Page 49 of Defiance
Logan had no idea if he was supposed to reply to that, so he erred on the side of caution and said nothing. The weighted silence that followed seemed to go on forever, and Logan’s heart thundered against his ribs as he waited for Michael to say something. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Aaron curling his hands into fists, then stopping abruptly as though realising what he was doing.
When Michael finally spoke, Logan immediately wished he hadn’t. “Why?” he asked, gaze fixed on Logan. “You could have told him no, should’ve done under the circumstances. Cole is in no position to ask for anything.” His eyes narrowed, expression calculating, and Logan swallowed past the sudden lump in his throat. “Why did you think it worth pissing off your alpha?”
Fuck.
Logan scrambled to think of something that wouldn’t give away that he was emotionally invested. “We have a good relationship with the Cox pack.”
“We do.”
“And the end goal is to have Cole be a functioning member of Paul’s team. With the training sessions still a littlestrained...” To Logan’s surprise, Michael smirked and he lost his train of thought. “I... um... I... I thought it might go some way to getting Cole to accept our pack if we allow him to have his best mate design his tattoo.”
Michael’s face gave nothing away.
Jacob, on the other hand, looked marginally less like he wanted to murder him.
“Members of my packdiedbecause of Cole’s actions.” Michael’s words cut through Logan like ice. “Why should I make any concessions for him? He should be thankful he’s not rotting in a shifter jail cell. Not making demands.”
One thing Michael hated almost as much as disloyalty was a coward. Logan was walking a fine line, but he’d started this and he needed to state his case fully, not back down under his alpha’s stare.
“I know that, and so does he. But with respect, Alpha, the reason we wanted Cole in the first place was because of his skill set. And you don’t get to his level without a certain degree of arrogance, stubbornness, and determination.” He waved his hand, struggling to find the right words but hoping Michael got what he was trying to say. “I think Cole will be a valuable member of this pack. Eventually. But we can’t just force him into accepting it. We need to ease the way a little.”
Have I gone too far? Overstepped?
Logan would rather look anywhere than at Michael, but he forced himself to hold eye contact. He’d never spoken to his alpha like that before. Never offered an opinion on pack matters, because that wasn’t his place. Sweat ran down the back of his neck, his ability to hide his fear disappearing altogether.
Michael would know.
Fuck, probably everyone in the room could smell it. But he’d essentially told his alpha how to run his pack. He should be fucking terrified.
What the hell was I thinking?
You were thinking about Cole.
That thought settled his wolf, the fear fading away as he clung to a picture of Cole in his mind. He might be a liability as far as Logan was concerned, but he was also his strength.
“You’ve got balls, Logan.” Michael’s smirk remained in place. Hard to say if that was a good thing or not. He might well be thinking of the punishment he was about to inflict. “And I like that in my pack members.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and typed out a message. Logan held his breath, not daring to hope yet.
No one moved.
Michael’s phone buzzed and he nodded as he read the incoming message. “The design will be with West by first thing Thursday morning.”
As simple as that.
Logan wasn’t stupid enough to believe that was the end of it.
Michael pushed off the wall and walked over to stand beside Logan’s chair, his hand gripping Logan’s shoulder. “I also like loyalty. I appreciate what you’re trying to do, Logan. I do want to integrate Cole into our pack, but he needs to be willing. I pissed off a lot of people by giving him a second chance. I’m not about to bend over backwards and accommodate his every whim.” His grip tightened and Logan winced. “Cole fucked up. He broke the rules and people died.”
“Yes, Alpha.”
“You and Aaron spend more time with him than anyone else, but you can’t afford to lose sight of what he did. For his sake and the rest of the pack’s.” He sighed, his hold on Logan easing. “We need to learn to trust Cole as much as he needs to learn to trust us. I’ll let him have Nick design his tattoo to show him we’re willing to forgive and move past this. But trust needs to be earned, Logan. On both sides.”
“Yes, Alpha.” Logan breathed a sigh of relief, couldn’t help it, and Michael’s smirk grew.
“I’ll see you all at training Thursday afternoon.” With a nod to Jacob, Michael left, pulling the door closed behind him.
The room fell into silence once again, but this time Logan’s pulse didn’t race. He let out a relieved breath. “That went well?”
Aaron thumped him in the arm, which to be fair, he probably deserved.
