Wolfsbane (Howl #3) (15 page)

Samara had a feeling the type of fighting that he was referring to was black fighting. She’d known that Jason used it, but was he trying to say that Declan and her brother used it now, too? The idea that two people who she used to care about had gone over to the dark side made
her feel even more nauseated.

“I understand what you mean,” Seth replied. “I do think a lot of our new members are stronger than the Ima, though
. . . 
Scott
y and Donovan, in particular.”

“Of course they are, kiddo,” Jason laughed, and Samara found it odd that he was referring to her brother as ‘kiddo’, when the fact was, Seth was older than him. It was probably just his way of talking down to him to remind her brother that he was the one in
charge here.
“The Ima are weak. Not just one of them
. . .
all of them. I mean, how strong could they be with a girl as their
Alpha?”

Samara felt the heat rising to her cheeks, annoyed by Jason’s statement. Next to her, she could feel Luke’s whole body stiffen; it ha
d obviously made him mad, too.

“I suppose,” Seth grunted. “Girls are weaker than guys.” Who was this stranger who she was listening to speak?
It was so unlike her brother to be so sexist, and there was also a monotone and almost robotic quality to his voice. It made Samara wonder if Jason might have been brainwashing him.

“Damn right girls are weaker than guys,” Jason replied. “Not to mention stupider than guys. That poor Ima pack doesn’t know how bad they have it. They’ll see soon enough, though, how much better things will be when I’m their rightful Alpha.”

Samara’s breath caught in the back of her throat. It was obvious that Jason mean
t that he wanted to kill her and
conquer her pack, so that he could become Alpha.
She had known all along that this was his intention, but witnessing him say it out loud
and knowing that he was only feet away from being able to kill her
made her feel nervous inside.

She heard footsteps coming closer to her, and her heart froze inside her chest. Leaning back against the tree that she was rested against, she tried to breathe as quietly as she could so that who
ever it was wouldn’t hear her.

Footsteps sounded alongside them and Samara’s breath caught in the back of her throat as she watched Jason slither in front of them. Her heart pounded against her chest, and she was afraid for a second, that Jason would be able to hear her nervous breathing.

Once he was farther away from them, he yelled into the night at his pack members. “Hey, guys! Has anyone found them?”

Samara felt a wave of relief wash over her body that Jason hadn’t even glanced in their direction, but she knew this wasn’t over yet. There were still nineteen more guys who might find her or one of her pack members.

A flurry of voices echoed throughout the woods in response to Jason’s question. “No!” several of the guys yelled, all of their voices all filled with anger and frustration. Even though Samara was positive that she didn’t know at least half of the guys, one thing was obvious; all of them wanted her dead and, if given the opportunity, they w
ouldn’t hesitate to kill her.

Samara delicately touched the wolfsbane that she wore around her neck. For the first time since she had put it on, she understood how much s
he really needed it right now.

When she looked up, she found herself staring into a pair of dark brown eyes that she knew all too well. He
r heart skipped several beats.

Declan.

Chapter 18

As she stared back into the cold e
yes of her former best friend and mate, Samara wanted to scream. She knew what this meant; the Vyka, who now drastically outnumbered them, would know where they were. If this wasn’t going to be what ended her lif
e, she didn’t know what would.

Moments passed, and Declan only stood there, staring at her. He didn’t even seem to notice Luke, who was sitting on the ground next to her. His eyes remained locked on S
amara’s.

Sa
mara wanted to say something,
but she couldn’t manage to speak. The words formed a nervous lump at the back of her throat. 

Continuing to stare at her, Declan
called, “I don’t see them anywhere, Jason. I think we need to move along to another area or maybe c
heck back at the cabin again.”

When Declan pulled his eyes away from her and walked away from her, she allowed hers
elf to breathe again.

She couldn’t believe that Declan had helped her. Why would he pretend that he hadn’t seen her, when it was so obvious that he had? Samara thought he was loyal to Jason, but he had j
ust betrayed him . . .
for her
.

Knowing this made her feel happy inside. She thought Declan hated her after the decision she’d made to be an Ima instead of a Vyka. He must not have hated her all that much, though, or he would have ratted her out just now. It probably would have made him some sort of hero in Jason’s eyes. But instead, he’d chosen to
keep her whereabouts a secret.

Somewhere, deep down inside, Declan Kingsb
ury was still her best friend.

Samara heard Jason agree with Declan, telling the rest of his pack
that it was time for them to move along because the Ima weren’t here. Once their footsteps disappeared into the distance, she stepped out of her spot behind the tree.

No wonder Declan had found her; the hiding spot that she and Luke shared wasn’t very good.
It almost surprised her that none of the other Vyka members had spotted them.

She watched as the guys in her pack all came out from their hiding places; Steve had hidden at the bottom of a large pine tree next to a shadow-concealed ditch that Chris had been hiding in. Kyle and Josh had both been hiding in the
bushes.

“
Colby?” Samara ca
lled quietly. “Where are you?”

She heard the sound of something rustling, and she watched as Colby fell out of the sky and onto the ground. It took her a moment to realize that he had leaped ou
t of a tree, cannonball style.

“Boo, yeah! Th
at was awesome!” Colby yelled.

“Keep your voice down!” Samara hissed at him. “They’re not that far awa
y. They might still
be able to
hear you.”

“Colby Jack, I must say, you really impressed me just now,” Steve said. “How did you climb up that tree withou
t anyone noticing you?”

Standing up, Colby wiped off his pants. Even through the darkness of the night, it was easy to see that he was really proud of himself. “What can I say? I’ve always been a talented tree climber, ever since I was a kid. I guess I was just preparin
g for this day my whole life.”

“Do you think they’ll be back?” Josh asked, his voice merely a whisper. Samara had a feeling that it had probably freaked him out to know that his brother—twin brother, no less—had been feet away from him, within reaching distance, with the intentions of killing at least Samara and possibly more of
them, if given the opportunity.

“It doesn’t seem likely,” Luke replied, shaking his h
ead. “At least not for a while . . .
They’ll want to check everywhere else to make sure we’re not there first—a
nd probably follow our scent.”

“I really hope Kyana went to her brother’s house,” Josh commented nervously. “It makes me worried to think that they could stumble across her and Orkos’ den. I wish I could be there to keep her saf
e.”

“I’m sure she’ll be fine,” Samara told him. “She said she was going to Akar’s.” She wasn’t about to tell Josh that it made her a little nervous to think that Kyana might still be there, too. She just hoped that K
yana had enough sense to escape in time . . . or that the Vyka wouldn’t pay her and her father a visit at all.

“So, w
hat do we do now?” Luke asked.

“We’re going to stay put until we can get out of here,” Samara replied. “Did you hear how many new members they have? We definitely d
on’t need a run-in with them.”

“So, we’re just going to hide from them, like chickens?” Steve ask
ed, raising his dark eyebrows.

“We don’t have much of a choice right now,” Samara replied. “There are seven of us. There are twenty of them. They more than outnumber us. Unless you feel like you’re ready to take on more than one of them at once, I think we
need to avoid them right now.”

Steve scoffed. “I feel like we’re always avoiding them. We keep saying we’re going to beat Jason, but when it comes down to it . . . it se
ems like we’re scared of him.”

Colby shook his head. “No, we’re not scared. Samara is right, though. We’re not ready yet. We need to build up a stronger pack before we’ll ever be ready—really ready—to fight them. Right now it’s a losin
g battle and we need an army.”

“It’s losing because we’re not even trying to win in the
first place!” Steve insisted.

“Steve, stop. We’re not doing this right now,” Samara told him. “Just listen to me, okay? I know you want to fight them
. . .
and believe me, I do, too.
But I don’t want us to lose because we weren’t prepared to fight. I think we
need to go through more intensive
training first. Maybe we’ll be able to uncover some of Joe McKinley’s secrets first. It could help us win whe
n it does come time to fight.”

Steve shook his head and glanced away from her. Samara could tell that he was angry, but she didn’t really care. They were going to d
o things her way from now on.

As she stewed over the argument tha
t she was having with Steve, Samara
didn’t even hear the sound of the twigs snapping behind her.

Chapter 19

“Well, if it isn’t the Ima,” Jas
on said.

Samara whirled around to find him standing behind them. He flashed them a smile, his t
eeth glowing in the moonlight.

“My pack didn’t think you guys were in these woods, but I should have known by now not to listen to them. Alpha always knows best.” Jason took a step forward, and Luke stood in
front of Samara protectively.

“What do you want from us, Jason?” Luke asked. Even though his voice sounded brave and strong, Samara could feel his emotions running through her veins; he was just as nervous
about this as she was.

“You know what I want,” Jason replied, eyeing Samara up. “And I’m not
going to stop until I get it.”

“What if we ba
rgain with you?” Samara asked.

Jason hesitated, tapping his fingers on his chin thoughtfully. “What type of bargain
did you have in mind?”

“How about, we agree to a certain place and time, and we’ll fight you then?
No black fighting,” she added.

“Or how about I j
ust kill you right now?” Jason sneered,
lunging himself
at her.

“Run, Samara!” Luke hissed at her, as he p
unched Jason in the jaw.

Samara just stood there in awe for a moment; she couldn’t run. It felt like her body was frozen in place, root
ed in the cold Alaskan ground.

“Aww, that’s a real cute move, lover boy,” Jason mocked him with a laugh. “Unfortunately, it’s n
othing like the moves I have.”

And just like that, Jason’s body started to turn transparent until he disappeared into thin air, yet
again.

“Run! You have to throw him off! He might be trying to get closer to you!” Colby screamed at her, and Samara didn’t hesitate this time, now that she had been reminded
of what Jason was capable of.

She ran, unsure of where she was supposed to be running to, her legs carrying her body as fast as they could. Leaping over logs and rocks on the ground so as not to trip on them, Samara began making
her way down a wide dirt road.

Glancing over her shoulder, she noticed that the rest of the Vyka was coming up behind them, ready to attack. Even from far away, she was able to tell that most of the guys—except for Declan and Seth—were tall, muscular, and probably weighed abou
t two hundred or more pounds.

Her pack members took one look at them before following after Samara. They, too, realized that there was no way they would be able to win this thing right now—not when they were outnumber
ed by a bunch of
beastly-looking teenagers.

Leave it to Jason to find pack members who looked like they already killed a few people and swallowed them whole. Samara wondered if th
at was just to intimidate her.

The one thing that the Ima pack had on the Vyka was that they were much faster—probably because their bodies were much lighter, so there was less for them to carry.

They were all down the beaten trail when Samara realized that they had completely lost the Vyka. But where was Jason? He wouldn’t just disappear like
that and let them slip away from him for no reason. He had to have other motives in mind . . .

And that’s when his face began to appear in front of her, his fluid body changing back to its normal
state, right in front of her.

She stopped, unable to move any further. It was as though he had put up some type of invisible barrier that prev
ented her from moving forward.

Samara stood there, stuck in place, unsure of what to do. She glanced around for Luke, but she didn’t see him. Everything around her became a big, fuzzy blur . . . and it felt like she had overdosed on some so
rt of medication or something.

“W-
what’s going on?” she stammered, unsure of why she couldn’t see any of her pack members faces and why it felt like she was being surrounded by some sort of white c
loud.

“How does it feel now that your pack members can’t help you, Samara? How does it feel to face me all on your
own?” Jason laughed hauntingly.

She was beginning to feel dizzy—so dizzy that she was positive that she was going to pass out. What was Jason doing to her? It felt like he had made her inhale something, which was leaving her feel
ing
sick.

“Leav
e me alone!” Samara screamed at him.

When his lips twisted into a smile, she regretted shouting something so lame at him, but it was the only thing she could m
uster saying.

Jason’s arms came down around her neck in a grip that choked her, leaving her gasping for air
. “I promise I won’t use the silver bullet in the gun that I have in my pocket to kill you. I’ll give you a fighting chance. We’ll do this in wolf form, just you and me. It will be more fu
n that way,” he sneered at her.

Before Samara could respond, she felt her feet falling out from under
her, as everything went black.

*

When she woke up, Luke was carrying her, and he was tiptoeing through
the woods. She looked up at him
. “What happened? I think . . .
I might have had a bad dream.”

Luke shook his head, looking down at her with his emerald green eyes
, which looked relieved
. “No, that was no
dream. That really happened.”

Samara paused, trying to remember everything. All she saw was Jason choking her and telling her that they were going to fight fair, but th
en everything had gone black.

“What exac
tly happened?” she asked Luke.

“Jason must have put some sort of spell on you,” Luke replied. “We tried to get to you, but we couldn’t . . . and it clouded our vision. When you passed out, he was hovering over you in wolf fo
rm. Colby pulled out his gun—”

Samara interrupted him. “Colby has a gun?” The fact that Colby even owned a gun was surprising enough in itself, but the fact that he had been carrying it around with him since they’d been in Alaska—and had somehow made it through airport security without any of them knowing ab
out it—was even more shocking.

Luke nodded. “Well, that’s because he didn’t get it through airport security,” he replied, obviously listening
in on
her thoughts. “He told me today that he bought it when we first got here. One of the security guards at the hotel was willing to sell him a gun for five hundred dollars. Colby was afraid that the other pack we smelled at that time—the Koto—would want to kill us, so he bought it when we
were getting ready to leave.”

“Oh.”
Samara wasn’t sure how she felt about guns in general, but it had probably been a smart move on Colby’s part.
“So, what happened
with Jason? I’m so confused.”

“Colby pretended that he was going to shoot the gun at Jason while he was in human form,” Luke
explained
. “And it must have freaked him out because he disappeared into thin air again. The funny thing is, the bullet—if
there was one
—probably wouldn’t have been able to break through the wall he made to keep us from getting to you. Either way, he hasn’t been back since, so it must have r
eally scared him off
. . .
for now.”

“There’s not even a bullet in the gun?” Samara asked, trying hard not to laugh. Colby had spent five hundred dollars on
a gun that wasn’t even loaded?

Luke shook his head. “No, it’s not loaded. The hotel security guards aren’t allowed to use loaded guns.
Their guns are only for show.”

Samara smiled. “Well, I’m glad
that Colby bought it, anyway.”

“Me, too,” Luke replied, leaning down and
giving her a
small
kiss on the lips.

“He’s lucky that Jason didn’t bring out his own gun, though,” Samara commented, remembering how Jason had threatened her about the silver bullet in his pocket. Unless he had only be
en trying to scare her. . . .

“That would not
have been good,” Luke agreed.

“Um
m
, I think I’m good to walk,” Samara told Luke. Being carried was beginning to make her develop motion sickness, similar to the type that she always used to get in the car on win
dy roads when she was a child.

Luke gently set her back down on the ground, and she wrapped her hands around his waist. She was
about to lean up and kiss him
, when she heard so
meone shout, “There they are!”

Glancing over her shoulder, she found that the Vyka were standing behind them, pointing at them,
looks of fury on their faces.

“Run!” Col
by shouted from ahead of them.

Samara ran again, wondering how much running they were going to have to do from the Vyka before they made it out of Alaska.
If
they made it out . . .  And even if
they did, what difference did it make? The Vyka would probably follow them righ
t back to Pennsylvania, anyway.

Even so, she continued to run, following her pack until the Vyka were out of sight. And th
at’s when she heard the noise.

A helicopter,
its light beaming at them
,
whirred above their heads
, circling the area. It looked like it was about to land next to them, and a gut-wrenching feeling fo
rmed in the pit of her stomach.