Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
Samara excused herself to use the restroom while Kellen waited for Leo and Stephen to arrive. Once locked inside the stall, she leaned her head against the door and let loose a silent scream.
She'd killed Kellen's mother. The man she'd just spent the last ten minutes trying to bang had a mother who it turned out was nothing like the sweet looking lady in the picture. In all of their dealings, the woman never said what her name was. All she did was make sure Samara ate, drank, and obeyed, like a fucking dog. All attempts to ask about how to escape were brushed aside. Don’t even think about it if you don’t want what’s left of your body to rot in a cage like the others, was the only advice she got.
Now she was dead, and Kellen knew Samara had killed her. No wonder he had looked stricken when he found out about the railcars. It explained why he had looked so mournful at the gym.
Yet, his wolf still wanted hers, and Kellen obeyed his wolf and almost gave her the orgasm of her life.
What kind of man would want to have sex with a murderer?
Sure, she had a damn good reason for killing as many of the Riverstone Pack as she could, but that was still murder.
Even if she could escape Josiah, the civilian police would investigate the death of the wolf shifter in the garbage can.
None of the Riverstone Pack had shifted to their wolves before sundown, so all the police would see was a man viciously sliced from his stomach to his throat, and the human bodies burned to death.
A coroner would figure out if they were alive while they burned.
With or without Kellen, she was screwed.
Someone else entered the restroom, so Samara took care of her own business and left. In the corridor, she heard Leo and Stephen in Kellen's office, with the sounds of the kitchen in the background.
She could run. Right now. By the time Kellen figured out she wasn't coming back, she could be halfway out of town.
Logic wasn't her friend today. She still had no money and her clothes were upstairs. Without either, Kellen would catch her in a hot minute.
No hope for it. She walked back to Kellen's office where she found Leo leaning against the window, looking cool and casual in a pale green t-shirt with his leather jacket tossed over the back of the guest chair.
Stephen had hitched his hip on the desk, giving him a view of the computer screen.
He had changed out of his gym clothes and into jeans and a blue sweatshirt, his hair neatly combed to frame his square jaw and shocking blue eyes.
Kellen clicked the mouse of his computer while jotting notes on a digital notebook. "I've already told Leo and Stephen about what you told me."
Samara nodded, forcing herself not to look up at the picture on the wall. Doubt clawed at her. Maybe she was wrong about the woman in the picture. What if her mind was playing tricks on her? If Kellen noticed her doubts, he didn't say anything.
More than anything, she wanted to at least appear in control of her emotions. Killing the Riverstone shifters when they were just mean and nasty creatures hadn't hurt, but killing Kellen's mother? How could he sit there acting as if he didn't know what she had done?
"Do you think they were set up? The wolf shifters in the railcar?" she asked, to keep the words flowing. Words crowded out her jumbled thoughts.
"Yes," all three answered at once.
Despite the seriousness, Samara couldn't help but laugh. "Well, that sounded definitive."
Kellen cleared his throat. "The way I see it, we have to figure out two mysteries. Why has Josiah targeted Samara? And who is blowing up the railcars with wolf shifters inside?"
"I think it's the same person." Stephen pulled out his own tablet, one with a screen large enough for all of them to see. "We've been living a peaceful life for over a century. It's been so long that we've started to forget what brought us together in the first place."
"We know what brought us together." Leo shoved his hands in his pockets. "Our alphas sent us to kill each other."
"Okay, but why?" Stephen prodded. "Our two alphas were sent to kill members of each other’s packs. Why not target the alpha themselves? We didn’t start chasing each other until it became clear that we were preventing each other from finishing each other’s mission."
“Josiah,” Kellen said, “didn’t send me out until he realized that the two of you were slowing his plans, whatever they were.”
"Oh, c'mon." This time Leo shoved himself away from the window, his stance ramrod straight. "The whole point of our brotherhood is to get away from the unanswered questions. We're omegas. We've never asked why and our alphas never told us."
"Agreed," Stephen said, turning the screen to face them. "We were so damn tired of chasing each other that we ignored the clues right in front of us."
Leo frowned, making him look more than a bit frightening. If Samara didn't know better, she could have sworn a vision of his wolf peaked out from behind his light brown eyes. The threat was there even if the face wasn't. "What clues?"
"Leo, remember what you told us about how my pack, Moonclaw, sent a messenger into your pack's territory?"
Leo frowned. "No, when did I tell you that?"
"June 5th, 1944." Stephen started making notes on his screens. "After we snuck away from the crowd with the coffee and doughnuts the Red Cross gave us."
"Fuck me, you remember the details of what we talked about? It's been over eighty years!"
"Wait!" Three sets of eyes turned to her, but she looked up at the first picture on the wall where they posed in front of Fort Benning. "June 5th, 1944? You guys were at Normandy?"
"Paratroopers," Kellen clarified for her. "508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne."
Samara wanted to hear more about Normandy than she did about wolf shifters. Normandy was real. It had happened. She'd read about it, seen movies and documentaries about it. Wolf shifters, even after all she'd been through, were still a magical mystery she had trouble accepting as real.
"We talked a lot in the last few hours before we boarded the C-47.
Made a few promises to each other in case any of us didn't make it.
" Stephen gave her a slightly sad smile before turning back to his tablet.
"Leo's pack calls itself Firebrand because they claim the Firebrand caves as part of their territory. "
Samara had good knowledge of Montana's terrain but couldn't place the name. "I've heard of Devil's Chute and Lick Creek caves, but not Firebrand. Where is that?"
"Ten miles northwest of Tears of the Turtle," Leo answered, moving so he could look over Stephen's shoulder.
"We kept humans away from them by actively setting up guards so prospectors and tourists could never go near them.
My alpha said the caves were our last line of defense against the humans who kept encroaching on our range. "
“I’m losing my sense of the timeline here. Can we get back to World War II?” Keeping up with all of their stories was confusing her.
“I’m sorry. You’re right.” Stephen nodded at her, then returned to scribbling on the tablet.
"Leo, you told us that in 1861 a messenger from Moonclaw showed up and offered your alpha a fortune to switch territories.
Moonclaw would control the Firebrand caves and Firebrand would get the territory closer to Big Sky. "
Leo's grim expression said more than his words ever could.
"My alpha thought the messenger was crazy and told him to fuck off. Next thing we knew, our females and pups were dead—the field where they gathered to gossip and let the little ones play had been laced with silver. Most of them didn’t make it.
Then the Moonclaw pack came down on us. It took three days and dozens of lives to drive them out of our territory. "
Samara noticed that Leo said Moonclaw pack not Stephen's pack, as if he naturally differentiated between the pack and the man he called brother.
"So, why would Moonclaw want control over Firebrand territory?" Stephen asked. "Our packs had a cordial relationship up to that point. Firebrand even gave Moonclaw shelter when the surrounding communities noticed we weren't dying of smallpox during the epidemic of 1837 and started to get restless."
"I know what Moonclaw wanted from Firebrand territory, but not why.” Leo found his way to the window and slouched back. “If it’s relevant, I’ll tell you later."
Kellen and Stephen stared at Leo, just like she was.
“Stephen,” Leo’s voice turned pleading. “Continue. If what I know is relevant, I will tell you.”
Realizing their brother wasn’t going to talk any further, Stephen turned back to this tablet. "Neither pack had any further contact until the offer to purchase Firebrand territory happened. And after the attack the Firebrand alpha sent Leo after Moonclaw as revenge."
“Yeah,” Leo agreed, his voice quieter than usual. "My orders were to take out as many Moonclaw pack members as possible. I lost my mom and little brother in the attack. I would have gone through with it except..."
"...except I stopped you." Stephen looked up at Kellen and Leo.
Eyes narrowing, Kellen leaned forward. "Now I remember that conversation. Stephen, you said that your alpha ordered you to assassinate as many members of Leo's pack as you could."
"But Leo prevented me from finishing my mission. We chased each other for over a decade."
"And I was ordered to kill both of you." Kellen turned to Samara. “We ran in circles trying to finish what our packs started.”
"Right." Stephen held up his screen which looked like a Venn Diagram with interlocking circles in the top corners with their names and notes underneath them.
"Like Leo said, there was no reason for his pack to attack mine and no reason for mine to attack his, until the females and pups were killed. "