Tooth and Claw (Kootenai Pack Book 1) Read online

  Tooth and Claw

  Tooth and Claw

  A Kootenai Pack novel

  Lynn Katzenmeyer

  Tooth and Claw

  Copyright © 2019 Lynn Katzenmeyer

  All rights reserved.

  This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction.

  Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental

  Cover design by nirkri

  You can find their amazing work at http://www.fiverr.com/nirkri

  ISBN: 9781694152787

  Imprint: Independently published

  Contents

  Tooth and Claw

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  1 10 Years Earlier

  2 Present day

  3 10 Years Earlier

  4 Present Day

  5 10 Years Earlier

  6 Present day

  7 10 Years Earlier

  8 Present day

  9 10 Years Earlier

  10 Present day

  11 10 years earlier

  12 Present day

  13 10 years earlier

  14 Present Day

  15 10 years earlier

  16 Present day

  17 10 years earlier

  18 Present day

  19 10 years earlier

  20 Present day

  21 10 years earlier

  22 Present day

  23 10 years earlier

  24 Present day

  26 Present day

  27 10 years earlier

  28 Present day

  29 10 years earlier

  30 Present day

  31 10 years earlier

  32 Present day

  34 Present day

  35 10 years earlier

  36 Present day

  37 10 years earlier

  39 15 years earlier

  40 Present Day

  41 Present Day

  42 12 years earlier

  43 Present day

  44 20 years earlier

  45 Present day

  46 10 years earlier

  47 Present Day

  48 7 years earlier

  49 Present day

  50 7 years earlier

  51 Present day

  52 7 years earlier

  53 Present Day

  54 6 years earlier

  55 Present day

  56 6 years earlier

  57 Present Day

  58 6 years earlier

  59 Present day

  60 5 years earlier

  61 Present Day

  62 Two years earlier

  63 Present day

  64 2 years earlier

  65 Present day

  66 2 Years Earlier

  68 Nine Months Later

  69 Epilogue

  Author's note

  About the Author

  To my husband

  Ten years ago, I was exiled from my home for being different.

  Ten years ago, I found myself in a trap.

  Ten years ago, I escaped.

  Now they’re back for me.

  I showed Kendrick what I’d do to be free ten years ago.

  Now I’ll show the whole pack.

  1

  10 Years Earlier

  The hard, wooden pew dug uncomfortably in my legs and back as I waited for the Kootenai Pack weekly meeting to end for what would be the final time. I’ve spent every Saturday night at these meetings since before I was born, and now it was almost over. Eighteen years of these meetings and I was leaving the pack with nothing to show for it.

  I was a dud. The last of my generation to shift, well, the only one of my generation who hasn’t shifted. After I graduated high school, I’d be out of here to live life as a human. I was going to finally be free. Alpha Biel continued his announcements, inviting all wolves to the celebratory pack run after commencement next weekend. My classmates yipped and yowled their excitement. After the graduation run, they’d be fully fledged members of the pack. Finally, adult wolves ready to officially enter pack structure and start their lives with their mates.

  I felt my mother’s shoulders sag beside me. Her only daughter was a dud. Mom would surely fall even lower in rank once the new wolves joined. There was no value to a female wolf who couldn’t produce viable heirs. I was her shame.

  I shook the thought out of my head. It was not in my control. I accepted that I was just a human, mom needed to do the same.

  The Alpha got the meeting back into order, he was running down the list of mating claims as more of the pubescent whelps started shifting and their wolves found their mates. He rattled off the names, the claiming of a new wolf to a full human quirked my interest slightly. I couldn’t let myself think of it though.

  Had a recently shifted wolf claimed me as their mate, I wouldn’t have to leave the pack. Even as a dud, I carried the shifter genes and would be a more acceptable mate than a full human. I’d have no choice but to stay if a wolf claimed me. But none had, so I am left to count the days to exile.

  The meeting wrapped up with a warning about hunters in the area and to only shift in the center of pack land. The Kootenai Pack had several thousand acres of prime real estate near the Montana/Canada border. It was almost entirely forested except for the small town they’d set up in the far north end. Hunters seeking bear or wolf hides often set up traps along the edge of the territory, ignoring the no trespassing signs. A few pack members had nearly lost limbs due to the traps, they still bore ugly scars around their arms and legs where they’d run into them. Somehow, the scars were a symbol of shame and a badge of honor. They’d been caught, but they got away.

  The pack moved from the meeting room to the basement of the town hall where they’d share a pack meal. As a dud, I ate last. As usual, the veggie tray was only radishes, the meat was only gristle, the fruit only cantaloupe, the desserts were all gone. I heard the laughter from the table for my generation. We’d all been good friends once, before their wolves came. Then one by one they formed a new group, one without me. My eyes briefly met the eerie gold of Kendrick Biel, the alpha’s son. His eyes narrowed and I looked away quickly. He was the first of our generation to shift, and ever since he hated humans, particularly me.

  I joined my mother at her table and ate my measly plate. It was an insult not to eat at these gatherings, even if what was left was inedible. I’d learned that the hard way. The Alpha couldn’t touch me until I had a wolf, but he could punish my mother for my insolence. I only did it once, but she still had the scars on her back. Life would be better for her when I was gone. It hurt to admit, but it was true.

  The Alpha’s family left the gathering first, which signaled the rest could go home. I had to stay and clean up with my mother and the other rank and file. We were low born, weak wolves, built to serve our Alpha.

  2

  Present day

  My prosthetic arm beeped as I set my tray of fries down at Louie’s table. Louie Lark looked up at me, the deep lines in his face from years of hard work, hard drinking, and heavy smoking framed his kind pale blue eyes with concern. One of my favorite regulars, Louie fancied himself something of a father figure to me.

  “Is the bionic barmaid running out of juice?” he asked with a laugh tinged with a serious edge. Louie reached out gingerly to my ten grand hand and flipped it over to see the battery level, “Go
charge it. Sarah has the pub under control.”

  I looked around The Tooth and Claw, it was only 4:30 in the afternoon on a Tuesday. My regulars were sitting at their tables, and a few tourists sat at a table, listening eagerly as Duke, regaled them with tales of when ship building was dangerous. The dinner rush would start in about an hour, I had time to plug in my most prized appendage.

  “I’ll do that, Louie,” I told him wrapping my arm over his shoulder. Louie was one of the good ones. He’d had a hard time after his wife left him. Evan and I always made sure he ate before he drank himself into oblivion. It was the least we could do for him.

  I wandered back into the kitchen where I kept my arm’s docking station. I had a second one upstairs in the apartment I shared with Evan, but the kitchen docking station got the most use. The arm sang happily as it started charging. I rubbed the amputation site, even ten years on it ached regularly. My prosthetist said it was because the surgeon hadn’t filed the bone smooth when they amputated. I only had to nod along, unable to tell him the truth.

  I was lost in thought massaging my stump when I caught a scent I had hoped to forget, wolf, shifter wolf.

  3

  10 Years Earlier

  It was likely my last time walking away from the Alpha House. The Kootenai Pack had been my home. It was where my parents met, where I was born, where my father died. It was all I knew.

  In the distance I could hear the yips and howls of the pack wolves as they ran in the darkness. A low ache bloomed in my gut. The strong desire to join them, stained by the bitter knowledge I’d never be able to. The wind blew and the strong smell of pine and dew filled my nose. I paused my march home to appreciate it.

  A week from now, when the pack had another meeting, I wouldn’t be here. My mind wandered to the future. The unknown. I was going to Minnesota, a place I’d never been before. Would it still smell the same?

  A low growl pulled me from my reverie. I opened my eyes and whipped my head around from one direction to the next. Even in the dim light of the moon, I couldn’t see far enough into the forest surrounding the road to hear the source of the threatening sound. More growls joined the first.

  This place had been my home. But I didn’t belong here. Their growls might as well have been their voices in taunts, run along little dud, no one wants you here. Careful not to run, I walked home faster than before. The wolves hadn’t shown themselves, but their message was clear.

  I turned the corner onto the main road. Marcus Michaels was sitting on his front porch, petting the fur of a small grey wolf, his mate Kyla. A pang of jealousy rushed through me. Marcus was only fifteen, and even though he didn’t have his wolf yet, he got to participate fully in pack activities because Kyla claimed him. Almost three full years younger than me, and he got to be treated as a member of the pack, while I was less than garbage.

  Kyla’s wolf spotted me and growled low in her throat. We’d been friends once. Closer than sisters. Now she growled at me in wolf form and taunted me in human form.

  “Be nice,” Marcus scolded, “The dud will be gone in a few days. But if you attack her, she might have to stay to heal.”

  Kyla’s wolf growled more, and Marcus glared at me as I passed. They treated me like an intruder for walking on a public street. The only street that lead up the massive hill where my mother’s house was. There wasn’t another route for me to take home unless I magically sprouted wings.... or fur.

  I mentally cursed myself. I knew better than to allow myself the flight of fancy that my wolf would appear. I knew better. I needed to focus on the future. The May wind washed over my skin, still holding the last bitter chill of winter when I crested the top of the hill to the small house. Mom was in her bedroom with the door closed when I got home. One of the other widows likely gave her a ride home. At least she wouldn’t be completely alone when I was gone.

  “Stop being sentimental, Aster,” I grumbled looking over my childhood bedroom.

  Three days, well, two now. Two days until I was gone for good. I still needed to pack.

  4

  Present Day

  “What’s going on Lee?” Evan Easterling, co-owner, short order cook, and only other shifter I knew, asked. He smelled something was wrong, I smelled his bear getting worked up. Bears and wolves didn’t get along, in the wild or as shifters. Evan and I hadn’t initially either. I had been taken in by his grandfather, Earl and he told Evan I wasn’t going anywhere. It took a few years but by the time Earl died and the pub that had been our home went up for sale, we got along well enough to pool our savings buy it together.

  “You need to go,” Evan said firmly. His shoulders were stiff and the scraping of the spatula on the grill had stopped, “a wolf just came in-”

  Evan stared at me, his chocolate brown eyes filled with concern, “What’s going on?” I asked

  Sarah dinged the bell putting a ticket on the carousel. Evan ignored it, still focused on me, “A shifter wolf is in the bar.”

  “What form?” I whispered.

  “Human,” he breathed. The tension eased out of his shoulders as he continued to breathe, “Feels weak though. Male. Look through the window and tell me if it’s one of yours.”

  I walked up to the window and pulled Sarah’s ticket from the carousel, a lot easier to do one handed than putting one on, trust me. I looked out over the restaurant until my eyes fell on the stranger. He had shaggy blond hair, wide blue eyes that searched the pub intently. I didn’t recognize him. He was wearing a jean jacket that would do nothing to shield him from the incoming winter storm.

  “I don’t recognize him,” I told Evan, “But that doesn’t mean much, I haven’t seen another wolf shifter since...” I unconsciously looked down at my stump before handing Evan the ticket.

  As part of our working and living relationship, Evan was bound to ask about my missing limb sometime or another. And the story was bound to come out. I’d held off telling him for nearly three years, but a half a bottle of Jack while catering a wedding later, we got talking deep shit and it all spilled out.

  Evan stiffened, he walked to the window and pulled the ticket. He was looking out over the patrons until his eyes locked on his target, “He’s cute for a bark-head,” Evan muttered turning back to his grill, “You ever think about him?”

  I knew the him Evan meant. He had haunted my dreams. He had stolen my soul. He had shattered me.

  “I wouldn’t know, I haven’t seen him in ten years,” I whispered because I knew as strong as Kendrick’s wolf had been as teenagers, the wolf at the bar could also have, preternaturally good hearing, “What is he doing here?”

  “Want me to go out there?” Evan asked puffing out his chest, “It’d take a really stupid wolf to fuck with a bear on his home territory.”

  Evan’s grizzly would eat the wolf at the bar for breakfast. There was a reason lone wolves avoided bears. It would take a whole pack to bring one grizzly down, wild or shifter. I shook my head, “It’s not worth the risk. I’ll just go out there and ignore him.”

  “Shouldn’t be too hard, right? Wolves ignore each other all the time” Evan’s words stung. He didn’t know how wrong he was. Wolf shifters sought each other out. They were constantly all over each other, particularly mates. But Evan’s knowledge of wolves was limited to what he’d learned from me over the years. The night I drunkenly confessed to Evan about my accident, I’d also confessed about my mate. He first shifted to a wolf at 13. He would have known that first day that I was his mate. Only it was worse than I’d drunkenly confessed to Evan, he didn’t ignore me the five years before my wolf appeared, he made my life hell.

  I refocused on my deep tissue massage watching Evan caramelize onions for his house special burgers. He was a master in the kitchen. For a man of his size, his deftness with the spatula and quickness with knives still startled me. He was an excellent short order cook and a better businessman. I managed staffing, ordering, and cleaning front of house, he handled the financials, paperwork, and the kitchen.
>
  Sarah rang in another order and looked through the window, “Hey, Lee, you on break?”

  “Charging my hand,” I told her. She nodded, completely nonplussed. She knew I’d be back on the floor in a heartbeat if she really needed me. My bionic arm made things easier, but I could do most aspects of my job without it.

  My disability had never been an issue at the Tooth and Claw. Even when I’d been hired as a one-armed homeless teen, fresh from pack exile. The original owner, Earl Easterling, found me crying in my car at the gas station. I’d just gotten into town, ready to find work before school started in the fall, and no one would hire me.

  Earl looked me up and down, asked if I had a valid social security number and driver's license and put me to work cleaning the pub in the mornings. He had me practice pouring beers and opening bottles using my residual limb until I was almost as capable as his two handed barbacks. Once school started, he had me working the pub as a barback in the evenings after classes. If any patrons gave me a hard time about my arm, he’d throw them out no matter who they were. His love and support bled into the entire town.

  I’d been lost in thought remembering Earl when I heard time between ticket bells shrink from once every fifteen or so minutes to once every ten minutes. Sarah was getting busier. I looked back at my arm, it was only half charged, but it’d get me through the night. I put it back on, carefully adjusting so it fit as well as it could. And went back to work.

  Sarah was behind the bar pulling drafts, three Guinness, a Red Ale. I knew precisely who that was for. I twisted the wrist of my prosthesis for tray balancing and took the tray from her. I wandered through the pub to Duke’s table. I ignored the metaphysical pull that seemed to go from deep in my spine out to the interloper. I refused to look where that thread would take me.