Page 85 of Black Moon

After Aspen’s departure, the very notion of leaving the pack for more than a day or two was too much to bear.

I needn’t have worried about Colt judging my boring life, though. Nope, he just gave me that charmed smile of his, leaned on my shoulder, and nodded. “That sounds nice.”

Until that moment, I hadn’t realized how much I’d expected him to come back into the room and say he had to leave. How worried I’d been about it. The tension leaked out of my shoulders, and they ached with the relief.

I’d intended, for days now, to talk to Colt, to ask him to stay. Not for Brook, but for me. With me. I’d been monopolizing his time anyway, and there had to be a special place in hell for a man who used someone fragile and hurt like Brook to get what he wanted.

Not that I thought Brook would mind. He’d probably encourage it, except for the part where it implied that he couldn’t handle things himself.

But it was time.

I turned to face him, pulling him against me, warm and pliant and perfect, and almost immediately distracted myself by kissing him breathless. Not a desperate clash of tongues and teeth, but something much more sedate. Sweet, even. I tipped his head back, swiping my tongue across his lips, asking entrance, which was immediately granted. He wound his arms around my waist, tucking his thumbs under my belt and holding tight as he gave me full access to his sweet lips.

He didn’t seem to mind the distraction, and I definitely didn’t mind, but this wasn’t what I’d promised myself I was going to do.

So as much as I didn’t want to, I broke the kiss after a moment. Or three. Hard to say, really.

“I’ve been meaning to talk to you about something,” I whispered against his lips. When his eyes flew open, wide and slightly alarmed, I did my best to reassure him. “No, nothing bad. At least I don’t think it’s bad. I just like to be as honest as I can, and I haven’t been as straightforward about something as I wanted to be.”

So basically, I could have been more awkward, but I would have had to try hard to get there.

Fortunately for me, as annoyed as he’d been on the phone, he looked bemused with me rather than irritated.

But of course, like a specter of my worst intentions, the doorbell rang just as I opened my mouth to continue. I turned to glare in the direction of the front door, but only tightened my grip on Colt. “They can go away,” I assured him, turning back, only to find a poorly stifled smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye.

“Only doctor in twenty miles,” he reminded me. “This is why you don’t get vacations.”

My shoulders slumped and I scowled, finally letting him go and heading for the front door. I whipped it open, glaring at Zeke and Claudia standing together on the stoop. “One of you better be dying.”

“Ouch, boss. That really hurts me,” Zeke said, putting a hand to his chest as though I’d hit him.

I narrowed my eyes at him, but Claudia clearly didn’t give a damn about our back-and-forth, as she just stepped halfway between us. “We’re going to The Cider House. Now.”

“For a nice round of day-drinking?” I asked. “Thanks for the invite, but—”

“Old man Sedgwick has called a pack meeting,” she told me, voice flat as she stared at me.

A pack meeting.

Ernest Sedgwick was the oldest living member of the pack, quite possibly over a hundred, and the only person I regularly made house calls for. A man lived to be that age, I figured he deserved someone catering to him a little.

If he’d willingly left his house, called a pack meeting, there was one possible reason. It was a full pack meeting.

And it was the vote.

“Pack meeting?” Colt asked, coming up behind me and leaning on my shoulder. “Is something wrong?”

Claudia shook her head, bouncing on the balls of her feet. “Tonight’s the night.” As she said it, a howl went up from the center of town, more than a dozen pack voices joined together. A summons.

From his sharp intake of breath, Colt didn’t need it explained. “Then we’d better get moving.” He turned to grab the door handle, then froze and looked back at us. “I mean, if I’m welcome. I know this is a pack thing.”

Zeke and Claudia both scoffed, but I wasn’t so willing to dismiss Colt’s worry. I wrapped my arm around his waist and pulled him tight against me. “Anywhere I’m welcome, you’re welcome. Always.”

It wasn’t what I wanted to say to him—wasn’t nearly enough—but it was a start. From the smile he gave in return, he liked it well enough.

The Cider House couldn’t accommodate every member of the pack. It was a good-sized bar, sure, but we were more than a hundred strong with just werewolves, and the human pack members got a vote in this too, so it was closer to two hundred.

So the bar was full, the parking lot was full, and people spilled out into the street, standing around in circles chatting. It was like a pack holiday, with so many of us crammed together who rarely saw each other.

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