ALPHA LOGAN

Chapter 6

Logan's side was pierced by the pain before his eyes widened.

He drew in a shuddering breath, feeling the smooth, fresh cloth beneath his shirt and tightening him with it. The wound in his side from the courtyard assault had reopened during the night. He pushed himself upright against the wall and took a moment to breathe before attempting to stand.

He was weak yet. The power that had danced in his blood after the beating had not come back to him. And whatever he was turning into, he was not turning to quickly enough to save him now.

He arrived late to breakfast, shuffling, and hobbling into the great room, and saw Elena already seated at the long table, eyes fixed on her plate.

"You're looking poorly, " Logan stated, lowering himself into the chair on the other side of the room.

"I don't feel sick, " explained Elena. "I just can't think straight."

"Explain"

She looked towards the well-placed servants to ensure they were out of earshot and answered quietly. "I was in my chambers last night. I held my father's burned letter. Adrian was there."

"Adrian had been here to see you?"

He visited with me about the proposal, no escort. I remember that clearly." Elena's hands closed around her mug. "Then nothing. My maids say I sent them all away of my own accord before midnight. I haven't any memory of doing so."

"Well you lost an entire night." And with that Logan put down the bread he had been absently holding.

Yes.

" That is not confusion, Elena. That is dangerous."

"I know, " she snapped. Then catching herself, "I asked every maid in the house earlier this morning. All of them said they didn't notice anything unusual. I dismissed all of them with no reason given."

Logan stared at her face. She appeared exhausted in a manner not attributable purely to a restless night, and her gaze continued to flit across the room toward the far end of the table, where Adrian was busily engaging two visiting lords in empty, polite conversation.

" Ekeep watching him, " Logan said.

Would you not, if the last thing you could remember was him looming above you?

Logan had no reply for that. All he wanted was to be in at least as good a condition this morning so he could use his suspicion on something other than soaking a wound that refused to heal itself.

****

Once more, the court reassembles just before noon, and the whispers wafting over the hall make it impossible for anything else to be discussed. The moon cycle was also coming to a close and there were three days before Elena had to tell Adrian what her decision was and it was as if all the lords in the room had an opinion on what they thought would be best for the country.

A lord argued, "an alliance with the Lustblood would end centuries of border fighting".

An alliance based on convenience is no alliance at all, " a second protested. "The will names Westwood. Break it, and every noble house will doubt that kings are king once a king is dead."

Elena remained silent for most of it, sitting rigidly in her throne, gradually regaining her perfect composure as the hours wore on. Logan returned to stand once more against the wall, watching her keep things to together despite whatever had been done to her in the night. She was strong in a way he was not yet his ribs surely crying out in pain and his strength still buried somewhere beyond his reach.

He hated that he had to rely on that thought. He hated even more that it was true.

At the close of the session, Elena had him waiting outside the corridor.

"Walk and me, " she said.

"How dare you barricade yourself in your own house."

-I didn't ask for that, I need it-Kerrigan was already on the move and he had no choice but to keep up with her, despite the pain shooting through his side.-I want a second opinion on Adrian before I give him a response that he can use against me, too.

You trust me with that.

"I trust you. More than anyone else in this palace at the moment, " Elena said, hoarding after her regardless. "This does not mean that I trust you completely. Don't conflate it with something more."

"I wouldn't think of it, " said Logan, and such an expression crossed his face that she shot a sidelong glance at him, smiling a little though herself.

******

They discovered the solution to the missing night sooner than any of us anticipated.

Elena hesitated in the hallway and, thumbing at her wrist, absentmindedly rubbed the bracelet Henry had given her, which Logan had witnessed twice this morning without much reaction. Now Elena stopped her hand mid-gesture, looking down at her own arm.

"How is it?" Logan questioned.

She rolled her wrist. Two tiny holes sat just under her palm pale healing, difficult to spot unless someone was fully focused.

"That wasn't there yesterday, " she said under her breath.

Logan curled her wrist gently and examined it in the light. These weren't the scratch marks of a blade, but they were not the haphazard, random scratches of the clumsy done-to-death. I'd seen these only once before, on the ankle of a fallen king in the last stand of woods.

"Yeah, that's like a bite, " he said.

"Of what?"

"I don't know." His jaw had become rigid. "But I know it's why you cannot recall that night. Whatever was done to you after Adrian entered your suite erased your memory."

Elena yanked her hand away but her voice remained steady and calm as it always was no matter if Logan knew how scared she truly was. "Then we ask Adrian directly."

"That tells us we have an issue."

"Good, " said Elena. "Let him wonder what we already know."

Finding Adrian in the yard talking with one of his guards near the stables, they emerged into the sunlight, and he realized it was him the instant he saw him head in their direction with that confident smile.

Princess. And her ever steadfast fiancé." Adrian's gaze flicked swiftly interactively to the sleeve concealing Elena's wrist. "You also appear rather un-rested."

"I don't remember most of it, " Elena said, studying his face intently. "You were with me until it went away."

Irina Snape was apparently my easy wife: I didn't make great effort to find out. "I recall our discussion, " Adrian said indifferently. "You look run down already. I not have been here long."

"Long enough, " said Logan.

Adrian's smile thin at the corners, but not completely gone. He studied Logan for an age, something unsettled and calculating behind his courteous smile, before he redirected his gaze toward the sleeve concealing Elena's wrist.

Logan noticed the gesture. Moving in the direction Adrian was looking, he moved slightly and effectively blocked Adrian's view without thinking.

"Stop staring at something that is none of your concern, " Logan said.

Adrian's smile disappeared completely at last. He leaned in a little, and lowered his voice just enough so that it could be heard clearly by the two of them.

Always be sure to ask your healer, " he suggested, "what takes place if with every drop of Lustblood venom, which gets into blood."

Then he turned and walked back toward the stables, leaving them both standing there in the courtyard, the morning much colder than it had been a moment earlier.