Chapter 10
Logan threw his keys onto the kitchen counter with a groan.
Everything hurt.
“You okay?” Aaron followed him into the kitchen and leant against the counter, Smudge curling around his ankles in the hope of food.
Logan huffed at her antics. “He’s not going to feed you.” He reached down to scoop her up, sighing as she put her paw on his face and licked his nose. “Fine, fine.” Setting her on the floor, he reached for her biscuits and poured some in her bowl. When he straightened, he caught Aaron giving him the stink eye.
“Well, are you? Because for a minute there today, I thought you were going to attack our alpha.” He raised an eyebrow and Logan rubbed a hand over his face, not wanting to see how well Aaron could read him.
“I’m okay.Now,” he added. Being with Cole in the showers had done wonders for the tension coursing through him ever since Michael fucking bit him. “Thank you,” he said, gripping Aaron’s shoulder. “I know it can’t have been much fun for you.”
Aaron sighed. “What wasn’t fun for me was watching you almost get yourself killed. Listening to you and Cole go at it?” He grinned. “That was kinda hot.”
Logan flicked him on the ear but matched his smile. “I needed it.”
“I know. You both did.”
True.
“His tattoo...” Logan didn’t want to describe how seeing his pack mark etched into Cole’s skin had made him feel. And so beautifully crafted by West.
Aaron rolled his eyes. “I can imagine. Bet all that fighting didn’t help matters either.”
Logan gingerly rubbed his jaw, remembering how it had felt to fight with Cole. He’d meant what he’d said to him. Shifters didn’t view fighting the same way humans did. Not when it was like that. With no one trying to kill each other and no humans involved. It wasn’t exactlyfun, but something about all that power, sweat, and close contact made a shifter’s blood sing.
It was a different matter altogether when your opponent wanted to rip your throat out. Obviously. But with Cole? Broken bones aside, it had called to his wolf, instinct urging him to fight for dominance. Not that he had any chance of that against Cole. Despite Cole’s reluctance to become part of Paul’s team, Logan understood why Michael wanted him in it. He was made for fighting. The way he moved—fast, fluid, with an ease of movement that came from years of training. If he let himself, Cole would fit seamlessly into the HRU.
“How is it?” Aaron pointed to his jaw.
“Almost healed.” He opened his mouth, moving his lower jaw back and forth to test it. A dull ache remained, but that would disappear soon enough.
“He didn’t hold back, did he?”
“No.” Not in the end. “And thank fuck for that. Fighting Cole is one thing; I’ve no wish to face up against one of those other fuckers.” He knew they blamed him almost as much as Cole for what happened, and unlike Cole, Logan wasn’t a part of their team. “It also took my mind off Michael biting him.” The image was burnt into his brain, and it still took effort to shake off the rush of possessiveness it brought out in him. Opening the fridge, he took two beers out and handed one to Aaron. “I wanted to kill him.”
“I know.”
Seeing Michael’s teeth sink into Cole’s skin had been one of the hardest things he’d ever had to watch. He knew it had to happen, but Logan had thought he’d have time to prepare, to get used to the idea. Not have it sprung on him with no warning.
Just think how Cole must’ve felt.
Karen and Fletcher had walked back with them after lunch, so Logan hadn’t had a chance to talk to him again after the showers. Cole was alone in his flat now, and Goddess knew how this was affecting him.
Being bitten by Michael had been a different experience for Logan and Aaron, and his bite had transformed them from human to shifter. Cole had already gone through that transformation.
Logan took a long pull of his beer. “Do you think he feels different now?”
“Who, Cole?”
“Yeah.” He smiled to himself at how easily Aaron picked up on his train of thought. “I didn’t ask him when we were in the showers.”
Aaron snorted. “I don’t expect you did much talking at all, did you?” He sighed at Logan’s glare. “Sorry. And I don’t know, but I’m going to guess that he must feel more connected to our pack now, or what would be the fucking point?”
“True.”
As alpha, Michael could choose to enforce his will and make it excruciatingly difficult to disobey an order laced with alpha power. Cole had to feel the change inside him, the shift of allegiance. Surely?
