Blood Moon (Howl #2) (3 page)

“I
nteresting i
ndeed,” Mr. McKinley murmured
, in a way that told Samara he wasn’t
too
impressed
.
“So, what do your parents do?”

“My mom is a professor at the com
munity college,” Luke replied.

“And you
r dad?” Mr. McKinley prompted.

“
My stepdad works in drug rehabilitation,” Luke answered. “My biological father
passed away when I was thirteen
years old
.”
Luke looked down at his hands.

“I’m so sorry to hear that, Luke,” Mrs.
McKinley said sympathetically.

“I’m sorry, too. May I ask what happene
d to him?” Mr. McKinley asked.

“Dad!” Samara inte
rcepted. “That’s really rude.”

Luke waved a fork in the air. “That’s okay,” he said, smiling. “I don’t mind. People ask me all the time. M
y father died of lung cancer.”

Wow,
Samara thought in her head.
You’re a good liar.
She knew that Luke’s father hadn’t really died of lung cancer. His father, who had also been a werewolf on the Ima pack, had been killed by the Vyka.

I’ve had to lie about his death for the past three years,
Luke replied.
You get used to it, I guess.

Samara understood. It felt like she had been lying to her
own
parents ever since she had turned into a werewolf. Well, technically, it wasn’t that she had been lying. She was simply withholding the truth from them. There was a difference. At least,
telling herself that repeatedly was what
made her feel less guilty abo
ut doing it.

Of course, there was also the possibility that she might not be lying at all and
that her dad might already know that his own father had been a werewolf and had simply
chosen not to tell Samara or
Seth. Although he hadn’t done anything to make Samara think that he knew, her cousin Kyle had told her that her dad’s sister, Rae, had known about Grandpa Joe’s second life as a werewolf.

“This lasagna is really good, Mrs. McKinley,” Luke said,
trying to change the subject.

“Why, thank you, Lu
ke, but –” Samara’s mom began.

“I made it,” Mr. McKinley
interrupted
, scowling. Samara could just see the wheels spinning around in his head; he was about to make some sort of co
mment about Luke being sexist.
Something along the lines of:
do you expect my daughter to be the one who does all the cooking? Do you believe that women belong in the kitchen?
Or, even worse, a comment about Luke lacking a father. Samara searched her head for a subject to change the conversation to, but luckily, Luke was ahead of her.

“Oh, well, it’s
just
delicious, Mr. McKinley,” Luke cut in
. “So, do you watch football?”

Mr. McKinley’s eyes lit up.

Nice save,
Samara told Luke.
His favorite team is the New York Giants, just so you know.

Luke met her eyes and smiled.
Well, I don’t have to pretend to like his
team. They’re my favorite, too.

Chapter 2

****

Samara crawled under the comforter and thought about her night. Things ha
dn’t gone nearly bad as she had been
expecting them to, but she wasn’t sure if her dad was completely on board with her and Luke dating just yet. She figured that could change if Luke spent more time around her parents. Mr. McKinley had agreed that it was okay for Luke to come over occasionally, as long
as her parents were both home, and that it was okay for them to go out. In Samara’s mind, that was the biggest seal of approval he would ever give them. He just needed time.

Sama
ra heard a
loud
clanking sound
coming from outside
. She sat up in bed and looked outside her
bedroom
window.
Declan was standing outside, dressed in a black hooded sweatshirt and dark jeans. She assumed that his attire was an attempt to remain inconspicuous – as though he parents wouldn’t notice that he were standing outside her bedroom, throwing rocks at her window.

Samara? Can you come outside?
Declan asked.

Samara groaned. She had
almost
forgotten that she and Declan could mentally communicate with each other
because he hadn’t attempted to
speak to her
since Lilly died
, and he had been the least of her worries over the past three days
.

Their situation was pretty complicated.
Normally, a werewolf could only mentally communicate with one mate, but since Colby had changed the dynamics of her fate, allowing her to choose
a spot on either of the packs
, she had two potential mates. Luke was the mate she would be destined to be with if she chose to become an Ima, and Declan would have been her mate if she chose to become a Vyka. Her ability to mentally communicate with one of them would stop onc
e she went through initiation with
one of the two packs.
Have you
been listening to my thoughts?

Yeah, obviously,
Declan said impatiently.
Now, will you please come outside? I need to talk to you.

Pulling on a light pink hoodie, Samara opened her bedroom window and climbed out of it. Once
she was far enough away from the house
, she pressed her hands against her hips
and gave Declan a dirty look, to let him
know that she was angered by
his visit. “What do you want?”

“Please don’t do this, Sam,”
Declan said. There was a pleading look in his eyes and his voice was just dripping with desperation.
Samara couldn't help but feel bad to watch her best friend stand there in front of
her, begging her to choose him instead of Luke.
“Jason doesn’t care about the stunt you pulled . . . just as long as you agree to be a Vyka still.”

“Wait, he knows
about what I did
?” Samara asked, thinking back to the night of Lilly’s death. The plan had been for Samara to pretend that she was going to go through initiation with the Vyka pack
because the Ima wanted to find out why they had been getting stronger than other youth packs so quickly.
Part of the initiation ceremony required her to throw a piece of her hair into the fire, but that would have really completed the process – so she and the Ima had come up with the idea to throw someone else’s hair into the fire
instead
.
They figured that as long as she didn’t throw her own hair, she wouldn’t become a real Vyka member, but she might be able to convince them long enough to let her in on some secrets.

So, to participate in her fake initiation,
Samara had gotten a human hair wig that was a perfect match for her own dark chocolate brown hair. That was the hair that Detective Scotts had found during his investigation – and it was also why the DNA evidence would show that the
hair didn’t belong to Samara.

After Samara threw the hair from the wig into the fire, Jason went looking for Lilly . . . and when he found her, he killed her. Everything had happened in such a big blur that Samara hadn’t even real
ized that he knew that her whole entire initiation had been phony.
Of course, the whole idea had been really stupid. Samara wasn’t sure why any of them really thought that she’
d been able to get away with pretending to initiate. They should have seen the disaster that loomed in front of their faces.

“Yeah, Jason
knows,” Declan replied
solemnly. “It could get really ugly if you become an Ima. He’s pissed about what you did. But
he’ll forgive you .
. . if you become a Vyk
a now
instead
.”

Samara shook her head
.
With it, she shook away any sympathy that she felt, any second-guessing that Declan's pleading may have led her to do. As much as she wanted t
o choose to be on Declan's side through all of this,
to not be his enemy, there was no way she could allow herself to the make the wrong decision.
She wouldn’t do what she knew was wrong just to make her best friend happy.
"No," she said firmly
. “
I don’t want to be a Vyka. Jas
on killed Lilly.”

“He had to kill her. He didn’t have a choice.”

“What do you mean he
had
to?
”

Declan looked down at the ground. “Lilly was resisting him. She was trying to find a way . . . some sort of clause or something . . . that would allow her to join another pack.” He paused before meeting Samara’s eyes again.
This time, his pleading look had been replaced by a defensive look. Samara realized that it was because Declan was defending Jason.
“Jason wanted Lilly to be on our pack. She was still only just a pup, but her strength was obvious. If she had found a way to be on another pack, she would have made them more p
owerful than our pack.
”

Samara’s face twisted in disgust
at what Declan was saying. Did he really believe everything that he was saying, or had Jason just really brainwashed him to the point where he would defend anything that he would ever do?
“Who
are
you?”
Samara asked.

Declan stared back at her with a puzzled look on
his face. “What do you mean?
I’m Declan.
”

“No, y
ou’re not my best friend,
Declan. You’re a new Declan,
” Samara said, shaking her head. “You’re not the person I used to know. He would have known that it was wrong for Jason to kill Lilly, no matter what.
He would have
hated
Jason for killing Lilly
because it’s sick and disgusting and wrong . . . and here you are defending his actions
.
You’re a complete stranger to me right now. If all you came here to do was convince me not to become an Ima, you shoul
d just go. I’m already an Ima. I’ll never be a Vyka. I don’t want to be like Jason . . . or you.”

“Samara, please stop. I . . . I
love you. I’ve always loved you
,” Declan said quietly,
looking down at his sneakers.
Her eyes were filled with the look of desperation again, but this time, it wasn’
t going to work on Samara.
“I don’t want to lose you.”

“I’m afraid you already have,” Samara replied
coldly
, turning around to walk back towards the house. Just as she was about to climb back in the window, sh
e turned around. “And, Declan?”

“What?” Declan asked with a hopeful look in his eyes, which shimmered in the moonlight. Samara had no doubt in her mind that he had been honest with her, that he really had feelings for her. Those feelings were obvious in his voice and in his body language. It made Samara feel bad to know that what she was about to
say next was going to crush him, but it didn’t matter. It didn’t matter what they felt for each other now. They were to be enemies from this day forward.

“Tha
nk you . . . for
proving to me
that
I made the right decision,
”
Samara said before turning away from him and climbing back into her bedroom. As she shut her bedroom window, she knew that she was shutting Declan out of her life forever.

*

“I can’t believe that Declan had the nerve to visit you last night,” Luke said, shaking his head as he pulled into the parking
lot of Johnson’s Funeral Home.

Samara had told Luke about everything that had happened last night, but she wasn’t sure how much of it he had already known. After Declan left, their conversation was the only thing she could think about; it swirled through her mind all night long, replaying itself like a movie. She felt helpless knowing that it was going to have the same ending each time and that, even though she wished it could be different, Samara knew she had done the right thing.

“Me either,” Samara replied. “I didn’t expect it at all.” Even though she had known Declan for years, it was like he was a completely different person
now
. Maybe it was because he wasn’t a person at all anymore. He was a werewolf now . . . a werewolf who she would no longer be allowed to communicate with once she officially became an Ima tonight.