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CHAPTER SIXTEEN

logan

Sunday

M y four-wheeler rattled along the trail.

I’d opted for the human mode of travel to meet Marcus where he’d be waiting at Five-Tree.

The crisp wind zipped through my hair since I’d opted to wear no helmet this time.

A walkie-talkie vibrated against my waist. Three clicks would bring the best of our best, those eager to die protecting our territory.

Hopefully, it wouldn’t come to that. Even though I had wanted to bring the whole pack, going alone had been the only way to keep the meeting from turning into a border war.

We couldn’t afford an escalation right now.

Of all the shifter clans in Louisiana, the Ville Platte Cats had the silliest name but made me the most nervous.

Marcus Steele had been a wild card his whole life.

He did as he pleased and answered to no one.

At one time, their pack rivaled ours in numbers, and he was on a first-name basis with the alpha of the cat shifters in New Port Orleans while we had no one else in Louisiana.

Our sister packs were states away, mostly in Alaska .

Marcus was a powerful enemy or an equally powerful ally.

The ATV engine cycled down as I slowed, and the kill switch stopped it entirely. I waited in the middle of the clearing.

A large black panther waited in the largest of the five trees the area had been named after, his amber irises surrounded dilated pupils. He leaped down, shifting midair and landing as a human. “Logan.”

“Hello, Marcus.”

“Any of the others come with you?”

“You know they didn’t.”

He had known when he’d set up camp that I would come alone. It was the only reason he allowed the patrol to see him.

I slid off the seat of the four-wheeler and leaned against it. “What can I do for you today?”

“You have a visitor,” he said. “I want to meet her.”

“Oh? Who told you that?”

“You know our clans trade romantic partners back and forth,” he said. “Pillow talk is what it is, and gossip gets around, especially when it resembles a secret. Who is she?”

Shit. Emma wasn’t under wraps anymore. The news had gotten out much faster than I’d anticipated. I’d hoped we’d have a week before I had to start lying to anybody and everybody about Emma’s purpose in our clan.

“She’s my mate.”

“Is she?” His expression implied he knew my lie for what it was.

“Of course. Why else would I have brought her back to the alpha manor in the middle of the night, naked, and tucked her into my bed?”

“And then left her alone all night?” His challenge hung in the air, and he plucked a long branch from the ground, twirling it around his arms. “Unlikely.”

Whoever had been feeding information to Marcus had been around when we had carried Emma into the house.

Maybe it was the shifters who had helped us carry her upstairs or maybe someone at the breakfast table.

I made a mental note to have Olivia investigate.

She had a good nose for identifying weaknesses and strengths in people.

Icy needles of fear pricked at my heart. Her safety depended on my ability to sell the myth that she was my mate, possibly even my fated mate. Surely, I hadn’t been fated to the multimorph.

I crossed my arms and took on a nonchalant smirk. “I wore her out, so I let her sleep it off. I’m a gentleman when the situation calls for it.”

“I see.” He tossed the stick aside. “I intend to meet her. The infamous bachelor alpha brought a woman home to his family, so I’m certain she’s worth meeting. ”

“I’ll bring her to the Hunter’s Moon Conclave… when we’re all in the non-aggression zone.” I didn’t trust him around Emma before then. The weight of hundreds of years of established, reinforced treaties and tradition would keep her mostly safe.

“That’s not soon enough, Logan,” he said, his voice taking on a feline yowl. “I must meet her as soon as possible.”

I straightened and took a menacing step toward him. “It’s the limit of what I can offer.”

For long moments, he glared at me, his shoulders hunched, his feet working back and forth, so much a cat ready to pounce.

A raven called overhead, and deep huffing sounded from inside the forest.

“We’re not the only ones here,” I said. “Sounds like the ravens and maybe the bears have taken an interest in our meeting.”

Marcus’s muscled unwound, and the tension drained from him. “So they are. Shouldn’t be surprised they’d be interested in whatever we have to talk about.”

I barked a laugh. “They’d all shit themselves if we managed to band together and became allies.”

His hand twitched against his leg. “They wouldn’t know whether to be terrified or elated.”

“How so?”

Marcus’s upper lip curled to reveal a row of pointed teeth. “We’d either tear each other apart from the inside or… ”

“Or?” I prompted.

“Or we’d conquer the world.” He turned away and strolled into the woods, choosing the direction that would lead him most directly back to his territory. “Hunter’s Moon is too far away, Logan. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

O n my return trip to the manor, my walkie-talkie rang, and I yanked it from my belt, furious someone had the balls to interrupt me when I’d forbidden it. “Yeah?”

“Sorry to disturb you, Alpha, but Dr. Wise is here, and she says you sent for her.”

I tamped down my fury. That had been the only reason I’d given them permission to reach out.

“ETA: eight minutes,” I answered, hooking it back on my belt.

“10-4.”

Eight minutes later, I rolled down the long drive and parked the four-wheeler nose-to-nose with Emma’s vehicle. Dr. Wise’s green Subaru rested on the gravel behind it. I hopped off as Emma and Olivia approached from the direction of the training warehouse, chatting amicably.

Something had changed between Emma and Olivia.

Maybe they weren’t friends yet, but they weren’t the bitter enemies they’d been when Emma had popped off about obedience training.

Her comment still made me chuckle, but I hid my mirth else they’d ask, and I’d be obligated to explain.

Reminding Olivia about Emma’s insubordinate behavior wouldn’t be the best thing for their current peace agreement.

I leaned against the four-wheeler as they closed the distance. “How did it go?”

Olivia gave a satisfied nod and kicked a rock back toward the drive. “She managed another shift, and we figured out something else about her.”

“What’s that?”

Olivia didn’t answer until they stopped in front of me. “She’s a healer.”

“How do you know?”

“Relic.”

My choice for a teacher for Emma had paid off. Olivia’s special skill was investigation, and she was always having gut feelings about people, putting things together that no one else saw.

I held up one finger and then two. “How many shifts?”

Emma’s bright expression dimmed slightly. “Only one,” she whispered. “Olivia thought trying for another form would be too much for my first twenty-four hours.”

“Good call,” I said. “It’s incredible she’s still upright, taking everything in stride.”

Olivia grimaced and rubbed the back of her neck. “It’s incredible that she shifted after two tries. Got the wind magic on her first real attempt.”

A low whistle was my only response. Too much external expectation could interfere with Emma’s remarkable progress, so I didn’t add anything else. “Ready to meet Dr. Wise?”

“Who is this again?”

“Dr. Wise it the human who’s compiling information about the shifters. She’s interested in the multimorph, and she’s been compiling information about other multimorph emergences.”

“Other emergences?”

“Other iterations of who and what you are. Any time we have a looming threat, a multimorph emerges to help battle it. You’re the answer to the Acheron question.”

“And I’ve been prophesied?”

“Yes,” I said.

Her face twisted in shock. “And you just believe it?”

“Yes, because my father believed the multimorph would emerge any day, and I’ve seen you shift into multiple forms. I’ve grown up with the idea that when things were growing bigger than we could handle, all of the shifter magic collects in one shifter, and our kind would welcome a multimorph.”

Her shoulders drooped. “I don’t get any of this at all.”

“Maybe Dr. Wise will help. Ready to meet her?”

“Okay,” she said. “Sure. Why not?”

“Olivia, grab somebody to put the four-wheeler away and then join us in the study.”

“You got it.” Though, instead of getting anybody else, she slid onto the four-wheeler, started it up, and zipped away.

Emma turned toward me as we made our way up the front steps. “She said Dr. Wise embedded with your pack.”

“Embedded? Like a reporter on the front line? Figures she’d call it that.

She’s never been a fan of Dr. Wise’s involvement in our magical histories, and she’s always treated Dr. Wise as though she doesn’t belong.

” I reached around Emma and tugged the front door open, resisting the urge to take a deep breath as I moved closer to her.

Fuck. The position was too much like hugging, and I already wanted it— her —bad, though my nearness didn’t seem to impact her at all. “Nervous?”

“I guess. She said Dr. Wise’s interest was?—”

“Because of the relics,” I finished. “It’s true.

We have more than any other clan, and we have oral traditions about each one.

Dr. Wise is a human historian, not a reporter.

She’s compiling as much of our lore as she’s able.

Much of it consists of oral retellings passed down, but we have about two hundred documents and about one hundred relics. ”

“How did she learn about shifters?” she asked.

“She married one. After her mate passed, she asked to be allowed to continue working with the histories.” It was a lot of information for Emma to absorb, but we didn’t have any time to waste.

“Oh.” Emma didn’t add anything else.

The door clicked behind us, and I directed Emma to the left, into my study.

Overly stuffed bookshelves lined the walls.

Volumes had been stacked high on the floor, some by my father, but many of them had been collected by me.

I stopped directly behind her as she took it all in.

Her keys still sat on my desk where I’d left them.

“Wow,” she breathed. “I’m a real sucker for a man with a good library.” She gasped as though she hadn’t meant to say it aloud. Slowly, she turned blushing cheeks toward me.

“Well, I’m a sucker for any woman who appreciates my giant library,” I said, meaning to ease her concern, but it sounded like a blatant innuendo.

Her smile broke radiantly, and her eyes glittered emerald, making her seem regal.

She opened her mouth to speak, and I couldn’t drag my gaze away from her lips where a strand of her hair had caught on moisture on the bottom one. I reached to brush her hair aside.

The harsh sound of a clearing throat broke the spell. Dr. Wise stepped into the study, carrying a dark leather attaché case. “Mr. Blackwood? You sent for me?”

Emma took several steps backward and nearly tripped on an antique leather globe, left in the middle of the polished floor for some absurd reason.

I grabbed the globe and crossed to my desk, placing it on the floor behind, and nearly tripped on it myself when I had to step over it to take a seat in my desk chair. “Dr. Wise, meet Emma Carter.”

Dr. Wise’s eyebrows pinched together over the upper rim of her glasses. The short and aging doctor glanced at Emma. “Hello.”

I gestured for them both to take a seat across from me as Olivia hurried into the study.

My beta had the good sense to latch the door behind her, and Dr. Wise and Emma settled in the chairs.

The manor wasn’t soundproof by any means, but a closed door cut down on any eavesdroppers, and I still wanted to keep all the latest developments under wraps.

Emma Carter was my private secret, and I wanted to keep her that way.