Chapter 6: Ties that Bind
1124 Words
Logan
"So they really gave you the wrong twin, yeah?" Neil asked me from across my desk, lounging in the swivel chair.
I palmed my temple as I bit back the scathing response I'd have delivered. "Yes."
His head lolled on the head rest of the chair. "Well, I've got to admit, old man Carter has some balls, lying to you like that."
"No, he was f*****g stupid trying to lie to me like that. What'd he think? That I would be with an omega and not ever find out?" The mere thought of the pathetic stunt they'd tried to pull on me was infuriating.
"That's a fact. Did you see the other twin?"
"Yes. They had no other choice but to produce her. Should've seen the look on Delia's face though."
Neil laughed, but I didn't feel like laughing. "They threw her under the bus. Laid all the blame at her feet."
He paused his swiveling to focus on me. "What brilliant excuse for their dumb behavior did they come up with?"
"Said Delia drugged her sister and took her place."
Neil's laughter was so loud it reverberated through the room.
"Shut up, Neil."
"So now what, Logan?"
"I'm going to revoke my mating to Delia, and mate Dennis."
"Why can't you punish them and let both twins go entirely, Logan? It's not like you to let something like this go unpunished."
"We should just do away with them. All of them. Find you another mate then." His eyes gleamed with calculated coldness.
I hadn't told anyone this. Not a soul knew what I'd been going through for the last three years plus. "I'm sick, Neil."
Neil sat up, his hand rubbing his jaw as he went tense. "What do you mean, sick?"
Werewolves don't get sick,his eyes seemed to be telling me.
Well, don't I know it? I wished it was the f*****g flu I had to deal with.
"You're the only one who's going to hear about this, Neil." I didn't need say anything else to know he understood that I wanted this under wraps. "I'm under a curse, and it's killing me."
"f**k man, I really hoped you were just f*****g around. What do you mean a f*****g curse?"
"It's something that happened sometime when I was a kid. But all I know is, when I turned thirty, I started seeing other things, Neil. Things that weren't human and weren't like…us."
He leaned forward on the desk that separated us, his serious gaze almost boring a hole in my head. "What things, Logan?"
I dreaded saying the word. "Wraiths."
Anyone in the supernatural world knew what wraiths were. They were the dead who wouldn't cross over to the spirit world. They held unto the land of the living, even though they were decayed and way long overdue in the land of the living.
Their presence was a sign of impending doom.
Always.
Neil inhaled sharply and then let out his breath in a rush. "And what does this have to do with the Wilson twin you're supposed to be mated to?"
"I'm going to decay like wraiths do, Neil, unless I'm bound to the Wilson daughter. Dennis will end the curse if I'm mated to her. Only her."
Neil looked dazed. And I couldn't blame him, I'd been the same way when I found out.
His hands roved through his hair and he let out a string of curses. "What…when did you find out? How do you know the girl will make any difference?"
"When I started seeing the wraiths, it was f*****g hell, man. I couldn't sleep, I couldn't breathe, I could not f*****g function. They were everywhere…I mean, they still are," he stared around us, over my head but I shook my head. "You can't see them, Neil, no one else ever does. But I do. I have to live with them every freaking second of every day."
"Well I had to consult some beings. Some supernatural who'd know what was f*****g happening. And so I went to find the Sphinx."
I didn't think Neil could look any more shocked, but he absolutely did. His mouth hung open before he forcefully snapped it shut. "You met with…damn…consulted the f*****g Sphinx?"
"Wasn't f*****g easy, but yeah. And she told me—"
"What the f**k, she?!"
"Neil, f*****g shut up and let me finish, man." My hands rose up and I clenched them on the desk surface.
His hands went up in surrender. "I'm sorry, man."
"Well, I've been warned that the curse doesn't waste time finishing werewolves off, and the longer the wraiths hang around me, the faster I decay, Neil. Basically, I'm a dead man walking already, I just need to find a way to stay over here."
"You've been cursed to decay alive."
I swallowed and then nodded once.
"The girl, Dennis, she has a life source that will keep me from decaying, from dying. Once mated to her, I can perform a few rituals that keep me bound to her. And I get to live as long as she does."
"But then you got the wrong twin."
"Yes." I wondered if I should mention that the wrong twin so happened to keep the wraiths away but I thought better of it. It was Dennis the Sphinx had said, not Delia.
"Who did this, Logan?"
"You mean placed the curse?"
He nodded grimly and I could see murder in his eyes."
I would have destroyed whoever or whatever it was myself, if I knew. "Damned if I know, Neil. I'm f****d without that Wilson girl."
"You're going to inform Elder Jonathan, I'm revoking my mating to Delia. And I'm getting mated to Dennis. He can ordinate the mating ceremony himself, cause I don't want anyone else finding out what happened."
He nodded readily. I could see he was over the shock already, his mind turning wheels on how to remedy the situation. "Logan, what about the Delia girl? What if this gets out? You being mated to both twins?"
I scowled, the thought of anything tarnishing my image, especially to the human world was a no no. I ran a multi conglomerate, and the stellar image I had was a driving force in keeping me ahead of my competitors.
"We can't let her talk about anything. But I'm quite sure her parents will take care of that. You see Neil, the fact that I need Dennis, doesn't automatically mean that I need her parents and twin sister."
A look passed between us and I knew he understood what I meant.
If Delia even breathed a word that I'd been mated to her, an omega, they would all pay the price for daring to go against me.
- Writer
