Blood Moon (Howl #2) (8 page)

“As a group?”
Kyle asked.

Luke shook his head. “No, that’s a bad idea. Samara will need to focus on whatever it is that she’s trying to learn, so it s
hould probably be one-on-one.”

From across the room, Chris scowled. His normally tannish skin had turned a shade of pink.  Samara remembered that she had seen him throw tantrums in classes that they had together in the past. Chris was the captain of the basketball team, and whenever the team lost a big game, he would
sit there
scowl
ing
throughout the next school day
. She had never seen him act th
is way around his pack, though.

“Chris, is e
verything okay?” Samara asked.

He looked up at her and shrug
ged. “Yep, I’m fine.”

Colby?
Samara asked in her head.
I thought you said I
could hear everyone’s thoughts?

You can . . . if they let you
, Colby replied.

But you could always hear mine,
Samara pointed out.

You didn’t know how t
o block me out. They know how.

Then why did you tell me that you always heard them?
Samara asked.

I think they have their guards up right now,
Colby replied, staring at her
from across the room
with a sympathetic look on his face.
They didn’t care if I listened to their thoughts, but none of them are really happy that you’re Alpha. They don’t want a girl listening in on their
private thoughts.

Samara sighed. She had a lot of learning to do about being Alpha.
 

*
 

An hour later, Luke was walking Samara to the front door. The lights in the house were off, but the porch light was on. As they came to a halt at the front door, Luke wrapped her in his arms. “I wish yo
ur parents weren’t so strict.”

“Me too,” Samara
whispered, feeling the goose bumps form on her arms as she felt his warm breath on her neck.

“I think that we need to think about telling your parents,” Luke said
gently
. “They might be more agreeable about you spendi
ng time with me if they knew.”

Samara shook her head. “No. I’m not ready to t
ell them
yet
.”

“But what if they already know?” Luke asked. “You might be hiding
the fact
that you’re alre
ady a werewolf for no reason.”

“And what if they don’t know?” Samara protested
, her voice rising louder than she meant for it to
.
She lowered it
to merely a whisper
, mostly in fear that her parents would hear their conversation from inside the house.
“I still want to go with my original plan. If they don’t say anything by my sixteenth birthday, then I’ll tell them. I have a feeling they won’t tell me then
because they didn’t tell Seth.”

Luke sighed. “Fine, you win.”

“I’ll always win,” Samara replied, g
iggling
and poking him in the chest
. “Just remember that.”

“You’ll always win because I’ll always let you win.” Luke leaned in closer to her. Samara tilted her head and closed her eyes. As his lips came down on hers, she felt the butterflies in her stomach begin swirling in circles. Every time they had kissed since she had
been
initi
ated, her
feelings for Luke grew stronger.

“Okay, so, if anything bad happens tonight, I’ll let you know,” Luke
told her after he pulled away from her. Samara felt disappointment cross over her; she hated having to say goodnight to him.

“Sounds good. Goodnight,” Samara said, giving him a final peck on the lips. Luke went down the porch steps and walked around the side of her house to join the rest of the pack members, who had all taken a post in the forest behind her house to guard her for the night. She had pondered going to the woods with them, but Colby thoug
ht that it would be a bad idea.
He thought it would just open the doors for an attack, which they obviously weren’t ready for yet – Samara especially.

Luckily, there wasn’t a full moon
tonight, so she wouldn’t feel the urge to go outside
. Although Samara was mostly in control of her inner wolf now that she was beginning to mature (at what seemed to be a quicker pace than other wolves), she still found herself taken by the full moon. On the plus side, she no longer had to worry about anyone finding her lying on the ground naked now that she had gone through initiation, which gave her the ability to shift into wolf form with her clothes on. There were definitely perks that came
along with belonging to a pack.

When Samara went into the house and climbed into bed, her mind drifted to her brother. It made her sad to think that things would never b
e the same between them again.
For all she knew, Seth probably hated her now that he was a Vyka and she was an Ima. It wouldn’t surprise Samara if Jason had tried to brainwash him; what better way to bring Samara down than to turn her own brother against her? Just thinking about it made her feel sick to her stomach.

Her cell phone chirped from her nightstand. There was one new text message from Emma. Samara opened the text. It said:
Can u come to my party tomorrow night
? It’s going 2 be a lot of fun.

Is Jason going to be there?
Samara texted back.

Her phone beeped again right away.
No, he said he has to visit family in the Catskills. So,
will u come? Luke can come 2.

I’ll let you know tomorrow
, Samara texted back and hit send before turning her cell phone off
and rolling over to go to sleep, feeling safe knowing that the pack was out there to keep her safe.

Chapter 6

****

“So, tell me again why we’re going to this thing,” Luke said, as he pulled his
Honda Civic onto Emma’s street.
Samara had been able to convince Luke to go to the party, but he definitely wasn’t happy about it. He didn’t want to go anywhere he might bump into
the
Vyka. When Samara asked him why he had gone to
Emma’s
parties before then, he said that it was because of her – originally because Colby had convinced him that they needed to befriend her before he bit her and then because he wanted to protect her when he fo
und out that she was his mate.

It made Samara feel happy to
know that, even then, Luke had been looking out for her.

“I don’t want her to start thinking that something’s up,” Samara replied. “We have to act like everything’s completely normal, and that you and Jason just don’t get along.”

“Well, I think it’s going to be fun,” Colby said in a matter-of-fact voice from the backseat. “When’s the last time we relaxed and enjoyed ourselves?”

Samara turned around and grinned at him. “That’s the spirit.”

Colby was gripping a case of Budweiser that Samara had convinced him to bring instead of red wine, his usual drink of choice to bring to Emma’s parties.
Even though Jason and his friends weren’t going to be here to publicly humiliate Colby tonight, Samara knew that most of the other kids from school would still chuckle about it amongst thems
elves.

Once Luke had pulled his Honda Civic
in
to
the driveway, Samara climbed out of the car and
headed
up the steps of the
front
porch. Before Samara had the chance to knock, Emma swung the front door open. “Hey, hey!” she slurred, giving Samara a loose and somewhat sloppy hug. S
amara stepped into the house and took off her jacket.

Luke followed c
lose behind her. Samara watched as Emma slapped him
against the shoulder. “Hey,
pal
! I’m glad
Samara brought my best bud with her
,” Emma slurred
.

Samara rolled her eyes. Couldn’t her best friend throw at least
one
party at her house without getting drunk?
Probably not
, Samara thought to herself. Emma probably thought that being sober at a party where there was alcohol would put her p
opular girl status in jeopardy.
Samara was even beginning to wonder if Emma’s drunkenness at parties was just an act.

When Colby walked in through the door, Emma’s face twisted in disbelief. “Samara? You’re hanging out with Colby Jack now?” she snickered.
Samara loved how even though Emma probably had no clue what was going on, she still somehow remembered that everyone made fun of Colby.

Samara rolled her eyes and announced loudly, “Yes, I am hanging out with Colby now.
D
o you have a problem with that?”

“No, no problem . . . just surprised.” Emma turned to Col
by
, giving him a look up and down. It seemed like she was trying to see why Samara could possibly be interested in being friends with him
. “Wow, you brought beer! I didn’t know you drank beer!
I thought you only drank wine.
”

Colby looked like he was about to say he didn’t,
but instead he said, “Well, I’m drinking beer
tonight. Would you like one?”

Samara smiled at his manners. She didn’t know how he could be so nice to Emma after she had been so cruel to him. If he hadn’t been Luke’s best friend, he wouldn’t even be invited to Emma’s parties. Everyone knew that Luke never went to social events without Colby, so the invitation was always extended to him, too, even though no one really understood him.

“Definitely
!” Emma began dancing across the room, singing a song that Samara didn’t recognize with t
he words “thank you” in it.
After a few seconds, Samara realized that Emma had make the song up herself.

I don’t know how you put up with her
, Colby said in his head.
She is so damn annoying.

Tell me about it.
Samara stifled a giggle. She recalled that before she had known that Colby was her Alpha, he had said that Emma had a parrot nose and stringy Barbie hair. Samara had found it funny because she was angry at Emma
at
the time
but
she wasn’t sur
e if she had ever gotten over their fight
. Emma
got on her nerves lately.
She
hadn’t understood that Samara was genuinely concerned about her relationship with Jason and had automatically assumed t
hat Samara was just jealous. Samara
hated that her best friend didn’t realize that she was concerned about her, but it was going to be difficult to get her to
fully
understand unless she tol
d her the truth about being a wolf.

Samara didn’t know if she
would ever be able to tell Emma the truth. Not only would it be hard for any outsider to really believe, it would also require Emma to become more mature. And that definitely didn’t seem to be happening any time soon.

“I wish Jason was here right now,” Emma
stated
when she came back, a
bottle of Smirnoff Ice
in hand. “Family
schmamily,” she slurred.

“I didn’t know he had family that lived in the Catskills,” Samara said c
asually.

“Me either. Some uncle or somethi
ng,” Emma replied, shrugging.
“Oh, well. We’ll have lots of fun without him!” She bumped against Samara’s butt with her hip.

There are other packs in the Catskills. Do you think Jason is trying to take them over this weekend?
Samara asked, meeting Luke’s eyes.

It wouldn’t surprise me,
Luke replied.
He might be staking them out to get a feel for them. He might be trying to gain more pack members before he attacks us . . . which is kind of good. It gives us time to prepare to fight back. In fact, as soon as we
get out of here, Colby and I should
start teaching you.

Sounds good
to me
,
Samara said. Realizing that she was getting nervous about fighting, even though Jason wasn’t in town, she went to the bathroom and splashed water on her face. The party was beginning to get
louder as more people arrived.

When she was done in the bathroom, she went back into the living room, just as Emma was carrying a tray of greasy-looking food – including Buffalo wings, which was one of Samara’s new favorite foods – to the living room.
“Want some, Sam?” Emma asked.