by Jayme Morse
“Your own brother would kill you?” Samara asked. Not that it would really surprise her. Jason was a really vindictive person.
“When I first changed, Jason was already Alpha,” Josh explained. “Even though we were born within minutes of each other, he changed first. I guess because he was always more powerful. I was struggling with not being able to talk to Kyle anymore . . . since he was my best friend.” He paused, glancing around as though he suspected that someone might be listening to him. “Jason threatened me. He said if I continued to stay friends with Kyle – if we hung out or even spoke without him being present so that he could hear whatever I had to say – he would kill me.”
“So, you covered your scent so that Jason wouldn’t be able to find you here,” Samara said, piecing everything together.
“Yep,” Josh replied, looking away from her, focusing his light brown eyes on the half-moon that hung over them. Samara shifted in her shoes, feeling uncomfortable. It felt like Josh didn’t want to meet her eyes, probably because he was still angry at her for what had happened to Lilly.
Do we really have to invite him in? Luke asked through mind-speak. Samara thought that she sensed a tone of panic – or another emotion that she couldn’t determine – in Luke’s voice, which was normally bold and confident.
“Josh, can I talk to you?” Samara asked. “I have some questions I’d like to ask you.”
Josh shrugged. “Maybe, but I need to get inside first so that no one will spot me out here.”
Samara led Josh back to the house. Glancing over her shoulder, Samara noticed that Luke was walking slowly behind them. The look on his face told her that he wasn’t happy that Josh was here. Did he really have that much of a problem being friendly to people from other packs?
I don’t have a problem with Josh because he’s on another pack, Luke told her.
Butt out of my mind! Samara yelled inside her head, turning around and giving Luke a look.
Luke looked down at the ground.
Once they all walked through the front door, Samara heard the coffee machine buzzing from the kitchen. Figuring that Aunt Rae was the one who was awake, Samara began ascending the stairs.
“I’m in the kitchen,” Kyle called out. Samara went back down the steps that she had already climbed and followed Josh and Luke into the kitchen.
“Werewolves can drink coffee?” Samara wasn’t a coffee drinker herself, so she didn’t know firsthand, but she figured that caffeine would make wolves crazy hyper – similar to the effect that it had on humans, but heightened.
“Of course. We can have whatever we want,” Kyle said. “That’s what makes us different from vampires. They don’t crave food after they’ve changed, but we do – even when it’s not meat because we’re still humans by day.”
Samara raised an eyebrow. “Vampires really exist?” She didn’t know why she was asking; if werewolves could really exist, surely vampires did, too.
Kyle laughed, his fair skin turning a darker shade of pink with every chuckle. “You didn’t know that already? Cedar Falls is filled with vampires.”
“Huh,” Samara said, reaching for a chocolate donut hole from a tray in the center of the table and processing the information that Kyle had just fed her. Cedar Falls was a town about forty miles away. Samara had never been to that town, but she’d heard about a string of murders that had taken place there recently. With a high vampire population, it was no wonder.
“How are you holding up, man?” Kyle asked Josh.
Josh looked down at his hands, a look of sadness crossing over his face. Samara could have sworn that she saw his eyes fill up with tears, but he blinked them away. “I’ve never been so depressed in my life, man. This is my fault. I never should have bitten her.”
Samara gaped at him. He thought it was his fault now? He didn’t blame her anymore? If that’s what he thought, then why had he been acting so strange towards her . . . refusing to even look at her?
That couldn’t be. Samara was responsible for this. It was all her fault Lilly was gone. If she hadn’t agreed to go through the fake initiation with the Vyka, Lilly would probably still be alive.
Just as Samara was about to tell Josh that, she heard Luke’s voice fill her mind. Don’t tell him that if you want him to answer your questions. It could get really ugly in here, and you don’t want Josh to get pissed off at you and refuse to answer your questions.
Oh right, Samara replied, realizing that she could have just made a big mistake. Thanks for stopping me.
Samara decided that her questions could wait for now. She should wait until she knew for sure that Josh was feeling better and that he wasn’t going to start blaming her – whether that was weeks or months from now. Until then, she would just have to accept the fact that Lilly had said things that may incriminate her, but there was no solid evidence against her.
“You can’t blame yourself,” Kyle was telling Josh, as he brought him a cup of coffee. “You couldn’t have known that this would happen when you bit Lilly.”
“I guess,” Josh said, shrugging. “It just sucks that I have to sneak my friendship with you during a time like this.”
Kyle nodded his head in agreement. “It sucks that we have to sneak being friends at any time.”
A light bulb went on in Samara’s head. “Josh,” she said slowly, “it must be really hard for you to be a Vyka. I mean, Jason killed your mate . . . and he’s not just your pack leader, he’s your brother.”
Josh nodded his head. “That’s exactly what I’ve been struggling with lately. I just want to attack him, but I know that I’m not strong enough to kill an Alpha. I also don’t know if I could live with myself afterwards. He might not have a problem with killing people, but I do.”
“Well, why don’t you become an Ima?” Samara asked, glancing nervously at Luke, whose face was full of surprise at her suggestion. “I mean, I don’t think any of us have a problem with you joining our pack. Maybe you could find a way to make Jason exile you from the Vyka.”
Josh shook his head sadly. “I wish that could happen, Samara. I really do. The thing is, Jason doesn’t exile pack members. It would mean that he’d lose a member and then all of his pack information would be at risk. If the offense is bad enough, he’ll kill us, but he would never exile us because it’d give us the option to join another pack and betray him.”
Samara sighed. “We have to think of a way around this. There’s got to be some way you could become an Ima.”
“Yeah, well, if you think of a way, let me know,” Josh said doubtfully. “As far as I know, the only way is for another pack’s Alpha to kill Jason and take over the whole pack.”
Samara looked down at her hands. She knew she wasn’t ready to even think about that yet. She still had a lot of learning left to do. In fact, now would be a really good time for a lesson.
Samara turned to Luke. “Can either you or Kyle give me a lesson right now? I need to learn.”
“Now?” Kyle asked, glancing at his watch. “It’s three o’clock in the morning. We have school in four hours.”
“I don’t care,” Samara said. “The sooner I learn, the better off everyone will be.”
Kyle shrugged. “Okay, I won’t be getting much sleep after this coffee, anyway. Let’s go.”
Chapter 13
****
About ten minutes later, Samara was standing, in wolf form, in Kyle’s back yard, waiting for Kyle to come outside. He had said that he had some preparing to do for their lesson.
Samara watched as a raccoon skittered across the backyard. When it saw her, it hid itself behind a tree, which seemed to camouflage it in the darkness of the night, though Samara knew it was still there – she could hear it.
Samara chuckled to herself. The raccoon was probably afraid that she was going to attack him, but that wasn’t the case at all. She had learned to curb her hunger and her impulse to attack. As long as she ate meat regularly, wild animals didn’t smell so good to her.
What smell
ed much better right now than hunting a wild animal was revenge . . . sweet, sweet revenge.
While Kyle gave Samara her lesson, Luke and Josh were going to head over to Colby’s house. Luke had mentioned that the Jackson’s had a library that was filled with old books about paranormal myths and legends. Samara was hoping that Luke, Josh, and Colby would be able to find something in the book that would help them figure out how to make Josh an Ima.
Don’t get your hopes up, Sam, Luke said, his voice filling her mind. This isn’t going to be easy. I don’t even know if it’s worth it.
It’s the least I can do – or at least try to do, Samara replied, shaking her head and feeling a furry ear flop over. This is entirely my fault. I feel so guilty about it. I’ll always feel like I owe him, but I have to do something for him.
She heard Luke sigh. I get it.
Something about the frosty edge to his voice told her that he didn’t really get it. How could he understand, though? He wasn’t the one who had caused this to happen. Colby would be on her side, though. Colby knew what it was like to lose a mate.
Samara felt guilty because Josh no longer had a mate, but she felt even guiltier that Lilly’s parents still didn’t even know what had happened to her. It must be so awful for them to have to wonder who had killed their daughter, and it bothered Samara that they would never know, unless if a werewolf broke the rules, or the police came up with something on their own.
Samara couldn’t even imagine what her own parents would be going through if she were the one who had been killed. Even though Samara knew she couldn’t tell the Phillips family what had happened, the least she could do to avenge her death was kill the werewolf who had murdered her.
A large paw clapped her back, and she heard a growling from behind her. Samara whirled around and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the blue eyes that stared back at her.
It was Kyle.
Ha! Ha! Kyle laughed inside his head, snorting aloud. I totally got you! I scared the crap out of you!
Yes, you did, Samara admitted, her voice shaky. She realized that her tail was between her legs, making her look like a scared dog, and quickly lifted it into the air.
Do you know what I did to catch you off guard? Kyle asked, sitting down on the ground next to her.
Samara shook her head. No.
I could tell that you were thinking. You were sort of staring into space, Kyle replied. So, I took that time and I pounced on ya.
So that’s all I need to do? Samara asked. I just have to wait for the right moment when the wolf isn’t paying attention?
Pretty much, Kyle agreed.
Well, why didn’t you just tell me that instead of make us through all the motions? Samara asked.
His black lips parted into a toothy dog smile. I thought it would be a lot of fun.
Quickly shifting back into human form, Samara rolled her eyes. Leave it to her crazy cousin to want to play games at a time like this.
After Kyle phased, they both went in the house and changed into the clothes they were planning to wear to school. Fortunately Samara’s dad had dropped her off a change of clothes so she wouldn’t have to wear the same outfit two days in a row. The two of them began walking over to Colby’s house, which was only a few doors down. Mr. Jackson opened the front door. “They’re in the library,” he told them.
Samara nodded and, following Kyle, walked past him into the library. Even once she was inside the library door, she could still feel Colby’s dad’s nearly-black eyes on her back. She hadn’t been crazy the first time she had met him; the man was definitely watching her, but she had no idea why.
As soon as they were in the library, Colby looked up at them excitedly. “We found something that could maybe work.” He nodded to the books that were stacked in a big pile in front of him.
Samara sat down across from him. “What is it?”
“Well, according to page five-hundred-and-eight,” Colby began, holding up a book titled Werewolf Alpha Myths, Legends, and Traditions, “there is a way around the Alpha letting a pack member go.”
“What is it?” Kyle asked, reaching for the book and scanning the page. A moment later, his eyes lit up with recognition. “Oh, shit,” Kyle said aloud. “Could this really work?”
As the other guys nodded their heads, Samara snapped, “Will someone please fill me in?” Glancing at the time on her iPhone, she realized that it was already five o’clock. The sleepier she got, the more her patience wore thin. Samara had no idea how she was going to make it through the day with no sleep.
“Although the most common way to switch packs is with permission from one’s designated Alpha, it is possible to switch during the month of October,” Kyle read from the book before looking up at Samara.
“It’s October right now,” Colby hissed.
Kyle continued. “To switch packs during the month of October, one must make a sacrifice during the blood moon.” He looked up at Samara and explained, “That’s the full moon in October.”
Samara waited for Kyle to continue reading. When he didn’t, she asked, “Is that all?”
Colby nodded. “It’s the only passage we could seem to find on the subject.”
“But it’s good news,” Josh said, with a wide smile on his face. “It means I can become an Ima.”
“If it works,” Samara muttered. “The blood moon hasn’t already passed?”
“Nope, we already checked,” Colby said. “It’s next week.”
“I could have sworn there was already a full moon this month,” Samara said slowly. She looked up at Colby. “Wasn’t there? You gave me until the full moon to decide if I wanted to be an Ima, and that was over a week ago.”
“Well, here’s the catch. There are two full moons in October and according to this book,” Colby said, holding up a book titled, Full Moons: Practices and Rituals, “the first moon is the natural full moon that takes place every month. It’s the one that humans can see. But, there’s a second full moon, the blood moon that humans can’t see. See, October is the most important month for witches, and supposedly, they cast the most spells during this time. Well, all of the unused magic from those spells needs to go somewhere, right? So, it ends up forming a huge ball in the sky . . . a second blood moon that can only be seen by witches and werewolves and other paranormal creatures. It’s thought to be just as powerful as the first blood moon, though, because it already has so much magical energy.”
“When does this ‘second’ blood moon form?” Samara asked doubtfully. The whole concept sounded so far-fetched that she didn’t even know if she could believe it yet.
“It forms during the first week of November, according to this book,” Colby replied. “All of the leftover magic is floating around out in space until gravity finally pulls it together, the day after Halloween.”
“It starts on the night of the Homecoming dance,” Josh said. “That Saturday.”
“So, it’s still considered a blood moon even though it doesn’t happen in October?” Samara asked.
“Yes, that’s what the book says,” Colby replied, looking up at her. “Don’t doubt it so much, Sam. Is it really that unbelievable? None of us have seen it before because none of us have been werewolves during November yet, but my parents told me that it’s real. They’ve seen it.”
“It’s almost like it’s meant to be,” Josh said, smiling. “What are the chances of us finding out about this rule the week before the blood moon?”
Samara forced a smile back, hoping that he wouldn’t get his hopes up too much. She would hate to see how crushed he would be if this really didn’t work. “Well, if this works . . . it’s really good news. I’d hate for us to have to wait another year to be able to do this.” She glanced over at Josh. “Are you positive that you want to become an Ima?”
Josh nodded. “I don’t want to be a Vyka anymore.”
“Have you thought about new living arrangements?” Samara asked. “When I became an Ima, Seth had to move out . . . but I can’t
see Jason moving out.”
“No, he’d probably try to kill me if I stayed there,” Josh replied. “I don’t know where I’m going to live.”
“You can live here,” Colby chimed in. “There’s plenty of room.”
“Thanks, man,” Josh said gratefully.
Ugh. Luke’s voice filled Samara’s head. Somehow, she knew that he hadn’t wanted her to hear that. Samara glanced across the room at where Luke was sitting. He was slumped in a chair and had been quiet until now.
Is everything okay? Samara asked him, making eye contact.
Luke shrugged his shoulders before standing up and walking out of the room.
“What’s wrong with Mr. Sensitive?” Colby asked.
Samara stared back at him with raised eyebrows. “Mr. Sensitive?” she asked, stifling a giggle. “Since when do you call him that?”
“Since he’s acting like a wimp lately,” Colby replied, shrugging. Samara laughed at the irony of the statement. Colby might act confident in wolf form, but she had yet to see his confidence as a human. Samara reminded herself that, once she had time, she was going to have to work on that makeover that she so desperately wanted to give him. Trying to ignore the fact that she was beginning to sound like Emma, she strolled out of the room and chased after Luke.
She caught up with him just as he had swung the front door open. “Luke!” Samara hissed, trying to keep her voice down in case the Jackson’s were trying to sleep now – even though they seemed like night owls. “Wait!”
Luke turned around and looked at her before closing the door behind him.
Samara felt the heat spreading throughout her body as the anger built up inside of her. She opened the front door and closed it as she ran onto the front porch and down the front steps.
When she reached Luke, Samara grabbed his arm. “What’s wrong?” Even though she had only known Luke a really short time, he had never acted like this before. It almost reminded Samara of when he told her that he didn’t want to go on a second date, even though she knew that he had feelings for her, because he didn’t want them to get involved until after she realized that she was a werewolf.