Cursed (Howl, #6)

Cursed

by

Jody Morse

Jayme Morse

Cursed

© 2013 by Jody Morse and Jayme Morse

Cursed is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents in this book are products of the author’s imaginations or have been used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons or locations is coincidental and not intended by the authors.

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, please purchase your own copy.

Thank you for respecting the hard work of these authors.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without permission in writing from Jody Morse and Jayme Morse.

Connect with the authors at:

http://www.jaymemorse.com/

http://www.jodymorse.com/

Chapter 1

1. See the Eiffel tower.

2. Go parasailing.

3. Climb Mount Fuji.

4. Go whale watching.

5. Witness the Northern Lights.

6. Live on a secluded island for a month.

7. Go bungee jumping in South Africa.

8. Learn how to surf.

“Sam, are you almost ready to go?” Luke Davenport asked.

“Yeah. I've just been waiting for you,” Samara replied, glancing up at her mate—and now husband—from the bucket list she had been working on. Even though she had started working on it because her best friend, Emma Taylor, had suggested that she make one, it had also helped make the time that she and Luke had to spend on the plane trip go by more quickly. Samara was beginning to realize that she really
did
want to do the things on her bucket list before she died—
if
she ever died, that was—and she kept thinking of new things to add to the list.

“Okay, let’s get going, then,” Luke said, grabbing the room key and his wallet from the top of the hotel dresser.

Samara stuffed the notepad she had been writing on inside the nightstand drawer and rose to her feet. They had arrived in Hawaii the night before and had enjoyed a candlelit patio dinner and then walking along the beach afterwards. They hadn't had a chance to go into the ocean yet, and she was anxious to do so. Whenever she’d gone to the beach with her family when she was a kid, she’d always worried about getting stung by a jellyfish. She would shriek anytime something rubbed up against her legs in the murky water. Now that she was a werewolf, though, it didn’t seem so scary anymore. Even the most poisonous jellyfish couldn’t kill her.

“
I'm so excited. Do you know how long it's been since I've been to the beach,” Samara said as she grabbed their beach towels.

“
Don't get too excited about swimming yet, Sam. I have a few surprises for you first,” Luke said as they made their way down the hall.

She followed hi
m to their rented convertible. “Where are we going?”

“
You'll see,” he told her, grinning as he opened her car door.

*

As the whale watch began, Samara nestled back into Luke's arms.

“
I hope you don't mind that I looked at your list you've been working on.”

“
I don't. I was hoping you would do all of it with me anyway.”

“
We'll, I'm not so sure how I feel about bungee jumping.”

O
h, big, bad werewolf is afraid of heights,
Samara teased him.

I can't help it. It's in our nature. You know how cats usually don't like water? It's like that. Dogs can’t climb trees, so naturally, we’re afraid of being up high.

I’m not afraid of being up high.

“Look!”
A woman pointed ahead of them, where two dolphins were leaping in and out of the water. The dolphins stayed with them for a few minutes longer, frolicking near the boat as they went further out at sea.

Out in the distance, their group spotted a white blow of water. Hoping the whale would come to the surface, Samara followed the ripples and blows of water until the whale was out of sight.

*

“
I'm sorry you didn't get to see your whale,” Luke told her as they sat on the sand, watching the surfers weave in and out of the waves.

“
Don't be. It was still fun. And we got to see a few dolphins . . . What do you think the pack is doing right now?”

“
I don't know. Probably what they usually do. Steve probably has a date. Chris and Kyana are probably bickering like an old married couple. Emma's probably shopping, maybe with Silas. And Colby is either playing a video game with Kyle and Seth or following her around like a puppy, while eating hot dogs.”

Samara
smiled. “That sounds just like them.”

“
It feels so good to have a break from everything,” Samara said as she wrapped her arms around Luke's neck.

"I feel the same way. You know, for a while I felt like we weren't even werewolves for once. It felt good. I mean, I wouldn't trade it or you or our pack for anything, but it felt good to feel normal for once. This whole trip we haven't had to worry about anything. But I guess that's why it's called a vacation." Actually, there were things she had to worry about, but she couldn’t tell Luke about them . . . and she had been trying really hard not to think about them, as difficult as it was not to.

Being in Luke's arms, with the sun shining against their skin and the waves rolling around them, she knew she didn't want to be anywhere else. But even she had to admit she kept worrying about how the pack was doing. "I keep worrying that something will happen to them while we're gone."

"I'm sure they're fine," Luke reassured her, pressing his forehead against hers.

“I have another surprise for you, if you're up for it,” Luke said, nodding towards the waves.

*

After being tossed around by the waves all day, Samara was exhausted. Their surf lesson had ended hours ago, but they had kept their rented surfboards longer. She didn't want to call it quits yet—not until she caught and stayed with a wave. Luke was having better luck staying up on his board than she was.

“
You look tired,” Luke called to her. “Are you ready to go back to the hotel?”

She nodded. “In a minute.”
She paddled over the waves, determined to stay on her board this time. She turned sideways, waiting for a wave she thought she could handle—not that she knew what she was doing at all. Deciding to go for the next one, she turned her board and started paddling as fast as she could. When the time was right, she stood up, crouching down low.

As the waves pushed her to shore s
he was unable to stop smiling. “Okay, now we can go,” she told Luke.

Samara just wanted to relax in their room with Luke. She was proud that she had gotten a little bit better at staying up on her board but was no where near as good as Luke had gotten.

She hadn't felt this carefree in a long time.

*

The sun was shining brightly against Samara’s cheeks as she sat on her surfboard, dangling her legs in the beautiful, blue water. She paddled to keep up with the wave and then stood up.

Then she felt it; something hard hit the bottom of her board, sending it flying out from under her. She fought to free herself from the current that kept tossing her around.

Trying not to panic, she realized that whatever had hit her board might still be in the water with her.

Before she even knew what was happening, Samara felt the
pressure close around her thigh. She kicked hard to get away, despite the pain that radiated throughout her leg and her burning lungs.

Shark!
Samara screamed to Luke in her mind.

Samara felt her own body trembling as Luke pulled her from the waves.

“Come on. We need to get you to shore,” Luke insisted, wrapping an arm around Samara’s waist and pulling her through the water and towards the stretch of beach ahead of them. She watched, horrified, as the blood from her leg clouded the water surrounding her, its crimson shade tainting the perfect blue water.

Just the sight of the blood made her feel queasy. Suddenly, Samara began to feel weaker; her head began to pound, and she began to feel faint.

“Luke,” Samara managed to murmur before everything went black.

*

“I think I might just want to hang out around here for the day, if you don't mind. We can go back to the beach tomorrow if you want.” She knew that she would need to go back in the ocean before the end of her trip. If she didn't, she would always fear it. Right now, though, she was still shaken up.

“
I understand. If you never want to go to the beach again, I wouldn't blame you. Maybe you should just rest here for a while.”

“
No, I'm fine, really. I don't understand it myself, but I feel completely fine. I'm not even tired.”

Luke eyed her suspiciously. “
You need your rest, Sam. If you saw what your leg looked like . . . I know you don't want to feel like you're ruining our trip, but you're not. I know you're a werewolf , and no matter what, you would've survived that shark attack, but that's not how it feels to me. In my mind, I almost lost you and that scares me. So, whatever you want to do today, for the rest of the trip, and in the months to come, we'll do it. Life is too short and I never want to take you for granted.”

“
Let's go explore the resort. We haven't really done that yet. Maybe we'll find something to do.” She winced as she stood up. “Okay, maybe I don't feel
completely
fine. But I feel better than I thought I would feel, considering. I didn't expect to get bitten by a shark, but I always thought if something major like that happened, it would take days or weeks to recover, not just a day. It happened this morning and my leg only hurts a little from it now.”

“
Actually . . . it happened yesterday. You slept for most of the day. I wanted to take you to the hospital, put when I pulled you out of the water and saw that you were already starting to heal . . . you weren't even bleeding anymore, Sam. I've never seen anything like it before. So I got you back up here and then I called Colby—”

“
You talked to Colby? How is everyone?”

“
They're fine. They were more worried about you.”

“
I wish I could've talked to them.”

“
You can call them if you want. The phone’s right there.”

Samara eye
d the phone on the nightstand. “Well you said they're fine so . . .”

“
I did.”

“
Maybe I will really quick, and then we can go explore.”

The phone rang a few times before the answering machine picked up. She left a message so that they wouldn't worry about why she was calling them, and disappointed, set the phone down.

“Well, let's go out, then.”

“
Don't look in the mirror, but before we go, you should put on a pair of pants.”

Immediately, Samara walked over to the floor length mirror that hung on the bathroom door. She turned around to inspect her leg and gasped at how grisly it looked. She could definitely tell where the shark had bitten a chunk out of her thigh.

“You should've seen it right after it happened.”

It looked as if her skin had mostly repaired itself
—but there was still a big dent left in her thigh, and the new skin was a pinker shade.

“
Colby said it should heal itself back to normal.”

“
Should?!
”

*

Slowly they made their way downstairs. She had put on a loose floral print dress that concealed her wound perfectly. Aside from the stinging pain that she felt when she walked—and the slight limp that it caused, which she didn't even feel was that noticeable, she felt fine.

“
Do you want to get some lunch, Sam?”

“Yeah, I am starving,” Samara admitted. “I guess spending so much time in the sun makes a werewolf even hungrier than it does a human.”

Luke laughed. “I think we’re always hungrier, no matter what. There’s supposed to a really nice café a little ways down the road.”

“A crepe sounds really good right now,” Samara said. “Let’s go there.”

As they waited for a table, Samara decided to browse through the tiny room that was filled with customizable coffee mugs and tea cups. They all had tropical patterns, with hibiscus flowers and tropical-looking suns.

Samara grabbed one of the mugs from a stand and handed it to a cashier. As she dug her wallet out of her purse, she noticed a flash of blonde hair out of the corner of her eye, which was followed by shrill laughter. Samara wasn’t positive, but she could have sworn it was Emma.

As she hurriedly paid for the coffee mug, telling the cashier not to worry about a bag, she glanced around for Emma, but she didn’t see anyone.

Samara went back into the waiting area, where Luke was sitting on a bench. She stood beside him. “Hey, Luke? Did you notice Emma come in here?”

“Emma?” Luke looked up at her, confused. “Emma’s not here, Sam.”

“I could have sworn I heard her,” Samara murmured.

A waitress came to stand in front of them. “Luke, party of two? Your table’s ready.”