Kids from One Alpha

Chapter 49: Reminiscing

Viennese masks of the most intricate design were on display in the hotel lobby. They were bright colors, decorated with glitter and feathers. Logan couldn’t pull his eyes away. The masks were absolutely gorgeous! “Look at how beautiful they are,” Logan muttered. Serena was standing beside him. The moment he’d pointed out the masks, she had gone rigid. He didn’t pretend to understand what plagued her. The masks brought him back to the masquerade party he’d attended years ago. He’d been new to his role as Alpha. Getting so dressed up and wearing the mask had been a good way for him to pretend he wasn’t Alpha that night. “They are beautiful,” Serena admitted, pulling him from his thoughts. “Human world art is incredibly unique and versatile.” “Really?” Logan asked, pulling his eyes from the masks to look at Serena. She nodded. “Art from all cultures is just so different,” she said. “Are you interested in art?” “I’d consider myself culturally curious,” he said. He looked back at the masks. “Why are masks so fascinating to you?” Serena asked him. Logan shrugged. “There was a masked party several years back for the pack graduates,” he explained. “It was right after I became Alpha, and I was excited to get to hide myself so no one would know who I was.” Serena giggled. Logan caught the nervous hitch in the sound of her laughter. “Were you there?” he asked. “If memory serves, it would have been around the time you finished your undergraduate program.” He watched Serena’s eyes shift back and forth nervously. Between her secret phone calls to the human medical lab and her discomfort about the party, Logan felt like he was closing in on the part of her past that she was so desperate to conceal from him. “I was there,” she said. “It was a fun night, lots of alcohol.” She chuckled again. Logan smirked. “I remember the alcohol,” he said. “The rest is a bit of a blur.” He creased his brow, looking back at the masks. There was a look in Serena’s face that he couldn’t decipher. It looked like a mixture of relief and also some kind of pain. “I don’t think many in attendance remember that night,” she said. “There was one thing,” Logan said, eyes roaming over a mask that reminded him slightly of the female he’d danced with.

“What’s that?” Serena asked. He glanced at her, and she was chewing nervously on her lower lip. : Reminiscing “A woman,” he said. “I never saw her face, but she was fun. We danced, we ran through the woods. Despite the alcohol, that was at least memorable.” Serena laughed. “I’m glad you had a night worth remembering,” she said. She didn’t speak to her own experience at the part and Logan didn’t pry. As much as he wanted to know about her secrets and her past, he knew that pushing her would cause her to clam up. He was the same way. He knew he’d been cold to her since he found out she’d gone on a date with Carson. He was still too confused about what he was feeling towards it to confront it. Logan knew he’d be silly to think Serena hadn’t noticed his change in behavior towards her. Fortunately, she hadn’t asked. She hadn’t bombarded him with questions or even called him out on the behavior change. It was a pleasant change to what he was used to. Being in the city with the kids again, he was reminded how much he adored them. Though, he wasn’t completely naïve to Serena’s subtle comments about what it took to be a parent. That was another issue he had to confront. He was putting it off until they returned to the pack.

planned for us tomorrow.” He chuckled and headed to the elevator. “Logan,” Serena called out to him. Her heart thudded in her chest. She had the overwhelming desire to tell him that it was her he’d spent the night with at the masquerade party. “Yea?” Logan asked, turning back to her. Serena sighed. “The party…” she trailed off. Telling him would raise too many questions. She still didn’t have the DNA results back on whether or not he was the twins’ father, so she didn’t want to say anything that would lead him to think he was their father. “What about it?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. Serena smiled. “I had a really great time, too,” she said. Logan smiled. It was all she could say without giving too much away. She didn’t want to act like the night was forgettable, because when the time came for her to tell him, she didn’t want him to

ride into the city. Again, she wanted to ask him about his change in behavior, but she didn’t want to  Reminiscing break the comfort between them. They were supposed to be going out to have a nice day with the kids the next day, and if Logan was in a mood, she didn’t want that to interfere with their fun time. “Serena, you know you are more than capable of handing the kind of business deal brokered today,” Logan said, pulling her from her thoughts. “I don’t know, Logan, you said everything right. I don’t know the business that well,” she said with a shrug. Logan chuckled. “I think you underestimate your strengths,” he said, angling himself towards her slightly. Serena looked at him and then back at the elevator doors. “What do you mean?” she asked. “You lived in the human world for years, away from your pack and family. You’ve been a single mother to twins while also going through medical school. Now you’re working as a doctor and still a single mother. You’ve had to put up with the drama I’ve introduced into your life.” Logan sighed, shaking his head. Serena smiled at his praise. It was more than she thought she’d get from him, given the strange way he’d been behaving the past few days. “The strength, resilience, and skills you’ve learned through all that, not to mention the emergency medical situations you’ve worked through, have prepared you for this kind of job,” he went on. “You won’t trust that until you have to stand on your own

that why you put me in charge of this renovation project?” she asked, turning and raising an eyebrow at him. “One of the reasons,” he admitted with a chuckle. Serena shook

She hoped that didn’t mean he suspected that it was her. Nothing he’d said would indicate that, but neither of them had spoken about the party before. She wondered what it meant that they encountered the masks together in such a unique set of circumstances, opening the door to talk about the party. Serena laid in bed with the twins, thinking about the other compliments that Logan had given her. She was certain there was some truth to it, that she just didn’t trust herself yet. The medical field, in the human world, was primarily male dominated, though, and she knew she‘d always encounter resistance. It seemed like Logan was telling her