Blood Moon (Howl #2) (16 page)

“Well, why don’t you become an Ima?” Samara asked, glancing nervously at Luke, whose face was full of surprise at her suggestion. “I mean, I don’t think any of us have a problem with you joining our pack. Maybe you could find a way to make J
ason exile you from the Vyka.”

Josh shook his head sadly. “I wish that could happen, Samara. I really do. The thing is, Jason doesn’t exile pack members. It would mean that he’d lose a member
and then all of his pack information would be at risk
. If the offense is bad enough, he’ll kill us, but he would never exile us because it’d give us the
option to join another pack and betray him.”

Samara sighed. “We have to think of a way around this. There’s got to be some
way you could become an Ima.”

“Yeah, well, if you think of a way, let me know,” Josh said doubtfully. “As far as I know, the only way is for another pack’s Alpha to kill Jason
and take over the whole pack.”

Samara looked down at her hands. She knew she wasn’t ready to even think about that yet. She still had a lot of learning left to do. In fact, now would be a
really good time for a lesson.

Samara turned to Luke. “Can either you or Kyle give me a lesson right now? I need to learn.”

“Now?” Kyle asked, glancing at his watch. “It’s three o’clock in the morning.
We have school in four hours.”

“I don’t care,” Samara said. “The sooner I
learn, the better off everyone will be.”

Kyle shrugged. “Okay,
I won’t be getting much sleep after this coffee, anyway. L
et’s go.”

Chapter 13

****

About ten minutes later, Samara was standing, in wolf form, in Kyle’s back yard, waiting for Kyle to come outside. He had said that he had some pre
paring to do for their lesson.

Samara watched as a raccoon skittered across the backyard. When it saw her, it
hid
itself
behind a tree, which seemed to camouflage it
in the darkness of the night
, though Samara knew it was still there – she could hear it.

Samara chuckled to herself. The raccoon was probably afraid that she was going to attack him, but that wasn’t the case at all. She had learned to curb her hunger and her impulse to attack. As long as she ate meat regularly, wild animal
s didn’t smell so good to her.

What smelled
much
better right now than hunting a wild
animal
was reven
ge . . . sweet, sweet revenge.

While Kyle gave Samara her lesson, Luke and Josh were going to head over to Colby’s house. Luke had mentioned that the Jackson’s had a library that was filled with old books about paranormal myths and legends. Samara was hoping that Luke, Josh, and Colby would be able to find something in the book that would help them figur
e out how to make Josh an Ima.

Don’t get your hopes up, Sam,
Luke said, his voice filling her mind.
This isn’t going to be easy. I don’t even know if it’s worth it.

It’s the least I can do – or at least try to do,
Samara replied, shaking her head and feeling a furry ear flop over.
This is entirely my f
ault. I feel so guilty about it. I’ll always feel like I owe him, but I have to do
something
for him.

She heard Luke sigh.
I get it.

Something about the frosty edge to his voice told her that
he didn’t really get it
. How could he understand, though? He wasn’t the one
who had caused this to happen.
Colby would be on her side, though. Colby knew what it was like to lose a mate.

Samara felt guilty because Josh no longer had a mate, but she felt even guiltier that Lilly’s parents
still
didn’t even know what had happened to her. It must be so awful for them to have to wonder who had killed their daughter
, and it bothered Samara that they would never know, unless if a werewolf broke the rules, or the police came up with something on their own
.

Samara couldn’t even imagine what her own parents would be going through
if she were the one who had been killed
. Even though Samara knew she couldn’t tell the Phillips family what had happened, the least she could do to avenge her death was kill the werewolf who had murd
ered her.

A large paw clapped her back, and she heard a growling from behind her. Samara whirled around and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the blue eyes that sta
red back at her.

It was Kyle.

Ha! Ha!
Kyle laughed inside his head, snorting aloud.
I totally got you
! I scared the crap out of you!

Yes, you did,
Samara admitted, her voice shaky. She realized that her tail was between her legs, making her look like a scared dog, and q
uickly lifted it into the air.

Do you know what I did to catch you off guard?
Kyle asked, sitting
down on the ground next to her.

Samara shook her head.
No.

I could tell that you were thinking. You were sort of staring into space,
Kyle replied.
So, I to
ok that time and I pounced on ya.

So that’s all I need to do?
Samara asked.
I just have to wait for the right moment when the wolf isn’t paying attention?

Pretty much,
Kyle agreed.

Well, why didn’t you just tell me that instead of make us through
all
the motions?
Samara asked.

His black lips parted into a toothy dog smile.
I tho
ught it would be a lot of fun.

Quickly shifting back into human form, Samara rolled her eyes. Leave it to her crazy cousin to want to
play games at a time like this.

After Kyle phased, they both went in the house and changed into the clothes they were planning to wear to school
. Fortunately Samara’s dad had dropped her off a change of clothes so she wouldn’t have to wear the same outfit two days in a row.
The two of them began walking
over to Colby’s house, which was only a few doors down. Mr. Jackson opened the front door. “They’re
in the library,” he told them.

Samara nodded and, following Kyle, walked past him into the library. Even once she was inside the library door, she could still feel Colby’s dad’s nearly-black eyes on her back. She hadn’t been crazy the first time she had met him; the man was definitely watching
her, but she had no idea why.

As soon as they were in the library, Colby looked up at them excitedly. “We found something that could maybe work.” He nodded to the books that were stacked
in a big pile in front of him.

Samara sat down
across from him. “What is it?”

“Well, according to page five-hundred-and-eight,” Colby began, holding up a book titled Werewolf Alpha Myths, Legends, and Traditions, “there
is
a way around the A
lpha letting a pack member go.”

“What is it?” Kyle asked, reaching for the book and scanning the page. A moment later, his eyes lit up with recognition. “Oh, shit,” Kyle said al
oud. “Could this really work?”

As the other guys nodded their heads, Samara snapped, “Will someone
please fill me in?” Glancing at
the time on her iPhone, she realized that it was already five o’clock. The sleepier she got, the more her patience wore thin. Samara had no idea how she was going to make it through the day
with no sleep.

“Although the most common way to switch packs is with permission from one’s designated Alpha, it is possible to switch during the month of October,” Kyle read from the book before
looking up at Samara.

“It’s Oct
ober right now,” Colby hissed.

Kyle continued. “To switch packs during the month of October, one must make a sacrifice during the blood moon.” He looked up at Samara and explained, “Tha
t’s the full moon in October.”

Samara waited for Kyle to continue reading. When he did
n’t, she asked, “Is that all?”

Colby nodded. “It’s the only passage we could
seem to find on the subject.”

“But it’s good news,” Josh said
,
with a wide smile on his face.
“It means I can become an Ima.”

“If it works,” Samara muttered. “The bloo
d moon hasn’t already passed?”

“Nope, we already checked,”
Colby said. “It’s next week.”

“I could have sworn there was already a full moon this month,” Samara said slowly. She looked up at Colby. “Wasn’t there? You gave me until the full moon to decide if I wanted to be an Ima,
and that was over a week ago.”

“Well, here’s the catch.
There are
two
full
moons in October
and according to this book,” Colby said, holding up a book titled, Full Moons: Practices and Rituals, “
the first moon is the natural full moon that takes place every month
.
It’s the one that humans can see. But, there’s a second full moon, the blood moon that humans
can’t
see.
See,
October is the most important month for witches, and supposedly,
they cast the most spells during this time. Well, all of
the unused magic from those spells needs to go somewhere, right? So, it ends up forming a
huge
ball in the sky . . . a second blood moon that can only be seen by witches and werewolves and other paranormal creatures. It’s thought to be just as powerful as the first blood moon, though, because it already has so much
magical
energy.
”

“When does this ‘second’ blood moon form?” Samara asked doubtfully. The whole concept sounded so far-fetched that she didn’t even know if she could believe it yet.

“It forms during the first week of November, according to this book,” Colby replied.
“All of the leftover magic is floating around
out
in space until gravity finally pulls it together, the day after Halloween.”

“It starts on the night of the Homecoming dance,” Josh said. “That Saturday.”

“So, it’s still considered a blood moon even though it doesn’t happen in October?” Samara asked.

“Yes, that’s what the book says,” C
olby replied, looking up at her. “Don’t doubt it so much, Sam. Is it really that unbelievable?
None of us have seen it before because none of us have been werewolves during
November
yet, but my parents told me that it’s real.
They’ve seen it.
”

“It’s almost like it’s meant to be,” Josh said, smiling. “What are the chances of
us finding out about this rule the week before the blood moon
?”

Samara forced a smile back, hoping that he wouldn’t get his hopes up too much. She would hate to see how crushed he would be if this really didn’t work. “Well, if this works . . . it’s really good news. I’d hate for us to have to wait another year to be able to do this.” She glanced over at Josh. “Are you positive t
hat you want to become an Ima?”

Josh nodded. “I do
n’t want to be a Vyka anymore.”

“Have you thought about new living arrangements?” Samara asked. “When I bec
a
me an Ima, Seth had to move out . . . but
I can’t see Jason moving out.”

“No, he’d probably try to kill me if I stayed there,” Josh replied. “I don’t
know where I’m going to live.”

“You can live here,” Colby chimed
in. “There’s plenty of room.”

“Thank
s, man,” Josh said gratefully.

Ugh.
Luke’s voice filled Samara’s head. Somehow, she knew that he hadn’t wanted her to hear that. Samara glanced across the room at where Luke was sitting. He was slumped in a chair
and had been quiet until now.

Is everything okay?
Samara
asked him, making eye contact.

Luke shrugged his shoulders before standing u
p and walking out of the room.

“What’s wrong wit
h Mr. Sensitive?” Colby asked.

Samara stared back at him with raised eyebrows. “Mr. Sensitive?” she asked, stifling a giggle. “Sin
ce when do you call him that?”

“Since he’s acting like a wimp lately,” Colby replied, shrugging. Samara laughed at the irony of the statement. Colby might act confident in wolf form, but she had yet to see his confidence as a human
.
Samara reminded herself that, once she had time, she was going to have to work on that makeover that she so desperately wanted to give him. Trying to ignore the fact that she was beginning to sound like Emma, she strolled out of t
he room and chased after Luke.