Page 78 of Black Moon

I stared at him, but he just smirked. Of course Linden would already know what I wanted first thing in the morning. In all likelihood, he knew just how I’d take it too.

“Coffee, please.”

Linden took a few minutes to put the pot on and heat up the kettle. When it was ready, he came over and asked me softly, “You need any help?”

The eggs were already sizzling in the enormous pan, the bacon in the oven.

I shook my head. “Not much left to do. You two talk.”

“Okay.”

He set a mug of coffee and the carton of half-and-half in front of Zeke. The older wolf huffed as he prepared his coffee, his spoon clinking against the edges of the mug as he stirred too hard.

“What’s going on?” Linden asked, concern pulling his brow down and wrinkling his forehead.

Zeke sniffed, staring into his mug without taking a sip. “It’s Brook.”

“What’s the matter?”

“He’s missing.”

Linden pushed his tea back, his chair scratching across the floor. Already, he was prepared to throw himself into action to help Brook, but Zeke wasn’t acting like it was dire.

No, he reached out and settled his hand on top of Linden’s to calm him down.

“There’s no scent of the Reids in town, nothing near the Morgans’ place. Everything seems normal. Rhonda called this morning though, so I went over. Little Harmony said he’s been having a rough time. Real sad, you know? And this morning, he was just gone. No note or nothing.”

“They couldn’t pick up his scent?” Linden asked. “Follow his trail?”

Though he was still sitting, I thought it was only because Zeke was holding his hand down on the table. His whole body’d gone rigid.

“Harmony followed him for a while, but she lost it. Nobody knows where to look. They checked at the garage—”

Linden was practically vibrating with tension. “We need to get him back.”

“I know, Linden. But it’s not as easy as all that. Brook’s hurting. He needs...Hell if I know what he needs after all he’s been through, but I’m not sure we can give it to him.”

Zeke was talking to the one wolf in the world who’d figure it out, though. Linden wasn’t going to leave Brook to suffering and sadness when he could help it, and as an alpha, he’d never give up on one of his pack.

I took the bacon out of the oven and put it all on a plate with a paper towel. With that, and the bowl of eggs, I came over and set the feast in front of the two alphas.

Dragging my fingers across his skin lightly, I touched Linden’s neck. He took a slow, deep, shaking breath, but when he let it out, he relaxed and gripped my fingers.

“Before you go anywhere, you should eat something. Going to need to keep your strength up if you’re going on a hunt.”

41

Linden

The bacon sat heavy in my stomach as I planned.

People were already out looking, but this was Brook. He was one of the smartest people I knew, and if he didn’t want to be found, it probably wasn’t going to happen. Certainly, no one was going to stumble across him by accident, no matter how hard they searched. There was simply too much world out there to hide in, and Brook had lived in Grovetown all his life.

Worse, he’d dated my brother for years, and Aspen had probably taken him everywhere in the whole valley. If there was a quiet, private spot within twenty miles of Grovetown, Aspen knew it. So Brook knew it.

And that was it.

The Grovetown View.

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