“Oh, I know. My mom says I’m crazy for moving in with him so quickly, but it’s right. I just know. I can feel it.” She rang up Katherine’s basket, pausing at the rolls of gauze and bandage tape. “Are you okay?” Tara looked up and met Katherine’s gaze.
Katherine’s stomach dropped from her body, through the floor, and all the way down to the depths of Tartarus. How did she explain this? Maybe she didn’t have to. “Just trying to be prepared. It’s summer. School will be out soon. Kids can get crazy at the community center.” She licked her lips and dug her wallet from her cross-body leather bag.
“Oh, yeah. Still, seems like a lot.” Tara rang up the rest of the first aid supplies Katherine had grabbed. “But hey, I guess you never know.”
“Mmmmhmmm, exactly. I wished I had most of this stuff last summer and didn’t.”
Tara sniffed the air and frowned. “You sure everything’s okay? You seem a little off.”
Katherine swallowed a half laugh at that thought. Seeing an actual werewolf made her look at the world through completely new lenses. Things that shouldn’t have been possible…were. Her best friend was with a bear shifter. Still, all she wanted to do was spill her guts to her best friend. Everything was always better when they talked.
But Knox said Owen would kill him.
She couldn’t tell Tara anything and she couldn’t let Tara find out about Knox. Still, if Knox was correct, Tara was keeping some pretty big truths from her as well.
“I’m glad everything is going good for you and Owen, but I’ve got to go.”
“What about tonight?”
Katherine froze. “Tonight what?”
“Hanging out, silly. I just said—”
“I can’t. Sorry.” She grabbed her bags and fled the store probably much more abruptly than she should’ve, but for now they were going to have to lie to each other about the men in their lives. Tara was protecting Owen. Just the same way Katherine was protecting Knox. Katherine had no doubt the truth would come out at some point, but for right now it needed to stay hidden.
Knox
Knox lifted his head up and took a deep breath.
Wolf.
His beast roused immediately. His fangs descended and his claws grew from the tips of his fingers. The scent of wolf was strong. Knox strained to make his slow-moving foggy brain attempt to identify the particular canine.
Protect.
Knox turned in the bed and hissed between his teeth. The urge to cry out hung on the tip of his tongue, but he wouldn’t give up his position to whoever was prowling around outside.
A shadow crossed beneath the curtain on the floor across the room. It passed and then returned.
Dalmeck.
Knox shoved off the mattress and landed on his feet. So. Much. Pain. Fire coursed over his skin. Every slice. Every bruise. He really had almost been dead.
“Alpha.” The muffled words were spoken just outside the window.
Alpha? That meant his brother Raish was dead for sure. No one would’ve come looking for him if Raish still breathed. Pain settled deep in his gut like rotted meat. It churned and rolled, threatening to make him heave all over his mate’s bedroom floor.
His brother had been a horrible alpha, but he was still family. Still his brother. He choked back the urge to howl in misery. This wolf needed to leave. He was liable to draw attention. Harrison’s. The Tribe’s.
Knox shuffled a few steps and made it to the other side of the room. He leaned against the wall and yanked back the heavy curtains.
Light flooded into the room. He squinted, blinking a few times to allow his eyes time to adjust. He unlocked the windowpane and pushed it open a few inches.
“Alpha. You live. My heart beat stronger when I scented you.”
“Callum, you can’t be here.”
“Pack dead, Alpha.”
“All?” Knox asked, his head was swimming. Katherine had told him not to get out bed. But he also couldn’t allow Callum to wander about. If he really was Alpha, he owed the younger wolf guidance. He was his responsibility.
“I find two. And you.”
Knox sucked in a quick breath. “Where are they?”
“Wounded. Resting in woods close.”
“You know the park to the west of town? The place with the small lake.”
Callum nodded.
“Wait for me there. I need to rest too.”
“Yes, Alpha.” The young man shifted into a red and grey colored wolf and ran across the grassy yard. It only took a few seconds longer for the woods to swallow his waving grey tail.
Dalmeck.
Knox fiddled with the window for a few moments before getting the latch back fastened. Then a few minutes longer to get back to his mate’s bed.
It smelled so good. Like flowers and the sweet tang of the lotion she kept on her dresser. He could only imagine how good her skin would taste beneath his tongue.
Katherine
Katherine climbed out of her old beat up truck, glancing around her front yard and the street behind her like some crazy fugitive running from the FBI. She shrugged her shoulders, brushing off the niggling feeling that she was being watched.
Probably just Harrison. She glanced toward his house. He was her next-door neighbor, but the houses were on acre lots, so it wasn’t like they were breathing on each other. Still, she didn’t put it past the man to use binoculars. He’d said he would come by and check on her at some point today. Maybe he forgot. Or got busy with more deliveries.
Katherine hurried through her front door. She turned the deadbolt, feeling a little better with the door secure behind her, and headed to the kitchen with the bags. Loud moaning from the bedroom made her drop them onto counter in a flurry and run for Knox.
She burst through the bedroom door. Knox was tangled in her sheets. His head was thrashing back and forth. “Katherine. Shuarra.” His eyes were still closed. His forehead was beaded with sweat and pale.
The sight of him ripped into her heart like a fireman tearing into a wooden door with an ax. Pieces were falling left and right, and she’d never get them put back again if he died. Tears welled in her eyes.
“Hey,” she said, dropping her voice into a soothing coo. “Hey, I’m here.” She crawled onto the side of the bed and brushed her fingers over the sharp angle of his cheek. His long dark hair was damp with perspiration. She pushed a piece of it off his face. His skin was clammy, and his chin was scruffy with a beginning of a beard. Even sick as he was, he was stunning in a very masculine Conan the Barbarian type of way.
“I’m here, Knox.”
“Shuarra,” he said, the name coming from his lips like a prayer. His eyes fluttered open a second. Their gazes met. His eyes were gold. Not natural. More like metallic sparkling glowing magick.
A shiver ran down Katherine’s back. She drew back, but he wrapped his arms around her, drawing her down to his chest before she could escape.
“Shuarra, my mate. My soul.”
How could a girl object to words like that?
She sunk into his embrace. His body tensed beneath hers and then relaxed.
Dammit. She was laying on his wounds. She got one hand down to the mattress between them and tried to push herself up, but Knox wasn’t letting her go. His arms tightened around her like the thought of letting her go was worse than whatever pain he was currently enduring.
“Knox. I’m hurting you.”
“No,” he said, his voice low and growly. “Stay.”
She stopped fighting him and sank back onto his chest. At least he stopped struggling too. It was better he lay calmly. The fighting would only tug at the wounds that had begun knitting themselves back together quicker than she’d imagined.
“I’m here. I won’t leave,” she said, her voice a breath of a whisper against his chest.
His arms loosened just a hair and his breathing evened. Sleep was pulling him deeper again. She could stay with him for a while. It wouldn’t hurt anything. And honestly, she’d rather be in her
e with him than camping out on her tiny couch.
Still.
It was strange.
She’d never shared a bed with a man before. But being next to Knox felt so natural. She wanted to be next to him. Desired it.
Knox
Everything hurt.
Everything felt wrong except the weight of his mate in his arms.
How had he managed to get her into the bed with him? He remembered climbing out of bed for a few minutes, talking to Callum, and then crawling back into bed. Even that conversation was a bit of a blur.
He didn’t remember much of what happened yesterday either, only that he had embarrassingly collapsed in her bathroom and the old man she called Harrison had put something in his wounds to stop the flow of blood. The powder had burned like liquid fire, but the blood had stopped. And his body had begun the healing process. He could feel the magick and power of his bloodline knitting his flesh and bones back together.
A useful blessing from Fate, but it still hurt like he was being sliced repeatedly with a sharp blade. But the pain was tolerable with Katherine in his arms. Anything was tolerable as long as he had his mate. Her sweet spicy scent filled his nostrils. He didn’t recognize the plant or spice. Everything on this planet was so different from Reylea, but he liked it.
Bright. Cheerful. Spicy.
Like a home should be. That was what Katherine smelled like. Home.
Everything in her home smelled like her. Warm and inviting and happy. And that was how she was. Everywhere. With him. With others at her community center where she worked so hard to care for people in the town.
She was amazing.
Too amazing for him, but the glow of her skin kept reminding him Fate had chosen her. She glowed for him. It wasn’t a mistake. He could see the glow.
She was his.
Meant to be.
And yet, she couldn’t see the glow. His brain told him it was because she wasn’t Reylean. It made sense and yet his heart couldn’t let go of the fact that if she couldn’t see his glow. Maybe it wasn’t real. Maybe she wasn’t his. Maybe he was dreaming the whole thing up.
He blinked and opened his eyes. Light still streamed in from the window. The curtains had been pulled back before she climbed into bed with him. Or had he left them open. He couldn’t remember.
His wounds were tight and uncomfortable. The urge to rub and itch was constant, but he was well aware of the need to just let them be. He would heal much faster if he let his body work.
His eyes adjusted a bit more and he stared up at a plain white ceiling.
He turned his head and glanced around, taking in his mate’s bedroom for the first time. A small wardrobe in the corner was sitting ajar with clothes in it. There was a small chest of drawers and a mirror hanging above it on the wall.
She’d crawled into bed with him to comfort him. He now vaguely remembered when she’d come.
Bits and pieces.
Her voice.
The soothing notes of it.
The way the touch of her skin gave his thrashing impatient animal peace to be still.
Katherine stirred in his arms. Her head tipped up and he looked down at her, meeting her soft brown-eyed gaze.
“Your eyes. They’re normal again.”
“My wolf was showing.” He glanced at the bright window again, ignoring the soft glow from her skin. The magick that tugged at every string and instinct inside him. Claim her. He dismissed his beast’s voice and refocused on the present moment. She was in his arms. He would relish that as long as she allowed it. “How long have I been down?”
“It’s evening. I was going to get you some dinner, but you were so restless and in pain, I just crawled into bed with you hoping to get you to settle. It worked. I’ve been here a couple of hours.”
“But the light is still bright outside. You said evening.”
“Ah, yes, well. It’s May in Denali. That means sun’s up just after five am and lasts until nearly midnight before it sets. Eighteen or nineteen hours of sunlight. It’s confusing. I was going to get up and pull the blackout shades down, but every time I moved away from you…you kinda clamped down on me.”
“To hold my mate was too perfect to let go. Even my unconscious mind realized what a gift you had offered.”
Katherine’s face blushed pink and it made everything in Knox spring to life, including his cock. As much as it pained him, his body was nowhere near recuperated enough for sex. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to get to the bathroom on his own right at this minute.
Maybe he could.
He probably could.
He lifted his arm, gritting his teeth against the pain and trailed his fingertips across Katherine’s pink cheeks. “You are beautiful. Thank you for trusting me even when my beast frightened you.”
“You wouldn’t hurt me.”
He tipped his chin to meet her gaze straight on. Her eyes didn’t flick away, she looked straight back at him. Not a hint of fear. He had underestimated his mate. “You’re very sure.”
“I am.”
“I assumed you would run from me. Or turn me in to the human authorities. I should’ve had more faith in my shuarra.” He ran his fingers through her silky dark hair, almost black with highlights of reddish brown.
“How were you today? I worried when I couldn’t get you to eat.”
“The fever in me rages while my body is healing. My injuries were much greater than I first realized.”
“No kidding. Harrison was surprised you were actually capable of movement at all. Of course, after your coming-out display in the bathroom, I’m pretty sure he thought you were the big bad wolf come to eat little ol’ me.” She chuckled and turned on her side to face him better.
“Will Harrison be a problem? Does he pose a threat?”
“No,” Katherine shook her head. “He’s the closest thing I have to family besides Momma P, so don’t get all territorial on me. Just because I’m helping you doesn’t mean I’m yours.”
“You’re lying in my arms in your bed,” Knox said, not seeing how her argument had any validity. All of her actions supported his claim to her as his mate—his shuarra.
“Well. I couldn’t just leave you bleeding on my porch. That wouldn’t have been very neighborly.”
“So, you would’ve brought any man into your home and nursed him back to health? Put him in your bed and curled up next to him for conversation?”
“Well, I—maybe—no, I would’ve called the sheriff. They would’ve gotten the new EMT, Connie, to take you to the hospital in Fairbanks.”
“As I said. Mine,” he said, a slight growl edging his voice. He was pleased with his mate’s response. Perhaps his doubts about the match being Fated could be put to rest soon. Perhaps she was feeling as drawn to him as he was to her. And just perhaps once he was feeling less like a dead thing washed up by the River Kiltran, he would show her just what being his mate would feel like.
“You’re very sure,” she said, echoing his earlier words.
His mouth curved and he tightened his grip on her body, pressing her tightly to himself, not at all shy about his erection prodding at her hip.
She did this to him.
She made his body want.
Long for her more than the air he breathed.
Katherine sucked in a quick breath and her body froze against his. He met her gaze, but there was only arousal. Desire. The same longing in her gaze he felt in his heart. “Shuarra.” He breathed the word out slowly. It was all he needed to say. It encompassed his claim and desire and love all in one word.
“You keep calling me that and I’m going to start to believe it.”
“Then I will use it every time I see you. Every time I make you come apart in my arms and beneath my mouth and with my body inside yours. Every time I kiss you goodnight. Every day for the rest of my life. Your name will be the first thing on my lips when the sun rises and the last when it sets.”
Katherine sniffled and wiped a single tear from her cheek befo
re Knox could get to it.
“Why do you cry? What have I done?”
“No, it’s good. People cry for a lot of reasons. Sometimes tears are happy. Don’t your people cry?”
“Not often. Our beasts do not have tears.” Wolves shifted so rarely. Seeing a gambit of human emotions from Katherine, one right after the other, was overwhelming. “But I will learn from you. I have already learned so much from you and your people at the community center.”
“From a bunch of old men gossiping like women around a table of dominos. Yes, I’m sure you’ve learned a great deal.” She laughed and the sound was like music to Knox’s ears. He loved her laugh. Looked forward to it every time he saw her.
When she didn’t bless him with any laughter it had saddened him. Often he’d returned to the mountainside, to the pack, sullen and growled at any who came near him. She had been his only light during his brother’s rampage against the bear and then against the whole mismatched Tribe that had formed in Mystery. The tribe he’d hoped might one day welcome the wolves.
That hope had been gutted and strung up the second Raish got wind of Col’s mate and then Owen’s mate. No matter what he’d done Knox had never been able to convince Raish that they should not pursue violence against the other survivors.
That they should pursue peace.
A new relationship with the dragon.
The dragon had accepted lions and tigers and now a bear. Wolves could’ve been a possibility.
But not now.
Now the bad blood between the dragon and the wolf tribes was rekindled and as ugly as it ever was on Reylea. Now they were hunted once more. Now they were relegated to living as animals again, separated from humanity. Losing more and more of their own.
Even now part of his pack hid in the woods nearby.
He didn’t want to be separated any longer. Never had. And now he had a mate to protect, pack members were alive, and a dragon living just west across the river that wanted him dead.
Wolf At The Door: Soulmate Shifters World (Soulmate Shifters in Mystery, Alaska Book 5) Page 5
