Page 79 of Hunter Moon

Every wolf on the far side of the field was an alpha or a beta, though the few betas the Reids had kept looked as ruffled and wild as their alphas did.

I saw Cain Reid draw in one long breath, and somehow, even from this far apart, the alpha’s eyes found me at once. His mouth slid into a rictus smile.

“Good of you to come,” he said, and though I didn’t think he was talking to me directly, it felt that way.

I shivered. Aspen’s arm tightened around me and his growl became a threatening, audible thing.

“Enough of these games, Cain,” Linden said, his voice low and calm and just loud enough to fill the clearing. Juniper at his side had her chin stuck out, her eyes narrowed to tiny slits like she’d burn the Reids from afar. “Let’s end this.”

51

Aspen

“Why Alpha Grove,” Cain said, unnatural grin still spread across his face. “I thought you were supposed to be a man of peace.”

“I am. The Grove pack is peaceful. That doesn’t mean toothless and clawless. It means we don’t want to fight, not that we’re incapable of it.” He took two steps out, glanced to his side and gave a tiny frown, as though only then realizing that he was alone at the front.

At his right was Claudia Wilson’s place, but since she was pregnant, there had been no chance of anyone being okay with her on a field of probable battle—not even herself.

But that was okay. Claudia belonged at his right hand, especially in times of peace. She was a strong person. A diplomat. A strategist. She, like Lin, was all the things I was not.

Holding tight to Brook’s hand, I stepped up into the space at Linden’s left. I wouldn’t—couldn’t—be what Claudia was, but there was one thing I was damn good at. I was no strategist, but tactics? That I could do. This was the place in a pack I was suited to. The man standing at the alpha’s side in a fight.

And as much as it pained me to keep Brook at my side in the face of that, he was right. The Reids were his demons to face, not mine to take from him. I couldn’t face them for him any more than I could be Alpha Grove for Lin.

Cain’s disturbing smile didn’t falter as he glanced at me, his eyes deliberately skipping right over me to Brook at my side. “And this is whatpeacefulpacks come to, is it? Forcing weak, broken omegas to fight? It’s a wonder any of you have survived this long, since you obviously don’t know how to take care of your belongings.”

I bared my teeth at him, ready to shift and pounce, and next to me, Lin opened his mouth to shoot back—talking instead of jumping straight to violence, yet another display of why Lin was the alpha, and not me. Before Linden could get a word out, though, Brook’s beautiful voice rang through the clearing.

“This is why your pack is failing and the Groves are strong.” His hand squeezed mine so tight that the bones ground together, but I didn’t pull away. If that grip was what Brook needed, it was easily given.

Cain’s grin slid into a grimace, more a baring of his teeth and a show of aggression than a fake niceness. “What would you know about what packs need to succeed, little omega? If the Groves took proper care of you, you’d have never been out in the street for us to snatch up. You’d have been snug in your house, waiting for your alpha, like you should be.” He glanced over his shoulder, expression turning predatory again. “But I wouldn’t worry. You won’t be getting out again. That problem is handled.”

Brook stiffened at my side, a note of fear drifting into his scent at the odd comment. He didn’t back down, though. “You really don’t get it. The Grove pack is strong because they don’t pretend omegas are fragile little things that need to be locked up for our own good. They treat us as the equals we are.”

Snickering broke out among the members of the Reid pack still on two legs, and embarrassingly enough, it took me until then to understand it. The Reids truly didn’t believe that omegas were their equals. Alphas were by far the smallest group of werewolves, but because we were strong, meant to be leaders and warriors, the alpha-dominated Reid pack truly thought they were superior to us.

Maybe I was the muscle of my pack, but I had a college degree. I knew that a pyramid made of only the tiny top portion wasn’t too damned impressive. The top wasn’t the important part at all, and the pyramid could live without it, but not the other way around.

More than half of all werewolves were betas. Without them, we’d never make it as a species. Without omegas, alphas were little more than feral assholes waiting to happen. Like a pile of blood diamonds gained through violence and with no tools available to cut or polish them, alphas without a full pack of betas and omegas were just a pile of occasionally pretty rocks.

Cain opened his mouth, but I just let it go: I laughed. For a full ten seconds, long and loud and probably as obnoxious as a braying donkey, I laughed.

Lin turned and raised a brow at me, but the twitch at the corner of his lips told me he probably knew just what I was thinking. Well, that, or he’d really missed me being a jackass. “Something you’d like to share, Asp?”

“Sorry, Alpha. I just—” I glanced over at the line of Reids, staring at me in a combination of annoyance and unease. “I was just wondering what kind of absolute fuckwit thinks omegas are weak. That betas aren’t the backbone of any good pack. It’s like they decided butter tastes good, so they’ll only eat that from now on. It’s no wonder they’re a complete failure of a pack and can’t even try to invade a peaceful little town of apple farmers without telegraphing their plans from miles away. Seriously? Sending humans with poison bullets to scout the valley? Showing up over and over again after being told to leave? Did they think they were being subtle?”

Cain cocked his head in something that looked almost like confusion, eyes narrowed, but he didn’t say anything.

Lin looked at me for a moment, head cocked in contemplation, as though I’d offered him something serious to consider. Then he nodded and looked back at Reid. “My brother makes an excellent point, Cain. So it begs the question, are you aware you’re in over your head and about to lead your pack into something they can’t handle? Or are you really so ignorant that you think yourself superior?”

The roar Cain let loose at the insult would have been impressive, if it hadn’t been such a red flag, showing his weakness. His utter lack of control. Already, a few of the Reid pack looked nervous, taking cautious steps back toward the tree line.

Yes, they had come for a fight. They were going to attack. But Cain Reid was the center. The second he fell, the tattered remains of the Reid pack would crumble to dust. It was a direct result of the Condition, yes. But after what they had become, I couldn’t even make myself feel bad about it.

I leaned into Lin. “Let me take him.”

“Shouldn’t I?”

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