Page 61 of Harvest Moon

I felt like a total fish out of water, because I had literally no clue what they were talking about. I didn’t want to open my mouth and say that, because how embarrassing, but I also didn’t dare say anything else. What if I guessed and did it wrong?

Nope. Not doing that.

Mr. Hill made a tiny self-deprecating sound in the back of his throat. “Listen to us, going on about all this ancient history you couldn’t possibly know.” He glanced at the ceiling, like he was checking to see if someone was up there, then lowered his voice. “Ford was married to our daughter. Best son-in-law anyone could ask for. A good, solid man. Good to our Lily and one of the best workers we’ve ever had on the farm.”

“Like Ridge,” his wife said from her spot at the stove.

“Like Ridge,” he agreed. “But we lost Lily and the baby to the Condition.”

The whole world seemed to stop.

I know what the Condition is. I know what it can do, and how many ways it can kill us. But it had always been the tiniest bit distant. My mother had never been sick, nor had the scant handful of other omegas I’d ever met. We all lived in fear of it, but we didn’t live with the disease itself, only its malicious specter.

But these people. These very real people, standing right in front of me, had lost their daughter to it. A woman and baby, gone.

“Ford is an alpha?” I asked in a whisper, going on the assumption that Ford was upstairs and maybe he was best off not thinking about all this. They both nodded, and the expression on Mr. Hill’s face was bleak.

“We do what we can, but there’s not much anyone can do.” He dropped back into his seat and took a sip of his tea. “Just being an omega isn’t enough. He’s had love and lost it. Short of finding a new omega, I’m not sure anything will ever get back the smiling, happy Ford we used to know.”

I didn’t want to agree, but if anything, Mr. Hill’s opinion was optimistic. If he was so injured that they tiptoed around him even years later, the likelihood of recovering completely seemed almost negligible. On the other hand— “If there’s a pack in the world that can help with that, I think it’s this one. If there’s anything I can do, just let me know.”

Mrs. Hill came over, carrying a platter of meat, and set it in the middle of the table. “I’ll save him a plate in case he wants it later, but sometimes, this time of year, he just needs to run and howl, and maybe eat some rabbits.”

I tried hard not to cringe at the notion of eating an actual animal. I mean, yeah, technically the meat I was about to eat for dinner had once been that, but this was different.

I tried to imagine Birch, around Claudia’s birthday, running off into the woods to live and howl and eat unsuspecting small forest creatures.

Somehow, it was both impossible, and far, far too easy.

Claudia might die.

Yes, I should have realized it before. ButClaudia could die.

Mrs. Hill made an amazing sawmill gravy, and her mashed potatoes were velvety smooth perfection, but it was hard to taste any of it. All I could think about was my cousin and her baby.

34

Ridge

Something came over Lexis at dinner. It wasn’t obvious or anything—he still smiled at the Hills, answered all their questions and asked his in turn. Mrs. Barbara was excited to tell him about the flowers. She reached out and patted my hand when she said the whole thing had been my idea.

Even when I dropped my chin to stare down at my plate, and when heat rushed into my cheeks, the praise was still enough to set my shoulders back. Sure, it was just an idea, but it was my idea, and the Hills trusted me enough to try it out.

As always, Barbara’s cooking was delicious. I didn’t think Barbara or Henrik even noticed the tiny hints of Alexis’s reservation. But they hadn’t known him their whole lives. More than twenty years, and I knew what he was about.

All too fast, I started to worry I’d done something wrong. But when I played the conversation back through my head, I didn’t see anything that could’ve upset him. Not like this, anyway—this seemed like a deep well of something sad. Maybe it was thinking about Ford and Lily that’d gotten to him.

Or maybe he was just tired and I was worrying for nothing.

After we cleared the plates from the table, Barbara shooed us off of helping with the dishes.

“We could go for a walk?” I suggested. I didn’t much want to bother Ford by going upstairs, especially when I had a guest and he was feeling so lonely. “I can show you where I’ll plant the bulbs for some of the flowers.”

Alexis let me bring him outside. It wasn’t too chilly, even in September, but the sun was already down. As wolves, seeing wouldn’t have been any kind of problem at all, but with the moon getting fuller and the stars shining bright, it wasn’t too bad anyway.

I brought him over to the flower garden, a raised bed with soft dark earth. “It’s not much now, but once we get some hives... in the springtime, the flower’s’ll be real nice.”

“It’s great, Ridge. Really.”

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