Page 12 of Strawberry Moon

Someoneshould pay for Grandfather’s crimes.

He leaned over the counter, bracing himself on his elbows and looking supremely casual. “Ro told me what you’re trying to do. That you... you might be able to fix things.”

I winced. “I—I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to help enough, but we’re going to try. And if I can do some good to counteract—Well, you know.”

He gave me a sad look at that, but he didn’t leap to reassure me everything was fine the way Linden and Dante always did. It was kind of nice. Everything wasn’t fine, and I didn’t need pretty lies. I wasn’t a kid. “If it’ll help you, testing the stuff on me, I’d love to. I mean, I’d love to anyway. Anything.”

“Well, I don’t think what we’ve got so far is much good, but part of the problem is finding things that don’t smell bad to alphas to begin with. Like a background scent? So if you could smell what we have, that might help.”

The truth was, I’d had no luck with Linden and Dante, but both of them were mated, and I had a feeling that made a big difference. Who wanted fake flowers when they could have real omega? Cliff, on the other hand, couldn’t just reach for his mate. He wasn’t going to turn down the fake flowers unless they really were bad.

So, hesitantly, I approached the counter, hefting the cooler in front of me. “I should probably stand back while you... you know, so my scent doesn’t mess things up.”

He nodded brightly, biting his lip and—was he holding his breath in anticipation?

But of course, just as I set the case on the counter and unzipped it for him, the door of the shop opened, and there stood snarly Ford from the clinic. And there was me, passing Cliff a set of vials like some kind of drug dealer.

Or poisoner.

So suddenly I was trapped between two alphas with control issues, one of whom hated me.Great.

9

Ford

All I needed was string for the weed whacker, but everybody at the farm had been treating me with kid gloves since I’d flipped the tractor. Barbara was worried, forcing food on me every time I walked through the kitchen. Henrik had taken to working on the farm again, even though the days were getting hotter and he was the next-best thing to retired. Ridge was trying to hold it all together, quick to ask Mr. Mena or some of the new interns to do work he decided was too much for me.

That meant, even though my leg had healed in a few days, and I was only limping slightly, it was me Ridge sent out on errands. Anything to keep me from heavy labor.

I was going crazy from it. The back-breaking labor of farm life had always kept my wolf in check. Even after Lily, knowing there were things that needed to be done helped me focus. Doing them, crawling into bed every night sweaty and exhausted, kept me from shivering into my fur and taking to the woods.

Now, they were keeping me from working too hard. I knew—I swear, I fuckingknew—that Ridge and the Hills were just worried about me. They didn’t want me to hurt myself. They didn’t want an alpha on the edge operating heavy machinery.

But if I weren’t even good enough for that, what was I sticking around for? My wolf was on edge. Restless. It felt like I’d lost whatever limited value I’d had to my family, to the whole pack.

Truth was, I didn’t mind going to the hardware store though. I’d check in on Cliff, who struggled almost as much as me.

He loved a beta wolf, the pack alpha’s little brother, and even though Ro was everything he wanted in a mate, they couldn’t get past the need for pheromones that kept alphas in line.

Still, checking in on Cliff, giving him somebody to talk to who understood what he was going through, gave me some kind of purpose. I was almost looking forward to getting off the farm and into town.

And then I opened the door to the hardware store, and right there, directly in my line of vision, was Archer Sterling.

I had to master the urge to curl my lip and growl at him right off. He had my alpha’s blessing, and there were people in the pack that trusted him, crazy as that was.

Linden would give just about anybody a chance, and Dante? Kid’d been hurt. All it took was a nice word and he melted on the spot.

None of that was proof enough to convince me Archer Sterling wasn’t a threat to my pack, here to cause even more damage than his granddaddy and that damn company had over the last twenty years.

Like a vision from my worst nightmare, Sterling was there, offering Cliff vials of something clear and insidious.

“Put that the fuck down,” I snarled, crossing my arms, drawing out my spine to stand at my full height.

“Now, Ford—” Cliff started, a little pucker between his brows, even as Sterling flinched and set the vials on the counter between them. Cliff’s gaze fell, looking at the things like they were angel-food cake and he was a starving man.

“I don’t wanna hear it from you.” I turned away from Cliff and glared Archer’s way. “What are you up to, messing around here?”

Funnily enough, even though he’d listened and obeyed when I told him to put those vials down, his cheeks sucked in and when he raised his eyes again, it was to glare at me, a thread of offense getting his back up too.

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