Chapter Fifteen

Honor slept late the day of the howl, maybe because she barely slept at all the night before. When Logan had remembered how to breathe, he had insisted on paying her back for her sneak attack. One thing had led to another, and they’d ended up collapsed in a puppy pile of two in the center of the demolished bed just before the sun rose.

She didn’t wake again until after noon, when the sun found just the perfect angle to stream in through a bedroom window and burn the corneas right out from beneath her closed eyelids. It surprised her that she didn’t feel at all sluggish when she awoke, though. Instead, she felt energized and fierce and ready to face whatever the day brought to her. Well, she’d have felt a lot more ready if the day had been ready to bring her a howl, but hey, those were the breaks.

She showered and dressed quickly, planning to track down Logan as her first chore of the day. She had a vague recollection of an annoying buzz and some fumbling as he searched for his cell phone shortly after nine a. m. She’s heard some incoherent rumbling, then he’d slid out of bed, instructing her to go back to sleep and leaving her with a kiss. She thought she might also have heard her door closing and the sound of an argument right outside, but that could just have been her sleep-deprived imagination.

Either way, the only person who could tell her what happened was Logan, and she intended to seek him out. To satisfy her curiosity and so he could satisfy a few of her other needs as well.

She pulled on jeans and a long-sleeved top before stomping her feet into her favorite pair of battered hiking boots. A quick look at the thermometer outside the window told her the warm front still lingered over New England, so she grabbed an insulated vest from her closet and left it at that.

The house seemed particularly quiet as she tromped down to the kitchen, and she saw when she got there that neither Joey nor Logan had waited for the sleepyhead upstairs to get herself in gear. Still, there seemed to be a few cups left in the thermal carafe of coffee on the counter, so Honor helped herself to a mug and downed it with less enjoyment than habit. She scalded her tongue, but it seemed like such a minor problem in comparison to the high spirits she found herself in this morning. It just amazed her what a little good sex with the man of her dreams could do for a girl’s outlook.

Okay, so maybe Logan wasn’t the man of her dreams. He was a bit too domineering, and maybe a touch stubborn. And she really didn’t see much evidence of a poet’s soul in there anywhere, but still, he seemed just right to her. There was a bit of a poetic streak in the way he made love, after all, and that seemed good enough to her.

If she could have whistled, she’d have sounded a jaunty tune as she headed for the front door, but as it was, she might have been humming something along the lines of a Disney theme song when the sight in her front yard brought her to a screeching halt halfway down her steps.

There stood Logan, looking as tense as a nun in a roomful of satyrs, clearly having a rather heated discussion with a man she had thought she wouldn’t have to deal with for another three years. Graham Winters. And beside Graham, stood a small blonde woman with a baby balanced on one curvy hip and a very irritated expression on her pretty face.

“I told you over the phone, brother, this discussion is over. I’ve made my decision, and I’m not going to change it because you got a bug up your butt. ”

“A bug up my butt? ” The Silverback alpha looked less than amused. “My best friend of thirty-some-odd years tells me over the phone that he’s leaving and never coming back home, and I have a bug up my butt? Excuse me, you giant idiot, but my butt is just fine! My problem is not my ass, it’s you! The pain in my ass! ”

“I can tell you right now that you’re both being pains in my ass, ” the blonde snapped, though even from the stairs Honor could see that her arm around the baby remained relaxed and secure. “Can’t we go inside and sit down to discuss this like reasonable human beings? ”

“We aren’t human beings, Missy. So back off. ”

Honor winced at the look on the Silverback Luna’s face when her husband gave her that particular order. The alpha needed to count his lucky stars that he hadn’t married a witch, because that look had ‘HEX’ written all over it in great big capital letters.

“True, and some of us damned sure aren’t being reasonable, either. So don’t tell me to back off, you great big pile of canine testosterone. I am trying to keep two good friends from killing each other. You want to give me a little bit of a break here? ”

Graham snarled. “The only things I want to break are his legs. ” He pointed at Logan and his lip curled back with menace. “Followed by his arms, and then each of his ribs, in turn. After that, if I’ve calmed down, I’ll moved on to clavicles, but if he keeps pissing me off, I’m going to forget those and move straight to his thick, useless, no good skull! ”

“I’d like to see you try it, ” Logan growled back so low and menacing that Honor almost took a step backward. Instead, she caught herself and crossed her arms over her chest.

“I have a better idea. ” She raised her voice to be heard over the rumble of growls and the thickness of more than one skull. “How about no one breaks anything in my territory, and the people I don’t know tell me what the hell they’re doing here uninvited. ”

All three heads turned in her direction. Well, all four, if you counted the baby’s, but honestly as small as he was, she thought it would more fairly be called three and a half. She met each of their gazes with a level one of her own and raised one eyebrow in inquiry. Neither man spoke; they were too busy casting each other sidelong glances and maintaining their ridiculous growls. Missy stepped forward to the bottom of the stairs and offered Honor a polite bow of her head.

“Hello. I assume you are the new Alpha of the White Paw Clan. I bring greetings from your cousins in Manhattan, the Silverback Clan. My name is Melissa Winters, but I hope you will agree to call me Missy. ” She offered the formal greeting, but then turned to glower at her mate. “And if my husband weren’t a complete and utter dolt, he would tell you that he is Graham Winters, Alpha of the Silverback Clan. We’ve come and brought our son Roarke with us because my imbecile of a mate believes his friend Logan is incapable of making his own decisions about his life, despite the fact that he’s a grown man and has proven himself more than able in all things during his years as the beta of our pack. ”

“Missy. ”

The blonde ignored the warning tone in her mate’s voice. “Now, perhaps you can convince these two wonders of intellectual achievement that it would really be a better idea to take this inside and have a rational discussion, rather than airing all our dirty laundry out in full view of local passers-by. What do you think? ”

Honor thought she liked Missy Winters already. She fought hard to keep her lips from curving and gestured to her front door. “I think that’s a sensible idea. If you’d all care to follow me, we can sit in the living room and have coffee or tea while we…discuss the issues at hand. ”

She turned and began to lead them into the house when a flash of beige at the side of the house caught her attention. She paused and looked but saw nothing and continued into the cabin. She expected Missy to follow behind her, but the human mate of the Silverback alpha was too smart for that. She waited until the men grudgingly made their way inside before she brought up the rear. Covering their lines of escape, as the case may be.

Missy did, though, take her seat first when Honor offered one. She perched on one end of the sofa, settling baby Roarke in her lap and dragging Graham over to stand beside her. Logan remained beside Honor near the entrance to the room, and Honor wasn’t quite sure if she should be happy about that.

“Feel free to set him down, ” she offered, smiling into the baby’s wide, hazel eyes. “It’s been a while since we had a cub around here, but I doubt there’s anything he can really destroy. ”

Missy laughed out loud. “You don’t know Roarke the Wreck, then. Trust me, we’ll all be happier if Wrecker stays here in my lap. ”

“Can I get anyone anything, then? Coffee? Tea? Milk for the baby? ”

Graham launched his attack swiftly and unexpectedly. “You can get your claws out of my beta, bitch, and let him come home where he belongs. ”

“Graham Alexander Winters, I am going to kill you! ”

“I beg your pardon? ” Honor’s words barely registered over Missy’s shriek, but she knew Graham had heard them by the way he growled.

“Don’t beg me for anything. I wouldn’t spit on you to put out a fire. You’ve taken the best friend I ever had and all but cut off his dick to hand to him. He’s going to give up his entire life for you, and you have the nerve to stand there as if nothing is going on. You make me sick. ”

“Watch your fucking mouth, you bastard. ” Logan’s entire body tensed until Honor thought she’d be able to use his skin for piano wire. He voice came out as a growling hiss, forced from between clenched teeth. “Don’t you ever talk to my mate that way again. Do I make myself clear? ”

Missy leapt to her dainty feet and proceeded to stomp one violently on the hardwood floor. “That’s it! ” If that wasn’t the Silverback Luna screaming at the top of her lungs, Honor didn’t particularly want to experience the real thing. “I am sick of you two morons acting like junkyard dogs! It’s disgusting, and I’m sure Honor’s not real keen on it, are you, Honor? I can call you Honor, can’t I? ”

“Of course, Missy. I’m honored. But I’d be even more honored if someone would explain to the alpha of this pack just what the hell is going on the middle of her living room!? ”

Graham opened his mouth on a sneer. “You—”

“Someone other than you, ” she clarified. She could see the Silverback’s hackles rising, but his mate slapped him hard across the chest.

“Give it a rest, Silver Chief. This is Honor’s territory, and even if she does owe you fealty, she still has the right to tell you to shut up in her own house. So shut up. ”

Missy turned to Logan and pointed an imperious, schoolteacherly finger in his direction. “You, I suggest, ought to begin explaining to your new mate just exactly why my husband got me in the car at nine-thirty this morning with a teething baby and made me drive three hours to another state because he was a little upset by a phone call. ”

“What phone call? ” Honor looked at Logan, her confusion plain in her face. “You mean that was your cell phone I heard ringing this morning? ”

Logan nodded. “Yeah. Graham was calling for an update on my opinion about your fitness to run the pack. ”

She stiffened. “And what did you tell him? ”

“The same thing I’m telling you right now. That this is your pack, and you are more than able to run it as your see fit. ” He drew back his shoulders and met her gaze, then shifted his up over her left shoulder in a sign of respect to a dominant Lupine. “And that it’s my hope that you will grant your mate the honor of lending you any assistance you might need in the course of your duties. ”

If it hadn’t been for Graham’s outraged roar, she figured the sound of her jaw dropping would have echoed to the ceiling beams. “You what? ”

He clenched his jaw and drew a deep breath. “I hope you will grant your mate, grant me, the honor—”

“No, I heard you, you idiot. I meant what the hell are you talking about? I’m not going to be running this pack. You’re going to tell the Silverback that I’m not fit to be Alpha—which I’m really not, by the way… Okay, so I’m fit, but I’ve realized I don’t really want to be the Alpha, so it’s really the same thing, isn’t it? And then we’re going to go back to Manhattan where you can be beta of your own pack and I can concentrate on my pottery. And on continuing to be madly in love with you and giving you mind-blowing sex at least twice a day. ” She shrugged and smiled. “I had it all worked out. ”

Logan was shaking his head before she made it to ‘idiot, ’ and he didn’t stop when she did. “No. You don’t understand. ” He met her eyes, this time, his own golden ones soft and warm like aged whiskey. “I have it all worked out. I already told Graham that I’m resigning my place as his beta and leaving the Silverback Clan. I’m going to move up to Connecticut, because this place is your home, and these folks are your family. Then we’re going to go to the howl tonight and you’re going to take your place as Alpha and proclaim me as your mate. I realized last night that even in the Rite of Mating, the female alpha’s chosen mate has the right to fight off all other potential mates on her behalf so that their pairing can be made official. ”

He paused and smiled. “So after I did that, we’d finish the ceremony and live here. You’d run the pack and I’d take care of the things you don’t have the stomach to do and we’d get to be together, being madly in love and having mind-blowing sex at least three or four times a day. It’s a great plan. I had it all worked out. ”

Honor just stared at him. Her mind had been well and truly boggled. This man, this amazing man she’d fallen in love with faster than a lightning strike, had been willing to give up his entire life. To make himself submissive to her for the rest of his life, just because he thought it would make her happy. The very idea made her so happy she almost cried. “But you can’t do it. ”

He scowled at her. “Why not? ”

“Because it would make me miserable. I don’t want to be the alpha. I never did. Being beta was all well and good, but alpha is too much. It’s too much responsibility. It takes too much time. It doesn’t leave any of me left for the things I love doing, like throwing my pots and having mind-blowing sex. ” She smiled and wrapped her arms around him. “My plan is much better. It allows for me to not be alpha, you to be with your friends, and still leaves lots of time for the mind-blowing sex. ”

“Clearly a superior plan. ” Missy laughed.

This time Graham smiled. “But I have a better one. ”

Everyone in the room turned to look at him. Missy’s eyes narrowed. “It doesn’t involve maiming anyone, does it? ”

Her mate laughed. “Not at all. It’s just that, although I like the spirit of Honor’s plan, I feel it fails to address a couple of key points. Namely, that the White Paw Clan would continue to lack an alpha, which I would then have to appoint. And also that if Logan has to spend one more week reporting to me—or to anyone at all, I’m pretty sure—he’s going to be the one doing the maiming. ”

Logan frowned. “What are you talking about? I have never been anything but loyal to you, brother. You ought to know that. ”

“Oh, I know it. I’ve never doubted it, but somewhere along the line I’ve lost the right to ask loyalty of you, brother. ” He held up a hand when Logan would have protested. “Shut up and listen, because if you find this news surprising, you’re even dumber than I’ve always said you were. You’ve outgrown your place in the Silverback Clan, Logan Hunter. You can no longer be beta to anyone. Which is part of why your plan sucked. You’re Alpha, brother, and it’s time you took your place at the head of the pack. ”

Logan shook his head. “No. I won’t. I’m not challenging you, Graham. It’s never going to happen, so just—”

Honor smiled and smacked Logan hard across the chest. “You really are dumber than he’s always said you were. Logan, shut up for a minute and listen to what the man is telling you. ”

Graham shot her a grin that almost made Honor understand why Missy had shackled herself to the idiot. “Thanks, Honor. As I was saying, I think my plan is the best of the three. In it, I will accept Honor’s decision to step down as Alpha of the White Paw Clan. I will then announce that I have chosen a new alpha for this pack by the name of Logan Hunter. Any challenges will be swiftly and, I’m sure, successfully dealt with, and Missy, Wrecker and I will return to the city, where we will proceed to have mind-blowing sex. ”

Missy blushed, but winked at her mate. “Yeah, I think I like this plan best of all, too. ”

Logan finally broke a grin, actually throwing back his head and laughing. “I only like it if Honor and I can have the mind-blowing sex, too. No way are you guys getting to have all the fun. ”

“Well, okay, ” Graham teased, “but you can’t have any more mind-blowing sex than we do. You will, after all, still owe fealty to me, even if you will be an independent alpha. ”

“Not of this clan! ”

The shrill cry took them all by surprise, but not nearly as much as the small form of the woman that launched itself into the room toward Logan, shifting as it went.

By the time she landed atop him, Joey Tate wore her were form, which was nearly six feet as opposed to her normal five-feet-three inches. Her body had bulked up with muscle and wore a covering of sandy-gray fur. Her face had elongated into a muzzle full of razor-sharp teeth; the claws at the ends of her fingers sliced cleanly through Logan’s shirt and into the muscle beneath. He howled in shock, but it was Honor who howled in rage.

She shifted forms like water flowing from a tap, swift, liquid and effortlessly. If her audience hadn’t been used to such transformations, it would have appeared that they blinked and Honor disappeared, leaving a six-foot-four-inch werewolf standing in her place.

Immediately she leapt for her cousin’s back, tearing her off the form of her fallen mate and wrestling the other female to the floor. Joey fought back fiercely, her usually dull green eyes glowing with the fire of madness. She squirmed like a serpent, wriggling out of Honor’s grasp and launching herself once again at Logan.

Honor roared in anger and grabbed her cousin by the ankle, her claws biting deep into the furry limb and drawing enough blood to mat the hair with sticky red fluid. Joey yelped in pain, but she didn’t turn away from her target. She lunged, and if Honor hadn’t pulled her up short by the grip on her ankle, she would have sunk her sharp teeth deeply into Logan’s human throat.

Dragging Joey away, Honor threw her to the floor several feet away and leapt atop her, securing the smaller Lupine’s hands beside her head, her powerful body pinning the woman’s legs as well. Joey might have been spurred on by some rage of her own, but she was really no match for an alpha female, and Honor held her easily.

A moment later, she found herself holding thin air as Joey shifted back into her human form and slipped out of her cousin’s grip to curl up in a fetal position and sob piteously.

“Not supposed to be this way, ” she moaned, tugging at her disheveled hair and rocking back and forth. “Darin. Darin should be Alpha. Then I’m Luna. I get to make the rules and that slut of a cousin gets to do what I tell her to do. That’s what’s supposed to happen. ”

Stunned to her toes, Honor fell back onto her haunches, shifting as she went. She landed buck-naked on the wooden floor, her bottom making a loud thump on impact. Logan took one look at her, one look at Graham and practically dove over Missy to get the blanket from the back of the sofa to drape around his mate’s naked body.

“Graham, cover your damned eyes. ”

Graham laughed, then turned it into a cough when his wife smacked the back of his head. “Not to worry, brother. I didn’t see a thing. Not a single, pale, creamy-looking thing. Ow! ”

Missy glared at him, but Honor was too busy staring at her cousin to notice the melodrama behind her.

“Joey, what are you saying? You and Darin conspired to take over the pack? What were you going to do? Were you planning to have him challenge me? Because according to what he told me yesterday out at my office, he planned to challenge for the chance to be my mate. ”

“NO! ” Joey screamed and launched herself at Honor. “No! Darin loves me! Not everyone in the world loves you better than me! Some of them love me better. Darin loves me better. He does! ”

Honor just shook her head as Logan plucked Joey out of the air inches from her throat and secured her hands behind her back with the spare jumpsuit Missy pulled from Roarke’s diaper bag. “She’s out of her mind. ”

“Yeah, I’d say that’s a safe bet. ” Graham watched as Joey dissolved again into tears, collapsing to the floor at Logan’s feet. This time she looked as if she was staying put, so he draped the baby blanket Missy handed to him over her shaking form. “The question is, what do we do with her now? A non-challenge attack on another Lupine with the intent to kill is a death sentence. But it seems a little cruel to do that to someone not in her right mind. ” He turned to Logan. “What do you say, Alpha? She’s a member of your pack, now, so she’s your responsibility. What do we do with her? ”

“Well, we can’t just put her in an institution, can we? ” He frowned. “It would be like a death sentence anyway. I mean, one full moon, one shift, and she’d either be in a lab somewhere being vivisected, or she’d be killed outright as a monster. ”

The men fell silent for a moment, thinking. Then Missy piped up. “I have an idea. ” The all turned to look at her. Well, all but Joey, who was having a conversation with her hair. “Let’s ask Ava and Tess to help. Tess’s granddad is a witch and he went nutso. I’m sure between the two of them they must know someplace where she can be confined to keep her from hurting anyone, but where they’d be sympathetic to what she is. ”

Logan groaned. “We’re asking Tess first. The last person on the face of this earth that I’m willing to be indebted to is Ava Markham. ”

Honor frowned. “Who are Tess and Ava? ”

Logan and Graham groaned in unison and rolled their eyes, but Missy just laughed loud and long. She looked from Honor to Logan and must have seen something she liked, because when she spoke, her eyes were twinkling. “Oh, Ava is one of my closest friends. And she loves a happy ending to a good romance. I’m sure you’ll be meeting her sometime soon. ”

“Over my dead body, ” Logan scowled.

Honor laughed. “Don’t be a spoilsport, Alpha. She sounds like fun. I’m sure if Missy likes her, I’ll like her, too. ”

“No. You won’t. Trust me. ”

She laughed again and reached up to wrap her arms around his neck, tugging him down for a kiss. “I do. Always. But I don’t think Ava matters right now. We have some mind-blowing sex to catch up on before we go out and meet new people. Don’t you think? ”

Logan growled softly and took her mouth in a breathless kiss that lasted four and a half years and turned her brain into tapioca pudding. And left her smiling like a loon.

“Absolutely. A good alpha always knows when his Luna is right. ”