"That's why I'm here," she said, pointing to the monitor. "I wanted to make sure you knew what was happening."
The man sitting next to Kellen switched off the TV, silencing the next news segment. He had short clipped brown hair—not as dark as Kellen’s—but his striking blue eyes cut through the dimness of the office. Dressed in a tank top with a name tag and gym shorts, he gave off casual confidence that made her assume he owned the place. His name tag said 'Stephen.'
"You did that?" Stephen asked, his eyes focused on her while Kellen kept his back to her, staring out into space.
She was tempted to say ‘do what?’ but Kellen had made it clear he wouldn't tolerate any stalling. Since he already knew how she escaped, there was no point in denying what she'd done.
"Yes, I killed the wolf in the garbage bin. He chased me around the perimeter of the house but didn't know I had the knife. I could see his shadow as he got closer, right before he jumped me, I swung around and fell backwards. He landed on the knife. All I had to do was keep cutting upward until I reached his throat, then I cut off his head to make sure he stayed dead."
A beat passed. Then another. It wasn't everything that they wanted to hear, but that was all they were going to get for right now. The blond leaned toward her and sniffed. This was getting more uncomfortable by the moment.
"What the hell is that scent?" he asked just as she slipped her knife from its sheath. "It almost smells like..."
"Silver." Kellen stood up, tugged his polo back into place. "She smells of colloidal silver."
Alarm bells rang in her head as she got ready to fight, even knowing she had no chance against three wolf shifters.
You had no hope before you killed the omega.
"Put the knife away," Kellen said, sounding both tired and sad. "Leo won't hurt you. He's just being an asshole."
"Hey, if she can escape Riverstone and murder seventeen of the pack..."
"Which is less than half." Samara corrected, slipping the knife back under her shirt. Once again she was trusting a wolf she barely knew for reasons she couldn't understand and didn't want to dwell on right now. "Subtracting the two that died in the railcar, there’s still eighteen or so Riverstone wolves out there, including the alpha."
"Better odds than we ever had," Stephen muttered.
Her suspicions were right. They had been part of the Riverstone Pack at one point. No wonder Kellen still had that mournful look on his face. She must have killed his friends.
No, that couldn't be right. A guy like Kellen who treated her with kindness and gentleness would never have fit in with the Riverstone Pack. She just couldn't imagine him living like they did, much less making friends.
"Are the three of you on the run too? Does the alpha want all of you dead?" It was the only thing that made sense to her.
Silence was the only response, with lots of glances between the three of them. The non-verbal communication said more about their connection than they could have guessed. It didn't take a whole lot of thought to realize that this wasn't just a friendship, or a brotherhood, or even a pack. These three were family.
Instead of answering, Kellen stepped right in front of her, invading her personal space. He looked down at her. "How much silver did you drink?" he asked.
Unlike with the blond, Samara didn't feel the fight or flight instinct at all. That didn't mean her thoughts didn’t race as she scrambled to remember the bottle she'd bought. Should she tell him? What could he do with that information? Information was power, and she already had so little of it.
"How much, Maria?" Kellen's voice turned ragged.
She swallowed hard. "Thirty-two ounces."
Leo stepped farther away from her, while Stephen rolled his eyes in disbelief.
"Thirty-two ounces?" Even Kellen sounded horrified. "That would kill an elephant, never mind a person. If you weren't a wolf shifter, you would be dead. No wonder you couldn't shift when I chased you."
Should she tell him? Could she? Her throat turned tight at the memory of gagging back the sour metallic liquid. "It didn't kill me, but it killed the wolf inside me. The wolf shadow is dead. I'm no longer a wolf shifter. I never wanted to be one, and I will never become one again."
The three of them looked at each other, then back at her, then back at each other one more time. It would take years of study to understand what they were saying to one another.
"That's not possible," Leo muttered. "It's just not possible. You still have a wolf's scent."
"It'll wear off." At least she sounded convincing, but at best it was a fervent hope.
"When was the last time you shifted?" Kellen asked.
As if she could ever forget. "I only shifted once. Two months ago."
