Howl (Howl #1) (25 page)

Who was that?
Samara asked, begi
nning
to feel less panicked.

That was Rocco Porter. He’s the
Alpha of the Shomecossee pack.

Samara thought the name sounded familiar, but she didn’t think he went to their school. She glanced around the corner to make sure he was really gone.
He seems like a small Alpha. What does he want?
she asked.

H
e wants you to be a Shomecossee,
Luke replied.
I told him t
hat I would relay the message.

Well, you would think he woul
d be a little nicer to me then.

Luke hesitated.
No. That’s just Rocco. He’s not the
nicest person you’ll ever meet.

How come I didn’t hear what he had to say? I can always hear when a wolf is trying to communi
cate with me when I’m a human.

I think he blocked you out, which is really strange since he wanted to talk to you. Alphas can decide who ta
lks to them, even in wolf form.

Samara frowned. Colby hadn’t mentioned that to her. She had a feeling that there was another reason why she couldn’t hear what Rocco was saying, b
ut she wasn’t sure what it was.

Sitting down on the sidewalk beside Luke, Samara
ran her hands over his fur. It
was incredibly soft and silky.
Thank
yo
u for saving me.

Luke nuzzled his head against her chest.
I could get used to this.

Samara scratched behind his ears and laughed.
“Me, too.”

She was afraid that she was getting used to it already.
Too
used to it. 
 

Chapter 19

****

Samara
was in a deep sleep when she
heard a loud clanking sound in the middle
of the night. She sat up in bed, glancing
around her room, and listened.

The sound continued.
It was coming from outside in the backyard.
Realizing that someone was throwing rocks at her win
dow, Samara peered out of it.

Declan was standing in her backyard. He was naked from the waist up, so Samara assumed that he had been in w
olf form before he came here.

Sto
p throwing rocks at my window!
Samara snapped at him
, deciding that that it was safer to communicate with him this way right now if she didn’t want him to hear her
.
You’
re going to w
ake my parents up, you idiot.

Sorry,
Declan apologized.
Can you come outside to talk?

Give me a few minutes
, Samara replied with a groan.

Samara pulled on her robe and opened the window. Once she had jumped out of it, she led Declan down the path to Starlight Lake. “What was so important that you had to come and wake me up?
Why couldn’t you just talk to me in my head?
”

“I heard that a Shomecossee asked you to join their pack,” Declan blurted out
, cracking his knuckles
.
Samara knew that was what Declan always did whenever he was nervous.
“You’r
e not going to do it, are you? You’re
not going to join their pack?”

Samara shook her head. “No, my decision is big enough as it is. I’m either going to be an Ima or a Vyk
a. Definitely not a Shomecossee,
though. And to be honest, their Alpha didn’t seem too nice when he asked me to be on their pack. I though
t he was going to attack me.”

“Well, rumor has it that he was,” Declan replied. “At least that’s what Kyle told Josh that Luke told him. Luke just didn’t want to tell you because he didn’t want to freak you out. Rocco either wants you to be on his pack or he doesn’t
want you to be alive at all.”

“Just
like Jason,” Samara muttered.

“Hey, Jason’s a great guy,” Declan said defensi
vely. “He’d be great to you.”

Samara had
n’t
realized that Declan cared so much about his Alpha. She supposed that was probably really common, though. Having an Alpha would be lik
e having another father figure. Samara knew that Declan constantly had to work to please his own father, so it would make sense that he would want Jason’s approval, even if he had to go out of his way to please and defend him when he
didn’t even really deserve it.

Colby
did deserve respect, though.

Samara
wondered why Colby had been so afraid that she was going to change the way she felt about him after she knew who he was. Could it be because the other wolves on his pack didn’t have the same type of bonds that wolves on other packs did? Maybe one of the people on their pack didn’t want to listen to him when they first found out that he wa
s Alpha because he was so, well . . .
dorky. It would m
ake a lot of sense.

“So, is that all you wanted?” Samara asked when Dec
lan didn’t say anything else.

Declan shook his head. “No, I wanted to convince
you that you should be a Vyka.”

Samara sighed. “Give me five reasons, Declan. Make them good ones, t
oo.”

“Reason number one, you were destined
to be a Vyka,” Declan began.

“That’s not a good
enough
reason,” Samara interrupted. “But I guess I
’ll let it slide. Next reason?”

“Reason number two. Your brother is a Vyka. Do you know how hard it’s going to be for the two of you to live in the same house and be on opposing packs? You’re not going to be able to speak
to each other,
and, well, you’re going to develop such
hatred
towards each other that it’s going to take a lot of restraint for you to not kill each o
ther.”

Samara opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. She hadn’t
thought about what it would be like to live with Seth if she chose to be an Ima.
It had been difficult enough to live with him the past few weeks
without really speaking to him while he was angry. She hadn’t imagined what would happen if she and her brother hated each other simply because they were on difficult packs. As unfair as it seemed, it was something that she was really going to have to take into consi
deration.

The
truth was that she had missed Seth
lately
.
The conversation she had with him the other night was the most they had talked in months. It sort of gave her hope that eventually she could have her old brother back, and she didn’t want to ruin that possibility.

S
ighing, Samara said, “Go on.”

“Reason number three. Your favorite color is red,
and you hate the color blue.”

Samara laughed at him. “Seriously, Declan? That’s the best reason you can come up with. Your argument’s
getting
pretty weak.”

“Well, you see, my next two reasons are so good that I had to give you a lamer one just to prepare you,” Declan replied
with a wide grin
. “Reason number four. If you don’t become a Vyka, you’re going to die.
There’s no way around it.
Jason has this plan to kill you and destroy
most of
the Ima pack b
efore he takes over some of the stronger ones
.
It’s planned out really well
.”

“Wait, why are you telling me this?” Samara asked. “Can’t he hear your thoughts when you’re in human form? Colby told me he can hear
whatever I’m thinking.”

Declan
shook his head and grinned.
“No. I found a way to block him from my thoughts.
”

Samara breathed a sigh of relief.
She knew he would be in serious trouble if Jason found out that Declan was warning
about what he was plotting.
If he knew, he would probably either exile Declan from the pack or, eve
n worse, k
ill him for betraying the Vyka.

“Okay, so I can follow through with my destiny, keep talking to my brother, get a red tattoo instead of a blue one, and stay alive if I choose to become a Vyka. What’s the fifth reas
on I should choose the Vyka?”

“Me,” Declan said. “I don’t want to lose you, Sam. I’ve invested too many years in
this friendship
to just let you go.”

Samara touched his shoulder and pouted her lips. “I don’t want to lose you either, Declan. I
just don’t know what to do.”

“It’s gotta be a hard decision to make, but how could you just turn away from me, Sam? I don’t know how you can just choose the Ima because you want to be with Luke instead of being able to s
till talk to me for the rest of your life
. And to choose Luke over your own brother? That’s messed up.”

Samara groaned. “It’s not just Luke, Decl
an. It’s the whole pack. I feel . . .
closer to them than I do the Vyka. I mean, yeah, I have you on the Vyka, but even C
olby seems cooler than Jason.”

“Colby?” Declan snorted. “The kid’s a l
oser. He’s not a real Alpha.”

“Colby’s a really nice guy. What do you mean he’s not a ‘real’ Al
pha?” Samara could hear the irritation in her voice, but she couldn’t help it. He was insulting
her
alpha.

“I mean, he has no control over his pack whatsoever. They do whatever they feel like doing. He doesn’t give them orders. He doesn’t keep them in line. Nothing is organized for the Ima. That’s part of why we’re becoming so much stronge
r than them.”

That’s why Colby was so worried about what she would think of him, Samara realized. No one took him seriously because
no one respected him in his human form
. If Samara decided to become an Ima, that was going to change, though. She was going to give Colby a makeover and help him
learn how to stand up for himself
so hopefully the other members of the p
ack would learn to respect him.

“Maybe Colby’s a laidback Alpha, but he’s not a jerk like Jason,” Samara replied. “If you want to know the truth, the main reason I really don’t know if I want to become a Vyka is because of Jason. I know you say he’s a good guy, but I don’t see that in him. I see someone who’s controlling and vindictive and really manipulative who is threatening to kill me if I don’t agree to do what he wants. Do you know how hard tha
t makes it to choose his pack?”

“I’m sure it’s hard, but . . .
Sam, we’re powerful. We’ll be able to keep you safer than the Ima will. If you choose their pack, y
ou’re probably going to die.”

“Why exactly are you becoming stronger than the
I
ma
?” Samara asked
, putting her hands on her hips
.

Declan shook his head. “I can’t tell you the secret. If you become an Ima, you’ll tell them. They’ll become more powerf
ul, which will hurt my pack.”

“So, basically . . .
if I decide that I want to be an Ima, we’ll be keeping secrets like this from each other all of the time?” Samara asked.

Declan looked her in the eyes. “No. If you choose to become an Ima, we won’t be able to keep secrets from
each other. We won’t be speaking
.”

*

After Declan left, Samara turned to begin walking back towards her house. Before she had even started walking up the rocky path, she spotted a gray wolf walking towards her. Samara spotted the heart-shaped patch of light brown
fur on his side right away.

Samara, we need to talk,
Colby said, comi
ng to a halt in front of her.

“About what?” she asked, hoping that the conversation he had in store for her wasn’t going to be to try to convince her to choose to be an Ima. The decision was complicated enough without everyone trying to sway her opinion. As it was, Samara was having a hard time enough time digesting everything t
hat Declan had just told her.

First you need to block Declan out of your thoughts
, Colby said.
I don’t want him to hear what I’m about to tell you.
This is really important.

Samara closed her eyes and thought about how she didn’t want Declan to be allowed into her mind. When she opened her eyes, she felt different, as though her mind lacked something. This let her know that it had
worked, and Declan couldn’t hear anything.