Page 41 of Knife Volume 2

Relief flowed through every cell in his system and hit him like a dam giving way. His hands were already moving to the hem of his shirt before his mind caught up to them.

Chapter 17

Tuesday didn’t know why Knife was undressing, but he’d been anxious all morning, and his grandfather’s permission had erased all of it with overwhelming relief.

She’d wanted to ask him why he was stressed, but there was no way to do so without his grandfather hearing, so she’d had to just scent it without being able to help.

And then his clothes were gone, and he burst into the largest wolf she’d ever seen.

So big, she had to plant her feet to keep from stepping back. It took every ounce of hard-headed willpower she could muster to stand her ground because nothing had prepared her for the scale of him.

Boone’s wolf was huge because he’s a large man, and wolves keep the same mass between human and animal.

But Knife’s wolf was easily more than four hundred pounds of creamy white, super-dense fur, and he dwarfed every wolf she’d ever stood next to.

And he was built differently. A gray wolf is all sinewy angles, built for running and leaping as well as attacking.

But this wolf was stockier, denser. The difference between a sprinter and a lineman.

He must have scented her spike of reaction, because he laid down immediately, put his head on his paws, and looked up at her.

“I know you won’t hurt me,” she told him. “I was just — damn, you’re big.” She steadied herself. “You can come to me. I’m good.”

He stood and leaped to her in one motion, testing her words to see if they were true. He landed with his snout a quarter inch from her chin, looking her eye-to-eye with all four paws on the ground.

She brought both hands up and sank them into the fur at his neck — dense and deep, built for something colder than Tennessee summers — and ran her palms down the massive column of it.

“We are dire wolves,” Grandfather said, standing off to her left.

She kept her hands in Knife’s fur and let that sink in. Natural dragons are extinct, but the shifters are not. It made sense the same applied to other species, and why it was such a huge secret.

Inside her, Tuesday’s wolf stood at full attention, admiring their mate smugly with an I-told-you-so attitude that made Tuesday smile.

Suddenly, everything made sense. He’d told her he had a big secret back on their first or second date, but her wolf had always known he wasn’t a normal wolf. The human had been clueless, but the wolf had wanted to submit to him from the very beginning.

“My wolf knew,” she told Knife’s wolf. “She’s always caused me problems, not wanting to submit to other wolves I was… involved with, but she was ready to roll over for you even before I was.” She scratched behind his ear. “Smug bitch is inside me with a great big I-told-you-so attitude.”

He chuffed and gently headbutted her, and she kissed the top of his enormous head.

“I’m not pissed. It’s a big secret, and you needed permission. I get it.”

He took a step back, changed back to human, and accepted a bag of venison jerky from his grandfather with a nod. He popped a piece in his mouth and chewed while he stepped into his jeans.

“Thank you, Grandfather.” Knife looked at the old man with something that went deeper than gratitude. “She’s my world, and she needed to know.”

His grandfather turned to her with a nod. “This falls under a ‘not your secret to tell’ edict. Should you tell someone, you’ll be subject to the new Senatus’s penalties.” He held her gaze, and she nodded. Penalties are usually death or permanent slavery. Harsh, but necessary.

He smiled, and his entire carriage changed. His body language friendly instead of authoritative. “With that out of the way, you are invited to run with our pack tonight for the full moon. Knife and I will stay close to you, to make sure the rest of the pack doesn’t trouble your smaller wolf. I will be clear you are a guest with safe passage.”

She thought about running under a full moon on this mountain, surrounded by dire wolves, and only felt joy and excitement. No fear.

“Thank you,” she told him. “For trusting me with your secret, and for welcoming me into the family.”

“Knife will always be family, even if he is no longer pack. If he chooses to return to our pack, you can oath in as well, as his mate.”

- - - ❖ - - -

Tuesday stripped at the tree line with the rest of the pack, clothes folded into little cubbies all packs seem to keep near their ceremonial grounds.