Page 50 of Cold Moon

My gaze was immediately drawn to him the second I entered, but sitting at the desk between the waiting room and the rest of the clinic, Alpha Grove cleared his throat. I looked his way, and he lifted a mug of tea to hide his smile.

“Good morning, Dante,” he said, sparking a rush of activity on the far side of the room.

Skye jerked upright in bed and snapped his laptop closed. His wide blue eyes turned toward me. His cheeks flushed, but a tentative smile played at the very corners of his lips.

“Good morning, Alpha.” I nodded to Linden. “I brought Skye breakfast. I hope that’s all right.”

“Of course. As long as Skye feels up to giving it a try?” Linden looked his way across the clinic’s main room.

Skye nodded, so I stepped past Linden’s desk, to the far side of the room, and pulled a chair to his bedside.

He grinned at me as I sat. “Finally taking a break?”

I shrugged, pulling the wrapped sandwich out of the paper bag and folding the wax paper down carefully. “Mostly wanted to see you,” I admitted, avoiding looking Alpha Grove’s way. “But yeah, I hit something of a roadblock.”

I passed him the sandwich, but he didn’t take a bite right away. Instead, he put his wrists on the edge of his closed laptop and frowned. “That must be frustrating. Linden said you and Ridge were making good progress.”

My shoulders sank a few inches. “Yeah, but we’ll get it... once I learn everything there is to know about werewolf anatomy.”

“That sounds... yikes.” Skye cringed.

Before I knew it, I was laughing. Damn, it felt good to let that out after days of being on edge, bent over a rough-hewn wooden table, hoping I was smart enough to figure all this out and sure I wasn’t.

“Yeah, I know. But what were you up to just now?” I nodded to the computer in his lap and pulled out my sandwich, shoving the wrapping out of the way.

Skye’s nerves came back then. He wiggled on the bed and shrugged. “A post about how I relapsed after drinking Sterling bottled water.”

For one grating heartbeat, I only felt fear—fear at Skye being exposed to Sterling, becoming a target of people I was sure wanted to harm werewolves.

It must have shown on my face, because Skye shrank back against his pillows.

“I talked it over with Linden. As long as I don’t make any unfounded accusations and only talk about the correlation, and since you actuallydidfind something in the water—”

He cut off short when I took a deep breath, but it was just to unclench my gut and shake off that rigid fear.

As much as I wanted to know Skye was safe and healthy, it wasn’t my place to tell him what he could and couldn’t do with the information he had. I didn’t want him to think I was that kind of alpha, either.

“No, that’s great. It’s absolutely what you should do. Our people are in danger—that has to be our priority, not keeping a multi-billion-dollar corporation happy. And if there’s trouble, your pack has your back. What you’re doing, it’s great.”

I forced a smile, and it must have done the trick. He smiled back.

Truth was, I thought it was brave of him to take a stand. I just didn’t want him to ever get hurt.

Protect him, my wolf supplied, alert and ready to pace the perimeter of town with Aspen Grove to make sure there were no approaching threats.

I’d do my best, but given my track record in keeping people safe, I was glad I wasn’t alone in caring for Skye.

“It’ll be fine,” Linden said assuredly, standing up from his desk and coming over to lean his hip on the frame of bed number two. “At some point, we have to stop shrinking back from this, and the Dohertys are already out there doing what they do best.”

Skye’s smile tightened uncomfortably. “Talking?”

Linden’s breath escaped in a laugh. He shrugged. “Making trouble.”

“Drawing attention,” I mumbled, staring down into my sandwich. I took a bite and sighed. “It’d help if I knew what, exactly, made werewolves different, and omegas so susceptible.”

“About that—” Linden had a thoughtful look on his face, and my breath caught. There he was, like the savior pack alpha he was, ready to give me a key to open the next lock on this whole mess.

But right then, there was a sharp knock on the door, and Colt Doherty himself stuck his head in, his perfect smile lighting up the whole clinic.

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