Marco went to his feet, Nicky in his arms. “We’ll meet for lu—” His concentration broke when Nicky bouncedhis hip into Marco’s crotch. “Make that dinner. ”
Nicky gave Logan a self-satisfied little smirk. Logan laughed out loud as both wolves looked from one to the other, trying to decide if the joke was on them.
Left alone afterMarco’s hurried exit, Ian turned sober. “I hate what that bastard wanted to do to you. You mustn’t think his sickness reflects on you. ”
“I used to, but Idon’t anymore. ” His hands worked the fasteners of Ian’s pants. “I love you, Ian, with all my heart and soul, just like I said in that note. I made my choice a long time ago, and I’ll never change my mind. ”
Epilogue
“I respect fullyrequest permission to speak to the council,” Logan said, knowing even showing up in the council room was stomping all over wolf protocol. Nicky stood by his side in silent support.
“What is it, Logan , Nicky?” Marco asked.
“A couple of things, sir,to do with weaknesses in security. ”
Casey practically bolted out of his chair, making Ian tense to a defensive posture, ready
to interfere if Casey moved to threaten the young men. Casey only retorted, “A pet is going to tell us about security?”
“I just ask you hear me out then judge for yourself. ”
Marco waved Casey down. “Go ahead. ”
“You’re trusting the humans in town too much. I know their economy depends on you, and you’ve always had a good relationship with them, but they are human. While most of them are grateful and satisfiedwith the way things are, there’s too much chance of one of them thinking a handful of money beats working for a weekly paycheck. I know the Hunters have information they didn’t get by watching Mountainwood. Most of it is skewed and incomplete, but it’s still info they didn’t get from observation. One example is they knew you had a new mate, Alpha, and his name is Nicky. They even knew what he looked like. The information the workmen you’ve brought in already know and have passed on can’t be helped, but you need to stop letting the humans up here, even to work, until the war with the Hunters is ended. ”
“We need them. How else are we to complete the work?” one gamma asked while all the others thoughtfully considered what Logan said.
Logan took a deep breath, bracing himself. “Use the Werekin. ”
As he expected near bedlam broke out. For once, Casey wasn’t yelling the loudest. Rory had never stopped working, but then Rory, as a wolf and mate, was a special case. Marco finally stood and shouted the others into silence.
“Is that all?” he asked of Logan.
“No, sir. The Werekin need to be trained in self-defense at the veryleast…”
The roar of protest drowned out Logan to such a degree he gave up. Again, it was what he expected. What he didn’t expect was Marco demanding quiet and saying, “Yes. I agree. ”
Some were stunned into just staring. Others yelled in outrage, though they quieted quickly when Marco turned his fierce gaze on them. The strongest objections carried one common word, feral.
Logan leaned down, speaking above the turmoil to tell Marco, “I have a theory on the feral thing. ”
Marco nodded, holding a hand up to him while he waited for the others to calm down enough for him to quiet them and speak. He glanced at Nicky and smiled. “I’ve nearly lost Nicky twice now, not because he isn’t brave enough or even strong enough against any human attacker, but because he doesn’t know how to fight properly. He didn’t even remember to stay away from the front end of a rifle two men fought over until Logan yelled at him. As the dangers to us escalate, even as closely as we guard those we love, someone could be attacked or kidnapped right out from under us. ”
“If we train them to fight, they’ll go feral for sure,” an older man cried.
“I don’t think so. Nicky’s had some experience with that, more than anyone here. We all know he defied me, but what turned him feral wasn’t his rebellion. It was going without feeding. ”
Nicky nodded. “That’s true. Logan has a theory I think all of you will be interested in hearing. ”
“You have a theory?” Ian asked of Logan.
“He hasn’t discussed any of this with you?” Marco asked.
“No, he’s just asked me a bunch of questions on our history,” he answered and from his expression Logan guessedhe’d hurt Ian.
Logan explained quickly. “I didn’t want you in the middle of it. I wanted you to hear it all for the first time the same as everyone else so your reactions would be to what I said, and they couldn’t accuse you of…”
Ian smiled at him. “It’s okay, baby. Tell them what you think. ”