Page 14 of Hunter Moon

That was what I was trying to say, right?

Fuck, I didn’t know what I was saying. When had it gotten so hard to talk to Brook?

When you walked out of town without a word, jackass.

I sat in the Mustang for a while, staring at the flowers, and trying to decide how to be the least intrusive I could be, while giving them to him. Was the whole thing just a terrible idea? Was it going to remind him of the fucking Reid flowers, and make him sad?

Maybe I should just walk away again. Everyone had been fine without me. Lin was a good alpha, and no one needed me. I was another complication, and half the town was probably more pissed I’d come home than they’d been that I left.

Sighing, I shook it off, and got back out of the car. I don’t know why I took the flowers with me into The Cider House, but I did. Maybe I didn’t want to leave them to wilt in the hot car, or maybe they were coming to represent Brook in my mind, so I didn’t want them to be alone.

Talin barely took two glances at me, pulling a pint of hard cider and thumping it down on the counter in front of me. “You’re an asshole,” she told me.

I nodded. “Yup.”

She nodded back. “Good. As long as you know it.” She turned to wipe down the bar, and I figured we were done. That would have been pretty standard for Talin. She was a handful of years younger than me, but we’d always been cut from the same cloth. Like Colt had called it, stereotypical alpha. Stalwart and taciturn—or better put, stubborn and shitty at communicating, especially about feelings. Instead, a moment later, she spoke again. “Missed you anyway, much as Shiloh’d be mad at me for it.”

I grinned at her. Birch had told me about her continuing flirtations with Brook’s sister, and how he wasn’t sure if they’d even spoken to each other about it, or if maybe they were a full-on couple on the down low. Apparently they were both so mellow and circumspect that it was hard to tell without asking, and no one wanted to ask and admit they didn’t know. “Me too, Tal. Sorry if it causes problems. I’m—I’m gonna do my best to make it better. As much as I can.”

She turned to look me in the eye, and nodded. “Good. I don’t like it when Shiloh’s mad at me.”

The woman herself came in from the back then, and gave me the stink-eye from the other end of the bar. Last time I’d seen her, she’d been a teenager. Now, she looked so much like Brook that it made my heart sting. Those pale blue eyes and black hair, the whole damn family looked like some kind of modern Snow White story. Except if someone gave Brook a poison apple, I’d definitely kill them. Or, being Brook, more likely he’d kill them himself.

I smiled to myself and took a drink. It was yet another thing I’d missed. We’d been perfecting that recipe for a long damn time, and the Grove family made a fine cider.

I couldn’t say how long I sat there, drinking my cider, staring at the bunch of daisies on the bar in front of me.

My mug was more than half empty when the door opened and Linden ushered Brook, Claudia Wilson, and Brook’s mother inside.

I turned away quickly, only to meet Shiloh’s sharp stare. Like she was daring me to try something. And was that my plan? I had bought the flowers for him, but...

I wasn’t sure there was a way to win this. I sat there for a few minutes before pulling a ten out of my wallet, downing the rest of the cider, and tucking the money under the mug.

Then I picked up the flowers and headed over to the table Linden had seated Brook at.

8

Brook

The Cider House wasn’t that busy. It was still pretty early—too early for people with traditional jobs to be off and drinking and too late for stragglers from the lunch crowd. That’d change soon, but it meant we had our pick of tables and booths.

Claudia led us over to one by the wall, and Mom let me slide into our side first. It’d become instinct for everyone to box me in, provide a barrier between me and the dangers of the outside world.

Right then, I didn’t mind. Knowing there’d been a Reid in Grovetown recently, I was all too happy to let everybody circle around and keep them away from me, even if Maxim was dead.

Soon as we were seated, Talin came over and gave us menus and waters. The specials were written on a chalkboard behind the bar, and over there, there was one person at the bar.

The broad, hunched over shoulders of Aspen Grove, curved toward his hard cider on the bar.

Every muscle in his body looked rigid and awkward, like he didn’t want anyone to bother him. He must’ve seen us come in, or smelled his brother. Or, well—if he wanted to be left alone, fine. I certainly wasn’t going to corner him in The Cider House. Not in public and not when he’d likely been drinking. It wasn’t that Aspen had a problem with alcohol—or he hadn’t—but it’d been ten years. I didn’t really know him anymore, did I? Ten years was plenty of time to pick up a vice, and I didn’t have it in me to deal with an angry, standoffish, drunk alpha right then.

Or maybe I just didn’t have it in me to have everyone watch while Aspen Grove let me know exactly how little I’d meant to him.

I shifted back on the bench, shrinking down so Mom could do a pitiful job of shielding me from the rest of the bar. Thankfully, nobody commented.

“So, Claudia—” When my Mom spoke, I think we all could hear the stiffness of a changed topic, though nobody’d remarked on Aspen yet. They probably didn’t want to make an awkward situation worse. “I take it you’ve been feeling better lately?”

Every omega in the Grove pack was paying attention to Claudia’s pregnancy, but especially the female omegas. Mom was lucky—she’d had us all before things had gotten really bad, Harmony skirting in just under the wire. She hadn’t gotten sick or anything. It’d only been for the last couple decades that omegas suffered the Condition. It’d come on suddenly and in just twenty years had decimated packs like the Reids.

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