Page 51 of My Fugitive Wolf
“Sapphires,” Stephen answered. “That’s the only thing Moonclaw has that’s out of the ordinary. The alpha opened the Yogo Gulch mine back in the 1890s.”
Grace tilted her head to the side. “I vaguely remember Josiah saying something about sealing the deal to close all of the other Yogo mines.”
“He wants to keep your mine open. If he could control Moonclaw he wouldn’t have to start a mining operation —”
“From scratch.” Kellen rested his elbows on his knees while supporting his head on folded fingers. “What are the metaphysical properties of?—.”
“It’s a stone of wisdom and learning,” Stephen said, closing his eyes in concertation. “It enhances concentration and creativity, and promotes purity of thought, as well as?—"
“Nope.” Leo shook his head. “Those are not qualities Josiah wants for himself or anyone?—"
“Then it has to be wealth.” Stephen opened his ice blue eyes looking at each of them in turn. “Moonclaw has always had a strong connection with humans. They maintain an exclusive list of buyers from all over the world.”
“Wealth invites more creature comforts,” Grace interrupted. “I can tell you from personal experience that keeping a pack of boot-lickers compliant takes a lot of money.”
Silence fell over the group. Samara couldn’t process everything they had talked about. None of them could even guarantee that their assumptions about Josiah and his motivations were correct.
"And on that note," Leo broke the silence and started to stuff all the notebooks and spells into the canvas bag. "I think it would be a good idea if Stephen, Grace, and I brought this stuff down to a conference room. It'll be less cramped and easier for us to read what we haven't even touched yet."
Samara didn't like the tone of Leo's voice. "Why can't Kellen and I join you?"
"Because whatever the problem is that you two are having needs to be resolved before we continue our journey."
Stephen joined Leo in gathering up documents, motioning for Grace to join them.
"And if there's anything worse than a depressed wolf shifter, it's a lovesick one." Leo gave a not-so-subtle nod in Kellen's direction.
Before even she or Kellen could respond, the others loaded up the dolly and left, leaving her alone with Kellen, sitting on the couch, separated and not looking at each other.
Now what do I do?
Chapter
Twenty
They sat on the sofa in silence, refusing to look at each other.
After a while, the boredom got to her, so Samara picked up her dirty plate and coffee mug and headed to the kitchen. By the time she returned to the living room, Kellen hadn’t moved.
"So, are you depressed or lovesick?" Samara planted herself back on the sofa, this time looking at the object of her frustration.
"Can't I be both?" He turned so he could see her out of the corner of his eye but not look directly at her.
"Why are you even one or the other? Because now that you know I'm a super alpha, or whatever you want to call me, we can't be life partners or even lovers?"
"No."
Ridiculous. "You don't even know what my wolf shadow thinks. How do you know she won’t love you and your wolf shadow as much as I do?"
"I don’t, but if she doesn't, where does that leave me?"
"I don't think?—"
"That's right, you're not thinking!" Kellen exploded as he shoved himself off the sofa while violently stuffing his hands in his pockets. Still, he didn’t move any closer to her. "I've been down this road several times. I never sought out another wolf shifter because I couldn't risk Josiah finding them, so I had to suppress my wolf shadow and only love human women. I've fallen in love, I've married, and I've had my heart broken every single time they died before me."
He paused, taking a deep breath even as Samara held hers at each revelation before he look at her, eye-to-eye. "The last woman I cared about, I had to leave because she was strong, so strong that she lived long enough to notice I wasn't aging with her. I had to leave her behind, I told myself I had no choice. She was starting to ask questions about why I never got sick, or wanted children, and took our security to ridiculous levels without an explanation.”
He drew in a long, shuddering breath that almost made her reach out to him. The pain in his eyes was so palpable her heart ached.
