"It makes a lot of difference. If your wolf is a beta or alpha, she will reject my wolf. And if that happens, then we can't be together."
"You and I don't get a say in this?"
Kellen sighed, leaning back in his chair, one of his hands waving his frustration with her. "You see, there's your problem right there. You keep seeing yourself and your wolf as two different beings with two separate lives and goals. They're not. I was born with my wolf shifter shadow. I don't know what it's like not to have him inside me, walking through life with me, protecting me, working with me, laughing at me when I do something boneheaded."
"Your wolf can laugh?"
"Metaphorically speaking."
Samara looked back up at the pictures, still not sure what bothered her about them. "I wish my wolf had laughed. All she did was push me in directions I had no interest in going. It felt like she wanted me to give in to Josiah, accept his dominance over me, and let him control me. Not for anything in this world was I going to let that happen."
"You don't know what your wolf wanted because you were too scared to listen. Which is understandable. Josiah is one of those people who can get you to work against your own best interest without even trying. He has that type of charisma when he tries and if he needs it. He'll make you believe you're the most important person in his pack until he has what he wants and doesn't need you anymore. If your wolf was trying to communicate with you and you misinterpreted what she was trying to tell you..."
"No. There was no mistaking what she wanted. She tried to stop me from killing those omegas, the ones in the mansion and the one in the garbage..." A brief flash of what she'd done punched her in the gut. She could still hear the screaming, the violence, the pounding at the windows and doors of the wolves trying to get out before the fire overcame them. She hadn't cared. She still didn't, and she had to fight to keep herself steady. "It doesn't matter. I got away and it took me a week to get to a pharmacy for the silver. She never tried to communicate after I did what I did. She tried to fight when I drank the silver, but I beat her down until I swallowed the last drop."
"My God." Kellen shook his head.
It didn't matter. Not if he didn't want her until he knew the rank of her wolf. If that was what held him back, then he wasn't the man for her. If she was going to sleep with someone she had to know that they wanted her, Samara, not some other creature.
"Look," she said. "This can go one of two ways. We can keep going around in circles about my wolf or talk about something else, or I can go upstairs to the apartment until my shift tomorrow."
Kellen waited a beat as he searched her face, trying to figure out what she wanted. He didn't have to do that. She wasn't that complicated as a person. Or, as a wolf shifter, if she still was one.
"What do you want to talk about?" he asked.
What did she want to know? She didn't want to talk about wolf shifters anymore, but what else was there? She knew nothing about Kellen other than he owned the restaurant and he was well-respected by his employees and the residents of Winterbourne.
"Why aren't you, Stephen, and Leo a pack?"
"I told you we were all omegas. There's no hierarchy between us. When Stephen, Leo, and I decided to form the brotherhood, we had to figure out how we would get along. Without a hierarchy, there was no one wolf to give orders. We had to learn to work together as a group, and our wolves had to learn to respect those decisions.
"For years, we were so careful not to try and dominate one another. If something needed to be decided, we talked about it together. Sometimes we voted, and we had to respect that vote. We had to learn to compromise or find ways around the problems we faced.
"The Dead Wolves Brotherhood stands strong because of our hard work and dedication to not become like our packs."
"Dead Wolves Brotherhood?"
Kellen shrugged. "That’s what we originally called ourselves. It was two a.m., we were drunk, and Leo decided we needed a name. Since all three of our alphas wanted us dead, and deep down we had no idea how long we would last, we called ourselves the Dead Wolves, and it stuck until we started moving around. Now we just name ourselves after the town whenever we move. We’re the Winterbourne Brotherhood now."
Before she could ask another question, Kellen asked her one. "What about you? Any family? I'm assuming you're not married or have a boyfriend."
"Nope, no boyfriend. My father was a firefighter, and my mother was a surgeon. I couldn't decide which one I wanted to follow in my quest for a career, so I decided to become a paramedic. We were happy as a family, but they were busy. My grandfather lived with us and took care of me—taking me to school, picking me up, but he was from the generation that didn't believe in participation trophies, or childhood illnesses, or bad grades. He did believe in self-defense though. That's why I have the combat knife, and I can use a rifle and handgun without flinching." She paused because she could feel the grief well up inside her again.
"My parents were killed by a drunk driver three years ago. I had planned to move out of our house, but both me and my grandfather were devastated, so I stayed."
Kellen's hand started to move across the desk, reaching for her, but then he stopped and pulled it back.
"We need to figure this out," he said, pretending he hadn't tried to reach for her. "I'm sorry Samara...”
“Davis.” After their make-out session the least she could do is give him her last name. "My name is Samara Davis."
"Samara Davis," he repeated. "I know you don't want to talk about how you escaped, but I need to know. It could be the key to understanding why Josiah kidnapped you and exactly what happened to you while you were in the Riverstone campground."
So much for talking about anything other than wolf shifters.
Kellen continued. "I also need to have Stephen and Leo here."
"Oh, come on."
