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“Give me a minute. Don’t look until I tell you to. Just look at the tree, okay?” I say as I make my way around the couch, keeping an eye on her making sure she doesn’t watch me drag the body out of the cabin.
But when I look up after squatting down to hook my arms under those of the creep from the bar, I find Alice lifting his legs, her little hands vice grips around his ankles.
“Alice—.” I start to scold her, but she cuts me off.
“It’s my mess. This wouldn’t have happened, they never would have found you, if I hadn’t gone to the bar and led them to you. Forced you out of your dark corner to rescue me.” Guilt ripples down our bond.
I’m not sure if she feels it, but I can’t stop from sending my own guilt right back. “They weren’t hunting me, Alice. They came for you. They were most likely going to ransom you for access to you father.”
There’s a beat. A quiet space as Alice processes all the shit that’s been thrown at her. Her next words don’t come as a surprise.
“Who is he, Kane? Who is my father?”
“He’s a good man that has had to do some bad things to keep the people he cares about safe.” It’s not everything, but it’s all I can tell her. Dimitri will have to tell her the rest.
Alice nods, accepting my half answer as she hoists the dead man’s legs under her arms.
She needs to do this. As much as I want to protect her from it, it’s my duty to give my mate what she needs. Even if what she needs is to help me dispose of a dead body.
I’m so fucking proud of her for it. I’d give my life to protect her, but it’s good to know, though ill-prepared after being shielded from reality her whole life, she has no problem taking care of herself. Pulling the trigger. Doing the dirty work.
After we drop the body on the edge of the property and head back to the cabin, it’s a fucking chore to keep my wolf from having his way. Letting him free to chase her down so I can bend her over in the snow to show her exactly who I am and what I want.
With that thought still dancing in my mind, and my wolf howling for his mate, Alice turns on her heal to look down at me, standing in the yard, looking up at her, standing on the porch.
“No fucking way,” she gasps as her eyes go wide as dinner plates. “You—? The wolf? That’s not possible.”
“Holy shit. You sensed him, didn’t you?” My wolf. As she fought to overcome her fear and face it. That all must have strengthened the bond enough for her to make sense of it all.
Not wanting to drag this out any longer and give doubt a chance to creep in and undo fate’s work, I step back, strip the blanket from around my waist and invite the shift.
Chapter thirteen
Alice
With my hand clampedover my mouth, my fingers dig painfully into my cheek as I watch Kane’s skin stretch and tear. Muscles bulge, pulsing as the torn skin reveals thick, gray fur underneath.
Seconds later, he stands on four giant paws as he shakes loose huge furry ears that stand tall over intense amber eyes and a long snout full of sharp teeth and a pair of deadly, dagger-like fangs.
My view of reality doesn’t want to believe what I’m seeing. But the now familiar tug on the invisible thread that has kept me tethered to Kane since I saw him in the bar the other night, tells me it’s true. This wolf is Kane. The same wolf I found in my sights before I took my shot at the man with the knife.
And just like before, there’s no fear in me. I know he won’t hurt me. I don’t know how I know…
No. That’s not true.
I know because my heart knows. The tether between us tells me I have nothing to fear as long as I’m with him. Because we’re meant to be together.
Logically, that should scare me too, but it doesn’t because somehow, I’ve known it my entire life.
My feet follow the tether off the porch until I stand face to snout with the gigantic gray wolf.
“Kane,” I whisper, looking into his eyes as I push my fingers into the fur under his pointed ear. He leans into my touch the same way he did when I kissed him by the fire. “How?”
His amber eyes blink shut and a train of images fill my mind like a flip book. It shows me Kane, moving from place to place and through time. From the Middle Ages to the Wild West. The industrial revolution through the turn of the century until he gets here, in this moment. It all went by so fast, I couldn’t make out many details. But the lack of one particular detail struck me as odd.
“Why didn’t you show me any images of you and my dad?” I ask him.
The wolf—Kane lowers his head unable to look me in the eye.
