Cursed (Howl, #6) (3 page)

“He might just sho
w up again,” Luke pointed out.

Samara shook her head. “No, I don’t think he will. I feel like he wanted me to know that he still exists, but he doesn’t want to t
alk to me. Not yet, at least.”

“I have an idea,” Kyle said, tapping his chin. He turned to the rest of the pack. “It might not be easy, but . . . I think we need to find the coroner who did Grandpa Joe’s autopsy.”

Chapter 3

As the rest of their pack members left their campsite and Luke headed to his car to get something, Samara turned to Colby and sighed. “I hope you know something about this coroner. You know, like where we’ll be able to find him.”

Colby pushed a stick through the dirt. Hesitantly, he said, “All I know is that his name is Ed Rickards, and he lives in the Catskills now. At least, that’s where he lived the last time I heard anything about him.”

Samara raised an eyebrow at him. “The Catskills? Does he belong to a pack up there?” Even though she knew that they had to talk to this Ed Rickards guy, she also hated the idea of stepping onto another pack’s territory. She had sort of hoped that the coroner would be a solo wolf, without a pack.

Colby nodded. “Yeah, he was actually a part of the pack that I’m pretty sure Jason was friends with.” He glanced up at her, his ocean blue eyes filled with a look of hesitation. “I’m not sure this is really the best idea, Sam. I know you agree with Kyle, that we should talk to the coroner. But do you know what this information could mean for the werewolf world? Or what it could mean for Joe McKinley? If word gets out that you so much as suspect that your grandfather isn’t really dead—”

“It won’t get out, Colbs,” Samara replied, shaking her head. “I’m not going to tell the coroner that we think my grandfather is still alive. I just want to talk to him, feel him out a little. I’m hoping that will somehow be enough.”

Emma raised her hand, as though she were in class. “Guys, I have something to admit to you. It’s going to sound crazy, but . . . I can tell when people are lying.”

Colby turned to her
with wide eyes. “Since when?”

“Since I became a werewolf,” Emma explained. She shrugged, adding, “At least, I think I’ve been able to tell for that long. I only started to realize what it meant the one day when Ashley Everest told someone in class that she got a boob job. Seriously? Everyone knows she stuffs her bras with balloons filled with pudding! They wiggle way more than they should.” She rolled her eyes and shook her head, giggling. “Anyway, when people
are lying, I hear them in a really high tone of voice. It’s almost like someone presses a button that turns on an annoyingly screechy sound that only I hear when someone lies.”

Colby turned to her and asked, “So, if you really have this super-wolf power, does it mean I’ll always have to tell you the truth about things?”

Emma narrowed her eyes at him, and her forehead wrinkled in annoyance. “Why, Colby Jack? Do you lie to me often?”

Colby shook his head. “No, I’ve always been honest with you.” He cleared his throat uncomfortably. “There may come a time when I need to lie to you, though. I mean . . . what if you do something crazy like dye your hair pink or get a tattoo on your face? I wouldn’t want to tell you it looks ho
rrible and hurt your feelings.”

Emma rolled her eyes. “First off, pink is the best color ever, but I totally wouldn’t dye my
hair pink. I mean, I might get pink highlights or something one day, but that wouldn’t be too outrageous.”

“But your hair looks so pretty in its natural color,” Colby insisted with a sigh. Samara tried not to laugh. If he thought telling Emma that her hair looked good natural was the best way to convince her not to get pink highlights, he was sadly mistaken. Samara wouldn’t be surprised if her best friend ended up getting them done the following day, just to be stubborn like she normally was.

“And secondly, the only way I’m going to end up with a tattoo on my face is if fate, or whatever determines where we get our Tala pack tattoos, puts it there,” Emma went on. “I mean, I’d like to think fate wouldn’t be that cruel, but did you see that ugly dove on Samara’s foot?” She glanced over at Samara apologetically and said, “No offense, Sam. I just think doves are ugly birds. I would rather have a flamingo or a hummingbird. Something cute.”

“What are you talking about? Sam doesn’t have a dove tattoo. Or do you?” Luke asked, even though it was obvious from the look on his face that he already knew the answer.

Samara opened her mouth to respond, but she struggled to find the right words to say—which she knew only confirmed his suspicions. She expected him to be shocked to find out the truth, but he didn’t actually seem all that surprised. In fact, it almost seemed like he had been expecting to find out something like this—something that Samara had been keeping from him.

And she
had
been intentionally keeping the tattoo a secret from him. Whenever they had been alone in the hotel together, she had made a point of wearing socks so he wouldn’t see her dove tattoo, and when they were out and about, she brought along some cover-up that she reapplied continuously so that Luke wouldn’t notice the dove. Luckily, he also wasn’t a very observant person, so the few times it had been exposed in front of him, he hadn’t even noticed.

Samara wasn’t sure why she was keeping the tattoo from Luke. She just felt like she couldn’t talk to him about it yet, similar to the way that she knew that she would never be able to talk to him about how she had been mated to Declan again whe
n they’d formed the Tala pack.

Declan. Just thinking about him made her feel empty inside—a sense of incompletion, almost. It still hurt her to know that he hadn’t shown up on the day of her wedding, even though he had promised her that he would be. Chances were that she would have made a different decision that day; she probably wouldn’t have married Luke if Declan had been there, fighting for her. But she had chosen Luke because he had been faithful and loyal.

Samara tried not to think about the fact that she could have made a very different decision than she had. It didn’t really matter now, because Declan
hadn’t
shown up on her wedding day and Luke was her husband now. What had happened was done, so there was no use in second-guessing everything now, even though the picture that suggested Luke had killed Brad made that difficult at times. Samara couldn’t help but wonder if she had married a killer—a killer who may have killed out of jealousy and his love for her, but a killer, nonetheless.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Luke asked, his facial expression changing with a look of sadness. “Why did you feel like you had to keep you
r new tattoo a secret from me?”

“Because of what it means,” Samara replied, licking her lips nervously. “Well, I don’t know exactly what it means, but be
cause of what it could mean.” 

“What does a dove tattoo
mean?” Luke questioned.

“Emma, I think we better head home,” C
olby said, rising to his feet.

“That sounds like a good idea.” Emma yawned, feigning tiredness. “I’m awfully sleepy, any
way. Goodnight, Sam and Luke.”

“See you, guys,” Colby said, shooting Samara a sympathetic glance before leading Emma thr
ough the woods and to his car.

A long silence passed between Luke and Samara. She could hear Colby and Emma laughing and then the sound of the car pulling aw
ay before Luke said anything.

“What does the tattoo mean, Sam?” he asked, gently this time, as he came to sit dow
n on a lawn chair next to her.

Samara avoided his gaze. There was no way she could look into his eyes when she told him the truth. “It’s supposed to tell you that
you’re going to fall in love.”

“Well, that makes sense,” Luke replied. “You fell in love with me, so it p
robably has to do with that.” 

Samara met eyes, and she saw the look of hopefulness in the depths of his emerald green eyes. “I guess it could be,” she replied quietly, glancing a
way from him again.

Luke stared at her for a long moment. “There’s something you’re not telling me. I can tell. What is it?”

Meeting his eyes, Samara sighed. There was no reason to keep secrets about her tattoo anymore, now that he knew she had it. “I got it on the day of our wedding. It imprinted on my foot right after we got our marks. It’s on my other foot.” She leaned down and pulled off her sneaker. Pulling back her sock, she revealed the feathery wings, long tail, and the dove head that stared off in the direction of her toes.

Luke stared at the dove for a moment before meeting Samara’s gaze again. This time, there was a worried look in his eyes. “You don’t thin
k this is about me . . . do you?”

Samara sighed, knowing that this question
had been coming. Who could blame him? She would probably feel the same way if he was the one who had gotten a dove tattoo on their wedding day, instead. “I don’t know what to think, Luke. It’s weird that I got a tattoo telling me I’m going to fall in love on the same day I got our mark, but . . . that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s not about you. Maybe the tattoo means that I’ll forever fall in love with you, every day for the rest of my life.” Even as she said the words, though, she knew that wasn’t the truth.

Samara knew, deep down, that her dove tattoo had nothing to do with Luke. She just wished that she knew what it
did
have to do with.

Chapter 4

The next day was Saturday, so that morning, Samara did what she knew needed to be done. She called the pack to their meeting location to let them know that they couldn’t wait a minute longer. They had to go to the Catskills to talk to the coroner who had performed Grandpa Joe’s autopsy, and they had to do it that day. The sooner Samara understood what was going on, the better things would be . . . at least, she hoped.

Seth was the first one to show up to their spot nestled within the woods. He had gotten there even before Luke, who had said he was going to take a quick shower before meeting with the rest of the pack.

“Samara,” her brother said, as he came to stand in front of her. “I think there’s something we need to talk about.”

Samara sighed. She had a feeling that she knew where this conversation was going to lead. “Look, Seth, I realiz
e now that I was being inconsiderate when I didn’t tell you Grandpa Joe was alive before I told the rest of the pack. I didn’t think about how it would affect you until after the damage was already done, so . . . I’m sorry. I’ll try my best to tell you about things that involve our family before I tell the rest of the pack.”

Seth shook his head. “No, it’s cool. Don’t even worry about it. I’m not mad. I mean, I was a little bit annoyed about it at first, but . . .” He trailed off before pullin
g something out of his pocket.

When he held it up for her to see, Samara quickly realize
d it was the red Vyka paw print pin that Grandpa Joe had left behind for him—the one that her grandfather had said in one of his letters would help her brother make the right decisions.

“I think I figured this thing out,” Seth explained, motioning to the pin that he held in his hands. “At first, I didn’t think it did anything at all and that Grandpa Joe was just trying to fuck with my head, but . . . I was wrong. It
does
do something.”

“Well? What does it do?” Samara asked impatiently, anxious to know what the gift her grandfather had left her brother was capable of doing. Even though she knew that it was nice of her grandfather to leave her all his money, sometimes she wondered if Grandpa Joe had left her brother and cousin cooler
, more meaningful, gifts. She knew that they must have had some sort of super power for their grandfather to have left it to them at all.

“Alright, so I was at the mall the ot
her day and I was wearing the pin. I know it seems kinda weird that I was wearing it at all, but I’ve been trying to figure out what it does, so I’ve been wearing it day and night for the past few days, tucked under my jacket so no one would see it,” Seth explained, running a hand over his dark hair nervously. “So, I’m wearing it, and I feel it burning against my chest. Not that long after, I hear a familiar voice. Ahead of me, Rocco is walking into Abercrombie and Fitch with Troy. Anyway, I look down at the pin . . . and I realize it’s not red anymore.”

“It’s not?” Samara asked, raising an eyebrow, unsure of where Seth was going with this. She couldn’t figure out what Rocco and Troy
could have to do with the pin.

Seth shook his head. “No, it turned purple, just like our new pack color. I don’t know if it’s a coincidence that it turned that color or not, but . . . I think I figured out the reason it does change colors, at least.” He paused, meeting Samara’s gaze. “It lets me know when one of our enemies is nearby. The reason it changed colors—and the reason I felt it burn against my chest—is because I was within a really close
distance of Troy and Rocco.”

“But Rocco and Troy aren’t our enemies anymore,” Samara protested. “We made a tr
uce with them.”

“Why do you trust them so damn much? I mean, really, Sam. Rocco might seem like a loyal friend now, but do you remember how we came to this truce? The reason was because he threatened to give up our hiding spot,” Seth said, the anger rising to his cheeks. “It might seem like he’s trust
worthy, but he really isn’t.”

“I know he’s not,” Samara admitted quietly. In fact, all it
would take for Rocco to turn on them again is if he somehow figured out that violets weren’t really what Grandpa Joe had used to become so powerful—that the real ingredient was actually wolfsbane—and the Shomecossee pack would turn against the Tala pack. They’d had an agreement that, in exchange for the information about what Samara’s grandfather had done to become so powerful, Rocco wouldn’t rat out their hiding place to Darren Jackson, Colby’s dad and their arch enemy. 

Samara only hoped that Rocco wouldn’t find out the truth before the Tala pack figure
d out a way to conquer Darren and his pack. All the Tala needed to do was figure out his whereabouts . . . and hope that the Trusted Ones would be able to round up enough good spirits to ward off the dark spirits that Darren Jackson conjured to use black magic for fighting.

“There’s something else,” Seth said, just as Samara heard a car door close loudly. Their other pack mem
bers were beginning to arrive.

“What?” Samara asked.

“Last night, when we were here in the woods, I felt the pin burning and it changed colors,” Seth replied.

Samara felt her own eyes widen. “What are you saying?” she asked, even though she was pretty sure she already knew.

“One of our enemies was in the woods with us last night,” Seth replied, giving her the answer she was expecting. “It must have been someone from a different pack hiding out in the woods somewhere.” He lowered his voice, glancing around as though someone may have been listening in on their conversation. “I think they might have been spying on us.”

“Which would mean that they overheard what we said about Grandpa Joe,” Samara said, her voice a mere whispe
r.

Seth
nodded. “Yes, it’s possible.”

Neither of them said anything for a few moments. Samara knew, as she stared into her brother’s eyes, that he was thinking the same thing she was; if whoever it was had heard about their grandfather possibly being alive, it could be bad . . .
very
bad.

As Penelope walked into the clearing, Samara told Seth, “Thank you for telling me, but let’s not tell anyone else, okay? I don’t want to make everyone nervous—not until we figure out what this means, exactly.” 

“No problem,” Seth replied with a nod. “I think that’s a good idea.” As Penelope approached him, he gave her a small kiss on the forehead.

“I need to talk to you, Seth,” Penelope said, looking up into his eyes. She glanced over at Samara and a small smile c
rossed her face. “Hello, Sam.”

“Hi,” Samara replied offhandedly. She watched as her brother stepped away with Penelope. Even though Samara was trying to be nice to Penelope, she couldn’t help but feel like the girl was hiding something—and not just from Seth, but from the rest of them, too. A thought crossed her mind at that moment. What if
Penelope was the reason Seth’s pin had changed colors? What if there was some chance that she was one of their enemies? It still seemed strange, even now, how Penelope had appeared out of nowhere—and how she had insisted on becoming a member of their pack.

Samara quickly shook the thought away, realizing that if the pin had turned because of Penelope, it would stay purple
every time Seth wore it around her. Ever since Seth and Penelope had mated with one another, they had practically been attached at the hip. It was sort of surprising that Seth had been able to talk to Samara while he was alone today.

Whoever had caused the pin to change colors, it definitely wasn’t Penelope. But who could it have been?

Maybe Darren was back. Maybe he was in their woods, planning out his attack. It was sort of surprising that he hadn’t shown his face already. It’s not like he didn’t know that the pack hung out in the woods near Starlight Lake. If he wanted to attack them, he could do it. He just hadn’t yet, which Samara found really peculiar.

“Hey, Sam!” Emma called, as she and Colby entered the clearing. Colby had a wide grin on his face and he poked Emma in the ribs. Emma giggl
ed and bumped hips with him.

Samara couldn’t help but smile. It was nice to see that Emma and Colby were both so happy, since they’d both gone through a lot in the past few months. Emma’s mom had disowned her when she found out that she was a werewolf, and Colby hated his own
father ever since he’d found out that he’d fathered Jason and Josh Masterson. It made Samara happy that Emma and Colby now had each other to go through these tough times with, no matter how much they tried to pretend that they didn’t care about each other.

“We’re here, but we have some pretty bad news,” Colby said, his face turning stony once he came closer t
o Samara. “Josh got arrested.”

Samara raised her eyebrows. “What do you mean Josh got arrested?!
What did he get arrested for?”

“For murdering Lilly and Jason,” Colby replied solemnly.

“What? Why would they arrest Josh for murdering them? He didn’t do it!” Samara exclaimed, a feeling of dread forming in the pit of her stomach. Josh hadn’t killed either one of them; Jason had killed Lilly, and Seth was the one who had killed Jason.

“They probably think it’s suspicious that Josh’s girlfriend and brother were both killed,” Colby explained. “It just makes Josh look sort of guilty, I guess. At least, I assume that’s why they arrested him. We were at Williams’ General Store this morning, and all they said was that he was under arrest for the murders of Lilly
Phillips and Jason Masterson.”

“Can you imagine if he gets convicted of this? He’ll probably have to spend life in prison, and they’ll notice when he doesn’t age,” Samara said, a newfound worry filling the pit of her stomach. As much as she wished that they could just come clean with everything to the human world, she knew it would never happen. But how would they explain that Josh wouldn’t age if he was somehow found guilty for the murders of hi
s twin brother and girlfriend?

Colby hesitated. “I’ve never thought of it like that before, but . . . I don’t think we’ll have to worry about it. I don’t see how they could possibly convict him, considering there’s no way there’s any physical evidence against him. I don’t understand how there was enough to even arrest him. It doesn’t make any sense.” Sighing, he added, “He’ll have to go through with a trial and everything now, though. It might draw attention to us. If Darren finds out about it, he might be abl
e to figure out where we are.”

If he didn’t already know
was the only thing Samara could think. “Well, we need to bail Josh out of jail,” she said, trying to avoid the subject of Darren possibly being in the woods. She also couldn’t help but feel like a defensive mother bear. No one messed with her bear cubs—err, her pack members. It made her feel terrible to know that Josh was being blamed for this. He could go to jail for murder, even though he hadn’t actually done anything wrong—and that scared her.

As if on command, her cell phone began to
vibrate inside her pocket and when she glanced down at the caller ID, she saw that a number she didn’t recognize was calling her. “Hello?” she asked into the phone, even though she was pretty sure she already knew who it was.

“Sam, it’s me,” Josh said quietly. “Colby probably told
you what happened, didn’t he?”

“Yes, he did,” Samara replied. “I can’t believe they arrested you for this. It’s insane. We were just going to come down
to the jail to bail you out.”

“Don’t bother,” Josh replied, and Samara heard people talking in the background. “Bail is set at two million dolla
rs.”

“But I have two million dollars. I have more than that, actually. My grandfather left it to me,” Samara said, noticing that the rest of the pack had arrived and Luke was walking down the stony path that led to the forest. “I don’t mind posting the bail money for you. We
can be there in ten minutes.”

“No, Sam, listen to me,” Josh said, a sharp edge to his voice. “Don’t do it. Don’t post bail. I have a better idea . . . another way to get out of this that doesn’t
involve two million dollars.” 

Before Samara had the chance to say anything else, she heard a clicking sound. She glanced down at her cell phone. Josh had
hung up on her. Sighing, she turned to the rest of the pack. “Josh doesn’t want me to post the bail money for him. I don’t know what to do.”

“You can’t just leave him to rot
in jail!” Emma insisted, shaking her head forcefully, her blonde ponytail moving with it. “Do you know what happens to guys in there? Especially to young guys who are as attractive as Josh? They automatically become eye candy!”

“Hey,” Colby said, glaring at Emma.
A low growl escaped his throat.

Emma rolled her eyes. “Calm the hell down, Colby Jack. I’m not going to lie. He’s a young, clean-looking guy. And no, he’s not ugly, so chances are, the perverts will mess with him in prison, if you know what I mean.” She turned to Samara. “You can’t let that happen to Josh. He’s like family. You have to do
something
.”

“I personally have to disagree with Emma,” Steve spoke up from behind Samara. “I think if Josh wants to stay in jail, we should just leave him there. Why do something he doesn’t want? And to be honest, the kid’s been
getting on my nerves lately.”