Lost Wolf (A New Dawn Novel Book 4)

by Rachel M Raithby

  “Up ahead,” Anna said quietly.

  Cage search out the window screen, spotting a figure walking along the side of the road.

  “Pick him up, he needs a lift home.”

  “Home?” Cage questioned.

  Anna focused on him for the first time since the vision hit. “Dark Shadow, not River Run,” she clarified.

  As the car neared, Cage recognized the person walking, and when he slowed next to him, rolling the window down to offer him a lift, Cage registered the exhaustion on the man’s face. Yet he was pretty certain the universe, or fate, or whoever sent these visions to Anna, hadn’t done so because the man was tired. He guessed time would tell. Sometimes Anna’s visions made no sense to him at all.

  “Hey, Ty, want a lift?” Cage asked.

  Tyler paused, his mouth opening as if to say yes, before caution filled his gaze and he faltered.

  “Get in the car, Tyler,” Anna said, no room for argument.

  Cage hid his smile. It wasn’t often his mate gave orders.

  Cage idled, waiting for Tyler to react. Tyler ran a hand through his hair, sighing before he climbed in. “You look beat, pal,” Cage said as he put the car back into drive and headed for pack grounds.

  “Pulled a few double shifts lately,” Tyler replied. “Thanks for stopping.”

  “Thank, Anna, she’s the one who directed me to you.”

  “Oh?” Tyler frowned.

  “He’s tired,” Anna answered.

  Cage met Tyler’s gaze in the rearview mirror. Chuckling, he shook his head. “So, Ty, what’s new?” Cage asked.

  “Nothing much,” Tyler replied, turning to look out of the window. “How about you? Settling in your new place?”

  “Yeah, it’s great. Don’t tell Jackson, but I like being away from prying pack eyes.” Cage chuckled. “Keeps my mom from being a busybody at least.”

  “Yup, parents can be a pain in the ass,” Tyler agreed.

  Cage kept polite conversation going as he drove, every now and then glancing at Anna and wondering when she was going to explain the detour to pick Tyler up. It wasn’t until they pulled up to let Tyler out and he’d half stepped out the door that she turned in her seat and reached out a hand to stop him.

  “Tyler,” she said softly.

  Tyler peered back, hesitant.

  “Tell them,” Anna continued.

  His eyes widened slightly. “Sorry?”

  “You need to tell them. Someone.”

  “Anna… I….”

  A breeze blew into the car, and Tyler’s scent filled Cage’s lungs, along with another. His eyes locked with Tyler’s, and fear filled the man’s gaze.

  “Regan?” Cage whispered. Tyler’s whole demeanor changed. Cage wasn’t sure if the man was going to bolt or make sure Cage wasn’t able to speak Regan’s name again.

  Anna gripped Cage’s knee, all while never taking her gaze from Tyler. “He’s not going to tell anyone,” she promised Tyler. Only Cage couldn’t, shouldn’t keep that promise.

  “Anna, I can—”

  Her fingers dug in further. “He’s not going to tell anyone,” Anna repeated. “But you should.”

  “We can’t,” Tyler breathed, terror on his face. “Please….”

  Anna smiled sadly. “It’s not our secret to tell.”

  Tyler let out a rushed breath. “It’s just her parents… the alliance… how will they react? How will everyone react?” Desperation replaced fear. “Can you see? Can you see how they react?”

  She shook her head sadly. “I only see what I’m showed.”

  “And what do you see?”

  “Pain. It will end in pain.”

  “If we tell them it will.”

  “No, Tyler,” Anna whispered solemnly. “It will either way.”

  His features cleared of fear, replaced with frustration and a thread of anger. If Cage didn’t feel so sorry for the guy, he might have growled at him for looking at his mate that way.

  “Then what’s the point? Might as well just enjoy what I have left with her.”

  “I pass on what I’m told, Tyler. And I’m telling you, tell someone. Someone you trust. Someone who will listen. Someone from Dark Shadow.”

  “Kat?”

  “I don’t know. Sorry.”

  Tyler’s attention drifted from Anna to Cage. “Can I trust you?” he snarled.

  “Threatening me?”

  With a frustrated sigh, Tyler rubbed a hand over his face. “Don’t push me.”

  “Do you love her?” Cage asked.

  “More than the world.”

  “Then my lips are sealed, but please consider what Anna said.” Cage smiled, running his fingers through Anna’s long red hair. “I know it might not seem like it, but she really does know what she’s doing.”

  With a nod and a grim smile, Tyler shut the car door and slipped into the trees, disappearing moments later.

  “Little heads up next time would be nice,” Cage murmured, putting the car back into drive and pulling away.

  “I gave you what I knew at the time. And I meant it when I said you’ll tell no one. We can’t interfere with their fates beyond what I’ve already said.”

  Cage shook his head. “I’m not supposed to keep things like this from my alpha.”

  “Jackson will know when the time is right.”

  And even though it went against what he’d been taught growing up, Cage trusted Anna, trusted his mate, and hoped the universe made it right. He hoped Regan and Tyler walked away with two whole hearts and not two broken ones.

  Chapter 19

  She’d been coming to see him for two weeks. If Bass and Jackson knew she was coming into the barn alone, they didn’t let on. Slipping quietly through the door, Katalina was running on silent, nimble feet before Zackary noticed. Jumping, she reached the beam above her and swung up into the rafters of the barn.

  Peering down at the growling and snapping wolf below her, Katalina noted he gave up after a few minutes today and crouched down, silent but wary.

  “Not in a barky mood today?” Katalina asked from her perch, legs dangling into thin air as she straddled the beam of the barn. “Bored of me already?”

  He growled low in response.

  “See, that right there is the reason I keep coming back. What wild wolf answers a human question with a growl? You understand me, don’t you?”

  Silence.

  “You don’t have to answer. I already know. I can see it in your eyes. There’s a little human left in you. You’re just too chicken to admit it.”

  That earned her a growl.

  “Don’t like been called chicken? It’s the truth. You’re scared. You reek of it. That’s another cool wolfy power—being able to scent emotions. Took me some time to master.”

  His growled ended in a loud disgruntled bark.

  “See, I was once like you. Human. Scared. Still get scared if I’m honest, but I’ve accepted my new life… for the most part at least. It’s actually pretty cool being a shifter. Take me sitting up here for example. No way I’d have been able to do this before I turned. If you shifted back, you’d probably be able to climb up here too. Might even be able to get a punch in before I had you on your ass.”

  Silence. Not even a low growl.

  Katalina let out a frustrated sigh. Anna said she’d be able to help Zackary and that she was meant to, but day after day she came, and there was little change.

  “Come on, Zac. What are you waiting for?”

  Nothing.

  “Screw it!” Swinging her leg over the beam, Katalina dropped to the barn floor and crouched before Zackary.

  The wolf jumped to his feet and froze. They eyed each other.

  “What are you waiting for?” Katalina whispered. “Come get me, chick, chick, chick, chick, chicken.”

  His answering growl vibrated through her bones, and there was no chance of the noise going undetected, which meant Katalina was out of time. If she was going to get Zackary to shift back, it was now or neve
r.

  They danced around each other, dust from the barn floor billowing clouds around them. Katalina was working hard but not hard enough to have her worried; she could handle him. Just. Zackary was reacting with the primal rage of his wolf; it was how she’d first fought, but over time, she’d learned how to use human instincts to calm the wolf’s. And if she could, so could Zackary.

  “What are you so afraid of, huh? I know you’re in there, so why haven’t you taken back control?” Katalina leaped back, dodging the snap of his teeth, her feet nimble as she avoided each strike. “Unless you’d rather not take back control? Unless you’d rather be this mindless beast?”

  Emotions clouded the wolf’s eyes. For a second, they’d appeared human.

  Katalina smiled. “So that’s it. You’re hiding. Hiding from reality, from humanity.”

  Zackary snarled savagely, confirming she’d hit the nail on the head. He’d lost his mother, he’d turned to drugs and alcohol, attacked his family. Zackary would rather hide in the primal mind of the wolf than face those very human problems.

  “Kat!” The barn door opened a fraction, spilling a bright shaft of light into the barn, momentarily blinding Katalina.

  Zackary leaped, teeth bared. She saw him coming too late. Her eyes adjusted to the new light a fraction of a second too slow. Teeth met flesh.

  “Katalina!”

  “No! Stay back, Jackson.”

  Taking hold of the wolf, Katalina flung him off. He hit the ground and immediately sprang back up.

  “Are you insane?” Jackson shouted from the open doorway.

  Without taking her eyes of Zackary, she answered, “I can reach him. Anna said it was me, so I must try.”

  “Anna isn’t always right.”

  “Isn’t she?”

  Zackary stared at her, the eyes of his wolf full of pain and fury. She’d felt what he was hiding from—the grief of losing a parent, the disgust of what being a shifter allowed you to do, the strength of the wild animal fighting for a say within your body. She’d tried to hide too, just not in the body of her wolf.

  “I get it. I know your pain,” she said gently.

  He didn’t move, but a rumble built in the chest of his wolf.

  “I lost my parents. I wanted to hide too.”

  He released his howl, the sound full of agony. Katalina gazed at his face. She could almost see the human mind hiding behind the animal’s.

  “But you can’t hide forever, Zac,” Katalina continued. Yet it wasn’t working. Human emotions faded from the wolf’s amber eyes. “Hey!” Katalina yelled, racing forward, ignoring the pain from her bite wound. “Don’t hide from me!”

  He growled in warning.

  “I’m not afraid of you. I’m not afraid.”

  His eyes flickered.

  The last thing Katalina wanted was to be cruel, but kindness wasn’t working. Zackary’s only hope was for his human anger to surpass the wolf’s. “Not like you. You’re a coward, hiding behind the mask of a wolf so you can forget your family.”

  It was working. He was trembling.

  “What would your mother think? Would she want you to be a coward?”

  Collapsing, the wolf’s body trembled and convulsed.

  “Come back, Zac. Stop hiding. Don’t be a coward.”

  “I. AM. NOT. A. COWARD,” Zackary yelled. He looked up, his human face clenched with emotional pain.

  Smiling softly, Katalina stepped forward. “No, you’re not,” she murmured, holding out a hand for him and pulling him upright. “You’re brave. Now let’s get you in the house and into some clothes. I bet some food wouldn’t hurt either, huh?”

  Zackary smiled hesitantly, before nodding and walking beside her out of the barn. His eyes darted in all directions, equal parts of curiosity and fear in his gaze.

  “It’s going to be all right,” Katalina assured him. I’ve got you to shift back. That has to be the hardest part. She hoped so anyway.

  Chapter 20

  “Kat. A word,” Bass ground out, his anger on a tight leash that was threatening to snap.

  Laying a soft reassuring hand over the boy’s, she squeezed and spoke to him in a gentle whisper. “I’ll be right back.”

  When Katalina’s gaze met his, all the gentleness she’d shown Zackary was gone, replaced with annoyance and the slightest bit of rage.

  “I ordered you to stay away from him,” Bass snapped, the second she stopped in front of him.

  The annoyance vanished, replaced with cold, vicious fury.

  Ordered… what was I thinking? “I—”

  Katalina cut him off before he managed to attempt an apology. Bass half expected her to hit him. He deserved for her to; she wasn’t his to order. She was his to love, to protect, and care for, and sometimes that entailed allowing her near danger because he wouldn’t cage her. Katalina wasn’t weak. She could protect herself. Yet sometimes, the wolf in him didn’t like that fact.

  His wolf had been riding him hard lately. With the constant threat to his pack and mate, he was struggling to think straight. Riddled with guilt and self-doubt, Bass was ashamed to admit he occasionally wondered if he’d made a mistake becoming alpha.

  “Order? Order?! Are you kidding me?”

  “I’m sorry. I—”

  “Save it! I’m not interested in your excuses. Yes, you asked me to stay away from him, and yes, I ignored you. Be pissed if you like, but Anna said it had to be me. I couldn’t ignore that even if there was a chance I could be hurt.”

  “You could have been more than hurt, Kat.”

  “Give me some credit, Bass. I’ve faced more than one wolf before.”

  “I know and I’m sorry. I truly am. It just slipped out. I was worried.”

  “Well, I’m right here, alive and everything. So step down from your high and mighty alpha horse and just be my Bass, will you?”

  Running a hand through his hair, he let out a frustrated breath and met Katalina’s hard stare. “Forgive me?”

  “I’ll think about it,” she murmured.

  Leaning forward, Bass risked being snapped at and went for her lips. She resisted for all of two beats, then melted. Her rigid stance dropped, her crossed arms came undone and wrapped around him.

  “That’s cheating.” She smiled against his lips.

  “When it comes to you, my Winter Wolf, I’ll cheat, I’ll lie, I’ll kill if it means you are happy.”

  “Less killing would be good.”

  “Unfortunately, I think that isn’t going to be very achievable.”

  Her hands moved upward, gentle in their touch. Cupping his face, she looked at him, and Bass’s heart expanded, full of so much love he often thought it might burst. Her smile was soft, but the look in her eyes was anything but—stern, insistent. Bass was almost afraid to hear what she had to say.

  “Just don’t let it change you, Bass. You’re mine, remember? Not this world’s, not this war’s. Be the guy I fell in love with.”

  The guy she fell in love with. Bass was so far from that point—from the love-sick teenager who thought removing his father from the equation would solve all his problems. It wasn’t all that long ago, but it felt like years. Yet he’d do anything for Katalina. Even if he thought it wasn’t possible, he’d try. Because she was all that mattered.

  “So, what do you plan to do with Zac?” he murmured, quiet enough the boy wouldn’t hear.

  Turning in his arms, Katalina leaned her head back against his chest and pulled his arms around her front. Bass kissed the top of her head and inhaled the scent of her hair into his lungs, the act distracting enough he was sure he didn’t hear her correctly.

  “Did you just say bring him home?”

  “Yes.”

  “Kat, he’s not a stray puppy you found on the side of the road.”

  She pulled away from him, her face telling him all he needed to know. She was pissed, and she’d do as she wished anyway. She always did.

  Swallowing the sudden urge to growl, Bass attempted to explain
why her idea was so terrible. “He’s a newly bitten wolf. They’re dangerous and unpredictable, Katalina.”

  “Well, what would you do with him, then?” she snapped.

  “Keep him in the barn until he’s learned control.”

  The noise that left her mouth was a mix of growl and sigh. “We are not keeping him in the barn.”

  “You do realize I can hear you, right?”

  Bass looked up from Katalina’s beautiful but angry face and met Zackary’s gaze with the full brunt of the wolf within him. The kid held the contact for three beats before looking away.

  “Ugh, how do you do that?” Zackary ground out, his fists tight balls.

  “I’m alpha. Holding my gaze for as long as you did is impressive, if not a little worrying.”

  “Worrying? Why?” Zackary asked.

  “Because not only are you a wild, unruly teenager who’s been bitten, but you’re one with dominance. And frankly, I have enough on my plate without needing to babysit you.”

  “I don’t need babysitting, and I’m not unruly! Try losing your mom and see how you take it.” His voice rose, and as it did, Zackary began to tremble, anger on every rigid plane of his face.

  “I did.”

  “Oh.” The anger drained from Zackary. “Still, I don’t need babysitting.”

  “You do, actually.”

  “Okay, I’m going to jump in here,” Katalina said, stepping toward Zackary. “We know you’re not a kid, but that doesn’t mean precaution doesn’t need to be taken.”

  “The barn,” Bass replied.

  “Get lost,” Zackary spat.

  The growl that left Bass was deep and savage, full of the dominance of an alpha. Zackary stumbled backward, even Katalina flinched from the sound. Bass hadn’t intended to sound as he had, but as much as he didn’t want to admit it, the attack from Indiana had affected him deeply, and he was struggling.

  “What the hell is going on in here?” Jackson growled, barging into the kitchen.

  “Bass was just about to go for a walk and cool off,” Katalina answered, her expression hard.