Page 1 of Clash of Kings

Chapter 1

Faster, dammit.Dakotaurged her Wolf to put even more distance between them and the large animal chasing her. Pack runs used to be fun. Now they were a test in endurance and determination to stay several steps ahead of the male who made it his mission to best her every time. Kingston reveled in the chase and snarled whenever he caught her beneath his large body, which wasn’t often. She refused to make it easy on him, even if he was her Alpha. Dakota submitted to no one. She was her own wolf and would never show her belly willingly to any man she didn’t want.

Excepthim.

Yes, except him, whoever the hellhewas. Or had been. Dakota didn’t know if the teen had lived. It had been ten years since her brother attacked the human. Ten years since her parents packed their shit and moved from Utah to West Virginia, all because her brother, Phoenix, took his protectiveness too far. They had been out for a run when they encountered two humans jogging, and Dakota had been struck by the male. Not literally, but time slowed to a stop, and nothing and no one existed but the dark-haired stranger, which didn’t make sense. Wolves didn’t have fated mates, but if they did? She would have thought he was hers. Before she knew what was happening, Phoenix attacked the teen, and Dakota lunged at her brother, knocking him off the guy. It wasn’t the first time Nix had taken things too far, but it was the first he inflicted enough damage to kill someone. Why the hell couldn’t he protect her from King?

Speaking of, Dakota shook herself from thoughts of the past and focused on the here and now. She knew the woods like the back of her hand, but so did her Alpha. Probably better since he’d grown up in the area. Still, she waited until the last moment, and then she banked a hard right, her claws digging into the ground, and launched herself between two thick red oaks. The bark scraped her fur, but she didn’t let that stop her. Dakota turned another sharp right and raced back the way she’d come. A loud growl was followed by a long howl, and it was all she could do to stay on her paws. That howl was the Alpha’s call. Her Wolf whimpered, but Dakota demanded they ignore it. For anyone else, snubbing Kingston would result in punishment. For her? King would snarl and snap his jaws at her, then stomp off to find some other female to fuck. And there were plenty of willing bodies for him to choose from.

The Bridgewater pack was three times larger than the one they left in Utah despite their town in West Virginia being an eighth of the size. Panther, named after the creek and not the animal, was one of those forgotten towns after the near apocalypse in the early 2000s. Before civilization was brought to a screeching halt by a group of religious zealots known as The Ministry, Panther boasted a population of around six hundred. Now it was half that with all residents belonging to the Bridgewater pack. Her father was an old friend of Kingston’s father, the former Alpha, so when it came time to move from Utah, Dakota’s family was welcomed with the stipulation that Nix caused no trouble. Andthatwas the reason her brother didn’t protect her from King.

Dakota didn’t stop running until she reached her cabin. She shifted to her skin before stomping up the three steps to her wooden porch, gathering her clothes, boots, and straw cowboy hat. Once inside, she slammed the door closed before throwing the deadbolt. Not that a measly lock would stop the Alpha if he wanted in. He could kick the door down, or he could use his Alpha voice on her. Been there, done that. She might ignore his howl, but she could not disobey a direct command.

Dakota was pissed off after every pack run because King always gave chase. Dakota prayed to the goddess he found one of the many females willing to get under him for the night instead of following her home. She was in no mood to spurn his advances again. It wasn’t that King was a bad man or Alpha. He was a good leader. He was fair. He looked after the pack as well as his father, Davis, had. He was handsome and strong and hers for the taking. But her Alpha wasn’t who Dakota wanted. She hadn’t saved her virginity on the miniscule chance she would one day find the stranger. She had needs after all. And maybe she was crazy for wanting a man who might not be alive, but she refused to bind herself to another if there was the slightest chance she would one day find him.

And how do you propose to do that?

It was an argument she and her animal had often. With Dakota stuck in Panther, the odds of finding the dark-haired stranger were slim to none. Her routine rarely changed. She slept late, then met her mom for lunch most days before heading to work. The Depot was a hole-in-the-wall tavern where Dakota tended bar. She had started as a waitress when she turned eighteen before training to pour beer and mix cocktails. Vernon, the owner, tried to give Dakota a job as manager, but she turned him down. She didn’t want the responsibility. She enjoyed putting in her eight hours, then clocking out at closing, leaving the paperwork to someone else. Was it glamorous? No, but it paid what few bills she had. She didn’t have rent or a mortgage since her cabin had been built by her father, brother, and several other pack mates. She had utilities, insurance, and a car payment. That was it. The rest went into a savings account.

Dakota was old enough to go back to Utah by herself, but she had never ventured farther alone than the next state over. Panther was close to both Kentucky and Virginia, but Dakota had only driven to Bristol, Virginia, one day when she needed to get away. It wasn’t that she was afraid. She was a shifter, after all. No, it was a gut feeling. One that told her the man was no longer in Utah. If Dakota had learned anything in her twenty-five years, it was to trust her intuition. It told her not to give in to King. Not to give in to any male as far as mating went. If her gut was wrong, and the stranger was dead, she would end up alone for the rest of her days, but it was a chance she was willing to take.

Dakota’s stomach rumbled as it did after a hard run, so after tossing her uniform in the laundry basket, she went to the refrigerator and pulled out the steak she had cooked before work along with her favorite beer. She didn’t bother heating the meat. Instead, she cut it into bite-sized pieces and ate it standing naked by the kitchen counter. Her cabin was small and perfect for one person. The downstairs was one open room housing the kitchen, a dinette table, and living area, with a combination bathroom/laundry room tucked away on the left side. The upstairs was her loft bedroom. A woodburning fireplace filled one wall of the living room, and a flat-screen TV was mounted above it. The television had been a gift from her brother, but she rarely turned it on. Dakota preferred to get lost in a good paperback. She had an e-reader, a Christmas present from her mother, but Dakota liked to hold a book in her hands. Smell the paper as she turned each page. One of her packmates owned a thrift store in the next town over, and she put aside any books she thought Dakota would like.

After eating her steak, Dakota licked the plate clean because she could. That was one of the perks of living alone – there was no one to witness her lack of manners. She washed the plate, fork, and knife, setting them on a towel to dry. Now to the good stuff. Her bathroom was nice if on the small side. The shower had amazing water pressure, and Dakota was ready to wash the day away. Normally, she bathed immediately after a shift at The Depot, but the pack run took precedence. As shifters, nudity was the norm when they got ready to take to their fur, dropping their clothes to the ground, then finding them once they returned to their skin, but Dakota preferred to shift at home. It wasn’t as though she was ashamed of her body. Dakota was lithe with just the right amount of muscle, her boobs were average, and her tummy was toned because of her DNA. She looked fine naked; she just didn’t want King staring at her.

Leering is more like it.

That too. When they first arrived in Panther, she was scrawny, and none of the males paid her much attention, Kingston included. Being a late bloomer, it was about the time King became Alpha that Dakota began filling out, and King noticed. He already had big dick energy, being an alpha male, but when he took over the pack, King felt he had the right to dictate who his mate would be. Out of the dozen single females, he set his sights on her.

Nope.

Dakota started the shower. While the water heated, she unbraided her long hair. She worked behind the bar, but that didn’t mean the grease from the kitchen didn’t stick to every inch of her, and she hated the smell. Stepping under the waterfall showerhead, Dakota closed her eyes and sighed. Best part of her day, right there. Wiping the water from her eyes, she grabbed the shampoo, then lathered her hair and scraped her blunt nails over her scalp. Dakota had never been a girly girl. Her makeup was minimal, and she had never worn a skirt a day in her life unlike other females in her pack. They dressed to impress the Alpha, whereas Dakota dressed for comfort. If the grunge look from the 1990s ever made a comeback, she’d be set. Flannel shirts and ripped jeans filled her closet, along with cowboy boots, motorcycle boots, and sneakers for when she wore shorts.

She rinsed the suds and reached for the conditioner. Her hair took a beating having to wash it daily, but Dakota spent a little extra out of each paycheck on a special serum that kept the ends from drying out. After applying the detangling conditioner, she bathed, shaved her legs, then rinsed all over. The whole process took about fifteen minutes, but she stood under the hot water, tilting her head forward so it could beat against her neck and shoulders, letting the stress of the run swirl down the drain with the water. When it began to turn cold, she turned the shower off and pushed back the curtain, listening for any sound that shouldn’t be in the quiet cabin. When she heard none, Dakota stepped out onto the bathmat and wrapped her hair in one towel before drying with another. She hung the towel on a hook before grabbing her robe off the back of the door. When she was snug, she brushed and flossed her teeth. That left the chore of detangling her hair and applying the serum. Her nightly ritual was necessary because she refused to cut her long locks.

Tightening her robe, she padded across the cabin to the living area and curled up on the worn but comfortable sofa with the romance novel she was in the middle of. Dakota might not be the most feminine female in their pack, but she did believe in true love, and if she couldn’t find it for herself, she could at least get lost in someone else’s version of it.

After several chapters, Dakota set the book aside and slid down so she was lying on her side. As she did most nights, she closed her eyes and imagined what the teen from Utah might look like as a man. Their interaction had been brief, but his visage was burned into her brain. Dakota had no idea why she couldn’t forget about him. It caused tension between her and her father. Arthur Young was more concerned about his friendship with Davis Bridgewater than he was his daughter’s wishes. He didn’t care about the teen from ten years ago or the fact that Dakota felt a connection with the stranger.

Her father slammed his hand on the table. “It’s a privilege to be the Alpha Mate, Dakota.”

Dakota pushed her chair back, scraping the legs across the floor, standing. “And I would be honored if my heart didn’t belong to someone else.”

Arthur also stood, leaning over the dinner her mother had prepared. “When are you going to let this foolish notion go? You’re hanging on to this fantasy about a boy who’s probably dead.”

Dakota pointed at the empty chair where Nix should have been sitting. “And whose fault is that? I was in no danger from him. Nix attacked the boy for no good reason.”

“Protecting you is your brother’s job as much as it is mine.”

Dakota slapped her chest. “Then he should be protecting me from Kingston.”

“That’s Alpha Kingston, Kody. You forget your place.”

“I forget nothing, Dad.”

“That’s enough.” Diana tossed her napkin on her still full plate. “Arthur, let it go. If Kody doesn’t want to be the Alpha Mate, that’s her decision.”

And so it went. Dakota loved her father, but she didn’t like him. She was an adult who could make her own decisions, as her mother argued. At least her mom was on her side. Diana was a good wife and mate, but she was Dakota’s biggest champion and often stood between Arthur and Dakota, backing them into their neutral corners to keep harsh words from being said. Well, harsher. They had yet to say anything they couldn’t take back, but the more her dad pushed, the more Dakota feared they were headed toward just that.

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