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CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

logan

The Morning of the Hunter’s Moon Conclave

M arcus Steele glared at me from the threshold of my manor, his mouth contorted in a vicious snarl. The door creaked on its hinges, swinging back toward him after he’d thrown it open.

“I demand to meet the suspected multimorph.” He paused, probably for dramatic effect, but taking the asshole seriously hadn’t earned a spot on my priority list. “I didn’t expect to have to demand an audience with her, Logan Blackwood.”

I deposited the pile of supplies in my arms onto the stairs that led to the bedroom which still smelled of Emma. “Well, Marcus, I didn’t expect you to show up here… uninvited .”

Unwelcome. I didn’t have to say the word for it to hang in the air .

“I am the alpha of the Ville Platte Cats, and I am afforded the right to meet the multimorph,” he growled at me, careful not to place one toe over the threshold.

Despite his trespassing in the territory, I wasn’t allowed to attack him without warning until he unlawfully entered my home.

Marcus was as shrewd as he was unpredictable.

It was the only way he’d been able to remain as the alpha he was.

“She’s not here, Marcus. You know she’s in Red Tail.” Why was he here? Simply to pick a fight?

His eyebrows twitched. “Has she turned you down?” Finally, taking my silence as his answer, Marcus shook his head, disappointment flickering in his eyes. “I would have never accepted a rejection from any shifter I had decided to bed.”

Far from it.

I wanted to roar at him and drag Emma back to my lair to make love to her for so long none of the others would be able to tell when her scent ended and mine began, but neither would help diminish tensions for our clan gathering.

I didn’t correct the infuriating feline, choosing continued silence over confirmation or violence. Before Emma, I would have thrown Marcus from our lands in much the same way I’d tossed Jasper on his ass, but I wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize Emma’s bid for uniting the clans.

“Has she been bedded and bonded by Jasper? He did seem to have her interest,” he pressed, needling me to illicit a reaction .

“Have you found any of your missing shifters?” I asked, feigning interest.

His eyes flashed. “That’s none of your concern.”

“Huh. Dr. Wise said you were failing in your pursuit of your missing members, and she’d never observed such a botched investigation.”

All lies, but Marcus wouldn’t know what Dr. Wise had said. He believed the doctor was an unnecessary human influence in matters which he thought should be managed by shifters.

He growled at me, lifted his foot, and looked as though he might forget himself. “You believe yourself to be clever, Logan, but I will call for a vote of no confidence in your ability as an alpha, and I’ll take Emma under my paw. She’ll be what she needs to be… without you.”

“There hasn’t been a vote of no confidence invoked within the clans in over a century,” I snapped. “They’ll never agree.”

“There’s more at stake now,” he said, his foot still hovering over the threshold. “Acheron is attacking our borders, taking our shifters.”

“It won’t work. There’s no proof I’ve mishandled my position as an alpha.”

“Perhaps, but what a fitting end for you… a boy who’s never measured up to the alpha his father was.” He placed his hovering foot back on the other side of the threshold.

Maybe Marcus thought his accusation would bother me, or maybe he thought I had some unresolved daddy issues. Neither of which was true .

I glared at him. “Why the hell are you here, Marcus? You know I don’t have anything to do with her training. She’s in the middle of training in Red Tail.”

And I need her here to fill the void in my life she doesn’t even know she’s already made.

He glowered silently, and the glint in his eye turned dangerous. “Her failure isn’t a risk we can take. Can she shift on command now? How is she going to unify the clans?”

That was when it hit me. Emma must not be in Red Tail, or he wouldn’t be here.

Wait.

An even more appealing thought occurred to me. Marcus hadn’t been allowed to bully his way into Red Tail to see her either, so he’d brought his ass here to the only other place he believed she could be. He was trying to flush her out of the bayou and into the open.

But that still didn’t explain his obsession…

I rearranged the conclave supplies on the steps, so they created a barrier to the upstairs.

“You know what? You’re right. We figured out how to mask Emma’s scent, and she’s here, upstairs, in the bedroom to the right of the landing.

But I won’t let you see her.” The floor creaked as I took a stance in front of the stairs and crossed my arms, baiting Marcus.

“Fuck your demands and your alpha status.”

Marcus roared and launched himself over the threshold of my home at the same moment I brought my fist around in a right hook. My clenched hand slammed into the side of his head, sending him off his feet and to the wooden floor of the foyer in the historical manor. He hadn’t seen the punch coming.

“You fell for that hook, line, and sinker,” I said. “What the hell is wrong with you, Steele?”

“There’s too much at stake. Don’t you get it? I don’t have a choice.” Marcus climbed to his feet and threw himself at me, panting as his arms clamped around my middle, and his head smacked my bottom lip.

Both of us tumbled backward, each of us scrambling for the upper hand. We knocked the small table, breaking it in two, and the vase on top shattered against the floor with the vase.

Footsteps ran across the porch, and Olivia burst in through the front door. “What the heck are you two assholes doing?”

Marcus caught my wrists and tried to force them behind me, but I managed to bring my palms together, using his momentum to throw him off me. He crashed into the wall and slumped to the floor in a heap, his shoulders shaking in silent sobs.

“It. Should. Have. Been. Me,” Marcus said between gasps. “I should have kidnapped her from her practice and taken her to our territory. If I had, I might have been able to avoid what happened to us.”

I stared down at the hysterical alpha, touching my tongue to my split bottom lip, tasting blood. What the hell had happened to arrogant, egotistical Marcus Steele? I offered my hand, but he quickly slapped it out of his way. At least he wasn’t completely gone .

“Why the fuck should it have been you?” Olivia demanded “Was it some random prophecy in your clan? Do you have any idea how much I’m beginning to hate that prophecy shit?”

“No, not prophecy.” Marcus lay still for long moments before slowly sitting up. “Ville Platte is shrinking, and they’re considering relocating to New Port Orleans to join with the big cat clan there . Without the hope of a new alpha with the approved bloodlines, they’ll go.”

Olivia frowned down at the alpha. “Oh.”

“That’s bad?” I asked, gesturing to the smashed table and broken vase. “How does their possible relocation justify risking a battle by invading my den?”

He groaned as he climbed to his feet. “The council believed locating the multimorph would grow our clan and change our fortunes, and they tasked me with finding her. I’ve had my eye on her for several months.

We were aware of her shifter genetics, but she never scented of shifter magic before she showed up at Six-Mile. ”

“She suppressed her shifting ability until her life was threatened at her campsite. We think it has something to do with being adopted,” Olivia said, her expression dubious, “but I’m not sure that’s any of your business.”

“And none of that explains your insanity,” I added.

“No, it doesn’t.” He crossed to the still-open front door, stepped over the threshold, and turned to face us.

“Red Tail has continually denied my request for an audience with the multimorph. However, my sister went missing this morning in a cloud of the disgusting stench of magic, and this morning, they allowed me to check out the dens to prove Emma wasn’t there. ”

Olivia gasped.

“Oh, fuck,” I growled. “Fucking hell.”

“It’s worse than that. My young nephew disappeared at the same time she did, probably holding her hand as they were carried off.

” Marcus swallowed. “He’s the first alpha offspring born in decades, and he would be the next in line.

Now all we have left is the stench of Acheron.

” He turned his glassy, pain-dulled gaze to me.

“What is he doing with the shifters he kidnaps? We haven’t been able to locate a bit of skin or snip of fur. ”

“Can’t be sure. Aren’t bloodlines an outdated way to choose alphas?”

The big cats had always been secretive about how they did things.

Their method of alpha selection explained why Marcus always acted elitist and aloof, yet how could I tell him what Dr. Wise had uncovered, what we suspected?

As much as I disliked the other alpha, adding to his heartache wasn’t what I wanted, not when I needed everyone to be focused on keeping Emma safe.

He drew himself to his full height, straightening his drooping shoulders. “But you know something, Logan. You always know something,” he said. “I apologize for my rash behavior, and I’m asking you to tell me what you know, although I now believe Emma isn’t here.”

“I don’t know anything more than what you know.”

Between the weight of protecting his clan, his sister, and his nephew, if I told him what I knew, he might fracture into a thousand pieces on Six-Mile’s front porch.

“Well…” Olivia interjected.

I shot her a dark look, annoyed at her almost-admission.

Marcus pointed at me. “You know what happened.”

“No, I don’t know .”

In the distance, Torbin moved into my view, studying us as we conversed. So far, he hadn’t been able to find any clues, any spies, or anything useful in our hunt. The constellation still hadn’t made any sense, and we were quickly running out of time, and everything was spiraling out of my control.

“Come on, Logan,” Olivia began. “Tell him.”

The facade Marcus worked so hard to maintain had completely disappeared. “You have a suspicion. Start with that.”

“Dammit,” I grunted. “We’re not certain of anything…”

“But?” he pressed.

“We believe Acheron is somehow consuming shifter magic to make his own that much stronger.” The terrifying close call with Olivia replayed in my mind.

“What does that do to the shifters he captures?”

“They disappear into him,” Olivia whispered, stepping nearer to Marcus.

“Disappear?” His tanned skin blanched pale, and he swallowed several times, turning his eyes toward the floor between us. “Did you say disappear?”

“Yes,” I said, keeping my voice low. “Each one makes him stronger.”

“Then we have no choice.” When he raised his eyes once more, fury burned deep in him, and his hands clenched at his sides. “The alphas must align behind Emma. She’s the only chance my sister and her son have, and if they don’t listen, we’ll make them.”

His words unsettled me. Marcus and I hadn’t been on the same side of anything… ever. Not as kids, not as adults. My mouth twisted into a smile. Even absent, Emma was already bringing opposing factions together.

The clans would be shocked if we were now collaborators. Marcus hadn’t been wrong that none of the other alphas would know how to react if we were on the same side. Perhaps we should remain enemies so we could conquer the world… for Emma.

“I have a request,” I said, “one I think will help Emma more than us announcing our new alliance.”

“Yes?” Marcus squinted at me, already suspicious.

“We should remain enemies, at least in public. It’ll make a bigger impact if we despise each other but recommend the same action at the gathering tonight.”

“I don’t have to pretend to despise you,” he said.

I stuck out my hand toward my rival alpha. “Good. Then we’re on the same page.”

Marcus shook it silently.

Olivia’s breath left her in a woosh . “I guess tonight’s going to be one helluva meeting, isn’t it?”

“Indeed.” Marcus jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “ Now tell me why Torbin is pretending like I can’t smell him?”

As I began to explain our hunt for spies and traitors, I couldn’t get over what was quickly becoming the most unexpected development in a month of history-making.

Teaming up with Marcus.

What a fucking turn of events.