Page 47 of Hunter Moon

I thought I’d drive forever, but I didn’t even make it to the edge of town before I lost my nerve, put my head down on the steering wheel, and sobbed.

27

Aspen

The wolf clawed at my insides until they were bloody and shredded, demanding to be let out, to run and hunt and find the Reids who frightened Brook and slaughter them all, then rush back to our mate, wrap our bloody body around him, and protect him forever.

The terror in his eyes, the way he’d been making plans for when, not if, the Reids came again—it was too much for the wolf.

We’d seen it before, in our fellow sailors. James, who wrote up a new will every time the unit went on a mission. He tried to make it a joke, but everyone knew it was at least half serious, and promised in earnest to see it through if something happened to him. Martin, who kept everything in her quarters just so, to the point that if you moved a coaster two inches to the left, she knew, and had to move it back.

It was about knowing what was out there. Knowing tomorrow could be your last day. And wanting, in some tiny way, to have control over it.

The Reids had taken Brook’s control away, and by continually showing up in town, Cain Reid was taking it away again and again.

But me losing control? Letting the wolf out?

That was the opposite of what Brook needed right then. I was not the one who had been hurt, not like Brook. Yes, I was having a hard time with control because my wolf and I knew what tenuous ground we were on in the pack, but we’d chosen that. We’d dug that hole, and the pack was letting us try to fill it in again.

Brook? Brook had never done anything to hurt anyone. He’d spent his whole life helping, and loving, and taking care of people. Brook deserved better.

I slammed my body into the Mustang, but before I managed to back out, Linden slid into the passenger seat beside me. I looked at him, confused, till he motioned to the road. “You’re following Brook, aren’t you?”

I just nodded, and continued what I’d been doing.

“I should have seen it,” he said, voice filled with self-recrimination. “I kept calling him back for checkups, hoping that he’d open up, or agree to see a therapist, or hell, I don’t know, something. But this asshole shows up in town twice, and we’re right back in that moment, in August.”

“This isn’t on you Lin.” When he opened his mouth to refute it, I held up a hand. “I’m serious. I’m an asshole, and I’ve done just about everything wrong, but this isn’t even my fault. This whole fucking mess is on the Reids who’ve taken part in tormenting Brook. No one else. All you can do—all I’m sure you’ve done—is try to help.”

“I’m supposed to be the alpha. Shouldn’t I be able to do something?”

I caught sight of Brook’s truck, pulled off to the side of the road next to the orchard north of town. I could hear his too-fast heartbeat from that distance, even over the purr of the engine, so he was still in it. And alone. And terrified.

I pulled over there, half a dozen car lengths behind the truck, and turned to look at Lin. Brook would be able to hear everything I said, but that didn’t matter. They were both innocents in this.

“You’re not a wizard, Lin. There’s only so much any one person can do, even you. That’s why we have apack. That’s what packs are for. We protect each other, look out for bad guys, and make sure no one gets left behind. All of us working together. Not just you alone. And that way Brook is never, ever on his own, even if right now he feels like he is. We take care of him.”

With that, I got out of the car. “Go ahead and take her back to the clinic, yeah? I’ll stick with Brook. And if any Reid comes within spitting distance—”

“If you so much as see a Reid, you call us, and then you do whatever you have to, to see Brook safe. And you too. I need my whole pack safe.” His whole pack. Including me. The wolf howled, but for once, it wasn’t with misery. Linden wrangled himself into the driver’s seat without getting out, meeting my eye with a surprisingly hard look for my little brother.

This, then, was the alpha who’d been forced to kill Maxim Reid. The one who was giving me tacit permission to kill any Reid who came near Brook.

I nodded, holding my brother’s gaze steadily, accepting the charge wholeheartedly. “No one is getting anywhere near Brook without his permission. Not ever again.”

The Mustang turned away just as I reached Brook’s truck. I knocked on the window, which he rolled down without looking at me. He turned his face away, as though there was a chance I wouldn’t notice his tears.

I leaned against the side of the truck, looking down the road instead of staring at him when he was so clearly uncomfortable. “You want me in the passenger seat, the back of the truck, or following you on four legs?”

His answering sigh was heavy and tired. “You can’t just follow me around forever, Aspen. You have better things to do.”

“I really don’t.”

He finally turned to look at me, frustrated and exhausted beyond all reason, and it made my heart twist painfully. “Aspen. You have things to do. Flowers”—his voice broke, but he sucked in a harsh breath and forced himself to go on—“flowers to grow. Right? And I have a job.”

“Long time between now and flower season. Gonna take a while to get a greenhouse built. And this isn’t just about me, Brook.” I slipped my hand in the window, laying it softly on his shoulder. “It’s the whole pack. As long as you don’t feel safe, we’ll be here whenever you need us.”

“What if it’s never safe again?”

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