Accepting Fate - (Slums to Riches, Book one)

Chapter 46

Logan's hot breath against her legs sent tingles to all the wrong places. Wrong, because as a wolf, he could smell how his nearness affected her. Still thinking of herself as a sixteen-year-old, she could not take that step yet, and he respected her decision.

He removed his head from her lap and pressed his face into the mattress. "This is my punishment for allowing your mother to cast spells on me."

He did not say it as a question, so she did not answer. Instead, she pushed her fingers through his hair.

He had been the one to choose the silky nightgown for her. She insisted on wearing the matching robe, since she was unable to wear any underwear with it. The strips of material barely covered any of her assets, but the underwear would have cut into the lacerations on her back and stomach.

Logan had to lower her into the bath and help her wash, since she could not stand in the shower. Her nudity should have embarrassed her. All the hair she removed for the ceremony had grown back. It affected Logan, though, and his boxer shorts left nothing to the imagination. Once she dressed and crawled back onto the bed, Cook brought her a T-bone steak and a salad. Logan had to finish half, because she couldn't eat more without throwing it all up again.

She fell asleep in his arms, for about an hour, before visions of the future woke her up.

"Something is obviously very urgent, but that will need to wait a little longer, if it does not affect or threaten our immediate future." Though she spoke to Logan, she knew the mothers would be listening as well.

The visions faded away, and she instructed Logan to lay his head on her lap so she could find the spell her mother cast on him. Now, as she massaged his scalp, he sighed, and his shoulders relaxed. She opened her mind and looked into his.

She found what her mother did to him, but it ignited a rage she could not shake off. Her body quivered and her hands clenched into fists.

"What's wrong?" he mumbled against the bed. "I can feel your tension."

While he washed her hair, he told her about the changes in them both, now that they were bound as mates. Smelling her mood changes, was one, but he never mentioned feeling her emotions like she should have felt his.

"I don't like what I see," she said. "The initial web she created is a tangled mess. It grew in size and covered seventy percent of your brain. If that thing was alive, you would be paralyzed from the neck down and your organs would have started to seize up. It's a wonder you were able to shift into your wolf."

"Don't pull any punches. Just lay it on me straight."

"We don't have time for jokes or sugar coating everything we say, Logan." He still shivered each time she said his name, and that brought a smile to her lips, but it fell away as she continued to explain everything to him. "You could die if we don't get this spell untangled. It's feeding off your emotions and soon it will feed off everything else. Instead of just one string, there are thousands. It will take me an hour to find the main string to that web and I have to test every last one. It's going to hurt. Both of us."

He pulled away and shook his head. "No way. I'm not putting you through that again. We can find—"

"There is no other way. It hurt because Cook did not have the time to be delicate. I do. As soon as I tug on one of those strings, I'll feel if it is the wrong one and move to the next."

"Are you sure about this? My emotions have been locked up for many years. It could all spill out at once and then we will be back to you feeling everything. I can't stay away from you. Not again. I just got you back."