Page 83 of Black Moon

But it wasn’t like I was an especially outdoorsy guy. Without a pack run, there was no damn way I was going to dash for the woods on my own. Now, the scent of pack and mate, and a warm, full feeling in my chest pushed my paws into the dirt and I leapt for the wilderness, for Linden out there with Brook.

It took effort to hang back, my tongue hanging out and nose flared, to let Harmony catch up. Harmony followed behind clutching my clothes, and by the time we got to the edge of the woods, I—

I lost it, the feel of my mate out there waiting for me.

For a few minutes, I whined, circling around. There wasn’t a scent to pick up so much as a feeling, and my wolf whined that I’d lost track of it.

Need him, it demanded.Need my alpha.

Right then, I was hit with such a wave of longing that I didn’t give a damn how scary needing somebody would be to my logical brain. It was all instinct, and the closest I could get to Linden was the sweater gripped in Harmony Morgan’s hands.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, but all I could do was look balefully up at her.

Morgan. He was with Brook Morgan. And...there!They’d driven through town, the sense of wheels and metal not making sense to my wolf. But the second Linden’s feet hit the ground in Grovetown proper, I felt him and took off toward the residential district, Harmony sprinting behind me.We got to the Morgan house just in time for Linden to pull his SUV up out front.

As soon as Brook opened the passenger door, Ginger barreled out. She sniffed my shoulder, my side, her tail wagging. I snorted when she sniffed my butt.

We rounded each other in an eager circle, one way then the other, while Harmony threw herself into Brook’s arms.

She didn’t say how worried she was—Brook knew that. Even Ginger knew. There was no sense putting all that weight on anyone.

Instead, when she leaned back, she scowled up at him.

“I want to go to Busch Gardens next week,” she said out of the blue. “Throw myself on a roller coaster. Eat an entire freaking funnel cake. You in?”

Brook looked confused, his dark brow furrowed, but after a second, he nodded. “That sounds good. We could do that.”

Harmony nodded stubbornly.

Linden came over then, and his fingers traced the shape of my ear. I turned into him, bumping my snout into his thigh as he scratched the top of my head.

“Thanks, Alpha,” Harmony said.

Brook just nodded. His eyes were ringed with red, like he’d been crying.

Almost as an afterthought, Harmony passed Linden my bundle of clothes.

After a couple soft words my wolf didn’t care about with Linden’s fingers scratching my head, the Morgans went inside, and Linden was left scowling down at the sweater. Or something.

I didn’t like that one bit. Something was upsetting him, when we could be running and playing instead. Complete bullshit.

I sniffed again and pushed against his leg.

“You’ve got a bunch of missed calls,” Linden informed me, holding out my phone. “Do you really have your father listed in your phone as Senator Doherty?”

I barked, trotting away and across the yard toward Grove House. Maybe I didn’t think as clearly as a wolf, but I knew one thing for damn certain—no part of me, beast or man, wanted to talk to my father right then.

* * *

Unfortunately, I couldn’t ignore the Doherty family obligation forever. After shifting back, letting Linden make us a late lunch of sandwiches, I knew I needed to do something. Didn’t hurt that thinking about my family could give me something to do other than obsess over why my wolf was drawn so strongly to Linden, like we were mates or something.

Nope. No one needed to explore that further yet. Certainly not me.

A lifetime of this nonsense had taught me how to circumnavigate my dad’s domineering personality, though. I needed Chase on my side, or better yet, Chase to just do all the talking for me.

Dad tended to take things more seriously when they were spoken by an alpha.

“I should call my brother,” I said slowly, sitting at the kitchen island, once again wrapped in Linden’s warm sweater, the wolf in my head practically purring at the smell of mate. Okay, and growling at being compared to a cat.

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