Page 56 of Cold Moon

I tried not to take it personally when Aspen and Brook couldn’t get out of the clinic fast enough. I’d hardly given them any details. Of course, Aspen would most likely prefer to learn what’d happened from his brother. It wasn’t that he mistrusted me, but brothers were brothers, and I was the last person to claim to understand the bonds between family—at least family that didn’t hate each other.

And really, I didn’t mind being left alone with Skye. First thing when I’d gotten back to the clinic, I’d wanted to crawl in bed with him, wrap myself around him until my wolf was satisfied that he, at least, was safe from those Sterling dicks.

I’d held myself back, but Skye had leaned into me like he was happy to see me, and the press of his arm against my stomach, his head a warm spot on my chest, was so wonderful that, even after they left, I saw no reason to move. I could stand there forever, my nose buried in his soft, dark hair while he let me stew over my frustrations and hold him close.

Until he spoke, and my heart froze in my chest, and my lungs stopped working, and my arms turned to stone around the warm, trembling omega on the bed.

I could barely hear his whisper—“I was hoping maybe you’d help me with it”—under the sound of the growl ringing in my ears.

My wolf, telling me not to be a complete jackass when he sensed my hesitation. Because all I wanted to do right then was ask him if he was sure, how he could possibly trust me, a Reid, the idiot who’d taken him on a date only for him to relapse because I wasn’t paying attention, during hisheat.

I.

Was.

Terrified.

But I heard the sound of Skye’s nervous swallow, and I realized my heart hadn’t actually stopped. Blood was still rushing through my veins, thrumming under the skin so every spot where our bodies touched, where he trusted me with the weight of his body, was vibrating pleasantly.

I could still breathe, and Skye hadn’t jerked away from me, so I still had a few seconds to figure out how to speak again.

I leaned back, just far enough to tilt his head up. My thumb brushed over his bottom lip, still swollen and dark pink from the hard press of his teeth. His breath caught. His eyes widened. He stared up at me, waiting, and I realized then that there was nothing I wouldn’t give Skye if it was mine to give. No one in the world was so important to me.

“My pack—I mean, the one I—the Reids—” I staggered through it, but Skye nodded, like even if my words were a mess I could hardly get out, he still understood me. “We never had many omegas. Not—not after the Condition. And I—” I pressed my lips together, sighed through my nose. “I have never shared a heat with an omega. If there is some way—any way—that I can support you, I want to, but I’m not an expert. I would understand if—”

Skye cut me off with two fingertips pressed lightly over my lips. He was smiling up at me, his other hand snaking around the back of my leg as he leaned in, pulling me so close that my knees bumped against the bed frame.

“I’m not looking for an expert,” he said simply. “I just need you.”

Damn. “Oh.”

As lackluster as my response was, Skye’s smile was full. He turned his head, his nose pushing into my stomach, under my jacket so he could take another deep breath.

“Yeah,” he agreed.

And it was another few minutes before I thought to move again, content as I was to comb my fingers through his hair.

In the end, logic won out. We couldn’t spend his heat in the pack’s clinic. It’d be his place—where he hadn’t been for days—or mine, and I was in no way prepared to take care of Skye the way he deserved.

I pressed a kiss to the top of his head. “Would you mind if I ran a quick errand?”

Skye’s frown was faint when he looked up at me, but the pout was clear in his voice. “You’ll come right back?”

Holy hell, my wolf was practically dancing circles, tail wagging, just knowing that Skye wanted me with him. “Absolutely. Yes. I—I want to be with you. Now. For your heat. And—” And for as long as he wanted me. “Yes. I won’t be long.”

His smile returned like a beacon. “Then sure. You can go, for a little bit. I should, you know, touch base with Linden about—well...” He waved at the clinic bed.

Right. Because he was sick, and he might not be up for whatever exactly my wolf had in mind for him. But there was no way Linden Grove would let me hurt him. If he let Skye leave the clinic with me, he’d give me a warning if I needed one.

And Linden was his pack alpha. And his boss. And his doctor. And mated.

And there wasnoreason for my wolf to be snarling at the very idea of him getting close to Skye while his heat was on the way. If there were anything between them, it—it would have happened. And, well, Skye deserved an alpha like that, who could provide.

And, dammit, my wolf needed to check himself.

“Yes. Great. You talk to the alpha, and I’ll be back. Half an hour. Maybe less. I’ll be fast.”

Skye laughed. “You don’t have to rush. I’ll seriously be fine.”

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