Wolfsbane (Howl #3) (21 page)

Ch
apter
25

“
What’s going on? What happened to her?” Samara asked, turning to Colby, as Luke raced ov
er to
Emma. He knelt on the ground beside her and grabbed her wrist to feel for a pulse.

Staring
at Emma’s body on the ground, Colby said evenly, “I don’t think anything happened to her. Sometimes, when people are freaked out about what they have to do during initiation, they pass out. Add in the factor of
not having complete control over phasing yet, and she w
as probably just overwhelmed.”

Samara recalled how difficult it had been for her to phase to her human form at will when she’d first become a werewolf; it was nearly impossible. It made sense how that
, along with being grossed out by all of the blood,
would cause Emma to pass out.

“I think Colby’s right,” Luke
said, glancing over his shoulder at Samara
. “She’s
fine. She’s still breathing.”

Samara breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness. What should we d
o with her right now, though?”

“Let’s take her back to my house,” Colby suggested. “We can keep an eye on her there to make sure that
she wakes up and her condition doesn’t worsen. And if it does, I’m sure my mom will know what to do.”

Deciding that his idea was probably for the best, Samara agree
d. “Yeah, let’s go, everyone.”

“Wait, not everyone,” Chris interrupted. “Rain
, I think you should go home.”

Rain’s icy blue eyes fille
d with
a look of
hurt. “Why can’t I go?”

“I just need some time
to myself,” Chris said gently. “I think
. . .
I think it’s best for you to just go for now.
I’ll call you tomorrow, okay?”

“Rain, you don’t have to listen to him,” Samara intercepted. “You’re more than welcome to c
ome to Colby’s house with us
if you want to
.”

“No,”
Rain replied, shaking her head. She blinked, and Samara had a feeling that she was blinking back tears.
“That’s
. . . I
t’s okay. I’ll just go home.” She gave Chris one last pain-filled look before turning on her hee
ls and running into the woods.

Samara glared at Chris. “What’s your problem? I thought you wanted Rain to be on our pack so you could see her more often and here you are, sending her home. That’s not the best way
to treat your mate, you know.”

Chris cleared his throat. “That’s th
e thing. Rain’s not my mate.”

“What do you mean?” Samara asked. “Isn’t it a little soon yet for either of you to know?” She knew that Luke had known that she was his mate right away, but she hadn’t known he was hers. In fact, she hadn’t
figure it out for sure until he’d flat-out told her he was her mate . . .  or one of his potential mates, at the time.

In any case, Samara wondered if maybe Chris was just assuming that Rain wasn’t his mate yet because he hadn’t been able to listen in on her thoughts yet. Maybe it was still too early for him to know for sure.

“No, it’s not too soon,” Kyana spoke up. “I know how Chris knows Rain’s not his m
ate. It’s because . . . I am.”

Samara glanced over at Josh, whose mouth fell open in
surprise. “Y-you mean you’re not . . .” He trailed off, shooting an angry look over in Chris’s direction.

Kyana nodded solemnly, giving him a sympathetic look. “I’m so sorry, Josh. I had no idea this was going to happen, but a few minutes after I turned . . . I just felt drawn to Chris. And I co
uld hear his voice in my head. I know h
e’s dra
wn to me, too.”

A bright shade of red blossomed on Josh’s cheeks. “I think I need to go for a walk,” he said, walking away from them and off into the woods in the same direction Rain had gone in.

“Well, isn’t this just perfect,” Kyle commented. “We need to go rough up a big bad wolf, and half
the pack is already leaving.”

Samara sighed. “There’s not much we can do about it right now. Besides, Josh will have to come back since he lives at Colby’s now, anyway. We aren’t going to go see Troy u
ntil the whole pack is together.” She paused and then added, “A
n
d in a better frame of mind.”

*

Once they
arrived at
the Jackson’s house, Luke and Steve
laid Emma on one of the white leather sofas. Just as they all sat down, prepared to wait for her to wake up, Linda Jackson strolled into the house. When she saw her son, she chirped, “Co
lby! You’re home from Alaska.”

“Yeah, we got home earlier today,” Colby replied. “You weren’t home when we got in, though. Wher
e have you been all day, Mom?”

“Oh, Rae and I spent
the whole day shopping,” his mom replied, pulling a Louis Vuitton bag out of one of her shopping bags and holding it up for Samara and Kyana to se
e. “What do you girls think?”

“It’s really cute,” Samara replied, forcing herself to smile. She wasn’t really into shopping; she never understood the point of spending lots of money on designer brands if she could find something similar for much less money. Emma was a huge shopaholic, tho
ugh, so she almost wished that her best friend
was conscious enough to complimen
t Colby’s mom on her purchase.

“That’s very nice, Mrs. Jac
kson,” Kyana replied politely.

“Call me Linda,” Colby’s mom said. “You must be Kyana. Colby’s told me that you’re going t
o be living here
with us for the time being.”

Kyana nodded, her silky black hair falling over her shoulders. “Thank you so much for your
generosity, ma’am.”

Linda turned to Colby. “Woul
d you mind doing me a favor?”

“Sure, Mom. What do you need?” Co
lby asked, rising to his feet.

“Your father
left last night to go to
Colorado on business, but I haven’t been able to g
et ahold of him.
I’ve been calling him all day without any response.
Can you run up
and check in his study to make sure he didn’t leave his cell phone behind?
He has such a bad habit of doing that.”
His mom pulled
her curly blonde hair into a ponytail on top of her head
and pushed up her sleeves.
“I’
ve got to get dinner started.”

“Sure thing,” Colby rep
lied, heading up to the study.

“Men, t
hey can be so forgetful sometimes,” Linda told Samara and Kyana with a wink bef
ore heading into the kitchen.

Samara glanced over at Kyana, who was already entangled in Chris, her head
rested against his shoulder and her arm wrapped around his waist. 

Samara felt surprised that Kyana and Chris were so close to each other already.
She knew that werewolves were instantly drawn to their mates, but it felt like Kyana hadn’t even given herself a grace period in between Josh and Chris; it was like she had immediately thrown herself at Chris as soon as she knew that they were the ones who were really destined to be
together.

Then again, who was Samara to judge? She’d had two mates at once for a while, and hadn’t even been sure at one point who
she really wanted to be with.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Luke’s eyes flit over at her, and she knew right away that he had heard her thoughts. Shit. Now he knew that she had actually considered b
eing with Declan at one point.

Double shi
t, she thought, as she blocked him out of her mind.
He had pro
bably heard that thought, too.

When Colby’s mom came back into the living room, she glanced over at Emma lying on the couch and raised her eyebrows i
n question. “Is she sleeping?”

“Something like that,” Steve replied. “She passed out during in
itiation. It was kinda crazy.”

Linda nodded knowingly.
“I had the same thing happen to me when I initiate
d.”

“Really?”
Samara’s eyes widened with relief.
It made her feel better knowing that this had happened to someone who she’d known before . . . and that Colby’s mom had survived after it
had happened. It made her feel like maybe Emma really was going to be okay.

“Well, has Colby told you much about how I be
came a werewolf?” Linda asked.

Samara shook her head. “No, he hasn’t said a word about it. Weren’t you born this way?” Colby’s mom seemed so . . . cultured. She had always pictured her as the type of werewolf who instantly turned once she hit the ripe age of sixteen, like
all of the other wolves who had it in their genes did.

Colby’s mom shook her head, sitting down on the sofa. “No, I wasn’t born a werewolf. I did come from a long line of werewol
ves, though. Both of my parents
and all three of my sisters are werewolves. When I was eighteen, we finally figured out that I wasn’t going to
make the change.
For whatever reason, the gene skipped me
. So, I did what any girl who wanted to become a werewolf would do
;
I had one of the guys from my sister’s pack bite me. I initiated that very
night . . . and I passed out.”

“Why?” Samara asked
. “
Were you grossed out like Emma was?”

“I was grossed out by the initiation I had to go through, yes,” Linda admitted. “But I was also a diabetic when I was a human. I
think
my blood sugar levels dropped when I lost a lot of blood. I don’t think my body had enough time to adjust to the metabolic changes that occur when we’re wolves when I first initiated.” She shrugged her narrow shoulders. “In any case, whatever caused i
t . . .
I was fine, obviously.
And becoming a werew
olf obviously cured my diabetes, too.” His mom paused. “
Anyway, the point is,
I’m sure she w
ill be
fine
, too. What’s her name?”

“Emma.”

Colby’s mom’s turquoise blue eyes lit up with
a look of
recognition.
Samara got the feeling that Colby had told his mom about
Emma and how annoying she was
since his new thing seemed to be talking about her to any
one who wanted to listen lately, but Samara
didn’t
get a chance to ask to her.
Linda
rose to her feet and went back into the kitchen to check on
whatever she was cooking.

When Colby came back into the living room, his dad’s cell phone in hand,
Samara noticed that
his normally fair-skinned face had taken on an even paler look than usual.
He looked like he’d seen a ghost.

“Colby, what’s wrong?” Steve asked, noticing his solemn demeanor right
away.

Colby sat down on the floor next to Samara, pul
ling his knees to his chest. “I-
I
found
. .
.” He stuttered, biting his lip nervously.

“What’s wrong, Colby? Spit it out,” Luke said softly, crouching down on the floor next to him. As Colby’s lifelong best friend,
Samara knew that
he was definitely the person who would be able to get
it out of him if anyone could.

Without saying a word,
Colby t
ossed
the cell phone into Luke’s lap. It was already open to the text message display screen. Luke glanced down and read what it said. Once he was finished, he opened his mouth, as if
to speak, and then closed it.

“Well, what is
it?” Samara asked impatiently.
She wasn’t sure why she hadn’t heard his thoughts, but she figured it was probably because she had blocked him from accessing her own mind. 

“I
. . .
I don’t feel comfortable sharing this out loud,” Luke replied, his voice nervous. “Someone else can say it
if they
want . . . if Colby wants.”

Colby, who was beginning to rock back and forth now, nodded. “Y-yes, I want to share. He deserves for everyone to find out what he’s done.” His voice sounded shaky, and Samara wondered what they could possibly be talking about that seemed to be freaking
both of
them out so
much.

“Give me the phone,” Samara told Luke, grabbing the phone from him. When she opened the text message, she felt her own heart stop
beating. The text message said JASON
at the
top. Colby’s dad had written: