Page 9 of Oakheart

“You clearly do not suffer this problem, Henry. The sausage is lovely. Is this cayenne, sage, and... pepper?”

Henry grinned at her, nodding. “And thyme.”

He seemed so pleased someone had paid attention to his cooking, it was... sad. Odd. I wasn’t sure why it made me sad.

It did, though, and I was going to have to spend some time considering why.

As soon as we finished, Cash took us out to the well-named toolshed and started pointing out things that he needed out in the clearing to get started, including a chainsaw, which was a very impressive tool. It required gasoline to work, but once Cash showed us the basics, Leo and I took well to it, going around to the marked trees and first felling them, then trimming the branches as Cash had instructed.

It was almost fun.

As we worked our way through a small group of trees on the east side of the clearing, I motioned to the spot. “If we cleared more here, there could be more houses.”

Leo looked around the area, then nodded. “Nice and flat.” He motioned into the south. “That way too. Could be a good place to?—”

He looked up and met my eye, and I knew we were thinking the same thing. It would be a good place to move the whole pack. We could just build anew and then tear down the old buildings when we were done. Use them for firewood in the winter as I’d thought they would be good for so many times.

I nodded to him, and quietly, we began making plans.

Maybe not for tomorrow, or even five years from tomorrow. But someday.

Someday, I would be alpha, and we would change things.

Leo and I traded off who was using the chainsaw, as it was hard work, and by the afternoon, we had a neatly trimmed pile of trunks that would one day become my mother’s new house.

Leo set to the first orange-marked tree in a new area, and I looked around, taking measure. Mama was sitting in her spot on the log where she’d talked to Cash the day before, going through a book, her expression quite pleased.

But Cash . . . Where was?—

My eyes found him just as I heard the creak that said the tree Leo was cutting was about to fall. Cash was too close. I looked to the tree, and sure enough, it was wobbling in a direction that told me Cash was in danger.

Without another conscious thought, I turned and ran, as fast as I could pump my legs. I slammed into him, carrying him three feet back before we hit the ground together, knocking all the air out of my lungs. And Cash’s too, if the way he was gasping for breath was any indication. I immediately pushed up, because whether I was struggling to breathe or not, I had to see him. Had to know he was unharmed.

I leaned back and started patting him down, starting with his face and moving down his body. No broken bones. No blood.

Nothing. Just Cash, breathing hard, staring up at me with those spring green eyes, like I was the most unexpected thing he’d ever seen in his life.

“I... tree was falling at you,” I explained, sounding ridiculous even to myself. Even with the fallen tree sitting two feet behind us. All I could do was stare helplessly down into his beautiful eyes.

CHAPTER 5

Cash

I shouldn’t have been eavesdroppingon their conversation.

Frankly, it wasn’t any of my business what they wanted to do in the future.

Grant had marked Aleks his heir, which made as much sense as anything he’d done, as Aleks was Reeve’s son and Grant’s nephew. I didn’t know what had happened to make Grant decide to forego a mate or sons of his own, but at the very least, I was glad to have Katya back with us.

Her presence made Wildwood feel more like home, even if she’d left it long before I had.

And her sons were... well, they weren’t anything like I’d expected when I’d first seen them in Grant’s home with all his other goons.

I was twelve when Katya took her son and left the pack to return to Russia, and what little I remembered of Aleks from before they’d left was that he was a frightened child with enormous, doleful blue eyes. It’d made me uncomfortable when he looked at me, not because he was the alpha’s son, but because there were truths and horrors behind those eyes that I couldn’tfathom or face knowing full well that there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to help him.

Leo was a year older than Aleks, and as much as Katya claimed him as her own, he hadn’t been born to her. Their missing brother was his twin, but that was all they’d said and I didn’t ask for more.

The point was, I shouldn’t have been eavesdropping on Aleks’s conversation with his brother. They were speculating on the future of the pack, but there was no way I’d have any part in the decision-making. I could do manual labor, but that was about as central to anything as I’d ever be.