Howl (Howl #1) (12 page)

Seth left his sandwich on the counter and, looking back at her over his shoulder, walked into the living room and out the front door.

About ten minutes later, there was a loud knocking at the front door. Samara glanced down at her clothing. She was still wearing the purple fleece pajamas that she
had put back on this morning.

Peeking out the window to make sure that
it was Emma, Samara flung
the front door
open
. “I thought I
told you to give me an hour!”

“Sorry,” Emma replied, walking into the entryway and fixing her hair in the hallway mirror. “I would have waited, but I was
so excited to show you this!”

She stuck out her middle finger
. “Look! Isn’t it beautiful?”

Samara glanced down at her finger, which
displayed a pretty
blue sapphire ring. The ring, which was cushion-cut, was set in white gold and
sparkled
in the sunlig
ht. “Yeah, it’s really pretty.”

“Jason ga
ve it to me!” Emma exclaimed.

Samara paused, trying to choose her words wisely. “Jason gave you it? Don’t you think that it may be a little too soon for him to be giving you jewelry? I mean, you only just g
ot involved with each other.”

Emma
’s face twisted into an expression that Samara couldn’t read.
Tossing her blonde hair over her shoulder, Emma stared back at her
. “You’re just jealous. Things didn’t work out with you and Luke, so you don’t want them to work out for me an
d Jason. Just admit it, Sam.”

“No, that’s not it. I’m not jealous. I just don’t like Jason,” Samara blurted out. “I think you need to be careful. Somethi
ng about him seems really . . .
off.”

Anger flashed through Emma’s ocean blue eyes. “Look, you’re not being a very good best friend lately. You’re supposed to be supportive of me, and you’re obviously not. So, how about we just stop being
friends?”

Before Samara could answer her, Emma had already turned around and walked out the front door.

*

“Did Seth say where he was going?” Mr. McKinley asked, as he chewed on a piece o
f asparagus at the dinner table that night.

Samara shook her head. “Does he ever say where’s going? He just walked out of the house without saying a word.” Turning to her mom, Samara said, “I wish you would at least consider anger manag
ement or counseling for him.”

Mrs. McKinley glanced up at her and sighed. “We’ll see. If
there’s no improvement
in his attitude in the next six months,
we’ll put him in counseling.”

“The next six months?” Samara asked incredulously. “That won’t be until springtime! He’ll be going off to college next year. Counseling takes time. It doesn’t just ha
ppen overnight.”

“I agree,” Mr. McKinley chimed in. “We really should see about getting
him counseling before then.”

“Fine. He’ll go to counseling,” Mrs. McKinley gave in, angrily stuffing a green bean into her mouth. “But I’m not going to be the one t
o tell him he has to go.”

“I will,” Samara volunteered. “He’s nicer to me than
he is to
either of you
,
and I think
–”

The front door opened. Samara stopped speaking, afraid that her brother would realize that the
y had been talking about him.

Seth came into the kitchen and sat down at the table.
He just sat at the kitchen table, staring into space. A moment later, he looked over his sh
oulder, towards the front door.

For a few minutes, no one said a word. Samara was busy trying to figure out how she was going to tell her brother that he had to go to counseling without making him mad.

“Sweetie, do you want me to get yo
u a plate so that you can eat with us?” Mrs. McKinley asked, finall
y breaking the awkward silence.

Seth shook his head. “There are wolves outside the house. Three of them. I was afraid that they were going to attack me when I walked from my car to the house. I waited, but it didn’t seem like they were going to leave t
he yard, so I just ran inside.”

Ignoring her parents
’
responses, Samara bolted from the kitchen table and looked out the living room window. Surely, there were three wolves; one on the far left of the yard and two on the far right. As she looked closer at them, she realized that they were all staring back at her, menacing looks in t
heir eyes.

None of the three wolves had a heart-shaped patch of light brown fur.
None of these gray wolves were
the gray wolf that had bitten
her. They weren’t her Alpha.

Samara wondered if the
se
wolves were even on her pack.
Something deep inside told her that they weren’t.
The gray wolf had mentioned that there was another pack of werewolves that they were going to have to fight for territory.
Were these wolves from that pack?

If these were the wolves on the opposing pack, did they know who she was? Could they pick up on her scent and know that she was a werewolf? If they could, were
they planning to attack her?

Just the thought made Samara feel sick to her stomach. She wasn’t afraid of the Alpha of her own pack, but she didn’t know these other wolves. For all she kn
ew, they could be sitting out there at that moment, plotting their attack.

Samara wasn’t even in full control of her inner wolf yet. She had no idea how to fight, but she assumed that it would be far different from beating up another person
– not that she had ever
done that
before, either
.

Feeling defenseless, Samara realized that there was nothing she could do right now, but she was going to have to prepare herself to be ready to fight
when the time came.
 

Chapter 11

****

Samara slipped out her bedroom window, carrying a white sheet in hand. She placed it on the ground next to the shed. Running into the forest behind her house, she stopped and gazed out at Starlight Lake.

The moon’s reflection sparkled in the water. It looked pretty, but it didn’t call out to her the same way it normally did. Samara realized it was because it
was no longer a full moon, so
it wasn’t quite as mesmerizing.

Samara stared at the moon, waiting for the tingling feeling to overcome her body. After several minutes of nothing happening, she sighed and sat down on a rock overlooking the lake. Samara was getting used to spending her nights as a wolf. It was peaceful and relaxing compared to the rest of her day. And now, with her not being on good terms with Emma, she felt lonely. She wanted to talk to her Alpha.

As the frustration built from not being able to transform,
Samara felt the tingling sensation overcome her b
ody, like a tidal wave. Within seconds, she was in her wolf form, and she howled in satisfaction.

There,
Samara thought to herself,
I
do
have some control over my inner wolf.

Following the pineapple and peppermint scent, Samara raced through the woods
until she saw the gray wolf.

It looks like you’re getting better at this
, he said as she approached him.
You never show up in wolf form this early in the night. Are
you starting to get a better control of when you make the change?

Samara shrugged her furry white shoulders and sat on the ground beside him.
I panicked earlier
, so maybe that’s why it was easier for me to change earlier in the night
. There were wolves in my front yard. Three of them, to be exact. They’re
not from our pack, are they?

The gray wolf shook his head.
No, they’re not.

Are they from the other pack? The one that we’re going to have to fight?
Samara asked.

They are the other pack. You don’t have to worry about them sitting outside your house, though. They’re not going to hurt you.

Is that only b
ecause the
y don’t know I’m a werewolf yet?

The gray wolf moved closer, until he was sitting down in front of her. If he were a human, she would ha
ve thought that he was creepily
close to her, but there was something different about physical distance when you were a wolf. It made Samara feel like she wanted to be closer to him, even though she didn’t feel any sort of sexual
attraction towards him.

They’re not going to hurt you because they want you to be one of them. They want you to be a part of their pack
, her Alpha replied.

Why?
Samara asked. She figured that the reason must be because they wanted more f
emale werewolves on their pack; they wanted her to be someone’s mate.

It has to do with what I can’t tell you yet
, he replied.
I promise you’ll find out really soon, but you need to know that you’re in demand. All of the loca
l packs want you as a member.

Samara felt surprised. She had never been in demand for anything before. Even though most of the kids liked her at school, she was always the one who got picked last in gym class because she was a bit of a klutz and generally would be the one who couldn’t hit the ball. Now, everyone wanted her on their pack
, which was sort of like a team. Samara couldn’t figure out why, though. What did she have that other werewolves didn’t
have that made her so special?

And you’re right. You do need to start preparing to fight
, her Alpha went on.
I’ve already decided that I’m going to start giving you one-on-
one lessons to help you train.

How do you know that I think I need to start preparing to fight?
Samara asked confusedly.
I didn’t tell you that.

Her Alpha chuckled inside his head.
Ah, no, you didn’t. There’s something else that you should probably know. As Alpha, I can hear everything that the wolves in my pack think to themselves, but only in their wolf form.
I can hear you as a human, but only if you want me to.
I
t’s hard for me sometimes, with everyone’s thoughts ricocheting around in my head, but I
try to mind my own business
most of the time
so that I don’t end up overhearing something that I don’t
really
want to know.

Lovely
, Samara replied sarcastically, letting out a low growl. She was glad that she hadn’t thought about anything weird or anything that she didn’t want anyone to hear since she had become a werewolf.
So, you can hear me, but I can’t hear you?
             
Not always,
her Alpha responded.
You will be able to communicate with all werewolves that you meet while you are in wolf
form
. When I am in human form, you
cannot hear me unless
I allow you to
. If I ever need to communicate something important to you
while one or both of us is in human form
, you will hear me.
You will be able to communicate with any werewolf who is in wolf form while you are in your human form.
The only other person whose voice you
will be able to hear while you’re both
in human form is your mate.

Samara’s mind automatically flashed to Luke. She had heard his voice in her head loud and clear. Was he her mate? Was he even a werewolf?
Is your mate always another w
olf, or can it be a human, too?

It can be a human if they are destined from birth to be
come
a
werewolf, too
. Most of us make the tran
sition from human to wolf on our
sixteenth birthday, though. This is also usually when we become attuned to our mates.
It is very rare to find out that you have a mate who is a human, so usually your mate is another wolf.

I’m not sixteen yet,
Samara said slowly.
Why didn’t I make the transition on my sixteenth birthday like other werewolves?

Because I bit you.

*

She climbed back into her
bedroom
window sometime after two a.m.. For the first time since Samara had changed into a wolf, she had been in full control of when she
had
changed back.

Ma
king the transition back into her
human
form
wasn’t the same as changing into a wolf. Becoming a wolf gave her a pleasurable sensation
, mostly because she knew that the freedom that came with it was worth even the tiniest bit of pain that she did feel when she shifted into wolf form
.
Even though Samara would have t
hought that changing back into her
human
form
would have been as equally as pleasurable because it meant that she was normal once again, it made her feel somewhat empty inside.
As her white
fur
disappeared, revealing her fair skin, Samara felt like she washing away a part of herself that she normally would be relieved to get rid of
, but now she wasn’t so sure.