Chapter 28 Knox
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Knox
I pulled up to Pine Valley’s main street, my palms sweating against the steering wheel.
After days of negotiation, I’d finally convinced Lina to let me bring her home for the day.
She needed to check on the shop, gather more clothes for her and the twins, and reassure her friends who’d been bombarding her phone with increasingly frantic messages.
Noah and Hunt had the twins for the day, which meant I had Lina all to myself. Well, myself and whatever protective army she’d assembled in Pine Valley over the years.
“Ready?” I asked, trying to sound more confident than I felt.
She smoothed her dress, a simple blue thing that made her look effortlessly beautiful. “They’re going to freak out seeing you.”
That was an understatement.
The moment we entered the coffee shop, Mika dropped an entire tray of mugs. The crash echoed through the space, followed by dead silence as every customer turned to stare. Vivi’s mouth fell open behind the counter, her hand frozen mid-pour over a latte that was now overflowing.
“Lina!” Sarah materialized from the back room with the speed of an avenging angel. “Young lady, you have some explaining to do!”
Her sharp eyes landed on me, and I watched recognition dawn across her face. The grandmother who’d raised Lina after her parents’ death, who’d been there for every milestone I’d missed.
“You,” she said, her voice dropping to dangerous levels. “You’re that man from five years ago. Matthias.”
“Knox,” I corrected quietly, meeting her gaze steadily. “My real name is Knox.”
“Where have you been?” Sarah demanded, stepping closer. “Eight days, Lina. Eight days of cryptic texts and no real answers.”
“What’s this emergency?” Mika added, abandoning the broken mugs. “Are the kids okay?”
“Why is HE here?” Vivi pointed at me with a whisk. “And don’t say it’s complicated. We want actual answers.”
“The children are fine,” Lina said, raising her hands peacefully. “They’re with... family. Knox’s brother.”
“Since when does mystery man have a brother?” Sarah’s eyes narrowed. “What aren’t you telling us?”
“So Tyler’s mom WAS right,” Mika stage-whispered to Vivi, apparently forgetting werewolf hearing. “She did run off with a man!”
“It wasn’t like that,” Lina protested, but she was fighting a smile that made my heart race. The fact that she could smile about this, about us, even a little bit, felt like winning the lottery.
Sarah pulled me aside while Lina caught up with her employees, her grip on my arm surprisingly strong for a woman her age.
“Listen closely,” she said, voice low enough that only I could hear. “That girl is my daughter in every way that matters. She’s been through enough. You hurt her again, and I’ll find a way to hurt you back. Wolf or not.”
I blinked, startled by her casual mention of my nature. She must have seen my surprise because she snorted.
“Please. I’ve lived in Pine Valley for forty years. I know what prowls these woods. I know what killed her parents. And I have a pretty good idea what you are, especially seeing those babies shift their hands when they think I’m not looking.”
“You knew about the twins?”
“Of course I knew. Helped deliver them when they came a month early and Lina was too stubborn to go to the hospital. Watched them grow. Loved them like my own blood.” Her eyes hardened.
“Which means if you break her heart again, you’ll have more than just me to answer to. This whole town loves that girl.”
“I’ll spend my life making sure she never regrets giving me another chance,” I said solemnly, meaning every word.
Sarah studied me for a long moment, then nodded. “See that you do. Now go help her with those boxes. Girl never could pack light.”
After surviving the coffee shop gauntlet, we headed to Lina’s house. I’d never been there before, only knew the apartment above her parents’ bookstore from that night five years ago. This was different, a small two-story house on a quiet street, the kind of place you’d raise kids.
Tiny shoes lined up by the door. Crayon drawings covering the fridge. Height marks on the doorframe showing four years of growth I hadn’t witnessed. Photos everywhere of my children at every age, their faces changing from babies to toddlers to the amazing kids I’d just met.
“I wish I’d never pushed you away,” I said suddenly, holding one of Rowan’s dinosaur shirts. The fabric was so small in my hands. “I wish I’d been here from the first moment. The pregnancy test, the morning sickness, the first kicks. Sleepless nights, changing diapers, first words...”
I trailed off, overwhelmed by the weight of all I’d missed. Four years of firsts, of moments that could never be recaptured.
“I don’t know anything about you, Knox,” Lina observed from where she was folding clothes. “I don’t even know your full name.”
The observation stung because it was true. She’d had my children, worn my bite, felt our bond, but she didn’t know basic facts about who I was.
“Let me cook dinner,” I offered, desperate to fix this gap between us. “And I’ll tell you everything.”
She agreed, probably more curious than hungry. I raided her kitchen, finding frozen salmon in the freezer that I could work with. Cooking had always calmed me, gave my hands something to do while my mind worked.
Over salmon and wine, we traded stories like new lovers instead of whatever complicated thing we were.
“Knox Marcus Raven,” I started, pouring her more wine. “Alpha of the Ravenshollow pack since I was twenty-five. My parents are... traditional, power-focused. They see people as currency, including their own children. I have twin brothers. Noah and Blake. Had.”
My voice caught on the past tense, even after all these years.
“Blake died in an attack seven years ago. It was my fault. I’d just become Alpha, thought I could handle a simple patrol with just the three of us.
Noah, Blake, and me, like old times. But there were more rogues than our intel showed.
Blake saved a visiting family, held off three ferals alone while I got them to safety. By the time I got back to him...”
I couldn’t finish. Some wounds never fully healed.
Lina reached across the table, her fingers brushing mine. “It wasn’t your fault.”
“It was. I was the Alpha. Every decision, every death, it’s on me.” I turned my hand over, catching hers. “That’s why I left you. I couldn’t bear the thought of you ending up like Blake. Because of me. Because loving me seems to be a death sentence.”
She squeezed my hand but didn’t argue, which I appreciated. Empty platitudes wouldn’t change the past.
“Your turn,” I said, needing to shift focus before I drowned in old guilt.
“Basilinna Marie Winters,” she said, and I couldn’t help but smile at the formal name. “My parents were professors. Mom taught literature, Dad taught history. They moved to Pine Valley when Mom was pregnant, wanted the quiet life away from city chaos. They opened the bookstore downstairs.”
Her voice softened, taking on the quality of cherished memory.
“They died when I was fifteen. We were camping, and there was an attack. I think it was a rogue, actually, knowing what I know now. They made sure I had time to run, told me to hide in the old hunter’s blind and not come out no matter what I heard.”
She showed me a scar on her palm, faded but still visible.
“Cut myself climbing the ladder. Sat there for six hours, bleeding and terrified, listening to...” She shook her head.
“The police found me the next morning. Sarah raised me after that. She was our neighbor, my mom’s closest friend.
I reopened the shop at twenty-three, added the coffee side with the insurance money. Wanted to honor them somehow.”
“Basilinna,” I said softly, tasting the name. “I should’ve known.”
“Why?”
“We’re both birds. I’m a raven, and you’re a beautiful hummingbird, tiny but fierce. Plus... Basilinna means queen. Which you are.”
She rolled her eyes but I caught the pleased flush on her cheeks. “That’s the cheesiest thing you’ve ever said.”
“I’m just getting started,” I warned, then reached into my pocket. “Speaking of queens...”
I dropped to both knees beside her chair, pulling out the ring box I’d been carrying for days. Her eyes went wide as I opened it, revealing the sapphire surrounded by diamonds.
“This was my grandmother’s. She was the strongest Luna our pack ever had. Ran the pack alongside my grandfather for thirty years, the traditional Alpha tenure. Raised seven kids, and still managed to terrify grown wolves with just a look. It belongs to someone equally strong.”
Lina stared at the ring, her hands trembling slightly. “Knox...”
“I’m not asking you to marry me tomorrow,” I said quickly, not wanting her to panic. “This is a promise ring. A promise that I’m serious about you, about us, about our family. That I’ll court you properly, earn your trust back, prove myself worthy of you and our pups. However long it takes.”
“You hurt me so badly,” she whispered, and I could hear the pain she’d been carrying for years.
“I know. And I’ll spend the rest of my life making up for it if you let me. I’ll work for this every single day. Please, Lina. Just... consider it. Consider us.”
She took the ring from the box, studying it in the light. The silence stretched between us, and I held my breath, waiting for her verdict.
“You left me,” she said finally, still looking at the ring. “You said terrible things to me and rejected me, Knox. Do you know what that did to me? How long I wondered what I’d done wrong?”
“Nothing,” I said fiercely. “You did nothing wrong. It was all me, all my fear and stupidity.”
“And now you want to give me a ring?” She looked up at me, eyes shining with unshed tears. “Want to play family after all this time?”
“I want to earn the right to be your family,” I corrected. “I know I don’t deserve it now. Maybe I never will. But I want to try.”