Howl (Howl #1) (8 page)

He stepped out of the car, smoothing out his red and white striped polo t-shirt. Colby also climbed out of the car. As he popped up the collar on his orange long-sleeved shirt and ruffled his
blonde curly hair, Samara smiled. Colby was so cute in a teddy bear
kind of
way. It was obvious that he tried so hard to fit in – even when his clothes and actions were n
othing like other guys his age.

“Knock, knock,” Luke said as
he swung the front door open.

“You brought rum!” Emma cried excitedly, racing to
the entryway to grab it from Luke
. “We
can make pina coladas now!”

Emma broke out in dance as she went back into the kitchen. Normally, Samara would say something about her friend’s obvious tipsiness, but tonight, she had other things on her mind
– like why Luke was staring at her intently right now.

Before Samara had a chance to say anything to Luke, Jason was standing in between them.
His shoulders had stiffened, and
his whole body had gone tense.

“
Davenport,”
Jason growled.

“
Masterson
,” Luke
nodded in reply
, a cold tone in his voice that sent
a shiver down Samara’s spine.

“I heard that you were going to be here tonight. I didn’t think you’d really have
the balls to show up, though.”

“I’m pretty sure you’re confused,” Luke repli
ed, his
own
shoulders stiffening.

Jason straightened his posture, making it obvious that he was standing his ground. “I’m pretty sure I understand
perfectly – and I
think you should leave if y
ou know what’s good for you.”

“What is going on?” Samara asked, as she watched Luke and Jason stare each other down. She felt like they were having a c
reepy exchange with their eyes.

“Nothing,” Luke replied, not turning to look at her. “I’m out of here,” he mut
tered. “Colby, are you coming?”

Colby looked at Luke and then glanced over his shoulder. “I
–
um, I think I might just hang
here –”

“Never mind,” Luke interrupted. “Stay if you want, but don’t expect me t
o give you a ride home later on
.” He slammed the front doo
r behind him on his way out.

Samara felt her heart drop. This was not how she had been expecting the night to go.
Actually, come to think of it, this was actually better, in a way. She had been expecting things to get really awkward between her and Luke. It almost seemed like a good thing that he wasn’t getting along with Jason (for whatever reason) because it took a bit of the attention off her.

Glancing over at Emma, who was now grinding against one of the bar stools to
“Umbrella” by Rihanna
.
“
I’ll share my umbrella
with you,” Emma told the chair.

Realizing that Emma probably wouldn’t even realize that she was gone
unless she magically sobered up – and chances were she was only going to get worse as the night went on – Samara
did the first thing that came
to mind. She went
outside and chased after Luke.

“Luke!” Samara shouted, as she ran thro
ugh the pouring rain. “Wait!”

Luke turned around and looked at her. His brown hair was wet and messy from the rain, and Samara couldn’t help but think tha
t he looked irresistibly hot.

“What was that all about in there?” Samara asked. “What are
you and Jason fighting over?”

“It’s just guy stuff,” Luke shrugged, looking down at his feet, which had sunken into a puddle of mud
. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Why are you acting li
ke this?” Samara blurted out.

Luke stared at her. He opened his mouth and then closed it.
“Like what? How am I acting?”

“Like you don’t care about me,” Samara said, feeling the tears build up behind her eyes. She tried to hold them back, and when she thought they were sliding down her cheeks, she wasn’t sure if she was feeling tears or raindrops. “When you look at me…I feel like there’s something there, like y
ou still have feelings for me.”

Luke’s face softened. “I do have feelings for you, Samara. I
feel very strongly about you.”

Samara shook her head in confusion. “
Then, what’s going on, Luke? If you feel very strongly about me,
why are you acting like this?”

“It’s complicated,” Luke replied, looking away from her. “It’s not going to work out between us right now.”

Samara tried to ignore the
cartwheels that were going on in her stomach
. “
I don’t understand
why it has to be complicated.”

“It just is.
You wouldn’t understand right now.” Luke turned and walked to his car. He climbed inside and
,
keeping his eyes on her, began backing out of the
car out of the narrow
driveway.

Luke’s windows were r
olled up and his mouth didn’t
move a muscle, but Samara was positive that she heard him say,
“I’m sorry, Samara.”
 

Chapter 7

****

That night, Samara bolted up in bed. Before she had even realized what she was doing, she had already
climbed out her bedroom window.

Once she was standing outside in the grassy backyard,
a weird feeling rushed through her body
.
She tore off her clothes and threw them to the ground.

Samara walked through her backyard and into the forest behind her house. She glanced at the moon, which shone brightly in the night sky,
illuminating Starlight Lake.

Samara felt an odd sensation take over her body, weakening her. She couldn’t tell if it was a physical pain or an emotional longing, but it felt as though the moon was calling out to her. She wanted to ask it what it was trying to tell her
, but she knew that was pointless because
she wouldn’t get an answer.

Unsure of what else to do, Samara ran towards the moon. Part of her hoped that none of the neighbors would notice that she was
running outside
naked
in the middle of the night
; the other part of her didn’t care. For the first time in a long time, Samara felt wild and free. Running towards the
light of the
moon seemed to take away the pain that she had felt
about Luke earlier that night.

Luke. Just thinking about him made her feel empty inside. She still couldn’t figure out how sh
e had heard him apologize to her
. Samara wanted to believe that she was wrong, that she was just crazy and hearing things. She knew that wasn’t the truth, though.
Samara was p
ositive that she had heard him.

It was almost as though Luke had communicated with her mentally, as though he was able to get inside of her head somehow. Was that possible, though? Did ESP really exist? Samara had never believed in things like that before, but however Luke had tried to relay the message to her, she had hea
rd his voice loud and clear.

Taking a step closer to the lake, Samara stared at the round reflection of the moon, which was glowing brightly in the water. She stared up at the sky to look at the stars, but once again, fou
nd herself drawn to the moon.

As she walked along the sandy banks of the lake, Samara began to feel strange. She pressed her palm to her forehead, realizing that she must have a fever. Feeling a painful sensation in her stomach, Samara hunched o
ver, fully prepared to vomit.

It didn’t happen, though.

Instead, she
howled in pain as she
felt her legs being pulled out from under her
–
or so she thought. Moments later, she realized that she had merely sunken down, lower to the ground. She tried to wave her arms in the air, but they were rooted firmly in
the dirt. They wouldn’t move.

Glancing down at her feet, Samara noticed that she now had
four
,
and
they were all covered in white fur. She quickly realized that she wasn’t starin
g at her feet. It was her paws.

Samara looked into the lake’s water and did a double take. The reflection that she was used to seeing, of a girl with dark hair and skin that would be like that of a porcelain doll at this time of year, wasn’t there. Instead, she was staring
back into the eyes of a wolf.

She took a step forward and, sure enough, the wolf’s reflection also moved. Samara bowed her head, and the wolf’s eyes stared back at her from a different angle in the water. The wolf that was staring back at
S
amara was her, without a doubt.

Samara didn’t look like an ordinary gray wolf, like the one who had at
tacked her the night she had gone out with Luke.
The wolf staring back at her, with its amber eyes that were the same color as her own, had a coat of beautiful white fur. It was like not
hing she had ever seen before.

Taking a step forward, she watched as the wolf’s ref
lection moved, too.

Staring up into the full moon, Samara felt a
howl escape from her throat.

*

“Samara! Wake up!” Mrs. McKinley sh
outed, shaking her shoulders.

Samara cracked
one eye open
and glanced around
at her surroundings
. She was
lying
outside in
the grass, which was still soggy
from the rain
that had fallen
the night before
. Sitting up, s
he realized that she was naked.

Last night really hadn’t been a dream. She actually had gone outside and ta
ken off her clothes and . . .
turned into a wolf
? Samara wasn’t sure about that last part, but the rest of it was obviously true. After she had run home from Emma’s house, she had definitely gone to sleep in a pair of fleece pajamas and now, she wa
sn’t wearing anything at all.

“What are you doin
g out here?” Mrs. McKinley asked.
From the expression on her face
and the tone of her voice
, Samara could tell that her mom was
completely
bewildered. Samara
wanted to tell her that she didn’t feel any better about the situation herself. She was really
embarrassed that her mom had seen her
lying
on the ground in no clothing. She really hoped t
hat no one else had seen her.

“I
—
I don’t know,” Samara replied quietly, trying as best as she could to cover her body with her arms. She looked around the big grassy yard for her pajamas. When she spotted them on the ground next to her bedroom window, which was still open, she pointed to them. “Can you get my clothes
, please
?”

Mrs. McKinley huffed and walked across the yard. “Are you drunk or using drugs?” she asked, as s
he handed Samara her clothes.

Samara shook her head. “No. I
haven’t drank or done any drugs
.” She wondered if she should mention that there was alcohol at Emma’s party the night before, but she decided against it. If her mom asked, she would tell her. As of right now, she wasn’t lying, though.
Even if Samara did drink, she wouldn’t have had a chance to at
Emma’s before everything with Luke had happened. After she heard him apologize, she was so confused that she didn’t even want to be at the party anymore, so
she just went him without
even
te
lling Emma.

“If you haven’t been drinking or doing drugs, how did you get out here without even knowing it? And why weren’t you wearing an
y clothes?” Mrs. McKinley asked accusingly.
“Are you having sex?”

As Samara fumbled with the buttons on her fuzzy pink pajama top, she search
ed her head for a logical excuse
– and
the truth. She wasn’t sure what the truth was, though. She had simply gotten out of bed, went outside through her window and, for some reason, had taken off her clothes. As she tried to figure out what had made her do all of these things, the only thing that Sama
ra could think of was the moon.

It had been so full and bright last night. She had been drawn to it before she had turned into a wolf. Isn’t that what was supposed to happen with werewolves? Samara didn’t know much about them because she had never believed in them, but she was pretty sure that they were only supposed to turn into wolves during the full moon. Is th
at what was happening to her?