Page 63 of Oakheart

But itwasn’tfine. I’d fucked up everything, and I hadn’t managed on my own.

When my breathing evened out, Aleks leaned back. Carefully, he cupped my wrist and pulled my arm away from my middle. I only resisted a second before I let him, and cheeks flushed with shame, my gaze hit the floor.

Aleks’s breath caught. He held my wrist in his hand still, but he also cupped my side and brushed the edge of one of the deep scratches with the light touch of his thumb. “It hurts?”

I shook my head. “Aches a little still, but I’m fine.”

“Not healed though.”

I glanced up at him, my lips tilting wryly. “I’m... having a hard time letting go of our pack.”

There was magic in what we surrendered to alphas. In a pack like Jax’s, it meant everyone working together, even if he led and cared for them.

While it wasn’t Grant I was attached to, he was still in charge of my pack. I couldn’t just let go of the idea of him as integral to it while he still held the loyalty of so many. But Aleks was right—I was a werewolf. I would’ve healed already if it weren’t for Grant himself dealing the wound.

Aleks cursed in Russian, then his lips were on mine again, gentler this time. His hand slipped from my side to press the small of my back.

We kissed until I melted into him, gripping onto his shoulders, dazed and bleary-eyed when he said, “I’m sorry I did not kill the bastard sooner.”

A laugh escaped me like a sob, and I shook my head. “You don’t have to apologize for not killing your uncle.”

Aleks snarled, and it was the weirdest thing, but it didn’t scare me. I knew he was mad for me, not at me, and warmth spread through my chest.

“He is nothing to me,” he spat. “You are?—”

Aleks stopped and stared into my eyes. I was caught like a rabbit, waiting for whatever I was to him, unsure what he was going to say but certain I could feel the seismic rumbling underfoot.

“I love you,” he said, brow pinched, entirely serious.

I blinked. “You do?”

Shit. That’d just come out.

To be fair, Aleks was destined to be alpha of our pack. He was eight years my junior, completely gorgeous, and could have his pick of pretty much anyone he wanted.

I was just... I was a mess. Right then and always.

I didn’t know how to talk to people. I wasn’t charismatic like him. I hadn’t won over many friends and what few I did have—well, they’d mostly come through him.

His hair was perfect. His skin glowed. His body?

Holy fuck, his body.

But his heart was also kind and sweet, and he had been careful with me from the start. Generous. Of course I loved him. It never would’ve occurred to me that it was possiblenotto love him. But I’d never thought that meant he could love me back.

Whatever we had, I had always suspected I was... safe, for him. I was obviously interested, and he was more inclined toward men anyway, and I had no loyalty to Grant so there was no change of me outing him, and?—

And fuck, I’d been blinking at him for too long.

He hummed, his charismatic smile returning, and this time, I thought it might be a mask. He was bracing for a blow, and I’d never?—

I was never going to hurt him, not if I could help it.

He hummed, squinting his eyes a little. “Yes.”

“I love you too.” I reached up to tuck a stray blond wave behind his ear.

His expression softened to one of wonder, and I swallowed hard. Maybe I should’ve told him that sooner. It wouldn’t have changed anything, but that he could even feel a flicker of disbelief that I might feel that way now was absurd. He never should’ve had to live one second not knowing that I loved him.