Page 72 of Hunter Moon

I worried, as I rounded the car and climbed into the driver’s seat, that it was the kind of laughter that might just be about hysteria, and in a moment he’d be sobbing and frightened and ready to run again, but instead, as I settled into the seat, he leaned over to rest his head on my shoulder, looking up at me bemusedly.

“You’re seriously going to just keep trying with Harmony?”

I shrugged as well as I could without dislodging his head. “It’s been pointed out to me that I owed her more than abandoning her, and it’s maybe a little understandable that she’s pissed at me.”

He pressed his cheek into my shoulder, but he was biting his lip and not meeting my eye in a way that made me think just maybe he agreed. “Sheisbeing kind of a jerk about it.”

I grinned down at him. “Baby, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but she’s kind of a jerk. Can’t expect her to act out of character, and every family’s got one. The Groves have me. You’ve got Harmony.”

He buried his face in my shoulder, laughing some more as I started the engine and pulled back into the street.

We were halfway home before he settled enough to look up at me, eyes shining with mirth. “But the Groves got rid of you, and now you’re with us. Why do we have to have two of you?”

I peeled my right hand off the steering wheel and wrapped it around his shoulders, pulling him in close. “Just lucky, I guess.”

46

Brook

Harmony gave a thin-lipped “thanks” and stuck the ice cream in the freezer when Aspen offered it, but that was enough for him not to drown his sorrows in the tub himself. That night, I caught her sneaking spoonfuls right from the container, so maybe there was hope for him after all.

The next few days were busier. I went back to work, and Aspen got busy with Linden, convinced the Reids posed a serious threat.

He was right. I felt it like a buzz in the air. Something was coming, and my wolf knew we had to keep our guard up.

It was nice when, after Aspen had spent the day working on the town defenses with his brother, he showed up at my work, his shoulders back, his head higher than it’d been since he’d returned to Grovetown.

This was Aspen as he should’ve been—confident, with a place in the pack. But what he’d needed was orders and a purpose. Even before he’d left Grovetown, there’d been a nervous haze around him any time his father called on him to play leader, sure that with enough training, he’d fall into the role even when Aspen had known it was wrong.

Linden wasn’t asking that of him, and Aspen—maybe Aspen was beginning to see that even if he wasn’t pack alpha, the role he had to play here was important.

I, at least, felt safer knowing he was looking out for us, and more settled than I’d been in years.

Outside the open garage, Aspen’s Mustang pulled up, but when I turned to grab my stuff from my locker, Joseph was right there in front of me, a scowl on his face.

For a second, I felt a stab of fear—the kind I’d get from any alpha who’d snuck up that close to me after everything I’d been through—but when I looked up at him, he didn’t look angry like Maxim. He didn’t reach for me. He looked... sorry.

“Hey, Brook. Listen, I just—I wanted to apologize, if I came on too strong before. I didn’t know you and Aspen were still a thing. I probably made you pretty uncomfortable, so... I’m really sorry. I hope I didn’t make things too weird for you here.”

And here it was—the reason I’d never been scared in the Grove pack before I’d been taken by the Reids. Alphas here messed up, and when they did, they owned up to it.

Joseph didn’t say anything shitty about Aspen, or what a fool I was for taking him back, or make it about anything more than saying sorry. Even if he’d put me on edge, it was easy to recognize a second later that there was no reason to be afraid of him.

“It’s okay, Joseph. You’re a nice guy, and I’m glad we’re friends. But it’s always been Aspen for me.”

He nodded, pink rising below his skin in his cheeks. “I totally get it.”

Simple.

I let out a breath, and he budged to the side to let me through to the locker. When I got to the parking lot, Aspen was hanging back outside the passenger door of his car.

When I got close, he leaned down, curling protectively over me and lowering his voice. “Joey okay?”

No, I didn’t think he actually cared how Joseph felt right then. Aspen was only trying to give me a chance to handle my own problems. If I asked him to jump in and kick somebody’s ass, he’d do it, but he wasn’t going to go all overbearing alpha for nothing.

“Yeah. He wanted to apologize for hitting on me. Seems to be under the impression I’m head over heels for some Grove jerk.”

All the tension went out of Aspen at that. He slung his heavy arm around my shoulders and opened the passenger door.

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