Page 38 of Oakheart

Maybe it was time.

CHAPTER 19

Cash

There wasa frantic energy in the pack that I hadn’t felt since Grant had killed his brother and taken command as alpha.

I still wasn’t sure how he’d done it. It’d only been a year since Jax and the others had left, and Reeve had long since recovered from his injuries, but still, he’d seemed more hollowed out by the day. Disinterested. Distant.

When Grant had challenged him, nobody had believed it. Even when Reeve was dead on the ground, it hadn’t made any goddamn sense.

Grant wasn’t a fighter or a strongman. He was clever, but Reeve shouldn’t have been lost enough for that to win out over brute strength.

But it had, and Grant had immediately turned his attention to making Reeve’s loyalists happy, bringing them into his inner circle and making sure they wanted to stay there.

Something about seeing Jax and his mate sent the pack into a frenzy. Janice still talked to Maia on occasion, who’d left with Jax and Jill when she was months younger than me. Back then, she’d been braver than I was. Still was, probably.

Now, everybody wanted to hear what Janice had to say, what Jax’s mate was like, how the pack lived. They were in San Francisco, the middle of a big urban area, and I couldn’t imagine it, but I was glad.

They could’ve gone off and starved. Gotten put down by some other pack when they wandered through the wrong territory.

Instead, they’d thrived.

But our pack was buzzing. There was a lot to do, and nobody seemed to know where to start. One afternoon, I heard Grant going on about what he was owed. Some of the others spoke in hushed tones, obviously curious about the rich city pack in a way that was more than just speculation.

I was just grateful it’d taken the heat off Evie, and I liked that I could leave the settlement proper to work on the new big house, because that was something for me to focus on for years, maybe. I was getting better at working fast, and Viktor and Leo had learned so much that they hadn’t needed a lot of guidance in years. We just made steady progress, together.

Still, it was the kind of project I could keep chipping away at for a long time while I tried to get my thoughts in order.

I just didn’t know what we were going todo. The stalemate between Viktor and Grant was a short-lived thing, and Uncle Tommy had told Pa in a hushed tone that it was going to come to a fight.

I’d never been more scared than I was hearing that, because everyone I loved would be on one side of it, and I knew what the people on the other side were capable of.

I didn’t like our pack a lot of the time, but I didn’t want to see it ripped apart or innocent people get hurt. I didn’t want anyone I loved to suffer anymore.

What if Aleks challenged Grant and lost? He’d lose everything. His family would loseeverything. Katya wouldn’t be safe anymore, and Aleks?—

I didn’t think Grant was fool enough to let a wolf live who was willing to challenge him like that.

So I hated the idea of them fighting, and as much as I wanted things to change, I was terrified of what it’d cost all of us.

And fucking worried when one night, I came home to find Pa sitting at the table, his hands folded seriously, simple sandwiches on plates before his spot, Evie’s, and mine.

Evie hadn’t touched hers, and there was a purple backpack leaning against the leg of her chair.

He nodded at mine, the candlelight flickering off his serious scowl. “Eat.”

Feeling like a kid about to get in trouble, I sat and did as I was told, but my mouth was dry. What was this about? He wasn’t going to say we were handing Evie over. I knew that, but I didn’t know what else could make him like this.

“You’re leaving tonight,” Pa said. “Grant’s going after Jax and the Crescent pack. Said they have something we need.”

“Money?” Sure, it’d help us out to have more of it, but frankly, I knew Jax. If we asked for it, I thought he’d help, even if he hated Grant. There was no sense in anybody getting hurt for something we could get for free.

Pa shrugged. “Not sure. Tommy said he’s been talking to the witches a lot.”

“Aleks might’ve picked something up.”

I hadn’t told Pa about Aleks and me, because I didn’t know what to say. I wasn’t sure what we were to each other, except that I sometimes made him smile, and I liked that, so I wasn’t going to question it.