Page 61 of Black Moon

But nope, there he was at the counter, a small cluster of male betas around him, sipping a milkshake and talking about change.

I walked straight to the counter where the register was and placed our order with Wanda—complete with whole-wheat bread for Skye. She was nice as ever, but down the bar, Skip raised his head. He sniffed so loud I could hear it from the other side of the restaurant.

Then, his eyes narrowed on me.

I tried to avoid looking right at him. It wasn’t like I was embarrassed to walk around Grovetown smelling like Linden. Or smelling like anyone else.

It was my business, after all. And, well, Linden really had been the perfect alpha to spend my heat with.

No doubt, Skip didn’t like that one bit. Before I had a chance to slip away, he’d gotten up and stalked down the counter toward me.

“A word?” He reached out and grabbed my arm.

Holy hell, there was nothing I hated quite as much as being manhandled in front of other wolves. I grinned at Skip’s friends as we passed, and he dragged me to the back hall where the restrooms were.

Then, he rounded on me.

“You fucked the enemy,” he accused, his eyes flashing with anger.

I scowled at him. “I slept with Linden Grove, yeah. Not sure he’s really ‘the enemy.’” No point hiding that. I smelled like I’d moved into his room, and while we hadn’t discussed that—and I hadn’t gotten the suitcase full of my things out of the car, even—I wouldn’t say no if Linden offered me a place to stay.

Like, in his bed. Specifically.

Or just in the house, though that’d come with a dose of disappointment for sure.

Frankly, I was more concerned about that impending conversation than the way Skip’s face had gone white with rage, the sudden wrinkles in his forehead as his eyebrows crept up that revealed he wasn’t as youthful as he wanted everyone to think.

His fingers dug into my arm, snapping my attention back to him, and I glared. “First, I don’t see how what I do, or did, or would do again with Linden is any of your business. Second, if you don’t remove your hand from me right this second, I’m going to gnaw it off and beat you with the bloody stump.”

His nose wrinkled, but his grip loosened and I didn’t waste a second tearing my arm out of his grip.

“That’s pretty gross, Colt.”

He said it in that same tone Chase used when he was disappointed with me for being untoward. The rules for omegas were different, obviously, and I ought not be crass. Locker-room talk was, after all, the purview ofrealmen.

A rictus smile curved my lips. I pinched my fingers together and tapped his chest with each word that followed. “You can go and fuck yourself.”

I turned back down the hall, eager to get back into the main dining room where there would at least be an audience to Skip following me around. Clearly, he wasn’t willing to act out of line where his mother could see him misbehaving.

And I’d have absolutely no problem telling him to choke on his own cock in front of his asshole friends—not for one second.

Only Skip wasn’t a complete fool, or at least he had me pegged. He said the one thing that’d bring me up short.

“It’s just pathetic, you know?” When I turned back toward him, he’d crossed his arms and was leaning on the wall, crinkling papers stuck to a community cork board between the two restroom doors. “Like, I brought you out here thinking it’d be good to have another omega in the pack. And, well—” He waved a hand at me, from my head to my feet. “The only omega kid of Senator Doherty? Big win for the pack.”

My molars ached from grinding against each other.

Skip pushed off the wall with his shoulder and walked toward me. “And here we are, trying to look after the future of our pack, our affairs, and you get caught up in it. Played for a fool. I’d have taken you, but I honestly didn’t think Linden Grove had it in him to use you like that. Screw you good, leave you panting like a bitch after his dick, just so he could be the next pack alpha.”

He raised his hand and touched my cheek, his thumb digging into the corner of my mouth as he tilted my head back.

“I bet you were good for him, weren’t you? Little wild thing you are.”

I snarled, and an uneasy voice came up at the edge of the hall.

“Hon?” Wanda said. “Your order’s ready.”

I spun without a word, grabbed the bag off the counter, and escaped as fast as I could.

---