Page 6 of Oakheart

A house that required rooms to sleep in. For her sons.

“So you’ll need at least two extra bedrooms—one for each of them.”

“Three,” she corrected. “Another brother. Viktor. He is—he will need a place too.”

“Right, okay.” I made notes. “Obviously, in addition to those, you’ll need standard things—a living area, kitchen, pantry, restroom—a couple of those.” As far as Wildwood went, having multiple restrooms was pure indulgence, but I hadn’t spent the last few years making houses for werewolves, but for humans. I’d rather bring us up to standard than keep us all living with the bare minimum. “And I’d like to give you some space to yourself, if that’s all right.”

I wrote everything down. As much as I wanted to think I could remember everything we talked about, it was better to be safe than sorry. Obviously, Grant meant to make Katya happy, and I’d be a fool to disappoint her.

I made notes as I talked, but she said very little. She agreed with me when I looked to her for input, but when I asked her directly what else she might like—a place to do crafts or an extra shed or anything—she shrugged and said, “I will be happy with whatever you make.”

“Really? I mean . . . we can do anything.”

“And I’m happy with anything.”

I bit my lip. She wasn’t like Reeve or Grant, so I didn’t think she was lying, but it was still a tall order to figure out what might make her happy on my own.

But maybe making her happy didn’t have anything to do with specific spaces in her future home, if she was stuck living with Grant and his goons.

“Okay, so if you had to choose between a perfect house and like... getting into your new home as quickly as possible...”

Her smile twisted, and I thought we understood one another. “Some speed would be appreciated.”

“Right, then I can focus on the livable parts of the home first and if you don’t mind, anything complicated or any additions, I can continue working on while you’re living there.”

Since I’d be doing the primary building, presumably, any future work, it’d be easy enough to plan out ahead of time, just in case her family grew or she needed more space.

“Of course.”

I flipped a page and sketched out the shape I was thinking—a larger space on one side of the house with two stories and a living area, and on the other side, a more private suite for her without a second story. The roof of that could serve as a deck for the second-floor bedrooms, and I could wrap a porch around her side of the house to take advantage of the views.

When I explained it all to her, Katya looked at me with staggering fondness. She tipped her head to the side and smiled at me, and fuck, I didn’t know why that look made my breath catch or my eyes start to sting, but it did.

I swallowed with a tight click and turned back to my sketch, but all I was doing was retracing a line I’d already drawn.

She leaned over and put her hand on my forearm. It took everything I had not to flinch away, but logically, I knew Katya only meant to offer support and comfort. Logic rarely came into the way my mind worked, though.

“I am sure it will be beautiful,” she said in her soft, lilting accent.

I nodded, desperately hoping that it would be. I wanted to make her something beautiful—the perfect home. Maybe it would’ve been better if my first project for the pack had been for someone I didn’t so desperately want to impress. Then, I wouldn’t have felt the weight of making something truly special, when I wasn’t even sure that I could do this on my own.

I thought I’d manage. I had the skills and the training and a werewolf’s strength to see the job done. But I’d never done it onmy own before, and I wished that my proof of concept wouldn’t play out in front of good people.

Of course, disappointing Grant wouldn’t be much better. I doubted that Katya would start taking bits of me if I didn’t execute her home precisely as she’d envisioned, to the point of anticipating her shifting thoughts and intuiting desires she hadn’t even voiced.

When she told me she trusted me, I believed it.

While I was staring at her, she glanced past my shoulder. A moment later, she stood.

“I think the boys have finished marking what they can and need your input,” she said. She turned her smile down on me again, and all the air rushed out of my lungs.

“Absolutely. If you need them?—”

She shook her head. “You need the extra hands more than I do. They’re good boys. They’ll listen to you.”

Oh shit. I wasn’t sure I wantedanyonetaking orders from me. But... maybe I could direct them. We were working together—a team, just like the crew of humans I’d learned with had been. Sure, Freddie had taught me a lot, but he’d never treated me or anybody on his crew like we were beneath him.

“Thanks.” I stood up, wiping my hands on my jeans. “I mean, thank you, Katya. Really. Feel free to come see how work is going any time. I’m always happy to adjust if you think of something you’d like.”