Page 9 of Black Moon

“That’s so nice of you, really, but I already got a room at the nearby motel.” Okay, that was a lie, but I wasgoingto get a room at the motel, and that was enough.

“Well then, you’ll just have to let me buy you lunch instead. You’llloveThe Cider House. If you’re looking for news, there’s no better place to hang out—except maybe Mom’s restaurant. But we have to savesometreats for tomorrow.”

Oh god, if this guy was going to follow me around the whole time I was here, I was going to lose it.

“Sounds great! Lead the way.”

The Cider House was full and busy for so late in the afternoon. Most people would’ve already eaten lunch, but if the pack was dealing with the death of an alpha, they’d need the comfort their packmates provided. No one would want to be home alone.

There was a young woman behind the bar with chocolatey brown hair and the bluest eyes I’d ever seen.

“I’ll get us menus,” Skip offered, but I grabbed his arm.

“Let me. You pick us a table.”

It was alpha nature to try and keep omegas from dealing with anyone face-to-face, but if I didn’t get to talk to someone other than Skip in the next five seconds, I was going to run screaming for the hills.

I came up to the bar, where the girl had turned to polishing glasses. She turned around, avoiding my eyes now that I was close.

“Get you anything?” she asked.

“Just a couple menus, please.” I leaned in against the bar as she reached behind it and grabbed a couple in glossy plastic covers.

“I’m Colt Doherty, by the way,” I said as I took them from her.

“Shiloh Morgan,” she said stiffly, but she took my free hand when I extended it, and she shook it—an equal. No creepy hand kissing here.

“It’s nice to meet you. I’ll be staying in town for a few days, so I wanted to show my face around. Introduce myself.”

Her smile was just as forced as mine had been. There was something there behind it—maybe she just didn’t like strangers. But I didn’t want to break my chance to understand this pack by pushing too hard too fast. So even if she didn’t seem angry, or even shy, she was allowed to not feel much like talking.

“Thanks for the menus,” I said, lifting them up with a little wave. “Guess I’d better head back to Skip.”

Finally, a tiny, sincere, twitch of her lips. “Good luck.”

Unfortunately, I thought I’d need it.

5

Linden

Between the four of us, it didn’t take long to finish with the grave, but when I turned to head home for a much-needed shower and then ten or fifteen hours of sleep, Zeke grabbed my shoulder.

“Oh no you don’t.” He took a step in, plastering himself against my side. “We’re going down to The Cider House and having a drink for your dad.”

“I’m really not in the mood, Zeke—”

“That wasn’t an invitation,” Claudia said from my other side. She smiled at me sweetly, but there was steel in her eyes. “Skip is down there right now campaigning like he thinks he’s gonna be president. I swear to you, Linden, if that man gets chosen as leader of our pack just because you don’t come down and drink to your father, I’ll come over to your house and cut holes in all your sweaters.”

I scowled at her. My sweaters were not a part of this, dammit. I’d spent years amassing all the comfortable wool sweaters I could find, and fully half of them had been handmade for me by members of the pack. “You stay away from my sweaters. I’ll send the knitting circle after you.”

She groaned and smacked her forehead against my shoulder repeatedly. “Yes, Linden, we know. The olds like you. You’ve got their vote. But the kids think it’s time for something new. Something different.”

“They’re not wrong,” Birch pointed out, wrapping her free arm around his. “Aspen was a good alpha, but he was a man of his era, not this one. It’s time for us to move forward.”

Zeke started forward, pulling me along with him. “I don’t give a damn what you change. Change everything. This is the Grove pack, not the fucking Chadwick pack. Skippy wants to be pack alpha, he can go make his own. He doesn’t get to steal ours.”

The funny thing was that Zeke wasn’t even a Grove, but that was loyalty for you. My father had saved Zeke’s life when they were kids. Neither had ever explained how, just stopping to share a long look whenever it came up, but it had clearly been important to Zeke. So important that now he thought I should be pack alpha.

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