"I know it's going to be painful, but we've stayed alive all these years because the trust between us is unbreakable. If you trust me, then you can trust them. They won't hurt you, I promise."
On the heels of breaking one promise, here Kellen was making another. And yet, he was right. She couldn't keep running forever, and Josiah would catch up to her someday. There really wasn't a choice and she hated that. So, she nodded. Kellen typed on his phone, texting Stephen and Leo, she assumed.
In the meantime, she clenched her gut and tried hard not to think of the Riverstone Pack. She would never regret killing every single one of them that had been in the mansion that day. If she'd had the time and weapons, she would have killed the rest of them and walked away with grim satisfaction.
Knowing she was capable of such revenge should have terrified her more than the act itself. But damn it, she could still see all of their faces—and even in death, she hated them. Except, perhaps, the housekeeper. That wolf shifter might have been her way out, a chance to escape without resorting to fire. But instead, she had only taught Samara how to submit. If there was anyone in the Riverstone Pack she might have regretted killing, it was the housekeeper. Yet, in the end, she had obeyed Josiah too easily.
A chill ran through Samara as she looked back up at the picture. The woman standing behind little Kellen. That was what had been bothering her. The housekeeper was Kellen’s mother.
And Samara had murdered her.
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."
