Koda

When I bolt from the house, I don't think about anything other than the name that Snow said. Jack Madden.

He was such a horrible human being who did terrible things to our kind. When I was there, he was the one was leading the facility. I'm pretty sure he owned the place. Everyone answered to him and he seemed to be making all the decisions. When I was there, I got the feeling that if he went down, the place would have fallen apart. I could sense dissent in the people that worked there and knew that all it would take would be one good gust of wind and the whole place would tumble to the ground. The only person who seemed to want to be there was Madden.

I knew I'd have to wait for the perfect moment. I waited until he was the last one in the lab that night. Sometimes he would stay late and do experiments the other technicians weren't comfortable with. They knew he was going too far, but no one was willing to stop him.

On my last night there, he came into the lab furious. He was blaming me for things I had no clue about. He said our kind was a disease on mankind and he was going to cure it. I had thought for a long time that he wanted to make us some kind of super-race with his experiments, but soon I realized he just enjoyed torturing us. He was crazy. I knew one day he would kill me, and I knew that day had finally come.

I saw the needle on the table and knew I only had one chance to make my move. Before the last tech had left for the night, he'd placed a pair of scissors on the table close to me and gave me a look. I couldn't figure out why he did that until Madden came in. Then I knew. He was giving me a chance.

While his back was turned, I grabbed the scissors and cut the straps binding me. Before I could form any sort of plan, Madden turned around and I swung out, slicing the scissors across his throat. In one move, my captor was on the floor, bleeding to death.

I waited, scissors in hand, and watched until the light left his eyes. I wanted to make sure that he never did this to anyone ever again and that no other shifters would suffer through what I had to. I took what I could in the short amount of time I had. I found the other shifters and set them free. They all took off as fast as they could without a second glance. I went outside and found some gasoline in a storage building nearby.

Watching the fire take hold, I made sure that there wasn't going to be anything left but ash. Once that was clear, I got out of there and started running. I ran into some shifters a few days later and they helped me out. All I could think about was finding Winnie at that point. I didn't think about what I had done, but even now I don't regret it.

When I get to a clearing in the woods, I stop and try to catch my breath. How could my mate want me if I killed her father? Would she even be able to look at me if she knew the truth of what I'd done?

There's a burning in my chest, and I know it's because I'm separated from her. I don't know what to do. I don't know what I'll do if she pushes me away. The last few days have been the sweetest I've ever known. I never thought I'd have something like that again. She pushed back all the darkness that's always been present in me. When I was with her, it was gone. I saw nothing but her. My perfect little mate.

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 a.s.sume, 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 cl.u.s.ter 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 dej 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. .h.i.t 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 more. 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 rea.s.sure 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 about 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 G.o.d." 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.

"I love you." His month comes down on mine. His kiss is soft and sweet but lined with possessiveness. Everything he does when it comes to me is possessive.

When he finally pulls back, I have to ask. "I know being mates makes you drawn to me no matter what, but do you think that maybe you could love me one day, even knowing who my father was?"

"I don't care where you came from. You're mine," he growls, taking my mouth in another kiss and making my body come alive. It seems to do that every time he says the word mine. I love that I belong to someone, that I'm so important to him. I don't care how needy that makes me.

I try to pull his shirt off, but he stops me, resting his forehead against mine.

"I love you, Snow. You brought me back to life. I was just moving through the motions each day, but now I feel like I have purpose. A reason to be here."

"You say the sweetest stuff to me."

"I'll be so good to you," he says, adding more sweetness. I'll be shocked if I'm not a big pile of happy goo when he's done talking.

"Like take me into town and let me open the shutters?" I tease, making him growl, but he nods.

"I'll go with you every time. Someone might try and take you from me."

"No one is going to s.n.a.t.c.h me."

"Yes they would, because I would." It's adorable that he thinks everyone wants me. He thinks I'm so rare and special that no one could resist taking me.

"Did," I correct him as I laugh. I don't want to go anywhere without him anyway. I don't know if some of my old fears still reside inside me, but I never like it when I'm alone, and I feel safe in Koda's home with all the security.

I go to pull his shirt off, wanting to make love to him, but he stops me once again. I pout.

"They'll hear." He looks over his shoulder at the front door. "I don't want them to hear me taking you. No one hears that."

Suddenly, we hear the locks start to pop one by one. Koda is on his feet instantly, pulling me with him. He turns when the door flies open.

A short girl with brown hair and the same eyes as Koda stands in the doorway, her very pregnant belly in silhouette.

She has her hands on her hips, and I see a man standing behind her, a possessive hold on her shoulder.