Chapter 36

Harper’s POV

I haven’t voiced my irritation with Logan yet. Mainly because I’m not sure how to bring it up without possibly starting an argument.

It’s been three days since the dinner party, and now, I feel like I’ve waited too long. Now, I’m wondering if I can bring it up. I don’t know Logan well enough to predict whether he’ll be upset or not.

Hopefully, he wouldn’t be upset, but I don’t know, and it’s driving me crazy.

I glance at Logan as we walk, and I roll my bottom lip between my teeth. Another thing I haven’t been able to stop thinking about is the little therapy session I had with Lucas on the terrace. Should I mention that to Logan too?

Nothing happened between me and Lucas other than him holding my hand for a moment of comfort, but I still feel guilty. I feel like I’ve cheated on Logan somehow, even though the moment between me and Lucas was platonic.

Then again, can you call any touch between us platonic after what happened the night of the mating ball?

Groaning softly, I pinch the bridge of my nose and wish there was a magical fix-all to tell me what to do.

“Are you okay?” Logan asks, stopping and turning to me.

“Yeah, I was just thinking,” I mutter. “I have a lot on my mind.”

Logan nods, a noncommittal hum coming from him.

“It’s nothing. I just—” My phone rings, cutting me off. “Oh, hold on. I need to take this. It’s my clinic in the human quarter.”

“Hello, this is Harper.”

“Harper, I have good news!” My assistant says. “We found someone who is willing to buy the clinic from you. He’s a doctor who has been wanting to open his own clinic, and now you don’t have to close us down!”

“That’s great. Thank you so much for letting me know,” I say, feeling a weight lift off my shoulders. “If they need anything from me, please give them my contact information and have them contact me.”

“Of course, I’ll let them know.”

After a few more goodbyes, I hang up and slip my phone back in my pocket.

“That sounded like a good call,” Logan says as we continue walking.

“It was. Someone wants to buy my clinic that I ran, so I don’t have to close it,” I explain, stepping over a large root in the ground.

“I remember you mentioning a clinic,” he mutters and nods. “I’m happy for you and for your clinic. Hopefully this new owner will keep things running smoothly and help all your human customers.”

I smile, hoping for the same thing. I grew to love a lot of the customers I saw once they started coming to me regularly. While I didn’t really want to leave, I have other things in my life now. I’m building a new life here and leaving isn’t really an option anymore.

“Speaking of the human world…” Logan starts, sounding a bit hesitant. He rubs the back of his neck and looks at me. I stop walking and turn to him fully.

“What about it?” I ask.

“Well, while you were gone, you were considered a rogue, weren’t you?” He asks even though he knows the answer to that question.

I’m not sure what he’s getting at, but I play along. “Yes, I was.”

“Right, but are you still considered a rogue because of your time in the human quarter? There was never an acceptance ceremony when you returned,” he tells me. “There wasn’t even an announcement of your return.”

He’s not wrong. Usually when someone joins a pack, they go through an acceptance ceremony that the Alpha initiates. Everyone must go through it before they officially become a pack member, or they won’t have access to the pack mind link and the pack bond.

Lucas never mentioned the ceremony, and I’m not sure why. Sure, I signed a contract, but that’s not the same thing as going through the acceptance ceremony.

“I’m not sure,” I answer. “But maybe I should talk to Lucas about it? I don’t’ think I’m still considered a rogue, but maybe he forgot about the ceremony since there’s been so much going on with the rogue attacks and all.”

“Maybe.”

“At the banquet, Lucas said my father was wrong for kicking me out, and he’s made me a pack doctor,” I reason, wanting to believe that Lucas wouldn’t forget something so important. “So that should be enough to negate my year as a rogue, shouldn’t it?”

Logan nods again, rubbing his chin as he sits on a rock, “I would think so. You mentioned the attacks. Have you heard of the troubles on the borders?”

Nodding, I sit next to him on the boulder and pull my legs up to my chest.

“I don’t know all the specifics, but I’ve been healing warriors who are injured in the attacks,” I tell him, and my mind immediately goes to the man who died the other day. “Lucas hasn’t fully informed me, though. Do you know everything?”

“There have been attacks, and I’ve only recently joined the warriors to help supplement and add to the ranks,” he tells me, leaning back a bit to look up at the sky. His brows pull in and a frown tilts the corners of his lips down.

He looks troubled or worried about something, so I lay my hand over his in hopes that it’ll comfort him.

“What’s wrong?”

“I heard something that bothered me a bit this morning,” he says softly. “They… there are plans being formed by Alpha Lucas and Beta Mason to kill all the rogues in the area.”

I gasp, horrified by the information. “But not all rogues are bad. Are they going to kill the innocent ones too?”

Logan shrugs and then leans forward, resting his forearms on his knees. I lean forward too, waiting to hear his next words.

“I’m not sure,” he says on a sigh. “But from the way they were talking, they probably will to cover their bases.” He looks at me, the crease between his eyes deepening. “I also know he’s not just gunning for rogues.”

“Are you serious? Is he planning to attack another pack?”

“No, this plan is more internal.”

“You mean people in our pack?”

I find that hard to believe. Lucas doesn’t seem like someone who would go around killing innocents.

“And you heard Mason and Lucas talking about this plan?” I ask, hoping he says no. I don’t want to think that Lucas or Mason could do something so awful. They might be assholes sometimes, but murderers?

“Yes.”

I look into Logan’s eyes as he continues, “He plans to execute several werewolves who haven’t even been confirmed as traitors. Maybe if you talk to him, Harper, about rogues not being all bad, he’ll take your advice. Since you used to be a rogue.”

Since I used to be a rogue.

Would Lucas listen to me? I know I should say something, but would it do any good? I want to question it because someone who’s innocent, like me, could be in this trouble. They could get killed for no reason.

I didn’t think Lucas was that cruel, but another thought trickles into my mind. Is this ruthlessness how he brought his pack up to the third strongest pack in the region?

How far would he go to end the attacks against his warriors?

“I’ll talk to him. Somehow, I’ll make sure he doesn’t kill innocent people,” I say, jumping up and running toward the pack house.