“Katherine,” Knox said, his voice a low peaceful rumble. “Katherine.” His tone was a little firmer the second time. His hands were on her shoulders, anchoring her in place. “Katherine. Look. At. Me.”
Her hands were shaking. Her bottom lip was trembling. “What am I going to do?”
“I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.”
Tears burned down her cheeks as reality wiped away any remnant of the cloud she’d been floating in for the last twelve hours or so. “They want you dead, Knox. They aren’t going to let me keep you here. And now I could be pregnant. What do I do with a little baby who turns into a wolf? How do I do that? I’m not like you. I can’t do this alone.”
“You’re not going to do it alone. If we have young from this mating, I will be right there with you. We will do this together. I promise.” Knox met her unfocused gaze with his intense one and she felt some of her panic melt away. He couldn’t stay with her. Not all the time, but he wasn’t leaving her. Not permanently.
Wait. Young?
“Young? Am I going to have…puppies?” A new wave of terror swept through her like a freak blizzard in the spring. “I can’t have puppies. The doctors here will send me to a government facility. They’ll lock me up. They’ll hunt you down. I—”
“Katherine.” His tone thundered this time, like the wind in a snowstorm. Louder than the roar of fear swelling and filling her mind. “There will be no puppies unless you give birth as a wolf. Even then our young are capable of shifting quite young.”
Katherine took a huge breath and shook free of his grip. “That doesn’t help! Oh, my God!” She backed away from him, holding up her hands to warn him from coming close again. “I need a hot minute to think about this. I’m going to the MCC. Just. Just stay here, okay.” She grabbed her purse off the dresser and keys and half moved as quickly as her bum leg would allow.
“Wait. Katherine. Stop.”
“No. I just… I can’t do this right now.” She slammed the front door behind her and hurried down the steps to her truck. Thirty seconds later she was on the road and headed toward the MCC.
What had she done?
She slept with him without protection. With an alien from another world. A man who had a beast—a wolf—inside him. People were hunting him. She loved him. She was terrified of losing him.
She slammed her hand against the steering wheel. “What the hell am I going to do?” Katherine took the few turns out of her neighborhood to the MCC on autopilot. She was parked in her normal spot behind the building and didn’t realize until she looked up and saw Carol staring at her from the back door holding a white garbage bag.
“Hey, honey. I thought you were taking today off too. Shirley texted me. I—” Carol dropped the bag of garbage on the asphalt and walked around to the driver’s side door. She yanked the handle to open the door and pulled Katherine into a hug only a mom knew how to give. Didn’t matter that Carol’s kids were all toddlers. Maybe it made it better.
Katherine sank into the hug and sobs poured out like a torrential downpour.
Hurricane Katherine.
That’s what she felt like right now. Her emotions and feelings about Knox were swirling around with all the rationality and responsibility she also carried with her constantly. She couldn’t come apart like this. People depended on her. She’d been a burden on this community for so long. She wouldn’t do it again. She took care of people now. Not the other way around.
“Oh, sweetie.” Carol stroked her hair and her back and hugged her tight. “It’s okay. Whatever it is. I promise. It’s gonna be okay.”
They just stood there. Katherine didn’t know how long Carol just held her. She didn’t try to move. She didn’t try to push her away. Her arms stayed firm, holding her close, offering her comfort she didn’t know she needed.
Minutes trickled by.
The sobs slowly abated.
Her breathing normalized.
Katherine was the first to move. She wiped her face with her sleeve.
Carol released her slowly. “You should go back home. You don’t need to be here today, I promise.”
“I’ll work in the kitchen. I can’t go back home. He’s—I just. I need to—”
“No problem. Come help me with the chicken salad, okay. I’ll take care of the activities in the front. You just stay in the kitchen. Shirley’s getting here around noon. We’ve got this. We’ve got you. You know that right?”
“Thank you,” Katherine said, her voice weak and shaky. “I don’t know what to do right now.”
“I’m here when you’re ready to talk about it. Or I can call your mom, too.”
Katherine shook her head. “No. I can’t talk to her about this and she’s down in Oregon visiting her sister anyway. She won’t be back for a month.”
“Fair enough.” Carol nodded. “Let me go toss this. I’ll be right back.” Carol grabbed the trash bag and hurried across the lot to the dumpster. Then back to Katherine and ushered her into the building.
“Here.” She guided her toward a stool. “Sit there and cut up this celery for me.”
Katherine picked up a stalk of celery and a big butcher knife and went to town. The monotony of the movement helped relax her mind.
Chop. Chop. Chop.
What was she going to do? She wanted Knox with every fiber of her being, but she also couldn’t live with him hiding all the time. That wasn’t a life. And it certainly wasn’t a life she wanted for a potential child.
Chop. Chop. Chop.
She should probably call Mama P, but then it would disrupt her whole vacation. She hadn’t been down to Oregon in over five years to see her sister. No. She couldn’t do that. Even though Mama would be upset that she didn’t call and tell her.
She wouldn’t understand.
No one really could unless they’d seen a dude change into an animal. Harrison understood. Kinda. Maybe. No, Probably not. And he would be pissed as hell if he knew how messed up her brain was right now over all of this. He was already uncomfortable, and he only knew the tiniest details about her relationship with Knox.
Chop. Chop. Chop.
She reached for another stalk and found the counter empty. The bowl next to her was full of chopped celery. She glanced around the kitchen. What else could she do?
Carol was busy peeling chicken off the bone. Nineties pop music was playing softly from her phone on the counter. Some boy band she recognized were wailing their little hearts out.
“You know, I got to see these boys perform once. Must’ve been a decade ago. It was so much fun. First and last time I ever visited Los Angeles. That city is crazy. Exciting, but crazy. The band was great though. One of the best nights of my life. Now they are all grown up with families of their own just like me. So strange to think about how life just keeps changing, pulling us along with it.” Carol tossed the chicken carcass into the trash can next to her and smiled up at Katherine. “Change is hard sweetie. It’s okay to feel uncomfortable. Knox is a good man. Quiet. Plays a little close to the vest, but he seemed genuine and he was over the moon about you. I only saw him twice and I could tell.”
“Tara and I are fighting.”
“I figured.”
“I slept with Knox.”
“Okay.”
“I could be pregnant.”
Realization dawned on Carol’s face like the last kid in the room who’d just gotten the joke. “Well—”
“I’m sorry. This is TMI.” Katherine hopped down from the stool. “I should go. I just need to think and there aren’t any answers here.”
“But this is your place. Of course, there are answers here. And it’s fine. We might not be girlfriends like you and Tara are, but I can talk babies better than she can.” A smirk curled the side of Carol’s mouth. “When a man loves a woman and they don’t use certain things to prevent pregnancy.” She pointed to her very pronounced, rounded stomach. “This is what happens.”
Katherine couldn’t help the small smile at Carol’s obviou
s answer. She already had two littles at home and her third was half-way cooked.
“I’m not ready for that.”
“No one is ready, per say. Most babies surprise the hell out of their parents. I know this one did for me. Anyway. What I’m trying to say is that no matter what happens, baby or no baby, you’re not alone. What about Knox? Does he know this might be a possibility?”
Katherine looked down at the pale speckled linoleum floor. “Yes. I kinda freaked and left him at the house.”
Carol covered her mouth and stifled a laugh. “So, you told him and then you ran out.” She snorted through her fingers. “That poor boy. I’m surprised he hasn’t come busting through that door looking for you.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if that still happened.”
“You should go back and talk to him. He might surprise you.”
“It’s complicated,” Katherine said, letting a small sigh slip out.
“Relationships are always complicated. But the more you talk it out the better, even when it’s uncomfortable.”
“He’s not from around here. And I don’t want to leave Mystery.” The words just kept pouring out, even when she tried to will them to stop. “We are stuck in the middle of this problem that isn’t either of ours’s fault and there just isn’t a way out of it.”
“I know you don’t want to talk about everything that’s going on. But maybe you just haven’t seen the way out yet. Maybe it’s just a few more conversations away. Maybe he’s already thought of it and you’re not there for him to tell. You never know.”
“Maybe.” Katherine crossed the kitchen to the back door. “I should go.”
“Only if you’re going to talk to Knox.”
“I am. You’re right. We should figure this out together. If there’s anything to figure out. There might not be.” Katherine glanced over her shoulder. She’d underestimated Carol. Maybe she’d underestimated a lot of people over the years because of how her family had let her down. It was easier to not have expectations than to continually have expectation not met.
“Also true, but then you need to decide if you’re going to change things for next time? Or risk it again.”
“I’m not doing that,” she huffed and crossed her arms, leaning against the door.
“Hey, I’m not judging. Either way.”
“I appreciate the support. Can you cover for me again tomorrow? At least opening?”
“Of course. I’ll be here as soon as I drop the munchkins off with their grandmother. I’ll plan on coming in every morning and have Shirley come in the afternoons for the rest of the week.”
“Thank you, Carol. Tell Shirley thank you as well. You two saved me.”
“You know it,” Carol said, a broad smile spreading across her face. “Figure it out with Knox, hon. He’s one of the good ones. I have a good feeling.”
Katherine waved and closed the door behind her.
Knox was one of the good ones, but it still didn’t change the fact that they were stuck in what literally boiled down to a turf war between alien tribes.
No gangs in Mystery since its founding. But leave it to a bunch of fresh-to-earth-aliens to create problems. This town had no idea what was simmering just beneath the surface.
Katherine walked across the MCC back parking lot headed for her truck. Footsteps behind her made her turn, but all she saw was a blur before pain exploded in her head.
“He will die if you stay with him.” The words floated through the pain just before darkness stole over her.
16
Ava
“Connie!” Ava kicked at her friend’s office door. The paramedic was there. The truck was in the lot and the light was on in the front room that Ava knew was the woman’s office. “Connie!” She resettled Katherine’s limp body. Blood ran from a wound on the back of her head. She had a heartbeat. Ava could hear it, but it was slower than it should be. There had been a lot of blood in the parking lot.
Ava had smelled it on her way to the MCC. Carol had called her to cover for a woman named Shirley. But she never made it inside, not once she caught a whiff of fresh blood and wolf. Not Knox or Ryder either. It was a different wolf.
The door opened. Connie’s eyes widened. “Shit. Get her in here. What happened?”
“Wolf.”
“Yours?” Connie flashed her a hard glance—well aware of the Reylean presence in Mystery, having met and helped Ava while Ryder was injured. They’d stayed in Connie’s house for quite a while and had only recently moved into the single-wide Ava and her brother had previously been sharing down by Leif’s garage on the south side of town.
“No, of course not. There other wolves.” She followed Connie into the office and waited for further direction.
“That would be a good fact to have shared,” Connie said, her voice sharp. She was a no-nonsense type person who didn’t appreciate not knowing what was going on around her, especially now that she really knew what was going on around her. “Put her there on the couch. No need to take her to the clinic unless we have to. I have everything I need in the truck.” Connie disappeared out the door.
Ava situated Katherine on the couch. She gently turned her onto her side and moved aside her bloody matted hair to reveal a large wound on the back of her head. Something hit her. Hard.
A rock. Or a stick maybe. Whatever it had been, the attacker took it with them. It hadn’t been in the parking lot next to Katherine.
“Should I call the sheriff?” Connie asked, stepping back inside her office and closing the door.
“Not unless we’re prepared to give him the complete rundown on what’s moved into his perfect little Alaskan tourist town.” Ava grabbed some gauze from Connie’s hand and pressed it to the still seeping wound on the back of Katherine’s head.
“That’s probably not the smartest thing we could do. Plus, he’s a complete asshat and rude as hell to women,” Connie said, keeping her voice down. “The secretary probably saw you bring her in here though, so we need a story that matches.”
“She slipped in the MCC parking lot. I found her. Brought her here. End of story.”
Connie nodded. “Works for me.”
“Owww, what the frack,” Katherine said, her voice stressed and groggy.
“So glad to hear you talk’n, sweetie,” Connie said. “Can you look at me real quick?” Connie pushed past Ava and gently turned Katherine’s head so she could make eye contact. “Follow the light for me.” She flashed her pen light. “Good. You look pretty good.”
“There was a lot of blood,” Ava said.
“Head wounds can be deceptive.” She clicked off her light and pulled out some more bandages. “We’ll get you wrapped up and you’ll be good to go. Tylenol for the pain and I’ll check in on you tomorrow.”
“What happened? I don’t remember anything.”
“Someone hit you, but we need you to say you fell,” Ava said, making sure she got Katherine to make eye contact. “It was a wolf, but we shouldn’t tell anyone that.”
Katherine’s eyes widened. “You know about the…”
Ava sighed. “Yep.”
“It wasn’t Knox.”
“Oh, I know. It wasn’t Ryder either. I didn’t recognize the scent.”
“Ryder? Your boyfriend is a wolf too? Aren’t you Owen’s sis—” Katherine paused and stared intently up at Ava for a second. “Does that mean that you’re a bear?”
“Yep.”
“Shit,” Katherine said, hissing through Ava and Connie cleaning the cut on the back of her head. “Knox is going to lose his mind when he sees me.”
“That is probably true,” Ava said, her voice filled with worry. “As long as he doesn’t do anything stupid.”
“Let’s get this done.” Connie pulled out some fresh gauze. “The longer you’re in my office the more suspicious this looks.”
Knox
Knox swallowed a roar. Callum continued to report how Katherine had been injured. He’d smelled her blood. A tall woman who s
melled like a bear had carried her from the parking lot.
Ava. He knew who the bear female was. But why would she have taken Katherine? She wouldn’t have hurt her…she didn’t have a motive to, unless she was trying to gain favor with the tribe and flush him out for them. She could be working with them.
“I not see who hurt her, alpha.”
“Scent?” Knox asked, barely leashing the beast inside him. He could smell Katherine on Callum. He had been close to Katherine. Very close. It irked him as much as he appreciated the young wolf checking up on her while he had gone to check on the other wolves still healing.
“Too many scents.” Callum looked at the ground, showing his shame. “I have failed you, alpha.”
Knox paced back and forth in the rocky outcropping of the cave mouth. He’d found shelter north of the town’s airport for the wounded wolves and himself. Callum had been helping him keep tabs on his shuarra when he couldn’t be with her. The Tribe had been tracking her relentlessly. He’d barely been able to get to her house yesterday without being followed.
Last night had been amazing.
And confusing.
And more than he’d hoped for. He was committed to Katherine and yet, they both knew he would either have to leave or die. The tribe would never stop. And now this…
Now she’d been attacked, and he had no doubt that the Tribe had done it in an attempt to flush them out of hiding. This was too much. Too far.
Tearing his heart out with a dull blade would have hurt less.
“Stay hidden here in the cave. They are looking for us. For me.”
Callum nodded.
“I’m going to her. I’ll be back.”
“But this is what they want.”
“I don’t care. She’s hurt. I can’t leave her. She is my shuarra.” He shifted into his wolf and took off toward the MCC at a full sprint. Knox took a chance and crossed the airfield, exposing himself to sight. But it was faster, and he didn’t have any time to waste.
Wolf At The Door: Soulmate Shifters World (Soulmate Shifters in Mystery, Alaska Book 5) Page 14
