Winter Wolf (A New Dawn Novel Book 1)

by Rachel M Raithby

  “Bass!” she gasped, her hands reaching for him.

  “I’m fine. I’m fine,” he murmured as she held him in her arms, her eyes scanning every inch of him for a mortal wound. “Using that much strength took it out of me, that’s all.”

  “I don’t understand. What just happened? How did you do that?”

  His eyes met hers. “Another time, Katalina. We are still in danger.”

  Katalina’s head turned to see the angry glint of wolf eyes watching them. Jackson changed, his tall broad frame towering over them.

  “Katalina, step away from him!”

  “No!” she shouted back. “He’s just saved all of you, yet you still can’t see through your hatred!” She positioned herself in front of Bass, staring Jackson in the eyes, showing him how fierce and resolute she was, showing him she wouldn’t back down.

  “Kat!” Bass hissed, dragging her behind him.

  “You haven’t got time for this, Jackson!” Karen’s stern voice forced Jackson to look away. “Take a look at your people, Jackson. Are you pleased with what you’ve accomplished?”

  She was bent over Toby, her hands quickly and gently assessing him. “Cage, quickly now! Bring him inside.” Karen said one last thing before the door shut behind her, “I need help, Jackson, if you’d like no more of River Run to die.”

  Jackson didn’t move but he bellowed orders from where he stood. “Cage! Call your fath—”

  Cage appeared in the doorway, phone to his ear. “I’m already on it! He says they’ve nearly put out the fire behind us. It doesn’t seem to be spreading because of the snow. He has every available pack member he could get hold of.”

  “Good. Help Karen. William, drag your ass inside and have that leg seen to.”

  He turned his attention back to Katalina. “Katalina, you’re not going anywhere.”

  Katalina straightened back up and pulled the jumper she’d picked up over her head. Bass returned to her seconds later, his jeans hung low on his hips.”

  “I will do as I please. But if you wish to talk, I’ll listen.”

  He opened his mouth as if to speak.

  “First you can put on some clothes! In your world, it may be just fine to talk to your daughter naked, but in my world, they’d lock you up.” She put her hands on her hips and glared.

  “Fine!” Jackson huffed. He turned on his heel and stomped back into the house.

  Katalina laughed. “I swear, sometimes he acts like a child.”

  “Katalina, it may be in our favor if you could maybe not wind him up further,” Bass scolded with a smile. “Here, I found your jeans. They're a little wet but…”

  Katalina took the jeans, pulling them on, and then stretched up on her toes, kissing him silently. “I ever tell you how much I love you?”

  His hands gripped her hips, branding her bare skin. “Possibly, but maybe you should demonstrate how much later?” His voice was like gravel grazing over her skin, making her tummy flutter with anticipation.

  This is what Katalina loved most about Bass. No matter the situation, no matter the danger they were in, it took only one touch for them to be in their own world, for nothing to matter but their hushed secret whispers, heated stares, and consuming love.

  “Kat!”

  Katalina sighed, breaking away from Bass. She took hold of his hand and walked him toward Jackson. “Time to face the music,” she muttered.

  “Play nice,” Bass whispered into her ear, “and I’ll reward you later.”

  Chapter 24

  They walked toward Jackson, hands linked together. Katalina could see the tension in every fiber of Jackson’s body—from the rigid set of his jaw, to his knuckles strained against white skin. She pressed herself closer to Bass, trying to gain control of the anxiety churning inside of her.

  As if sensing her feelings, Bass squeezed her hand. “I’m right here,” he whispered.

  Katalina took her eyes off Jackson for just the barest of seconds. She lifted the corner of her mouth slightly, squeezing his hand back. Her eyes met his, the tension dropping from her face, but then Katalina was wrenched away from Bass. The space between them like a tear within her soul.

  The wolf within her stood up, raising hackles, and drove Katalina to react. She pulled back from Jackson’s grip, her free hand swung up, palm open, slapping him across the face. The noise from the impact vibrated through the air. Jackson stood speechless, his hand slowly pressing against the red patch that had formed on the side of his face.

  “Never touch me again!” Any anxiety she’d felt before had vanished. Now Katalina was the one who stood rigid with tension, her blood hot with anger. “I don’t care who you are, no one has the right to touch me in that way.”

  Bass’s armed reached out and pulled her gently backward. She went willingly into his warm embrace.

  Their actions seemed to snap Jackson from his shock, his angry mask slipping once more into place.

  “This cannot happen,” he ground out through clenched teeth, his finger pointing between them. “He is Dark Shadow, Katalina. I forbid this!”

  “Forbid it! Forbid it!” Katalina growled in frustration, stepping forward; her angry gaze fixed on Jackson. “Have you heard yourself? You can’t forbid me to do anything. I will love who I wish. I will do exactly what I WISH!” Her voice rose the more she talked. Her blood was on fire, any minute she was going to combust.

  “Katalina, will you just stop and think about this for a minute. He’s Dark Shadow, you are River Run. Whether you want to be or not, that is who you are. My blood runs through your veins.”

  Katalina sucked in an angry breath and blew it out as she looked at the floor. “I honestly can’t see why that is a problem? It shouldn’t matter who I’m with as long as they love me. You say you’re my father, but you act nothing like one. All that should matter to you is that I’m happy and I’m loved. I know that’s what my dad would want for me.” She looked up from the ground seeing indecision cloud Jackson’s eyes.

  His hands came up, angrily running through his long, messy red hair. With hands pressed tightly over his eyes, his voice was low and defeated. “It was never supposed to be this way.”

  “Maybe you're right, Jackson. Maybe I was supposed to be with Cage. Maybe I was supposed to grow up with my pack, my family. Cage and I would have been best friends and teenage sweethearts. Maybe we would have married, and had those precious, pure blood babies you so desperately want. Maybe that is how my life should have been, but it never turned out that way, did it?”

  Katalina let out a long breath before continuing. “You gave me away before I was even one. Dumped me on a doorstep. I didn’t grow up with a pack. I grew up with normal parents, in a normal home. I wasn’t a shifter. I was just an ordinary human girl. But then you changed your mind, and that decision cost me my parents, the life I knew. You’ve dragged me into this brutal world, a world that makes no sense to me, one full of blood and death, where it’s perfectly okay to attack one another.” Glancing away, she stared at the horizon, focusing on nothing. “I feel lost here, Jackson. Every decision you’ve made for me since I turned eighteen has cut me. My heart bleeds because of you and decisions you have made. I have lost everything I’ve ever known and you don’t seem to give a shit. And now you want to take away the only person I have left away, the one thing that makes sense in this life, yet I can’t have him? Well, guess what, Jackson? I honestly couldn’t give a damn what you want. I hate you for everything you’ve done to me. Do you understand that?”

  She stood breathing heavily. Feeling too angry to cry, too angry to move, she stared at the man with whom she shared DNA and wondered what parts of him she’d inherited. The angry, bitter and twisted man before her held no resemblance.

  The silence between them was a palpable thing. Thick and heavy it seemed to choke the air from their lungs until finally Jackson spoke. His green eyes looked up but connected with Bass, not Katalina.

  “She says she loves you, but do you love her?”

/>   “She’s my mate,” Bass replied, matter of fact.

  Jackson nodded. “I’m trying to work out what you’re planning. Do you want River Run or do you simply wish to destroy me by taking the last link I have to my Winter?”

  Bass frowned as he thought over Jackson’s words. He didn’t seem offended by what he’d said but Katalina sure was.

  “How dare you! Can’t he just love me for me! Not everything is about your freaking pack!”

  “Katalina, its fine.” Bass ran his hand gently across her face. “Jackson has every right to know my intentions. After all, I did go into that shed to kill you.”

  Jackson’s growl cut Bass short.

  Katalina saw the slightest smile cross Bass’s lips before his neutral expression returned. She finally understood what Nico meant by him talking himself out of arguments. Jackson looked physically in pain trying to control his anger. He looked as if he’d love nothing more than to punch Bass, but while Bass was so calm, he could do nothing but try to restrain himself.

  “What? Isn’t that what you wanted to hear? Did you think I sought her out with the intentions to steal her away? That I wanted to take your pack? Well, I’m sorry to inform you, I never had any intention of taking River Run, and I had every intention of fulfilling my father’s wishes. You see, he thought it would be quite poetic, if his son killed your daughter. He’s trained me from the moment I could walk so that I would be ready, but then I saw her. Beautiful and broken, dressed in white, with the moonlight in her hair, she looked like an angel, an angel stained red with blood. I knew who she was to me the moment I saw her. I didn’t think about the consequences. She’s mine and that is all that matters. You should understand what I mean when I say she’s my mate. Those lucky enough to find the one person on this planet who is made for them, will stop at nothing to keep them safe, and if they fail… Well, this war is proof of the pain the one left behind feels. She is my mate, Jackson. That is all the explanation you should need.”

  Jackson stared. Bass stared back, neither seemed like they were going to back down.

  Katalina threw her hands up. She’d had enough; she was too tired to fight, too heartbroken to care anymore. All she wanted to do was get as far away from Jackson as possible and forget he had ever existed. “I’m leaving. Tell Toby I’m sorry. I couldn’t stay.”

  She turned on the spot, her hair fanning around her. The late evening sun caught each fine thread, glistening as she strode away. She didn’t wait to see if Bass followed, she wasn’t sure she wanted him to follow.

  I had every intention of fulfilling my father’s wishes…

  “Urgh, stupid asshole,” she muttered. Sometimes she forgot he was a shifter. He’d been so different in her world, relaxed and funny, but in this world, in his world—her new world—he was an alpha’s son: controlled, practical, talking with logic and not emotion.

  How could he talk so flippantly about going against his father?

  “Katalina, where are you going?” Bass ran past her. He walked backward in front of her as she stomped. “Kat?”

  “I’m leaving. I don’t care where. Anywhere that isn’t here.” She’d reached the truck. Opening the door, she let Arne out.

  “What’s the matter? Didn’t you hear what he said? He’s accepting us, Kat.”

  Katalina stopped. “I don’t need his acceptance, Bass,” she sighed. “I didn’t come here for approval.”

  “Why did you come here then?” he asked gently.

  “I’m not even sure I know. I’m not sure of anything anymore. It’s all messed up. Everything is a mess. I’m a mess.”

  “No, you’re not.”

  “Yes I am. How can you not see that?”

  He tried to take her hand but she pulled away. “Don’t, just leave me, Bass.”

  “I can’t do that, Kat.”

  She looked at him, at the boy who could be two people, who could change from her Bass to Sebastian Evernight in the blink of an eye. When she looked at him now, there was no doubt of his love, but she just couldn’t shake his words, the way he spoke so unemotionally to Jackson.

  “I can feel you’re mad at me but I don’t understand why?” he said.

  “Argh!” she screamed. She shoved him, her hands possessed taking on a life of their own.

  “Do you know what I don’t understand? I don’t understand how you can talk about wanting to kill me in such an offhand tone. It is not nothing, Sebastian!”

  “Don’t call me that.”

  “Why? It’s who you are being.”

  “Kat, you are being irrational.”

  “Irrational! I’m fucking livid!” It infuriated her that he could stay so calm when she felt ready to rip him apart. She knew she wasn’t really that mad at him. She was just angry in general; angry at the world, at Jackson, at herself.

  They stood there; Bass calm, the frown mark between his eyes the only outward sign of emotion, and Katalina, trembling in fury, her hands in fists, each knuckle pulled tightly against white skin.

  “I don’t know what you want me to do,” he said quietly.

  Katalina looked at him as he sighed. She breathed deeply, and released her breath, uncurling each finger as she did. Her anger dissolved in a puff of breath. “Get mad, Bass. Shout, scream, do something, other than act as if nothing affects you.”

  “Is that what you think? That none of this affects me? That the thought of laying a single finger on my father doesn’t tear me up inside? Do you think I don’t hate myself every minute of every day for ever thinking of hurting you? Because I do, Kat. I feel as lost and as angry at what we’ve been dealt as you. The difference is I’ve had years to perfect my mask, to play the game, to be Sebastian Evernight.”

  “I’m not sure I like this mask.”

  She went into his arms as he reached for her this time. “Sometimes, the mask comes in handy.” His hands cradled her face, so gently it nearly broke her. “Only three people know the real me and one of them is dead.”

  “Nico and your grandmother?” she asked.

  He nodded. “And you.”

  “I don’t want to be responsible for you having to do such horrible things.”

  “Kat, whatever happens next will not be on you. What happens between me and my father will be on him. You must stop thinking of him as my dad. He isn’t. He’s been nothing more than my alpha, and not a nice one at that. He has never shown me any love. He stole my childhood by forcing me to fight. He’s pushed me and pushed me, and nothing I have ever done has been good enough. I stopped trying to please him a very long time ago, and I stopped seeing him as my father way before that.”

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

  “Don’t be,” he kissed her cheek. “Are you ready to go back?” He turned her around in his arms. “It looks like a few more people have arrived.”

  “Oh goody!”

  Bass smiled against her neck, nipping at her skin. “I do love you, my snarky girl.”

  They walked back toward the house and the hive of activity.

  “I’m still not sure I fit in this world.”

  “It doesn’t matter. We’ll make the world fit you.”

  Chapter 25

  The house was in chaos as they walked in. Katalina stopped in the doorway, stunned. There was a trail of bloodstained rags leading off to the kitchen; Jackson could be heard from the front room, his voice raised.

  “Come on.” Katalina pulled on Bass’s hand, leading him toward the kitchen. She wasn’t in the mood to face Jackson. One step into the kitchen and she wasn’t sure she was ready for this either. Toby lay on the kitchen table. He was deathly pale and unmoving. Karen worked over him, her hands, quick and sure in their task. A woman stood nearby, hovering but looking as if she didn’t dare approach. Tears of black mascara streamed down her face.

  “Is sh-she g-going to be okay?” Katalina stammered.

  Karen didn’t look up, but she answered, “He’d have been dead if not for you, Kat. Toby is a strong boy. He’ll fight.”<
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  Karen’s answer caused Toby’s mother to choke out a sob. She buried her face in her hands. “Terry, why don’t you go find, Cage? I’ll come get you when Toby wakes up.”

  Katalina watched in silence as Toby’s mother, Terry, nodded and left the kitchen.

  “Kat, come here and help me.”

  “What? No, I’d be no use.” She suddenly wished she’d chosen Jackson. Jackson shouting was far easier to handle than Toby bleeding to death.

  “Hold this!” Karen ordered.

  Katalina walked forward on numb legs. She took the torch off Karen. “I need you to shine the light in here. There’s a bleed I need to find.”

  She wasn’t sure how long she’d stood there, holding a torch over Toby’s open body. She focused on forcing her breaths in and out, deep and steady, over and over. She didn’t know how Karen did it, how she had her hands inside someone, surrounded by organs and blood.

  “Gotcha,” she muttered. “Pass me that clamp, Kat.”

  “Clamp?” Katalina whispered, looking at the tray of instruments next to her. Her hand hovered over what she thought looked like a clamp.

  “That’s the one.” With an unsteady hand, Katalina handed it over, and Karen carried on.

  Once Toby was stitched up, a dressing over the wound, Katalina turned around to look for Bass, but he’d gone.

  “Kat, tell Terry she can come back, please,” Karen called as Katalina left to find Bass.

  She found him near the front door, gazing out the window. He turned with a smile at her approach. Katalina paused at open the door to the front room. Terry sat in the corner chair staring into space but no longer crying.

  “You can go see him now, Terry,” Katalina said.

  Terry’s faraway eyes fixed on her. She stared for a second before her brain registered Katalina’s words. “Thank you,” she murmured, jumping to her feet.

  Walking toward Bass, Katalina heard Jackson was having a heated discussion with a woman who looked to be in her late thirties. She held the hands of twin boys. They didn’t seem the least bit affected by the madness of the last few hours, but their mother clearly was.