by Morse, Jody
“But it’s true!” Emma protested, placing her hands on her hips. “You can even ask Bennett if you don’t believe us.”
“Bennett has a pretty vivid imagination, too. But whatever you say, Em. We know that you two can handle yourselves. You don’t need to make up stories to prove it to us,” Samara replied with a wink. She yawned and turned to Declan. “Are you ready to go?”
“Yeah, we’ll see you guys later. Don’t go after any packs without us around,” Declan joked again before heading for the front door. They piled the baby into the car.
Emma stared out the window at them angrily. “I can’t believe they don’t believe us!”
“I know,” Colby agreed with a sigh. “Oh, well. I guess it will just stay between you, me, and the Trusted Ones for now. Maybe we’ll convince them it really happened one day.”
“Yeah, maybe,” Emma agreed, turning to Colby. “You know, as much as I love Davenport, it’s nice to have you to myself again.”
“You know what I think we should do for the rest of the day?” Colby asked, lifting her into his arms. That was the benefit of being a werewolf; even though he was sort of puny by human standards, being a wolf gave him the strength he needed to be able to carry Emma up ten flights of stairs without even feeling a thing—not that they had ten flights of stairs.
“What?” Emma asked, glancing up at him.
“I think we should go spend the rest of the day in bed.” He said, pecking her on the lips.
“That sounds good to me,” Emma replied, wrapping her arms around his neck and allowing him to carry her into the bedroom.
Once they were lying under the covers, Colby kissed her deeply. When he pulled away, he said, “It’s going to be our last day of privacy, really. The rest of our pack members are going to be home from their vacation tomorrow, too.”
“I know,” Emma replied sadly. “In fact, that was something I wanted to talk to you about. I know that we both love living here, and it will always be a second home to us, but I was thinking . . . Maybe we should look into getting our own place soon.”
He rested his head against her chest and looked up into her eyes. “Our own place, huh?”
“Yeah, I mean we get no privacy around here,” Emma replied. “Between the rest of the pack and Bennett . . .”
“Ah, don’t let me be the reason for your sad, albeit necessary, departure,” Bennett said from behind them.
Emma glanced over at where he was hovering behind them. “I wouldn’t have to blame you if you weren’t constantly appearing out of nowhere, just like you did right now. You’re always listening in on our conversations and always interrupting something.” She rolled her eyes.
“Okay, okay. I’ll admit it. The past few days, I’ve been rather annoying,” Bennett agreed.
“The past few days?” Colby laughed. “You’ve been annoying ever since we’ve known you, Ben.”
“Actually, Colby Jack, that’s where you’re wrong. I will admit that there was a period of time when I was always spying on you. And I’ve been spying on you for the past two weeks, too. However, here’s what you need to understand: the only reason I’ve spied on you is because it was requested of me,” Bennett explained.
Emma narrowed her eyes at him. “By who?”
Even Colby had to admit that it creeped him out a little that someone had asked Bennett to spy on them. Who would want that?
“Joe McKinley,” he replied. “Back before anyone knew he was still alive, he requested that I watch after this old house. That’s the reason I live here . . . and it’s the reason Nadia and Dante live here, too. I guarded this place for years. When your pack moved in, he asked me to watch after you.”
“Okay, but now we know he’s alive, so why have you been spying on us over the past two weeks?” Colby pressed.
“Since the rest of the pack was gone and Joe went away to visit Alaska, too, he wanted me to make sure that the two of you didn’t get yourselves in any trouble. And to be frank, he wasn’t wrong for that. It turned out that you really did need the help of the Trusted Ones,” Bennett said matter-of-factly.
“I don’t understand something, though,” Emma said. “As much as I appreciate knowing when you’re spying us, if your job was really just to watch us, why do you always interrupt us and then use what happens between us as blackmail? It doesn’t make any sense.”
“Honestly? It’s been rather nice having you around. Aside from Nadia and Dante, who are usually too involved in each other to pay attention to me, I didn’t have any contact with anyone,” Bennett said sadly. “But then you two came along, and you’re both full of so much life and energy. Don’t tell anyone else, but you’re my favorite Tala pack members. I show up sometimes just to have someone to joke around with. That’s the only reason I’ve blackmailed you or interrupted you when you were in such compromising positions. It’s fun to make you feel uncomfortable, but I never meant any harm by it.”
“Hmm,” Emma murmured. If that was the real reason, she felt really sorry for him.
“I do understand, however, that the two of you must move out into your own place,” Bennett went on. “It was bound to happen eventually.”
“Will you come visit us at our new place, at least?” Colby asked, feeling sort of bad about getting so annoyed with him all those times he’d intruded on them. If he’d only known that it was because Bennett was lonely, he might not have minded so much.
“Yeah, we would love to have you,” Emma agreed, glancing over at Colby with a smile.
A wide grin spread across Ben’s face. “Why, I’d love to. For now, however, I need to be going. You two enjoy your last day together alone. I won’t intrude on you at all. I promise.” He disappeared into thin air.
As they rested back into the bed, Colby glanced over at her. “I was a little disappointed that you’re not pregnant,” he admitted. “I guess I sort of got used to the idea of possibly having a baby, even if I only thought about it for one night.”
“Yeah?” Emma asked, kissing him softly. That was just what she needed to hear—that if and when it happened, he would be there to support her.
“So, maybe we could think about it now. I mean, you said it’s what you wanted, right?” he asked, nuzzling his forehead against hers.
“Well, I did say that, but after all the commotion that went on with Daven this week, I think I changed my mind. I don’t think I want them for a while.”
Colby frowned. “How long?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe another ten years,” Emma said as she slumped against the bed, exhausted.
Check out the first two chapters of First Moon (The Koto Chronicles, #1) a Howl spin-off series!:
Chapter 1
“I caught one!” Thane yelled, laughing as he struggled to reel his fishing line in. A rainbow trout fought against it as it was lifted out of the water, weighing down the flimsy pole.
“Poor thing,” I said, unhooking the fish. It flopped around a bit as I held it in my hands. Its scales felt rough, but slimy, against my skin, and it was cool, just like the water it lived in. I gently set the fish back into the water, watching as it dove beneath the surface.
Thane smiled at me, his brown eyes twinkling. I’d always loved the way they glimmered in the sunlight, even when we were kids. It was one of my favorite things about our Alaskan summers.
“You know, I always have so much fun with you when we come out here by ourselves. It’s nice to get away from the rest of the pack sometimes.” He cleared his throat and added nervously, “And it’s also nice to be able to hear your thoughts.”
I glanced away from him and out at the water. The stretch of lake extended far beyond us, with the beautiful mountains in the background. It looked so calm, so peaceful…and yet so incredibly boring. It made me wish that a storm would come to stir things up a bit. “You say you can always hear my thoughts, but I don’t understand it, Thane.” I met his gaze again. “If we’re really mates like you say we are, why can’t I hear your thoughts, t
oo?”
Thane shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s just one of life’s little mysteries, I guess. I just know that if you’re not really my mate, I wouldn’t be able to hear your thoughts or feel your emotions the way I do. You’re intense sometimes, Skye.”
I sighed. “I know I can be intense at times. I just don’t understand why I can’t hear you. It almost doesn’t seem fair.” I wanted to be able to hear his thoughts so badly. It would let me know that the feelings I had for him actually meant something. Instead, I wondered if we were both wasting our time.
I’d known Thane my whole life. We had been the best of friends, ever since we had been in deerskin diapers. It had always been assumed that we would be together one day, and I really did have feelings for him, but I didn’t see how it was possible that we could be mates if I couldn’t hear his thoughts. Mates could almost always hear each other’s thoughts, especially if they were both already wolves in the same pack.
“I have a feeling that everything is going to change once we mark,” Thane went on. “I’ve heard that the dynamics between mates can change after they marry. So, maybe once we get married, you’ll be able to hear me, too.”
“Maybe,” I replied, even though I had my doubts about it. Sometimes I couldn’t help but wonder if maybe we weren’t really mates at all. Maybe my mate was someone else and the only reason Thane could hear me was because we had been such good friends since we were kids. We had a special bond with each other, sure…but that didn’t necessarily mean we were meant to be together, did it?
“Maybe we could do that soon,” Thane suggested quietly.
I glanced over at him sharply. “Do what soon?” I questioned, searching his honey brown eyes. Had he meant what I thought he’d meant?
“Get married.”
A knot tightened in my stomach. He did mean what I’d thought he’d meant.
When I didn’t say anything in response, Thane continued. “I mean, we’re both sixteen, Skye. The Koto wants us to get married and start having babies in a couple of years. Why not just do it now?”
“Because I’m only sixteen,” I said, turning away from him and staring out at the water. I thought about what he was saying; I knew that our pack, the Koto, wanted us to get married and have at least one kid before the age of eighteen, but it seemed so early to me. “I don’t think I’m ready for that yet.”
We were too young, but truthfully, there was more to it than not being ready for marriage yet. I wanted to be able to hear Thane’s thoughts or feel his emotions—at least once—before agreeing to marry him. I wanted a sign that we really were each other’s mates before I jumped into a relationship with him at all, let alone got married.
Sometimes, if a wolf doesn’t find a mate, they settle for companionship—another werewolf, or a human—that they would never have as close of a connection with as they would have with their true mate. As much as I cared about Thane, and wished that he was my mate, I didn’t want us to go through that. I wanted each of us to have that connection that only mates have with one another.
An uncomfortable silence passed between us. I glanced down at my watch. “We should get going now. The meeting is going to be starting soon.”
Thane reeled in his fishing rod and nodded. “Okay,” he replied, even though I could see the confused look in his eyes. My reaction to getting married had crushed him a little.
I only hoped that he understood why I had rejected him.
As we headed back to our pack’s campsite, the tension between us thickened, but I knew it was only temporary. Thane and I had known each other for too long for things to stay awkward between us.
*
“Skye!” my mother called out to me from her place around the circle our pack was sitting in. I could tell from a hundred feet away that she was angry with me. “Where have you been all day?”
I glanced over at Thane, who gave me an apologetic look, before we separated. One of the Koto pack rules was that men sat on the left of the circle, and women sat on the right. It was one of the many, many ways in which our pack was stuck in the old times—which was one of the things that I hated the most about being a Koto.
“I’m sorry, Mama,” I replied as I approached her. “Thane and I went to the lake. We caught a bunch of fish.”
“Where are they?” my mother asked, tucking a piece of long, silky black hair behind her ear. The excitement was obvious in her caramel-colored eyes. “Perhaps Thane and his parents would like to come over for dinner tonight, and we can cook for them. Was it trout that you caught?”
“Yes, but we didn’t keep them,” I replied, knowing that she wouldn’t be happy about this. “I threw them back in the water.
She stared back at me, horrified. “Why would you do that?!”
“I felt bad for them. I made Thane throw them back so they wouldn’t die.”
“Skye!” My mother placed her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes at me. “Do you really mean to tell me that you skipped out on all of your chores today to go fishing, but you didn’t even bring any fish back with you because you felt bad for them?”
I nodded, and my mom shook her head frustratedly. “What am I going to do with you? When will you ever learn to be more responsible? That could have been our supper tonight! Now, we have to hope that someone else has some fish or moose they can spare us.”
“Well, maybe we should go to the grocery store and buy food like normal people then,” I told her with an eye roll. As soon as I saw the angry expression that her face had twisted into, I knew that I’d said the wrong thing.
“Because we’re not normal people, Skye! We’re werewolves, and it’s about time you start acting like one! We need to stick to Koto pack traditions, and that does not entail buying our food at a store that is frequented by humans.”
I noticed that some of the other pack members were staring at me, watching as my mother scolded me in an embarrassingly loud tone of voice. An angry red heat had risen to her cheeks, and I knew that she was really livid with me this time.
Comparing us to humans was taboo in my mother’s book. Not all werewolves hate humans, but my mother did because my father was shot and killed by a human. It had been an honest mistake; the human really believed that he was a wolf, but my mother and grandmother had both held a grudge over all humans ever since.
I sighed as I took my place on one of the logs that circled the campfire. I didn’t want to argue with my mother, but she and I didn’t see eye-to-eye on a lot of things. She was a traditionalist; she believed that we shouldn’t stray away from our pack’s ways, but I felt the opposite. I wanted to stray away from the Koto completely. I wanted to explore the world; I didn’t want to be stuck here in this same boring place for the rest of my eternal life.
I had been so envious of my best friend, Kyana, when she had left our pack the previous year to join the Tala pack and be with her mate, Chris. She was finally able to see the world in a whole new light, unlike me. I was stuck here in Alaska, always seeing the same old people and the same old places.
Kyana and I couldn’t even talk to each other on the phone, since my mother didn’t allow me to have a cell phone. The only way we could communicate with each other regularly was by writing letters. She seemed happy where she was now and, even though I wished I could leave like she had, I was happy for her.
At that moment, my sister, Kirima, came and sat down beside me, interrupting my thoughts. “Where have you been all day?” she whispered, leaning in close. “Mama has been worried sick about you. Not to mention angry that you didn’t finish your chores this morning.”
“Thane and I went to the lake,” I replied with a shrug.
My sister shook her head at me, and I knew that she was frustrated. She was just as strict as my mother was, really. I was seventeen, and Kirima was twenty-two. Like my mother, Kirima believed that we should stick to the traditional ways of the Koto. It was annoying. There were times when it felt like I had a second mother.
Akar stood before us,
and our pack quieted. Akar was Kyana’s brother and Alpha of the Koto pack now that Orkos, his father and our former Alpha, had been killed during a fight with the Tala pack. “I need your attention, everyone,” he said, moving towards the center of the circle and glancing at each of the members of our pack as he spoke. “I have an important announcement to make today. The Koto pack as we know it is about to change, and all of you have a decision to make.”
Change? I scoffed. I didn’t see how that could even be possible. Nothing ever changed for the Koto pack.
Akar glanced over at me, and I knew he’d heard me scoff. He didn’t say anything about it, though. Instead, he continued with his announcement. “For many years, the Koto pack has resided in Alaska. This state is our home, and many of us have ancestral ties to this area. It’s time for me to leave, though.” He paused. “It’s been hard for me to be this far away from Kyana. As all of you know, she’s chosen to live in Pennsylvania permanently. While I’m not going to be moving to Pennsylvania due to the high number of packs that are already in that area, I will be moving to New Jersey. Being an hour away from her will make me feel better, as her brother. She has a mate now, but I still need to know that I can be within a close distance to protect her if she needs protecting. I hope you all understand why I must go.”
So, this was the big announcement? That he was leaving our pack? Big freaking deal. I, for one, didn’t mind seeing him leave. I’d never really known how to feel about Akar. He was Kyana’s older brother and the leader of both the Koto youth and adult packs, so I’d known him my entire life. Even though I’d known him forever, though, it also felt like I didn’t know him at all.
Every time he stared at me with those dark brown eyes, I got the feeling that there was something mysterious about Akar. It seemed like there was a certain side of himself that he always showed to the pack, as well as another part that he kept hidden. I just wondered sometimes what that secret part of him was like.