15. Cash
Cash
There was only one thing in this world that could convince me to stand up to the alpha, and that was protecting Evie.
It was the first time I fully understood why Pa had gone to Reeve and told me to stay behind.
I still felt guilty about it, probably always would, but I didn’t give a single damn what happened to me as long as Evie was safe.
Heck, even if Grant killed me right there in the middle of Katya’s kitchen, right that second, the only reason it would matter was that I wouldn’t be around to protect Evie tomorrow.
I half expected claws to tear through my throat any second, but that never happened.
Maybe the fact that I was the only member of the pack who could reliably make a standing structure saved me, but there was a clear threat in Grant’s eyes when he asked who I thought I was, to be making calls for the pack.
He arched a brow at me. “Unless you’ve got something else to offer?”
I could’ve promised to build more homes, faster than I had before, to run myself ragged, but fury bubbled in my gut. That was what he was expecting, a deal that benefitted him.
I didn’t want to play his game, and there were things about me none of these goons had ever guessed at.
In a moment of pure insanity, I stuck out my chin. “Sure. You want some tail? I’m here. It’d be good for Marcus to get some experience with somebody his own age, yeah?”
While some of the others laughed, Marcus clenched his jaw. His hand fisted, and I was pretty damn sure it was only the kitchen island between us that kept him from breaking my jaw again.
Either that, or the way a low growl shook in the air, but nobody else seemed to notice that. Weird, because I felt it like it echoed around in my own chest.
Before Marcus could fling himself over the counter and beat me bloody for challenging him, Viktor spoke. It didn’t happen often, but when it did, people listened.
He put forward Aleks, and—
My heart clenched. A thousand feelings hit me at once.
Marcus touching me was about as close as you could get to the last thing I ever wanted, but Aleks? I’d thought about it. There’d been times, like when he’d gotten back from Russia and held my face in his hands and his mouth had been so close to mine.
Or, sure . . . I’d built almost every piece of furniture in Katya’s new home, including the bed that was supposed to be Aleks’s. His room was the only one with no personal effects, even the shelf he’d asked me to build entirely empty, because he wasn’t moving here.
But I’d be lying if I hadn’t thought, while carving the headboard, what it might be like if . . . well, if I was ever in it. With him.
Nothing I’d imagined was like this, coerced with Aleks looking like he was a whole world away.
The last two people to leave were Katya and Viktor. Katya met my eye, concern puckering her brow. I offered her a little, wavering smile. Whatever happened, I trusted her son.
I wasn’t sure what he wanted, but we’d . . . we could figure it out.
As Viktor made his way out last, the weight of what I’d done hit so hard it knocked the wind out of me. With a shaky exhale, I slumped forward, folding my arms on the countertop to cradle my head. “Holy fuck.”
My breaths came sharp and short. I—
Evie—
I couldn’t make sense of what the fuck had just happened, other than that I’d challenged the alpha, and oh fuck, I was going to pay for that, wasn’t I?
Back when I’d been sixteen, all I’d done was not rat my friends out, and I’d paid for it.
It’d made a sick kind of sense, that Reeve meant to take my leg so I couldn’t run, but taking Pa’s was just as effective at keeping me in line, and it sent a message to the rest of the pack: nobody else better even think about leaving, or they’d be sorry.
Aleks walked around the island toward me, and I flinched. I mean, I had bent over like—like that might be what I was going for already, but he didn’t move behind me.
He stood at my side, and his broad hand swept up from the base of my spine to squeeze the back of my neck. It was a soothing pattern he kept up, and his voice was so gentle when he said, “It’s okay. You’re okay.”
I let out a sound half between a laugh and a sob. “I fucked up,” I argued into the space between my folded arms. “I poked the bear.”
“He’s a wolf.”
“It’s just a saying. I—I didn’t have to provoke them.
I could’ve . . . ” What? Certainly not gone along with what they’d said.
I’d seen the panic in Uncle Tommy’s eyes, and when I realized he wasn’t going to say a damn thing, I knew the stakes, and they hadn’t mattered more than stepping in. “Fuck, I’m sorry.”
Aleks made a low, dissatisfied sound. “You should not be sorry. You have done your best.”
I shook my head. I should’ve been able to avoid the flash of anger that’d made me jab at them. It might’ve been easier for everyone if I had just capitulated and made myself an ally rather than a problem.
But Aleks kept rubbing my back, and having him close helped. It took a minute before I could breathe, but eventually, I relaxed enough to inhale fully.
When I could stand up again without my head spinning, I stepped back. “We don’t . . . we don’t have to do this. We can fake it. I’ll make it convincing, but you shouldn’t have to—”
Finally, a tiny smirk appeared on his lips. I knew that look; it was one of my favorites.
“I just mean, I—” He’d left his hand on my shoulder even as I straightened, and the way his thumb swiped up the side of my neck scattered every thought I had. “I didn’t mean to drag you into this.”
“Do you think I’ll hurt you?” He frowned, and I worried I was messing up already.
I shook my head. “It’s not that.”
“Good,” he said. “I wouldn’t.”
“I know,” I whispered.
“Do you not want to?” His hand stilled. The way Aleks was looking at me then was placid, entirely calm, as if none of this particularly moved him one way or another.
I bit my lip. Heat flooded my face.
It felt wrong to lie to him, and even if I did, I wasn’t very good at it.
With a werewolf, to lie and get away with it, you needed not only to have masterful control of your inflection and expression, but also the hormones that changed your scent and the beating of your heart.
It was hard to lie to one of our kind, and I just wasn’t that talented.
Rather than try, I asked, “Do you want to?” Nerves squeezed my throat and made the question come out squeaky and strange.
It didn’t matter what I wanted, and it didn’t matter what Grant expected. There were other ways to get Aleks’s scent on me, and I’d simply have to figure out how to lie. I’d avoid Grant. I wasn’t ever going to press anyone to do anything with me that they didn’t want to do.
I didn’t want to be a bleak spot on anyone’s life, especially not like this. Aleks could have anyone, and I didn’t have any reason to think the list of people he wanted included me, but for my own part? I . . . wouldn’t mind. He was beautiful, steady, and kind.
I doubted, even if we did—well, I didn’t think Aleks would be anything like what Grant had in mind for me.
Aleks stared into my eyes, and I couldn’t read what was in his. He was scanning my face. His thumb pressed beneath my jaw, just over my hammering pulse.
I was giving everything away, and right then, I was hard-pressed to care. I wanted someone, wanted Aleks, to take all the fear and doubt and second-guessing away from me, and if it didn’t mean anything tomorrow, today, it’d be better.
Hell, it’d been years since I’d been with anybody at all, and with his hand still on me, I—
Yes, I wanted him.
That just didn’t matter if he didn’t want me too.
Rather than answer, his hand slipped around, pulling at the hair at the nape of my neck. I gasped, and he pulled me in. The second I stumbled into his sturdy chest, his mouth was on mine, open and tasting, his tongue delving in with claiming strokes that left me moaning.
He swallowed down every sound I made, his free hand flicking open my belt and the top button of my worn jeans. He pulled the zipper down before slipping his hand inside. His palm found me already hard for him. All it took was a kiss and his strong arms around me, and I was lost.
Pleasure sparked with every stroke, dancing across the base of my spine, skittering up my lower belly until I was whimpering into his mouth, gripping his shoulders, bucking into his touch.
Fuck, I never wanted it to end, but this was fast. Efficient. And if Aleks really wanted me, at least for this moment, I wanted to savor him. I didn’t know if I’d ever get another chance.
“Wait, wait,” I rasped.
He pulled back his hand, frowning down at me, worried.
He didn’t need to be.
I pushed his hips back against the opposite counter, and he let me. I wasn’t under any illusion that I could push him around where he didn’t want to go, but Aleks let me guide him, and his eyes widened as I slid to my knees in front of him.
I went slow so he could stop me if he wanted, but his hands gripped the counter behind him as I opened his jeans and guided his cock free. It was hard—rigid and silky in my palm—and it was a fucking revelation.
Somehow, this perfect creature wanted me, and knowing that was enough to bring a man like me to his knees anyway. It worked out that I was already there.
I stared up into his eyes, pupils blown so wide there was barely any blue around them, as I flicked my tongue beneath the tip of his cock.
I found that sensitive spot just beneath the head, and he whined, moving one hand from the counter back to my hair.
He twisted his fingers, and need sizzled down my spine.
I sank down on his tip, taking him a few inches while I moistened my lips. On the way back up, I pressed my tongue against his slit, tasting the bitterness of his precome.
Above me, he muttered a string of Russian that I didn’t understand, but I liked the sound of it. It felt like praise.