"Again, why?" Kellen slammed a fist against the nearest wall, his voice turning rough with frustration. "It can't be about wealth because packs back then didn't need a lot of cash when we had other things to trade."
Stephen pushed himself off the desk. "Both Moonclaw and Firebrand had something else that Riverstone wanted. Something that we don't know about. Josiah expected both packs to die off or diminish quickly. Instead, the three of us got caught up in our own little war. All of Josiah's plans got delayed as all three packs waited for us to report our success."
Leo shook his head. "Then we disappeared, and as far as the packs knew, we'd killed each other."
"Yes," Stephen agreed, his voice rising with excitement even as Kellen's grew quieter. "Moonclaw and Firebrand must have dug in after we stopped reporting back to the alphas. If I were the alpha of either Firebrand or Moonclaw, I'd recruit humans en masse to turn. Both packs would have become too strong for an easy fight."
"Josiah hates to lose more than anything else." Kellen shrank back in his chair as if trying to become smaller.
Was he ashamed to be associated with the Riverstone Pack? Was he blaming himself for this situation? She’d straighten him out if they ever got a private moment together. In the meantime, Samara had heard enough from the sidelines. "What does any of this have to do with me?"
"You have something Josiah wants." Whatever Kellen had felt that made him try to look smaller disappeared. Now he leaned back in his executive chair, slipping his hands behind his head as he looked at her, but his gaze was clinical, not like the hot smolder he'd treated her to earlier. "Something that will give him an edge over the other two packs and get him closer to what he wants."
"Which means the three of you are back to the beginning." Samara stood up because her legs were growing restless just sitting here. It felt too much like when she was in the railcars. The world had passed her by while others tried to determine her fate. "What does he want?"
Kellen rocked back and forth for a few seconds. “Leo, do you want to tell us what you know?
“Not yet,” he replied, his voice tight. “I’d like more information first. What I know isn’t something that I want to reveal until I’m absolutely certain that what Firebrand has is what Josiah wants.”
"Then the only way we're going to find out is to go up to Riverstone and see what we can salvage from the fire you set."
"No way." Samara said, sitting back down, prepared to beg if it meant keeping Kellen away from the scene of her attack. "I almost died up there. I killed almost half of the Riverstone Pack to get away. I'm not risking my life to go back."
Careful not to bump Stephen off the edge, Kellen stood up and walked around the desk. He stood in front of her, taking her hands into his.
Oh, this is not fair. The rough feel of his skin against hers reminded her of what it felt like to have those same hands rub her body into ecstasy only to withdraw because of his fear that they would hurt each other.
"It's the safest thing we could do."
"Are you crazy?" She pulled her hands out of his so she could focus. "Yes, you are crazy. All three of you.” She glared at each of them in turn. “You've gone slap happy after a century of running around the world being heroes or whatever it is you do when you're not settled in backwater towns playing at domesticity."
Kellen didn't try to take her hands back. "Think about it. The mansion is gone. You've disappeared. The survivors of the Riverstone Pack are chasing railcars." The earnestness in his voice almost hurt.
"And dying while trying." As if Leo thought they needed to be reminded.
"I’ll bet you this bar and grill that there's no one left in Riverstone to see us or even smell our scent. It's the last place Josiah will expect you to be."
Samara buried her hand in her hands. "I can't believe you're asking me to do this."
"You know more about the compound than I do at this point." Kellen returned to his chair, sitting down with a heavy sigh. "I've been gone for too long."
Samara raised her head out of her hands and looked up at him. She still said nothing.
"Please,” Kellen leaned forward, his eyes wide begging her to understand. “If you want to be free, you must help us help you."
It was the please that sealed the deal. It was her choice, but in the end it wasn't much of a choice at all. Not if she wanted to have any chance to stop running. She nodded. If Kellen was right, they would all be free.
There was still one thing she needed to make clear. "I don’t want any of you dying because of me. When I walked into this place, all I wanted was to work for a month and leave quietly. I never intended for anyone to get hurt.”
“There are hundreds of times we could have died over the years.” Kellen glanced at his brothers with pride. “We haven’t because we have each other’s backs. But, if we are going to die, then it’s going to happen on our terms, not because our packs decreed that we should kill each other.”
How could she argue with that? “When do we leave?"
Chapter
Ten
Evidently, one didn't just up and leave to invade another pack's territory. Wait, even that isn’t right because Kellen and company aren’t a pack. Though to be fair the way they set out to plan how to get to Riverstone from Prescott did have the appearance of a more equitable union than a hierarchical pack. She listened for about ten minutes. They finished each other's sentences, asked questions with gestures rather than words, and never misunderstood what each other was saying. It reminded her of what life was like with her mom and dad. Her mom and dad didn't just love each other; they respected one another and would laugh the few times they finished each other's thoughts out loud.
