Chapter 81
It shouldn’t have hurt. Not after everything. Not after the leaked photo with Chloe, the rumors, the financial document scandal.
But this one hit differently.
Because it came just days after Logan kissed me. Not out of obligation or for optics. We shared a real kiss, unguarded, and it had nearly undone me.
And now this. A reminder that I was still a contract. Still temporary Still the convenient answer to a political problem.
I dropped the paper on the counter and walked away before anyone could see any emotions I couldn’t swallow down.
I found Logan an hour later in the sunroom at home, half–distracted with work, dark circles under his eyes. He looked up when I stepped in, his gaze scanning me like he was reassuring himself I was alright.
“I saw the headline,” he said.
I crossed my arms. “So did everyone else.”
His jaw tightened. “We’ll release a statement. Shut it down.”
“No,” I said, too quickly. “Denying it will only make it seem true. Which of course it is, though how this ‘anonymous source‘ knows that is beyond me.”
I took a deep breath to steady myself before continuing. “If I spend the rest of this contract proving I belong here, I’ll forget who
I am.”
Logan hesitated. “Then what do you want to do?”
I could tell he meant it. He wasn’t humoring me. He was, in his own way, offering me the wheel. That made it worse somehow. More intimate than if he’d kissed me again.
“I don’t know,” I said softly. “Just once, I want something to be mine.”
Logan stood. “Then pick the first move. Whatever it is.”
I blinked at him.
His voice lowered. “Let’s flip the story. Take the attention and turn it. If they want to watch, let them watch us on our terms.”
That’s how we ended up in his office later that afternoon, half a dozen stylists and press aides waiting outside the door, and me typing out the location for our next public outing into his tablet.
He read it twice.
“You’re sure?”
I nodded.
“Silverroot Sanctuary?”
“It’s important to me,” I said.
He didn’t ask why. He just held my gaze for a long moment, then nodded once.
I think I expected him to protest. Or suggest something more expected. Something easier to explain. But Logan just reached for his calendar and said, “I’ll have the team notify the press.”
It wasn’t until he turned away that I let myself breathe again.
Silverroot wasn’t a flashy estate or a society gala. It was a quiet wellness retreat hidden near the edges of Titanfang territory- known mostly for its moonbathing gardens, herbal treatments, and wolf support programs.
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Chapter 81
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I had gone there a few times, years ago, when the weight of my dormancy had become too heavy to carry alone.
I’d walked their salt paths barefoot, bathed under moonlight with other wolves whose shifts had gone quiet, whose power had curled inward like mine.
It was the only place that had ever made me feel like dormancy wasn’t a curse.
But I hadn’t told Logan any of that. I didn’t plan to. He didn’t need to know how personal this was. How terrified I was that the press would twist it, or that he would.
But I wanted to go. With him. And not because it would look good. But because I wanted him to see that part of me.
The one that had nothing to do with being useful or impressive. Just real. Just… me.
I didn’t realize how tightly I’d been holding onto the tablet until Logan reached out and gently took it from me.
His thumb brushed mine. Barely a touch.
But it was enough to send a shiver up my arm.
“You picked the place,” he said. “Now let me pick the timing. We’ll go tomorrow. Early. Before the rest of the wolves wake.”
I nodded.
And for the first time in weeks, I felt something unfurl in my chest the faintest thread of hope.
And that, maybe, was the most dangerous thing of all.
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