Page 56 of Hunter Moon

Lin shrugged nonchalantly. “He’s like me, I guess. He only does it when they make him.”

And that was it. That was why Lin was alpha. Why Colt was the perfect alpha’s mate. Because they both knew when to hold their tongues, and when to go for the throat. I reached out and squeezed his shoulder hard, and for the first time in more years than I wanted to count, my brother leaned into me.

On my other side, Brook tightened his grip on my hand.

The wolf curled up in my chest, warm and satisfied for the first time in years.

34

Brook

For a whole decade, I hadn’t been able to put a name to all I was missing. Well, except Aspen.

That one was obvious, though. It didn’t account for the ways the last ten years had alienated me from my pack. For that, I could point toward choices I’d made and my own perception that the pack felt sorry for me or that friends I’d had before weren’t as interested in me if I was on my own. And sure, it wasn’t all on me. There was some awkwardness in the way Juniper pressed her lips together or Birch furrowed his brow—everybody taking on a little bit of Aspen’s guilt because they didn’t like the idea of me being hurt.

And that was because they cared about me, not because I was an inconvenience who should keep to myself rather than make people uncomfortable.

With Aspen there now, his hand in mine, the people we’d grown up with and loved all around us, I realized that since he’d been gone, I’d been missing out on a lot more than just him.

We stayed late after Colt’s interview, me sitting there nursing another cider while Aspen’s arm hung around the back of my chair and Linden took his brother through how he and Colt had met and fallen in love. There was no small amount of grumbling from Aspen about Skip trying to manipulate the pack out from under his brother. No doubt, if Aspen had come back to Skip leading the Grove pack, he’d have been quick to put the upstart back in his place.

But that wasn’t a thing we had to worry about anymore, not from inside our circle. Things with the pack were inching toward settled, Claudia recovering from her illness, Linden more comfortable with the idea of being alpha—I even thought Aspen’s firm endorsement had gone a long way toward making him confident in the role.

Maybe he hadn’t had Aspen Senior’s support to lead the pack, but between the two brothers, there was plenty of support to buoy them both.

Aspen drove me home late, kissed my head on the front porch, and promised he’d come see me at the garage Monday if he didn’t see me before that. And still, in the back of my head, I had some kind of sense of him running the perimeter of the town, checking the woods, looking out for us.

We texted the next day, but I didn’t invite him over or offer to go out. Being around people was still a lot, and even if I could see a path toward things getting better, there were shadows on either side.

To make matters worse, Linden was right—my heat was late, and I didn’t want to think about it sneaking up on me.

What I did want to do was throw myself at Aspen Grove, take over the whole damn motel just for the two of us, and forget everything else. But that was too soon. Right?

Anyway, thinking about Aspen’s hands or his strong arms or the rigid muscles of his body—none of that was as important as getting time off.

On Monday, I wandered into Mr. Reynolds’ office in the garage. It was shabby, filled with papers and random tools he’d dropped on his desk when he’d come in to check the old, boxy computer for our records.

He’d been working here almost as long as I’d been alive—had been the one to offer me my dad’s old job when my family needed the money and support. And while lots of alphas tended to get a little grumbly or overly involved where omegas were concerned, he’d always left me alone and trusted me to do my work. Hell, he hadn’t even said anything that time Aspen had taken my shift while I’d napped in his car outside—not that I’d had anything to do with that.

“Yeah, Brook? Help you with something?” He looked up at me, a soft smile on his face. Okay, since I’d come back from the Reids, he’d been a little gentler than normal, but as he wasn’t outright pitying or growling at anybody to defend my honor, I’d take it.

“I, um, might need some time off this week. Not sure if I’ll be in tomorrow or not, but, you know, a few days.” I scratched the back of my neck. Even if everybody in the garage acted as normally as they could around me, I was still the lone omega in a business full of alphas.

The flaring of his nose was subtle, but he nodded. “You just text me when you can. Let me know something when you do. We’ll be fine.”

The annoying thing was, the garage had learned to get by without me while I was with the Reids. Maybe they’d always been able to do that, but I hated the idea that I was letting them down, even if I wasn’t.

“Will do,” I said, stepping back from his office. I could at least finish out the rest of the day, even if my head was starting to buzz and my skin felt tight and hot.

“Everything okay?” Joseph asked when I came back to jack up a car that needed a simple oil change.

“Yup. Just fine.”

He breathed in deep. “Right.” A beat passed, and I hoped he’d drop it. No such luck. “So you gonna take some time off then?”

With a grimace, I moved under the car. “Sure am.”

“You know,” he said, bracing his hand against the side of the car and bending down to watch me work, “if you ever need a hand—”

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