Page 35

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

emma

Wednesday

B y the time I woke up again, it felt like I’d passed out and been dead to the world for hours, and it took me a minute to figure out where I was as I took inventory of my aching body.

My legs were tangled in the covers, and my head was crammed under the pillow.

I groaned before knocking the pillow to the side and rolling onto my back.

Jasper must have been loitering near my door because he poked his head inside to ask, “Ye slept the sleep of the good-fecked, did ya?”

“Uhm, no. Logan turned me down.” I didn’t turn to look at him, choosing to stare at the curved beams in the earthen ceiling instead. A tightly woven net held the dirt and kept it from falling onto the furniture beneath it.

A long string of expletives poured from Jasper’s mouth, and he marched into the room, waving his arms as though he was trying to beat Logan up long-distance. “What a fool. Ye both could have used it… clear yer minds and all that.”

“Yeah, but he thinks we might be fated.”

Jasper froze in the middle of my borrowed room. “Fated mates aren’t a common occurrence. Tell me, can you feel him in your head?”

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew Logan was out there, working on something frustrating, puzzling through something. It was odd to feel him in my head like that. Now he was more than puzzling. He was worried, and it was distracting.

“Yeah. Is he still here in Red Tail?” I asked.

“No.”

I rotated to my side, baffled by the fox shifter’s accurate guess. “How did you know he was in my head? Is that normal?”

He tipped his head one way and then the other as if weighing what he might tell me. “Oh, well, now, fated mates makes fecking a bit different now. Seems ye’ve already formed something of a bond when he shared his strength with ye. That bond will only grow over time.”

“So he wasn’t just trying to turn me down in a nice way?”

He shook his head. “No, Logan’s an alpha, and he wouldn’t be in the habit of turning down a woman he clearly has an interest in, but if ye two are fated… That adds an element which might make it impossible to train ye.”

“Because we won’t be able to think about anything but sex if we had it,” I said, rolling my eyes. “We wouldn’t be able to control ourselves, blah, blah, blah.”

None of that made sense to me. Logan wasn’t the sort of leader to be led by his emotions, but he had declined a wild night of passion because of what… fear?

“Would it really be that bad?” I asked Jasper.

“Oh, for at least six months. It’ll be bad enough that ye’ll both lose weight, and ye’ll both have to appoint a caretaker to make sure ye eat and take care of necessary things while ye can’t get yer minds off each other, and who knows what ye being the multimorph would do to the equation.

” He let out a low whistle, and then he pressed a hand to his middle, laughing so hard he bent over.

“Hell, ye might primal the shit out of everybody every time ye orgasm.”

My eyes widened. I wasn’t sure I wanted all the clans to know every time I was having mind-blowing sex with Logan. “He didn’t say any of that.”

“He probably hasn’t thought of it yet,” Jasper wheezed. “When he does… Oh, fecking hell… We’re likely to have an explosion of shifter babies and God knows what else.” That set off his laughter again. “Olivia will have herself a good laugh when I tell her.”

“Are you seeing Olivia sometime soon?” I asked in an attempt to deflect his attention.

Was Logan worried about Olivia? Based on what was in my head, he was. Something about that… It sent chills through me, and my throat dried as worry stabbed through me. Would I be able to sense his specific thoughts when we weren’t close to one another ?

“In a few days,” he said, frowning. “Though, I haven’t heard from her for a couple days. I assume it’s got something to do with them prepping for the gathering between the clans. In the meantime, I have dinner on the table, and I have a confession.”

“Oh?” I hopped out of the bed. Between the nap, Logan’s strength, and the B-12, I already felt mostly recovered despite Logan being in my brain. “How long was I asleep?”

“Eighteen hours. Ye needed it.” He said it as though it was the most normal thing in the world. “See ye at the table for a late lunch.”

“Yeah.” Eighteen hours meant Wednesday was already half-gone.

I slipped into a T-shirt I found in one of the drawers. Riley and Shannon had to be losing their minds by now, and my mom… Oh, hell . I checked my phone, surprised to find no notifications until I realized I had no reception underground in the middle of nowhere.

Jasper whistled in the other end of his den, and I scrambled into the rest of my clothes before hurrying into the dining room.

He glanced up from placing two filled bowls on the table. “Shame yer dressed. I like the twin-peaks view while I’m eating. It’s a nice complement.”

I shot him a dark look, and tension snapped through me. “If Logan heard you talking like that…”

“Oh, he’d want to rip me limb from limb.”

“At least you know.” The chair complained as I plopped down into it, and I scooted the seat closer to the table, fighting to push feelings for Logan away.

“I have to check in with my mom and my people in Willow Creek.” I grimaced.

“I’m hoping my mom hasn’t talked to the sheriff or started a missing person investigation as though I’m missing.

It’s been forty-eight hours, and I have no idea how I’m going to convince her I’m fine. ”

The closer I was to making the call, the more I wanted to put it off. The idea of lying to my mother again made me feel like shit on the bottom of a shoe.

“Logan left yer phone. Ye can run up top to make a quick call, but I’ve been checking in on Riley and Shannon, making sure they’re okay, and I’ve updated them on your status. They’ve been talking to your mother as often as she calls. Seems Shannon’s taken a shine to me. She invited me to dinner.”

Riley’s and Shannon’s terrified faces jostled in my thoughts, and my chin quivered as moisture flooded my eyes. “Oh, Jasper, don’t drag them into this mess. I don’t think I could bear it if something happened to them because of me.”

His face twisted in concern as he placed his hand on my forearm.

“I wouldn’t dare, lass. More than half the things I say aren’t real at all.

It’s the wily side of me, and a habit’s hard to break.

” He withdrew his hand and cleared his throat.

“As it is, I’m more than a little serious about Olivia, though she’s not interested in anything like that. ”

“What about Rachel?”

Another stalling question. Jasper’s love life was far more interesting than trying to conjure a believable lie for my mother.

He shrugged and lifted the spoon, stopping halfway between the dish and his mouth. “Rachel was an ill-advised attempt at making Olivia jealous.” He took a bite and then glared at me. “I’ll thank ye not to mention it to her.”

“Secret’s safe with me,” I said, drawing an X over my heart. “Were your feelings for Olivia your confession?”

“Not feelings,” he sputtered. “I never said I had feelings .”

“If you’re serious about anyone, Jasper, it’s feelings. You don’t strike me as the monogamous sort.”

His shoulders shook with a silent chuckle. “I suppose it counts as one, but no, that’s not what I had a need to tell you.”

I took two large bites, waiting for him to expound. Finally, I asked, “Then what?”

“I know more about Acheron than I let on.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, didn’t want to open that can of worms while ye were waiting on Logan to show up. Didn’t make much sense to tell ye what we knew only to have to tell ye again after Logan left yer brain a load of mush.”

My cheeks warmed. Jasper had expected Logan and me to have sex, and he’d made himself scarce so we could. “You’re very pro-copulation, aren’t you?”

“Very.” He considered me. “Is it a problem?”

“No, it’s just not the attitude I’m used to. You’re all so matter of fact about it. No shame, no embarrassment, not at all prudish.”

“Well, I’m not tied up by human Victorian morality, and shifters are usually naked. Why bother pretending we don’t notice attraction? Besides, there are many health reasons to participate in the activity,” he added, coyly. “Not the least of which is a clear mind and good sleep. Ye needed both.”

“Don’t think I’ll get that medicine for a long while yet,” I muttered under my breath. Louder, I said, “Tell me about Acheron.”

“I thought ye needed to make a call?”

My wince turned into a sigh which turned into a groan. “I don’t want to lie to my mother again, so I’m putting it off while I try to figure out something plausible.”

“Then eat while the food is hot.”

“As long as you tell me about Acheron.”

“Do ye want the dramatic version we tell kids around the campfire or the abbreviated version?”

“I have enough drama in my life right now. Let’s go for the abridged version, so I can start reading whatever Dr. Wise brought me to read.”

After I check on my mother.

“Ye know a bit about geography, and ye’re correct about Acheron being named after the river in Greece. It’s also known as the ‘river of woe.’”

“What else?”

“I’ll tell ye the one I prefer,” he said. “Logan tells a different one. ”

“There’s more than one?”

“Of course.” He nodded. “His mother served as a priestess in an old temple to an old, nearly forgotten god. She became pregnant after a forbidden affair, though some say she was raped by a demigod. Either way, she didn’t want Acheron, and she tossed him into the river after he was born.”

“He didn’t drown?” I asked.

The farfetched story didn’t make much sense to me, but myths rarely did. The difference now was that this myth was walking around, trying to put an end to every shifter in Louisiana. Maybe the world.