Page 73 of Oakheart

“That was Viktor.”

“Damn.” I knew he was capable, but I’d forgotten how dangerous he was.

Of course, he’d never been a danger to me, but what the hell had he been through that left him capable of this much carnage?

The man in question had just heaved a body off his shoulder onto the burn pile. He froze, and I saw him frowning at us when I peeked over Aleks’s arm.

He took a few steps toward us.

“They couldn’t come home with us.” Viktor glanced between me and Aleks, but his eyes settled on me, and I lifted my head enough to meet his gaze squarely.

“I know.”

Somehow, I didn’t think that I was the one he was really talking to, though. I just didn’t know if he was explaining himself to Aleks, or to the Crescent wolves listening in.

“They would have caused us problems.”

“I know.”

“And they are the men who—” Viktor clenched his jaw.

There were some crimes so vile they were unforgivable, and some evils you could only tear out by the root.

Aleks had gone tense against me, and I thought all of us, our whole pack, would be reckoning with the trauma we’d endured for decades to come. I only hoped it wouldn’t take generations for us to recover and do better, but now that we had a chance, I knew each one of us standing there and many we’d left behind would fight like hell to make the most of it.

“Viktor,” I said, steeling myself even when my voice broke. It wasn’t grief for these men that tripped me up, but for the lives we could have had without them. My family might have stayed together, people wouldn’t have been hurt, the girls would’ve been safe. The most vulnerable in our pack could’ve grown up without fear, and now that it was finished, the ache of what we’d lived through was so profound it stole my breath. “When the foundation is rotten, you rip out the bad wood and replace it. They were bad men and worse leaders. You did right, and you are hardly the first to see what they deserved. With them gone, it signals to the pack that what’s coming next won’t be anything like what came before.”

If their deaths brought some peace to their victims and the people Grant had used, that mattered more than their pitiful lives.

Viktor took a deep breath through his nose, nodded once, and turned to keep working alone. Seth was talking to Maia, and the Crescent wolves as a whole looked a bit lost.

Aleks buried his nose against my shoulder, nuzzling in, and I’d need a minute or two before I was willing to let him out of my arms. Then we’d help, but first, I needed this.

“You were hurt,” I mumbled against his temple. His shirt was torn open in the middle, blood soaking the ratty edges, but he seemed to have healed already. Either it’d been someone like Marcus, or Aleks had already let go of Grant. Whatever the case, I was just glad he was in one piece.

I felt him shrug. “Not so bad. I healed. The witchwolf helped.”

Reflexively, my arms tightened around him. I looked around for Dakota to find him leaning against Jax, sitting on the ground. Jax looked a little shellshocked, but they were both fine.

I owed them more than I could repay, but given how keen I was to get home and see Evie and Pa, I didn’t know that I’d get the chance. At least not right off.

Maybe one day, I’d figure out what I could do for a billionaire and the most powerful creature I’d ever met.

I sighed, and we stood there in silence for a while, swaying and holding each other.

Then Aleks pulled back. A rare seriousness furrowed his brow. “Do you think I’m ready for this?”

I smiled. “Yeah, I do. But I also think it doesn’t matter so much if you’re not. We’ll figure it out. Grant and Reeve thought you could only lead from above, with fear, coercion, and pain. We can get more done together. Sure, you’ll be alpha, but you aren’t the only person responsible for shaping our pack. We’ll all have to put in work to make it better. And, I don’t know, you’re pretty charismatic. Inspiring, even.”

Aleks broke out in a wide grin. “Inspiring, hm?” He leaned in with a teasing growl, nipping his teeth just beneath the corner of my jaw. “What is it I inspire?”

“Not here.” I shoved his chest lightly—not hard enough to push him away, becauseholy fuck, I had him. I didn’t have to wonder what we meant to each other. There’d be no more holding myself apart for his good and mine.

I didn’t realize how much I wanted to hold his hand until it became a possibility, and then the idea of sitting close to him, hugging him like this, getting to smile at him without worrying what everyone else was thinking—it was all I could think about.

I wanted to get home, yes to see Evie safe and to take care of our pack, but also so we could start working toward the future where all that was possible.

Was it really? I looked up into his bright blue eyes, and it certainly felt like we could do more.