Risks of Absurdity

Chapter 26

Chapter 26

I was fully aware of the moment my brain turned back on. My lunges ached from inhaling the wolfsbane, my body felt like it weighed a ton with fatigue, and I knew without any delusion I was in trouble.

There were blades of grass under my hands. If I could just open my eyes maybe I could figure out more.

“You’re coming around quicker than I thought you would.” Logan stood somewhere close. The sound of his voice triggered all my nightmares, my heart started to race with terror of the unknown. What was I going to do?

I couldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing me sweat. “I thought by now you’d be dead in a ditch somewhere.” I remembered being at the dance and dropping my shoes. I silently prayed someone found them, preferably a werewolf.

“I was planning my next move.”

“For all that planning this is what you came up with? The same idea?” my eyes cracked open. We were deep in the tress at the park. There was nothing but land for miles on either side. Shit. If I could get my hands free I still had a long way to run before finding help.

“Obviously not. I was surprised to hear you gave it up to Austin that quick.”

My knee jerk reaction was to lash out but I stopped my motor mouth in time and went for a more strategic approach, one I knew would hurt better than curses. “Don’t you get it? Austin’s my mate the same sure way he’s our future alpha. It was never supposed to be you, first born or not.” The words weren’t only to anger him, they happened to very much be the truth. Funny how that turned out, and funny how I realized it now with my hands tied up, at the mercy of a psychopath.

His eyes hardened into solid black pieces of tar. “We’ll see about that.” He turned away from me and looked toward the barrage of trees as if he was waiting for something.

Panic surged. “What does that mean? Come on, what do you have to lose by telling me?” I was doing a horrible job at keeping a cool demeanor. Not only was I worried for my own well being, I was worried for Austin too. He was Logan’s true target.

Logan turned around and knelt in front of the tree I was also tied to. “You’re no good to me anymore. I’m going to kill you the minute I’m through with him. I’m going to challenge Austin tonight and with him gone, the pack will never doubt their true alpha again.”  

“You’re seriously insane! Mr. Carter is still alpha and if you harm his son he’ll never accept you as his replacement. Why can’t you accept you’ll never be this pack’s alpha? You could’ve went off on your own and proved us all wrong by being a great leader to others.” If I wasn’t so angry and scared I might feel bad for the guy. He was a sad excuse of a wolf.

“This is MY birthright!”

“That’s not true and you’re too sick to see it. No one can change fate.” Again, the epiphany went right along with my own situation. Maybe it was the prospect of dying or staring evil in the eye, but I knew without a doubt I was wrong about Austin and I might even owe him an apology.

Logan’s hand clamped around my throat hard enough to make stars appear before my eyes. “Shh. This will all be over with soon.” He pushed me back into the tree before standing up. I groaned at the bark biting into my bare shoulders. I really hated this guy.

I twisted my wrists to test the rope and found it was bound tight and also laced with wolfsbane. Logan covered all his tracks. The panic riding up across the neurons of my nerves had nothing to do with fear for my own life. If Logan had his bases covered, what did he have planned for Austin? I felt like this was my fault for letting Logan manipulate me all this time.