Page 82 of Black Moon

“Harmony,” Claudia cut in, “I don’t want you going anywhere near the Reids.”

The young woman rounded on Claudia, her bright blue eyes narrowed and flashing. “You’re not in charge yet. The pack hasn’t voted. You!”

Glaring at Claudia had made Harmony Morgan look in my general vicinity, and fuck. Now, she was staring right at me, pointing her finger at my face. Despite looking as much like a modern Snow White as Brook and Shiloh did, she was a hell of a lot less terrifying as a wolf.

“You’re coming with me.”

“What?” I blinked, looking between the young woman and Claudia, whose lips had disappeared in a thin line.

“You found him last time. So you and I are going to go looking for my brother.”

Her tone didn’t leave much room for compromise, but when I caught Claudia’s eye, she gave me a discreet nod.

I doubted she had any intention of sending me after Brook again—the first time I’d found him had been an absolute fluke—but if it’d dull some of Harmony’s ire and let everyone else do their jobs, I could absolutely keep her company while she raged against the machine. Or the world. Or whatever she wanted to rage against.

“Sure! I can help.”

I smiled at her, which only won me a narrow-eyed glare. She walked out of the bar and I followed her, blinking into the sunlight.

“Any idea where to start?” I asked when we got outside.

“If Idid, we wouldn’t need a search party, would we?”

I couldn’t blame her for her bad mood—she was worried about her brother. I liked Chase a hell of a lot less than I liked Brook, but knowing he was hurt or in trouble still would’ve twisted me up bad.

But while we walked through town, checking out parks, peeking into Ambrosia Grocery and Chadwick’s Grille, we didn’t make for pleasant company. She was scowling and pissed, and for once, I kept my mouth shut.

We must’ve been searching for the better part of an hour when my phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out and, for the first time since Zeke had shown up at Grove House’s door, I could breathe deep.

“Claudia says Linden found him. She wants us to come back.”

“Fuck that entirely. We’re going after them.”

Linden could take care of them both, see Brook safely home, but there was a steeliness in Harmony’s eyes that I couldn’t argue with. It must’ve been impossible to sit there and know he was in trouble, even worse when there wasn’t a real threat. Brook was hurt, and she wanted to do something. Who the hell was I to tell her not to try and help her family?

“He’ll bring Brook back,” I promised.

“No. You can find them, right? I mean, you basically reek of Alpha Grove, so...find your mate.”

For the second time in one day, someone had mistaken me for Linden’s mate. And again, I didn’t correct them. It felt wrong to even think the words, “I’m not his mate,” much less say them out loud.

I sighed. “Fine.”

I shoved my phone into her hands, pulled Linden’s sweater off, and then my dark jeans. Harmony might want to have words with her brother, but on two legs, there was no way I’d pick out Linden’s scent and follow it who knew where in a town I’d been in for only a couple weeks. I needed to shift and give into the gut-deep sense that my wolf could find him anywhere.

Harmony held out her hands and took the bundle of my clothes and phone.

“That sweater’s hand knit,” I warned. “I don’t want to mess it up.”

She squeezed the bundle tight, and weirdly, there must’ve been some comfort in that—something knit by pack hands, belonging to the alpha, even if the fabric had started to smell like me.

“I’ve got you. So make with the shifty-shifty.”

Weirdly, it felt good to let my fur shiver over my skin, to fall on four legs and narrow my thoughts to scents and sensations all around me.

Truth told, though, the whole of Grovetown smelled like apples and pack, and it was hard to pick a fresh Linden trail out from an old one.

It wasn’t until I felt a shiver run down my spine, a sudden clarity, that I took off running toward the woods outside of town. There were trails up there, places where a tourist could spend their time enjoying nature when they were done with apple picking. I’d heard a little about them, looked through the pamphlets in the lobby of the motel that first night I’d stayed there, trying to get a better feel for the place.

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