Page 53 of Oakheart

I wanted to rush out of the bathroom and kill him right then. Just push my way back into the dining room and rip his throat out with my claws. Or Marcus, or Adam, or... No. I had to focus. Get my head back in the game. I couldn’t forget my purpose here. Couldn’t disappoint Viktor and Mama, and let Cash and Evie and Leo down.

I took another deep breath, steadied myself for the rush of feeling, and forced the correct words out. “This is trick.”

He seemed even more confused than before, and not at all enlightened and angry. Because I hadn’t explained how it was a trick, so he didn’t understand.

Obviously.

I sighed.

“I don’t imagine you speak Japanese?” he asked out of nowhere.

Odd that he’d even think that, but also kind of flattering. Still, I wasn’t going to lie to him, let alone say something so easily disproven. “No. Only Russian.”

He gave me a very cute smile and shrugged. “Sorry, I can’t help with the language barrier, then. I’ve only got Japanese and some German.”

That was... one of the kindest things I’d ever heard. He was trying to help me, a stranger who’d cornered him in a bathroom. Grant was such an incredible fuck up. He could have made friends with these people. Allies. Come in peace and friendship. But he’d done this. I shook my head and refocused again. “My English isn’t so bad, only frustrating. You are alpha mate, yes?”

“Yes,” he agreed. “You know that.”

I shook my head. “No. Is... this is not normal. Most alphas do not make their matealphamate. You arealphamate.Equal.”

He stared at me, confused, for just a fraction of a second, as I tried to figure out how to say it better without just saying what was going on. As it was, I hadn’t actually betrayed anyone. Hadn’t said anything out of turn.

I had only pointed out a simple fact.

One could never be too careful around werewolves with our hearing.

Clearly, though, the witchwolf was smart, because a second later, his eyes widened in shock, then narrowed again. “That fucker. He’s not going to challenge Jax. He’s going to challenge me.”

Thank fuck. I nodded to him, turned, and left the bathroom. It occurred to me on the way back to the table that they would know I hadn’t used the bathroom for anything, and question me about what I’d been up to, but I didn’t get that far.

Ajax was walking down the hall toward me as I headed out. Behind him, Marcus was standing at the end of the hall, watching. Instantly, I was composed, as calm as I’d ever been in my life. I gave the alpha a wide smile as I passed him, deliberately letting our shoulders bump. That part was easy.Playing the asshole with other enormous assholes who all wanted to play alpha power games.

The hard part was using my damn brain.

More than that, it was, in essence, betraying my pack.

Which was precisely what I had done.

Because I’d had to. Grant had forced all our hands, and I was doing what I had to do.

The future, I reminded myself. It had to be better than the past, and it was my responsibility to make sure of it.

CHAPTER 27

Cash

Evie never showedup at Jax’s home, because she never made it to the Crescent building.

That had to mean that Grant and his goons had caught her, and horror twisted in my already ruined guts about what that might mean.

I’d failed her. I hadn’t kept her safe. She was out there alone.

I had half a mind to ask Jax to send a party out looking for her, but then what? Grant was already knocking on his door.

I hadn’t caught the faintest whiff of Evie’s scent then, which had been something of a relief, but I had smelled Aleks.

His scent stuck out to me—amber and tobacco and warmth—and even if I’d been able to crawl out of bed then, I wouldn’t have done it. I shrank into my pillow and pressed my face into it. I’d have rolled over, but I couldn’t clench the muscles of my abdomen to make it happen.