katey stopped just in front of the bookcase and turned around to look at her teachers on the sofa. They both donned a look of surprise, but it wasn’t the pleasant kind.
“Imprinting? You sure you want to be doing that, Logan?” Dustin asked, but Logan didn’t move. Katey’s eyes darted between the four of them in confusion. Darren noted her expression and exhaled deeply.
“This is a better conversation made without Katey in the room,” Darren advised softly as he pulled out his wallet from his back pocket. He handed his credit card to Ben, who then stood up and walked to the front door. As he passed, Katey saw him give her the once-over, as if checking for anything out of place. When Ben shut the door, Katey turned to Darren and Dustin.
“Too late. What’s imprinting?” she asked. She had heard that term used before, but had no idea how it linked to what Logan had done to her or why it would upset the others like that.
Darren took a deep breath and hooked his thumbs into his pant loops. “We call it imprinting for lack of a better term, but it’s basically a phase of initiation into the pack. In the wild, if a lone wolf apart from the original family comes into the pack, the alpha male is supposed to sort of test the new member. In the wild, it’s testing obedience and submissiveness. I interrupted in the middle of it for you two.”
Katey didn’t realize how intricate wolf society was. It dawned on her that being in a loup-garou pack might as well have been the exact same as a regular wolf pack. “What else would be involved?” she asked, her voice very soft. If Logan was trying to imprint on her, did that mean he was already welcoming her into the pack? But he wasn’t the alpha. Perhaps that was why it surprised the others.
“Just more of what he was starting to do. Normally it’s not as intimate as what Logan was trying. You happened to be responding the correct way though.”
“What way is tha
t?” Katey felt her mouth go dry.
“Standing perfectly still and not retaliating,” Dustin answered, leaning back and eyeing Logan who still had not moved since planting the pillow on his face.
“Oh… So, if I became one of you, someone would have to do that again?”
“Whoever bites you would,” Darren replied as he sat down in one of the armchairs on the side of the sofa closest to Dustin.
“But, don’t worry,” Dustin added, “we don’t get all dirty on you like that.”
Katey blushed and turned away towards the bookshelf to hide it. It was embarrassing enough to have Darren walk in on such an intimate moment, but to have the rest of the pack know it was even worse.
Unknowingly, Darren had confirmed her suspicions that Logan was about to bite her. If the imprinting process was the first step before changing, then Logan was trying to go against what they had all agreed on. She slid a glance over to Logan and wondered if that had been his intention after all, or if some sort of instinctive impulse took over that he couldn’t control.
Right in the middle of the bookshelf was a blue case that caught her eye. Titanic: Special Addition. She slipped it off the shelf and examined the front and back. The memory of that morning from the week before flashed in her mind; the image of Logan, Darren and Dustin all in turn-of-the-century garb, posing for a photo.
Logan took a deep breath and finally sat up on the couch. From where he sat, he could see the blue case and recognized it immediately.
“Do you want to watch that?”
“What is it?” Dustin asked.
“Titanic,” Logan replied before Katey had a chance to.
“Oh, great. We haven’t seen that one in a while. Do you want to watch that, Katey?” Darren asked.
Katey felt like a little kid who could turn her parent’s opinions and decisions anyway she wanted. She looked behind her at the three of them who were watching her, diligently waiting. She gave a timid nod as Logan approached her.
The Enigma (The Loup-Garou Series Book 1) Page 32