Page 21 of Harvest Moon

“Then I’ll have one another time,” I promised. “As long as you’re off liquor and coffee, I will be too.”

That inspired another sigh. She looked at the woman. “Do you believe this guy? He isn’t even trying, and he makes me feel bad for being annoyed.”

The woman smiled, pulling out two mugs, and then a pitcher that smelled purely of apples. Fresh pressed apple cider. I took a sip as soon as she was done pouring, and oh, it was amazing.

“Mmh, that is so good,” I enthused. Claudia gave me a dubious glare.

A blond guy with kind eyes gave me a smile and set an empty mug down on the counter in front of the woman. “It’s great, right? The Grove Grove makes the best cider.”

“And you’re not biased at all,” the woman behind the bar said, automatically pouring him another.

Heh. The Grove Grove. That was awesome. Better yet, it was the Grove Grove of Grovetown.

I held up my mug, and he tapped his against it. “To the best cider I’ve ever had,” I announced, because he was totally right. The stuff Mom had gotten sometimes back home hadn’t compared.

“Suck up,” Claudia mumbled, taking a sip of her own. Then, grudgingly, she smiled. “I guess it’s okay.”

“So this is your cousin?” the girl behind the bar asked. When Claudia nodded, she set the pitcher down and reached a hand across the bar to shake mine. “Shiloh Morgan. Brook ate dinner with the family last week, and I’m told that’s because of you. You drink on the house.” She glanced over at the blond man, then back at me. “I mean, tonight everyone drinks free. Pack meeting and all that. But if I’m on duty, you always drink free.”

“Giving away my stock?” another woman asked, coming up behind her, smelling of alpha and laying a subtle proprietary hand on her hip.

“This is Brook’s new friend, Alexis. Claudia’s cousin,” Shiloh said. That changed the path of the conversation, and the woman turned a brilliant smile on me, also shaking my hand as Shiloh introduced us. “This is Talin. She owns the bar.”

“Nice to meet you.” When I finished with that, I looked back to Claudia. “Pack meeting?”

“Got to introduce new potential members to the whole pack, sweet pea,” she said, voice all sing-song.

And whoa, but that was me. I was maybe joining a real pack for the first time. Sure, we’d had a pack unit back home, both in the family and also, the werewolves in the area had been loosely affiliated with a single alpha. No one would have called it a real pack though. We hadn’t had meetings, or plans, or even worked together to protect each other the way real packs did.

This was a whole different thing.

Claudia grinned as she led me over to one of the only remaining empty tables. “Everyone gets a vote of course,” she told me, setting down her drink and then dropping into a chair. “But it’s mostly for show. If we let Skip Chadwick stick around, obviously we’ll let just about anybody in.”

A young man at a nearby table shot her a glare, but she blithely ignored it and took another drink of her cider. “I guess this stuff isn’t terrible.”

I snorted and didn’t bother responding. It was freaking amazing was what it was.

When Birch slid into a chair next to hers, he too had a mug of fresh cider instead of the hard cider most of the people in the bar had in their hands.

“Okay, I think everyone’s here,” the blond man from the bar said, his voice taking on an alpha note of command, so everyone could hear him over their own conversations. Immediately, the chatter died down, and everyone turned to him.

He was the pack alpha, Linden Grove. Huh. For some reason, I’d always imagined a pack alpha would be bigger and scarier than him. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad one. Or, I guess, if it mattered at all.

“There’s not a lot of business today, thankfully,” he said after the room went silent, pulling himself up onto a barstool to look at everyone. “I sent an email on the cameras we put up, so you’ve already seen that. I know, it’s not enough yet, but we’re still working. We’ll keep going until the pack is safe. That’s what matters most to all of us.”

There was a murmur of agreement, and behind Linden, Shiloh nodded so hard she looked like her head might come right off. It also seemed like she was about to strangle her poor bar rag. Clearly, this was important to her. I thought of Brook, and his quiet room, and the way he refused to sit with his back to a door or window. I both did and didn’t want to know what had happened to cause this fear in all these lovely people.

Maybe my pack.

Well, it seemed likely, didn’t it? I was already protective of all of them. Whatever had happened, we’d get Brook better. He was a great guy, and I was looking forward to spending more time with him. And I wouldn’t drag him out of his safe space, but I did hope he’d be willing to go for a walk with me at some point. Being inside all the time was stifling.

“—a couple of potential new pack members,” the alpha was saying when I tuned back in.

Wait, a couple?

He motioned to me. “First, there’s Claudia’s cousin. He’s come to stay with the Wilsons and keep Claudia away from coffee for the duration of her pregnancy.”

“Ooooooh,” a guy at one of the tables said. “Brave man. I vote we keep him.”

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