Cursed (Howl, #6) (11 page)

“Sam—” Seth started to interrupt, but Penelope held her hand up
to stop him from saying anything.

“It’s okay, Seth. It’s a fair question.” Penelope turned back to Samara. “The reason I don’t want to go back to North Dakota is because my
whole family died. They were killed in a fight with their pack. I had a few friends there, but I became withdrawn once I was orphaned. North Dakota brings back a lot of bad memories. That’s the reason I left. Well, it’s the main reason, at least.” She paused, licking her lips. “There’s something I haven’t been honest with you about, and I think it’s time for you to know the truth. Why don’t you sit down?”

Chapter 14

Penelope stood in front of the campfire, which illuminated her tan skin. “When I told you I didn’t have an Alpha? It’s not true. I
do
have an Alpha back in North Dakota. Or I did, at least. When I initiated into your pack, I believe the bond between us was broken, but he has called my cell phone a few times.”

“Penelope what are you saying?” Seth asked, dumbfounded by what his mate was telling everyone. “I thought y
ou didn’t have an Alpha.”

“That’s because when I came here, my Alpha told me I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone about him or about my pack back home,” Penelope explained. She glanced over at Seth, shooting him an apologetic look. “I wanted to tell you, Seth. There were so many times, I wanted to just tell you, but I wasn’t able to work up the nerve until now.” She glanced over at Samara, too. “I wanted to tell you, too, Samara. Not in the beginning, though. When I came here, it was because I was sent on a mi
ssion.”

Samara couldn’t seem to ignore the nervous feeling that had formed in the pit of her stomach, but it made her relieved to know th
at she was had been right all along to be suspicious about Penelope. At least those feelings hadn’t been for nothing. “What type of mission?” 

“My Alpha told me that I had to come here. I had to find the Ima pack, and I had to act like I wanted to join them,” Penelope explained. Shooting Samara an apologetic glance, she added, “That was why I insisted on joining the Ima when I met you in the woods that day—when I told you I had to meet with your Alpha. I didn’t know you were the pack Alpha. I’m not sure if my own Alpha back home knew you were, or if it w
as something he kept from me.”

“Okay, why did you need to pretend you wanted to join the Ima pack, though?” Luke questioned, reaching for Samara’s hand and giving it a tight squeeze. “What is it that
you haven’t been telling us?”

Penelope sighed. “My Alpha wanted me to come here, pretend I was going to join the Ima, get close to Samara, and then find a way to convince her to go back to North Dakota with me.” She glanced over at Samara. “He wanted you to become a part of his pack. He was going to find a way to force you to become a part of us—err, them—a part of the Marna pack, I mean,” she s
aid, stumbling over her words.

“So, you came here just so you could take me back to North Dakota with you. And you lied to us this whole time, about the fact that you didn’t have an Alpha,” Samara said, repeating all of the information that she was trying to absorb. It made her sick to know that this whole time, Penelope had been here on a mission—and yet Samara’s own brother hadn’t even believed that his
mate could have bad intentions.

“Yes, except when it came time to do it, I just couldn’t,” Penelope insisted. “I didn’t expect to come here and meet my mate,” she said, glanc
ing over at Seth with a smile.

Seth, however, wasn’t smiling. “So
, are you saying the only reason you’re not going through with your original plan is because I’m your mate? Otherwise, you would have taken my sister back to North Dakota with you and carried out your Alpha’s plan?”

Penelope shook her head, her curly caramel hair moving with it. “No, that’s not what I’m saying at all.” She turned to Samara. “My Alpha made you out to be this horrible person. He said you were selfish and that the only thing you cared about was the money that your grandfather left to you. I know that’s not true, though. I mean, you were willing to bail
out one of your pack members out for two million dollars. Obviously, you’re not that money-hungry.

“And since I’ve been here, I have seen, repeatedly, how much you care about your pack members. You put everyone else before yourself. You’re not a selfish person. I don’t know if my Alpha really believed that was what you would be like, or if it was just something he was using to try to convince me to force you to join our pack.” She shrugged. “Either way, I couldn’t go through with it, Samara. That’s why I’ m telling you. I want to remain a member of the Tala pack. I don’t want to go back to the
Marna. Please don’t make me.”

Samara hesitated. “I need some time to think about this, okay, Penelope? I appreciate the fact that you’re being honest with me now, but it doesn’t change the fact that you still initiated into ou
r pack under false pretenses.”

Penelope nodded understandingly. “I get it. I know this is going to be a hard decision for you, but I want you to know that I wasn’t really going to initiate into your pack. That wasn’t the plan. Not until I met Seth.” Shooting Samara a desperate, pleading look, Penelope added, “I fell in love, Samara. If you make me leave . . . I’ll understand, but it will break my heart
to not be near Seth anymore.”

“Penelope, I think we need to talk,” Seth s
aid coolly.

“You’re probably right. We do need to talk.” Penelope glanced around at their pack members before asking, “Do you want to go somewhe
re so we can talk in private?”

Seth shook his head. “No, everything I have to say, I can say right here.” He took a deep breath. “I’m not sure that I can marry you. Not right now, at least. Not after knowing that you’ve been lying to me this whole time and what
your original intentions are. How can you expect me to trust you?”

“I see.” Penelope’s honey brown eyes filled with tears. She stepped forward and handed Seth the engagement ring. “I’ll be at my apartment. You know where to find me once you
’re ready to talk about this.”

Seth nodd
ed, but he didn’t look at her.

They all watched as Penelope sauntered off into the distance. Once she was out of earshot, Colby said
, in a low voice, “Wow, I can’t believe that. I can’t believe she’s been lying to us the whole time.”

Steve glanced over at Samara. “I’m surprised you didn’
t go psycho Alpha on her ass.”

“For real, Sam,” Emma said from next to her. “If you had gotten violent with her, she pro
bably would have deserved it.”

“Now, guys, violence is never the answer,” Silas said quietly. When everyone glared at him, he mumbled, “Well, it isn’t.”

“I’ve never trusted her,” Samara admitted. “But I think she deserves a second chance. We all do things for our packs that we come to regret later on. At least, most
of us do.” She couldn’t think of any good examples to give them, so she shrugged. “I’m just glad that she was finally honest with me, honestly. At least now I know what she was hiding, and it’s actually not as bad as what I was expecting.”

Seth met Samara’s gaze. “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you, Sam. I should have known that I could trust my sister, who I’ve known forever, over my mate, who I’ve
only known for a few months.”

“It’s okay, Seth, but honestly? I think you should give Penelope a s
econd chance,” Samara replied.

Emma raised her eyebrows. “I’m surpris
ed you’re defending the girl.”

Samara shrugged. “She’s a part of our pack. And to tell you the truth, I really believe she wants to be a Tala. I don’t think she’s just saying all of this stuff to make us trust her when she really can’t be trusted. I think she genuinely cares about all of us—especially you, Seth. And it makes me sort of disappointed by the way I’ve been treating her.” She glanced around at all of her pack members before adding, “You’re all going to think I’m crazy, but I don’t need time to think about this. I want Penelope to remain a Tala—just as long as that’s okay wit
h everyone else.”

“It’s okay with me,” Kyana spoke up. “I feel bad for her. I know how hard it is to leave behind everyone you know for the person you love.” She looked up into Chris’s eyes a
nd planted a kiss on his lips.

“I’m cool with it, too,” Chris replied. “Whatever Kyan
a’s cool with, I’m cool with.”

Samara rolled her eyes. She wondere
d if the two of them would keep showing such obnoxious public displays of affection or if it would eventually stop at some point. She supposed that she had an eternity to find out.

“It’s fine with me,” Colby spoke up. “You’re our pack Alpha, so I think you should make whatever decision yo
u feel is right for the pack.”

“I gotta admit that Penelope used to make me uncomfortable, but she hasn’t hit on me in a long time,” Steve said, tapping his chin hesitantly. “If she does hit
on me, can I bitch slap her?”

“No, you can’t ‘bitch slap’ her! Boys shouldn’t hit girls!” Emma said
, narrowing her eyes at Steve.

“Relax, Emma. I’m joking. I’m not gonna bitch slap her. I know then I’d have Seth to deal with,” Steve said. Glancing over at Samara, he nodded his head. “I’m cool w
ith Penelope being one of us.”

“I like Penelope,” Silas said quietly. “My only beef with her is that she doesn’t talk enough. Maybe we could find a way to bri
ng her out of her shell more.”

“Says one of the quietest members of our pack!” Luke laughed. “I mean, no offense, Silas, but you’re not th
e most talkative person ever.”

“I’m not?” Silas asked with wide eyes. He glanced over at Kyle. “Is he r
ight? I’m not that talkative?”

“Well, around the pack you’re not that talkative,” Kyle agreed. Reassuringly, he added, “Don’t worry, though. They should be thankful you’re not that talkative around them. When it’s you and me having one-on-one time, y
ou don’t shut up.”

Silas smiled giddily, pleased with Kyle’
s answer.

“I’m good with Penelope staying a member of our pack, too,” Kyle told Samara. “She’s cool peeps.”

“Anyway, I think maybe we could train Penelope to be one of us,” Emma said, nodding. “I think it’s going to take a little bit of work, but . . . I do think she could fit in with the rest of us, over time. I think Silas is right, though. She needs to break out of her shell a little.”

Samara nodded. She glanced over at Luke for his answe
r.

“Whatever you think is right for the pack, babe,” Luke said, kissing her on the forehead. “I think if you’re able to forgive Penelo
pe, we all should be able to.”

“What about you, Seth? Are you comfortable with Penelope staying a member of the Tala?” Samara questioned, glancing over at her brother, who had been quiet this whole time.

Seth shrugged his shoulders. “I mean . . . I guess.” He sighed. “I love Penelope. I’m
in love
with Penelope. I don’t want to see her leave, and the truth is, I really do want to marry her. I just broke it off because it felt like the right thing to do. I didn’t want you to be offended that I was still going to marry her, after she admitted when she did. But I still want to be engaged to her.”

Samara nodded understandingly. “I appreciate that, Seth. It means a lot to me, to know that you would take my side if it came down to it. But I promise you I won’t be mad at you for marrying Penelope, now that I know her story. I would have been less supportive of your marriage to her if she never told me the truth and I always had to wonder what her deal was.” Smiling, she
said, “You have my blessing.”

A wide grin crossed Seth’s face. “Thanks. I think I can still patch things up with her.” Rising to his feet, he said, “I think I’ll go tell her I still
want to marry her right now.”

“Make sure you let her know that she’s still welcome to be a part
of our pack,” Samara told him.

“I will,” Seth said with a nod before disappearing into the forest.

Chapter 15

“So, I was right about Kyle’s watch,” Silas said the next afternoon as he sat across from Samara at the cafeteria table at Grandview High. He had transferred schools mid-semester, so that he didn’t have to be near the Shomecossee during the day at his old school. Luckily, he had the same lunch hour as Samara, Emma, and Colby—and Josh, if he was there, but no one had seen or heard from him still. “This morning, his watch changed from two to one. It’s definitely counting down the days.”

“I still wonder what it’s counting the days down to,” Emma said, as she stuffed a piece of bagel into her mouth. “It’s so strange.” She glanced over at Samara. “Does that mean something is going to happen today? Or tomorrow?”

“I think it depends on the exact time the hour would go off,” Samara replied with
a shrug. “It could be either.”

Colby
dropped his cafeteria tray, which was piled high with two hamburgers and four servings of French fries, down onto the table next to Emma and leaned over to give her a kiss. “Hey, sweetheart.”

Samara’s eyes widened. She had never heard Colby call Emma a sweetheart before. Not that it was bad to hear him call her best friend th
at—it was just a little weird.

“Hey, munchkin,” Emma said, planting a kiss on his cheek. “Do you mind if I steal some of your fri
es?”

“Of course not,” Colby replied. “What’s mine is yours, and what’s yours is, well . . . yours.” He frowned, realizing that Emma wasn’t the most sharing person.

Samara burst into lau
ghter, and Emma glared at her.

“You know that’s not true, Colby Jack. I always do my best to share with you,” Emma said, grabbing a h
andful of fries from his tray.

Samara noticed that Emma was wearing the blue sapphire ring that Colby had given her, except it wasn’t on her middle finger, where she used to wear it. The ring was on her ring finger. “Umm, Emma. I think you’re wearing your ring on the wrong finger. And if you’re not, then you ha
ve a lot of explaining to do.”

Emma glanced down at her ring, and her cheeks reddened in embarrassment. “I—I,” she stammered, unable to form a sentence. She quickly
shoved her hand in her pocket.

“Is there something we don’t know?” Silas asked with raised eyebrows. “You guys just announced that you started dating and you’re already . . .
engaged?
You move a little quickly, don’t you?”

Emma glanced over at Colby for help, and he nodded. “I
think it’s time we tell them.”

“Tell us what?” Samara asked, putting her hands on her hips angrily. “Is this the secret you’ve been keeping from all of us? You’re engaged?” She hadn’t known what type of secret her best friend and Colby had been keeping from their pack, but she definitely never would have guessed that it could have been
that
.

“Actually, we’re not engaged,” Emma said hesitantly. “We’re married
.”

“
What?!
You got married without telling me?” Samara asked, louder than she meant to—so loud, in fact, that a bunch of heads turned around in her direction. They must have heard what she had said because they all started whispering to each other and pointing at Emma and Colby.

“Well, thanks for being so loud and obnoxious, Sam,” Emma said, glaring at her. “Now the whol
e school knows about it!”

“I’m sorry,” Samara mumbled. “I didn’t mean to say it t
hat loudly, but I’m in shock.”

“I’m in shock, too!” Silas said, as he opened his milk carton. “How come none of us
were invited to your wedding?”

“We decided to elope, so there wasn’t a wedding,” Emma said.

“But what about the Barbie dream wedding we were planning for you!” Silas protested. He folded his arms across his chest angrily. “You can’t tell me that you’re happy with some little court wedding!”

“Actually, we didn’t get married in a court,” Emma replied, shaking her head. “We found this chapel online. It’s in Miranda Heights, which is about an hour from here.”

“When did this happen?” Silas questioned. “Actually, let me guess. It was in the past few days, wasn’t it? I’ve noticed that you have this glow to your skin, which you never usually have. You seem so much happier than usual.”

Emma shook her head. “No, I think I’ve been happier because we went public about our relationship, finally.” Looking down at her tray, almost guiltily, she added, “We got married on the night
of Samara and Luke’s wedding.”

“I can’t believe you’ve been keeping it from us for that long!” Silas said with wide eyes. A sad look crossed his face and he added, “I
thought we were besties, Em.”

Emma glanced up at him apologetically. “You and Sam are both my besties, but Colby and I wanted to have a secret together. We knew that the longer we waited, the more disappointed you all would be with us for not telling you, but . . . it was kind of fun being the only ones who knew the truth,” she admitted.

“I’m surprised, too. I am happy for you, though. Congratulations,” Samara said with a warm smile.

“Thanks,” Emma and Colb
y said at the same exact time.

“I didn’t know you were speaking to your moth
er again, Em,” Samara went on.”

“I’m not,” Emma replied, as she ate another French fry. “We haven’t spoken since New Year’s Eve when she called me to find out if I knew where my st
epfather was. Why do you ask?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Samara replied sarcastically. “Maybe because you needed her signature in order to get marrie
d before you turned eighteen.”

Emma shook her head. “No, we didn’t. That’s why we got married at this place in Miranda Heights—it was called Cupid’s Lair. It said on the web site that they don’t ask to see proof of pa
rental signatures for minors.”

Silas pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and tapped on the keys for a few moments before pulling up a Web site. He laughed aloud, as he read from the screen. “All of these reviews say Cupid’s Lair isn’t even a legit place to get married. They don’t have the proper licenses or whatever.
You guys got scammed.”

“Let me see that!” Emma said, grabbing his phone out of his hands from across the table. She read the reviews and then turned to Colby. “It’s true . . . We really
aren’t
married.”

“Well, there goes three hundred bucks,” Colby said, shaking his head frustratedly. “But it doesn’t matter, Emma. All that matters is that we said our vo
ws. We got our marks, anyway.”

Samara glanced from her best friend to Colb
y. “I want to see your marks!”

Emma glanced over at Colby. “On the count of three?” she asked, and he nodded. “One—two—three,” she said aloud, and they both raised their shirts, revealing the sapphire blue tattoos on their ribs. Emma’s was of a heart, and Colby’s was of a key.

“I have his heart,” Emma said, pointing to her tattoo, and Colby added, “Whereas I have the key to her heart.”

“Aww, that’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard of!” Silas squealed. As he took a bite of his pizza, he said, “I really hope that when Kyle and I mark eventually, we get marks that are just as c
ute as yours.”

“You will, don’t worry,” Emma replied. “Even if we don’t think they’re as cute, they’ll be special to you and Kyle.” She glanced over at Samara. “Wh
at do you think of your mark?”

Samara shrugged. “Luke and I both know what it represents. I guess I was hoping for something a little cuter, like yours,” she admitted, “But it’s something that really fits the two of us, so I g
uess that’s all that matters.”

Emma stared at Samara for a moment before nodding. “I get what you mean. Hey, have you heard from Declan in the past few days? I tried texting him, but it says it never sent, so that either means that he has his phone turned off
or he switched phone numbers.”

“I don’t know, but I haven’t heard from him,” Samara replied quietly. Knowing that she couldn’t keep pretending that Declan was still a part of her pack, she started to say, “Guys, there’s
something I have to tell you—”

“Sam, I need to talk to you,” Luke said from behind at the moment, wh
ich made her jump in her seat.

As he slid into the seat next to her, she raised her eyebrows at him. “Aren’t you s
upposed to be in class, Luke?”

“I am supposed to be, but I acted like I was going to use the bathroom so I could come here to show you this,” he replied, handing her his cell phone, which d
isplayed an open text message.

Samara noticed that it was from an UNKNOWN CALLER, and the text message read:
Meet us at Old Mill Road tonight at 8 o’clock. Better bring all your pack members—and don’t be late.

“What the hell,” she said aloud, as she re-read the text message again. “It’s obviously Rocco, since he wants to meet on Old Mill Road. What I don’t understand is why he texted you instead of me, considering he has my
phone number and everything.”

“Maybe he meant to send it to you, but it got sent to me, instead,” Luke suggested with a shrug. “All I know is that Rocco is obviously angry at us. He must have figured out the truth.” Taking a deep breath, he said, “What if he plans to tell D
arren where we’re hiding out?”

“Or what if Darren is going to be there with them tonight when we meet them?” Colby asked. “It might not matter if Rocco tells him. He might alr
eady be there waiting for us.”

“We’re going to need to make sure the Trusted Ones can be there for us,” Samara said, remembering that it was harder for the good spirits to fight of
f the bad spirits when there were more than a few pack members there at a time. It’s not like they had much of an option, though; Samara knew that the next time they tried to fight off another pack, they were going to need to make sure that as many members of their pack could be there as possible.

“Well, you should tell Declan that he needs to get his ass back here in case we need to fight, Sam,” Emma said, meeting her gaze. “We need to make sure we have as many people as we can if we’re going to be able to fight Darren and the Vyka
and
the Shomecossee.”

Samara hesitated. She thought about telling her pack members, right then and there, that Declan
was
one of the Vyka, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. She still felt an overwhelming need to protect Declan, even if he didn’t want to protect her anymore. So, instead of telling them the whole truth, she said, “Listen, guys. Declan told me he doesn’t want to be a part of our pack anymore. I don’t know what pack he wants to be a part of, but I gave him my permission to leave.”

“
What?” Emma asked with raised eyebrows. “How could he screw us over like that? He’s one of our best friends.”

“Not anymore, I guess,” Samara mumbled, trying to act like it didn’t bother her and hoping that it wasn’t obvious from the
tone of her voice that it did.

Luke glanced over at her, perceptively. “Is the reason Declan doesn’t want to be a Tala anymore because we got m
arried?”

“I . . . I don’t know,” Samara said, and even though she had thought that was a lie originally, she wasn’t sure if it was anymore or not. Technically, she didn’t know at this point if her marriage to Luke was the real reason why her best friend had chosen to leave the pack. She had thought it was because he was hurt by her decision, but what if everything he had said was nothing more than lies so that he could figure out how she was most vu
lnerable, just to help Darren?

“As sad as I am to see Declan go, I have to say that he’s only hurt himself by making this decision,” Colby said. “He had the opportunity to be a part of what will become one of the world’s strongest packs, eventually. He’s the one who’s going to be losing out on us, not the oth
er way around.”

Samara sighed. “I know, guys. But let’s try not to hold too many grudges against Declan, okay? He had
to do what was best for him.”

And, obviously, Declan hadn’t worried about what was right for Samara—or for the rest of the Tala pack, for that matter. It wasn’t just a matter of whether or not Samara would live or die; if she died, her pack w
ould belong to Darren Jackson.

She couldn’t let that happen. She
wouldn’t
let that happen.