Page 86 of Harvest Moon

I was pretty sure Linden spoke for all of us when he sighed and said, “Fuck.”

52

Ridge

The ride back to Grovetown was quiet, all of us carrying heavy worries that were too big to fix right away. I was glad when Claudia slipped into the front seat without a word, leaving me to sit in the back with Alexis. It felt good to hold his hand—the only thing that was keeping my wolf from snarling, taking every ounce of this worry onto his shoulders and turning it into bared fangs and low growls, was Alexis there beside me, his warm skin against mine.

If I’d been at school, I would have grabbed some of that tainted lettuce and gone to the lab. Of course, that wasn’t my brand of science, specifically, but I knew people I could ask for help.

Of course, no way was I taking anything contaminated on the car ride home with omegas in the cab. I’d have to go back—or hell, maybe I could just go down to the store and pick up some Sterling lettuce.

Once Alpha Grove dropped us off at Claudia’s and walked us inside, I sent Mrs. Barbara a quick text message to let her know we were back and I’d be staying the night at the Wilsons’ place. She’d been on board with me taking the day to show Linden and Claudia around my old farm—didn’t want her family’s land sold to a big business any more than I did.

At the end of the day, I believed that would’ve weighed on Linden enough he’d decide not to go through with it, but with what we’d discovered out there, there wasn’t a damn chance they’d sell the farm to Sterling.

I’d gotten what I wanted, and I should have been thrilled. Instead, I’d just been left with this sinking, overwhelmed kind of feeling. Sterling Corporation was hurting werewolves, and either they’d seen Alexis for the incredible resource he was, or they’d wanted the endorsement of his podcast more than they’d wanted to give him theirs—to spread disinformation and hurt even more of us. On purpose.

Linden said to let him know if Claudia had any issues, but he left with his shoulders hunched, hopefully to talk things over with his mate. For one night, there wasn’t anything anyone could do about all this, and that hurt, but we all needed a minute to be tired and sad. Tomorrow, we’d boot and rally and figure out how to solve this.

Birch had gotten off the couch when we came back and wrapped his arm around Claudia.

“Y’all should take a shower,” I said. “And put those clothes straight in the washer. I’ll start it before I go to bed, but just in case it was something in the sprayers, we want to get rid of it.”

Claudia nodded.

Birch only scowled at me. “I’m sorry, something in the sprayers?”

His wife grabbed his hand and shook her head. “I’ll tell you about it in the bath.”

She pulled him toward their bedroom, leaving Alexis to set me on the right path again. “We should shower too.”

The water was warm and cleansing—not just for our skin, but for all those dark thoughts swirling around in my head. I focused on washing Lex’s hair, touching his skin everywhere it was close. It wasn’t heated, exactly, but he leaned against me. My wolf needed to know he was close and fine.

He slid into bed naked, his hair still a little damp, and I took our clothes to the laundry room with a towel wrapped around my waist. I started the cycle, and heard a thunk from down the hall.

There was still a light on in the kitchen, and I peeked my head in to see Birch Wilson going at the pantry with a garbage bag in one hand and a heavy scowl on his normally placid face.

“You okay?” I asked quietly.

He didn’t even look at me, just kept glaring ahead. Alexis had already thrown out most of the junk in the house, but there were some things—crackers for soup, granola bars, whole wheat cereals—that’d made the cut.

Birch wasn’t taking any chances.

“I’m good.” His voice was practically a grunt, a growl edging just under the words.

There was one thing I was sure of—Sterling hadn’t accounted for what’d happen when they went and pissed off every single werewolf. For alphas, there was nothing worse you could do than threaten their mate, and if even kind-hearted Birch was feeling the need to purge and destroy, well, we were in for a mess before this got any better.

“Okay. Good night.”

He huffed my way but didn’t say another word.

When I got back to the bedroom, Alexis pushed up on his arm. “Something up?”

I went to the bathroom to hang up my towel so I didn’t have to look in his eyes and pretend everything was fine when I wasn’t really sure. “Yeah. Birch is pissed and worried, but that’s—”

“Understandable,” Alexis supplied.

I laughed, the sound soft and sad. “Sure enough.”

---