Howl (Howl #1) (2 page)

“Hi, Samara,” the girl said
, seeming happy to see her. Th
e
girl
had fair skin, chestnut brown hair, and delicate features. Samara realized that she looked familiar, but she could
n’t seem to put a name to her
face.

“Hi,” Samara replied
awkwardly
, unsure of what else
to say. She didn’t want to be rude and ask her who she was.

“I haven’t seen you in a while! You haven’t hung out at Kyle’s house in a
long time
,”
the girl said and a light bulb went off in Samara’s head. The girl was Lilly Phillips – Josh
Masterson’s
girlfriend. Samara
hadn’t seen her since her Aunt Rae’s
wedding. Even though they’d hung out, Samara didn’t know Lilly all that well, only that she and Josh had been datin
g for a little over two years.

“Yeah, I’ve been really
busy
lately,” Samara replied, taking a sip of soda. She felt genuinely guilty about not spending too much time with Kyle’s family recently. When her uncle, James, had died, she’d vowed to make more time for that side of the family, but it hadn’t happened yet. “I’ll have to go over there sometime soon.
So, how have you been?
Are you still dating Josh?”

Lilly nodded, a wide smile flashing across her face. “Yeah, we’re st
ill together. And very happy.”

“That’s great. I’m happy for you guys. He’s such a nice guy,” Samara said. She wasn’t lying, either. Josh was the total opposite of Jason; they might be twins, but they definitely didn’t share personalities. Jason’s dark stares freaked her out, but Josh’s eyes always looked like they were smiling. Actually, come to think of it, Josh and Jason didn’t look that much alike either. They looked like
they were
brothers, but Josh had a lighter shade of hair and had slightly softer fe
atures than Jason.

Samara heard a low growl from behind h
er. Fi
guring that Seth was in the backyard again and
trying to scare her, she turned around,
fully
prepared to burst
into giggles.

When she turned around, it wasn’t Seth.
A gray wolf snarle
d
back at her, baring its teeth.

Samara p
anicked, unsure of what to do.

“
Run,” Lilly shouted at her. Samara watched as Lilly darted out of the backyard and
around the side of the house.

Samara stood there, frozen, unsure of what to do. She knew that it was a bad idea to run from any wild animal, let alon
e a wolf.
Just standing there and doing nothing didn’t seem like a good way to not get attacked either, though.

Slowly and cautiously, Samara
took a
small
step backwards. When the wolf didn’t do a
nything, she took another step . . .
and another. Once she reached the stairs that led to the porch, she hurriedly climbed up them and found herself overlooking the party.

Samara watched as the rest of the people at the party began to panic. Emma climbed onto the chair behind her and beg
an waving her arms in the air.

“Emma, don’t wave your arms at it!” Samara shouted
at her
, feeling helpless
. “You’re going
to draw attention to yourself.”

“Don’t worry, Sam. My dad used to breed Huskies!” Emma yelled back at her. “Come here, boy,” she said, turning to the wolf
. “Do you want to play fetch?”

The wolf let out a low growl and took a step forward. In the light of the fire, Samara
realized how big the wolf was.

Everyone had climbed onto the porch now or had left the party, leaving Emma in the backyard on the chair all by herself.

Emma leaped off her chair and grabbed a stick from the ground. She waved it in front of the wolf before swing
ing it in the air. “Go fetch!”

The wolf let out another growl; this time, Samara couldn’t help but notice
that the wolf seemed to glare at her.

“Go get the stick,
boy!” Emma chirped excitedly.

“Is she an idiot?” someone
whispered from behind Samara.

Taking a deep breath,
Samara climbed down the porch steps and ran to Emma. She grabbed her ar
m. “Come on. Let’s go inside.”

Emma stood her ground. “No. I
want to play with the doggie.”

“Emma, you’re drunk! It’s a wolf, not a dog. It’s going to attack you if you d
on’t leave it alone. Come on.”

Emma shook her head and sat on the ground, just feet in front of t
he wolf. Moments later, she fell
backward
s
, in a fit of giggles.
To Samara’s relief, the wolf backed a few steps away from Emma and sat down, curling its tail underneath its hind legs.

Samara looked up at the people on the porch, scanning the crowd for someone who c
ould help her get Emma inside.

Before she had time to ask, Josh was hurrying down the steps,
his hands in his pockets.

“Come on, puppy! Wanna come inside?” Emma drunkenly called to the wolf.

“Here, help me
s
tan
d
her up
,” he told Samara.
“I don’t think it’s going to do anything. If it was
going
to attack us, it would have already.”

Samara nodded
in agreement
and
watched as he quickly swung Emma over his shoulder and began carrying her towards the house.

As they were approaching the stairs, the wolf lunged at them. Samara felt panicky, even as Josh cl
imbed the stairs more quickly.

“Go inside everyone!” Josh shouted
at a few of their friends who were blocking the doorway
; the wolf seemed to pause long enough to listen to Josh yelling be
fore it came closer to Samara.

Glancing over her shoulder, she watched as the wolf bared its shiny white teeth at her. Just as she was positive that it was going to attack, she heard a
nother growl from behind the wolf
.

The wolf turned around and growled back. Once she was up the stairs, Samara watched as
the second wolf, which was slightly larger, pounced on the
first
wolf
. After a moment of biting and pawing at each other, both of the wolves ran into the woods.
Samara breathed a sigh
of relief. The wolves were gone
. No one was hurt. T
hey were all going to be okay.

Chapter 2

****

Five
Months Later
 

“Excuse me, ma’am. I’m Detective Eric Scotts,” a tall guy with dirty blonde hair said, pulling out his identification and waving it in front of Edda Williams. “I’m with the Grandview County Police Department. We’re looking for a missing person. Her parents said that she was supposed to come here two days ago before she disappeared. They haven’t heard from her since. Her name’s Lilly Phillips. She’s about five foot two, one-hundred and twenty pounds.”

“You’re going to have be a bit more specific than that, Detective. I see teenagers comin’ in and out of my store all day long,” Edda replied, wiping a drop of sweat from her weathered face.

“Here’s a picture of her,” Detective Scotts said, pulling a photo out of his mahogany-colored wallet. 

Samara
glanced over the detective’s shoulder to examine the
picture he had just pulled out and gasped. She knew the silky chestnut brown hair, delicate features, and fair skin in the yearbook photo all too well; it was Lilly Phillip
s, Josh Masterson’s girlfriend.

E
dda’s dark brown ey
es lit up with
recognition, the skin around them scrunching into tiny wrinkle lines. “Why, of course! She
was
in here two days ago. I remember her specifically because that boyfriend of hers seemed a little bit too controllin’. I was going to say somethin’ about it, but my husband, Roy, came into the shop and gave me the you-better-not-get-involved look, so I decided tha
t I best mind my own business.”

“Can you tell me what you mean by controlling?” Detective Scotts asked
, whipping out a tiny notebook.

Edda frowned. “It’s hard to put into words, really. There was just somethin’ off about the way they acted around each other in here. He seemed really angry, almost like they had just been fightin’ before they came into the store. I remember her goin’ to grab a bag of pretzels from the rack, but he ripped them right out of her hands and put them back on the shelf
.”

“Interesting. I’ll make a note of that controlling behavior, as you call it,” Detective Scotts said, scribbling in his notebook. “Can you
recall what time they came in?”

“It was just after the dinner rush hour,” Edda replied slowly. “I’d say it was abo
ut seven o’clock, maybe eight.”

The detective jotted something else down in his notebook. “Do you remember what her boyfriend looked like? Hair color? Height? Weight? Tattoos? Any details about his physical appearance would be useful in identifying hi
m.”

“He had an athletic build. He was probably about six
feet tall, maybe a little shorter
. His hair was dark and slicked back. Oh, and he was wearing a cross necklace,” Edda replied hastily. “Detective, do you think that maybe we could do this some other time? I’ve got customers le
avin’ my store because of you.”

Samara turned around, just in time to see a lady and her son sneaking out the back door of the general store. From the window, she could see two other people climbing into their cars, disgusted looks on their faces. Normally, Samara would have followed them,
but she was really curious. It wasn’t every day that someone in Grandview went missing
– especially someone she knew.

Her mind went back to the description that Edda had just given the detective. It definitely
sounded
like Josh, but she had a hard time believing that Lilly was with him in the general store. She had never seen him act controlling or even aggressive to anyone else, let alone Lilly. M
aybe they were having a fight,
or maybe they had broken up and Edda was describing someone else.
It wouldn’t be too unusual for Lilly to date someone who fit the same exact descript
ion of Josh if he was her type.

“I understand. My apologies,” Detective Scotts replied, droning out Samara’s thoughts. “Here’s my card. Please give me a call if you remember any details that you feel would be useful in our invest
igation.”

As the detective walked past Samara, she felt a gust of wind. She watched as he slipped out the side door of the general store.
Moments later, she saw
his black car pull out of the driveway as he
pulled out of the parking lot.

Edda scoffed. “I’m real sorry about that, Samara. You can have whatever you want on the house. You’ve gotta be my most loyal customer. Lord knows I wouldn’t h
ave waited there so patiently.”

Samara smiled, pushing a dark chocolate brown lock of hair behind her ear. “I don’t mind. It’s not like I have somewhere else that I need to be.
I’ll have –”

“Your
usual,” Edda interrupted. “A large iced mocha coffee and a cin
namon bagel with cream cheese.”

Samara nodded and watched as Edda smothered a thick layer of cream cheese on her bagel and tossed it int
o a little brown bag for her.

“How’s your mom doing?”

“Good,” Samara replied. “I’ll tell her you said hi.”
Edda and her mom had known each other for years because Mrs. McKinley had worked at the general store while she was putting herself through colle
ge to become a legal secretary.

Over the sound of the
noisy
blender, Edda said, “Kids these days. Those teens probably jus
t ran away from home. My own son did that, you know, and he never came back. I feel real sorry for those parents, though. It’s hard not knowin
’ what happened to your child.”

When Edda handed her the bagel and coffee, Samara mumbled, “Thanks.” She bolted out of
the door to the general store, determined to
somehow
find out what had happened to Lilly.

*

“Samara Alyce, where have you been?” Mrs. McKinley barked when Samara walked through the front door. “I’ve been trying to call
you since yesterday afternoon!”