Page 80 of Oakheart

I dropped my hands in my lap and shrugged. “Just... you know how it’s been with the pack. It’s not like there are a ton of people with my inclinations who are just... open about it.”

“Under Grant and Reeve, that was true,” he allowed. “Can’t imagine Aleks having a problem with you liking him back though.”

“But what about everyone else?”

He shrugged. “They stay, he’s their alpha. They’ll have to get used to it.”

I pinched a fold of the outer seam of my jeans, just by my knee. “You don’t think it’s going to cause issues?”

He turned toward me, his face solemn and serious while my gut twisted.

“Cash, genuinely, we have much bigger problems to address than love. Ifthat’swhat we spend our time trying to curb and fix, instead of all that’s genuinely wrong in our community, we’ve fucked up again. Life’s short, and you can’t live it waitingfor everybody to be okay with you. If you love him, you’ll make things better for him, not harder. I bet he’d say the same.”

He would, and I knew it.

I sighed. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I didn’t... I didn’t know what we were doing, really.”

Pa shook his head. “Kid, I don’t mind. All I’ve ever wanted is for you to feel safe and happy. He gives you that?”

I swallowed hard. Nodded.

“Good. That’s all that matters to me.”

His eyes drifted toward Evie. She was talking to a girl about her age, and she looked wary. I smiled, because she looked like nobody so much as Viktor when someone was talking at him and he was disinclined to speak.

The girl wanted to know more about California, where she’d been and what had happened. It probably sounded grand, when you took all the terror out of it.

Pa propped his head in his hand. “Think she’ll make a friend?”

I shrugged. “Probably one day.”

Evie’d kept to herself a lot, but I hoped that wouldn’t be the case much longer.

Pa stayed out late, and after a while, Evie softened up, but it was time for bed. They left, and I stayed.

I... wasn’t sure where to go. I had no doubt whatsoever that I could sleep on this couch if I wanted, but mostly, I wanted to touch base with Aleks.

The adults lingered long past midnight, even after Leo and Katya went to bed. Viktor, the most defensive of the lot, was the last to go upstairs, and only after everyone else had left.

Finally alone, I met Alek’s eye from across the living area. We held it for a few seconds before we both laughed. He looked as exhausted as I felt, but I had no idea how he was even upright after talking for so long.

He came over to the couch, dragging his feet a little. When he sat, I turned so my back was against the arm of it. I tucked my socked feet between his legs, my toes wiggling under his far thigh as he stroked his hand up the front of my calf and circled my knee.

The impulse rose to tell him that we didn’t have to rush, that I could be patient, and I’d support him no matter what. But really, Pa was right. I hoped he knew all that and maybe it’d be better for me to just... go with this. For now.

If we faced problems, we’d face them together, but there was no sense borrowing trouble from tomorrow.

“Does Katya cut your hair?”

He blinked at me, clearly not expecting that question. “Sometimes, yes. Why?”

“Do you think she’d cut mine?” I tugged on a lock of it behind my ear. I’d never paid much attention to my appearance before, and this sort of thing didn’t really matter to me, but Aleks and his family always looked so nice. I still didn’t know how he kept his hands so soft when I knew he worked plenty hard enough to earn some blisters. “If I’m going to be hanging around here more, I guess I should... look more the part.”

My hair had gotten scraggly even before Evie and I had fled, and though I’d shaved, I didn’t want to look rough enough that the pack questioned Aleks’s sanity just for having me at his side.

Well . . . they might do that anyway . . .

Understanding dawned on his face, and he grinned. He was so fucking beautiful it stole my breath.