Leo frowned, making him look more than a bit frightening. If Samara didn't know better, she could have sworn a vision of his wolf peaked out from behind his light brown eyes. The threat was there even if the face wasn't. "What clues?"
"Leo, remember what you told us about how my pack, Moonclaw, sent a messenger into your pack's territory?"
Leo frowned. "No, when did I tell you that?"
"June 5th, 1944." Stephen started making notes on his screens. "After we snuck away from the crowd with the coffee and doughnuts the Red Cross gave us."
"Fuck me, you remember the details of what we talked about? It's been over eighty years!"
"Wait!" Three sets of eyes turned to her, but she looked up at the first picture on the wall where they posed in front of Fort Benning. "June 5th, 1944? You guys were at Normandy?"
"Paratroopers," Kellen clarified for her. "508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne."
Samara wanted to hear more about Normandy than she did about wolf shifters. Normandy was real. It had happened. She'd read about it, seen movies and documentaries about it. Wolf shifters, even after all she'd been through, were still a magical mystery she had trouble accepting as real.
"We talked a lot in the last few hours before we boarded the C-47. Made a few promises to each other in case any of us didn't make it." Stephen gave her a slightly sad smile before turning back to his tablet. "Leo's pack calls itself Firebrand because they claim the Firebrand caves as part of their territory."
Samara had good knowledge of Montana's terrain but couldn't place the name. "I've heard of Devil's Chute and Lick Creek caves, but not Firebrand. Where is that?"
"Ten miles northwest of Tears of the Turtle," Leo answered, moving so he could look over Stephen's shoulder. "We kept humans away from them by actively setting up guards so prospectors and tourists could never go near them. My alpha said the caves were our last line of defense against the humans who kept encroaching on our range."
“I’m losing my sense of the timeline here. Can we get back to World War II?” Keeping up with all of their stories was confusing her.
“I’m sorry. You’re right.” Stephen nodded at her, then returned to scribbling on the tablet. "Leo, you told us that in 1861 a messenger from Moonclaw showed up and offered your alpha a fortune to switch territories. Moonclaw would control the Firebrand caves and Firebrand would get the territory closer to Big Sky."
Leo's grim expression said more than his words ever could. "My alpha thought the messenger was crazy and told him to fuck off. Next thing we knew, our females and pups were dead—the field where they gathered to gossip and let the little ones play had been laced with silver. Most of them didn’t make it. Then the Moonclaw pack came down on us. It took three days and dozens of lives to drive them out of our territory."
Samara noticed that Leo said Moonclaw pack not Stephen's pack, as if he naturally differentiated between the pack and the man he called brother.
"So, why would Moonclaw want control over Firebrand territory?" Stephen asked. "Our packs had a cordial relationship up to that point. Firebrand even gave Moonclaw shelter when the surrounding communities noticed we weren't dying of smallpox during the epidemic of 1837 and started to get restless."
"I know what Moonclaw wanted from Firebrand territory, but not why.” Leo found his way to the window and slouched back. “If it’s relevant, I’ll tell you later."
Kellen and Stephen stared at Leo, just like she was.
“Stephen,” Leo’s voice turned pleading. “Continue. If what I know is relevant, I will tell you.”
Realizing their brother wasn’t going to talk any further, Stephen turned back to this tablet. "Neither pack had any further contact until the offer to purchase Firebrand territory happened. And after the attack the Firebrand alpha sent Leo after Moonclaw as revenge."
“Yeah,” Leo agreed, his voice quieter than usual. "My orders were to take out as many Moonclaw pack members as possible. I lost my mom and little brother in the attack. I would have gone through with it except..."
"...except I stopped you." Stephen looked up at Kellen and Leo.
Eyes narrowing, Kellen leaned forward. "Now I remember that conversation. Stephen, you said that your alpha ordered you to assassinate as many members of Leo's pack as you could."
"But Leo prevented me from finishing my mission. We chased each other for over a decade."
"And I was ordered to kill both of you." Kellen turned to Samara. “We ran in circles trying to finish what our packs started.”
"Right." Stephen held up his screen which looked like a Venn Diagram with interlocking circles in the top corners with their names and notes underneath them. "Like Leo said, there was no reason for his pack to attack mine and no reason for mine to attack his, until the females and pups were killed."
"No reason that we know of." Kellen's voice turned soft as if he had an idea of where Stephen was going with his explanation. Samara wished she did, but so far she was lost. What did any of this have to do with her?
"Four days ago, we found out that the Riverstone Pack is chasing a woman they'd turned into a wolf shifter." Stephen pointed his stylus at Samara. "Kellen's told us about Josiah's love of violence over the years, but since Samara appeared, I've been thinking about a lot of things that we've always ignored. What if it wasn't the Moonclaw alpha who sent the messenger asking to purchase Firebrand territory? What if it wasn't Moonclaw that attacked the pups and females?"
Kellen groaned. "It was Josiah all along. He set your packs up for a war. Your packs have been picking each other off one-by-one for over a century. But why would Riverstone care about Firebrand or Moonclaw territory?" Kellen's face tightened, his eyes anguished, as if all this pack war business had happened yesterday.
"To weaken the two rival packs," Stephen said, "if not completely wipe us out. Then Josiah could waltz in and take both Firebrand and Moonclaw territory without risking Riverstone or his own skin."
