Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

KNOX

T en Years Ago

Knox lay prone, his body molded to the earth as if he were part of the rugged terrain itself. The desert sun beat down on his back, its heat nothing compared to the simmering focus burning within him. His heartbeat was a steady metronome syncing with the rhythm of patience and precision that being an Army Ranger sniper demanded.

Through the scope of his high-powered rifle, the target appeared deceptively tranquil, unaware of the eyes that locked onto him from a mile away. This terrorist, known for slipping through the fingers of justice like water, had become Knox's singular mission—a symbol of the untouchable becoming touchable under his watch.

A whisper of wind caressed his cheek, and he adjusted for it with an almost imperceptible shift. His finger hovered over the trigger, every sense attuned to this moment of finality. Then, with the quiet exhale of breath and the gentle squeeze that followed, Knox unleashed the bullet that would find its mark with lethal grace. The target crumpled, and in the stillness that ensued, Knox understood and felt the consequences of his actions—all of them, both good and bad—and yet, no remorse. It was his duty—his contribution to something greater than himself.

Present Day

Knox Wilder’s return to Silver Falls had been stained with blood and vengeance. The night was etched into his memory—a full moon casting stark shadows across the forest floor as he tracked the poachers who had taken his father's life. His senses, heightened by both his military training and the bear within, led him unerringly to their campsite. They were laughing around a fire, unaware of the retribution that stalked them through the darkness.

There was no hesitation in Knox's movements, no second-guessing the necessity of justice. He was the Alpha now, the protector of his clan, and this was personal. Each man met a swift end at Knox’s hands, their pleas for mercy lost amidst the rustling leaves and the growls rumbling deep in his chest. He left the forest that night with his father's spirit avenged and the heavy knowledge that violence was an inescapable part of who he was—both man and beast.

In the years since, much had changed. The vast Colorado sky stretched above Silver Falls, painting a stark contrast to the barren lands where Knox had once lain. Here, amid the dense forests and cascading waterfalls, he existed in a world where the line between man and beast blurred into legend.

Knox's younger brother, Bodie, had followed in his footsteps, driven by the same call to serve, while their sister, Coco, found her battlefield in the art galleries of nearby cities, capturing the wild beauty of their kind with every stroke of her brush.

But Knox had sought solitude in the embrace of nature and the honor of protecting those unable to protect themselves. His prowess as a sniper had been more than just skill—it was an extension of the bear within him, solitary and formidable.

Upon returning home, the mantle of Alpha had fallen to him, a responsibility he bore with silent strength. The governing council of Silver Falls now looked to Knox for guidance, his voice carrying the weight of ancestral wisdom despite his preference for action over words.

Silver Falls held its secrets close, and Knox knew the dangers of revealing the truth to Ruby. But the heart wanted what it wanted, and in this town of animal-shifters, even the most composed Alpha could not deny the call of the wild or the pull of a fated mate.

When he’d learned that Lorraine Clearwater’s niece had arrived in town, he wanted to check on her. He couldn’t help but wonder if he’d checked on Lorraine more regularly if he might have saved her.

Knox shifted and took his clothes with him as he made his way through the forest. An ethereal fog had begun to unfurl and mingle with the swirling mist that always accompanied a shift. Standing in the twilight shadows of the tree line that edged her property, he shifted back and dressed, pulling on a hooded sweatshirt.

Observing her, he noted she appeared to be in her early thirties and had the most beautifully curvy figure he’d seen in a long time. Her clothing accentuated her soft, feminine lines, and she moved with both grace and confidence. Her hair was medium-length, wavy, and looked to be a warm shade of brown.

She was standing on the old front porch, sipping something out of a mug. He shook his head, trying to dissipate the buzzing in his brain and the feeling of nausea and dizziness that had seemed to almost overwhelm him. A human for a fated mate? God his sister, Coco, would love that. He batted at a mosquito and the movement must have caught her attention as she looked up and stared at him for only a moment.

"Can I help you?" Ruby called, her voice cutting through the still of the night.

The question hung unanswered in the air, a challenge tossed into the void. He withdrew without speaking and headed back to the compound.

He’d stayed away afterward, planning to keep an eye on her while keeping his distance.

Yet beneath his steady exterior, a different kind of intensity stirred in Knox. Ruby, with her human innocence and allure, had unwittingly ensnared his senses. Seeing her had left him wrestling with a primal arousal that defied explanation. The buzzing in his brain, the dizziness, and the nausea were all signs he tried to ignore.

"Did you see her?” Coco asked. “Ooh you did. I can tell. You’ve been thinking about her.”

“I don’t know who you’re talking about,” replied Knox, trying to feign ignorance.

His sister was not so easily fooled. “Her. Lorraine’s human niece. Your face went all funny…”

“It did not,” he snarled.

“Did too,” Coco teased. Those words, although he knew they were meant only in love, cut through him like a knife. She watched him with knowing eyes, a smirk playing on her lips. "Like you're trying to solve a puzzle to make it exactly what you want, but the pieces keep moving."

"Mind your own business, Coco," Knox grumbled, turning away to hide the truth in his gaze. But avoidance would do little to quell the undercurrent of desire that ran beneath his skin.

"Ah, big brother," Coco sighed, leaning against the doorframe of his office with the ease of someone who knew too many of his secrets. "You can't fight fate, you know. And if that girl isn't it, I don’t know who it’s going to be."

Knox didn't respond, settling deeper into his chair as if it could shield him from Coco's observations. He couldn't afford the distraction Ruby represented, not when the safety of his clan rested squarely on his shoulders. He was, after all, alpha.

Yet, even as he sat there, surrounded by the quiet of his office, Knox couldn’t shake the image of her catching the moonlight just so. It was getting harder to ignore the magnetic pull towards her, the primal urge to claim her as his own.

"Careful," teased Coco later that evening, a nudge accompanying the words. "Don’t let the council see you getting all mushy over a human."

"Shut up," Knox snapped, more out of embarrassment than anger. His authority was unchallenged, but his heart was another matter entirely.

Even knowing that he should avoid her, when she’d run into him, literally, in the hardware store, he’d found himself agreeing to work for her—helping her renovate the lodge her aunt had left her into a bed and breakfast. Now, he found himself standing inside her home with the muted afternoon light filtering through the dusty windows, casting soft beams across the worn wood and scattering warmth that felt almost foreign in the empty space. Knox straightened from where he’d been crouched, wiping his hands on his jeans, the rough material dragging against his skin as he caught sight of Ruby, half-hidden by a tower of stacked wood planks she was attempting to move.

She was biting her lower lip, brows drawn in concentration as she tried to lift the weight alone. Something about that simple, determined expression set a fire low in Knox’s belly, and for a second, he forgot the splinters in his hands and the aches of his muscles from hours of work. She was his fated mate—that truth pulsed in his blood, a silent call that he tried to suppress each time she glanced his way.

Knox watched Ruby, captivated by every movement, every quiet smile as she worked. The pull he felt to her was magnetic, undeniable, and he felt it in every brush of her hand against his, in every accidental touch that sent sparks racing through his veins.

He was here to help her renovate the lodge, but each moment together felt like a test of his restraint. She was his fated mate—that much he knew in the depths of his soul—and the quiet, simmering attraction only deepened as he caught her glancing his way, cheeks flushed.

“You’re good at this,” he murmured watching her drive a nail with a hammer, eyes lingering a second too long.

“Didn’t think I would be?” she replied, stepping closer, the space between them narrowing.

His breath hitched, and he could feel the heat of her presence, her scent, wrapping around him like a promise. Her eyes darted away, but the connection was palpable, thick in the air around them. They went back to work, but the unspoken pull lingered, making Knox wonder how much longer he could resist claiming what he knew was his.

As the sun dipped below the horizon, painting the sky in hues of orange and pink, Knox’s thoughts were centered on Ruby. He could almost feel the heat of her body close to his, the sweet temptation of her lips mere inches from his own. It would be so easy to give in, to let nature take its course.

Shaking his head, Knox dismissed the idea out of hand. He stepped back to survey his work, wiping the sweat from his brow as he watched Ruby across the room. She was scrubbing a stubborn stain from the hardwood floor, her focus so intense it made him smile. He’d seen that determination over the past few days as they chipped away at her aunt’s lodge, layer by layer, uncovering a charm hidden beneath years of dust and neglect.

The place was coming together slowly, but watching Ruby throw herself into the work made it feel faster, lighter. She’d laugh as they pried open a stuck window or crack a joke when a shelf nearly toppled over her. He admired her tenacity, her willingness to get her hands dirty, her laughter that filled the empty spaces.

As the days blurred together, Knox felt the strange pull of her lodge—a place that somehow wrapped them up in its old wood and stone, drawing them closer with every nail and every brushstroke. It was more than just renovation; it was as though they were stitching their lives into its walls, binding themselves to this space and, maybe, to each other.

But the secret of Silver Falls loomed between them. It was a chasm that stretched wider with each passing day. As he glanced through his window toward the home Ruby had christened Bristlecone Bed & Breakfast, he thought of her. In the early evening, just as twilight was taking hold, her home seemed to take on a soft, almost ethereal, glow. Knox knew the dangers of their burgeoning attraction, and yet he couldn’t help but wonder if some risks weren’t worth taking.

Knox had always been a man of routine, but since Ruby's arrival in Silver Falls, the contours of his days had softened, bending toward her like trees to the sunlight. Morning jogs had been replaced by a leisurely amble to her place—sometimes as a man and sometimes as a bear. Afternoons once spent pouring over council matters were now punctuated by the staccato sounds of renovating the bed and breakfast. He spent long hours there under the guise of working, but truth to tell, it was a convenient excuse to bask in her presence.

The signs were there, as clear as the stars scattered across the night sky above the Rockies. The subtle buzzing in his skull whenever she laughed, the way his stomach churned when he saw her chatting with anyone else—these were the primal signals of a shifter recognizing his fated mate. But Knox tried to ignore them, even attributing his increased irritability with the rest of his clan to the stress of having to maintain the secret of who he was. Deep down, though, he knew.

Ruby was unlike any woman he'd ever known. Her sunny, resilient nature challenged him, her wit kept him on his toes, and her candidness was both disarming and endearing. He found himself craving her company, seeking her out under the pretense of sampling her latest culinary creations—a convenient remedy for the nausea that seemed to vanish with every bite of her delicious food.

One particular evening, after a grueling day of negotiations with the neighboring wolf pack, Knox found himself at Ruby’s doorstep yet again. She opened the door, wiping flour-dusted hands on her apron, her hair cascading in soft waves around her shoulders.

"Hey, you!” she said as if she was happy to see him, but then sobered. “Rough day?" She looked up at him with knowing eyes.

"Something like that," Knox admitted, allowing the warmth of her smile to wash over him.

He stepped inside, the familiar comfort of her kitchen enveloping him. He caught site of something carved into the top of the doorjamb and ran his fingers over it. Scanning the room, he realized similar etchings were carved over others as well.

As Ruby turned back to the stew simmering on the stove, Knox watched the graceful sway of her hips, the curve of her back. The buzzing in his brain intensified, a symphony of warning and desire that he could no longer ignore. Yet he said nothing of his true nature, nothing of the fierce protectiveness that surged within him.

"Here, try this," Ruby said, offering him a spoonful of the rich broth. His fingers brushed hers as he took the spoon, sending a jolt of electricity through him. Their eyes locked, and the world seemed to pause. The look they exchanged seemed to convey more than words ever could.

In that prolonged touch, the connection between them crackled with unspoken passion, a yearning so potent it threatened to consume him. Knox felt the beast within stir, restless, ready to claim what was his. The secret of Silver Falls weighed heavily on his mind, though, a looming reminder of the truth he was not yet able to reveal.

"Perfect, as always," Knox managed to say, though the taste lingering on his tongue wasn't just from the stew.

"Thanks," Ruby replied, dropping her eyes, her voice becoming softer, a hint of something deeper beneath the casual gratitude.

The moment stretched, taut with the weight of unvoiced questions and possibilities. Knox knew he should back away, maintain the distance necessary to protect them both from a truth that could shatter the fragile peace of Silver Falls. Yet as he stood there, lost in the depths of Ruby's gaze, he understood that some distances were impossible to keep—and some truths, no matter how dangerous, were inevitable.

Knox closed Ruby’s door gently behind him, the warmth of her lodge still clinging to his skin as he stepped into the cool evening air. His jaw clenched, his mind replaying every stolen glance, every soft smile she’d given him. She had a way of looking at him that left a simmering heat in his veins, and walking away felt like an uphill battle against his own instincts.

As he strode down the trail, the trees thickened around him, their shadows stretching as dusk settled over the forest. By the time he was a safe distance from her lodge, the air hummed with energy, his bear itching to be set free.

With a low, frustrated growl, he let the shift begin. Mist swirled around his feet, curling up his legs and over his torso. Charged with that familiar, crackling power, thunder rolled and lightning flashed. His muscles expanded, his skin prickling with the transformation, until the mist dissipated, and he dropped onto all fours, his form fully merged with the hulking power of the bear.

Knox didn’t linger. He plunged forward into the woods, each massive stride pounding against the forest floor, his breath coming heavy and steady. Every branch that snapped beneath his paws, every tree trunk he brushed past, helped him work off the restless energy coiling inside him. He pushed himself harder, muscles straining, as though he could leave behind the lingering scent of her that clung to him, the softness of her touch that still lingered like a memory burned into his skin.

The distance between Ruby’s lodge and the clan’s compound melted under his relentless pace, the cool wind rushing through his fur, grounding him. The forest felt alive around him, a perfect counterpoint to the intensity churning within. Finally, he slowed, his breath coming in deep, steady pulls, his arousal gradually cooling into a manageable ache.

He paused by a stream, dipping his muzzle to the water, letting the chill soothe him further. The beast within him settled, but his thoughts still flickered back to Ruby, and a quiet, possessive rumble escaped his chest. Shaking himself, he continued toward the compound, his powerful strides now steady and calm, knowing he’d be back to her soon enough.