Blood Moon (Howl #2) (2 page)

Maybe Samara was just a really bad liar . . . or her guilt was so
blatantly
obvious that Detective Scotts could just see
right
through her. Under ordinary circumstances, she might have been grateful for this, except this was different. Samara wasn’t allowed to tell the truth even if she wanted to.

“One of the more interesting findings about the investigation is the hair that was found in the woods, not far from Lilly Phillips’
s
body. Do
you know anything about that?”

Samara
confidently
met the detective’s gray eyes, knowing
that looking down
at the floor
would make her seem guilty. “No.”

Detective Scotts smiled at her
knowingly
and pulled out a bag of the hair clippings, which were nearly identical to Samara’s own dark chocolate brown hair color. “That’s rather interesting because the hair was found about two hundred feet away from your house.” He held
up
the evidence bag, which
contained the hair, and gestured towards Samara’s
own dark locks. “And the color is a perfect match for your own hair. Are you sure that you don’t have something to tell me, Samara? Were you in the woods the night Lill
y died?”

Tell him it’s not your hair and to check it for DNA evidence,
Luke
told her
firmly
. Luke wasn’t in the room or even nearby. Since Luke was Samara’s werewolf mate, he coul
d communicate with her mentally, and no one else could ever hear what they were saying to each other in private, whether they were in human form or wolf form. This mental communication, which she now referred to as mind-speak, was one of her favorite parts of being a werewolf. She and Luke were always connected with each other – even though it could get annoying at times when she wanted t
o keep him out of her thoughts. If there was something that she didn’t want hi
m to overhear, though, she could block him out.

Why?
Samara responded to
him through her own thoughts.
Telling the detective to check for DNA evidence didn’t seem like such a good idea. It might actually somehow link the hair to her since she had been the one who was wearing the wig that night.

Just say it and I’ll explain later. Oh, and also mention that you do sometimes walk through the woods just to be on the safe side,
Luke replied.

Samara glanced over at the detective, realizing
that he was giving her a fun
ny look, obviously wondering why she was taking so long to give him
an
answer. “I have walked through the w
oods behind my house before, but I wasn’t out there the night Lilly died. I’m pretty sure that’s not my hair, but if you don’t believe me, why don’t you check it for DNA evidence?”

The detective stared at her for a few minutes, as th
ough he was examining her face to see if she was telling the truth
. Finally, he sighed. “Do you have a hair
brush that I may borrow?”

Samara nodded and got up. As she made her way to her bedroom, she thought
frantically
to Luke,
What the heck is going to happen if he does do a DNA test on this hair? He’s g
oing to think that it was me!

Stop panicking
,
Luke replied,
if he does a DNA test, it should put you in the clear. Remember that it’s not actually your hair. It was a human hair wig, which means that the DNA evidence will show that it doesn’t belong to you. It will be a match for whoever the wig actually came from.

Oh, you’re right
, Samara thought back, allowing herself to relax. She knew that she hadn’t actually used her real hair during the fake initiation with the Vyka, but that didn’t stop her from panicking. She would never be able to
fully
relax until Lilly’s murder case was closed – if it ever
would
be.
The police would never be able to find a proper cause of death unless if one of the werewolves came forward, which wasn’t allowed.
When she retur
ned to the living room, she handed the detective her brush, which
was
coated with her dark hair.

“Thank you,” Detective Scotts replied, placing the brush in an evidence bag.
With his hand on the front doorknob, he said,
“I’ll have these two samples compared before I see you again. I have no more questions for you today. If anything comes up, I’ll be in touch. Please call me if you remember any details that could
help us in our investigation.”

Samara closed the door behind him, slumping
against it.
This is really stressful, you know,
she told Luke.

I know. I’m sorry t
hat you need to go through it.
Luke’s voice was filled with sympathy.

So, are you looking forward to meeting my family tonight?
Samara asked, purposefully changing the subject. She felt guilty for complaining, while she knew that her old friend, Josh, was probably miserable without his mate.

I’m a bit nervous about that actually
, Luke replied.

Oh, come on. You’re supposed to be a big bad wolf,
Samara teased.
Why would yo
u be nervous to meet my parents?

Luke chuckled.
Werewolf or not, I still like to make a good first impression. And it’s not like I’m meeting just any girl’s parents. I’m meeting my mate’s parents.

Well, don’t worry. I’m pretty sure you already made a good impression on my mom or she never would have agreed to this,
Samara replied. It actually had surprised her that her mom had been so agreeable to letting Luke come over to dinner so that she and Samara’s father could get to know him
better. Her parents were pretty
strict and didn’t want her dating until she was much
older, so this had been out of character.

I guess you’re right,
Luke agreed.
Now, let’s just hope that I have the
same effect on your dad. Hey
, I gotta go run some errands. I’ll be at your house around six?

Sounds like a plan.
Samara glanced at herself in the mirror and smiled.
Everything was turning out to be okay – which was a good thing because a week ago, her life had been completely crazy and full of decisions that she needed to make.

It hadn’t seemed that long ago that Samara had first been bitten by the wolf. Her days were no longer filled with constant worrying about what she was, and who had bit her, because it had turned out to be Colby Jackson, one of the nerds in her high school class who also happened to be the Alpha of the Ima pack.

Even though Colby biting Samara is what sparked her transformation as a werewolf,
she was going to transform
by her sixteenth birthday, anyway, because it ran in her bloodline. After she became a werewolf,
Samara found out that her Grandpa Joe McKinley was one of the most powerful
(and famous)
werewolves in history.
Until he died a mysterious death, he
r grandpa had belonged to the Vyka pack, which Samara was als
o supposed to belong to. When Colby bit her, he
had changed everything about her fate; it gave Samara the option to
choose to
become either a Vyka
,
like her grandpa
,
or an Ima.
Since Samara didn’t like
– and was a little terrified of – the Vyka Alpha, Jason Masterson, she had already decided that she was going to become an Ima. The only problem was that it would put a strain on her relationship with her brother, Seth, and her best friend, Declan, who were both on the Vyka pack. Samara knew that she had to do
what was best
for her, t
hough, even if it meant that she would lose some of the people in her life.

Her initiation with the Ima pack was supposed to happen on Thursday night, but Samara was trying to keep her mind off it and focus on getting through tonight first. There were going to be problems if Samara’s parents didn’t want her to date Luke.
Luke
Davenport was her mate; there would be no breaking up or dating other boys. They were just going to have to accept him for who he was. Samara had a feeling that might be easier said than done, though.

*

“He’s late,” Mr. McKinley said
as he
sliced thick pieces of garlic bread from a loaf.

Samara glanced at the time on her cell phone. “By three minutes! He said he would be here around six o’clock, even though I told him dinner was going to be served at six thirty. He has a half hour to get her
e before he’s technically late,” she blurted.

“
I suppose
,” her father mumbled unconvincingly.

“Dad! Seriously . . . stop being so close-minded. At least m
eet him before
you pass judgment,” Samara snapped at him. She hated that her dad was already forming a negative opinion without even meeting Luke yet.

“First impressions are
very
important, Sam,” Mr. McKinley replied. “Whether a person is prompt
or not says a lot about the type of person they are.”

Samara rolled her eyes. She wasn’t about to tell her dad that if Luke was late, it was probably for a good reason – like a werewolf b
attle was taking place out in the woods somewhere and people’s lives depended on him being there
. Just as she opened her mouth to tell him that Luke felt the same way about first impressions, Samara noticed the bright headlights reflecting against the f
ront window.
“See, he’s here!
”

Samara skipped over to the front door and swung it open before Luke had even reached out his hand to rin
g the doorbell. “Hi,” she said cheerfully.

“Hey,” he replied, carrying a bouquet of light pink roses.
They were full and very pretty. Samara smiled. She had never gotten roses from a boy before, which wasn’t surprising since Luke was the first guy she had ever really dated (and even that was pretty subjective, since getting permission to date was the whole reason Luke was here tonight).
Before Sam
ara had a chance to ask if the roses
were for her, Luke was handing them to her mom, who had emerged from the laundry room.
Samara’s face fell, but she knew that it was probably for the best. Hopefully, bringing flowers would win him brownie points with at least one of her parents, if not
both of them.
“It’s
nice to see you again, Mrs
. McKinley. These are for you.”

Mrs. McKinley beamed
a wide smile
. “Why, thank you, Luke! That was very sweet of you.” Samara could tell that Luke had already won her mom over
. Now, they were just
going to need
to work on her dad.

“So, Luke, what do you want to do with your life?” Mr. McKinley asked once they were se
ated at the
round
dining room table.

As Lu
ke spritzed his
spinach and tomato
salad with Italian
dressing, he said, “I’m not sure. There are a lot of fields I’ve considered, but I hav
en’t decided on just one yet.”

“Oh, yeah?” Mr. McKinley asked, crunching into a piece of garlic b
read. “What fields are those?”

“Well, I’ve considered medicine, architecture, a
nd engineering,” Luke replied, stabbing a black olive with his fork. He shrugged. “I have a few more years to make up my mind for sure.”

I didn’t know you
were interested in architecture
,
Samara said.

Luke looked over at her and grinned.
That’s the great thing about us. There’s still a lot that we have to learn about each other.

“Those are all very differen
t fields,” Mr. McKinley said, spearing a piece of the meaty
lasagna
on his plate
. “I’m surprised that you feel that you would be
skilled enough for all three.”

Samara wanted to kick her dad under the t
able, but he was too far away.
Instead, she gave him a look.

“Actually, sir, they’re very much the same. All of them require a
specific science . . .
a
certain
method,” Luke replied. “I like to do things that require a method. That way, the only way to
mess up is by operator error.”

“That’s interesting, Luke,”
Mrs. McKinley said cheerfully.
“Samara and our son, Seth, are both creative types, so it’s always interesting to hear about someone who likes science.”