Too Far Gone (Adirondack Pack Book 1)

by K. C. Stewart

  PART TWO

  Chapter Eleven

  Stupid, foolish woman. It was the first time in 330 days that Tyson wanted to change to human just so he could yell at this blonde ditz clomping around the forest ruining the peace of the day. If scaring away his venison dinner wasn’t bad enough, she was totally unaware of her surroundings. Not even two minutes ago she almost stepped on a rattle snake in those shiny new boots of hers. This is why he didn’t do the human thing anymore. They were all too loud and blunderous. Wolves on the other hand were graceful, lethal.

  Oh for fuck’s sake. That’s poison ivy you idiot.

  In all honesty, he could excuse all of that if she wasn’t so damn beautiful that he felt compelled to follow her. It actually pissed him off when he saw her smile with those stormy gray eyes of hers. They were a cool gray that was almost blue, the hues all shades of a hurricane right off the ocean. Her hair was as light as honeysuckle. It was natural too, no chemical smells coming off her at all, and it had shimmers of sun lightened highlights.

  Since he was having a momentary mental lapse and was being surprisingly honest, he was actually angry at himself. Self loathing was all he allowed himself to feel for almost a year. He didn’t deserve attraction. He shouldn’t be feeling interested in the lost woman who, Gaia help him, made him want to be a man again so he could yell at her properly. When you kill your sister, your last living family member, because she was brainwashed into being a traitor, a threat to the pack, and it was your job to remove those threats, you lose your right to feel attraction. And any other of the “good” feelings.

  Her small wilting frame called out to all of his instincts, human and wolf. It had been awhile since he followed his human instincts, been awhile since he even felt them. So the careless woman, who spoke to his wolf and human alike, who pissed him off with her golden hair and startling gray eyes, who’s ignorance in the world around her made him growl in frustration, was now under his protection.

  And didn’t that annoy him further.

  Instead of being one step closer to his ultimate feral downfall, he was being pulled back for guard duty. All he wanted to do was to forget. To forget and die a wolf instead of the broken coward of a man he was.

  You better have a good reason for this Gaia.

  He never ignored Gaia but dammit, he didn’t want this. He was done with this life. Had been done with this life for 330 days now. But no matter how hard he tried, Tyson felt the pull towards the woman. He followed her, unable not too. She was the Pied Piper and he was her mesmerized, irritated rat.

  There was a crunch of dried leaves a few yards beside him. Tyson slowed his pace and hung back. The woman had caught another rat with her song. And this rat was the biggest and fattest one of them all. Jack. Of all the wolves for him to come across from his old life and it had to be Jack.

  Maybe this woman wasn’t the nuisance he had thought she was.

  Jack hadn’t even noticed Tyson, he had eyes only for this woman and that was not ok. It was so far from the realm of ok that he’d need a helpful shove back into reality. As it turned out Tyson was just the wolf to give that shove. He veered further into the brush and ran ahead. He’d scare her and that was unfortunate but would be worth it in the end. After he killed Jack, they could part ways and go back to their miserable lives.

  Tyson stepped onto the path just as the woman tripped and fell. And that’s what you get when you don’t pay attention to where you step. Jack jumped in close behind her. He would have attacked her had Tyson not been there. Instead he stopped short with nothing but surprise at seeing Tyson.

  Having been isolated in his new nomadic life for almost a year, seeing Jack again only kindled the fire he felt months earlier. News traveled even to him, even in his state. This scrawny thing was the new enforcer of the Adirondack pack? It was laughable. Sure the man had muscle but the wolf was a short lanky bit of a thing. Compared to Tyson’s own bulky figure, Jack was just a joke. He’d never beat him in this form and probably wouldn’t have a chance as human either. Jack knew this. It was in his eyes now as it had been 330 days ago when he tossed Tyson’s sister under the bus as a traitor. The only way he was going to beat Tyson was to destroy his soul. Jack had figured that one out early in the game. Making him kill his own sister had done the job.

  But here, now, he could take the revenge he had been previously denied. Tyson wanted to die more than he wanted vengeance but when Gaia gave a gift, you didn’t refuse it.

  Jack was startled at Tyson’s presence. Scared too by the looks of it. His body and mind were on different grounds. His body so obviously wanted to submit, while his mind fought to gain control. In other words, his instincts told him to back the fuck down and his ego encouraged him in this battle of wills and growls.

  “Fudge.”

  Tyson looked down at the woman he had almost forgotten about. She too wasn’t going to back down. Those hurricane eyes of hers stared right at him. And damn if it didn’t pierce through that self hatred right to the spot where his heart used to beat.

  "Do it," she told him. "Just...do it already."

  Happy to oblige, Ma’am.

  While his attention was on her, he leapt for Jack. There was a good amount of bark but very little bite and that was a damn shame. Tyson only sunk his teeth in good and hard once before the coward was running off. Pitiful. Owen must be out of his freakin’ mind to allow that disgrace to be enforcer.

  Don’t get comfortable. You know how Jack plays.

  Yeah, he played dirty. Fucking filthy to be exact. He waited till the sounds of the forest began to chatter again before moving. Jack was a sneaky son of a bitch. He wanted to make sure the enforcer was well on his way back home with his tail between his legs before he turned his back.

  As he waiting, he took notice to the woman. Her erratic breathing annoyed him. Mainly because he had caused it but that didn’t mean she had to keep doing it. Tyson looked over his shoulder to where she was kneeling on the ground. Guess it was back to guard duty for him. He purposefully stepped on a stick so she would know he was coming. He scared the shit out of her once today, that was probably enough. However, she didn’t move when he came near, not even a twitch. So he nudged her along.

  Wake up, sweetheart. Time to go home.

  Tyson licked her knuckles. God-fucking-damn. She looked like summer and tasted like home. Almonds and butter to be exact. Clearly she had been cooking before her excursion. He licked her fingers again with renewed vigor. Sugar cookies maybe? He whined. What he would give for a sugar cookie right now…

  Come on woman. The cost for my protection is high. Sugar cookies to start, followed by brownies and possibly a cupcake.

  He nudged her again.

  "Didn't your mother ever tell you to not play with your food?"

  Oh, he liked this one. That little rasp in her voice was sexy as hell. And the glare was downright cute. Took guts to glare at a wolf who just tasted you. Took guts and stupidity to turn your back on one too. She stood and after a second’s thought, she turned and left. He followed. She stopped, grumbled, and kept going. He followed. By the time they reached her house, she was just all sorts of anxious.

  Tyson wagged his tail. Yeah, he liked this one.

  Fuck. He liked this one.

  Chapter Twelve

  Tyson had always believed in the pack. Even as a pup he had wanted to hold some high position, upholding the laws and traditions of his family. After his parents were killed by a few men out hunting when he was only eight, Tyson became the head of his dwindling family. Overnight he had become a man. Accepting his responsibility, he took his three year old sister, Jenny, through the wilderness in search of a home. It was either that or stay and be killed.

  His father had lived on the outskirts of a pack, never really fitting in because of his dominance. He was more dominant than the alpha and that caused all kinds of snarling at social events, pack meetings and in the grocery store. But he hadn’t wanted to run a pack. No, Robert Cartwright wanted to ha
ve a family and live in peace. His peace was named, Trisha. As a couple, they were happy but as a family. they thrived. When Tyson came into this world, his parents knew that they had something special going. They taught him about both sides of his soul. How to skin a rabbit without using his hands, moving quickly and quietly with two feet as well as four, and how to do long division. He was man and wolf working in harmony.

  He had the best of both worlds. Tyson had human friends at school to play baseball in the afternoons and wolf friends to run with on the weekends. It was wonderful until Jenny came along.

  Once she learned to walk, his sister followed him everywhere. She was embarrassing in front of his human friends and annoying with his wolf friends. All he wanted to do was have fun but she was always there. His mom would laugh and tell him he would love her one day even though she annoyed him now. He doubted that very much. But when his parents didn’t come home one night, or the night after, he didn’t find her sleeping in his bed embarrassing, or following him around holding his hand annoying. When she cried at night, he didn’t yell for his mom to shut her up…because he didn’t have a mom anymore.

  Grandpa Bud, who wasn’t really his grandpa but more of the pack grandpa, came by on the third day they didn’t come home to tell him what he knew. His parents were out running. His mom’s leg got stuck in a trap. His dad had been on his way back to help her. His mom was shot in the head from a hunter behind her. His dad was shot in the chest seconds later.

  Tyson was told to take his sister and run. There was a pack west of them who had an alpha who would sympathize and would take them in. It was their only choice. They couldn’t stay there, the alpha was on his way over to finish off the job the hunter had started. It was leave or be killed. So he left with his sister in tow and found the pack Grandpa Bud had told him about. After a week of running through the forest, they showed up on the alpha’s doorstep cold, tired, and Jenny next to death. As promised the alpha took them in without question, he found medical care for Jenny and a place to sleep for both of them.

  The Adirondack pack was nothing like his old one. Everybody had a place and everyone helped. The dominance games were a non issue because Jett was respected and ran a good pack. Tyson hero worshiped Jett. His son Owen became his best friend and when it came time for a new leader, there was no fighting. Owen took the top spot even though Tyson could have beat him for it. Tyson was like his father in that respect. He didn’t want to lead, he just wanted a place to call his own.

  Leaving the pack was surprisingly easy when he had nothing left for him there. Jenny was his world and he had killed her. Something in him broke that day. For months he had fallen deeper into his depression, into the safety of his wolf. There were weeks where he couldn’t remember because his human side was slowly dying. But as he sat on Sadie’s porch outside of her kitchen door, he realized he hadn’t been this aware of himself in a long time. Human thoughts that expanded beyond his wolf’s hunt, run and sleep were an unexpected surprise. She was having an effect on him. On his wolf too it seemed. The wolf was calmed by her presence. He was content to just sit there and watch her work. His wolf was never content. Ever since he was a pup he needed to be moving.

  “I need to call you something other than Wolf.”

  She was back on that again. As amusing as it was to listen to her name ideas, it was getting old. However, if she kept making him cookies she could call him whatever the hell she wanted. He’d even let her call him Snuggles if she agreed to wear that frilly apron of hers with nothing under it. Damn that thing was sexy. Cut to look like a 50’s style dress, it had a flared red and white polka dotted skirt and hugged her breasts in the way his mother’s apron never had. When did cooking become so sexy?

  She was still thinking, muttering to herself as she pulled a blender from the box she had been unloading. Her eyes widened and then a smile spread like warm honey across her face. “Fred,” she said with a laugh.

  Tyson thumped his tail. He’d take it since it was the least cutesy name she had come up with yet. Besides, that smile had done him in. Sadie didn’t smile as much as she should. He knew the signs of a fellow broken spirit. They were kindred in their shattered souls. It was one of the things that called to him. Somehow he felt more whole when she was near.

  She continued to unpack the box and when it was empty she broke it down. Tyson sat outside the door. She had that look about her again.

  Wait for it.

  Tyson kept his gaze trained towards the opposing wall but he felt her eyes sneak a peek. Every so often she would glance out of the side of her eye toward him and bite her lip. It was adorable in a way that mildly pissed him off. He had almost gotten over his attitude towards their situation. Not that he knew what their situation was exactly. He slept on her porch with runs throughout the day to sniff out any predators in the area. And by predators he mostly meant Jack. She fed him in return. Tyson didn’t know why he stayed other than that he felt responsible for her safety.

  That look was back.

  It was playful and full of curiosity. Had he been a man, that look would have gone straight to his dick.

  And on that note it was time for him to take a walk.

  She didn’t notice him stand or shift his weight between his paws. So deep in thought, the creases in her forehead seemed to be ingrained in her skull slowly getting deeper and deeper. It’d be a shame to see those creases stay there frozen in time. If she was to have lines, they should be laugh lines.

  Tyson scratched the door frame.

  You. Yeah, you with the pretty eyes. I’m headed out for a run.

  Sadie was biting her lip again.

  Stop doing that woman! Don’t you know it drives me insane?

  She soundlessly decided something and marched over to him with her hand extended. Tyson, being the good dog he was, stood still and let her explore. Her delicate fingers threaded through his fur and down his back. They reached all the spots his back foot had trouble hitting. Like the crook where his ear met his head. When her nails scratched there he lost all form of thought. He all but purred when those nimble fingers of her moved to his chin. With just a few strokes, Sadie had diminished him to melting like butter into a soft mess.

  If he wasn’t so secure in his masculinity, he would have been embarrassed by his reaction.

  Her throaty little laugh wasn’t helping either.

  “Go hunt stuff and pee on things,” she said when she was done. Tyson had no problems with that. He was going to pee a solid stream around her property marking it as his. No other wolf was going to enjoy her chin scratches. Those were all for him.

  *****

  He smelled Jack.

  He felt the waves of fear.

  He saw red.

  Tyson nudged open the screen door to the kitchen and tentatively stepped inside. The hair on his back was standing on end like millions of little soldiers at attention. The scent of the new enforcer was surrounding the front of the house but virtually nonexistent inside. He had been expecting a fight when he caught Jack’s trail on his run but not this. Not nothing. So why the fear?

  His body wasn’t ready to back down. Had there been blood, he wouldn’t have taken his time in assessing the situation. He hadn’t been made enforcer because of his good looks. No, Tyson knew how to work almost every situation that was presented with a clear and level head.

  Jenny’s face came to mind. The life bled from her. Eyes unfocused and void. Blood on his hands…

  Tyson stopped to let his grief pass. Only it never did. Part of it always lingered behind and layering on top of the remnants of previous occurrences. His darkness, as he called it, was almost full. Soon he’d be overflowing with it.

  Get on with it. You’re not here about that.

  Sadie wasn’t anywhere in the kitchen or living room but he went around each to double check anyway. Scent didn’t lie. Jack hadn’t stepped foot in her house and she wasn’t in any physical danger. But Sadie was scared out of her mind. So where was she?

&
nbsp; When he hit the hallway, Tyson stopped. Sadie’s raspy voice was mumbling incoherently from the bathroom. A cloud of tangy fear and salty tears hung heavily outside the door. Tyson checked the bedroom before going to her. The house was clear of anyone. Only Sadie’s scent in every room.

  In the throes of a panic attack, she hadn’t noticed him come in. She mumbled about someone being dead and killing him. Her face was red from the lack of air her lungs were heaving and wet from the tears that rolled over her cheeks.

  That broken part of Tyson recognized the broken part of her. This was the crack in her soul revealing itself to his. Tyson jumped lightly into the bathtub with her. She clung to the shower curtain as if she’d drown without it. The sobs were slowing. Her chest less frantic.

  He went to her. Licking at her cheeks and pawing at her arm. Someone had hurt this sweet, tiny woman. Her innocence was destroyed by taking a life, a fact that he believed was not, in anyway, her fault.

  Tyson was a lost cause and a killer.

  Jack was a manipulative bastard and a killer.

  Sadie was a baking bombshell and not a killer.

  He felt it in his gut. For her to take a life, her hand had to have been forced. Beyond what he knew about her before, this moment alone showed him all he needed to know. It destroyed her. The fear, the heartache, the guilt. He knew those vintages and tasted them daily.

  Tyson was enchanted by Sadie, much to his own dismay. But as she blinked up at him, clearing her too big eyes and seeing him beside her for the first time, he fell into something more with her.

  Protecting her would be his redemption.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Lately his thoughts turned toward Jenny. Had Jack loved her? He knew she was smitten with him. He never had liked the man but there was no reasoning behind it at the time. Jenny liked him so he kept his mouth shut. Tyson chalked it up to being her big brother and head of their little family. Whenever it came to making decisions that effected more than just him, Tyson would ask himself, “Is this what dad would have done?”