38. Aleks
Aleks
No one spoke, not even a quiet mutter, and utter silence fell across the whole square, insects and birds the only noise. No one wanted that attention on them, even if they weren’t happy about what I was offering.
After a moment, I nodded. “If you wish to leave, please do. If you ask, I will drive you to Boise, or to Payette or Sawtooth if you wish to petition them for entry into their packs. Do not stay and try to cause unrest.”
That was when Mama’s voice rang out in the square, strident and brassy in a way she rarely bothered with, usually so happy to be quiet and do her work without anyone hearing it.
“If you cause problems, I will not be as kind as Aleks, to be offering to take you elsewhere. There are miles of woods on all sides, and plenty room to dig deep holes.”
I couldn’t help the surprise on my face at the sheer venom in her voice as she looked at Walter and a few others. Van, I thought, and wondered if I needed to ask her about him. Considered kicking him out just to be safe.
But no. I would not be Grant.
I was alpha, not unquestioned dictator of the pack.
I did give Van a long, hard look, though, and he shrank away from me. I suspected he’d be one of the ones gone tomorrow morning.
The only sound in the square was Tommy, slinking out the front door of Grant’s old house, his shoulders hunched and head bowed low, not meeting anyone’s eye.
“I told Henry he should move into that second house Cash finished up,” he whispered, and the square was still so quiet that it carried to all of us.
“Seems only appropriate those who suffered most under Reeve and Grant should get the first chance at better.”
I looked up at him, standing there on the porch looking like a dog who expected to be kicked. Everyone stared between us, though no one spoke, as though they were watching a rapid-fire back and forth discussion. As though they were looking at a worst-case scenario.
They all expected me to kick Tommy out, I realized. Even Evie, still wrapped around Cash, was watching me with interest, her face disturbingly impassive about the possible fate of her father.
Most new alphas might, if they had won the pack by violence. Tommy had quite clearly been a minion of the previous alpha, and many wolves refused to take any chance with that kind of split loyalty.
But I knew Tommy. Not to say I thought him admirable or loyal or anything particularly good.
But he’d followed Grant and done his bidding as a kind of self-preservation, not because he had loved my uncle or believed in him.
Tommy was a coward who would never be any threat to someone in power, whether that someone was Grant, or me, or even tiny scrawny Evie.
He bowed to power; he didn’t seek it for himself.
So I nodded to him. “I agree. This is a good plan.” I turned to Cash, and behind him, Henry. “Is the house right for your needs?”
“I can make it right,” Cash answered for him, his eyes bright with hope. “It’s the perfect size for him. And it has a room for Evie.” He glanced at Tommy, like maybe he expected the man to protest, but Tommy nodded along.
“I expect that would make her feel right at home,” Tommy agreed.
Evie was the one who frowned. “But then there isn’t room for you, Cash. Only two bedrooms.”
And this was my own moment to let the pack know—to let Cash know—how I wanted things to be, going forward. “The next small house can be for Cash,” I told her. Then I looked at him. “And me, if he’ll have that.”
Cash’s green eyes went round, the whites showing all around his beautiful irises, and he glanced around to the gathered pack. I did not. In this, their opinion meant nothing to me.
Besides, I could see Viktor behind me, scanning the crowd, watching every single twitch and expression. He would know who took issue, if anyone did.
Cash leaned in, lowering his voice. “Are you sure? That’s . . . I mean . . . everyone—” He broke off and glanced around again, nervous.
“You don’t have to have me,” I promised, taking one of his hands and bringing it to my lips. “We all choose now, Cash. No one will ever make anyone in this pack have a relationship they don’t want again. Not even me. Especially not me.”
If I was the alpha, I had to be a good example, after all. I couldn’t make myself the exception to my own rules.
Cash didn’t answer, but the tiny smile that played across his lips, and the way he buried his face in my shoulder a moment later, flushed, with watery eyes, told me more than words could have.
I looked back at the pack then, and then to the broken-down shacks they all lived in.
That we had all lived in since before my birth.
“Most of you have seen the clearing with Mama’s house in it.
It’s bigger than this one. Clearer. It has a beautiful view of the whole valley.
Now, I’m not going to ask Cash and Leo and Viktor to make you all houses on their own.
But if you’re willing to come and help. Work together, like a pack should.
Then we can build new homes as well as a new community.
Better insulation, so we aren’t cold in the winter.
Stronger foundations, so damp doesn’t leak up through the floor. ”
“We’re getting better at it as we go,” Leo added, grinning, excited. “The second one went faster than the first. They’re not so hard now that we know what to do. Viktor and I can show them which trees will work for wood, while Cash makes the plans.”
That was when Evie cleared her throat. “So I saw this thing while we were driving, and Leo told me about it. Solar panels. We could have electricity without being hooked into a city.”
Walter and a few of the other older wolves glared at her, but I cocked my head and considered.
Fyse and Dakota had offered me anything and everything as we’d been preparing to leave.
Paying the pack’s back-taxes, huge amounts of money, building houses for us—apparently Fyse, too, remembered how terrible the old houses were.
“We could have hot showers,” I said aloud as I considered our city adventures.
Evie grinned up at me and gave a little bounce on the balls of her feet. “I know, right? That was awesome.”
“An oven that doesn’t run on fire,” Mama said, a little wistfully.
And I supposed that yes, we were going to have to figure that out, at least for the people who wanted it. A hot shower did sound incredible in that moment.
I turned and nudged Cash. “What do you think? Can you find room for electricity in your plans?”
His smile was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen in my life.