Page 77 of Hunter Moon

“No, just a couple of guys in cheap old fatigues, with aconite ammo.” I tried to pull myself up, and it took me a moment to realize that there was still an IV line in the back of my hand, that had somehow managed to hang on through my transformation. Damn, my little brother was good at his job.

He gave me a sharp nod, then looked up at Brook. “I’m going to call the enforcers and let them know what they’re looking for. You go ahead and see if he can get down some of that soup.”

That was when I realized just how out of it I’d been when I first woke up. The food smell was coming from Brook—from a clear takeout bowl he had clutched to his chest.

Instead of holding it out to me, or even acting like I was an invalid who needed to be fed by hand, he set the soup down on a small table and came at me.

His eyes were wild, pupils so wide his eyes looked as much black as blue.

Once, he glanced over his shoulder at Lin, but finding him on the phone, he shook his head and focused back on me. Then, like something out of a super-hot porno, he started unbuttoning his shirt right there in the clinic.

“I don’t think he meant for me to eat you, babe,” I said, smiling and reaching out to grip his cheek.

He leaned into my touch, hard. Not like a nuzzle, so much as like he was afraid I was going to disappear. Because he was, of course. He yanked his shirt down over his shoulder and leaned over me. “Bite me.”

“Say what?”

“I need it, Asp. I need you to mark me. I need you to...” He swallowed hard, and the smell of salt filled the air as his eyes went suspiciously glossy. “I need you to stay.”

Oh. I reached up and grabbed the section of his neck that he’d bared, holding it tight. “I will,” I agreed. “I want to. You can’t know how much I want to bite you. But not today, or here, or because you’re afraid.”

Wrapping the other arm around his waist, I pulled him onto the bed with me, pressing our bodies tight together.

“I’m going to spend the rest of my life with you, Brook Morgan. Making you happy. I’m not giving you ten years of absence and then a bite mark to remember me by. I’m giving you the rest of my life. Years. Tattoos and daisies and anything else you want.”

He buried his head in the crook of my neck, holding me just as tight as I held him, and nodded. “Promise,” he mumbled into my skin.

“I promise. I’m going to be fine. And I’m going to build us a house, and get you all the damn daisies money can buy, and we’re going to be together. For as long as you’ll put up with me, I’m yours.”

A second later, I heard Lin get off the phone, and looked up to meet his eye. He glanced over at the abandoned soup, then at Brook, trembling in my arms. A small smile quirked his lips, and he pointed at a microwave in the corner before slipping out and leaving Brook and me alone in the clinic.

50

Brook

Aspen was better after food. Lots of food. Multiple trips to the Grille amounts of food, with all of Wanda’s generous portions.

But that was fine. I’d give him whatever he wanted, so long as he was safe and healthy and didn’t die on me and leave me alone again.

Okay, I wasn’t really worried he’d leave of his own volition anymore, but his father had died going up against the Reids. I knew, deep down, that if it came to a chance to do what was right for the pack, even if it meant sacrificing himself, Aspen wouldn’t hesitate.

After all, misguided as it’d been, that’s why he’d left in the first place. It was one of the things I loved and hated most about him, and I wanted to be selfish, lock the door of the clinic, and never step outside again.

Not that Aspen would’ve tolerated being stuck indoors forever.

Not that I had much choice when Linden walked in and announced that he’d called a meeting with the Reids’ new alpha, Cain.

“Tonight,” Linden said. His sigh was heavy. Few alphas rose to the position in peaceful times, but the Groves had been a steady pack for decades. He had too much on his shoulders already. “He wants to meet tonight. Woods north of the grove.”

“We’ll have the high ground, coming from the orchard,” Aspen said.

“I hope it won’t matter.” Linden ran a hand through his hair. Colt was still off in DC dealing with Sterling, but I wished he was there then. Linden needed his mate.

All the sudden, Aspen huffed and pushed out of the bed. He wasn’t fully naked or anything—with Grove house right next door, and Aspen Junior being cut from the exact cloth of his burly, imposing father, getting him clothes had been no issue for Lin. Still didn’t mean he had any business on his feet yet.

“Where do you think you’re going?” I planted my hand on Aspen’s shoulder to keep him in bed. His leg was healed, but—well, come on. He’d been shot. I got to worry over him a little. “You were poisoned.”

Aspen scowled up at me, but there was no heat behind it. Big as he was, easy as it would’ve been for him to toss me off if he’d had any inclination at all, he let me hold him down with one light hand.

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