Page 62 of Black Moon

The air when I got on the sidewalk was too damn hot.Everythingwas too damn hot. It was like my heat, only worse. This was a swell of shame. I felt—I felt so fucking ridiculous.

I’d come out here, thinking I’d get a scoop. I’d write my story, and sure, Skip had been interested the whole time, but I’d always prided myself on being able to handle alphas.

Now, I felt used and empty and—and fucking silly. And Ihatedthat.

I marched back to the clinic, clinging to my fury because it’d keep the tears at bay.

“You absolute, utter bastard,” I hissed at Linden when I dropped the bag of food on his desk.

That brought him up short. He straightened in his office chair and tipped his head to the side. “Okay, start again.”

Any other alpha uttering that command would’ve gotten my back up, but Linden was sitting there with his hands folded on his light sweater vest, leaning back, the very picture of patience.

And damn it, I wanted to fight!

With narrowed eyes, I planted my hands on his desk and leaned across it with a low growl. “I am not going to be a political pawn for you or fucking Skip Chadwick or anyone else. Ever. So if that’s what you’re after, tough luck. You’re not getting clout from me.”

The curtains of Brook’s bed hissed, and I finally remembered we weren’t alone. Skye was staring right at us, fiddling with his glasses. Brook got off the bed.

“I think we’re going to take a walk,” Brook said. “Get some fresh air.”

Skye stopped to shake Claudia’s arm. She was still snoozing on the second bed, and when she rolled over, she was obviously groggy. Still, she looked over at us, then back at Brook, and all three omegas slipped toward the door.

Skye hung back, grimaced, and snuck over. “Sorry. I’m just gonna—” He leaned between us and snatched the bag of food off the desk. “Kinda hungry, and seems like you two haveloadsto discuss. So...bye!”

He darted outside after the others, leaving us in a silent clinic to fume at each other.

If nothing else, at least my tantrum was going to get Brook out of the clinic for some fresh air—that’s what I told myself as guilt began to turn my cheeks hot.

“Okay, well, clearly you’re upset. I take it you ran into Skip at the grill. What did he say?”

I straightened off the desk and crossed my arms. Linden simply watched and waited, and I hated him a little for not yelling back at me.

“He said you’re using me to get the alpha position. Me being—me being Senator Doherty’s son, and an omega, brings a fair amount of clout with it. That you’re—”

Weirdly, the words stuck in my throat. When I caught my breath, I was beginning to realize that was because they didn’t fit the facts. Nothing I’d seen of Linden suggested he was the kind of person to use anyone.

Still, he found the words for me.

“He said I was using you, that we had sex so I could lock in a position with the pack?”

I glared harder at the amusement playing around his lips, glittering in his stormy gray eyes.

“You wouldn’t be the first to think they could use me like that,” I snapped. This wasn’t silly. Even if it wasn’t true, my fears were valid. They’d been reinforced by decades of moving around in Washington society, placed for the express purpose of furthering my father’s political agenda. Or, sometimes, targeted by alphas who thought they’d get a leg up in the world with a Doherty connection.

Linden began to frown. “Of course.”

He got out of his seat, and I swallowed hard as he came around the desk to stand right beside me.

When he ran his hand down my arm, my breath caught. He could, I supposed, keep his arm, no matter where he put his hands on me.

“I suspect you’re all too used to being foisted around and shown off. I am sorry if anything I’ve done made you feel like that was my intention. It wasn’t.”

Thing was, he hadn’t actually done anything like that. He’d been all too quick to give me credit for saving Brook in front of his pack—but then, if he was an alpha with a hero on his arm, he’d still get credit for what I did. Right?

“Then...why do you want me to stay in Grovetown?”

He licked his lips. “For Brook, like I said. I guess we haven’t really had much of a chance to talk about what we want,” Linden said. But his hands were already skimming down my back, his palms coming to rest in the curve just above my ass. The last thing I was thinking about was talking.

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