Chapter 23 #2
Oh, good heavens. No wonder Kellen gave himself up to Leo and Stephen. He had been manipulated into suppressing his alpha instincts and acting like an omega, a role that he was never supposed to play.
Stephen turned back to fix the wing as he talked.
"Kellen has a special talent that draws people—wolf shifters and humans—to him.
We listened to him. He made me and Leo feel powerful and valued and needed.
That's what alphas are supposed to do to build a stable pack.
It's something that all three of our packs failed to do.”
Hearing the pain in his voice, she touched his shoulder and offered him a small smile of encouragement.
He nodded his appreciation before continuing.
"So, Leo and I made a pact. We'd follow Kellen and see what else was out there in the world besides hunting each other.
If we didn't like what we saw, we'd go our own ways.
It didn't matter at that point. We'd walked away from our packs the second Kellen threw down his weapons.
The only way to make this brand new friendship work was to allow Kellen to keep believing he was an omega.
Otherwise, he'd get hung up on pack hierarchy and that would shatter the peace he'd brokered between the three of us. "
Stephen stopped talking when he had to lock the second wing in, but Samara was deep into her own thoughts.
She still knew little about what these three had been though, but now she wanted to know all of it.
If she had to live as an alpha, then she wanted to become an alpha like Kellen.
She didn't want to rule, she wanted bonds like the brothers had, ones that could never be broken.
Her parents had close friends, but not like this.
After a thousand years of watching people die, both horribly and peacefully, she doubted her grandfather had similar bonds, even with the wife of each generation he spawned.
A quiet snap yanked Samara's attention back to the drone. She stood up while Stephen wiped his hands on his jeans.
"You can't tell him,” he repeated.
Samara nodded, understanding how perilous their situation was. "I know."
Dipping his head to her in respect, Stephen walked away but stopped briefly to gently squeeze her shoulder.
She would keep her promise.
From across the street, Kellen and Grace jogged against what little traffic there was carrying paper bags filled with supplies.
As soon as they made it to the van, Grace pulled a can of something out of one of the bags.
Then she pulled the pins out of her long hair, bent forward, and started spraying from the back of her skull and working her way from the roots to the tips of the strands.
"Hairspray?" Samara couldn't hide her confusion.
Kellen motioned for Samara to join him away from the others. In a darker corner of the gas station, he stopped, shoved his hands into the pockets of his jacket, and took a deep breath.
"It's hair color. Dark brown."
An uncomfortable feeling jumbled her stomach. "Why does she need dark brown hair?"
Kellen kept his eyes down. "The art of deception. Josiah doesn't know that Grace is with us. Her spell still works, we think. No matter what Josiah throws at us, he won't be able to inflict much damage on the two of us if the spell keeps him distracted."
He paused, still not looking at her.
"It's not going to be you and me walking into that camp together. It's going to me and Grace. With luck, Josiah won't know that Grace isn't you until we're there."
"And what am I going to do?"
Kellen started to tell her, but the sound of the drone launching distracted them.
"C'mon you two," Leo waved at them, the driver's side door wide open. "Time's up, we gotta leave!"
Kellen walked back to the van, without telling her what he wanted her to do.
Maybe he simply didn't know yet, but she didn't think so. He was hiding something and that worried her, but if his silence had something to do with keeping Carlie and George safe, then she’d let it go until they got to Winterbourne.
He would have to tell her then. When she climbed into the van, Stephen was already in the shotgun seat with his laptop open and the drone controls carefully balanced on his knees.
Leo revved the engine and sped out of the parking lot.
Even from half a mile away, they saw smoke from the restaurant spiraling in the air.
As they got closer, they could see that most of the structure was still intact, but the sun deck was gone along with the kitchen.
A fire truck sprayed the debris, and the sheriff redirected the few cars on the road.
Leo drove slowly, not looking at the building, but behind it.
The flashing lights provided enough light for all of them to see clearly with their preternatural eyesight.
"I see Carlie." Leo swerved into the restaurant parking lot, but far away from the fire truck. "She's near the tree line."
As soon as Carlie saw them exit the van, she ran to them. Her hair was askew, clothes singed, and she smelled of smoke and grease. A huge bruise purpled her cheek.
Kellen opened his arms, and she walked right into them. "It's okay," he whispered over and over until she stopped sobbing.
"They still have George." Her voice hitched as she tried to say more.
"We know." Stephen remained in the van with the drone controls. "Don't worry, we have a plan to get him."
"I don't know why they let me go. I don't even know why they took us."
"They want me." Samara wouldn't lie to Carlie.
She didn't need to know the details, but she would need a reason and if it helped at all with the trauma, then let the burden be on her shoulders.
"I have something they want. That's why I came here.
I needed money and sleep. Kellen gave me both, but my past has caught up with me.
I'm going to give myself up to them. Once they have me, they'll leave you alone. Kellen has negotiated the deal."
Tearing free of Kellen, Carlie hugged Samara. To Samara the hug was a reminder of everything she was about to lose. No matter what Kellen said, Josiah would not keep his word and deep down they all knew that.
After a moment, Carlie turned back to Kellen.
"I don't know what Maria has gotten herself into, but you can't turn her over to those men.
You just can't. They will kill her. They were going to kill George, but then their leader forced me to unlock my phone and he walked away to make a phone call.
After he hung up, he stopped threatening us. "
"Leo," Kellen said. "Give Maria the keys to the van."
Leo did as instructed.
Kellen put his hands on Carlie's shoulders. "Carlie, go to the gym using the back door. Stephen will give you the code and the key to the office. Wait for George there."
Carlie opened her mouth to argue, but Kellen plowed right over her desire to stay put.
"He will show up, I promise. When he gets there, just get on the road and keep going.
Don't tell anyone where you are going, not even your kids, and stick to the back roads as much as possible.
Leave your phones in the gym's office and change your clothes with whatever you can find in the hamper in case they've slipped a tracker on you.
There's equipment and weapons in the back of the van you can use if you need to camp out somewhere. "
"But, Kellen, what about—"
"No, Carlie, there is no 'what about'. These are the most dangerous people on the planet. We're not committing suicide or sacrificing ourselves. We will escape, but until we do, you cannot—must not—return to Winterbourne. Do you understand?"
Carlie nodded slowly, in shock. “We have to tell our kids something.”
“No. Don’t tell them anything. Your eldest daughter is deployed, so she’ll be fine.
Your son and youngest daughter are out of state.
Don’t call them. Keep an eye on the website of the Winterbourne News-Journal.
We'll place an ad for experienced waitstaff and a head chef for the restaurant.
When you see that, you'll know it's safe and you can return. If you don’t see that within two weeks, go pick them up and keep running. Don’t warn them ahead of time. Just grab them and go."
Stephen slid out of his seat, leaving the laptop. He handed Carlie the keys to the gym and gave her the code. “Drive the van behind the gym. Wait for George to join you in the office.”
A hint of Kellen’s plan? She already didn’t like it.
They all waited until Carlie drove away. Then they gathered around Stephen to look at the screen of his laptop. Outlines of men stood in a large circle with one big splotch in the center.
"That would be the campfire pit," Stephen said. "There are twelve guards surrounding the camp, evenly spaced except for right here."
"That would be the outhouses," Leo said. "No one wants to stand next to those for hours on end."
"What about between here and the campground?" Kellen asked.
"I haven't seen anything to indicate there's an ambush waiting for us before we get there. I also don't see any indication of wolf traps now that we know what kind Josiah uses."
"He used all of them to protect Riverstone," Grace said. "But when Samara ran, we left in a hurry. Josiah wasn't thinking about needing them for you three. Stealing them from a store would have been harder to cover up and would attract too much attention."
"Like blowing up railcars." Samara had to give Grace credit for her ingenuity. Her appreciation for the woman’s inner strength continued to grow.
"He's lost too many omegas to keep eyes on the entire landscape.” Grace removed her jacket and pulled her hair back into a ponytail, just like Samara’s “They might shift once George is released, because Josiah will have to rely on the wolves to pick up our scent before we get there.
But they won't be able to communicate that it's me and not Samara unless they shift back. "