Blood Moon (Howl #2) (15 page)

****

“Maybe you’re right,” Samara told Luke as she crawled under the fleece blanket that he was lying under. “May
be I need to tell my parents.”

“It would make both of our lives
so much easier,” Luke replied.

Samara sighed. It was hard to imagine that telling her mom and dad one of the most confusing things that they would ever have to hear
,
if they didn’t already know about it
, could make things
easier.

“Well, they might
get harder at first,” Luke joked.

Samara laughed, knowing he had read her thoughts. “Much harder, I’m sure. What if they don’t accept me . . . because they’re afraid of me? People have this idea of werewolves as being these crazy out-of-control beasts, when it’s
really not like that at all.”

“Maybe they’ll be afraid at first, but so what if they are?” Luke asked, wrapping his arm around her. “If anything, you can prove them that they’re wrong about werewolves. I’m sure that it’s going to be hard for them to deal with at first, but they’ll come around. And, who knows, maybe they do know
the truth
. . . and it won’t be as h
ard as we’re thinking.”

Samara rested her head on Luke’s shoulder. “I guess we’ll see. I need to wait for the perfect time. I don’t think right now is.” Her mom had seemed really depressed ever since Seth had moved out. Even though telling the truth might help her mom understand better, Samara knew that it was better to wait . . . at least for a little while.

*

Sometime after Samara had drifted off to sleep, she was woken up by the sound of a deep growling. The spot on the couch where Luke had been lying next to her when sh
e had fallen asleep was empty.
She panicked, afraid that something was happening . . . something bad.

Shifting on her shoulder, she realized that Luke was peering out of the window, curtains spread
wide
open
. It w
as dark outside, but the moonlight from the
half-moon
casted a beam
of light over the family room.

“Luke?” Samara hissed
at him
.
“What are you doing?”

“I – I don’t see who it is,” Luke started. “There’s someone
out there. I can smell them.”

“Are you sure? I don’t smell a
nything,” Samara said quietly, sniffing. Not that she should trust her own sense of smell. She was still getting used to it.

“It’s because you’re still a new wolf,” Luke explained
,
obviously tapping into her thoughts
.
“Once you’re a bit older, you’ll be able to smell if there’s
someone in wolf form nearby.”

Samara blinked, her eyes still adjusting to the light that poured into the room. She didn’t know that werewolves could smell wolves when they were in human form – but it only made sense. How else were they supposed to protect themselves while they were in human form?
“Can you s
mell who it is?” Samara asked.

Luke shook his head. “No, whoever it is smells like they tried to cover their scent with animal urine . . . the type that you purchase at a hunting store, probably
intending
to throw us off. Whoever it is planned this out pretty well. They’re
definitely here for a reason.”

Samara pulled herself from the couch, planting her bare feet firmly on the carpeted floor. She felt the panic rising in the back of her throat. What if Jason had come to make good on his promise to kill her? It seemed even more likely right now since she had recently seen him for the firs
t time since she
became an Ima. Seeing her had probably reminded him that he needed to get the job done soon. 

Luke fled down the staircase that led to the front door. “I’ll take care of this,” he t
old Samara. “You stay inside.”

Before Samara could respond, Luke was already out the front door and dashing across the front lawn
to the side of the yard
. When he reached the pine trees that lined Aunt Rae’s property, Samara began to feel nauseous not knowing who was out there and wha
t was going to happen to Luke.

Realizing that she couldn’t just sit around and wait like this, Samara swung the front door open and ran towards the pine trees. She came to a halt next to where Luke was standing, and he turned and gave her a
n
I-thought-I-told-
you-not-to-come-out here look.

Samara shrugged. She opened her mouth to say something, but Luke pressed his finge
rs to his lips to tell her to “S
hh
.” 
I couldn’t just sit around and do nothing,
Samara told him throug
h mind-speak.

Following Luke’s gaze into the depths of the woods, Samara saw a movement of bushes, followed by the sight of a furry tail
weaving through them.
She couldn’t tell what color it was because of the shadows that w
ere created by the pine trees.

A moment later, Samara watched as the tail was engulfed by a cloud of red smoke. She felt her body freeze up and her inside
s turn. It was a Vyka.

Taking a step back and trying to decide what she was going to do when she came face-to-face with Jason, Samara gasped when the clo
ud disappeared.

Josh stared back at her, his
dark
bro
wn hair
a mess from the wind and smoke that had just surrounded him.

Luke glared at J
osh. “What are you doing here?”

Stop. Don’t scare him away,
Samara said.
Maybe I can get him to talk to me.

“I’m here to see Kyle,” Josh said, glancing over at the two-story brick house.
The lights had been turned on. A
unt Rae or Kyle must have woken up. “I didn’t think I’d be
interrupting a pack meeting,” he said cautiously.

“It’s okay, it’s not a pack meeting,” Samara said quickly, noting the nervousness in his voice. It seemed as though he was afraid that he would get Kyle into trouble just for being there.
“Why do you smell like you’ve showered in piss, if you were just coming to see Kyle?” Luke asked accusing
ly, a harsh tone in his voice.

Josh looked down at the ground. “Look, I’m not supposed to be here. If Jason knew I was here righ
t now, he’d probably kill me.”

“Your own brother would kill you?” Samara asked. Not that it would really surprise her. Jason w
as a really vindictive person.

“When I first changed, Jason was already Alpha,” Josh explained. “Even though we were born within minutes of each other, he chan
ged first. I guess because he was always
more powerful. I was struggling with not being able to talk to Kyle anymore . . . since he was my best friend.” He paused, glancing around as though he suspected that someone might be listening to him. “Jason threatened me. He said if I continued to stay friends with Kyle – if we hung out or even spoke without him being present so that he could hear whatever I had to say – he would ki
ll me.”

“So, you covered your scent so that Jason wouldn’t be able to find you here,” Samara said
, piecing everything together.

“Yep,” Josh replied, looking away from her, focusing
his light brown eyes on the
half
-moon
that hung over them. Samara shifted in her shoes, feeling uncomfortable. It felt like Josh didn’t want to meet her eyes, probably because he was still angry at her f
or what had happened to Lilly.

Do we really have to invite him in?
Luke asked through mind-speak. Samara thought that she sensed a tone of panic – or another emotion that she couldn’t determine – in Luke’s voice, which wa
s normally bold and confident.

“Josh, can I talk
to you?” Samara asked. “I
have some questions I’d like to ask you.”

Josh shrugged. “Maybe, but I need to get inside first so that
no one will spot me out here.”

Samara led Josh back to the house. Glancing over her shoulder, Samara noticed that Luke was walking slowly behind them. The look on his face told her that he wasn’t happy that Josh was here. Did he really have that much of a problem being frien
dly to people from other packs?

I don’t have a problem with Josh because he’s on another pack,
Luke told her.

Butt out of my mind!
Samara yelled inside her head, turning
around and giving Luke a look.

Luke looked down at the g
round.

Once they all walked through the front door, Samara heard the coffee machine buzzing from the kitchen. Figuring that Aunt Rae was the one who was awake, Sama
ra began ascending the stairs.

“I’m in the kitchen,” Kyle called out. Samara went back down the steps that she had already climbed and followed
Josh and Luke into the kitchen.

“Werewolves can drink coffee?” Samara wasn’t a coffee drinker herself, so she didn’t know firsthand, but she figured that caffeine would make wolves crazy hyper – similar to the effect that it
had on humans, but heightened.

“
Of course.
We can have whatever we want,” Kyle said. “That’s what makes us different from vampires. They don’t crave food after they’ve changed, but we do – even when it’s not meat
because
we’re still hu
mans by day.”

Samara raised an eyebrow. “Vampires really exist?” She didn’t know why she was asking; if werewolves could really ex
ist, surely vampires did, too.

Kyle laughed, his fair skin turning a
darker
shade of pink with every chuckle. “You didn’t know that already?
Cedar Falls is filled with vampires.”

“Huh,” Samara said, reaching for a chocolate donut hole from a tray in the center of the table and processing the information that Kyle had just fed her.
Cedar Falls
was a town about forty miles away. Samara had never been to that town, but she’d heard about a string of murders that had taken place there recen
tly. With a high vampire population, it was no wonder.

“How are you hol
ding up, man?” Kyle asked Josh.

Josh looked down at his hands, a look of sadness crossing
over
his face. Samara could have sworn that she saw his eyes fill up with tears, but he blinked them away. “I’ve never been so depressed
in my life
, man. This is my fault. I
never should have bitten her.”

Samara gaped at him. He thought it was his fault now? He didn’t blame her anymore? If that’s what he thought,
then
why had he been acting so strange towards her . .
. refusing to even look at her?

That couldn’t be. Samara was responsible for this. It was all her fault Lilly was gone. If she hadn’t agreed to go through the fake initiation with the Vyka, Lilly
would probably still be alive.

Just as Samara was about to tell Josh that, she heard Luke’s voice fill her mind.
Don’t tell him that if you want him to answer your questions. It could get really ugly in here, and you don’t want Josh to get pissed off at you and refuse to answer your questions.

Oh right,
Samara replied, realizing that she could have just made a big mistake.
Thanks for stopping me.

Samara decided that her questions could wait for now. She should wait until she knew for sure that Josh was feeling better and that he wasn’t going to start blaming her – whether
that was weeks or months from now. Until then, she would just have to accept the fact that Lilly had said things that may incriminate her, but there was no solid evidence against her.

“You can’t blame yourself,” Kyle was telling Josh, as he brought him a cup of coffee. “You couldn’t have known that this wou
ld happen when you bit Lilly.”

“I guess,” Josh said, shrugging. “It just sucks that I have to sneak my friendship with you during
a time like this.”

Kyle nodded his head in agreement. “It sucks that we have to sneak being friends at
any
time.”

A light bulb went
on
in Samara’s head. “Josh,” she said slowly, “it must be really hard for you to be a Vyka. I mean, Jason killed your mate . . . and he’s not just your p
ack leader, he’s your brother.”

Josh nodded his head. “That’s exactly what I’ve been struggling with lately. I just want to attack him, but I know that I’m not st
rong enough to kill an Alpha. I also don’t know if I could live with myself afterwards. He might not have a problem with killing people, but I do.”