Chapter 156

Chapter 156
Cora--

I’m having a– frankly excellent– bubble bath when Logan comes knocking on Landon’s door. I have decided that I won’t be needed for whatever discussion they’re having, but it pisses me off that I have to give up my drink holder to let him go deal with his brother. I have to refresh my water by myself twice while he’s gone, and I’m entirely pruned and all my bubbles are gone by the time I give up on him coming back. I’m not great at figuring out what's going on by Landon’s thoughts yet so I’m in the dark. I’m not sure if it’s a matter of practice or if he’s too squirrely to think only about what’s going on.

Halfway through drying off and chugging some sparkling water Landon had chilled for me, he finally comes back. “Shit, kitten, just stand there a minute for me.”

I roll my eyes even if it secretly puts a thrill in my belly. Dropping my towel to the floor, I give Landon a slow turn. “You’ve seen it all, pookie. What’s going on?”

He’s getting better at stifling his reaction to the pet name. I’m going to have to find a new one soon– hopefully before “pookie” gets stuck in my vocabulary and I start saying it unironically. “You know I’ll never get tired of your body, mate.” He pulls me into his chest so he can better reach all his favorite parts of me. “Just some security stuff that James sent over. He’s looking into the other packs already. They’re trying to figure out who would be best to send over there to make first contact or whatever. Like they’re aliens instead of  basically distant relatives.”

That’s unexpected, for some reason. I know James mentioned discussing who to send, but I thought it was just a formality. Deep down, I assumed I would be the one they sent. I think I’m… offended that I didn’t automatically get the job. I hate that. I hate giving anyone a foothold to hurt my feelings. I quash the thought before Landon can comment on it, even though we’re too close together for him to miss how I stiffened in his arms. “Don’t they think a human would be the best choice? There’s a reason they haven’t contacted you all, right? You all don’t think that a random wolf shifter rolling up on a whole other pack of them would be dangerous for everyone?”

Landon gives me a flat look. “And who do you think you smell most like right now, kitten? Your mother? Your old coworkers? Who have you been hanging with?”

I suppose he has a point. “There’s that, yes. But that one kid said that I still smell like a human. That’s better than nothing, I’d think.”

He squints and tilts his head to the side. He always reminds me of a husky when he does that. “I don’t know about that, baby. You’ll still smell like us– me especially. And I have dominant scent markers, which will send up more red flags for another pack. There’s this instinctive… twitchy feeling that comes when Logan and the guys walk into each others’ pack houses. It makes everybody feel weird until they get to know each other. Took ages before everyone here stopped blowing up my phone anytime one of the guys visited. Now it’s just the old ladies asking to break in a new hip with Deek or Ollie.”

The laughter is unstoppable, just like he intended. “Nobody wanted to get with James? He has that dimple and everything!”

Landon’s laughing with me, glad to have pulled me out of the little dip in my mood. “Who would know? It’s not like he ever smiles to show it. No, even the oldies are shit scared of him.”

I can’t stop giggling at the image as Landon scoops me into his arms and carries me to the bed. “Okay, okay, we’ve gotten off track. If smelling like a wolf is a problem, who else are you supposed to send? All of you smell like wolves, and any other human who’s been around enough to be trustworthy would have the same problem I do. That leaves a pretty small list, don’t you think?”

The smile falls off Landon’s face as he gives my questions serious thought, despite the fact that I’m still naked and he has one of my breasts in his hand. He squeezes and massages it like a stress ball as he works his way through the problem. “There’s a thought that one of the Alphas or Betas could go, as a representative. Like sending a delegate from one nation to another.”

I’m nodding along, following his reasoning. “But then you have the argument of how many people to send with them. If they go on their own, they could be walking into a trap or just general danger. If you send a hit squad then it could be seen as a hostile takeover.” 

Landon kisses my nipple as a reward for my insight. Ridiculous wolf. “Exactly. And I couldn’t send you on your own without my wolf tearing me apart. But if I went with you, what does that communicate to the other pack?”

There’s a niggling idea in the back of my mind. “What about Anna? Or whoever Ollie’s assistant is? They’re around enough to trust you guys, but removed enough to smell more like themselves than who they’re working for. Right?”

Brows furrowed, Landon thinks a moment. “Maybe… I know Ollie’s current assistant is a shifter, but he’s actively looking for someone to replace himself with. Apparently Ollie doesn’t actually do anything to run his business. He just plays around with code and motherboards all day and his assistant is some kind of shadow CEO. Anna isn’t in on the secret, though.”

That’s astonishing to me. “How not? Didn’t she work with Logan for years?”

“Like eight years, yeah.” As if that isn’t a significant amount of time. Especially for a human in her twenties. 

Eight years of working closely with Logan and she doesn’t know? Years of being both an employee and a friend and she somehow has no idea? “There’s no way she doesn’t know. Maybe she just didn’t say anything to keep it from getting too awkward.”

Landon pauses, looking up from where he was watching the way my breast moves in his grip. “Why do you say that?”

I roll my eyes, trying to ignore the twinging in my still-sore pussy. There’s no way I’m having sex again today, and he knows it. “Because it took me all of a day to figure it out? You’re telling me she was just outside the door for years of guy lunches and nobody slipped up? I think not. I know you all better by now.”

He just hums out a deep sound that means something along the lines of “agree to disagree” and we sit in comfortable quiet for a moment. “Roll over, mate. I think I owe you a massage.”

“You just want to squeeze my ass next. I’m onto you.” But I roll over, anyway. I am due a massage, after all.