Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
Samara tried to help Leo and Stephen load the van with enough supplies to last them a couple of months. They had a mountain of non-perishable foods, tents, fatigues, rifles, handguns, and boxes of bullets. Lots of boxes with lots of bullets.
As she balanced a box on top of another she remarked, "You have to know this, but bullets aren't going to do much good against Josiah's omegas. They might slow them down, but they heal right back up again. Josiah won't even notice if he gets hit."
Leo took the box she'd been handling. "They're silver bullets."
"But even if they weren't," Stephen said, pausing to adjust the sweatband around his forehead, "they'll still help. If a bullet travels far enough into the body of a wolf shifter, our flesh will heal around it instead of spitting it out."
"And that causes its own problems." Leo slammed the van's door before pulling off his aviator sunglasses to clean with a handkerchief he pulled from the back pocket of his jeans.
She'd never thought of that. Not that it mattered what she knew or didn't know about wolf shifter life. Not anymore.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Kellen talking to Carlie and George.
She'd avoided him ever since last night.
This morning, she found the backpack he'd promised sitting outside her door along with another tray filled with food.
It was almost as if Kellen was deliberately fattening her up.
Which might be true given she'd lost a lot of weight while she was a prisoner and then freight hopping.
She couldn't help but wonder if Josiah deliberately starved her because he wanted her skinny and weak.
Kellen clearly didn't, and that meant a lot.
Leo and Stephen headed toward the front of the van. Stephen got into the driver's side, while Leo rode shotgun. It wouldn't have surprised her if these guys had driven covered wagons with a team of horses across the west. The image almost made her smile.
Kellen handed a fist full of keys to George, who turned away and headed back into the restaurant. At the same time, Carlie broke away and came directly for Samara. The woman's eyes were filled with worry. Samara had no idea what Kellen had told the couple about her situation.
"Hey, hon." Carlie pulled Samara into an unexpected hug then slipped a piece of paper into her hand.
"I don't know what sort of trouble you're in, but it doesn't matter.
I've trusted Kellen to protect my own kids when we needed an emergency babysitter, so you just stay by his side and those three will make sure whatever is wrong gets righted and they'll do it fast."
A well of sorrow opened up in her chest. She didn’t know Carlie or George that well, but she felt the tug of a bond between her and the older woman. Instead of responding, she unfolded the piece of paper. There were two phone numbers on it.
"Those are our numbers," Carlie explained. "Text us once you're on the road so we'll have your number as well. It's a backup plan just in case you need it. Also, if something happens to any of those three, you call us and let us know, okay?"
"Even Leo?" Samara tried to make it sound like a joke as she placed the paper in her pocket. She promised herself she’d add the numbers to the phone Kellen had given her once they were on the road.
Carlie didn't respond. Instead, she leaned forward, gave Samara a quick peck on the cheek, and whispered. "Be good. But if you can't be good, be careful."
Then she was gone, leaving Samara somewhat stunned. She could only watch Carlie's braids swing in time to her steps as she made her way up the ramp heading into the restaurant.
The van's engine started; the brief rev made it clear it was time for her to get on board. Through the windows, she saw Kellen sitting in the left-side second row seat, so she made her way around to the right. The door was already open, waiting for her to climb in.
For the first half-hour, there was nothing but silence between all four of them, not even music on the radio.
The two-lane road heading out of Winterbourne and toward Prescott gave her time to just stare off into the distance, letting her mind wander.
She avoided harsh topics like yesterday's bloody fight.
An hour after that the forest thinned out and other small towns appeared and disappeared as they continued westward.
Her eyes closed once they crossed into Prescott.
Another hour passed and the city view changed one more time. They'd hit Flagstaff.
"Are you hungry? Thirsty? Do you need us to stop?" Kellen spoke to her for the first time since they left.
"No, I don't need to stop, but I wouldn't mind a drink."
He opened a cooler that had been set between their seats and pulled out a bottle of water.
"How are your stitches? Do you need more aspirin?"
She hadn't thought about her stitches until he mentioned them. All the violence from yesterday seemed to have completely disconnected her body from her emotions. Only now did she realize that the stitches itched but didn't hurt.
"I'm not in pain. Not from the stitches. Can we remove them?"
"Let me see." He pulled out his phone and activated the flashlight.
Samara had to unbuckle her seat belt to get her neck close enough to Kellen for him to take a look at her wound.
The tickle of his breath against her pulse caused a brief hitch in her breath, but she closed her eyes and focused on the warmth of Kellen's fingers delicately lifting her chin so he could get a better view of her neck.
How could she still feel attracted to someone who demonstrated such power and ferocity as he had yesterday? It had to be more than what he would do to protect her. What was it about him that tangled up her inner desires despite the violence?
"Interesting," he muttered before turning off the light and pulling away, leaving her feeling colder than before.
"What is?" she asked.
"You're almost healed. We can remove your stitches the next time we stop."
"That's not normal."
"No. It should have taken another four or five days minimum for you to heal to this point."
"So, you think my wolf shadow is still there, inside of me."
"It's the only explanation that I have."
She could see Leo and Stephen look at each other while she clicked her seatbelt back into place.
"I know that's not what you wanted to hear," he said.
"I'd rather hear the truth than live with wishful thinking."
"But you're still disappointed."
All she could do was nod because her throat tightened around all the foul words stuck in it.
"And you're disappointed because you think your wolf shadow will control your life."
The sun created long shadows of cacti and ironwood trees against the wide desert landscape speeding by. She closed her eyes against it. All she wanted at that moment was to keep her tears at bay.
“I wish I could prove to you that it’s not like that,” he said, reaching out to tuck a strand of her hair behind her ear, something that had become an endearing habit with him.
If it had been anyone else she would have flinched.
But he was so gentle it was impossible to believe he was the same wolf shifter who tore a man in half yesterday.
And all because that man had threatened her.
"More than anything I want to understand what it was you experienced with your own wolf before you swallowed the silver," he whispered.
Her confusion bubbled over, and she had to wipe tears away with the back of her sleeve.
Kellen had said that he was an omega wolf.
Omegas carried out the orders of their alpha, they were the first to charge into battle to keep the pack safe.
Had he protected her because of that instinct?
Or was it more? Even though Josiah showed little concern for the safety of his pack, his omegas obeyed him without question.
Clearly Kellen wasn’t that kind of omega because he broke from the pack.
She would swear that there were elements of an alpha in him.
"First, I need to know more about you." If she could keep him and the other two talking, it would give her time to collect her thoughts and emotions about her wolf shadow not being gone.
It would also give her time to figure out how she could tell him what he wanted to know: how she had killed the Riverstone wolf shifters.
"Explain your brotherhood to me. How is it that you three are the way you are without an alpha calling the shots? All I know was what I witnessed in Riverstone and what I've read in fairy tales and novels."
Giving her a gentle smile, Kellen handed her a napkin for her tears. She accepted it and dabbed her eyes.
His gaze went distant as he started. “All I know outside the Brotherhood is the Riverstone Pack.
Leo and Stephen have explained to me how their packs operated before they left, and it sounds so different.
I've tried to use their words as a guide for my own behavior.
We don't bully one another. Any time a decision is made, we all have to voice an opinion.
It's not easy, Samara. It's taken decades of hard work to get to where we are. "
She'd never shied away from hard work, but for decades without an end in sight?
"What about...relationships?"
She held her breath, not sure what to expect.
"I've had relationships. I've fallen in love, even gotten married a few times.
But only to regular humans." He looked at her, his brown eyes molten, capturing her gaze and holding it as if he could capture her with his words.
"Those are extremely difficult, especially since regular humans age and we do not. "
"Do you leave them?"
Now he turned away from her, signaling that this was getting to be a more difficult conversation for him, or he just didn't want to talk about it in front of Leo and Stephen. If he wanted to stop, she wouldn't push. It would have to be his decision.
"At first, before modern medicine, they usually died early enough so as not to make my own lack of aging a problem. I would mourn them deeply and then move on."
"And with modern medicine."
Kellen sighed and turned away from her. "I never left any of them on the lurch. I always made sure they were cared for before I faked my own death."
"You never turned them?"
"No." He turned back, his voice rough. "As I said, living as long as we do, and always living in secret, combined with a hit order out on all of us...I wouldn't subject anyone to that who wasn't already a wolf shifter and knew what they were getting into."
"What about children?"
"No. I’m careful about that. It's hard enough walking away from someone I love when they've hit fifty-five and start noticing that I don't look a day over thirty.
I wouldn't have a choice but to take our wolf shifter children in tow.
I could never take a child away from their mother. I won't ever do that."
Samara couldn't imagine walking away from her children, even if she watched them from afar. "Is this why you and your wolf are so interested in me? Because I might still be a wolf shifter and you won't have to walk away from me after a generation has passed?"
"I'm not going to pursue a relationship with you until I know it's even possible."
"Until you know if my wolf is an omega, you mean."
"Yes. If your wolf is anything else then there's no point in starting something that is only going to end in heartache. I’ve had my fill of that."
"So, you'll let your wolf decide regardless of how you feel?" Why the hell had she started this conversation? Because I want to know where I stand. Right now, I don't have any leverage with Kellen, so long as there's three of us—possibly four —in this brotherhood...or whatever it is.
"We'll make that decision together."
"That's the second time you said that, but what I'm hearing is that if you want me and your wolf doesn't, you won't fight for me. You'll just walk away and let your wolf win."
"There's no winning and losing," he insisted, a look of pleading in his face as he tried to make her understand.
"Yeah, I know. All there appears to be is losing. At least you have your brothers. I don't even have that."
Kellen lowered his gaze.
Damn his wolf to hell.
She turned to face the window, but she wasn't about to let him get away that easily.
Mentally, she reached out to see if she could talk to his wolf shadow.
She wasn't sure if wolf shifters had telepathic abilities, let alone one that was supposed to be dead, but she tried anyway since she had nothing to lose.
If she gave his wolf shadow a piece of her mind, she'd feel less out of control.
Let him go, you selfish son of a bitch. Get your claws out of his soul and let him choose who he wants. I swear, if I really am a wolf shifter, and my wolf is beta or alpha, I will fight you into oblivion for Kellen and fuck you if you try to get in my way.
Kellen suddenly sucked in a breath. From the front seat Leo turned around. "You okay there, Kel?"
"Huh. Um, yeah. I'm fine. Just got a chill, that's all."
Chill my ass. She'd thrown down the gauntlet and his wolf knew it.
May the best predator win.