Page 61 of Oakheart

“Do you know anything about who did?” Dakota asked, all flat tone and unimpressed expression.

Grant turned immediately to stare at Dakota, sniffing the air. I wondered if this spell was so strong he could smell it, even from that distance. Still, he persisted in lying to one of the most powerful creatures ever born. “It’s insulting that you’d even ask,” he said, scowling.

When Jax spoke, it was through gritted teeth. “This is the second time my pack has been attacked surrounding this challenge of yours. If it happens again, Grant, pack law be damned, challenge be damned, I will know it’s your fault. And I will come here and end you, once and for all.”

The smell of arousal floated through the room as Dakota stared up at Ajax, hearts in his eyes. I did not laugh, but it was difficult.

“I’m not afraid of you,” Grant said, and without looking, I could hear the tremble in his voice.

Dakota snorted even as he turned to the door. “Yeah. Keep telling yourself that. Maybe someday you’ll believe it. Hopefully before you make Jax rip your throat out by attacking us again.”

They left without another word, Jax just growling in Grant’s direction, and Grant backing out of the hallway.

Me? I grinned like a crazy person. Why? Because they had come to the place where we were staying. What was the American saying? Turnabout is fair play.

It was time to pay them a visit, and see Cash.

CHAPTER 31

Cash

At some point,I had to pull myself together and find Evie. I wasn’t up for a fight, but I could walk around on my own okay now, and every second wasn’t agony. I had a scar across my middle, but all it took was a shirt and Evie wouldn’t have to see that.

But she’d never made it to the Crescent building, and Grant didn’t have her, and I needed to figure out where she was. As sure as I was that she could take care of herself around a bunch of humans after a lifetime of contending with our pack, she shouldn’t have to.

I was staring at my bag, wondering if I should ask Jax for more supplies and maybe some new clothes. They’d grabbed what I had left at the motel, but it wasn’t much even before Grant ruined the outfit I’d been wearing by tearing me in half.

A quiet knock shook me out of my worry that it’d be too much for me to ask Jax for anything at all beyond saving my life.

“Yes?”

Dakota slipped into the room. “Hey, ah, Aleks came to see you? He’s at the door. Jax wasn’t sure if you’d want to talk to him.”

For a second, all I could do was stare, wide eyed. A thousand circumstances played through my mind, most of them horrible.

Aleks thought I was a coward.

He was there to tell me how selfish I’d been.

He hated me now, thought I didn’t believe in him or appreciate all his family had put on the line for mine.

My ears pricked up, and I heard Jax say, “If he’s willing to see you, that’s fine. But if he doesn’t want to, you have to leave. Understood?”

“Yes, Papa,” came Aleks’s accented response. “Your roof, your rules, okay?”

So maybe he was just . . . himself.

I didn’t know what to make of that, but I threw myself out of the bed. I had to look like a rumpled mess. It’d been weeks since I’d even thought about a haircut, not that my hair was ever particularly tidy. I was just thankful Jax had brought me a razor, which I had taken to mean that I was looking like a wild man and needed to do something about it.

I wasn’t exactly cleaned up all nice and shiny, but I’d looked worse.

I stumbled into the openness of the living area to see Jax blocking Aleks’s access to most of the pack. My heart squeezed so hard in my chest that it was all I could do to whisper, “Hi, Aleksander.”

Formal. That was too formal.

It was weird, but I was?—

Was I in trouble? It wasn’t like Aleks had ever made me feel like I had to be deferential to him, but I’d also never absconded in the night without warning.