He didn’t trust the dragon not to hurt Katherine in the process of eliminating him from town along with the other wolves. And he didn’t even begin to know how to convince Katherine to leave with him before anything came looking for him.
“Do you think you could eat something? I grabbed food from the store on the way home from the MCC.”
“You were at the Community Center working today while I slept?”
“Yeah. I saw Tara at the store. She looked okay. Not hurt or anything.”
“The bear’s mate was there? The bear, did he see you?” Knox tensed and tried to sit up in the bed. The pain lanced through his side as bad as if the tigers’ claws were slicing fresh stripes through his flesh again. He pushed through the pain and struggled to stand, walking to the window. He had to make sure no one had followed her from the store. If the bear had scented him on Katherine, they wouldn’t be far behind.
“I didn’t see Owen. Just Tara and her mom were there.” Katherine jumped up and hurried to his side. She grabbed his arm and tugged. “You need to lay down. You’re going to open your wounds. Please. Knox.”
The pleading in her voice made his chest squeeze hard. Survival superseded his desire to please even his mate. She wasn’t safe if that bear or any of the other tribe came busting into her home. They would see him as a threat. Kill first, light him on fire, then maybe they would listen to Katherine, but it would be too late. And that’s if they were careful and didn’t injure Katherine while they were going after him.
“She’s mated to the bear. He’ll notice my scent on you.”
Katherine straightened and took a step back. “Someone can smell you on me? Like what…an overgrown hound dog?”
“I don’t know what an overgrown hound dog is, but yes, any Reylean would be able to scent my beast on you.”
“Hounds track,” she said, staring at him with eyes wide and scared. “But people can’t. I can’t tell that you smell a certain way. I mean you smell like you, but not like a wolf. I—”
He dropped the curtain and turned to his mate. His beautiful terrified panicking mate. “Katherine. What is it?”
“It’s dumb, but I could’ve sworn Tara sniffed me at the store. But Tara is a person. She’s not a bear or an anything. She couldn’t have smelled you. How am I going to do anything? Can I wear something that masks your scent?”
“Your friend. The bear’s human mate sniffed you?” Tara was human. He stepped closer, taking her trembling hand into his. The pain coursed through his body, but he would live with it. He had no choice. “Humans can’t scent how Reylean’s can. Don’t worry, shuarra. You only need to avoid the males. Except for the dragon’s mate. She is also Reylean.”
“Naomi?”
“I don’t know her name, I only know that there are two dragons. A male and female mated Li’Vhram pair.”
“But Naomi is human. She moved here from Jersey.”
Knox’s skin tightened and fear rippled through his insides like a thousand bird wings lighting from the ground at once. It couldn’t be true. The other paired females in the tribe weren’t beasts. The wolf pack had assumed the Li’Vhram had come through the portal with another dragon female. His mate.
“You’re sure.”
“Yeah. Tara has talked to her many times at the store. And she’s come to the community center to help and participate in many events. She talks about her family back on the east coast all the time. She’s human.”
“She’s not,” Knox said, his voice dropping.
“But how is that possible?”
Knox grit his teeth and remained silent. He didn’t know how it was possible unless the dragon had a magick-bender stashed somewhere in this little town. But the pack had seen no evidence of one. And the magick-bender who’d created the portal over the mountain above N’ra Lowlands had died.
That’s why the portal had closed so quickly.
That’s why so many from their region had not escaped.
When he’d passed through the portal the magick-bender had already been wounded by falling volcanic debris. She had already been close to death. The portal had already started to shrink when he and his brother leapt through with their pack.
“I do not understand all the magick of our world. We have a people who lived in Reylea. Special people that can control the magick physically. But she didn’t make it through the portal. At least not that I’m aware of. If anyone could turn a human, it would’ve been the magick-bender.”
“A magick-bender. What do they look like?”
“She would look just like any woman on your world. Magick-benders have no beasts within them.”
“But Naomi is happy and acts normal and…she does tend to wear a lot less clothing when it’s cold than is probably healthy, but to each their own.” Katherine sat on the edge of the bed. Knox moved to sit next to her, hissing out a slow breath. “You shouldn’t be up.”
“I had to make sure if anyone followed you home.”
“I was in my truck. No one ran after me if that’s what you think.”
“Tara knows your home?”
“Well, yes, but—”
“Then they would not have trouble finding you.”
“Tara would never do anything to put me in danger.”
He shook his head. “Not you. They would think I was threatening you. Wolves are the enemy. We have no humanity. We are wild and without honor. That is what they say of us on Reylea.”
“Is it true?” Katherine said, her voice small and threaded with worry.
“For many wolves, yes. I had hoped this world would give us a new start. I wanted to make a truce with the Li’Vhram. But no one else wanted that and my brother made sure it would never happen.”
“And your brother was Raish, the one who took Tara?”
“Owen killed Raish’s mate.”
“Oh, God! That’s horrible.”
“It was an accident, but one that Raish would not recognize. He blamed Owen. His desire for revenge cost the pack any chance of a truce with the Li’Vhram prince. But in honesty, it was one problem of many. My brother was troubled long before he came to this world.”
“You know Col from your world?”
“He is the prince of the House of Li’Vhram. His family ruled over the N’ra Lowlands. Everyone knew of his family.”
“So, he’s some kind of royalty?”
“Yes,” Knox said, looking back at the window. Movement outside made him fight through the pain to stand again.
“Knox. Please.”
“I saw something.” He put his hand on the windowsill and leaned, taking some weight off his tired body. He was healing. Just not fast enough. If they came looking for him, he would be vulnerable. Katherine was vulnerable.
If the dragon came, though. There would be no stopping him.
“There has to be a way. Raish is gone. Things have happened, but there has to be a chance if we could just talk to him, right?”
Knox growled and turned toward Katherine, fear and rage coming to a boil in his chest all at once, threatening to erupt. His claws lengthened, digging into the wood of the windowsill.
“Do not attempt to speak to him. I will not have you in danger.”
“But you deserve a chance to speak. A reasonable man would listen before acting.”
“Li’Vhram is a dragon and royalty, shuarra. He listens to no one.”
“He might,” she said, her voice softer and hopeful.
“No. There will be no talking to the dragon. Katherine, it is not safe.”
“I have to do something. Tara would help me.”
“No. Tara is bound to Owen. She will not betray the Tribe.”
His mate paced the room, her small booted feet creating a chaotic stomping rhythm not unlike the drums that echoed in the N’ra valley before tribes fought.
Territory wars were common between tribes. Not the wolves. His pack had been pushed out of the N’ra valley into the mountain forests generations ago. Wolves stuck to the shadows. The
y learned to be invisible.
Unnoticed. Unnamed.
That was what kept them alive.
The same skill would keep he and his mate alive now.
They had to stay hidden. At least until he could figure out how to get her to leave this too-small-to-share-with-a-dragon town.
He stared at the road outside. A blur at the tree line caught his eye. It was too fast. It could’ve been a deer. Too small to be the bear. And thankfully much too small to be either dragon.
His heart thundered in his chest, beating against his ribs as if it would leap from its cage.
Katherine’s was matching his beat for beat. She appeared calm on the outside, but her pulse was wild beneath her skin, running like a wild herd of stampeding kroven—a bigger version of the animal people in this town called caribou.
She would do something.
He knew she would, and he couldn’t stop her. Not right now. Not in this unhealed condition. He needed a couple more days before he would be able to move without excruciating mind-numbing pain. It was like being burned with dragon fire and not dying. His skin and bones were growing back, but the process wasn’t pleasant.
His wolf wanted to rise to the surface, but his mate was more comfortable with him in this form. He would stay a man for her.
“Katherine,” he said, moving back to the bed. “Stay with me.”
She stopped pacing and looked up at him, brown eyes wide and honey-colored skin paler than he liked. “Oh, I was going to get you food. Are you hungry?”
He shook his head and patted the mattress. “Stay with me, shuarra. I want to rest with you.”
“But you need to eat again. You said you would heal faster.”
“I will heal faster with you next to me.”
“You’re just saying that.”
“You would deny your wounded mate?”
“I’m not your mate, you just keep saying that.”
“You said you would believe it if I continued.”
“Well, I—I didn’t—I did, didn’t I?”
Knox lifted his hand toward her. She came right over, putting her smaller hand into his. Her touch soothed the worry in him. The worry in his beast. No one had found them yet. The longer he could keep her inside, the longer he had time to heal before he would have to fight again.
And he would fight again.
The dragon would kill him sooner than allow him to stay in his territory. He was Raish’s brother. He was alpha to a dying or dead pack. Li’Vhram would want to finish him off and end the wolves once and for all. It didn’t help that the wolves had attacked the dragon’s mate as well, months ago. Taking Tara had just been another reason in a long line of offenses.
Raish had never been able to look beyond the present. He and his second-in-command, Ryder, had decided they needed no help from other Reylean survivors. Needed no help to assimilate into this new world. They had wanted everything to stay exactly the same as it’d been on Reylea.
Separate.
Knox had found his mate in a town he knew he wasn’t welcome to live in. He’d been careful to stay hidden during his visits to town. He’d avoided the Tribe. Avoided his brother and the pack as well. No one knew he’d found his fated match. No one knew he’d been sneaking off the mountain and into town to see her every chance he got.
Katherine responded to another tug and moved to sit next to him. Knox leaned back onto the pillows taking her with him, pulling her against his chest. She had brought him sweat pants and a t-shirt at lunch time from the community center donation box. The clothes he usually wore in town were hidden in the woods, but the last place he wanted her was out in the woods by herself.
Something was out there. He just wasn’t sure what or who.
“You should eat. You said you would heal faster.”
“Shuarra,” Knox said, his voice catching in the back of his throat. “All I need is you. I will eat in the morning.”
“But—”
“Sleep. You said it was late.”
6
Katherine
Katherine put a plate in front of Knox with some bacon, grits, a couple of pancakes and a glass of orange juice. He’d insisted that he would not eat in her bed, so they’d spent a good ten minutes limping from the bedroom to her small table in the kitchen.
“Can I get you anything else? Is this enough food?” She watched him take a bite, wondering what he normally ate for breakfast. Probably not this. He probably hunted and ate some kind of animal. Had he only shifted to visit her? Had he been a wolf the rest of the time? Had he ever watched her as a wolf? She’d never noticed a white wolf watching her, but she hadn’t been looking either.
“Katherine, sit with me.”
She snapped her attention back to him. She chewed on her bottom lip and then frowned. “I already ate while I was cooking. I’ve got to get over to the MCC soon and I still need to shower. There’re people who will miss me if I’m not there. Shirley said she could come in at noon and cover for me, but I have to be there this morning.”
“You’ll stay away from your friend Tara?”
Katherine swallowed and tried not to look directly at Knox. She didn’t want to lie.
“Shuarra,” he said, his tone taking on a darker growly sound.
She met his gaze and felt hot guilt flush across her cheeks. “If we could just talk to them. I feel like we could come to an understanding. I could explain that you tried to help Tara.”
Knox dropped his fork to the plate with a clatter and growled louder. “No.” His eyes flashed gold, but when he tried to stand, Katherine could see the outline of pain around the corners of his mouth.
“Promise me you will not. Katherine, I cannot protect you yet.” He growled again, angrier with himself than his mate. He sat again, struggling through the white-hot pain. “I can barely stand on my own. I’m not worth the fangs in my mouth right now. You are my vulnerability, shuarra. Li’Vhram will exploit your connection to me. You cannot speak to any of them.”
“But I have to do something.”
He shook his head. “No.”
“When you’ve healed?”
“No. I can’t stay here.”
“In my home?”
“In Mystery, Katherine. He will kill me. He might hurt you to get to me. I won’t take that chance. Your safety is the most important thing. You can’t talk to them. Promise me.”
“But—”
“Katherine, please,” he said, his tone switching to one that sounded more worried than demanding.
Katherine leaned against the kitchen counter and grit her teeth. Not stay in Mystery. He was going to leave. She hadn’t considered that possibility and just the thought of never seeing Knox again made her stomach knot with dread. He kept calling her his mate and now he was saying he’d leave her.
Where would he go? Back to the mountain? Back to being a wolf?
Her stomach twisted tighter with the realization that he would choose being an animal over remaining with her. How could that be his choice?
“I’m not the weakling you think I am. You don’t know anything about me.”
“I did not say you were—”
“I have to go.” She fled from the room, grabbed her bag from the couch and slammed the front door behind her.
Her old truck grumbled when she started, but finally roared to life after a couple pumps of the gas. The drive to the community center was barely ten minutes and she probably could’ve driven it with her eyes closed. Tears blurred her vision a couple of times. She wiped them away roughly and tried to sniff it away.
She’d slept so well with him last night.
It’d felt so natural. So right.
He’d wanted her with him. Practically begged her to stay in the bed.
Not that anything happened, but her dreams had been filled with images of his hands on her body. Her bare skin against his. Images of Knox taking her the way no other man had seen or touched her had filled her dreams. She wanted those dreams. She wanted the man t
he way she’d never wanted a man before. Werewolf. Alien. She didn’t care.
She cared about him.
He called her his mate.
And he’d been right, she believed him. Felt it. Wanted it. Needed it.
But she wasn’t some damsel in distress that needed saving. She’d survived plenty in her life. She had more scars than anyone would ever see. An alien dragon should scare her, but it didn’t. She’d lived with something worse and almost died by his hand too. Actually, Momma P and Harrison said she’d flatlined more than once on the way to the hospital.
If there was anything she knew how to do, it was fight and survive.
A flash of gray and rust ran across the road. She yanked herself from thoughts of her past and swerved to miss the large animal but failed. The corner of the truck clipped a solid body, sending it flying off to the side of the road.
She gasped, covering her mouth, surprise flash-freezing her heart in her chest. She yanked the stick on the truck, sliding into park and threw open her door. The large animal lying beside her truck was a wolf.
A really big wolf with gold eyes.
“Holy shit!” She took a step backward. Another one.
The wolf climbed to its feet and growled. Not a friendly one. Terror wound around Katherine’s body like a tightening noose. Air was squeezed from her lungs. She couldn’t draw in another breath. It was like a giant bolder was sitting on her chest.
Her feet wouldn’t move either. Not a single nerve ending worked. She just stood there like a planted tree.
The wolf just kept walking.
Closer.
Closer.
Large fangs. Really large. And angry golden eyes.
She couldn’t get back into the truck before it was on top of her. Even if she could’ve gotten into the cab, the animal was so large—just like Knox—it could’ve easily broken the window and pulled her out.
Knox’s wolf had been this big, maybe bigger, but she’d forgotten even after the short time he’d been in her home. He hadn’t been a wolf since that first moment on the porch. He was a man. That was how she knew him but seeing this wolf—this Reylean—stalking toward her, extra-long canine teeth bared like an angry predator bent on tearing her to pieces reminded her the man in her home was this too.
Wolf At The Door: Soulmate Shifters World (Soulmate Shifters in Mystery, Alaska Book 5) Page 6
