Blood Moon (Howl #2) (22 page)

He’s a Shomecossee. I’m pretty sure he and Rocco are actually cousins,
Luke replied.

So, what are we supposed to do?
Samara a
sked.
Should we be nice to him?

Luke shrugged his shoulders.
I think we have to be. If we’re rude or if we suddenly decide to leave, Emma will know something’s up.

You’re right,
Samara said slowly.
Is Troy a good guy?

I don’t know him that well. If he’s anything like his cousin, he’s not,
Luke replied.

We don’t know if he’s like Rocco, though. I mean, you’d think that Jason and Josh would be alike because they’re twins, but . . . they’re not alike at all,
Samara pointed out.

True,
Luke agreed. The look on his face told Samara that he wasn’t completely convinced by that argument. Samara figured that he was probably just jealous
of Josh still
.

Once the barista gave them their drinks and they paid, they went back to the table. Emma had been whispering something into Troy’s ear, but when
Samara came back, she squealed,

“Welcome back! So, Troy was just telling me that we’re going to get a hotel room on the night of Homecom
ing if you guys want to join.”

Samara opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. She had no idea what to say. Luke said, “I don’t think that’s a good night for me. I have to go out of town with my fami
ly really early the next day.”

“Oh, you’re young. You don’t need to worry about sleep!” Emma said, taking a sip of her cap
puccino. “Just live a little.”

“Emma, it’s okay. Don’t worry about it. If Luke can’t make it, he can’t make it. Maybe some other time,” Troy said, looking over at Luke. Samara could have sworn that she noticed a dirty look cross Troy’s face, similar to that of a glare
, but the look passed quickly.

“I guess.” Emma pouted. “Well, at least you guys are going to the dance with us. I’ve arranged for a limo to pick us up at my house before the dance. Are you guys going to t
he Homecoming game on Friday?”

“Umm, I guess so,” Samara said. “We ha
ven’t really talked about it.”

Luke shook his head. “No, we can’t go to the
game
. We have that th
ing on Friday night, remember?”

Samara scanned her head for what Luke might be talking about, but she couldn’t remember anything about Friday night.
What are you talking about?

Just go with it,
Luke said.
I really don’t want to go out of my way to see Troy again before the dance.
 

“Oh, that’s right,” Samara said, pretending to remember. She loo
ked over at Emma. “I’m sorry.”

Emma stared back at Samara as though she didn’t believe her. “Okay, well, I guess we’ll just have fun at the dance then.” Samara knew what Emma was thinking; she wanted to party the night before the dance or afterwards. Just going to the dance and not getting drunk before o
r afterwards was lame to Emma.

“Are you done with your cappuccino, Emma?” Troy asked, sucking the remaining bit of coffee from his own cup. “We should probably get going. This
place is going to close soon.”

“Oh, umm, I guess I can take my cappuccino with me,” Emma said, grabbing the cup. She glanced at Samara. “I’ll see
you at school on Monday.”

“Bye,” Samara said.

Once she watched Emma follow Troy out the coffee shop door, Samara said sarcastically to Luke, “Well, that wasn’t awkward.”

*

Samara and Luke drove over to Colby’s house after they had finished their drinks at the coffee shop. Samara had been planning to call a pack meeting, so she was pleasantly surprised to find that the whole pack had already gathered at Colby’s house. Samara was even happier that Mr. and Mrs. Jackson weren’t home. She really didn’t feel like getting watched by Mr. Jackson
all night.

When they got through the front door, Samara said, “Kyle, tell Josh to come over? We ne
ed to let him in on the plan.”

“He’s already on his way,” Kyle replied, grinning. “Josh must really be an Ima. He has to have ESP or something to come over at the same time
we’re having a pack meeting.”

Samara smiled. She had been worrying about what would happen to Josh if he wasn’t able to become an Ima, but she hadn’t really thought about what was going to happen to Kyle if it didn’t work. Kyle would probably be devastated if his lifelong best friend ha
d to stay on an opposing pack.

A few seconds later, Josh burst through the door. “I can’t stay long,” he said, out of breath. “But I just wanted to tell you what’s goin
g on.”

“What’s going on?” Samar
a asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Jason is trying to tighten up our territory lines,” Josh explained. “According to werewolf laws, there must be fifty feet between a pack’s territory and an opposing pack’s territory.” He paused. “The problem comes in at Starlight Lake. There’s no clear line that shows where our ter
ritory ends and yours begins.”

“I just always assumed that it was somewhere near the path,” Colby said, shrugging his shoulders. “I know sometimes we wander onto the Vyka’s territory, but they come on ours sometimes, too. It’s
never been a big deal to us.”

“Well, it’s a big deal to Jason now,” Josh said. “No one else in the pack cares . . . just him. I know he’s just making a big deal out of it to start drama.” He paused, focusing his light brown eyes on the ground. “I don’t want to be the bearer of bad news, but you should know that he also wants to claim Starlight Lake and the
surrounding area as his own.”

Samara felt her jaw drop and quickly closed it. She cracked her knuckles – something she always did when she was angry. “My house is on the surrounding area. Is it possible for a werewolf
to claim a person’s property?”

“Oh, yeah,” Steve replied, looking up from his place on the couch. “Werewolves do it all the time. No one in this area has
ever done it before, though.”

“It’s allowed, but it’s usually thought of as taboo,” Colby chimed in matter-of-factly. “We normally look down on werewolves who do that sort of thing . . . which doesn’t make it any less shocking th
at Jason would want to do it.”

“I think,” Josh began, looking at Samara as though he was unsure if he should say what he was about to say, “that the reason Jason is going through all of this effort is because of you. You see, when a werewolf claims an area of land, they are allowed to
kill any werewolf that trespasses onto that land
.” He paused. “It’s not a coincidence that Jason wants to claim your property right around the same time that he’s
decided he wants to kill you.”

Samara gulped. “Wonderful . . . that’s just lovely. So, what does a werewolf need to do to claim land? Isn’t
there a way we can stop him?”

Kyle cleared his throat. “I know a way.” He turned to the pack. “I think it’s time to tell Josh about our plan.” Everyone nodded their heads. Kyle turned back towards Josh. “On the night you switch packs,
we’re planning to kill Jason.”

“How?” Josh asked wide-eyed.

Kyle began explaining the plan to him, and Josh nodded. “That should work. I should pr
obably get going now, though.”

“It’s so early,” Kyle protested. “You ca
n’t stay a little bit longer?”

“Nope. I wish I could,
” Josh replied. “That’s the other thing I wanted to tell you guys about. Jason’s beginning to get suspicious about my whereabouts. Every time I go anywhere, he starts questioning me.”

“Where would he thin
k you’re going?” Luke asked.

“He has no way to know that I’m coming here,” Josh replied, shr
ugging. “I don’t really know.”

“Actually,” Samara began, “he does have a way to know. Someone from your pack told me that you a
nd Kyle hang out secretively.”

Everyone looked up at her, surprised looks on their faces. “Who
told you?” Josh asked angrily.

“Declan,” Samara replied. “I don’t know if he would tell Jason, though. At the time, he made me think that he wouldn’t . . . but has he changed?” She glanced over at Luke and blocked him out of her mind, hoping that he wouldn’t think that she had a reason to ask if Declan had changed. He looked back at her and gave her a small smile – nothing out of the ordinary. It didn’t seem like he was making a mental note of th
ings to accuse her of later.

“Actually, come to think of it, Declan has been acting weird lately,” Josh replied, tapping his roundish chin. “I can’t put my finger on what’s different, but . . . he’s been quieter lately . . . more
of a loner than he usually is.”

Samara frowned. She had never known Declan to be withdrawn . . . at least not when he was with her. Around Samara, Declan had always acted like a big brother-class clown type. It was hard to imagine him not cracking some sort of joke, but thinking back, he had even changed over the past few months. “Well, just be careful,” Samara told Josh. “I don’t know if Declan would rat you out, but I wouldn’t do anything t
o make him mad if I were you.”

“I won’t,” Josh said, grinning. “I never purposely try to make people mad. I better get going before I make someone else mad, though. I probably won’t see you all before the blood moon, but remember that we’re meeting in
the woods behind the school.”

Samara couldn’t forget; she was dreading it.

Chapter 18

****

“I should get going,” Luke said later that
night. “My mom wants me to go home
.” He turned to Steve and Chris. “Do you guys mind gu
arding Samara’s house tonight?”

“Yeah, it’s no
problem,” Steve said, nodding.

“It’s not a problem
for me either,” Chris agreed.

Samara always felt bad that the guys were
still
guarding
the woods behind her house
. Jason hadn’t tried anything yet, which made her feel even worse about it. They were s
leeping outdoors for no reason.

“You guys don’t have to,” Samara started
to say, but Steve cut her off.

“
We want to
, Samara. We don’t mind. It’s like we’re camping out for the night.”

“Yeah, it’s kind of fun, actually,” Chris admitted. “I mean, especially now that I’m okay with you being Alpha and all. At first, I felt resentment about protecting you, but I feel better about it now.”

Samara smiled. It felt nice to know that she had so much protection. Sleeping at home in her own bed at night felt a lot safer this way. 

“Kyle, do you want to sleep over at Samara’s tonight?” Luke asked. He glanced at Samara; the look in his eyes told her that he had been listening in on her thoughts. “I think it’s still a good idea to make sure that she has s
omeone with her at all times.”

“That’s fine, as long
as I’m allowed,” Kyle agreed.

“I’ll call my mom and tell her,” Samara replied, reaching in her pocket for her iPhone. “I’m sure she won’t mind.” She stepped into the other room and diale
d her mom’s cell phone number.

“Samara?” Mrs. McK
inley asked when she answered.

“Yeah. What’s wrong, Mom?” Samara asked, immediately picking up on the n
ervous edge to her mom’s voice.

“Seth came back today,” Mrs. McKinley replied. “He wouldn’t say a word to us. He just
went
to his room and got some
of his stuff and left again.”

“I’m sorry, Mom,” Samara murmured. Samara knew that her brother probably hated her, but was it really necessary for him to take it out on their parents? It was bad enough that he had moved out without giving their parents an explanation as to why or where he was going. It almost seemed as though he blamed the McKinley’s for everything that was going on in his life, when, chances were, their parents had no idea that both of their children (or eve
n one of them) were werewolves.

“Are you coming home or are you going to just spend the night at Kyle’s?” Mrs. McKinley asked. Samara hadn’t told her mom that she and Luke were going to Colby’s tonight; her mom did know, however, that Samara had been spending a lot more tim
e with Kyle lately than usual.

“I’m coming home,” Samara said. “I just wanted to tell you that Kyle is goin
g to be sleeping over, if it’s okay with you?”

“It’s fine,” Mrs. McKinley said, sniffing. She must have been crying before Sama
ra had called. “See you soon.”

Samara turned to Kyle. “We’re good to go.” She decided to leave out the details about Seth. For some reason, Samara still liked to keep her family life secret from the pack. Even though the pack was becoming like her second family, it was embarrassing to admit what was going on at home most of the time. Samara also didn’t think that any of them could relate to her; they had all grown up knowing that they were going to become werewolves one day, whereas it had been a complete and total sho
ck for Samara and her brother.