Switched Bride, True Luna - Chapter 14: Chapter 14

Emily
All we did was stand there, locked in each other’s gazes. With Logan standing a step below me, we were eye to eye for the first time.
The heat between us was intense. The closeness of our faces made our breaths mingle.
Whenever we were together, and especially when we were alone, the air felt as though it were charged. There was something between us, something neither of us had ever admitted.
The thought made my heart skip a bit. Such heat between two people was not normal.
“I thought you only cared about your position as heir,” I said, breaking the silence.
Logan scoffed. “I do care, but not so much that I would abandon my fiancée.”
“Why not?” I asked. I clutched the fabric of my dress, preparing for the answer.
“This is no more than a small obstacle, Emily. That’ll happen from time to time. All we have to do is keep working together, and we will find a way to tackle it.”
When he looked at me with those steely eyes, I felt weak in the knees. He gave me feelings I didn’t know how to explain. No one had ever made me feel like this before.
As I learned more about him and the man he really was, those feelings only grew.
Michael, even, had said time and time again that he refused to mark me because of my wolf dormancy.
That was the last step we had to take before we got married. Marking was an intimate but important part of being a werewolf. It was the moment mates had to create the ultimate connection between them and show the rest of the world that they were yours.
Because my wolf was dormant, I was incomplete. That meant, to Michael at least, that I wasn’t worth the time and effort of marking.
That’s why it was so hard for me to Logan accepting me wholly and truly as his Luna.
“You’re right, I’m sorry. We can do this together,” I said quietly. Logan brought one foot up to the step I was on, and his leg brushed against the fabric of my dress. I almost shivered as a wave of heat washed over me.
“Don’t apologize. Just make it up to me,” he said. He leaned forward, our noses a few inches from each other.
My face grew hot as I closed my eyes, and I waited for a kiss.
But a kiss didn’t come. When I opened my eyes, Logan was smiling playfully at me.
“Would you fix my tie?” he asked. His voice was low, near a whisper.
I had really expected a kiss, but all he wanted was his tie fixed. Why did I think he’d ask for a kiss? How embarrassing…
I reached out to him and carefully took the soft material of his bowtie into my hands. I focused as I tried to get it nice and straight.
But being so close to Logan was making my hands shake ever so slightly. It wasn’t nerves so much as butterflies. My fingers brushed against the skin of his necks, and little tingles shot through my fingers all the way down to my toes.
I was careful to avoid his eye, afraid of what might happen if we met each other’s gaze. Although I’m not entirely certain what I thought that was.
When I was done, Logan reached up and touched the evergreen material of his tie. As his fingers ran over it, a smile crept slowly over lips.
“Are you doing this on purpose to get back at me?” he asked. His bow tie was crooked and wrinkled in all the wrong places.
“I’ll try again,” I said, taking a step down to join him. I didn’t want him to look bad for the ballroom of Alphas waiting for us. After what he’d done for me already, I didn’t want to see him embarrassed on my account.
To my surprise, Logan stepped down on the stairs, getting further away from me.
“Nope, you already tied it, so it’s stuck like this now,” he said. He strode the rest of the way down the stairs, only to be met by a maid.
“Alpha Duke,” said the maid, “it seems your bowtie is a little off. Would you like me to fix it for you?”
The cold sting of jealousy ran through me. The idea of another woman touching Logan was almost enough to make my blood turn to ice. Especially when it was to make up for something I had done.
I bit my lip to stop that uncomfortable new feeling.
Logan didn’t seem to notice the blonde maid’s curves as he turned his eyes to me. A wry smile curled his lips for a moment.
“It’s fine like it is,” he said. The low tone of his voice sent an electrifying shiver down my spine. He continued back out to the ballroom, and I hurried to catch up to him.
My ears burned from not only embarrassment, but the unbearable heat in the air.
The next day, media outlets buzzed with the news from the banquet. The outlets that reported the most popular news though were talking about me.
They claimed that I was a dormant wolf that was unable to control my emotions. Every one of them mentioned that I was not suitable to be Luna.
At first, I was embarrassed and outraged. I wanted to move forward with my life, and with Logan, but my inadequacies kept coming back to haunt us.
As I looked over the news reports, though, I started to notice a pattern. The media that portrayed me in a negative light were all ones that my family had a connection with.
They were trying to sabotage my life and my relationship yet again.
The embarrassment disappeared and was replaced with anger. All I wanted was to live peacefully and to overcome my wolf dormancy on my own. Then I remembered what Logan said.
Nothing was better than revenge.
If my family thought they were going to destroy me, they were wrong. I would face them, but on my own terms.
I spent the day contacting my own media friends. If I was going to do this right, I needed help. I would fight the media with the media.
The best thing I could do was to be myself in a way that I wanted to be. What I cared about was helping others, and the others that needed help the most were those just like me. The disadvantaged wolves who received unfair treatment needed the attention they deserved.
What I wanted to do was find a way to bring this unfair treatment to light. This included others in wolf dormancy, those with wolf of disabilities, and the Omegas who faced treatment they didn’t deserve.
I would find a way to personally interview anyone who was affected and make reports on their situations. Although I may get some resistance from the public, ultimately this was a matter of great importance to me and everyone else.
It also gave me a chance to use my wolf dormancy as a strength. Now that it was out there in the world, I wouldn’t deny it. Instead, I would use it to my advantage.
I made sure to submit my reports anonymously to start. Getting the word out was the first step in my ultimate plan. I don’t need the credit.
By the next day, news media outlets were reporting my articles. After they were out, I knew it was time to discuss the rest of my plan with Logan.
When I went to meet with him, Logan was in his office. When I walked up to the door, I overheard a conversation I never thought I would hear.
“Instead of shying away from her wolf dormancy,” Logan said, “let’s embrace it.”
With all due respect, Alpha, how can you do that? All anyone will see is negative. I don’t see a benefit to admitting your fiancée is a wolf in dormancy.” This voice was one that I did not recognize.
“There are a lot of misconceptions of wolf dormancy. What we’re going to do is bring forward the truth. A wolf being dormant does not mean that they are less of a person.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Do some research into wolf dormancy and publish an article on what comes from it, who it affects, and how it changes the life of a wolf.”
Logan had to have been talking to a reporter, and he was doing something similar to what I was doing. We were trying to change the way people looked at wolves in dormancy.
I placed my hand on my heart as it felt like it was being squeezed.
Logan has paid more attention to me than I imagined.