by Eve Langlais
Great. Just add to the embarrassment. Falling asleep on a handsome guy who’d brought her home. Hold on a second. Why am I here?
She frowned.
“Are you feeling some lingering effects from your nightmare?” he asked cautiously.
“What nightmare?” She didn’t remember dreaming. Actually, she felt more rested than usual.
“My mistake,” he said, turning as he folded the blanket and placed it on the back of the couch.
He’s lying. Why? Why tell her he thought she’d had bad dreams? I usually have bad dreams. Perhaps last night was no exception. And if he’d heard her, he’d probably not slept much either.
“Sorry for falling asleep on you like that. I guess I was more tired than I realized.”
The smile he directed her way warmed her, and she shyly smiled back. “Don’t apologize. I’m just glad you got some rest. It was a pretty freaky night.”
“What do you mean?” She remembered walking home. The wolf. What wolf? The zombies. Zombies don’t exist. The man who was a wolf who was a man.
Hmm, perhaps she had dreamed.
“You gonna tell me you fight off the undead every night, honey?” Logan laughed as if making a joke, but the undead comment stunned.
She froze. “What do you know about zombies?”
“Enough to know we should eat before we talk about them. Are you hungry?” he asked as he tugged her by the hand through an archway and into an immense kitchen.
She didn’t immediately answer because she found herself too busy gaping in astonishment. Gleaming wooden cabinets, stainless steel appliances, and a massive countertop dominated the room, making it a chef’s dream. Not that Adara could cook—or at least, if she did know how she couldn’t remember it.
“Nice kitchen.”
“I like to eat,” he said with a sheepish grin that made her smile in return.
Then she remembered that she had no idea how she’d gotten here. Did he kidnap me? He didn’t seem the type.
I must be having another blackout. A pretty big one, considering she’d obviously made it from her place to his. “Can you cook?” she said, instead of admitting she had a big blank hole in her memories.
“Can I ever. Have a seat, and I’ll show you.” He appeared younger and more carefree than she remembered from the day before. He’s quite attractive and not so scary when he smiles like that. The butterflies from the previous day returned, but this time, she recognized them for what they were—arousal, not fear.
Yet she should fear. She’d only met him once. Why did she feel so at ease with him?
Because he saved me.
Saved me from what? Her mind refused to reply.
“What would you like?” he asked as he opened the massive, double-door fridge. “Eggs? Bacon? Sausage? Pancakes? You name it, and I’ll make it.”
“Apple juice?” she queried.
“Sure thing,” he said, whipping out a big, plastic jug. “I can make coffee, too, if you want.”
“No coffee. It doesn’t agree with me.” Now there was an understatement. She’d tried it once in the institution, but the caffeine in it made her go into convulsions. Not an experience she wanted to repeat; hence, she avoided coffee, colas, and anything else with the hyper agent in it.
“Can’t drink the stuff either,” he said, pouring them both tall glasses of juice. “I think it’s the caffeine. It makes me wanna wolf out.”
A giggle escaped her at his odd euphemism. He could be a wolf. He certainly seemed big and bad.
He is a wolf. A flash of black fur and green eyes glinting. The snapping of teeth as the wolf attacked. The thing hitting the floor, its eyes staring…
Blink.
A wolf in the city? How silly. It made her smile, and despite the gap in her memory, she chose to enjoy the moment with Logan.
She kept her good mood the entire time he cooked. Like a choreographed ballet, he twirled around his various food stations, whipping, chopping, frying, and flipping, all the while, talking to her innocuously.
“They say we’re in for a nasty winter. Lots of snow and deep freezes. Brrr!” He shuddered those big shoulders. “It’s gonna suck going to work.”
“What do you do?” she asked, intrigued by Logan and wanting to know more about this man who got under her scared shell and put her at ease.
“Construction. Currently working on that new subdivision going up on South Kensington Street and Ninth.”
“Oh, no,” she exclaimed, clapping a hand over her mouth.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, turning from the stove, his forehead creased in worry.
“It’s Wednesday. You should be at work, not here taking care of me.”
“It’s okay. I took the day off.”
“You shouldn’t have done that. What if they fire you?” A touch of guilt made her slide off the stool and head in what she hoped was the general direction of the front door.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he asked, moving to put himself in front of her.
“It’s my fault you’re not at work. I didn’t mean to be a bother.”
“Hey, you are not a bother,” he said, waving his flipper at her when she went to go around him. “You’re not making me do anything. I am not going to lose my job, and I’m not worried about the money. I’ve got plenty. I just work so I don’t get bored. So, sit your ass back on that stool and relax.”
Adara bit her lip, unsure if she should believe him, but his big body didn’t look like it would budge out of her way. With a sigh, she turned and went back to her perch.
“I don’t want you taking any more days off because of me,” she stated.
“You can’t tell me what to do,” he said with a wink.
Such a childish retort that she stared at him. She still stared when, a minute later, he placed a steaming plate topped with a mound of food in front of her.
Adara looked at him incredulously. “I can’t eat all that.”
“Try,” he said, sitting across from her on a stool he dragged around the kitchen island.
She glanced over at his plate to see it piled twice as high. Shaking her head, she picked up her fork and dug in. Crispy bacon, fluffy scrambled eggs, buttered toast, and home fries. Before she knew it, Adara had cleared her plate. Surprised by her hunger, she looked up at Logan to see him grinning.
“I knew you were hungry.” He swept her plate away and dumped the dirty dishes in his dishwasher. “Now that you’re fed, let’s play questions and answers.”
Adara nervously followed him into the living room, anxious, curious, and dreading what he’d have to say.
Perhaps she’d finally piece together how she ended up in his home.
Zombies! a voice screamed.
Those don’t exist.
The dead are attacking.
Forget.
“So where should we start?” he said, clapping his hands and rubbing them together.
Someone pounded on the door. “Lo-ga—nnnn,” someone yelled. “We’ve got a fucking problem.”
Why did Adara get the feeling that the problem concerned her?
Chapter Twenty-One
Sonofabitch. Logan restrained an urge to swear. He didn’t want to scare Adara with his colorful vocabulary. She had finally stopped jumping at every sound and even smiled, a sweet look that made Logan more determined than ever to take care of her—a sentiment his wolf agreed with resoundingly.
“I need to go answer that.”
She arched a brow in an expression that screamed, Do you think?
He popped out of the living room to answer the door. As soon as he swung it open, Kevin blew in.
“Logan, damn, man. Why haven’t you been answering your phone?”
Head slap. He’d forgotten to put his cell on the charger last night and the battery had obviously died.
“What happened?” he asked, following Kevin as he walked into the living room.
His second stopped dead at the sight of Adara.
“
Who is this?” Kevin asked softly.
Logan stepped around his beta and pointed to Adara. “Kevin, Adara. Adara, this is Kevin, my second-in-command.”
Adara backed away from them, her eyes growing wide with fright. Logan frowned. What had brought that on? Then he noticed Kevin’s posture. Stiff limbed and sniffing the air, Kevin’s feral side was rousing.
“Smells good,” Kevin said in a guttural tone as he took a step forward.
Logan cursed and moved to step in front of Adara, blocking his friend’s line of sight. “Kevin.” Glowing eyes rose to meet his, and Logan felt his beast stir at the lust and hunger it saw in Kevin’s eyes. “Mine,” growled Logan, his beast upset enough to force the word out through Logan’s stiff lips. “Don’t touch.”
Logan shoved Kevin back into the front hall and out of Adara’s presence. Logan’s beast rested just below the surface, and Kevin’s was obviously even closer. The man closed his eyes and fisted his hands to press them against his eye sockets. He took several shuddering breaths and opened his eyes again, the glow gone.
“Is your beast leashed?” asked Logan in a grim tone, not at all pleased by his beta’s reaction.
“Yes. Sorry. I don’t know what happened. The girl…” Kevin shook his head. “What the hell is she?”
“Her name is Adara, and part of the problem is…I don’t know.”
“Jeez, man. Whatever she is, make sure you keep her away from the younger pack members. I almost lost it there for a second.”
Almost? If Logan hadn’t been around, he wondered what might have happened. “I didn’t realize her effect would be so strong on others. Make sure you let the guards know not to approach her.” I don’t want to have to hurt my pack, but I will not let them harm her.
No touching, agreed his beast.
“Will do,” said Kevin.
“So, where’s the fire?” asked Logan, wondering what had brought Kevin over in an almost panic in the first place.
“Her old building. Burning like gasoline on dry wood.”
“What?” The answer took Logan by surprise. He hadn’t meant a literal fire.
“I got together a couple of the boys and went over to her building to clear it like you asked, but when we got there, the place was a raging inferno. I mean, we’re talking a couple of alarms at least.”
A chill swept through him. He didn’t believe in coincidences. Only an idiot would try to pretend that the burning building wasn’t somehow connected to Adara. “Did you find out how it started?”
“I figured you’d want to know, so I stuck around and asked some questions. Looks like the fire started on the third or second floor. They couldn’t be completely sure. The place was old and went up in flames in no time.”
“How many dead?”
“Again, not sure. The place was a cesspool and had a high turnover rate. Not to mention they can’t sift through the remains until the debris cools down.”
“Fuck,” said Logan, raking a hand through his hair. “Somebody is covering their tracks.”
“This has to do with the broad, doesn’t it?”
“More than likely,” agreed Logan, trying to restrain his wolf’s bristling at the use of the term broad. No, his second didn’t need his face rearranged for disrespecting her. Logan used that term all the time.
So why does it feel different with her?
“She’s not human.”
“No. Which makes her special.”
“Are you sure you should involve the pack?”
Even the suggestion that they shouldn’t help Adara roused Logan’s anger. “Until I say otherwise, she is under my protection, which means, by default, the pack’s.”
His beta raised his hands in a conciliatory gesture. “Calm down, man. I was just asking.”
“Sorry, but my wolf seems to have taken quite the shine.”
“I don’t think it’s just your wolf that likes her. But that’s your business. I’m off to bed. I’ve got a pair of the boys watching the house, but given what happened at her building, I think we might want to increase the night patrol to at least two pairs for the front and back, maybe more. Whatever that girl is involved in, they don’t mess around.”
“No, they don’t.” And that worried him. What did they want with Adara? “Get some sleep, and come back tonight. I might have more info, and if I do, we’re gonna need a plan of attack.”
Kevin showed some fang. “I look forward to sinking my teeth into it.”
With a slap on each other’s backs, Kevin took off, and Logan shut the door, hesitating before going back into the room. How much of that did she overhear?
“Did I just hear you say I’m not human?” she questioned in a small voice from behind him.
Logan turned and saw her looking up at him with puzzled violet eyes. “That was going to be part of my talk with you, honey. I take it you didn’t know you aren’t completely human?”
“No.” She shook her head, her silky dark hair flying. “And the fact that you’re even suggesting it is ludicrous. What would I be, other than human?”
“Do you really want a list?”
She blinked at him. “Are you on medication?” She hastened to add, “Not that there’s a problem with that. I’m on meds, too. Which I’ve not yet taken today. Have you taken yours?”
At her rapid speech, he started laughing. “I’m not crazy, honey. And the meds you’re taking might explain why you don’t know what you are.”
“I’m Adara. A very confused human,” she emphasized.
“You’re no more human than I am. And before you freak out, keep in mind that there’s no shame in being different.”
“And how are you so different?”
“Don’t you think being a werewolf counts?”
For a moment, her eyes widened. “You’re really a wolf?”
“How can you deny it after last night?”
“I thought it was a dream.”
“No dream, honey.”
“Prove it. Because I’m not about to have you trick me into thinking this is true when everyone knows that… Aaaah!” She shrieked as the shape of his bones changed, and Logan grew fur. Adara backed away, a hand held to her chest, her face a mask of horror.
In a second, he was back to himself. “Don’t freak out, honey. I told you I was a wolf.”
“It’s one thing to say it, another thing to see it…believe it.” She reached forward and touched him, lightly stroking her fingers down his cheek. “It feels like normal skin.”
He held out his hand, and as she stared, it grew hair and changed shape, becoming more paw-like. She stroked the fur. “You can do this at will?”
“I can. I can do lots of things when I change shapes. See better, smell better. It’s how I knew you were special.”
“Because of my smell?” Her nose wrinkled. “Am I a werewolf?”
“Not quite. I’m not sure what you are, and obviously, you don’t remember.”
“How do you know that?”
“Titus said you have amnesia.”
“He told you? I thought you weren’t friends.” She sounded almost accusatory.
“We’re not, but we’ve been known to work together if needed.”
“And you think I’m a reason to collaborate?”
He shrugged. “Wasn’t my idea. But he insisted.” Logan grinned. “However, feel free to tell him to bugger off. I don’t mind solving this on my own.”
“I’d just like to know who I am.” Her soft words hit him in the gut.
“Which is why I’ll put up with the bastard. He’s got connections we might need.”
“What do you think you can do? The doctor says they tried to find out who I was, but they didn’t turn up anything.”
“Probably on account that they were looking at the problem with human eyes. What’s the last thing you recall about your past life?”
“Nothing.” Adara’s face turned pale, and he saw her clench her hands into tight fists.
“Think, honey. May
be you’ll recall an address or a piece of a song. Maybe even a flower or a tree.”
She hugged herself. “I don’t remember.”
Yet, at times, the way her gaze clouded and cleared, he got the impression that things shoved their way in. He needed her to give him something, a clue, a hint of her past that could help him understand what was happening. “This could be important, honey. Try. What’s the furthest thing you recall?”
“I—” She paused. “I remember a hospital.”
“That’s good. But we need to go back further into your past. What about before the hospital?”
She shook her head wildly. “Nothing. It’s all a blank.”
“Are you sure? Maybe a word keeps popping up in your head. Or how about a landmark or a person? A man?”
Her face blanched, and a tremor shook her body. She backed away from him and wailed. “Noooo! No!” She screamed, a long, drawn-out sound that rang in his ears. “It hurts. Make it stop,” she shrieked as she sank to her knees. She moaned piteously as she clutched her head.
The guilt slammed him hard. “Shit, honey. I’m sorry. It’s okay. You’re safe.”
Logan moved towards her, intending to take her into his arms, but she scuttled away, sobbing.
“No,” she cried, her eyes wild. “Don’t touch me.” She backed herself into a corner, her breathing fast and erratic as she huddled in on herself, terror oozing from every pore.
Appalled by her reaction, Logan raised his hands high. “I’m not going to hurt you, Adara. You let me touch you yesterday. I didn’t hurt you then, did I?”
“No,” she agreed slowly as if having to force the word out. She hugged her frail body, and Logan felt a burning rage for whoever had hurt her. His beast paced restlessly inside him.
He made sure none of his inner turmoil showed in his voice, though. “What’s changed, honey? I’m not going to hurt you. I want to help you.”
Adara stopped shaking and stared at him, eyes wide and unseeing before they rolled back in her head so only the whites showed. When she spoke, her voice sounded different, deeper and more confident, and it sent chills down his spine. “No one can help me. I am damned, for my name is Forsaken.”