Page 77 of Harvest Moon

We weren’t already doomed to become another cog in a big corporate machine.

“They wouldn’t change anything right away,” Linden explained hastily. “You could still keep your job—work for Sterling. We’d get that in writing.”

But I knew how that went, what industrialized farming for a corporation that big looked like. It meant harsh pesticides and dyes, because what the food looked like was more important than how nutritious it was. It meant we’d be growing for Sterling to ship food off to god knew where, pump it full of preservatives, and give Ambrosia Grocery stuff grown somewhere else.

I wouldn’t be working for the pack anymore. I’d be working for Sterling.

Without thinking, I shook my head. “Don’t. Don’t do that. I’ll take care of the farm. You can count on me. I won’t go anywhere. I swear.”

Claudia’s pretty little face screwed up with a frown. “I know we can count on you, Ridge, but it’s a lot for anyone to handle. And you’re so young.”

“I—”

I’d come out there to get something for Alexis to eat, but I couldn’t stand being in front of them long enough to prepare anything more nutritious than a bunch of washed grapes. I grabbed some granola bars from a box on the counter.

“I gotta get back to Lex.”

My arms felt numb, my hands heavy, but I had to get away from them, so I trudged back down the hallway.

Alexis woke up, blinking sleepy eyes and smiling when I shut the door behind me. I dropped back and my shoulders hit the wood hard.

He sat up, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. “You okay?”

I looked into his bright, concerned eyes, and every part of me wanted to tuck tail and run—go somewhere Sterling didn’t have a hold. But that’d always caused me more problems than it solved, and if I wanted Lex to trust me, I had to trust him.

“I don’t know, Lex,” I admitted, shoulders sagging. “I’m starting to think I’m cursed.”

45

Alexis

Ridge sat heavily on the bed beside me, head down and posture utterly defeated, a bowl of grapes clutched to his chest as tight as if they were the last grapes in the world.

My mind whirled with what could have gone wrong. If something had happened to Claudia, someone would have told me, right? Had Ridge gotten in trouble, taking too much time off to spend with me? Had I made him lose his job?

No, there was no reason to speculate. He was right there, and we werecommunicatingnow. All I had to do was ask what was going on, and he’d tell me. Hopefully.

“Cursed?” I asked, sitting up and draping myself against his arm. “The last few days haven’t been that bad, have they?”

The words had been intended more to break the tension than anything else, but the smile he offered was weak. “Spending time with you has been the best, Lex. I just... They’re gonna sell the farm to Sterling.”

“What?” My voice came out sharper than I intended, but seriously, what the heck? “The Hills? Why would they do that? They don’t want to buy an RV and travel, do they? They didn’t seem the type.”

On the other hand, Ridge’s pa hadn’t seemed the type either, but he’d not only done it, he’d left his own son high and dry in the process. The Hills weren’t even related to Ridge by blood, so what reason did they have to be more loyal than his own family?

“The farm is in trust for the pack, so the alpha’s got a say. Sterling’s everywhere I go,” he mumbled. “Before long, they’ll own every farm in the state. The alpha says they’ll keep me on, but that’s no kind of job. Spraying plants with chemicals and growing them to be pretty instead of good. It’s not what I want to be. It’s not why I spent all that time at school.”

He looked more and more downtrodden as he went on, and his voice broke on the last. He squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed them hard with one hand. While I’d never seen him do it before, I suspected it was because he was trying not to cry.

They had made Ridge cry.

I narrowed my eyes and pursed my lips. “Claudia told you this? Birch?”

“Linden,” he corrected. “They’re out in the dining room talking about it right now.”

I grabbed three grapes and stuffed them all in my mouth, pushing myself up out of the bed. My legs wobbled under me, but held up.

I was still dizzy from the fading remnants of heat, but this wasn’t going to wait for me to feel better, and it was way more important than how I felt. I opened a drawer and snatched out a ratty pair of sweats, leaning against the dresser to pull them on.

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