Chapter 12
Twelve
T he bond rejoiced the second Luna walked into the room.
Cut it out , Oliver told it sternly.
The bond pulsed once, as if in rebellion. Oliver crossed his arms tight over his warm chest, sitting back against the couch. He already had the full moon jitters to deal with tonight. He didn’t need more bond bullshit.
“Let’s get this over with,” he said.
Luna gave him a judgy look. As did everyone else in the room because Luna had insisted that this should be a family event. It’s Musgrove Inn , she’d pointed out when she floated the idea last night. Not Oliver Inn. Everybody should see what’s going into it.
And everyone had agreed and filed into the common room like they didn’t have better things to do tonight. Like everyone wasn’t twitchy and fidgeting with the full moon, ready to wolf out and roam the forest.
“Take all the time you want,” Grandmother said, pulling her long sleeves over her hands. “We have a busy night ahead, is all.”
Luna brightened. “Of course!”
She struck a pose next to the whiteboard she’d dragged Oliver into town to get two days ago. It had a towel draped over it, thick and fluffy since Luna had talked them into buying better ones for the guests.
“In one word,” she started. “How would you describe Musgrove Inn?”
“Drafty,” Ben called.
Oliver glared at him. Ben beamed, slinging an arm around his wife’s shoulders and knocking Oliver in the head in the process.
“Cool,” Darren tried, his homework abandoned in his lap. He was tearing tiny strips off the edges of the paper, restless and ready for the night.
“Boring,” Vida said from where she was sitting on the floor, headphones angled so she could listen with one ear. She’d had her music on full blast all day. Oliver had caught her headbanging in the lobby earlier.
Luna clapped. “Great ideas. I was thinking something more like…”
She turned and whipped the towel off the whiteboard. It had multiple lists scrawled down it. Two words sat at the top of the board: COZY MONSTERS.
“COZY,” Leo yelled. He ran and leaped up across both his parents’ laps, burrowing his face into his dad’s stomach.
Ben grunted, patting his back. “Okay, bud, save it for later. ”
Leo growled, digging his nose in harder. Fur sprouted over his arms.
“ Save it ,” Ben reminded him. He nodded pointedly at Luna. “Go on, Luna.”
Luna blinked. Then she pulled up another shining smile, stupidly charming for someone who looked like she fit on a TV game show while holding a suitcase full of money.
“So,” she said. “I looked at your online presence, and I really think we need to work on your branding. What you have so far is fine, but it needs a little sparkle . Something to tie it all together, let people know what they should expect in a few short words.”
Uncle Roy raised a grudging hand.
Luna blinked again, her smile going slack with shock. “Roy! Do you have an idea?”
Uncle Roy pointed at the whiteboard. “Where’s the logo? You said you’d give us a logo.”
“I’m still working on it!” Luna preened, ruffling her sleek blonde hair. “I’m still deciding what’s going to work best for your branding. Which, I think we can all agree, should be centered around this.”
She tapped the whiteboard. “Now, we can work on what’s inside the inn later. Obviously, we need to up the cozy factor and get more cute. Armchairs instead of those things you have out in the guest common room. Maybe some adorable little monster-themed cushions and knick-knacks around people’s rooms. But anyway, let’s focus on everything outside the inn. You have a beautiful mountain view! The ocean’s a ten-minute drive away! And you have that gorgeous forest at your doorstep! You have a bakery where dragons bake the bread, you have a minotaur with a flower shop, and you have Beth’s sweet little monster chocolates. There’s so much to explore.”
Sabine spoke up, ruffling her son’s furry arms. “I heard you’ve been helping people out in town, Luna. Joshua said those bouquets you posted about have been flying off the shelves!”
“Same as Heath’s croissants,” Ben added. “Think I actually saw the guy smile yesterday when he was making them. It was weird.”
Sabine continued, “And Chester said books have been going like hotcakes since you helped them set up that online store. Especially since you helped them with those pesky packaging issues.”
“And newsletter trouble,” Oliver finished. He’d listened to Luna rant about admin issues for too long not to bring it up.
“All in a day’s work.” Luna struck another pose, color high on her cheeks. “And now I know how to send a paperback from Alaska to New Jersey with minimal bending! Never expected to learn that when I got stuck here. Ahem.”
She was downplaying it. Oliver had been following her around town while she set everything up with various store owners, and he’d seen how hard she worked. She got results. Oliver kept expecting her to brag, and sometimes she did. But most of the time, she was shockingly bashful about her work, like she was waiting for someone to tell her she wasn’t very good .
“You really should talk to the mayor,” said Aunt Barney, undoing her sister’s plait. “Christopher will talk to anyone who wants to uplift the town. He’s the one who organized that beautiful mural you were taking photos of, Luna.”
Aunt Althea frowned. “Christopher’s on his honeymoon, remember? Won’t be back for a while.”
“Oh. Right.”
“I’ll make a note of it,” Luna said. She turned back to the board. “Anyway! When your guests are done seeing all the wonders of Claw Haven, they can come and get cozy by the fire.”
“The fireplace is walled up,” Oliver said flatly.
Luna pointed at one of the bullet points on her list. FIX FIRE.
Sabine cleared her throat, a smile twisting her mouth. “Sorry, but the wonders of Claw Haven? Is this branding for us or the whole town?”
Luna laughed. A few weeks ago, Oliver would’ve assumed it was haughty. Now he noticed how it was slightly too loud as if compensating for her nerves.
“Both, I guess! I just— I think you really have something here in Claw Haven. In the inn too, but also, it’s…” Luna bared her blunt teeth. It was such a wolfy thing to do that Oliver had to bite his cheek to stop a smile.
“It’s comforting ,” she continued. “It’s quiet, it’s friendly, it’s this perfect little escape. People need that. They always need that. That’s what I’ve been doing with pretty much every place that’s asked me to help. I think if we show them what this town could be, lots of people would really love it.”
Grandmother Musgrove hummed.
“I like the fireplace idea,” Aunt Althea said, gold tooth glinting. “We could bake potatoes.”
“Hear, hear,” Ben said quietly.
Leo dug his nose into Sabine’s arm, letting out another low growl. She stroked his hair absentmindedly, watching Luna with a smile so fond it made Oliver’s stomach twist. They shouldn’t treat her like this. Like she was part of the pack. The snow would melt any day now, they’d go up the mountain and get the breakup flower, and this whole mess would be over. Oliver would be free of this warmth tying knots in his chest and making him ache with cold whenever he dared stray too far, and Luna would go back to secretly marketing things for her family’s company. They’d never have to see each other again. Which was a good thing, no matter what that traitorous bond in his chest said about it. She had a fiancé. She had a life . She didn’t belong here in this tiny town in the middle of nowhere.
It took Ben nudging him for Oliver to realize that everybody was looking at him. Waiting. All of them fidgeting, restless, ready to shed their skin and become one with the night.
Everyone except him.
Oliver cleared his throat. “You’re still doing all of this for free, right? We’re not going to find a giant consulting bill when you leave?”
“Depends how nice you are,” Luna said. Then she folded. “No bill. I promised.”
“Plus, you’re bored,” Oliver said.
“Plus, I’m bored,” she chirped, smile still fixed in place. That damn dimple appeared next to it. Oliver’s heart thudded hard in his chest, hot and powerful.
Around him, his family squirmed. The moon was bright and gleaming, with no clouds to hide behind. They didn’t have long.
Oliver’s fingers dug into his thighs, forcing his nails to stay blunt.
“Okay,” he started. “That’s?—”
“That’s enough for now,” Grandmother Musgrove said over him, standing gracefully. “Thank you for this, Luna. We can’t wait to see the rest of what you have planned.”
“Oh!” Luna twisted her smooth hands together. “I was kind of hoping to explain the socials. And some tweaks you might want to add to your website. I have a lot of ideas on how to improve your interior design. No offense to whoever set this up, but if you’re maximizing coziness, you’re gonna want?—”
She fell silent as Grandmother Musgrove rested a hand on her shoulder. Oliver could see the moment she clocked it: the old woman’s teeth were a little too sharp; her eyes brighter than usual.
“Later,” Grandmother Musgrove said. She turned toward the rest of the room, the air crackling with excitement. “Shall we?”
Leo let out a small howl and bolted for the door. Darren followed, the two of them colliding in a wrestling match, fur sprouting over their skin as they tumbled into the hallway.
“Wait until you’re outside, please,” Sabine called, nosing at her husband’s chin.
Aunt Althea and Aunt Barney followed them out, giggling like schoolgirls. Even Uncle Roy cracked a smile as he left, tugging Vida’s headphones off her head and dodging the bite she aimed at him.
Grandmother Musgrove was the last to leave. Her gaze lingered on Luna for a moment before she turned to Oliver, who sat stiff and unmoving on the couch.
“You’ll be alright?” she asked softly.
“Always,” he replied.
Her mouth quirked. She gave them both a considering look. Then she headed into the hallway, closing the door behind her.
Luna frowned at him, baffled. “What was that about?”
“Nothing,” Oliver said. Then he figured she’d get the story from everybody later, the mouthy jackasses. “It’s the full moon.”
“So… werewolf stuff?”
“Werewolf stuff,” he agreed, clenching and unclenching his blunt nails against his jeans. “They’re going for a run.”
Luna looked toward the closed door. “Aren’t you going with them?”
Oliver swallowed. The wolf inside him prowled the edges of his skin, the moon pulling it toward the surface. But whenever he reached for it, his wolf retreated.
“No,” he gritted.
He gave it another second, waiting to hear his family spill out the front door, their joy a knife in his stupid, bitter heart. Then he ripped it open, storming down the hall toward his room.
Luna called out for him.
He kept walking.
Oliver shut himself in his room and hoped.
Hoped she would come.
Hoped she wouldn’t.
Both of these hopes warred in his chest, equally violent. He’d spent every full moon alone in his room since the fire. It wasn’t like he hadn’t tried. Those first few months he’d run with them in his human form, but it wasn’t the same. Not with the wolf prowling inside of him, wanting out but not trusting him enough to hand the reins over. He couldn’t take another night of his family trying to include him in their puppy piles and running insultingly slowly so he could chase them. He didn’t need their pity.
Luna knocked on the door. The bond writhed hopefully behind his ribcage.
Oliver smacked his chest, annoyed. “What?”
Luna flung open the door and waltzed in, perching next to him on the bed so closely that Oliver jerked away on instinct.
“I saw a wolf heading toward the lobby,” she said. “When you say running …”
“A full moon makes the transformation easier,” Oliver admitted. “For some of us, anyway.”
Her keen eyes narrowed. Oliver had never wanted her to be absorbed and prissy until right now. If she looked at him with big, pitying eyes his family all denied they were giving him, he would lose it.
“Is that safe?” Luna asked after a worrying pause. “All of them wolfed out, running around? It’s probably fine, I just heard?—”
“The wolf can be hard to control if you’re not used to it. Or if you’re emotional. That’s why we run in packs; there’s someone there to keep you in order if you lose it.”
Luna hesitated. “So… you don’t shift?”
“I can’t ,” Oliver huffed bitterly. “Not anymore.”
He couldn’t hear the howling from his soundproofed room, but he could imagine it: racing through the trees, the kids tripping over their own paws. Even Vida let go of that aloof teenager crap on full moons, tongue lolling out of her mouth as she chased her brother and cousin around. Sabine and Ben would be nuzzling each other, Uncle Roy lingering around the edges of the pack until someone goaded him into chasing them, usually one of the aunts. And Grandmother would plod proudly behind them, keeping watch. Making sure the play didn’t get too rough, with no trees or skin broken tonight. They’d end the night exhausted and happy, filled with gratefulness that they were born into a family that got to have this .
And Oliver would be here, cold and alone. He was happy for them, really. But he couldn’t help the bitterness that welled up in him every full moon as he watched them bound outside on four paws. It was so much simpler being a wolf. He missed it with every part of himself.
Luna sniffed, breaking him out of his thought spiral. “When I was fourteen, my family went to Monaco, and I had to stay home with a broken leg.”
Oliver stared at her. He couldn’t tell if she was joking. Then, finally, her mouth twitched.
“I’m just saying,” she continued. “I totally understand.”
“Poor little rich girl,” he deadpanned. “Having to stay home from a family holiday. What, no maid to bring you caviar on a silver platter?”
“We did have a maid. But I dismissed her. I wanted to sulk in solitude.” She bit her lip. At first, he thought she was going to proposition him like she often did when they were alone. But her expression didn’t fit. She looked… strangely vulnerable. Her chin lifted defiantly, the same way it had when she asked him to bring her into town to talk to Kat. Like she was waiting for him to make fun of her.
“You should quit pulling away so much. You’re making them sad. And you’re making you sad. You should let yourself have something nice for once. Even if you don’t—” She stopped, lips pressed tight together.
He stared at her. Even if you don’t think you deserve it . He was terrified that was what she was about to say. He didn’t want her to see him. He didn’t want her to see the guilt curdling inside him. Did she know the truth about the fire? They’d agreed not to go too deep. He rarely got her thoughts, just glimpses of sensation when they were having sex. The occasional slip when they were sitting too close during dinner. Images of her family, tinged with a strange sadness as she watched the Musgroves immerse themselves so deeply in each other’s lives. He tried to block it out as best he could, just like they promised. But some things leaked through.
Luna laughed, high and self-conscious. “Whoa! Where did that come from? I’ve been watching way too many Lifetime movies with you guys.” She slung a leg over him, settling into his lap. “Since we have this side of the inn all to ourselves…”
Her nose brushed his. The bond sparked eagerly in his chest, his hands coming up to squeeze her thighs automatically. There was something in her face he didn’t quite recognize, but then she kissed him, and everything melted away except for her soft skin, her clever hands, and her glinting eyes.
There was something behind the bond, wanting to get through. Oliver didn’t let it in. By the time sensations started to spill through the bond, Luna had locked whatever it was away, and the only glimpses he got of her mind were pure pleasure.