Wolf At The Door: Soulmate Shifters World (Soulmate Shifters in Mystery, Alaska Book 5)

by Krystal Shannan

  She scanned the road again. The ditch was shallow enough just ahead. It would hurt like a bitch, but it was better than what might be around the bend. At least she’d made it over the river safely.

  18

  Knox

  The hum of a familiar motor caught Knox’s attention. Katherine’s truck. He would recognize that odd chugging sound anywhere. He padded along through the trees toward the sound. Why was she on this side of the river? Had Callum told her where he was going? What he was going to do?

  Weak boy. He shouldn’t have ever told Callum he was headed to see the dragon. At least Katherine wouldn’t be putting herself in harm’s way if she didn’t know where he was going.

  The peaceful silence of the forest was broken by the crunching and twisting scream of metal.

  A crash.

  He paused and perked his ears. The hum of Katherine’s truck was gone. His heart stopped in his chest and all manners of nightmares flooded his mind. He threw his head back and howled then in an explosion of movement, took off toward the road he’d seen a mile or so back.

  The minutes drug past.

  One stride after another. The forest flew past in a blur of browns and greens. His feet couldn’t go fast enough. Through trees. Under brush. Past deer and other animals just out chowing down on the freshly growing greenery of summer.

  Nothing mattered but Katherine.

  He burst through a bit of scrub out onto the open black top road. His nails dug into the hard pavement. He could smell her on the wind.

  Smell blood.

  Shuarra.

  Mine.

  Katherine

  “Tara, pick up.” Katherine yelled at her phone and clambered out of her trashed truck. “Fracking hell.” The whole front axis was at a weird angle. It was going to cost her a fortune to replace. But the brakes had been fine earlier today. “Tara?” She shouted again into the phone she had pressed between her shoulder and her cheek.

  “Hello?”

  “I need you to come pick me up.”

  “What?”

  “I need you to come pick me up. I’m on the side of the road on the way out to your place. Just past the first four-way over the bridge from town.” Katherine kicked the flat tire next to her front driver door. “Frack. Frackity. Frack.” The fender was bent. The front bumper was barely attached. “Someone screwed with my brake lines. I had to go into the ditch to stop.”

  “Good grief!” Tara’s confused tone raised and then flipped to worried. “Are you okay?”

  Katherine touched her forehead and pulled away wet fingers red with blood. “Shit.”

  “What?”

  “I’m bleeding again. I think I hit my head on the steering wheel.”

  “Again? Never mind, I’m on my way. We’ll be there in a few minutes. Hang on.”

  “I’m good. I’m just a little banged up. I need to talk to Col about Knox.”

  “You don’t want to do that, believe me. Just don’t go anywhere.”

  “I’m not,” Katherine said. “And I do need to talk to him.” She cracked her neck and stared at the forest across the street. She could’ve sworn she saw a flash of white. “Knox?”

  “Katherine. Is he there? What are you thinking bringing him to the Tribe? I thought you were hiding him.” Tara’s voice got lost in the back recess of her attention.

  Katherine crossed the street and watched a huge white wolf with glowing golden eyes step out of the trees. “Knox.”

  The wolf charged. Fangs bared.

  Katherine froze. The phone dropped from her hand. This wolf wasn’t Knox. She knew it in her heart. She could feel it in her bones. Something was different. The warm safe feeling she got when he was close by was absent.

  Instead, she felt dread.

  “Knox!” She screamed his name, praying Ryder was right. Praying that her mate hadn’t really abandoned her. Praying that he was close enough to hear her or feel her or however this magick shit was supposed to work.

  “Knox.” She shouted again and finally started to move. She only got a few steps away before the weight of the charging animal knocked her to the ground. “No—” Terror gripped her tight, choking reason from her limbs and cutting off her voice. She flailed and pushed at the wolf. Teeth snapped right next to her face.

  Fabric ripped on her sleeve.

  “No.” She got her legs up under his belly and pushed, getting him further from snapping her head off. At least for a few more seconds.

  “Help!” She screamed into the silence.

  The wolf lunged again. Katherine grabbed at his mouth, trying to keep the jaws from closing down. They twisted and rolled on the road, but she hung on.

  This was it.

  If she let go, she was dead.

  Fear slammed into her, heavier than the two-hundred-pound canine trying to eat her alive. If she died, she would never see Knox again. Never get to tell him how much she cared about him. Never get to sit next to a bathroom counter and wait on a pregnancy test.

  The wolf kept moving. Kept wrenching his head back and forth trying to get free from her hands. His teeth had torn into her palms, but he hadn’t been able to get a good hold on any part of her.

  They rolled again, flipping violently off the road and into the ditch on the opposite side.

  Pain shot through her body and she gasped for air. Metal coated her tongue and she choked on her next breath.

  Black spots dotted her vision.

  Her hands dropped from the wolf’s neck.

  She waited for his teeth to close around her neck, but it never came.

  Knox

  Mate. Mate. Mate.

  He tore into the white wolf on top of the woman he loved. He growled and bit and tore chunks out of the bastard who dared to hurt Katherine. The metallic scent of her spilled blood drove him harder.

  Knox felt nothing but the roaring sound of unadulterated rage. He growled and circled the large white wolf before charging again. The other charged at the same time and their bodies collided with a heavy thud.

  Kill the traitor.

  He and his beast were completely in sync, dodging and tearing and slashing.

  This wolf wasn’t young. He was a seasoned fighter and he was doing a fair amount of damage to Knox. Both of their white coats were stained and wet with blood.

  Knox recognized the wolf, but his brain was so focused on killing and staying alive he couldn’t place him. He wasn’t pack. Or hadn’t been for a long time.

  He shook off the thoughts and focused on every move. Every breath. Even one misstep could cost him the fight. Cost him everything.

  He wasn’t going to lose. Not again.

  He was done being the one who stepped aside and let others dictate his life.

  Finished.

  He was alpha now and he drew on that knowledge and the power that came with it, fully claiming his birthright for the first time since his brother’s death.

  He knocked the wolf to the ground and pushed his dominance forward, forcing the Reylean to shift out of beast form. The white wolf morphed into a man he hadn’t seen in years. Tall. Brown hair. Green eyes just like his father had had. The man in front of Knox was the spitting image of his uncle…except his uncle had been dead for a long time and his son had been banished for being a traitor and a coward and a murderer.

  He shifted and stood over the panting bloody man lying in the middle of the street.

  “Tai,” he growled out the name, spitting blood out of his mouth like the very name disgusted him.

  “Cousin.” The other man slowly climbed to his feet, rising to square off.

  Knox bowed his chest out. Tai was big, but Knox still had several inches on him. “You were banished from the pack.”

  “The pack that should’ve been mine,” Tai said, his voice slicing through the air like a knife. He moved to the side, keeping his gaze locked with Knox.

  “I’m alpha now,” Knox said, stepping to the side, matching Tai’s circling steps.

  “You will die too
.”

  Knox growled deep in his chest.

  “You ruined everything. You kept talking Raish down. He would’ve been dead along with the rest of you bastards that executed my father and sent me to live in a wasteland. You kept that bear’s bitch alive. Then still escaped the dragon’s rampage. But I’ll just fix it all myself.” He side-stepped again. “Right. Now. Revenge will be mine.” Tai glanced toward Katherine who was limping toward where her truck had slid off the road into a ditch. “And then I get to take the most precious thing Fate could ever give you. I couldn’t have dreamed a better end for you.”

  Knox refused to look away. Refused to even glance at Katherine. He couldn’t. He couldn’t break his concentration. Tai was dangerous, well trained, and unlike Knox had nothing to lose.

  “I’ll enjoy tearing her to pieces. She’s a fighter. That branch went right through her fragile human body and yet she still can stand. I’m impressed.” He licked his lips. “She does smell delicious.”

  Knox stilled his body. Branch? No.

  He couldn’t go to her. Not yet.

  Kill. His wolf urged. Kill.

  Tai had to die. He couldn’t help Katherine until Tai was dead.

  Knox lunged again, shifting back into wolf form mid-air.

  Katherine

  Katherine kept her hand pressed tight to the wound in her side. Blood gushed between her fingers. She was cold. She couldn’t feel her toes. Moving was getting really hard. She kept staring at the ground and then at her feet and then willing one foot to move. Then the other. Keep going. She had to put some space between herself and the two wrestling wolves.

  She had a gun in the truck. She could help Knox.

  A grey old truck slid to a stop next to her.

  “Katherine. Oh, god! Katherine.”

  It was a female voice. Vaguely familiar. But so faint. She could barely hear her, yet Katherines eyes said the woman was right next to her. She sounded kinda like Tara, but it was too distorted to be sure. Black spots floated in her vision.

  “Knox saved you, you know. He kept Raish from killing you.”

  “What?” Tara’s voice exploded in Katherine’s ear.

  “He saved you.” She stumbled. “Knox,” she said, her voice gurgling around his name. “Please don’t let them kill him.”

  Other voices joined the cacophony around her. So many voices. Then a roaring in her ears drowned everything out. Hands touched her from all over, but not the hands she wanted.

  Not Knox’s hands.

  Tara

  “Shit. Shit. Shit. Owen help him. Don’t you kill him. You help him. He saved my life.” She pointed to the twisting turning ball of white fur and blood.

  “Now you believe her?”

  “I was angry. Just help him. Now.”

  Owen nodded and ran toward the writhing ball of bloody white fur and fangs.

  Tara grabbed hold of her best friend and choked back a hysterical cry. She couldn’t lose it right now. She had to hold it together for her friend. For everyone. The rest of the Tribe was right behind her. Tor had just pulled up and was running toward her and Owen. The others were only minutes behind them.

  A flash of grey sped across the road.

  “Another wolf.” Owen roared, his claws lengthening from the ends of his fingers. “Can I kill that one?”

  “Yes. Just not Knox.”

  “The other two are both white. Which one is him?”

  Tara stared up at her mate and snarled. “I don’t fucking know, but if you let my best friend’s mate die you will be sleeping alone for months.”

  His lip curled, showing some fang.

  Tara dropped her fangs and hissed at her mate. “You make sure Tor doesn’t either. Nobody touches Knox.” She gathered Katherine’s body closer as she crumpled into her arms moaning more about Knox and a rifle.

  Good God, she was gutted and still trying to save that man. “Don’t you die on me, honey. Please. I’m sorry. Whatever you want, I’m okay with it. If Knox makes you happy, I’m going to make sure you get to keep him. I promise. Please just don’t die.” Tears burned Tara’s cheeks.

  She pressed her hands against the gaping wound in her friend’s side. Blood seeped between her fingers, coating them red. She ripped her sweater off and pressed it to the wound, but the ground was still turning red.

  “Knox!” Tara screamed across the road. “Knox!”

  Katherine was dying and there was nothing she could do.

  Tor slid to the ground next to her and slipped his hands beneath Katherine. “It went straight through. She’s bleeding from her back too.”

  “No. No. No.” She crooned. “There has to be something.”

  “If we knew what triggered the change. Turning her could save her life. It saved yours.” Tor met her gaze and Tara grabbed onto the tiny sliver of hope he’d given her. But Raish was dead. Who could turn Katherine? Col? He had turned Naomi.

  “Where’s Col?”

  Tor’s eyes widened. “You want Vraka to—”

  “Move.” A half roar half growl exploded from behind Tara. Knox slid to the ground, not too gently pushing Tara out of the way. A growl started behind her—a familiar bear was not pleased with the wolf’s roughness.

  “We need Col to bite her.”

  “The dragon.” Knox said, surprise raising his voice. “She doesn’t want to be changed. Why would she want to be a dragon?”

  “She’s dying, Knox. There’s nothing left to do. He’s the only one we know with the power to change her. Your brother changed Tara, but we don’t know why. It didn’t work on Kann’s mate. She didn’t change.”

  “Dalmeck! She didn’t want it,” he said, glaring at Tara. “She asked me not to do it.”

  “Can you?”

  “I believe the ability to turn is linked to certain bloodlines.”

  “So you are like Raish. You can turn her.”

  “I believe so, yes.”

  “She’s dying, Knox.” Tara’s chest tightened. Air froze in her lungs and she fought for her next breath. She glanced around. The wolves were gone. Owen and Tor were here. Kann was parking his truck. Col was right behind him and his eyes were pure gold.

  She jumped to her feet and ran toward the dragon, her feet pounded against the pavement.

  “Please. You have to let him live. Please, I’m begging you. She’s my best friend. He’s her mate. He saved my life. That should earn him a place in the tribe.”

  The heat coming off Col was stifling, but his eyes softened and turned more brown than gold. She didn’t dare touch the male, but she stood rooted firmly between him and the others. She owed Katherine this…and so much more.

  “Your friend is dying, little one. I’m sorry.” He motioned her to return to the group huddled around Katherine and Knox.

  She choked back a sob and ran back toward Katherine.

  Owen slipped an arm around her waist keeping her from kneeling beside her friend. “Leave him, Tara. He should hold her.”

  “No. No. Col needs to bite her or Knox. Someone needs to fucking do something.” She kicked and screamed, but Owen was like fighting a mountain. His grip didn’t falter even for a second.

  Knox cradled Katherine in his lap. His clothes were torn. Blood ran from wounds all over his body. His eyes were bright gold, but tears were running down his cheeks, cutting clear rivulets through the spattered blood covering his face. He was breaking in front of her. If he lost her, he would lose himself. She could see it happening.

  “Knox, please,” she begged through sobs.

  He met Tara’s gaze.

  “Do it.”

  He lowered his mouth to Katherine’s shoulder. “Forgive me, my love.” Then he bit deep.

  Tara bit back a whimper, watching Knox bite into her best friend. She could feel the bloom of pain like it was hers all over again, the fire that had sped through her veins when Knox’s brother had bitten her.

  But Katherine didn’t even twitch.

  Not a single response.

 
She was so far gone.

  Maybe too far.

  19

  Col

  Everything was a muddled jumble of chaos.

  The human woman was nearly dead. Her heat signature was fading her heartbeat was slowing. He didn’t have to be standing next to her to know she was slipping from this world.

  The man at the center of the group belonged to the pack that’d attacked his mate Naomi. Kidnapped and nearly killed Tara. Turned Tara into a wolf. But now as the one called Knox sat on the ground holding his human mate as she bled out, Col didn’t have the heart to kill him. At least for now he would offer him a reprieve to grieve for the woman he loved. It was the right thing to do.

  “Vraka, we should track the other wolves?” It was Tor that spoke.

  The young warrior was always striving to impress him. He was the only tiger in the group. The last of his tribe.

  “I can go after them.”

  Col pulled his gaze from the sobbing Tara and the slow shallow breaths of her friend. He was grateful his own mate had stayed back at the cabin. Naomi had been having a bad day and had spent much of it in bed sleeping. The young were growing quickly, and her body needed extra rest to compensate.

  Kann had also left Penny. She was at his cabin keeping Naomi company. The two women had become quite close over the last couple months.

  “Yes. Track and put them down. My order still stands. The wolf pack will die or leave Mystery.”

  Tor and Saul nodded and jogged away from the scene. Owen stood near Knox, holding his mate tight against his big frame. Tara switched between sobbing and yelling at Katherine to live.

  Col took a few more steps, putting himself next to the bear male, the newest member he’d welcomed into his mismatched Tribe. He hadn’t asked to be called their Vraka—their chief. But they had insisted and now he felt a responsibility to them. For all of their futures. Especially the unborn young.