Free Moon of the Terrible (Seasons of the Moon) by SM Reine

O NE
    The Challenger
    Abel was pretty sure that Levi had a death wish.
    The guy was obnoxious on his best days, but the day that the pack moved into the California sanctuary was definitely not his best day. In fact, it might as well have been the worst since Abel came to know Levi—and he had seen some pretty terrible days.
    It started first thing in the morning.
    “Whoa, where are you going?” Levi asked, grabbing Abel’s shoulder when he moved to carry his bag into the west wing of the sanctuary.
    Abel glared at the hand on his arm and swallowed back a growl. Scott was talking to a girl with a pixie cut at the end of the hall. He seriously disapproved of pack members fighting, and Abel tried not to piss off the man in charge.
    “I’m going to my room,” Abel said.
    Levi stepped in front of him. “That’s not your bedroom.”
    Abel looked at the door in the hallway. They all looked the same: heavy iron painted to a friendly shade of white. But his bedroom in particular was at the end of the hall. There was no mistaking it for another.
    “This is always my bedroom when I stay here,” Abel said. “And you better get that hand off of me if you want to keep it.”
    Levi straightened his spine. He wasn’t nearly tall enough to intimidate Abel, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t try. “I rearranged the rooms.”
    Abel ignored him and shoved the door open.
    His bed was covered in an unfamiliar comforter. Posters of soccer players were plastered on every inch of wall, and those were familiar—Abel had tolerated having them in his shared bedroom at the other sanctuary for months, too.
    “I needed a room close to my dad’s office,” Levi said. “You’re in the east wing now.” The smug, petulant voice was almost enough to make Abel clock him.
    “On whose authority?”
    Levi glared. “Mine.”
    Abel jabbed a finger at the adjacent bedroom. That’s Rylie’s room. Remember Rylie? The Alpha? That’s where she stays, and I’m supposed to be next to her. Did you move her, too?”
    “The Alpha’s room is intact, but you’re not the Alpha. I can move you around all I want.” He mimicked Abel’s threatening tone. “Now you better get out of my room if you want to have any room at all.”
    Abel pulled his fist back to punch that look off of Levi’s face.
    Scott’s voice cut through the hall. “Hey!” He stepped away from the girl to join them and Abel dropped his hand. He clenched his fist so hard that the knuckles popped. “Is there a problem?”
    “Nope,” Levi said.
    He smiled and shut his door.
    The day didn’t improve after that.
    There was an organization chart posted in the kitchen. Abel took a look over the heads of the werewolves clustering around it.
    He had been moved to the smallest bedroom in the back corner of the east wing. The window faced the brick wall bordering the property. The bedrooms hadn’t been renovated as recently as those on the west wing, either; the paint was a dull shade of seventies yellow, and there were weird stains on the carpet.
    He tracked down Scott, who was helping move Eldon and his wife into their bedroom. They were in the west wing.
    “I’m not sleeping out there,” Abel said.
    Scott didn’t even look at him. “We’ll talk about this later. The Union’s trying to find a place for their generator. Can you go help them?”
    He gritted his teeth and obeyed.
    But Levi had already beaten him to the Union’s RVs.
    “What are you doing here, Abel?” Levi asked, stepping away from Yasir and the generator.
    Abel counted to ten before replying. Seth was always encouraging him to do that when he was about to lose his temper, but it only seemed to make him angrier. “I’m helping the Union.”
    “I’ve got it under control. We don’t need you. Why don’t you go pine over your brother’s girlfriend some more?”
    Levi marched away before Abel could think of a response.
    Yeah. Levi definitely had a death wish.
    It only got worse over the course of the night.