Logan
My father didn’t announce his visit.
The door to my study opened without a knock, and there he was: cont still on, silver–capped cane tapping against the hardwood heralding his arrival.
A butler trailed behind him, carrying a bottle of whiskey I didn’t ask for.
“Sit,” he said, already doing so himself. “This won’t take long.”
I watched him settle in like he owned the room, then crossed to the opposite chair and lowered myself without comment.
The whiskey was poured without ceremony. He set my glass on the table between us. I left it untouched.
“You’ve had a busy few weeks,” he began, eyes flicking to the stack of reports on my desk. “Fundraisers. Sanctuaries. I hear you even made time for the press.”
“The Pack needs transparency,” I said. “Especially now.”
He hummed. A sound that might’ve passed for agreement, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “And the girl?”
Emily. He never used her name.
“She’s holding her own,” I said, tone even.
He swirled the amber liquid in his glass. “You’re spending a great deal of time proving she belongs.”
“She doesn’t need me to prove anything.”
“Doesn’t she?” he asked. “Because from where I sit, your pet project has become a liability. Dormant. Divisive. And far too visible.”
My jaw tensed.
“She’s also competent. Brilliant. Loyal.”
“She’s also not your mate,” he snapped, voice low but sharp. “And every headline that frames this… relationship…as something more is a risk to your campaign, your leadership, your legacy.”
The words should’ve washed over me like every other warning he’d given over the years. But this one stuck.
Maybe because part of me, the ashamed, angry part, had wondered the same thing in darker moments.
“She’s part of this Pack,” I said slowly. “And she’s done more with half the access than most members do with full power.”
My father scoffed. “You’re getting sentimental.”
He leaned forward, setting his glass down with a quiet click. “Emotions cloud judgment, my boy. Attachments weaken power. I thought I raised you better than that.”
“You raised me to lead,” I said. “I’m doing that.”
“Are you?” His gaze pinned me, cold and unwavering. “Because if she falters again—if even one more scandal catches fire—you won’t just lose her. You’ll lose everything.”
I met his stare and didn’t blink. It was a challenge and he knew it.
My father stood, straightening his coat like the matter was settled “Reid will continue monitoring the media fallout. I suggest you do your part and control the variables in your own household.
He walked to the door, pausing just long enough to toss one final look over his shoulder.
napter 98
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“Don’t let a pretty face cost you the throne, son.”
The door shut with surgical precision, taking any warmth from the room with it.
I picked up the glass he’d poured for me and stared at it for a long moment before setting it back down, untouched.
Outside the window, dusk had thickened into night.
And all I could think about was Emily. How steady she’d looked at the sanctuary, how calm her voice had been when she answered the press. How she’d chosen a place that mattered and invited me into it.
A liability? No.
But she was more than a contract now. And that truth came with consequences.
I leaned back in my chair and let cock tick by the time. The whiskey glass sat untouched. I didn’t move for a long time. His words repeated in my mind like a curse: Emotions cloud judgment. Attachments weaken power.
I’d heard them before. Variations. Lessons he tried to impart when I was growing up.
But tonight, they landed differently. This time, the threat wasn’t vague or some hypothetical in a lesson on leading a Pack.
It had a name. A face. A laugh that had woven into my mind when I let my guard down. A woman who had managed, despite everything, to get under my skin in ways no one ever had.
Emily.
I stood slowly, rolling the tension from my shoulders. My body moved before my thoughts could catch up. Out the door. Down the hall. Past the den that looked into the gardens.
I just walked, steady and silent, until I stood outside her door.
The hallway was quiet at this hour, Emily had long since retreated to her rooms. Only the soft ticking of the grandfather clock echoed from the far end of the hall.
I stared at her door for what felt like hours.
My hand hovered near the wood. Close enough to knock. Close enough to push it open. But I hesitated.
I imagined what she was doing inside. Maybe reading, legs tucked under a blanket. Maybe brushing her hair in front of the mirror, lost in thought.
Maybe writing another strategy outline, trying to justify her place in a Pack that never asked her what she wanted,
She didn’t know what had been said about her tonight. What had been threatened. But even if she had, I wasn’t sure it would’ve changed anything.
Because Emily wasn’t reckless. She didn’t need saving. But she also wasn’t invincible.
And I’d let too many people speak about her like she was nothing more than a footnote in my story.
I leaned against the doorframe, gripping it with white knuckles to keep from reaching out again. The urge was there, deep and
insistent.
To touch her. To tell her none of this mattered; not the press, not my father’s campaign. Or mine. To say I didn’t care what they thought. That I wanted her anyway.
But I hadn’t earned that moment. Not yet.
And maybe I was afraid that if I knocked… she wouldn’t open.
I looked at the space between us. Just a few inches of wood and breath, and I tried to remember why I’d let the contract define what this could be.
Chapter 08
I lowered my hands, fingers brushing the edge of the door. Then stepped back.
I left the hallway in silence and retreated to my own room. I sat on the edge of the bed and stared out the window.
And I thought about the look on her face that morning at Silverroot The way she smiled without effort and held the press with the ease of someone who’d spent her whole life being doubted.
And kept going anyway.
She wasn’t just strong. She was the only thing in this damn Pack that still made sense when the rest of it blurred.
And somehow, even with everything hanging between us…I wanted her more than I ever had.
But wanting her wasn’t enough.
I had to figure out if I could be the man she deserved, not just the Alpha everyone else demanded.
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