Page 33 of Hunter Moon

He sighed, sounding like he was settling back on the motel bed’s creaky mattress. “Tried to make some things right, figure out if there’s still a place in the pack for me.”

God, the impulse to assure him that there was and always had been had the words on the very tip of my tongue, filling my cheeks up with air that I blew through pursed lips.

It wasn’t just up to me to decide what Aspen should and could do in the pack. I didn’t think Linden would ever turn his brother away, but if Aspen wanted to stay, he needed to set down roots and prove it.

And I needed to hear that he wanted that.

“Does that mean you’re planning to stay?”

Aspen hummed. “That’s my intention, anyway. I think Linden’s okay with it. Scared to count on me that much, but it’ll take time for him to trust me again.”

I twisted on the bed, putting my feet up on the headboard and dropping my head back. “Yeah.”

It’d take time for all of us, but nobody’d picked up a pitchfork to run him out yet. If they hadn’t by now, it wasn’t likely to start.

“There’s only one big problem left,” he said.

“What’s that?”

The silence hung again, and I was scared his next words were going to disappoint me.

“The navy. I’ve put in my resignation, but if they want, they could keep me on-duty for up to a year.”

Yup, there it was, that heavy, sinking feeling.

“Oh.”

“I don’t want to go back. And I think my CO—well, there are special dispensations for pack emergencies. I’d like to think we qualify. I just haven’t heard back yet, so I don’t know for sure that I won’t have to go back for a little while.”

“But not forever.” I wasn’t breathing, wasn’t even sure my heart was beating right then, but then he answered.

“Not forever. Grovetown is where I belong. If I have to go, I’ll come right back as soon as they let me.”

It wasn’t enough to make my fear go away—but nothing short of a promise to bury deep in the ground of this town and set up a nest would be. Aspen wanted to be here, and he said he wouldn’t leave forever.

Maybe I was soft and way too gullible, but that was so much more than he’d told me before he’d run away for the navy in the first place.

My chest opened up, and I took a long, deep breath.

“Okay. Good.” I fiddled with the edge of my sheet and stared hard at the popcorn ceiling until it started to blur together in fuzzy splotches of plaster. “So, maybe do you want to get coffee sometime and talk about it? Or the navy. Or how hot chocolate is way better than coffee anyway.”

“Didn’t think wolves were supposed to have chocolate,” Aspen teased. I could hear the smile in his voice, and it made me smile too.

“I can have whatever I want, Grove. Don’t test me.”

“Wouldn’t dare. I’d love to go get a hot chocolate with you, Brook. Name the time, and I’ll be there.”

19

Aspen

Ididn’t want to contribute to Brook’s feeling of confinement. The fact that he’d mentioned a curfew said it was still irritating him—and why the hell wouldn’t it? If someone told me I couldn’t go out at night without warning people where I was going, I’d get pissed.

But naturally, as an intimidating alpha, no one would say something like that to me.

Brook wasn’t as tall as me, but he’d never been any slouch in the muscle department. My mate had always been long, rounded lines of muscle, more substantial than any other omega I’d ever met. It was sexy as fuck. It also meant that for most of his life, he’d been exempt from a lot of the coddling people pulled with omegas and women and whoever else they saw as weak.

But now, after what had happened with Reid, people had gone into overdrive, treating him like a child, and a sickly one at that.

---