Page 36 of Oakheart

I was just scared it’d take more than I had in me.

CHAPTER 18

Aleks

I marchedout of the house onto the front stoop the moment I heard Cash’s voice coming from there, before even registering how panicked he sounded or how worried Mama and Leo looked, both standing motionless in the kitchen.

I’d come for dinner with my small collection of books, thinking I would leave them on the shelf in the room that should’ve been mine. It was a comfort, to think they would be safe there. Nothing in Grant’s home was safe.

Outside, Viktor was calming Cash, something my brother had gotten very good at over the years they had been spending most of their time together.

It took me a moment to gather what was happening: Cash was having a breakdown over Grant targeting Evie. Well fuck, I couldn’t blame him.

Although targeting was the wrong word.

Every reasonably attractive young person in the pack could expect the treatment Evie was getting. I’d been a bit older when I’d gotten it, but... come to think of it, that mostly came down to the fact that I’d mostly been sent off with women, and women didn’t generally like the look of little boys, but men... well.

It wasn’t going to make anyone feel better about anything, my pointing out that men were disgusting and often seemed to prefer children.

It was a clever idea on Cash’s part, suggesting Viktor claim Evie, and frankly, it was one of the few things that would be able to stop Grant doing whatever he wanted.

Viktor, who hadn’t given me any indication he’d noticed me standing there, motioned me over without turning to look at me. Then he pushed Cash into my arms with a nod. “I will inform Grant.”

A tiny, somewhat rough whisper emanated from underneath the front porch. “I can go with you, if you want.”

Evie.

She’d been hiding under the porch, hearing how the pack alpha and his conspirator planned to pass her around like a bottle of liquor. Which was incredible, because I hadn’t heard or smelled her there any more than I normally did. The kid really was incredible at hiding. It was a gift.

But also, it was good, because Evie should know what was happening.

On the other hand, Viktor said what I was thinking before I managed to put it to words. “No. If he tries to refuse me, I won’t have you standing there as an easy target to send off with that woman.”

It wasn’t that I expected Grant to refuse Viktor outright—Viktor was terrifying and anyone in their right mind would give him anything he demanded. But whatever Grant might be missing in decency and scruples and physicality, he made up for, and then some, in quick thinking. The man was cleverer than I could ever hope to be, and I wouldn’t have even tried to outthink him.

There was a reason Viktor had spent so much time trying to teach me how to fight. Without that, I had no hope of beating the man in any way.

I wasn’t sure I held much hope regardless, because again, Grant was clever and I was just Aleks.

“In the morning,” I told Viktor, before he could march off without me. “They’ve been drinking today, and I don’t want anyone to get rowdy because they’ve consumed enough vodka to knock out an elephant. We’ll do it in the morning when everyone is sober.”

The next morning, I walked beside Viktor to Grant’s horribly sagging house and tried not to think about how much work Cash was currently putting into building him a new one. He was building a stunning palace of a home, far grander and more beautiful than Grant deserved. Two stories, half a dozen bedrooms, and so many windows...

I wondered if Cash was doing it like that in hopes that it would take decades to build, and Grant wouldn’t live long enough to see it done.

Viktor walked with the same confidence as always, and maybe a hint of swagger. I wondered if he was emulating one of Grant’s goons, or if it was some hint of the old Viktor, an overconfident teenager who’d thought the world was his to walk through.

Or maybe it was just entirely an act, since he seemed much more comfortable in his skin nowadays, and no one ever questioned the perfunctory way he did everything. Personally, I found it a little scarier, the almost mechanical way he moved sometimes, not a single motion wasted. Everything calculated,like he could break your neck and then toss your body into the woods in a single sweeping arc, so that not only would you be dead, but your body wouldn’t be around to inconvenience anyone.

Grant and the goons were already out on the porch, which seemed to be sagging even more than usual. Maybe it was the weight of four grown men—the usual crew minus Tommy, who actually seemed to be having an emotion about having to sacrifice his daughter for his pitiful amount of power.

More likely, the porch really was just sagging more and more, especially since Grant and his friends tended to sit there all day, surveying the people of the pack instead of doing something useful to add to the value of our community.

“I intend to claim Evie,” Viktor said, without a hint of accent, which was good. I was never sure why, but Grant seemed to hate my accent.

Not to say I exaggerated it around him because of that...

But I did.