Page 64 of My Fugitive Wolf
Carlie opened her mouth to argue, but Kellen plowed right over her desire to stay put.
"He will show up, I promise. When he gets there, just get on the road and keep going. Don't tell anyone where you are going, not even your kids, and stick to the back roads as much as possible. Leave your phones in the gym's office and change your clothes with whatever you can find in the hamper in case they've slipped a tracker on you. There's equipment and weapons in the back of the van you can use if you need to camp out somewhere."
"But, Kellen, what about?—"
"No, Carlie, there is no 'what about'. These are the most dangerous people on the planet. We're not committing suicide or sacrificing ourselves. We will escape, but until we do, you cannot—must not—return to Winterbourne. Do you understand?"
Carlie nodded slowly, in shock. “We have to tell our kids something.”
“No. Don’t tell them anything. Your eldest daughter is deployed, so she’ll be fine. Your son and youngest daughter are out of state. Don’t call them. Keep an eye on the website of the Winterbourne News-Journal. We'll place an ad for experienced waitstaff and a head chef for the restaurant. When you see that, you'll know it's safe and you can return. If you don’t see that within two weeks, go pick them up and keep running. Don’t warn them ahead of time. Just grab them and go."
Stephen slid out of his seat, leaving the laptop. He handed Carlie the keys to the gym and gave her the code. “Drive the van behind the gym. Wait for George to join you in the office.”
A hint of Kellen’s plan? She already didn’t like it.
They all waited until Carlie drove away. Then they gathered around Stephen to look at the screen of his laptop. Outlines of men stood in a large circle with one big splotch in the center.
"That would be the campfire pit," Stephen said. "There are twelve guards surrounding the camp, evenly spaced except for right here."
"That would be the outhouses," Leo said. "No one wants to stand next to those for hours on end."
"What about between here and the campground?" Kellen asked.
"I haven't seen anything to indicate there's an ambush waiting for us before we get there. I also don't see any indication of wolf traps now that we know what kind Josiah uses."
"He used all of them to protect Riverstone," Grace said. "But when Samara ran, we left in a hurry. Josiah wasn't thinking about needing them for you three. Stealing them from a store would have been harder to cover up and would attract too much attention."
"Like blowing up railcars." Samara had to give Grace credit for her ingenuity. Her appreciation for the woman’s inner strength continued to grow.
"He's lost too many omegas to keep eyes on the entire landscape.” Grace removed her jacket and pulled her hair back into a ponytail, just like Samara’s “They might shift once George is released, because Josiah will have to rely on the wolves to pick up our scent before we get there. But they won't be able to communicate that it's me and not Samara unless they shift back."
Samara felt sick. "How do you plan to escape?"
Grace pulled a White Mountains baseball cap out of one of the shopping bags and popped it on her head. "The protection spell will help me and Kellen while we assess the situation."
"What about Leo and Stephen? They're going first. Can't you cast the spell to protect them?"
"There's no time and we don't have the ingredients. Not to mention, it's been a century and half since I cast it the first time. Even then it took a couple of hours to get it right."
Before Samara said anything else, Leo took off his leather jacket and started to loosen his clothes and shoelaces. As he did, Stephen landed the drone and put the laptop and controls on the floor of the van before he too started to prepare to shift.
With the first light of dawn pouring over them, Kellen pulled both of them into a tight hug but said nothing. The three of them stood there, holding each other saying nothing in words, but everything in their actions. As much as her heart ached for Carlie, it hurt so much more watching the three brothers. The grim reality was, they may not survive this. Samara’s heart shattered into so many pieces she would never be able to put them together again.
Kellen has a plan, she repeated to herself.
Then Leo and Stephen were gone, jogging toward the tree line, with Kellen never taking his eyes off of them, as if he wanted to carve one last memory of his brothers into his mind.
Once they disappeared, Samara cleared her throat to get Kellen's attention. As much as the raw pain in his eyes hurt to see, time wasn't on their side. The faster they figured out how to put a stop to Josiah and his pack's ambitions, the faster they could rescue Leo and Stephen.
"You never said what my role is in this scheme of yours. How do you plan to escape once Josiah has you."
Grace walked away, giving the two of them some privacy.
Kellen placed his hands on her shoulders, looking at her for the first time in too long. She saw his wolf in his face as if his skin was pulled too tight across his cheeks as the predator pushed the human out of the way.
"Your role, Samara, is to escort George to the gym and leave with him and Car?—"
"No." She pulled away from him. "I'm not running away. I will not let that son of a bitch get his hands on you and your brothers. After what he did to me? To my grandfather..."
