Chapter 3
Chapter Three
She headed for the tree line. The green leaves beckoned her with the promise of safety, but the promise was a lie. No matter how fast she ran, she could no longer shift and outrun another wolf shifter. Her scent would leave a trail to wherever she aimed. There was no hope.
You had no hope when you ran the first time.
She'd had a few days to conjure a plan before executing it.
And it was an execution. Seventeen wolf shifters died because she needed to escape and found the worst way possible to make it happen.
That hadn't stopped her because their lives were forfeit when they kidnapped her and thought they could bully her into submission.
Regretfully, the core of the pack remained alive, including the alpha, but it was the best she could do, and she would never regret it.
Not for one minute.
"Hold up there!"
Leaves crackled and sticks broke beneath her feet as she increased speed.
When she saw Kellen’s shadow crossing hers just as she reached the trees, her self-preservation instincts took over.
In a split second she whirled around, right hand wrapped around her knife, her left arm lifted to protect her head and neck, ready to attack.
"Stay away from me." She lunged with the knife to keep him out of reach.
"Okay. I'm backing away." He did exactly as he said he would, hands up showing he had no weapon. "Where will you go?" he asked.
"Not your problem. I'll leave town. You'll never see me again." That was for damn sure.
"How will you get there?" He risked taking a half step forward, but whatever aggression she was expecting wasn't there. Not even a little. His calmness started to wear on her, draining her determination to escape. "You have no money and only the clothes you're wearing."
"I got here didn't I?"
"Yes, you did. I'm curious about how you managed to do that. Why don't you put the knife down so we can talk?"
"Talk to a guy who believes in wolf shifters?"
At that, Kellen lowered his arms and crossed them against his chest again, only the slight flex of his powerful muscles indicating his annoyance.
"Let's not insult each other and pretend that wolf shifters don't exist, okay?
My friends and I have hunted in these woods almost every night for the past thirty years.
The three of us know every trail to avoid, black bear den, and the boundaries of the ranches scattered across this area.
You're a single wolf shifter with a knife.
I don't care how good you can fight or what your survival skills are. You'll still be dead in a few days."
He was right and she knew it, but she still didn't budge, torn between doing the right thing and dying. It was that simple.
"Maria, come back inside with me." Kellen held out his right hand, palm up, giving her a last chance to trust him again.
She wanted to because deep down she knew she needed this. Waking up in a clean bed and taking a hot shower had felt like heaven this morning.
"If I wanted to hurt you or kill you I would have done it last night."
Reason overpowered her fear and in the end she didn't have much of a choice. She lowered her knife and slipped it into its sheath. "So, the dead bolt is a lie. You can get through the door anytime you want."
He kept his hand stretched out toward her. "Yes, I can get through the door, but not without a lot of noise. You would have plenty of time to grab the knife."
Smoothing out her polo shirt, she pulled it in such a way that the knife couldn't be seen.
From what little she had seen in the Riverstone Pack, wolf shifters, especially the bigger ones, had the same amount of thrust as a handheld battering ram.
"All right then. I'll stay for now, but you need to understand something. "
He lowered his hand, waiting for her to finish.
"I don't want to talk about how I escaped. If remaining here means I have to tell you how I got away from the pack that turned me, I will run and next time, I swear to you, wolf shifter or not, you will not be able to catch me."
At least he had the courtesy to not laugh at her threat. "Fair enough."
He turned, motioning her to walk beside him.
Another attempt to prove she could trust him? She wasn't quite ready to do that. Once inside, Kellen directed her over to the same table where they had sat earlier and pulled out the chair for her.
As soon as she did, a middle-aged Black woman with thick braids wrapped around her head, and wearing the bar's uniform, pounced on them.
"Kellen, for all the love in heaven and earth, please tell me this is your new hire."
Kellen looked up and graced her with a casual smile. "Carlie, this is Maria, our new hire. She's going to shadow you for the next couple of days."
"Oh, thank heavens." Carlie plopped herself down into another chair opposite Samara, two braids that hung loose bouncing along with the rest of her. "I don't mind working an extra shift here and there, but I've been doing that for the past week. My feet are killing me."
Kellen covered her hand with his and gave it a squeeze. "I'll buy a foot massager for the break room."
"Really?" Carlie looked up at him, eyes wide with hope.
Kellen laughed. "You know you can talk me into anything."
Smiling, Carlie popped out of the chair. Before she did, she leaned close to Samara and whispered in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear, "This is why I stay here. The boss is the best."
Out of the corner of her eye, Samara saw Kellen shake his head and roll his eyes.
"Ass-kissing much?" Samara commented once she was sure Carlie was beyond hearing distance.
"Carlie was my first hire thirty years ago. I've watched her grow up, get married, and have kids. I'll do what's right by her and if that means buying a foot massager, then that's what I'm going to do."
Sweet, but she still wasn’t ready to allow herself to like him yet.
Samara found she wasn't comfortable looking directly at Kellen.
Part of her wanted to because he was hotter than the sun at noon in the middle of the desert in summer, but looking him in the eyes was a level of trust she still hadn't reached yet.
Instead, she watched the lunch crowd stream through the doors, Carlie getting the other waitstaff organized as they showed customers to their seats.
A few of the guests waved to Kellen or shouted a greeting.
He answered each in kind. Every moment she spent with him made it harder not to like him.
"You know everyone in this town." Samara watched the restaurant fill quickly and efficiently with Carlie in charge. "Your food must have a five-star reputation."
He turned back to her. "It's a small place. Most of my waitstaff knows everyone as well. I pay them to give quality service and that's what my customers get. We get tourists as well, but most of them become repeat customers while they’re in town."
The phrases 'pay well' and 'waitstaff' weren't usually used in the same sentence. She needed the money so bad, she hadn't even thought about how much she would make per hour. Just as long as she made enough to get out of town in a few weeks or so with a sack full of food, which was all she needed.
"Maria."
She knew that tone of voice. It was the same one her mother had used when she knew her daughter was about to get up to no good. Delaying the inevitable was pointless, so she waited for Kellen to ask the first question.
"I promised I wouldn't ask you to tell me how you escaped, but you have to give me some background. It’s not normal for a pack to drive off a wolf shifter, especially one they created.
If there is even a chance that those who are chasing you will threaten my friends or any of the humans here, I need to know now so we can prepare. "
"We?"
The tightness around his eyes and forehead made it clear that his patience had reached its limit. "Yes, 'we', and you're stalling again."
"I hope there's a lot of you because Riverstone Pack will mow this town over if they even get a whiff of my trail."
"Riverstone." Kellen bolted upright.
"Yes."
He opened his mouth then closed it. She could tell he wanted to ask, no demand, that she tell him how she got away, but he had made a promise not to, and she would hold him to it. Her cooperation depended on him keeping that promise, but he had the right to protect this town he called home.
He closed his eyes, the muscles in his whole body rippling with suppressed violence. "Did you kill any of them?"
The question was a little too close to his promise but not crossing the line far enough for her not to answer. Her throat had other ideas as it tightened so much she could only nod.
"Who's still alive? I need to know." There was a desperation in his voice.
"The alpha for sure. Some of his betas and a few of his omegas too.
" Josiah Bradden was the alpha of the Riverstone Pack and meaner than a starved grizzly crossing a cactus patch.
No one dared challenge him. His betas and omegas made sure everyone bent to his will.
Anyone who refused was tortured, long and slow, until their hearts gave out.
He'd made sure she saw the bones of what he did to others up close and personal.
He was the architect of her kidnapping and got off telling her nothing about why she was brought into the pack and turned into a wolf shifter.
Just thinking about that smirking son of a bitch launched her rage into the stratosphere.
Her only regret was that he hadn't fallen into her trap.
If he had, the Riverstone Pack would no longer exist, and she wouldn't have had to run.
"What about the female?" Kellen's tone hadn't changed. "Did she escape?"
Samara had to shake the memory away from the poor souls who had fallen out of favor with Josiah to focus on the brief glimpse she had of the survivors.
Odd that Kellen knew that Josiah only had one female in the pack.
"I'm not sure. Josiah had no use for females except for the one he kept as a housekeeper. "
"Not sure," Kellen repeated in a whisper. He just sat there, not looking at her or saying anything.
His naked pain made it clear that this pack meant something to him.
That worried Samara. If Kellen had a connection with the Riverstone Pack, could she trust him?
She shouldn't have allowed him to talk her into returning to the restaurant.
Yet, why would he make such an emotional display when learning only a small piece of what she'd done.
If he had any intention of harming her, he wouldn't tip her off this way.
Would he?
Still, if Kellen hadn't seen the news reports this morning, he might not know that two of the survivors were killed overnight.
For a moment, she thought about not telling him.
This wolf shifter hurt. No one in the Riverstone Pack ever expressed sympathy, remorse, fear, or guilt.
If they did Josiah would torture them to death while the others watched and laughed.
The housekeeper who refused to help her escape told her this.
It was only one of the excuses she had used to not help Samara escape.
If Kellen had a connection to the Riverstone Pack, why wasn’t he the same way?
How would he react if he thought even more members of the Riverstone Pack had died, especially if the information came from her.
On the other hand, he would find out about it from watching the news himself.
It would be best to hear it from another person instead of a reporter.
"I think two more might have died overnight," she said.
When he spoke, he almost wheezed and could barely squeeze out the words. "Why do you say that?"
"It was on the news this morning. Two wolves were found dead in a box car in Culbertson, Montana. It was filled with ammonium nitrate. No one knows why the box car blew up, but there's no reason for two regular wolves to have been inside. They had to be part of the Riverstone Pack."
Kellen took a deep breath filled with heavy emotion, Samara could almost feel the weight on her own shoulders. "They found your scent in that box car."
"Yes." What else could she say?
Kellen remained quiet for a moment, his fingers drumming on the tabletop. After another few minutes passed, the calm and controlled Kellen who had chased after her less than an hour ago returned.
"We need a plan," he said, his voice stronger. "There's no doubt that the Riverstone Pack will find you. The alpha is as tenacious as he is mean. You hurt him and he will grind cement to dust under his boot heel to make sure you pay for that."
Samara licked her lips. Sometimes the best offense was a defense.
"If I leave now, my scent will disappear before they track me to this area. If you don’t mind buying me some supplies, I could be gone before lunch.
I’ll pay you back if I can, but I don’t want to promise you that.
I just don’t want you to think I’m deliberately putting the people of Winterbourne in danger.
I’d rather keep running than have anyone get hurt because of me. ”
“It’s not just your scent they're following.” Kellen sat upright in his chair.
“The pack is looking at security footage at bus stations, train stations, anywhere you might have gone to get away from them.
They're also talking to people you might have encountered, like a cashier.
Just because the eldest of the pack are older by two centuries doesn't make them Luddites.
They have computers and a network of human connections in law enforcement and the like.
You can't rely on your scent fading alone. "
Why she had never thought that wolf shifters would act the same as humans was a question she'd answer later. Like Kellen said, running away would get her killed. If she stayed to fight, they would need a plan, but that was still a big if.
"So, what do I do now? If I stay, people here will get hurt. If I leave, the Riverstone Pack still might hurt people—hurt you—just to find out where I’ve gone. I’m sorry, this is not what I intended when I hitchhiked all the way out here."
Kellen pushed back his chair. "You shadow Carlie for the day. I need to call a few friends."
"Your pack?"
His eyes hardened at her question. "We are not a pack, and we never will be."
Then he turned and headed out the door leaving her with more questions than before.