Page 26 of Black Moon

Just then, Skye walked by, his hands in his pockets and his shoulders slumped in a little.

“Skye,” I called, raising my hand. “You want to sit with me?”

He looked around, not exactly like he was looking for anyone in particular, but like he didn’t know quite where to go. In any case, I slid over. “You’d do me a big favor by sitting over here. Skip’s already been by once, and...well, I’d just rather sit by you.”

Skye sat down, chewing his lip. “How’s your ankle doing?”

“Oh, it’s good. I think I barely twisted it.”

I looked at his profile, and it struck me that Skye might know more about everything here than I did. He looked barely eighteen, but sometimes it was hard to tell exactly how old an omega was. In any case, I might be the devil, because I was definitely willing to put a teenager on the spot.

“Juniper told me something’s going on with the Morgans?”

Skye sighed. He hung his head, and that was weird. He hadn’t exactly been sheepish before now, and this seemed sad.

“Yeah. Brook Morgan?”

I’d heard the name before, Brook, but hadn’t known what the hell they were talking about. For all I knew, there was a Grove brook through town or something. Damn the werewolf tendency to pick names found in nature.

Even if I didn’t know much about what was going on, a concerned frown went a long way with this kid, and he continued after a few seconds of heavy silence.

“He’s Shiloh and Harmony’s big brother. The whole family’s omega, and Brook works over at the mechanic’s shop. He was leaving the garage one night a few days ago, and the Reid pack took him. Alpha Grove, Linden’s dad, died trying to get him back, but he’s still out there, and we don’t know what’s happening to him, but it’s gotta be bad. And everyone’s scared we’ll lose more wolves going up against the Reids the wrong way. That’s why Linden’s sitting back and waiting. I don’t know if he has a plan or if he’s waiting for Zeke—he was Aspen’s second—but it’s all bad and—” He cut off short, his eyes wet and a little red, and he stared at me like a man desperate for someone to swoop in and fix things.

God, I was so not that person. I was sharp and difficult and nothing at all like the perfect omega my father wanted me to be. But right then, that didn’t matter.

All I could do was wrap my arms around Skye and pull him in. “It’s going to be okay. No matter what. Has anyone called the police? Or the, like, FBI?”

Honestly, I wasn’t sure who the chain of command fell to in situations like this, outside of traditional pack hierarchy. Unfortunately, human systems of law and order usually left it to werewolves to figure things out on their own when they were in trouble.

Skye gave me a pinched, worried look and shrugged. “I mean, would they do anything?”

What was the point of law enforcement if they weren’t going to get involved when someone was literally taken against their will?

Instead of taking my frustration out on Skye, I forced myself to take a slow breath, dragging cold air deep into my belly and closing my eyes.

“Okay, fair enough. Nobody likes doing things when they can choose not to. So the answer is simply not to leave them that choice.”

“What are you going to do?” Skye asked, his voice high and tight, his cheeks hollowing up when he sucked them in.

I stared, and I felt downright wicked as a slow smile spread on my face and innocently, I shrugged. “I’m a journalist, Skye. I’m going to write about it.”

13

Linden

The pack meeting was an absolute mess.

Oh, sure, people showed up and discussed pack business, but without someone to stand in front and guide the group, it was entirely unfocused. We didn’t seem to need a big strong guy in charge as much as we needed a kindergarten teacher.

I wasn’t sure it was really my place to step in yet, though. I hadn’t been chosen as my father’s replacement, and a lot of people at the meeting clearly had more interest in whatever it was Skip had to say.

So I sat down next to Zeke at a table. “Any word on Brook?”

The man seemed to be aging as we spoke. Given the dark circles under his eyes, I doubted he’d slept in days. He swiped a palm down his face and shook his head. “Nothing. They can’t get within a hundred yards of any building in the pack territory. The Reids have got patrols going constantly. They know we’re coming, and I think the wait is making them more nervous.”

Well shit. It wasn’t long before the planned attack, but if the Reids were getting twitchier as they waited, that had the potential of making things so very much worse.

Suddenly, the chair next to mine was filled with a wide-eyed Skye. “I think I did a bad thing.”

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