by Morse, Jayme
“January second,” Emma murmured, glancing up at him. “Is that when it is?”
A small smile tugged at his lips. “Yup, I’m practically a New Year’s baby. Anyway, open your gift.”
“I don’t understand why you got me a gift,” Emma replied, staring down at the box that she held in her hands.
Samara rolled her eyes. “Emma, just open it already! We don’t have all day.”
Shooting her a glare, her best friend cracked the box open and glanced inside. “Oh, my God. Why did you get me this? You’re not proposing to me or something, are you? Because I am so not ready to get married right now. Not to you or to anyone else.”
Samara smiled at Emma’s reaction. And who could blame her? The large vibrant blue sapphire was set in a white gold band with a scalloped halo that made the ring look like a flower. If only Emma knew how much the ring had cost . . .
“Because every time you look at your finger, you think about how naked it looks without that blue sapphire ring that Jason gave you,” Colby replied. “I thought that having a new sparkly ring for you to look at would make your mind shut off when certain people are trying to sleep at night.”
Emma glanced down at the ring that she held in her hands and then up at Colby. “Thank you,” she whispered before rising to her feet and scampering down the hall to her bedroom.
When Samara heard the door close behind her quietly, she turned to Colby. “What was that all about?”
Colby shrugged, sitting down on the couch next to her. “I don’t know. For once, I can’t hear what she’s thinking. She must have figured out how to block me out of her thoughts finally. I’d really like to know if she likes it, or if she was just pretending to be impressed by it.”
He sighed, and Samara stifled a giggle. She doubted that the whole reason he had bought her the ring was to keep her from pouting over the ring that Jason had given her. They had given Troy the ring so that he would let Emma join the Ima pack. They’d later learned it was the only reason he’d bitten Emma; he wanted the ring because the sapphire had belonged to Joe McKinley; it was his legendary talisman.
The Ima still hadn’t figured out how they were going to get the ring back, even though they knew they were going to have to find a way. The stone was thought to be powerful, and Samara was afraid of it getting into the hands of the wrong person . . . if it hadn't already.
“Do you think she likes it?” Colby asked, turning to her. There was a nervous look in his eyes.
“She probably really likes it, but I have a method. For her birthday one year, I got her a pair of chandelier earrings. She wore them every day. So, for Christmas that year, I got her a matching bracelet. She didn’t wear it even once.” Samara chuckled at the memory. “Anyway, the point is, if she doesn’t ever wear it, you’ll know it’s because she hates it.”
Colby nodded. “That makes a lot of sense, I guess.” He sucked in his cheeks and released a big breath of air. “Now, we wait.”
Samara laughed. “You mean, now you wait. I need to go get ready for my date with Luke. He’s supposed to pick me up here in the next fifteen minutes.”
“Where has Luke been all day, anyway?” Colby asked.
She shrugged. “He had to go home to help his parents with something.”
“Have you met the folks yet?”
“Not yet,” Samara sighed. It actually bothered her that Luke hadn’t introduced her to his mom and stepfather yet. It felt like he was hiding her from them for some reason, but she wasn’t sure why he would be. Wasn’t he supposed to be proud of having her as his mate? Or was he afraid that they weren’t going to like her?
“All in good time, I’m sure. And don’t worry. His parents will love you once they do meet you,” Colby replied, as though he were reading her mind. “I’m sure of it.”
Sighing, Samara rose to her feet. She wasn’t convinced that he was right. Not one bit.
*
Samara heard the sound of Luke’s car pull into the driveway just as she finished running a brush through her hair. Since she planned to spend a lot of time at the new house, she had already stocked one of the bathrooms with the makeup and hair products that she normally used and had stuffed some of her clothes into Emma’s closet.
She stepped outside the front door, just as Luke was walking up the front steps. He smiled when he saw her.
“This is for you,” Luke said, as he handed her a single rose.
“Aw, that’s so sweet,” Samara said, taking it from him. She hugged her pea coat closer to her as they descended the steps. “So, where are we going?”
“It’s a surprise.” Luke grinned, as he held her car door open for her. Once Samara climbed inside, he walked around to the other side of the car and got in. He turned to look at her. “I heard what you were thinking about earlier.”
“Oh? What was that?” Samara questioned.
“You know, about how you haven’t met my parents yet,” Luke replied. His emerald green eyes flitted over at her, as he stared at her intently, measuring her face for a reaction.
“I see.”
“The reason you haven’t met my family . . . it’s not what you think,” Luke said, turning away from her and backing out of the driveway. “I don’t want you to feel like the reason you haven’t met them yet is because I’m afraid they’ll be disappointed with you. They won’t be. They’d be crazy not to like you.”
“Prove it,” Samara replied, her voice merely a whisper. When Luke glanced over at her, she continued. “Prove to me that you’re not afraid of what they’ll think of me.”
“How do you want me to do that?”
“Let me meet them.”
Luke glanced over at her, and a look of uncertainty flickered through his emerald green eyes. It quickly vanished, and they filled with a look of amusement instead. “Okay, I will. Friday night, I’ll introduce you to them. So, make yourself available.”
Samara laughed. “Sounds like a plan.”
*
After they saw a movie, Luke pulled into the Open Cupboard parking lot. The Open Cupboard was one of the town’s nicest casual restaurants, and Samara recalled that she had mentioned in passing once that it was one of her favorites. It was cute that Luke had remembered.
Once they were seated, Samara took her pea coat off. She had worn it through the whole movie, even though she wasn’t actually cold. As she placed the coat behind her, she glanced over at Luke and smiled.
He didn’t return her smile; he was scowling at her.
“What’s wrong?” Samara asked, her forehead wrinkling in confusion.
At that moment, Brad Kelly, who went to school with them, walked over to their table and placed their menus in front of them. “Hey, Luke! Samara! I’ll be your server this evening. The soup of the day is cream of broccoli, and we’re offering a two-for-twenty dollars special on the items listed on the last page of the menu.”
“Thanks,” Samara muttered, keeping her eyes locked on Luke, who was staring back at her, an angry expression on his face. She waited anxiously for Brad to leave their table so she could grill Luke over what he was mad about, but Brad continued to hover over them.
“You look really different, Samara,” Brad commented, tapping his index finger against his chin. “Did you do something different with your hair?”
Samara shook her head. “Nope, it’s the same as it always is.”
“Huh,” Brad said, looking her up and down once before shrugging. “I’ll give the two of you a few minutes to decide what you want to order.”
Samara watched as he cut across the restaurant and sauntered off into the kitchen. She turned back to Luke. “Do you want to tell me now why you’re mad?”
“That shirt,” Luke said through gritted teeth.
Samara glanced down at the outfit that she had picked out for this evening. “What’s wrong with it?”
“It’s too revealing. Put your coat back on.”
“No, I’m not going to put my coat back on,” Samara snapped at
him. “I feel kind of hot.”
“You’ll still look hot with the coat on, I promise,” Luke insisted. “Just put it on.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “I don’t mean hot hot. I mean, my body temperature feels really high right now, which is why I’m not going to put my coat back on.” Why was he acting like this?
Luke glared at her. “Then maybe you should have put on something a little less revealing.”
Samara’s jaw dropped open. “What’s with you? You’ve never acted like this before, and I’m not sure if I like it, to be completely honest.”
Other guys are staring at you, Luke said. Brad is probably thinking about how he wants to do you right now.
Samara knew right away that she was listening to his thoughts. She could hear his voice, but his lips weren’t moving. His voice also sounded louder and clearer than it did over the noisy people laughing in the restaurant and the music that blared from the radio speakers.
“You’re so ridiculous,” she replied out loud. “It doesn’t matter what he thinks.”
Conveniently, at that moment, Brad came back over to the table. Keeping his eyes locked on Samara, he asked, “Can I take your orders now, or are you going to need a few more minutes?”
“Actually, I think we’re done here. This is for your time,” Luke said, slapping a few dollars down on the table in front of him. Turning to Samara, he said, “Come on, let’s go home.”
With her jaw still hanging open, she muttered an apology to Brad and, reluctantly pulling on her coat, followed Luke out of the restaurant.
Once they were out in the cold night, Luke turned to her and smiled. “Do you want to go back to your house? We could watch a movie or—”
“Or nothing!” Samara snapped at him. “You just humiliated me in there. I can’t believe you acted like that. I’ve given you no reason to not trust me.”
Luke’s jaw tightened. “I see.”
“So, to answer your question, yes I do want to go back to my house. You can drop me off at home,” she said, darting her eyes away from him.
Once they both climbed into the car, Samara crossed her arms in front of her. They didn’t speak to each other the whole way back to her house.
Chapter 8
Samara laid in her bed, wiping away the tears as they slid down her cheeks. How could Luke act this way to her? It didn’t seem fair. She had worn the shirt for him and only him—not for Brad or anyone else who might have been staring at her tonight at the restaurant.
Sam, please listen to me, Luke pleaded.
She groaned. No, Luke. Leave me alone. I need time to myself to think right now. Deciding that she didn’t want to deal with him right now, she thought about how she didn’t want him to be able to access her thoughts. Immediately, she could feel a barrier in her mind go up, blocking Luke out like the Great Wall of China.
There was a knock at her door. “Sam?” her mom called. “Is everything okay, sweetie?”
“I’m fine.” Even as she said the words, Samara knew that they weren’t convincing, so it didn’t surprise her when her mom opened the door and came into the room anyway.
“Samara, why are you crying?” her mom asked, sitting down on the bed next to her and running a hand through her hair.
“I-I don’t know,” she replied in between tears. “Just a little argument with Luke. It’s no big deal.”
She wasn’t going to tell her mom too much about her fight with him because it didn’t really matter how upset she was over it, she was going to have to forgive him eventually. It wasn’t like she could break up with him or something. They were mates; they were in this for the long haul. Saying too much would make her mom start to question her relationship with Luke, and she really didn’t want that.
“Oh, Samara, you’re fifteen years old, honey. It’s only natural for you and your boyfriend to get into fights occasionally,” Mrs. McKinley murmured. “I’m sure everything will work out in the end.”
“I know it will,” Samara replied. “I mean, it has to. He’s my mate.”
Her mom hesitated. “Sweetie, are you sure he’s your mate?”
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be sure?”
Mrs. McKinley shook her head. “No reason. It’s just hard for me to understand . . . as a human and as a parent . . . how you can have a mate at such a young age. You have your whole life ahead of you. It seems like a bad idea to tie yourself down to only one person at this age.”
“It’s not like we get to choose who our mates are,” Samara replied. “Fate—or destiny or some higher power—decides it for us. But once we know, we don’t want to be with anyone else. It’s hard to explain, and probably difficult for you to understand.”
Her mom shook her head. “Actually, it’s not as difficult for me to understand as you may think. I understand the concept of soul mates. I believe your father is mine.”
“How did you know that dad was your soul mate?” Samara asked, glancing over at her.
Mrs. McKinley’s lips turned into a wistful smile. “I knew when no one else in the world gave me the same feeling I got with him when we first met. Even now, your father can still give me butterflies. Not all the time after all these years, but when he does sweet little things. Like last year on our anniversary, he played the first song we ever danced to. We danced to it all over again, and it reminded me of the very first time.”
Samara smiled. “I wonder if I’ll still have that feeling about Luke in years from now.”
“If he’s really the right one for you, you will.” Her mom hesitated before continuing. “Sweetie, I know you have a lot going on in your life right now, but I want you to remember that you’re only in high school. You have to focus on your schoolwork.”
“I do focus on my schoolwork,” Samara replied.
Her mom shook her head. “You’re not doing quite as well as you used to. I got a phone call from your biology teacher today. She says that you’ve gotten a C or lower on your past three tests. Do you want to tell me what that’s about?”
Samara shrugged. “They were harder than the other ones we’ve had, I guess.”
Mrs. McKinley raised her eyebrows. “Are you sure that’s the real reason? I was a little surprised to receive the phone call because biology has always been your strongest subject. It comes easy to you, even though I never understood how because your father and I are both pretty awful at it.” Her mom paused. “I thought you might be struggling, though. That’s why I’ve hired you a tutor.”
“A tutor? Why?” Even as the words came out, Samara knew how defensive she sounded, but it didn’t matter. The last thing she needed to deal with right now was a tutor. If it was going to be anything like the Spanish tutor her mom had hired for her in the sixth grade—a little old man who was more interested in teaching her curse words in the language than actually helping her conjugate her verbs—it was going to just be a total waste of everybody’s time.
“Yes,” Mrs. McKinley replied. “I saw an ad in the paper. I actually just got off the phone with him before I came into your room. He’s won quite a few science fairs over the years, and he seems to have a genuine interest in biology. Not that any of that really matters, though, as long as he can help you understand the material enough to get your grades up.”
“I guess,” Samara muttered, sighing relentlessly. She knew that there was no getting out of this. Her mother’s mind was already made up. She was going to have to be tutored, whether she liked it or not.
*
In her dream, Samara was chasing after Joe McKinley. They were both in wolf form, but somehow, she knew it was him; it must have been his white, arctic wolf fur which looked just like hers that gave him away. He was also swifter on his feet and had broader shoulders than Seth did while he was in wolf form.
She followed him to the other side of Starlight Lake, where he leapt into the water.
Her instincts told her that she knew how to swim even when she was in wolf form, so Samara followed after him. It became a little bit of
a struggle to swim, as the cool water clung to her fur and weighed her down. She didn’t give up, though; she continued to follow her grandfather.
He dove to the bottom of the lake, and she waited for him to come back up to the surface. When he didn’t come back up, she felt herself beginning to panic. Was he stuck under the water? She wondered if werewolves could even stay under for that long without dying.
Just as she was about to dive in after him to attempt to save him from whatever was below the murky water, she saw his white fur break the water’s surface. Then, meeting her gaze with his fiery red eyes, he said, Know your enemy.
Chapter 9
The next day after school, Colby drove Samara and Emma over to the new house. Samara still hadn’t spoken to Luke, and she wasn’t planning to say a word to him anytime soon. Just thinking about how he’d acted on their date the night before made her feel angry inside. He could wait for her after class and follow her around like a puppy all he wanted, just like he had today, but she wasn’t going to give in so easily.
Once they reached the house, Emma climbed out of the car and headed inside.
Colby turned to Samara. “Have you noticed if she’s been wearing the ring I bought her yet? Every time I look at her, she’s had her hands covered by mittens or shoved inside her hoodie.”
Samara shook her head. “No, I haven’t noticed, but I haven’t really been looking yet either. I’ll let you know.”
She reached for the door handle to get out of the car, but Colby said, “Wait, that’s not all I wanted to talk to you about in private. There’s something else.”
“What?”
Glancing at the windshield, which had clouded up from their hot breath, he said, “Luke told me what he did last night.”
“He did?” Samara’s eyes widened. She hadn’t expected Luke to tell Colby—or anyone else from the pack—what had happened between them the night before.