Page 74 of Wolfsbane

I wanted to ask him how he knew that, how he could be sure, but before I got the question out, something pressed into my knee. I raised my head to see Altair staring at me across the table, his jaw set stubbornly. It was the ball of his foot that’d shoved my leg.

“Look at me.” He leaned across the table until it dug into his chest, and narrowed his eyes my way. “You get to decide who you are, Daire. Not what you did before, not what someone told you that you are—it’s all what you choose to do next. Right now, with the pack, you like who you are?”

I swallowed hard. The last day had been . . . one of the hardest of my life. But despite everything that’d happened, there was Viktor with his arm around me. A table where I sat and was welcomed. I’d protected people worth protecting.

Cautiously, my whole neck rigid with strain, I nodded. “Yeah.”

“Okay, then choose that. Keep choosing it. What do you want?”

I took a deep, shaky breath. It took me too long to peel myself off of Viktor and sit up enough to look at Cash’s sketch. It didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me, but there were a couple spaces and⁠—

“I don’t think we need two bedrooms,” I whispered. “I mean, everyone I like is . . . you’re here already. But maybe we could use that extra space for a—a bigger kitchen? We could brew potions?”

At once, Altair brightened, a wide grin returning to his face. “Like the one Prudence made for Ivan?”

Right. Evie had hit him with a bottle during the fight. I assumed that was what he’d meant, not that I had much idea how she’d managed to incapacitate him.

I nodded. “Or . . . there are ones that could help us stay alert while we’re working or guarding the perimeter, or ones to dull pain. I know you don’t need much healing, but⁠—”

“That could help,” Leo said, smiling too. “Like the tea we made⁠—”

“For Pa,” Cash agreed with a nod. “It helps, but you probably know more about how to use the right herbs than we do.”

I swallowed, nodding. “I’ve read a lot. I’ll try and remember. Write it down, but—but that’s something we could work on?”

I reached for Viktor’s hand under the table, and my stomach flipped when he squeezed mine back and nodded.

“So you want to stay?” Aleks asked. He looked at me mostly, but I watched his gaze flit nervously to his brother. He was afraid I’d hurt him if I left.

Would it hurt him if I left?

He didn’t need to worry about that—not if I got to decide. “Yeah. If it’s really okay.”

Katya’s cheeks dimpled when she smiled. “Of course it is, kotik. We want you here.”

I took a deep, steadying breath. “Then, yes. I—I really want that, and I want—” I glanced at Viktor, and my smile trembled on my face. “If you want to stay with me . . . ”

He squeezed my hand hard enough that I already knew his answer. With a blustering sigh, I dropped my head onto his shoulder again.

“I’ll try and let go,” I promised. “I want you to have him back, your wolf. I just—I don’t know why it’s so hard, but I’ll figure it out.”

He pressed his lips against the top of my head, and I’d swear, it was more sustaining than anything Katya could’ve made for breakfast.

“We’ll figure it out together,” he promised.

Tether or no, I was pretty sure I wasn’t ever going to let go of his hand.

CHAPTER 41

Viktor

He wanted to stay.

In fact, he wanted to stay so much that he was . . . emotional about it.

I was sure I should be more concerned about the fact that he could access his magic inside me and still had my wolf, but I just wasn’t. I didn’t want to withhold his magic from him, so as far as I was concerned, there was nothing to be bothered by.

I did want my wolf back, obviously.