Page 23 of Strawberry Moon

“What?” he demanded, his voice almost shrill with sarcastic defensiveness. “I’m not suggesting we murder them. Just that the world would be better off without billionaire businessmen.”

“Like me? And if you don’t like rich assholes, what are you doing on the board of a billion-dollar international corporation?”

He slung an arm around me. “I’m the inside man, Arch. Gonna get all the info and take it back to my brothers in the revolution, so we’ll know which rich assholes go on the list of people to eat.”

I slung a halfhearted fist in the air. “Eat the rich.”

“For now, I think I’ll feed them my wife’s chicken and dumplings.” When I turned toward my car, he redirected me toward his much more sedate silver sedan. “Besides, with the path you’re on, friend, I suspect by the end of your first year as a billionaire, you won’t be one anymore.”

It would take a lot of work to give away the ridiculous billions my grandfather had left me, but he had a point. A tempting point. I could just give it all to a charity and let them figure things out.

But that was, again, my responsibility. Just giving it to someone else didn’t address the problem of where it had come from. There had to be a better way.

I leaned my head on his shoulder. “Only if I’m very lucky, Andy.”

The sad smile he gave me as he bundled me into his car told me that he, if no one else, understood.

17

Ford

Iwasn’t sure it boded well when Alpha Grove’s fancy silver SUV pulled up at the farm, followed a pace behind by a sedan that looked even fancier.

It wasn’t Archer’s car, but he tumbled out of the passenger side door, shifting that familiar case up on his shoulder.

There was another young guy coming out of the other side. A boyfriend, maybe?

The sun glinted off the ring on the guy’s third finger, and my stomach dropped. A husband?

Archer Sterling had a husband?

It might’ve been a leap, but the guy smiled over at Archer and clapped a hand on his shoulder.

I took a breath. He smelled—human.

Archer Sterling had a human husband.

Of course. Why not? He’d been a human only months ago.

What had I really known about his personal life? I hadn’t asked. Sure, my wolf responded to his... to his scent. But that was a natural thing. An alpha catching a whiff of unmated omega.

Because even if Archer had a human husband, he didn’t have an alpha.

Shit. Wasn’t like I had any investment in that.

I wandered up to the car, looking Linden over. He was wearing a stiff smile as he walked my way, but he looked bigger than normal, his arms slightly out from his body like he was trying to take up space, control the area.

“Ford, how are you doing?” His question was pleasant. Polite. I wasn’t having it.

“What’s all this?” I asked, looking past him to the two younger guys from the extra fancy car that wasn’t Archer Sterling’s.

Archer smiled too, a mirror of Linden’s. “Ford, this is Andy. We work together.”

“You brought a human here?” I looked up at the house, thinking of Barbara and Henrik inside. “A human from Sterling?”

Linden’s brows pulled down. “Andy’s my guest, Ford.”

I scoffed, the sound escaping my nose as I turned my glare on the guy. “Another innocent murderer then?”

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