Page 5 of Cold Moon

“Can I get you anything?” Skye asked, his frown shifting his glasses down a little.

I licked my lips, but my tongue was dry. My throat was too, and my voice sounded raspy to my own ears. “I’d love some water.”

Skye nodded sharply. “On it.”

He was off at once and seemed to like having something to do, or maybe he enjoyed the feeling of someone relying on him. Maybe, he simply wanted to put distance between us.

Quickly, he moved to a water cooler against the far wall, his purposefulness drawing the attention of Alpha Grove sitting at his desk.

Before Skye could return, Alpha Grove rose and accompanied him to my bedside. I didn’t think he meant to deny me a drink, but with his broad shoulders between Skye and me, he effectively managed it, no doubt in the name of protecting his pack.

“How are you feeling?” he asked. His arms crossed over his chest, making it perfectly clear that he was asking out of habit and necessity more than general concern, even as he glanced toward the machine monitoring my vitals by the bedside.

“I’m fine.”

No way I was convincing anyone of that, but he didn’t question me.

“Brook says you helped him escape from Maxim Reid.” Alpha Grove wore the serious expression of a wizened pack leader, despite his dirty blond hair and clear eyes. I’d have guessed he was in his mid-thirties, but sometimes, with werewolves, it was hard to tell.

I nodded, swallowing roughly. “My father. Maxim.”

A curious frown turned Alpha Grove’s mouth down, dimpled a single line between his brows.

“I killed your father,” he admitted after a moment.

Fighting through the haze of whatever medication was working its magic through the IV drip in the back of my hand, I looked at him directly. “I know. I understand he didn’t give you much choice.”

My father had taken one of the Groves from Grovetown. When Alpha Grove’s own father had come to talk sense into him, Maxim had killed him in cold blood. Then, after Brook had escaped, my father had been livid. He’d broken everything in our house he could get his hands on, used the leg of the ruined coffee table to come after me when I tried to calm him. Finally, he had come here to threaten and demand and snarl his way to an early grave.

I didn’t miss him.

I swallowed a few more times, working my tight, scratchy throat. Skye appeared behind Alpha Grove’s arm, holding up my small Styrofoam cup with the bendy straw. “Here.”

I turned my head and took a sip. “Thank you.”

Color rushed into his pale cheeks. He nodded stiffly and stepped back.

My mouth wet, the words came easier. “Alpha Grove, I have no intention of seeking revenge for a madman. I hated my father, and he hated me. And I suspect, if you were to undo all the work you did to save my life, I’d die here in this bed.”

The alpha clenched his jaw, a muscle working behind his clean-shaven cheek. He seemed caught between telling me what I already knew—that he’d saved my life—and assuring me that he wouldn’t save it just to end it the next moment.

I’d never actually met a werewolf doctor before, but I had a feeling he wasn’t much for killing anyone.

Before he could decide how to answer, I tipped my head to the side, exposing my bandaged throat to him.

Alpha Grove’s breath caught. His eyes narrowed in the reasonable mistrust of a man who’d had his pack and family attacked by my own. Often.

But exhaustion made it all too easy to close my eyes and let him consider my offer.

“I appreciate what you’ve done for me,” I muttered. “I owe you my life. It’s not a debt I’d soon forget.”

Alpha Grove stood there for a few moments, silent as he considered me. If I stayed still, my body didn’t ache so badly.

The alpha sighed. “You should rest. I’ll check on you in a while. Skye.”

I opened my eyes to watch the omega flinch as he was called after the retreating back of his alpha. He budged up his glasses again and sighed. “Be right there.”

That was the alpha reaction I’d expected from a stranger to the pack sniffing around one of their omegas. Alpha Grove didn’t want Skye near me, and after all that’d transpired, I couldn’t blame him.

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