Page 45 of Hunter Moon

“What did he want?” Brook’s voice was tiny, just like the way he was trying to hunch his broad shoulders, to make himself smaller, arms wrapped around himself for comfort.

Linden’s jaw was clenched so tight it looked painful, but he turned to Brook. “Do you want to sit down? Or maybe Asp and I should take this over to Grove House.”

Brook shook his head vehemently. “I’m not a kid. I should know. I deserve to know.”

“He wanted to stir shit,” I said, and Lin frowned. “I know, he came in with a winning smile and some bullshit about wanting to make peace between our packs. And I’m not the alpha, but Lin, I’m telling you, he’s not interested in peace.”

“Well maybe you should be the alpha,” Linden said. His voice was flat, and I had the horrible, gut-churning idea that if I said yes, he’d try to overturn the pack vote that had put him in charge. Call for another or something. “Dad wanted you to come home and take over. If you know what to do...”

Brook was still standing behind him, all vulnerable and frightened, and—dammit, both of them were that, weren’t they? Dad had raised Lin to look up to me as the “right” kind of alpha. Brook, well... I couldn’t lie, Brook looking to me for answers wasn’t as overwhelming. For him, I wanted to try to give them.

I looked between the two of them for a moment before shaking my head. “No, Lin. That’s the whole point of what I’ve been saying. The point of why I left. I’m not a leader. I can tell you he’s lying and he’ll stab us in the back as soon as help us out, but I can’t tell you what to do about it. I don’t know what to do about it.”

I met his eye steadily for a moment until he nodded and looked away, eyes far off, thinking hard.

“I’ll do what needs done too,” I added for good measure. “Maybe I’m no good at deciding what needs doing, but when you decide, I’ll do it. If you tell me to go out there and kill him, I will. March right into Reid territory and cut his throat if that’s what you two and the pack need from me.”

Brook bit his lip, like he was thinking about it, but Lin looked pained. “No one is asking you to do that, Aspen. I know you joined the military and maybe there it’s important that you’re willing to throw yourself into danger, but you don’t owe us violence.”

I waved my hand dismissively. “I’m not saying that. I’m—” I sighed, letting my head fall back and trying to gather my words. How did I always manage to say and do the wrong thing? I didn’t think it was my intention. “I’m that guy, Lin. You’re a doctor. A healer. Brook is a mechanic. Everyone has a role to play. Something they were trained in, that they’re good at. Maybe the pack doesn’t want to fight, but I’m good at fighting.”

A fucking natural, my first CO had called me. I didn’t want to hurt people. It wasn’t something that gave me joy or even job satisfaction, but I was damn good at it. And here, now? Putting that talent to use to protect my pack? Damn right I was willing.

Linden gave a deep sigh, but he nodded. “Next time the pack enforcers meet, you’ll have to come. Obviously it’s a group you belong in. But Asp, all of them have other jobs too.” I winced, because of course they did. It wasn’t like a happy, settled werewolf pack needed full-time warriors. Even in the military, it hadn’t all been about violence. Before I could think of how to explain that, he continued. “Besides, you’re good at other things. You’re a mechanic, too. And you hunt and fish. You’re not only good for violence.”

Was he trying to reassure me?

After all the harm I’d caused, that was the last thing I expected. On the other hand, hunting and fishing weren’t exactly sellable skills. I had saved most of my income while in the navy, since they covered the basics of quarters and meals much of the time, and I hadn’t needed more. I had a pretty decent savings, a portion of which was going to be sunk into building a house, but I wasn’t in danger of starving to death or anything.

But I wanted to be of use, not simply present.

But then Linden, smug bastard that he was, went on. “Besides, I hear you’re planning on getting into something new. Deb tells me you’re building a greenhouse for growing daisies.”

I tried not to notice how Brook’s eyes went wide at the comment, and just glared at Lin.

That was my brother, the asshole. Damn, I’d missed him.

26

Brook

Agreenhouse. For daisies.

For me. Obviously. Sure, Aspen enjoyed nature, liked hiking trails and listening to birds and hugging trees and whatever. But he’d never sat in the yard on weekends and pulled weeds just for the heck of it.

So if he was doing this, it was because of me. It was something he thought I needed, roots to put down that never would’ve mattered to me before, but they did now.

And I wasn’t ever going to see him grow those flowers. The Reids were coming, and they’d never leave me alone.

I stared at him, his wide eyes and the way his throat bobbed when he swallowed. My lip trembled, but I took a deep breath and mastered it.

“That sounds really nice,” I whispered thickly. Every muscle in my body had gone rigid, was beginning to ache as I braced myself for the worst. “Alexis told me Ridge is—he’s going to try and grow flowers over at Hill farm this spring. Set up some beehives and stuff. Maybe he can help you get going. He’s really good at that kind of thing.”

If something happened to me, I wanted Aspen to have Ridge and flowers and—okay, maybe he wouldn’t care about any of that, but he needed connections to this pack beyond the people he’d hurt. And Ridge and Alexis? Aspen hadn’t done a thing wrong to either of them.

He’d need something good, and I didn’t want Aspen to think the only thing anybody wanted him for was how much he could hurt a person. Sure, he was a good fighter. His dad valued that. And there was value in it. But that wasn’t all there was to Aspen, even if he was big and his arms rippled with muscle and transformed, he was the biggest wolf I’d ever seen.

He was also the guy who ordered extra whipped cream and licked it off his lips and tasted like sugar and butterscotch. He was a teasing older brother, and a man who practically wagged his literal tail every time you took him outside, pointed at a mountain, and said, “Climb it.” When he went fishing, his face went slack and serene and beautiful, sunlight bouncing off in his eyelashes and the stubble on his cheeks.

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