Page 66 of Black Moon

When the sun went down, Claudia slipped out and headed home. Skye, after spending the entire day in the clinic, finally unhooked that video game thingy. Brook was standing at the end of his bed, biting his lip.

“You okay?” Linden asked, touching his shoulder, his hand a gentle weight.

That snapped Brook out of it. He looked up at the alpha and frowned.

“Yeah. I think I’ll...I’ll go home tonight.” Brook sounded a little lost. Heck, he looked a little lost.

I could handle lost. “We’ll walk you,” I offered, standing up and stretching my arms above my head. I grabbed the bag of discarded sandwich wrappings and to-go soup bowls from Linden’s desk. No sense leaving food waste where he’d have to take it out later. “I could use the exercise.”

Brook took a slow, deep breath. When he smiled, it looked forced. “Okay. That’d be great.”

He seemed so tense, I’d bet anything that he was thinking of himself as an imposition. I didn’t think it’d do any good to tell him that Linden and I and every single Grove wolf were just so damn glad he was safe that he could’ve asked us to leap for the moon, try and drag it out of the sky, and at least some of us would’ve made an attempt.

He’d have to figure that out for himself, and it was going to take time.

It wasn’t a long walk to the Morgans’ place—just about a street over. When we got to the walk that went up to their front door, I took the balled up trash and held it out.

“Hey, Brook, you mind chucking this out for me so I don’t have to carry it back?”

He stopped, chewing his lip and staring down at the paper bag of empty soup cups and sandwich wrappers.

“Sure. No problem.”

He took the trash, and his shoulders sank a little as he turned toward his family home. I wanted to hug him, tell him it was going to be okay, but really, I didn’t think that’d help more than taking a risk, over and over, and seeing that the world didn’t fall apart.

“We’ll see you soon. You have my number,” Linden said.

He touched Brook’s shoulder.

Brook steeled himself and walked up the way as the front door opened to let him in.

“What was that about, with the bag?” Linden asked me once we’d seen the door close behind Brook. The Morgans were probably locking their house up tight now.

No doubt, Linden would’ve been fine carrying it around if it’d really bothered me that much. He wouldn’t have wanted to ask even more of Brook, but I thought he could stand chucking some trash away.

I shrugged. “You ever felt like your very existence was putting somebody else out?”

“Honestly?” Linden scowled, searching his memory. “Not exactly. Well, not the way that...” As he trailed off, he looked toward Brook’s front door again.

“Not the way Brook does right now?”

He nodded.

“Right,” I said. “Well, sometimes, I think inconveniencing people a little when they feel like they’re taking a lot gives them the chance to feel like the playing field’s even again. I don’t mean it to be manipulative, but we did a thing for Brook—walked him home—and he did a thing for us by throwing away that trash. Even Stevens.”

Linden’s cheeks hollowed out a little as he stared at me. “Smart,” he admitted after a second, turning away from the Morgans’ house. “I hope he doesn’t feel like he owes anyone. If anything, we all owe him.”

I shrugged, following after him. A couple quick steps in, I slipped my hand into his and ignored the little flutter of my heart when he spread his fingers and laced them through mine.

The Morgans’ place wasn’t far from Linden’s house, but when we got to the sidewalk just outside the decorative iron fence, I slowed to a stop.

“My big suitcase is still in my car.”

“The car parked at the clinic?” Linden turned toward me with a little frown.

I nodded. “Yeah. I, um, figured my heat would be complicated enough without basically moving into your room before discussing it with clear heads.”

“Do you want to? Move into my room, I mean.”

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