set of dry clothes. Goddess knew what had happened to the ones he’d been wearing earlier. They had most likely been shredded during his shift, but he needed to shift back to his human form and work through a few things. The humans might be off base with that “mindless beast” crap, but it was easier to think wearing skin as opposed to fur. When the fur was on, the accompanying instincts could get in the way and cloud his thinking.
He was guessing he’d need every human brain cell he could muster to find a way out of the mess he and his mate now found themselves in.
Thinking about his mate—or, more specifically, thinking of Honor as his mate—sent a surge of primitive satisfaction jolting through him, enough of one that he almost wore a smile when he shifted back after slipping through the dog door located off the kitchen in the main house. No one seemed to be around, so he padded naked up to his room and took the time for a quick rinse-off in the shower before dressing in fresh clothes.
Finding his mate was about the only bright spot he could come up with in an otherwise totally FUBARed situation. If he’d ever seen a mess that was fucked up beyond all recognition, this was it. Logan had finally found the woman of his dreams, the one fate had destined that he would live happily with for the rest of his life, and who did she turn out to be? A potentially outclassed female wannabe alpha of a pack that appeared to have needed a serious makeover well before she had been forced to take over.
Yeah. Fun times.
The morning he had spent talking to the members of the White Paw pack had opened his eyes to a few things he hadn’t expected. From everything Graham had told him before he left for Connecticut, Logan had painted a picture of Ethan Tate as an old-school alpha, the kind who ran a tight pack, who knew all of his wolves and commanded if not their love and devotion, then certainly their respect. The stories he had heard hadn’t mentioned any uneasy rumblings coming from this small, somewhat remote clan, so he—and Graham, he was certain—had assumed that this pack ran just as smoothly and seamlessly as the Silverbacks. You know, discounting for insane cousins who attempted to incite coup d’etats.
That wasn’t quite what he had found. The stories Logan had heard from the pack members he had spoken to implied that Ethan Tate had earned more fear from his pack than he had respect. No one had ever thought to make a move against him, but their restraint stemmed from the certainty that even the smallest rebellion earned a death sentence under Tate’s harsh rule. No one complained because no one wanted to end up with a permanent limp or the kind of scar that even a Lupine metabolism couldn’t heal, not because they didn’t have things to complain about. Bringing a grievance to the alpha had long been seen as a quick road to retribution. If a member of the pack hoped for anything like actual help with a problem, they went to the beta.
They went to Honor.
Honor—his mate—he had learned, had been the one who really kept the White Paws running. She made sure the families with sick babies got seen by a doctor, even when neither parent had a job that offered health insurance. She organized hunts during the lean months of winter and had instituted the twice-weekly communal meals as part of her efforts to make sure no one in the pack had to truly go hungry. When the nearby lumber mill, the pack’s largest employer for generations, had closed, she had set up van pools to take pack members to the Native-American casino forty miles outside pack territory, because that had been the only place hiring new workers. The reason the White Paw Clan had not died out a decade ago, Logan had learned, was because of Honor.
The knowledge should have made his job easier. Hearing all those stories told him that Honor already possessed one of the most important qualities of a pack alpha—a fierce and unyielding determination to protect her pack and to do whatever she could to ensure their survival. If being alpha were all about organization and people skills, ingenuity and hard work, he would confirm Honor in the position without so much as a blink of hesitation—but being alpha meant more.
The alpha was the strongest wolf in the pack. Period, end of sentence. Sure, strength came in a lot of forms, from moral strength to emotional resilience to sheer dogged determination, but not one of those qualities was enough to take down an opponent who was bigger, stronger, faster, and more experienced. Honor was probably the best beta her pack could have had; she had kept order, maintained the peace, and had done what she could to ensure that no one in her charge had suffered unduly under the thumb of what sounded like an increasingly unstable alpha. The problem was that if Honor had been meant for the alpha position, she already would have taken it. Knowing what her father’s tyranny cost her and the rest of the pack, a natural-born alpha would have challenged and overthrown an aging and increasingly infirm leader. If that had happened, none of this would be in question. An alpha who took her title by force wasn’t one anyone questioned, not even Graham. If Honor had overthrown her father, Logan would never have come.
Wasn’t that just a boot in the ass, he acknowledged silently as he left the house and headed for a small group of cabins Honor’s cousin Joey had told him about shortly after his arrival. If Honor had been born to be alpha, he never would have met her, but because he had met her, he had to find a way to fix her pack—one where, as far as he could see, there was no one who fit the requirements of the position. Somehow, no matter what decision he came to, he knew he’d be screwed.
Pushing the worries aside for the moment, Logan focused on the path to the cabins. According to Joey, the cluster served as a sort of community center for the Lupines who lived on the White Paw land. There were almost always people there, he’d heard, and if you wanted to learn the latest gossip or locate someone in a hurry, it was the place to go. At the moment, what he wanted was to deal with a certain outstanding issue left over from this afternoon. It involved a very stupid Lupine who was lucky Logan had been more interested in claiming his mate the last time they’d met than in claiming his pound of flesh.
Make that ten pounds, he thought, snarling. Inflation and all.
If he couldn’t solve the alpha problem tonight, at least he could solve the problem of exactly how badly he wanted to knock out a few of Darin Major’s teeth.
A group of teenagers talking and tussling around a barrel fire in front of the house stopped what they were doing when he approached, and the women chattering away on the front porch fell silent. He ignored the scrutiny and prepared to ask his question when the door to the cabin opened and the young man who’d dragged Darin Major away earlier walked outside.
Max was exactly the Lupine Logan had hoped to see. The kid had kept his head during the fight back at the office, even though he still had some growing up to do before Logan could comfortably call him much more than a pup. He looked like a college kid, but he smelled like he’d turn into a powerful wolf one day. He had the makings of a beta, or maybe even an alpha, once he’d finished maturing. Either way, he could definitely prove useful at the moment.
“Max.” At Logan’s deep rumble, the women all followed his gaze and turned curiously toward the young man still poised in the doorway. “I’d like to talk to you, please.”
Max hesitated, and one of the women on the porch shot Logan a suspicious glare. “He’s busy. And he doesn’t have to go anywhere he doesn’t want to.”
Logan didn’t bother to acknowledge the rudeness.
Max quickly brushed the protective woman away. “It’s all right, Cindy. Hunter’s cool. I’ll be back later on.” He jogged down the porch steps to join Logan in the yard, shoving his hands into his pockets and hunching his shoulders as he looked up at the much larger man. “What’s up?”
Logan jerked his head away from the house and steered them onto the path leading back to Honor’s house. They didn’t go far, but Logan wanted privacy, and with the full moon barely two days away, there was plenty of light to see by, even under the cover of the trees. “I wanted to ask you a question.”
Max’s eyes widened. “Dude, I swear there’s nothing going on between us. Honor is like a big sister to me. I mean, sure she’s beautiful and all, but I would never—”
One look at the kid’s earnest and slightly panicked expression, and Logan burst out laughing. He laughed so long and hard that he had to stop walking to bend over and catch his breath. It was a good thing they were already in the thick of the trees and out of sight, or it could have gotten really embarrassing. As it was, it took him a good minute or two to calm down. By the time he could stand up straight and look Max in the eyes, the younger man had his arms crossed over his chest and a truly irritated expression on his face.
“It’s not that funny a concept,” Max snapped. “Sure, she’s a few years older than me, but I’m not exactly repulsive, you know. I’ve had more than a couple of older women find me very appealing over the last few years, if you know what I mean.”
Logan sobered abruptly and scowled at the young man. “Watch it, kid. Believe me when I tell you, it’s better
