Page 12 of Cold Moon

But dropping family, even shitty family, wasn’t always easy. It took more spine than I’d had at nineteen.

My sophomore year, I’d checked in on the pack over spring break, and... things were rough. Dad was losing it, the pack was more volatile than ever, and—and I’d needed to stay. They’d needed me—or rather, they’d needed something.

Asshole that I was, I’d thought I could actually help. Like any other arrogant teenager, I overestimated my ability to fix problems on my own. That’d turned out swell.

I shrugged. “Good grades. The Doherty Foundation has some scholarships for werewolves. The better to assimilate with, and all that jazz.”

“Really?” Alpha Grove leaned against the bed’s footboard. “I heard they only give out a handful of those scholarships a year. Super hard to come by. I applied. Didn’t even make the short list.”

They were competitive, but what did it matter? I’d lost the scholarship when I’d dropped out. Thank god I didn’t have to pay them back, but there was no clear way for me to go back to school. Without the resources to navigate the university systems or knowing how to ask for help, much less who to ask, I’d just dropped out. No medical reason. No personal reason. Just gone.

Not that I would have returned—not when it meant leaving the pack in turmoil. Or that school, being out there on my own with no pack, was a walk in the park either. I’d really struggled freshman year. I did fine with the schoolwork, but the social part was rough.

“Okay, so I hadreallygood grades. You know what it’s like—it looks good to take a poor, mangy werewolf and give them a polish. That kind of thing plays well with the media.” And I couldn’t imagine a day in his life that Alpha Grove wasn’t immaculately put together already, with his sweaters and checkered shirts and pants that were perfectly tailored to the length of his legs.

No frayed hems for Alpha Grove. He didn’t need help from any foundation.

He wasn’t having any of my shit, either.

“Also could’ve been you put your nose to the grindstone and worked hard to get that scholarship. Can’t imagine your pack had many resources for continuing education, so it sounds to me like you made your own way when there wasn’t one open to you.”

He sounded nice. Frank. And I couldn’t stand it.

I shrank down against the pillows and shrugged. “Yeah, sure. Made my way to a third of a degree and a bunch of classes I failed in my fourth semester.”

All Alpha Grove did was hum, but he was giving me an appraising look that I didn’t like. Still, he let it go and picked my chart out of the little nook at the end of my bed.

He flipped through the pages. “Seems like you’re improving rapidly. I think it’s about time we discharged you from the clinic.”

“Oh.” So this was it. I still had bandages around my torso, looping up across my shoulder, and some stitches that needed to come out, but I was an alpha wolf who could walk on his own two feet. It was time for me to go. “Right. Sure. Definitely.”

Already, I was trying to get out of the bed and go, but Alpha Grove put a firm hand on my shoulder to keep me down. His eyes were gleaming with amusement, even though he didn’t laugh at me.

“Not this very second, Dante. I’d still like to give it a couple more days, just to be sure. But there was something I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Yeah?” I sank back down into the pillows. When I thought about it, I didn’t really know what I was going to do when I left. They’d brought me here naked. What clothes they’d picked off the ground must’ve been too bloody and shredded to bother with. So I didn’t have clothes, I had a hospital gown they probably wanted me to return, and I couldn’t very well walk down the road to nowhere stark fucking naked.

Could do it in fur though.

“Do you have insurance?”

Oh.

Oh fuck.

“No.” My gut clenched, nerves rolling in an acid wave that stung the back of my throat.

Insurance. Health insurance. I didn’t even have a fucking T-shirt. How the fuck was I supposed to have insurance?

Normally, a pack banded together and paid for healthcare when they needed it. Not my pack. I’d had insurance as a student, but, well, I’d dropped out two years ago. The last time I’d had insurance was when I was nineteen, and what twenty-year-old werewolf thought they were going to have their insides exposed to the elements at random?

“I’m so sorry. I should’ve told you sooner.” As my nerves ratcheted up, my voice got strained.

“Hey, it’s okay.” With his hand still on my shoulder, Alpha Grove brushed his thumb across my neck. It was a pack gesture—not one I was used to, but one I’d seen him do with Skye and Claudia and his mate. “You were hurt. There was no way I wasn’t going to help you.”

“But I don’t have any way to pay.” My lungs squeezed hard in my chest. I wanted to double over, shove my face against my knees, but Alpha Grove was there holding me up. “What can I do? Is there something I can do?”

A soft smile broke out on his face. “You know, actually, there might be.”

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