I want to go back to our cabin and tell her what I did, but what happens if she pushes me away? My bear whines at the thought, knowing it would rip us apart. Being rejected by a mate doesn’t happen with shifters, but she’s human. This could send me into shock.
I drop to my knees in the snow, putting my head in my hands. I have no idea what I’m going to do. I feel lost.
“Koda?”
The voice of the Alpha has me looking up. Stone is close by, but I didn’t even hear him approach. I’m so lost in my own thoughts and pain that I’ve pushed out everything else.
“Are you all right, brother?”
He comes over and kneels down beside me, looking over my body, I assume, for injury.
“My mate,” I say, and I feel the pain slice through my heart.
“Is she hurt?” he asks, like he already knows about her. Maybe her brothers had come to him after I’d left the note.
“No. It’s nothing like that.”
Stone puts his hand on my shoulder, and I feel the weight of the Alpha speaking to me. It’s not in my nature to bow down to anyone, but belonging to this pack means doing what my pack leader tells me to, and for that, my bear will listen.
“Koda. Tell me what’s wrong.”
I let out a deep sigh and explain what happened with Snow and me. How I found her and how she is my mate, and then I tell him about her confession, who her father was, and what that meant to me.
“I don’t want to do anything that will cause my mate pain. But I fear that if I tell her the truth, she may push me away.” The weight of my words is nearly crushing me, and the pain in my body is worsening. I can’t be away from her for this long without consequences.
“I’ll go with you, brother. We’ll talk to her together.”
I nod. There’s no disagreeing with the Alpha. And maybe he will make her understand what pushing me away means. He’s better with people than I am. I often feel at a loss for words. After being held captive for so long, some of my social skills aren't what they used to be.
I get up from the ground, and he follows me back to my cabin. When I get within sight, I’m shocked that the door is wide open. Shocked that I would have done that. I was so upset when I went outside that I forgot to lock the door. I left her unprotected. Panic hits me hard and fast like nothing I’ve ever felt before, going all the way down to my bones.
“Snow!”
I run towards the house in a panic, and I know within a half a second she’s not inside. Looking down, I see her tracks, and I start running after them, trailing her prints into the woods. I feel Stone beside me, tracking her as well, and we run hard for a long time before we find a large cluster of wolf tracks next to her boot prints.
“Her brothers. The Denalis,” I say, gasping for breath.
Stone nods and motions in the direction of the tracks. We take off running and follow them to a cabin on the outskirts of the protected land.
When I get to the cabin, I can scent the wolves and my mate. My bear pushes all the way forward, and I barely hold my skin as he roars his anger.
I will rip this cabin apart board by board until they give me my mate.
Chapter 8
Snow
Another roar sounds, this one a heck of a lot closer. Then the front door explodes, and chunks of wood clatter all around us. Everyone ducks, but before I even know what’s happening, I’m in the air with strong arms around me as the cold of the outside hits me.
A strange feeling a déjà vu strikes me as Koda runs through the woods at a pace that clearly isn’t human with me wrapped in his arms. I don’t say anything. The look on his face is entirely savage. Part of his face has shifted, and his eyes are completely black.
It isn’t long before I start to hear the howls behind us, making my heart rate sky rocket. I don’t want anyone to get hurt. Deep down I know Koda would never hurt me. He might not want me as a mate, but he wouldn’t hurt me. I wonder if that’s what’s driving him now. He knows he has to have me as a mate even if he hates me.
Maybe that’s why he’s so savage. He’s lost control. More howls sound behind us, and Koda picks up speed somehow as he runs through the wood, dodging trees and never missing a step.
“Please,” I whisper as I push my face into his neck. I don’t know what I’m begging for—for him to stop or for him to refrain from attacking my brothers, who I know are hot on our trail.
“Mine,” he growls. His arms tighten around me. Soon the house comes into sight, the door still standing wide open. Koda leaps over all the stairs and lands inside the house, kicking the door closed behind him he puts me down and starts flipping the locks.
I feel relief as I hear the locks click into place. I know now that a fight won’t break out between my brothers and Koda. I know Koda could take them one on one, no problem. That’s clear from his size alone. But I don’t know what he’d do with all three of them at once, and I couldn’t bear for any of them to get hurt.
Koda turns to look at me, and it’s then I see the dart sticking out of his shoulder. I gasp and rush over to him as he pulls it out.
“Tranq,” he growls, tossing the dart across the room. He shakes his head. “They don’t work on me anymore. I’m immune.”
Relief and sadness hit me. Relief because I know he’ll be okay, but sadness because I know he’s immune because he was probably shot up with hundreds of tranqs when he was held captive over the years.
He takes two steps towards me, dropping to his knees in front of me and catching me off guard. He leans his forehead against me, like he’s breathing me in. I run my fingers through his hair, wanting to calm him.
“Go away,” Koda growls a second before a bang hits the door.
“Snow, are you okay?” Flint yells through the door.
“Open the door, Koda.” A deep voice I don’t recognize says. “Is he out, Snow? I hit him with a dart.”
Koda doesn’t move. I just keep running my fingers through his dark hair, his breathing starting to calm and some of the tension leaving his body. I love that my touch can do that to him and that I have such power over this giant man.
“I’m fine, everyone. We just need a minute,” I try to reassure them.
“I said leave! She’s mine!” Koda growls against me, his possessive tone sending a sweet chill up my body.
No one responds, and I have no idea if they’ve left or not, but Koda doesn’t move from his position in front of me.
“Don’t leave me. I can’t stand it. When I came back,” his voice cracks, “and saw the door wide open and found you gone, it was the worst moment of my life. I never even felt that kind of panic when they took me. Never had a fear like that.”
He looks up at me, and I can see the plea in his eyes.
“I thought you wanted me gone, Koda, after I told you were I came from.”
He shakes his head. “That’s not why I left.” I can tell he needs to say something but doesn’t want to say it.
I run my hand from his hair down to the side of his face. He leans into my touch, turning to kiss the center of my palm.
“Say you won’t leave me.”
“I didn’t want to leave to begin with,” I admit. Each step I took from the cabin hurt more and more. It was like I was leaving the place that was meant to be my home.
“Say it,” he demands, making a smile pull at my lips.
“I won’t leave you.” I can still see the uncertainty in his face. “Ever,” I add. “As long as you want me here, I’ll stay.”
“I’ll always want you here,” he says instantly. I smile.
“I killed your father.” His hands tighten on my hips like I might try to pull away from him.
“Good.” I feel relief. Like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I’ll no longer have to look over my shoulder in fear of my father popping up at any moment. Koda just gave me a gift and he doesn’t even know it.
He looks at me with shock on his face.
“Did you expect me to be sad abou
t that? I ran from him. Have been running from him. I’ve felt guilt for years about the people I’d left behind. Worse, when I got to safety, it took twelve hours for me to admit where I’d come from, and when they went back to try and save some of the shifters, the place was empty. Maybe if I had said something sooner, you could have been free sooner!”
A sob rips from my throat as I think about how I’d left him there.
“Snow.” He pulls me into his lap so I’m straddling him. “You were eleven.” I know. He isn’t telling me something my brothers haven’t been trying to say for years. I shouldn’t have any guilt, but it’s still there.
“Besides, I’d take every year in there if it meant it led me on the path to finding you.”
“Oh, my God.” I wrap myself around him, burying my face in his neck as the tears start to flow. I can’t believe he just said that. It’s bittersweet. He would have willingly stayed in that place just to be with me.
“I love you,” I sob into his neck. In one quick movement, I’m pinned to the floor.
“Say it again,” he demands.