Page 10 of Hunter Moon

There had never been any doubt about how much I missed Grovetown, but being there, seeing the town, talking to the people, drove it home for me.

I’d have been railroaded into being the new alpha if I’d stayed, and that wouldn’t have been good for anyone. But god, how I’d missed the place.

Lin was staring at me when I finally looked up from the ketchup bottle, and for a second, I expected a pithy comment about my obvious deep love for the stuff, but instead he looked... sad.

Looked like making people sad was my new specialty.

I took a deep breath and turned my attention to pouring ketchup over my fries in the way I knew made Linden cringe and complain.

Predictably, he groaned. “That’s so gross, Asp.”

“I like ketchup, and I won’t apologize for it.”

“Sure, fine, but don’t put it on top of them.” His voice took on a whiny note that was straight out of our high school years, and everything about the moment was perfect.

Then the peppery smell of carnations filled my nose, as someone held out a bouquet of them in Lin’s direction. We both looked up to find an unfamiliar alpha standing over us.

Something about his scent set me on edge—it was more wolf than man, and there was something about it that I recognized. Woodsmoke and longleaf pine sap, and... Reid. He was a motherfucking Reid.

A growl filled the sudden silence in the restaurant, and it took a moment to realize it was coming from me. Lin didn’t glare or berate me for it, though. He didn’t even look at me, just set his fork on his plate and turned to look at the man, expression flat and blank.

“Is there something you need?”

The man flashed a vivid white smile, one that looked intended to be toothpaste-model-esque, but felt like a threat to me. Those teeth were too sharp for my liking, and the man smelled of outsider. Of the kind of asshole who would kill my Dad and hurt Brook.

“I’m Cain Reid. And I came with an apology of sorts,” he said, holding the flowers out to Lin. “For Mr. Morgan.”

It wasn’t unusual for someone to make a formal apology through a pack’s alpha, but everything about this felt wrong, made me want to lean over and bite this Reid.

A hand clamped around my arm—Linden’s—holding me down, and I jerked back. Had I been trying to stand up? I was sure as fuck still growling, but I wasn’t the only one anymore. There were at least three growls coming from other wolves in the Grille.

“I hardly think that Brook needs anything from your pack, other than to be left alone,” Linden said, his voice calm and measured.

The man nodded, his brows drawing together and lips turning down in an approximation of sympathy, but his scent didn’t change at all. “I do understand that. But with our pack alpha’s, ah, perhaps not so untimely death, we decided we needed to make amends. Apologize, make reparations. We’re all terribly sorry for what Maxim did, and we’d like to try to make it up to him.”

“Make it up to him,” Lin repeated. It was his affronted, “the gall of this asshole” voice, so I bit my tongue and let him take the lead. He’d always been good at handling situations like this. Me, I just swung at the bastards.

The man nodded, baring his neck ever so slightly and setting the flowers on the table between our dinners. “I understand if he, and the rest of the Grove pack, doesn’t want to see us, but we want to make it clear that we don’t share Maxim’s ill intentions.”

“You don’t intend to invade our home and kidnap our pack members? Is that what you’re saying?” Lin asked, voice still deadly calm and serious, meeting the man’s gaze without blinking.

“We would never—” the asshole started, and Lin jerked me back to keep me from lunging forward.

The Reid met my eye, disdain clear in his eyes, but also, fear. As it fucking should be. I had easily forty pounds on the douchebag, and if Lin let me, I was gonna tear him into bite-sized pieces.

Lin cleared his throat to get the guy’s attention back on him. “You’ll forgive us if we don’t have a lot of faith in what the Reids ‘would never’ do, since we’ve lived through what your pack is capable of doing. I’ll see that Brook has the option to accept this... token of your apology... but I’d thank you to stay away from him. He doesn’t need apologies and reminders. He needs to move forward with his life.”

“Of course,” the smarmy little bastard agreed, inclining head and shoulders to Lin. “And if I have anything to communicate to anyone in your pack, I’ll of course come to you, Alpha Grove. Alpha to alpha.”

Of course. He wasn’t here about Brook at all, but as a declaration that he was the new Reid alpha. The face of the enemy, as far as I was concerned. “Yes,” Lin said, making a face like something tasted bad. “Well I’m sure you still have the phone number to Grove House. Now my brother and I are having dinner, if you’ll excuse us.”

“Naturally,” he agreed, shooting me one last smirk before he left.

We turned back to the table, but when I reached out to snatch up the flowers, Lin set his hand over mine. “I know, Asp. But it’s not up to us. It’s up to Brook.”

“He shouldn’t even have to know that asshole—”

“I know. But I won’t keep it from him, either. So it’s up to him. We won’t take Brook’s choices away from him. We’re not like them.” His eyes shot up from the flowers to meet mine. “Unless you’re here to take command like Dad wanted. Then I guess you can do what you want.”

---