Page 45 of Shadow of Fury
“Hey.” He had his hands shoved into his pockets and he looked like hell.
“Hey.” she echoed back, “I thought you were Raven. She just left.”
“I know. I saw her.” His lips thinned and Wren realized her panic must have shown on her face because he sighed “I saw her. She didn’t see me. Can I come in?”
Wren moved aside purely out of common courtesy. She didn’t want him here, at her house. She didn’t even know how he’d figured out where she lived. It didn’t matter though because he was here. He was in her house and she had no idea why he’d come.
Logan wandered in, slowly turning as he took in the interior. Wren shut the door behind him and watched him nervously. Once she got her own warring emotions under control she could feel the tension radiating off of him. The bond between them was continuing to grow. Not that she needed the bond to tell her that he was hurting. That was written all over his handsome face.
“I like your house.” he said as the silence stretched between them.
Wren raised an eyebrow, “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” He touched a vase of wildflowers, “It’s colorful and warm. Inviting. Not like the cold, boring gray house I grew up in.”
“Logan…” She frowned when he continued to touch picture frames and knick-knacks on the shelves in the little entryway. “Is your mom…”
When she trailed off he finally turned back to her and his eyes were sad, “She’s gone. She died this afternoon.”
“I’m so sorry.”
“I hate that I didn’t get more time with her but there’s nobody to blame for that but me.” He lifted one shoulder, let it fall and sighed. “I’m the one that left, the one that stayed away and refused to call. Even when I got back I put off seeing her because I was still so angry with her for always standing by him, for never taking my side.”
Wren bit the inside of her cheek. She wanted to ask him what he meant. Why had he been angry with his mom? Something about her taking her husband’s side over her son? But she kept her questions to herself because now was not the time to press him on his family secrets.
He was hurting and he had come to her. He needed something and the ache in her chest demanded she give it to him, whatever it was. That’s what the bond did. It tied them to one another, made them feel one another's wants and needs. Only the bond wasn’t fully formed yet so she was still struggling to understand exactly what he needed her to say.
She went with the obvious, “I’m sure your mom understood, probably better than you think. She was your mom and even if we’re not close to them, they still hold a piece of us nobody else ever will.”
“Maybe.” he muttered noncommittedly.
“Were you able to see her before…” She winced, not wanting to say it and cause him more pain. “Your sister rushed you out so fast earlier. I wondered if you made it back in time to be there with her like you wanted.”
“I did. Yeah. I spoke to her a little before she passed.”
“That’s good. It’s nice you got a chance to say goodbye.”
She didn’t point out that she’d never had that chance with her sister. The silence stretched between them again and Logan wandered further into the house. He ran a hand over the island in the kitchen as he passed and then a barstool. The area opened into the living room but Wren couldn’t imagine inviting him to sit with her on the couch.
The dam broke and the words rushed out of her, “Logan. What are you doing here? What do you need? I want to help you, but I don’t know how?”
He turned and his heavy gaze met hers. Her heart sped up of its own accord. The electricity that had been between them since that first night in the alleyway surged and she sucked in a gasp of air when she was hit with a powerful wave of sadness and longing. It took her a moment to realize it wasn’t her own, that it was Logan’s emotions pouring into her through the bond.
“You are helping me.” His lips curved just at the edges but fell again quickly, “Letting me be here. Letting me be with you. It helps.”
“I’m here for you.” She automatically took a step towards him before catching herself and pulling up short. “I know this thing between us is complicated but, whatever I can do to help. I’m here.”
Logan stared at her for a long time before he shook his head, “I don't want to be like them.”
“Be like who?”
“My parents. I don’t want to be like them. I don’t want to be mated in name only. I don’t want to put on a show for the pack but live separate lives in private. They were never in love. Even though fate put them together, they never figured out how to love one another, never even tried, and I don’t want to live like that, Wren. I want more than that for my life, for us.”
“Logan…” his name came out hesitantly, a question, but he was already answering what he hadn’t asked.
“I want the bond between us to be real. I want to make you mine. I want to be yours. I want us to truly be two halves of a whole the way the bond was intended. I want to try. Can we do that?” His eyes searched her face. “Can we do that, Wren? Please? Can we try to do better than our parents?”
Her heart gave a painful squeeze and her bottom lip trembled. He was talking about his own parents, but it hit home for her too. They’d lived very different lives but they’d each ended up with parents who were too self-absorbed to put their children first. She might not know his secrets and he might not know hers but there was a reason fate had put them together and maybe this small bit of common ground was part of it.