Page 11

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LOGAN

W arm baked apples and cloves mingled with the unmistakable tang of blood.

My wolf threatened to take me over before I’d even lifted my eyes to see who had opened the door.

Her scent was a jarring assault, tainting the air, twisting something deep inside me. She was wounded, and my wolf demanded I do something right now .

Across the table, the woman I’d been speaking to froze. She let out a strangled gasp and, in an instant, was gone, staring toward the door, leaving me alone. My heart pounded in sync with the pull of that scent. I hadn’t needed to look to know who had entered.

Mine.

She stood there, backlit by the dim glow of the entrance, and for a moment, the rest of the café faded to nothing. Her dress was simple, flowing in soft folds, but it was the way she carried herself. Her eyes held defiance, a spark of something unbreakable, but also… fear. A fear she wore like armor.

My instincts took over and I was on my feet, not caring that the chair broke as it crashed to the floor. She took a step toward me and my wolf stirred with a primal need to protect.

I didn’t dare touch her. As it was, I was losing hold of myself. I raised my hand to sense the severity of her wounds and nearly shifted.

Torn skin, seeping blood, exposed flesh.

I forced myself to speak before the fury that had taken hold of me snapped into something worse.

“Who did this to you?”

She opened her mouth to speak, but words didn’t follow. Her gaze kept darting to the door, and her hands trembled as she wrapped them tightly around the folds of her dress, gripping as though her life depended on it.

“Who are you?” I growled. I didn’t sound like myself, her arrival sending my blood burning through me, my wolf so close to the edge it made my head pound.

“Please, I can explain.” Her pulse was beating fast at her throat.

Something inside me twisted, and I forced myself to take a step back. I could see her panic, feel it in every line of her, and I needed her to feel safe with me—even if I didn’t know why.

“I won’t hurt you,” I said, softer this time. “Tell me what happened.”

Her breathing slowed and her shoulders relaxed slightly. She looked at me, struggling to form the words, and I sensed something different beneath the fear—trust, though hesitant and new.

“Listen,” she said finally. “I’ve seen you. In visions. I think I can help you—if you protect me.”

If you protect me. The words sent a fierce emotion through my wolf. He pressed against the surface, ready to do her bidding, ready to do whatever it took to keep her safe. I forced him down, needing answers, not blind obedience.

“Then tell me,” I urged, trying to stay gentle, though every nerve in me was wound tight. “Explain it to me.”

“I have gifts,” she said between quick breaths. “Gifts that could serve you.”

I instinctively looked around the room, searching for the old woman who moments earlier had turned my world upside down with the reveal of a curse on my pack. I’d intended to send her away, dismiss the whole idea.

And then she appeared.

It couldn’t be a coincidence, her arriving like this, speaking words about being able to help me when I hadn’t known I needed help at all five minutes earlier.

“Tell me more.”

“I want to,” she said. “But…” Her mouth hung open, her face draining of color as she choked out, “He’s coming.”

“Who?” I asked, my own pulse spiking. “Who’s coming?”

She was barely able to answer, a strangled whisper falling from her lips. “Damian.”

Before I could respond, the door flew open, glass shattering as it hit the wall with a deafening crash. A large figure stood in the doorway, his gaze sweeping over the room before locking on to her .

Damian. Alpha Grayson’s son.

“You called, my love?” he asked, the words dripping with sarcasm and arrogance, a wicked smile twisting his lips.

He sauntered closer, reaching for her arm and gripping it as though he were claiming his prize. Her face remained a mask, but I saw the flash of disgust as his fingers dug into her skin.

“I was looking for you everywhere, Eve,” Damian taunted. He spoke with a meanness that made my wolf bristle. He stepped closer, brushing her braid over her shoulder, false affection in every gesture. “You know I hate when I can’t find you. Thank goodness someone had seen the direction in which you’d wandered.”

Her name is Eve. Like the night sky, like the home of the Shadow Moon Goddess. Eve.

Eve didn’t respond. Her eye remained trained on me. Her breathing was shallow as that excuse for an alpha’s son dared to pant down her neck. I stepped forward, fists clenched at my sides, not sure what I was going to do, though my wolf was very clear in his ideas.

He whipped her. He’s a sick sadist and he dared to harm her.

Kill him.

Damian’s gaze snapped to me, and his lips curled into a smirk. “And what do we have here? The famous alpha of Orion, slumming it in the human city. Didn’t know you frequented these places, Logan.”

“Alpha?” Eve whispered.

“Did he not introduce himself to you, my sweetheart? I thought you were both already cozy, given the way his eyes burn with desire for you.” He clucked his tongue. “Daddy won’t like that one bit.”

That piece of shit was never going to get away with this. “Get your hand off her.”

His grip on her arm tightened and she winced, her teeth clenching as she tried to mask the pain. Damian chuckled, glancing down at her like she was a pet that had strayed.

“Oh, I don’t think so.” He reeked of possessiveness. “Eve is mine.”

Mine.

The word tore through me.

Mine .

My wolf surged forward, the need to rip him apart building with every heartbeat.

“That’s enough,” I growled, feeling my own control slipping as the tension in the room thickened.

Damian lifted his head, an eyebrow raised as he looked around, noticing that everyone in the café was looking our way. Supernaturals from every faction lined the walls, watching, some with curiosity, others with barely concealed alarm. They could sense what was coming.

Behind Damian, a woman slipped into the café, sandy-haired and slender, her face sharp and watching me with an unsettling intensity.

“Seems my future wife had some ideas about you, Logan,” Damian sneered. “Unfortunately, neutral ground doesn’t mean you get to play hero here. I’ll be taking my betrothed home now and will advise my father that you were a good little pup, not daring to touch what is ours.”

“She doesn’t belong to anyone,” I said. “I’ll see to that.”

Damian’s smirk deepened and he pulled Eve closer to him. “Darling, don’t you think that sounds remarkably like a challenge ?”

The muscles in my jaw tightened, and I forced myself to stay calm, but the edges of my vision were going dark. My wolf was beneath the surface, ready to break free, fangs salivating with the need to take him on.

“ Let her go ,” I said, ice running through my veins with every second I had to stand across from him. “Or this won’t end well for you.”

Damian laughed. “Let’s put that to the test.”

He released her and circled the middle of the café, winding between the tables as he spoke with formality, his demeanor laced with the arrogance of someone who’d never been challenged.

“In front of these witnesses, you, has-been Alpha Logan, will either watch me leave with my property at my side, or else I will take that as a challenge. We’ll fight shifted. Until one of us meets our end,” he announced, a smug satisfaction on his face that made my blood boil. “And it won’t be me.”

He grabbed at her arm again, and my instincts took over.

I was across the room, smacking his hand off her hard enough to make him stumble. Eve gasped, pressing her back against the wall as a nervous murmur rippled through the room. Chairs and bar stools scraped back, patrons hurrying to clear a space in the center of the café. Some supernaturals slipped out the door, not wanting to be caught in the crossfire. Glassware was pushed aside, tables shoved back, the air thickening as they waited for the inevitable.

Damian’s smug expression never faltered.

“Stay back, Eve” I murmured to her, the sound of her name at last on my lips feeling like a prayer to the Shadow Moon Goddess herself. The heat of her, her scent still tangled with that metallic tang of blood, pushed me forward.

My wolf’s need for blood roared within me, and I felt the shift coming as my senses heightened, every fiber of my being focused on the enemy in front of me.

“You’re making a big mistake,” I warned him.

Damian only grinned, rolling his shoulders as he prepared for the fight. “Your only mistake was ever thinking you could take what’s mine.”

That was it. Every nerve in me screamed for retribution, the wolf within me ready to do what it took to protect her.

I shifted as I crossed the floor.