busybody.” Honor’s gaze searched his expression for a minute, then rolled her eyes. “And even if you agreed with me, you’re too loyal to say so. Right. Well, I just don’t need this crap. Not now. Not here. Not a fucking chance.”
Logan shrugged. “You’ve got it anyway. Now what are you going to do about it?”
She slammed her feet into battered hiking boots with a snarled curse. “Right now, I’m going back to the house to change, and then I’m going back to work. Some of us have real jobs where we have to be constructive and accomplish things.”
He suppressed a smile at that dig. She was cute when she was mad.
And she’d probably rip his intestines out through his nostrils if he mentioned that fact.
“Gotcha. I think I’m going to go get a shirt at least, and then maybe take a look around. See if I can meet some of the pack. You know, basically stick my nose in where it doesn’t belong. See you at dinner?”
Logan watched her stalk off back toward the house and grinned a wolfish grin. He hadn’t come here expecting to find his mate, but damned if it didn’t appear that was exactly what he’d done. He wondered what she’d say when he informed her they’d be getting married and having cubs together. If he knew her at all, he guessed what she’d say didn’t bear repeating. But what the hell? Logan Hunter loved a challenge. And this one looked to be a doozy.
By the time Logan gathered and donned what was left of his clothes—namely his blue jeans, his boots, and one sock—and made his way back to the main house, Honor was long gone. He hadn’t really expected anything different, but some days, he just couldn’t quell that involuntary burst of optimism.
He jogged up to his room, which he’d learned was across the hall and down three doors from Honor’s, and grabbed a change of clothes. It took a second to brush himself free of the debris he’d picked up from the ground in the stone yard, but he figured it was better to take a moment now than spend half the day fighting with a twig in his trousers.
He was still buttoning up a new shirt as he made his way downstairs and into the kitchen. All his exercise from this morning had made him hungry, even if it was still technically an hour or so till lunch. He didn’t find Joey in the kitchen as he’d expected, but he did find a brief note on the counter explaining the timing of meals, the contents of the refrigerator, and that he was free to help himself to anything that wasn’t on the neatly printed menu beside the note. He took Honor’s cousin at her word and foraged in the fridge, emerging with half a rabbit and a full duck breast, cooked beautifully rare.
Sitting at the small kitchen table, he made short work of his snack before he wiped the grease off his hands with a dishtowel and pulled out his cell phone. He noted gratefully that he still got a pretty good signal out here in the woods and dialed Graham’s direct line at Vircolac.
“Vircolac,” a perky feminine voice announced. “We bring good things back to life.”
Logan snorted out a laugh. “What, is that a new ad slogan?”
“It’s still in testing. The first focus group yielded mixed results. How are you, Logan? Arrived safely in the wild, untamed north?”
“Missy, I’m only a hundred and fifteen miles outside of Manhattan, and the last yeti from these parts became a stockbroker back in eighty-seven. But I’m fine. Thanks.”
“Spoilsport.” She sounded remarkably unfazed by the correction. “How are things going so far? Did the new alpha make a good first impression?”
Logan’s mind instantly conjured up the sight of Honor silhouetted in the bathroom doorway the instant before she had noticed him. The light and steam behind her had outlined her in lush detail, emphasizing the soft curves of her breasts, those long legs, and the luscious flare of her hips. He felt his body stirring at the memory and cleared his throat. No need to tell the Luna just how impressed certain parts of him had really been. “I’m reserving judgment.”
Missy snorted. “Just like a man. I assume you called to talk to my mate, not to me, right?”
The question caught Logan unawares. Not because the answer wasn’t yes, but because he realized that for the first time since he’d originally met Missy Roper Winters, he really would rather talk to her husband than to her. The epiphany almost knocked him over. Missy hadn’t caused the erection he could feel straining against his jeans—zip front, this time—as they talked; Honor had. He’d been fine until his mind had conjured up that image of the lithe brunette poised in the bathroom door wearing nothing more than a towel. And when he let his mind wander along its favorite path, he imagined Honor’s pale, creamy skin and dark, curling hair, not Missy’s blond mop and curvy figure. It amazed him.
“Logan?”
The quiet question shook him out of his meditation. “Right. Sorry, Miss. Yeah, I do need to talk to Graham. Is he around?”
“Sure. He was just showing Ava the door. She stopped over to see Roarke, and Graham never rests easy until he’s seen her taxi pull away. I imagine he’ll be back any second.”
Logan could hardly blame Graham. Of all Missy’s close friends, Ava Markham inspired the greatest sense of fear and awe. An unrepentant matchmaker, she’d tried her hand at setting up just about everyone she knew at one time or another. Now, her erstwhile victims spent most of their time praying for the day when someone would turn the tables on her. “Right. Should I call back?”
“No, don’t worry about it. Here he is now.”
He heard a shuffling sound as the receiver was passed from one hand to the other, then a rough growl replaced Missy’s light, feminine voice in his ear. “What’s up?”
Logan felt his eyebrow arching. “Nice to talk to you, too. I’m fine, thanks. Didn’t sleep that well last night, but somehow I’m not feeling all that many ill effects. Must be the water up here.”
“Can it, Hunter. It’s been a lousy day.”
“I heard. Ava paid a visit, huh? Having the place fumigated?”
“Not yet. Maybe when Missy takes Roarke to the park later. So what’s the news?”
“I’m here.”
Pause.
“That’s it? That’s the news?”
“Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
“Yeah, but they could at least say, ‘We’re here and we put down some rocks,’ right?”
“Okay. I’m here, and I’ve met Tate’s daughter.”
Another pause.
“And?”
“There’s not much else to tell. I’ve only been here”—he glanced at his watch—“fifteen hours, and most people around here were asleep for a good eight or nine of those.”
He and Honor hadn’t been asleep, but he saw no need to bog the conversation down with details.
“Yeah, but you’ve had time to form a first impression, haven’t you?”
Logan paused, reluctant to say anything. On the one hand, he didn’t want to hurt Honor’s chance to prove herself, but on the other, he couldn’t lie to his alpha. “Yeah. She’s pretty together, considering what she’s just been through. I think she has potential.”
“Potential or ability?”
“It’s really too soon to make that kind of call.”
“What about the pack? Have they settled in to the idea of having a female alpha, especially such a young one?”
“I’m going to start talking to them once I’m off with you. So far I’ve only met a couple of them, and I doubt that’s much to go by.”
“It’s a start. What did they have to say?”
Logan gritted his teeth for a second before answering. “There have been three challenges since she took the title Alpha.”
“Really? Well, she’s alive, so I guess that means she can handle herself in a fight. How is she taking the deaths?”
“I don’t think her father’s death has had a chance to sink in yet. She’s been too busy keeping things running to shed any tears over him.”
