Page 28 of Oakheart

In this case, though, the words were what hit me like a blow. “Well then. You break our shy little carpenter in. I’m sure your mother won’t begrudge the afternoon’s use of her lovely new home. Make sure to do a... thorough job of it.” Then he turned back to Cash, face gone entirely serious. “I expect you back to work first thing in the morning, though. You’ve got more houses to build.”

The goons laughed as though they were the backing track to a previous-century sitcom, and then as one, they headed toward the front door, following Grant.

Cash stood there, frozen, in front of a huge butcherblock countertop island he’d built by hand, his green eyes wide and almost terrified.

I stood facing him, Viktor still holding my arms so tight I couldn’t possibly move, until the lot of them had left the house. I turned to look back at Viktor and hissed in Russian, “What did you just offer me up to do?”

His lips quirked in a tiny smirk. “Just what you’ve been dying to do for years. Take the adorable carpenter to bed. Convincingly, since Grant wants it to be a punishment forCash denying him the right to have a child raped.” He glanced between me and Cash for a moment, his smile slowly fading. “So go. Spend the night with your carpenter. Enjoy it. Tomorrow, we begin to discuss how to end your uncle.”

CHAPTER 15

Cash

There was onlyone thing in this world that could convince me to stand up to the alpha, and that was protecting Evie.

It was the first time I fully understood why Pa had gone to Reeve and told me to stay behind. I still felt guilty about it, probably always would, but I didn’t give a single damn what happened to me as long as Evie was safe. Heck, even if Grant killed me right there in the middle of Katya’s kitchen, right that second, the only reason it would matter was that I wouldn’t be around to protect Evie tomorrow.

I half expected claws to tear through my throat any second, but that never happened. Maybe the fact that I was the only member of the pack who could reliably make a standing structure saved me, but there was a clear threat in Grant’s eyes when he asked who I thought I was, to be making calls for the pack.

He arched a brow at me. “Unless you’ve got something else to offer?”

I could’ve promised to build more homes, faster than I had before, to run myself ragged, but fury bubbled in my gut. That was what he was expecting, a deal that benefitted him.

I didn’t want to play his game, and there were things about me none of these goons had ever guessed at.

In a moment of pure insanity, I stuck out my chin. “Sure. You want some tail? I’m here. It’d be good for Marcus to get some experience with somebody his own age, yeah?”

While some of the others laughed, Marcus clenched his jaw. His hand fisted, and I was pretty damn sure it was only the kitchen island between us that kept him from breaking my jaw again.

Either that, or the way a low growl shook in the air, but nobody else seemed to notice that. Weird, because I felt it like it echoed around in my own chest.

Before Marcus could fling himself over the counter and beat me bloody for challenging him, Viktor spoke. It didn’t happen often, but when it did, people listened.

He put forward Aleks, and?—

My heart clenched. A thousand feelings hit me at once.

Marcus touching me was about as close as you could get to the last thing I ever wanted, but Aleks? I’d thought about it. There’d been times, like when he’d gotten back from Russia and held my face in his hands and his mouth had been so close to mine.

Or, sure... I’d built almost every piece of furniture in Katya’s new home, including the bed that was supposed to be Aleks’s. His room was the only one with no personal effects, even the shelf he’d asked me to build entirely empty, because he wasn’t moving here.

But I’d be lying if I hadn’t thought, while carving the headboard, what it might be like if... well, if I was ever in it. With him.

Nothing I’d imagined was like this, coerced with Aleks looking like he was a whole world away.

The last two people to leave were Katya and Viktor. Katya met my eye, concern puckering her brow. I offered her a little, wavering smile. Whatever happened, I trusted her son.

I wasn’t sure what he wanted, but we’d... we could figure it out.

As Viktor made his way out last, the weight of what I’d done hit so hard it knocked the wind out of me. With a shaky exhale, I slumped forward, folding my arms on the countertop to cradle my head. “Holy fuck.”

My breaths came sharp and short. I?—

Evie—

I couldn’t make sense of what the fuck had just happened, other than that I’d challenged the alpha, and oh fuck, I was going to pay for that, wasn’t I?

Back when I’d been sixteen, all I’d done was not rat my friends out, and I’d paid for it. It’d made a sick kind of sense, that Reeve meant to take my leg so I couldn’t run, but taking Pa’s was just as effective at keeping me in line, and it sent a message to the rest of the pack: nobody else better even think about leaving, or they’d be sorry.