Page 87 of Oakheart

Suddenly, they wanted away from us as much as we wanted them gone.

Viktor pushed my hands away and braced himself on the ground, pushing himself to his feet. For a fraction of a second, he was unsteady, but he hid it well by spreading his legs and going into that pose I always thought of as military. He rolled his shoulders back, and a moment later, he was surrounded. Evie, a tiny sleek black wolf, sniffing at his knees, among a bunch of others on four legs who moved to our flanks, protective.

Like a pack should be.

Maggie, who hadn’t shifted, came up to lay a hand on his cheek. “You look pale, dear. Do you want a cup of tea?”

He blinked at her in shock for a moment, shock I could not only see on his face, but feel in my bond with him. People didn’t worry about Viktor. He was the solid one. The protector. He worried about them. Having them worry for him was distinctly uncomfortable.

“That’s very kind of you, Maggie, but I think Viktor is well.” It was a lie, or half of one. He wasn’t unwell, but he was a little dizzy and still had the faint smell of ozone about him. But theattention was only making things worse, and it wasn’t like a cup of tea cured magic.

Viktor nodded to her, agreeing with me, but also acknowledging her offer. Frankly, it was better than he’d done with anyone but me, Cash, or Evie since he’d gotten to the States. Even his relationship with Leo was a little confused at times since he’d returned to us.

For a moment, I considered shoving Viktor in the truck and driving all the way back to California right then, asking Dakota to figure out what magic the witch had put on my best friend, and how we could remove it. If anyone could, it was him.

But Viktor was shaking it off, and I knew him. I knew without a doubt he would never allow that. We were in a sensitive moment for the pack, and me running off in the middle of it could irreparably damage my position as alpha.

That, in turn, could destroy the pack. We were all struggling enough as it was, trying to find what we could hold onto as life battered the pack, tearing away members, leaving us fewer, nervous, and vulnerable. If we weren’t careful, a bad blow could be the last, and Viktor was the most careful among us.

“I will be fine,” he told Maggie, inclining his head to her. “Just witchery. We are wolves. We will endure.”

It was an odd turn of phrase, and I wondered where it had come from. Also, maybe I didn’t want to know. To some degree, I appreciated the sentiment, because we had endured a fucking lot and survived.

We would survive this too.

But we weren’t just trying to survive anymore, dammit. We were ready to start living, and Viktor was as much a part of that as anyone.

If he so much as stumbled with the smell of magic still on him, world be damned, I would pack him right into Grant’s... my truck, and take him to San Francisco.

He clearly had other plans. He turned to where Mama was coming back from chasing the witches out of town—and I thought she’d probably enjoyed the hell out of scaring the wits out of them—and nodded to her. “I believe Mama was in the middle of pancakes when they rudely interrupted. We should go eat, and then get started.”

Get started.

It sounded overwhelming and perfect at the same time. There were a million things to do, houses to build, and ideas to research, like Evie’s solar power.

I had dreamed of hot showers the night before.

Hot showers with Cash.

Cash, still on all fours, came back into the square, head held high, and strangely, it was Walter who spoke. “Well done, alpha mate. Getting those monsters off pack territory. We should have done that years ago.”

Cash blinked at him in clear shock, but I grinned. “Indeed. A fine job letting them know they’re no longer welcome here. We should never have had any part of them, and now, they know not to come back.”

A cheer went up in the pack at that, reminding me that I wasn’t the only one who’d always dreaded hearing the SUVs coming. Grant had done that to us, and never given a damn about anyone else’s feelings. But that was gone, now. They were gone.

And none of it was ever coming back.

CHAPTER 43

Cash

That first daywas only made tolerable by pancakes.

Admittedly, I really liked pancakes. Something about the trees and hauling all that wood—pancakes with perfectly sweet maple syrup made me feel right, like I was doing what I was meant to be doing.

There was no better comfort in this world, especially when Katya handed me a plate with a smile that said she was grateful I’d defended her sons.

I’d done that.