Page 3 of Knot a Chance in Hell

I almost laughed that I wasn’t going to die. Yet the second I smiled, the sloppy tongue got too close to my mouth, and I pressed my lips together tight. There’s no way I wanted any dog kisses that intimate.

“Dammit, Atka. Off.” The stranger grumbled and the weight of the dog was gone from me.

I stared up at an older woman with short light gray hair and a weathered face lined with wrinkles. Yet she couldn’t have been much older than sixty with the way she adeptly handled the still excited dog. Atka was a big husky with pretty blue eyes and a broad chest. He happily howled as his curled tail wagged a hundred miles a second.

“Thanks.” I hopped to my feet and wiped my face with a sleeve. Could this be Kodiak’s mother? She seemed a tough woman, nothing at all like any Omega I’d ever seen. “He’s a beautiful dog.”

“Pretty but dumb.” She steered Atka toward the outside and released him to go running around the parking lot. A secondhusky sniffed a post near a dented pickup truck. “You have your bag? We need to get going.”

So she was here to pick me up. I straightened and smiled and held out my hand. First impressions. “Hi, I’m Nicolette Lancaster. It’s nice to meet Kodiak’s mother. Thank you for coming to pick me up.”

She snorted. “I’m not Kodiak’s mom. Just their neighbor. Shae Long.” She gave my hand a very firm and brief shake before turning to go outside again. Shae must be the one acting as my chaperon. I was fine on the plane with Betas, but now I was to meet Alphas, and any unclaimed Omega needed an escort in those situations. “Bring your bag and toss it into the back of the truck.”

I glanced over my shoulder at my suitcases and trunk. Panic crawled over me for the hundredth time today. I didn’t want to ask Shae for help. No doubt she was a no nonsense type of woman, and she was here to pick me up. Was she testing my patience to see how I could handle stressful situations? Did she want me to be a spoiled brat and stomp my foot demanding she do it? I might be a little bratty at times as the youngest in my family, but I would never let anyone think I couldn’t do anything.

Fetching two of my suitcases, I wheeled them out to the truck. Shae had opened her door and ushered the dogs inside the cab. The huskies stood watching me through the window with tails wagging as I pushed the luggage up into the back. Atka’s nose pressed against the glass as he licked it.

“I have more. I’ll be back in a sec.” I hurried back into the terminal to fetch my last suitcase and the trunk. Everything had wheels, but I didn’t think I could lift the trunk on my own. Yet when I returned to the truck, Shae was inside, revving the engine, and not even looking back at me.

I clenched my jaw. I put in the smaller suitcase first and debated asking Shae to help me with the trunk. Atka barked and danced on the seat. The other husky sat and cocked their head. Shae had not budged.

Alright, I could do this. Just prop up the chest lengthwise and tip it up onto the truck bed.

Propping it up was easy enough, but I struggled to lift it. The engine revved again.

I let out a long breath and tried again. I got it a little off the ground but it fell and nearly crunched my toes. Pressing my palm against my forehead as I crouched there, I forced back my tears of frustration. One more time, I could do this.

Being sure to lift with my legs, I groaned as my arms screamed with the heavy weight. The chest scraped against the edge of the truck, but with a great heave, I managed to get it up. My arms shook as I pushed it all the way in and closed the tailgate door.

As I came around to the passenger side door, Atka seemed ready to pounce on me again if I opened it. Shae obviously didn’t care as she put the truck in gear. I hurriedly opened the door and stepped in, fighting off Atka’s happy kisses as I sat and shut the door. I didn’t even get a chance to put on a seat belt before we were moving.

My nerves were still rattling even if the truck was doing enough of that for us both. Fending off Atka, I clicked in my buckle and gave him head scratches which seemed to settle him for the moment. The other husky sat beside Shae staring ahead at the road as if they were driving.

We drove along the road past a grocery store and some homes. Mountains surrounded us and great evergreen trees hid the road and whatever awaited us around every bend. Saying it was majestic barely covered what the island looked and felt like, but what it also felt terribly isolated.

Since Shae hadn’t said anything, I lightly cleared my throat. “Thank you again for picking me up. I had expected Kodiak himself—”

“He’s working,” Shae cut in. “Him and the boys might be home tonight.”

Might? He had to know I was arriving today. “I know next to nothing about Kodiak and his family. Does he have brothers?”

“Not by blood.” Shae nodded at a few people on their bicycles on a cycling path as we passed and continued talking. “His mom died in childbirth. Destroyed Savva who was left to raise the boy on his own. Took him to work with him in the Tongass. Kodiak was raised in the woods along with Silas and Ezekiel, who Savva adopted when their fathers died in a logging accident. The lot of them, all Alphas, all creatures of the forest and as damn wild.”

That was devastating. I couldn’t imagine not having my parents in my life. What would that mean for what Kodiak was like? Would he be like a fierce beast just looking to breed me or would he crave the tender affection of an Omega? And what did Savva truly think about it all? He was the one that made the deal with my father, after all. “Does Kodiak still live and work with his dad?”

“Nah, Savva busted his leg a few years back and can’t get around well enough to fell trees anymore. The boys do it all, and they’re building their own cabin on Volkov land. Savva has the old cabin, and the boys live in theirs. Land that I guess now also belongs to the Lancasters.”

I stiffened at that last statement. Her words were harsh and, if I read her tone right, disgusted. My father had made the deal with Savvo for a piece of valuable land in exchange for me coming to Petersburg for a year to see if I was compatible with his son. He had made it sound like Kodiak was ready for a mate and to start a family.

But he hadn’t even come to pick me up himself.

Kodiak probably felt the same way as Shae did about his father selling some of their land to my dad.

I’d promised my parents to give it a try, but now I suddenly felt immensely unwelcome.

Atka licked my hand and nuzzled me. Okay, maybe one furry boy was happy I was there.

Swallowing back my roiling emotions, I sat in silence as we drove along. We skirted the small town, which I knew subsisted mostly on tourists coming in to fish, and followed the road along the coast. It was beautiful, but increasingly overwhelming. There was no one out here. I hugged Atka closer.

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