Howl (Howl #1) (18 page)

Samara gulped.
You’ve known about this all along, haven’t you? That’s why you said that you only
thought
I was your mate. You couldn’t be sure because if I choose to be a Vyka, you won’t be my mate.
My mate will be someone else.

Yeah, I have known the whole time,
Luke answered.
I’m sorry, Samara. I wasn’t allowed to tell
you about this
. Our Alpha wouldn’t allow me to. He wa
nted to be the one to tell you – not just about this, but about everything that you just found out. He made us all promise to not sa
y anything until you were ready.

It’s okay,
Samara replied. She knew that it wasn’t Luke’s fault. The
ir
Alpha was technically his boss. It’s not like he could go against his wishes.
He also probably didn’t want to. Samara imagined that, if she stayed on this pack, she wouldn’t wan
t to let her Alpha down either.

Can you do something for me?
Luke asked.

What?

Can you meet me tomorrow morning
before school
? I want to talk to you in person. Communicating through our minds ju
st isn’t the same as talking like a normal human being.

Samara laughed.
I agree. It’s kind of like talking on the phone, except you don’t have to worry about holdin
g it to your ear for so long.

I never thought of it that way, but you’re right. Okay, cool. Umm, how I about I pick
you up at the general store?

That’s fine,
Samara replied.
 

*

The parking lot at the general store was completely empty. As Samara tugged on the door to go inside, she realized that it was locked. Edda Williams never closed her general store; it was always open from six o’clock in the morning until eleven o’clock at ni
ght. Something had to be wrong, but Samara didn
’t want to imagine what it was.

She stood outside, shivering in the cold
November air
, as she waited for Luke
to come. Samara made air puffs
just to see her cloudy breath.
She shoved her hands in her pockets to keep them warm, realizing that it must be just a myth that werewolves are hot all of the time. Samara certainly didn’t feel like she had a fever today. The whole heat thing must
only apply to werewolves when they were in their
wolf form.

Finally, Luke pulled his smoky blue Honda Civic into the parking lot. As he started to climb out of the car, Samara shook her head. “It’s closed,” she said and walked around
to the other side of his car.

When she was sitting in the passenger’s seat, Luke reached for her h
and. “Your fingers are cold.”

“It’s cold o
ut,” Samara replied, smiling.

“I’ll keep you warm.
I want to always keep you warm . . .
i
f you
’ll
let me.”

“Luke,”
Samara began sympathetically.

“No, don’t say anything. I just want you to know that I will always protect you. You’re my m
ate, through thick and thin.”

“Luke, that’s nice of you, but we don’t really know each other that well ye
t,” Samara replied.

“You still liked me before you knew tha
t I was your mate,” Luke pointed out
, pulling out of the parking lot. “I liked
you
be
fore I knew you were my mate.”

“You didn’t know that all along?” Samara asked, confused. For some reason, she had assumed that Luke
had
only asked her out because he knew that she would be his mate
. Aft
er all, he had been a werewolf the whole time
he had known her.

Luke shook his head. “No. I didn’t know until the first time I heard your voice after you got bit by our Alpha. Anyone on our pack could have been your mate.
I didn’t know that it was going to be me.
”

Samara gulped. “Who else is on our pack? I’ve been wondering this the whole time. I fee
l like I need to meet everyone
on both packs before I can decide which one I
want to
belong to.
It only seems fair.
”

“That’s the other thing I wanted to talk to you about,” Luke replied as he turned into the student parking lot. “Our pack has decided that since you know everything else that there is for you to know, it’s time for you to meet
all of
us. We’re meeting tonight by Starlight Lake at t
en o’clock. Will you be there?”

Samara nodded. “Yes.”

As she was about to climb out of the car, Luke lowered his win
dow. “Hey, Colby!” he called.

Colby walked ov
e
r to the car. He was wearing a red and blue flannel shirt
and brown corduroy pants that Samara couldn’t help but smile at
. His
long,
blonde
hair bounced in curls around his shoulders.
The boy really needed a haircut.
Didn’t he know that shoulder-length hair on guys just wasn’t sexy
unless you looked like
Johnny Depp? But still, he was adorable in a clueless type of way.

Luke glanced over at her and chuckled. Samara realized that he had heard her thoughts. She was going to have to remember that she n
eeded to start blocking him out, or she was going to embarrass herself far more often than she wanted to.

“Do you want to come to the mall with me later?” Luke asked Colby. “I need to pick up the authentic football jersey that I ordered for my dad for his birthday. I thought that maybe we could go to the movies or grab some food while we’re there.”

“Sure, man,” Colby replied, his voice cracking. “I’ll see you then.” He glanced
into the car. “Hey, Samara.”

“Hi,” she smiled back.

There was a long awkward silence. After a few minutes, Colby said, “Alright, I’m gonna get to class.
I’ll see you in first period.”

When he walked away and Luke rolled t
he window up, Samara asked
, “Wh
at made you two become friends
?
Y
ou’re just so . . .
different.
How did you even meet
?
”

Luke laughed. “Let’s just say that our families have known each other for a very long time. Sure, we’re different, but cut hi
m some slack. He’s a really good
guy. He has always had my back
.”

Samara sighed. “
I do
. I actually feel bad for him
.
I see how everyone else in this school treats him, and it isn’t right.
” She got out of the car and walked alongside Luke
as they headed
into the building.

“
You know, you’re the only person that’s ever said
something nice about him to me.
” Luke grinned at her. “
Hav
e a good day.”

“Thanks, you, too,” Samara replied. Just as she was about to begin walking towards her locker, Luke grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her closer to him. He ligh
tly brushed
his lips against hers, encircling her
lip
and wrapping his arms around her waist. For a moment, it felt like it was only the two of them standing there in the hallway, until she heard all of the other kids
hooting and whistling at them
and the hall monitor, a quirky science teacher, shouted at them to get to their homerooms
.

When she pulled away from Luke, she heard his voice in her head as he said,
You’re amazing, Samara.

She blushed and smiled
.
So are you, Luke.

Once she was in her homeroom class, she sat down in
her
seat at the back of the class
room
and
laid her head down and thought about Luke, making sure that he didn’t have access to her thoughts.
She wasn’t lying. He really was amazing, and she found herself falling for him more and more every day. It was funny how similar werew
olf mating was to human dating.

A few minutes later, Emma came into the classroom and plopped down beside her. “So, are you
going to be nicer to me now?”

Samara looked u
p at her. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, you were being a bitch because you were jealous that I’m with Jason because things with Luke didn’t work out
and you were all by yourself. But, a few
little birdies in the hallway told me that you and Luke are okay.
So,
what I’m asking is, are we cool now? We can even doubl
e-date
now,” Emma said excitedly.

Samara tried to ignore the fact that Emma seemed to think that she was jealous of her relationship with Jason, when the reality was that she was trying to be a concerned friend.
Now that Samara thought about it, it seemed like Emma had started dating Jason and bragging about the ring because
she
w
as the jealous one, not Samara.

“Well?” Emma aske
d, interrupting her thoughts.

Samara sighed. “Yeah, we’re fine. I don’t know about double-dating, though. Don’t you remember what happen
ed that night at your house?”

Emma
wrinkled her brow, staring
back at her confusedly
. She obviously had no idea what Samara was talking about.

“Oh, that’s right. You were already wasted,
” Samara remembered.
“
Well, basically, Jason and Luke got into this huge fight. I don’t know what it was over, but Luke ended up leaving almost as soon as he got there
because of it
.”

“But they were fine at that one party
we had at my house!
” Emma protested. “
The night that you and Luke kissed. It seemed like they were get
ting along okay then.”

Samara thought back to that night and frowned.
Emma was right. “
Well, they didn’t fight or anything like that, but they didn’t seem like they were the best of friends either
.”
It seemed like whatever had happened between Luke and Jason was a new argument, though, since they had always seemed civ
il with each other in the past.

“Hmm. I’ll talk to Jason about it,” Emma replied. “It’s probably nothing major.
I’m sure that whatever it is, I can convince him to kiss Luke’s ass and make up to make me happy.
That boy is totally wrapped,” she said, making a swirling movement with her finger.

“Yeah,
hopefully
,” Samara agre
ed hesitantly. Luke didn’t seem like the type of person who went looking for confrontation. Samara had a feeling that whatever had happened between them
was
major
.
 

Chapter 15

****

When ten o’clock rolled around, Samara climbed out of her
bedroom
window and quickly
shifted into her
wolf
form
.
She was at the point where she seemed to have complete control over when she changed, which made her life a lot easier.
Glancing down as she fluffed up her fur, she smiled. Samara enjoyed the idea of having an alter-ego. During the day, she could be boring old Sam. But at night, in her wolf form, she felt like she could be anything she wanted to be. She felt invincible.

Realizing that she was probably goin
g to end up changing back into her
human
body
before she came back home, Samara picked up her clothes with her t
eeth and carried them with her.

Racing
through the grass, Samara leapt down the path that led to Starlight Lake. She couldn’t wait to find out who was on her pack. She was even more excited t
o find out who her Alpha was.

When she reached the sandy shore that lined the lake, she saw them right away. There were five of them, and they were all staring in her direction as they waited fo
r her.

Let’s all welcome Samara,
she
heard her Alpha tell the pack.

The wolf that was standing closest to her stood up.
Hi, Samara.
Samara’s jaw dropped, as she watched a
glittery
blue cloud
of smoke form around him, as his body
changed from a wolf to a human. She had never seen a cloud like that form around her when she’d made the change from wolf to human. To prove it to herself, she took a step back towards the forest behind a tree so that none of them would see
her body and changed into her human form
.
Th
ere was no blue
cloud of smoke surrounding her.