Chapter 4 #2
As far as responses go, that one was pretty lame, but it was the best she could think of under the circumstances.
"No problem." He smiled at her again, but this time with muted interest.
It was time to retreat, but only to get his drink. Kellen was behind the bar by this point waiting for her.
"I have an order for the IPA." She kept her eyes on the bar top.
Kellen reached for the glass and started to fill it. "Is he giving you a hard time?"
Oh, hell's bells. The last thing she needed was for the boss to think she was flirting with her first solo customer. She had to be honest though, because wolf shifters had a keen sense of smell and he would know if she lied. He more than likely already knew she’d lied about her name.
"He's new in town and asked me for a date. I said no."
Kellen slid the filled glass toward her. "If he keeps it up, you get me. If I'm not here, get George."
Samara nodded, picked up the glass and took it over to the guy, who didn't give her a second look. She prayed he wouldn't press her about the date.
He didn't, thank heavens. Without any drama he ordered the ribeye, well done, with mashed potatoes, which she jotted down before returning to the kitchen to hook the page on the order wheel.
The next few customers were regulars and easier for her to handle. Carlie even whispered, "you're doing just fine," when they passed by each other. Her reaction to the guy still bothered her. His flirting reminded her how empty her life was going to be from here on out.
Having Kellen haunting her didn't help matters. He was a wolf shifter, and she wasn’t anymore.
Even if she weren’t planning on skipping town as soon as she could afford to, they had no future.
So, why did she keep thinking about him?
Why couldn't she just focus on surviving the next month so she could leave without any drama?
Are you looking for an excuse to stay?
Well, of course she wanted to stay. Running was a hard life, one that would end with her dead.
But she would also be an idiot to draw attention to herself and the town by staying.
Regardless of what type of wolf shifter he was, Kellen couldn't take on the Riverstone gang on his own.
Even if he knew a couple of other wolf shifters, it wouldn't be enough.
It would take an endless army of wolf shifters to stop Josiah from finding her.
The next few hours flew by with Samara settling into the rhythm and flow of her new job. No one else commented about her blue skin, and with the tips she received, she made a solid dent in the budget she'd need to buy supplies and new clothes before she left. Carlie waved her back into the kitchen.
"Here you go." George handed her tray filled with a stuffed chicken salad wrap, basket of fries, and more water. "You're welcome to eat in the break room, but since you live upstairs you can take the tray up with you. Just return it before the dinner shift starts."
Only then did she realize how hungry she was.
By the time she made it to the top of the stairs, she understood why Carlie got so excited about a foot massager.
She flipped the TV back on after she placed the tray on the nightstand, planning to stretch out on the bed and relax for a minute before eating.
Relaxation lasted less than a minute thanks to the news.
It's a gruesome scene here in Riverstone, Montana.
The trash collectors who travel this route discovered a decapitated body inside one of the garbage bins at the Riverstone estate.
Police responded and found seventeen people dead inside the mansion that had been burnt to the ground.
There's no comment from the sheriff about why fire & rescue never responded to the fire, or if the victims were dead before they were decapitated or burned. ..
Samara snapped off the TV and swung her legs off the bed so she could eat her food.
She knew what the coroner would find. The victim in the garbage bin died when she stabbed him to death.
He was one of Josiah's omegas, a tough foot soldier, as most omegas were, and die-hard loyal to his alpha.
As a wolf shifter she had been able to match him in speed and power, and she knew how to use her knife to her advantage.
When it was over, she’d picked up his body and head off the ground and dropped him into the commercial-sized bin.
The satisfying clang of the top dropping down lasted a long time and gave her courage to keep running.
She never looked back and assumed that the smoke from the fire would attract attention, but it hadn't.
It didn't take a genius to figure out that Josiah didn't care enough about his pack to call 911.
Her heart thumped out of rhythm. The best way to make it stop was to flood her body with oxygen.
Closing her eyes and concentrating only on what her body needed, she filled her lungs with air.
She could do this, survive when no person.
..wolf shifter...thought she could. Certainly not the alpha of the Riverstone Pack.
What should she do now? Eat. She needed fuel.
She chomped on her chicken salad, while she processed her own threat assessment.
Did Kellen already know? She owed him a warning, and she would never forgive herself if anyone in Winterbourne got hurt or killed because she stopped here.
A month was too long. She’d have to shorten her timeline and put a plan together to keep everyone safe.
Josiah's pack might have lost a couple more wolves in his search for her, but so long as he was still alive, she could never truly stop running.