Howls of the Lost | Now Published!

Chapter 7

Thanks to -JennaAshleyImogen- for the fantastic custom cover she made for me to the right --->  Isn't it awesome?

Enjoy.

<3KC

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Chapter 7

Tentatively, I walked into the kitchen. The first person I noticed was Logan, whose eyes snapped to mine the minute I stepped into the room, and then I noticed Rikki, Dalton, and David were also there as well. Smiling, I crossed to David. "Morning," I said right next to his ear.

All conversation stopped as he jumped about a mile in the air. "Jesus, Tor! Don't do that!" he exclaimed, placing his hand over his heart that I could hear beating erratically with my advanced hearing.

Logan choked on his coffee as he tried to contain his laughter and Rikki glared at him as she came to David's side. "Are you okay?" she asked, trying to conceal her own smile.

He narrowed his eyes at her before looking back to me. "See what you do? Now my own mate is making fun of me."

"Suck it up," Dalton threw in, a playful smile forming on his face.

"Settle down, children," Ashlyn said, making her grand entrance.

"Good morning to you too, sunshine," I teased her.

She tossed me a nasty look over her shoulder as she made her way to the fridge like she owned the place. "You just started walking, Tor, don't make me put you on bed rest again," she threatened, playfully narrowing her eyes.

"Bring it on," I taunted.

"Speaking of which," Logan said, speaking for the first time and drawing my attention back to him. "Are you ready, Torian?" he asked, an arrogant smirk fitting itself onto his face.

"If I have to be," I softly replied. I really didn't want to fight, let alone fight him. Because in all honesty, he was my mate and it was going to be extremely difficult to try and attack him.

Logan came around the island counter to stand right in front of me. He placed a finger under my chin and tilted my face up until I was forced to meet those emerald eyes of his. "We don't have to. All you have to do is agree to stay and I'll retract the challenge," he murmured, just loud enough for me to hear.

The only thing standing between me and freedom was the man in front of me, and it was possibly one of the toughest decisions I had ever had to make in my life. Having a mate was a complication I never thought I'd have to face. But now here I was, facing off against the one person that was supposed to mean the world to me. How is someone supposed to cope with that?

"No. Let's go," I said, shaking my head to clear it. Right now all I wanted was to get out of this town and away from Logan.

His face immediately fell and hardened. "Alright," he ground out. He turned on his heel and made his way to the front door.

For a moment I just stood there blankly staring after him. David came up beside me and whispered in my ear, "Tor, c'mon. You just got better, but that doesn't mean you're ready for a fight this quick. Just agree to stay here. It really won't kill you to accept him."

My entire body bristled at the idea. Accept the mate claim? What would that do for me? The idea of giving up my pack to stand beside Logan left a sour feeling in my stomach. What would happen to Ashlyn and Michael? All these questions swirling around in my head were making it hard to think straight.