Page 51 of Cold Moon

“Lin,” he called, his voice so honeyed and sweet it couldn’t be anything but false. “There are some men here to see you. From the Sterling Corporation. They want to talk to the man in charge.”

Linden’s breath escaped in a gust. “You told them that was you?”

Colt’s laugh was entirely manufactured. “Sure did. They want to talk tothe alpha.”

It was something of a miracle that whoever Sterling had sent, they’d made it the short distance from Grove House to Linden’s clinic in one piece without Colt shredding them. Linden’s mouth spread and flattened into a thin line. With a heavy sigh, he pushed off the bed, sparing one last glance for Skye and me.

“Wish me luck,” he said with a grimace.

Then he left us behind, shutting the clinic door to try and mitigate the disturbance.

Skye and I sat silently, staring at each other with the precise discomfort of children whose parents were having words with the principal.

“This is bad, right?” Skye whispered. “Why are they here?”

“I don’t know... It’s not a stretch to jump from Colt to Linden, and he’s talked a lot about the farm on TV.” Colt hadn’t named names in his interviews, but everybody left a trail. No way, after hours of TV interviews and articles in theWashington Post, Colt’s trail was all that hard to follow.

“You’re dragging our company’s name through the mud,” someone hissed beyond the door, plenty loud enough for werewolf ears to pick up.

“We’ve done our due diligence, and it is my professional opinion that—” Linden was speaking in a calm, measured voice that wasn’t as easy to hear.

Every muscle in Skye’s body was rigid. His hand was firm under mine when I reached out and touched it.

He seemed miserable, with the monsters who’d given him the Condition right there outside the door, being... being spoken to, like they deserved some consideration.

It was the right way to behave, probably, but I couldn’t stand looking at him there, fury seething under the surface that he wasn’t allowed to express yet, having to bite it back.

“I’m going to go see if I can help,” I said, squeezing his hand and setting the rest of my sandwich aside.

He gave me a terse nod, and when I got to the clinic door, I only opened it wide enough to slip out. I didn’t want these men getting any closer to Skye than they were already.

“Who’s this, then?” a young man snapped when I came out into the small space between Colt and his mate and the clinic.

“Archer Sterling, Dante Reid. Dante, this is Archer Sterling, and his grandfather, Jedidiah.”

The young man stood, a scowl on his face, between us and an older man—a man I recognized from television interviews I’d been watching. Jedidiah Sterling, the CEO of the Sterling Corporation for the past two and a half decades.

“Reid, as in that pack that attacked yours?” Archer demanded of Linden. “The one you want to blame us for putting over the edge?” Behind Jedidiah, there were men in dark suits who looked an awful lot like lawyers. One of them took a note on a notepad.

Calmly, Linden smiled. “I’m quite sure that Dante would say the Reids made their own choices. Though I continue to suspect Sterling is not entirely blameless in the recent chaos, intentional or no.”

Archer scoffed. Behind him, Jedidiah looked toward the roof of the clinic like he was praying. Or just ignoring us.

“Can I help you, Dante?” Linden asked gently.

“Actually, I was thinking they might be able to help me,” I said stiffly, taking my cues from him and doing my best to master the shaper edges of my anger.

Archer Sterling’s copper brows shot high on his pale forehead. He held out his hands by his sides, wide and open but with the sharp edge of his anger. “Okay?”

“I was just thinking, since your company has developed and disseminated such efficient poison, you might be able to shed some light on what, precisely, it’s meant to do. Assuming it has some use other than killing our packmates.”

Archer made a sharp, aghast sound, but his grandfather began to smirk. “I’d be happy to look at whatever it is you think you’ve found, young man. But I can assure you, all our products are perfectly healthy.”

30

Skye

All of our products are perfectly healthy, the man said.

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