Howl (Howl #1) (10 page)

What are u doing today?

Sighing, Samara texted back
:
Nothing
.
She was sort of hoping that Declan wanted to hang out with her. She hadn’t spent as much time with him lately as they normally did. She really needed a best friend right now, though, and Emma obviously wasn’t playing the role too well at the moment.

Samara’s
cell
phone chimed
only seconds later
.
Want me to come get u?

Is Emma going?
Samara sent back.
She wanted to see Declan, but she
didn’t really want to see Emma.

A second later, her phone beeped again.
No. Church.

OK, I’ll be ready in 5
.

When Samara saw Declan’s silver Jeep Wrangler pull into the driveway, she ran to his car. She had pulled on a pair of Victoria’s Secret
Pink
sweatpants and a hoodie. Samara didn’t really care how she looked today. It was early on a Sunday so everyone she knew was probably still sleeping, and it was just Declan.
He was the one person she didn’t have to dress to impress because he accepted her however she was. Besides, he had seen her in way worse. At least she didn’t have bed head today.

“Hey, Sam!” Declan said, smiling as she climbed into the
passenger’s seat. “Guess what.”

“What?” Samara asked.

“It’s supposed to snow this week!” Declan replied excitedly.

She groaned. “It’s only October
. I don’t want it to snow yet.”

“Well, I was thinking that if it snows, maybe me, you, and Emma could
go
snowboarding in the Poconos,” Declan replied. “It will be a great way t
o kick off the holiday season.”

“You mean Halloween?” Samara asked sarcastically.
She really hated snow, especially so early in the year. She sometimes felt like she was meant to live in a warmer climate, like Florida or Texas or something.
“The holiday season isn’t for months. And besides, me and Emma ar
e going through a rough patch.”

A look of surprise crossed o
ver Declan’s face. “What? Why?”

Samara shrugged. “She’s just getting on my nerves lately. She’s trying too hard to stay popular, and that’s not me
.” She looked over at Declan.
“This is really random but . . .
d
o you believe in werewolves?”

Declan glanced
over at her. “That
is
random. Why do you ask?”

“Oh, you know . . .
just freaked myself out with a scary werewolf movie last night,” Samara replied. “I just sort of wonder how all of these mythological creatures, like werewolves and unicorns and stuff, came to be so well-known. They must have existed at one point or people probably wouldn’t
know about them today, right?”

“Do you want to get breakfast?” Declan asked as they were about to dri
ve past their favorite diner.

“That’s
fine, whatever,” Samara answered quickly,
not wanting him to change the subject.

“A lot of people in Penn
sylvania believe in werewolves.
I don’t know if you’ve heard about it, but there was a sighting of these crazy ape men that people thought were werewolves years ago,” Declan replied as he pulled into the parking lot. “I don’t believe that werewolves look like ape men, though. I think that if they exist, they look like real
wolves – only bigger.”

“Why do you think that?” Samara asked, trying to keep her voice under control. She wondered how Declan could possibly know what werewolves really looked like, even down to the fact that they would be bigger than normal wolves. Based on the reflection that Samara had seen in the lake, she knew that was right; she stood a lot taller and had broader should
ers than a typical gray wolf.

Declan stared out the window for a moment before looking back at her. “I’m not
supposed to talk about it, but . . .
my dad
claims he saw one once, when he was out hunting.
It was
a long time ago, and he told people about it. They all thought he had gone mad.”

“
Do you believe him
?” Samara asked.

Declan shrugged his shoulders and ran a hand through his dirty blonde hair. “Yeah, I guess
I do
. I mean, he really
seems to believe that it was true
. I have no reason to believe he was lying, and he’s the
sanest
person I know.”

Declan’s father,
Mr. Kingsbury
,
was a psychiatrist. Samara decided that if anyone had a good grasp on reality, it would definitely be him.

Samara wanted to break down and tell Declan everything, but she knew that she couldn’t yet. She had to understand why this had happened to
her first before she could tell anyone else she knew. When she did know, though, she knew that Declan would be the first person who she would share the news with.

As sh
e slid into the diner booth across from
him, she thought
back to the conversation
that she had with the gray wolf the night before. He had said that he’d overestimated her intelligence. How would he have known if she wa
s intelligent or not, though?

Samara realized that in his human form, the werewolf had to know her. Where from, though? His voice sounded really deep, so she had assumed that he was an adult, but was there a chance that it could belong to someone she went to school with? She realized that
she might never know who it was because he might try to keep it from her
.
Unless
. . .

An idea popped into Samara’s head. She had thought of a way to find out who the gray wolf was. It wasn’t going to be easy, but
she had to do it. 

Chapter 9

****

“I’m so sorry for all of the confusion that I’ve caused,” Lilly said tearfully into the camera on the television. “I must have hit my head. After that, I couldn’t remember anything. I didn’t even know that I was in front of my own home, so I just started walking. When I got to Briar Creek, som
eone recognized me from t
he news and offered
to drive me back to Grandview. I’m so lucky that he recognized me, or who knows where I would be right now.”

The news
flashed
back to the newscaster, who was smiling warmly. “Lilly Phillips was found on Sunday morning. Her parents are thankful that she is safe and ask that the media and public give them some time before asking any more questions.”
Snowflakes began falling on the screen as the meteorologist began to tal
k about the predicted snowfall.

Samara flicked the channel, unsure of how to feel. She’d known all along that Josh hadn’t killed Lilly, and she felt relieved that he wouldn’t be arrested
for killing her
. Something about Lilly’s disappearance just didn’
t sit right with her, though.

Maybe Edda had been right all along. Lilly may have been trying to run away from home and ended up getting caught along the way. Something in the back of Samara’s mind told her that wasn’t the case, though. Something far more complicated than that had happened. Even though she didn’t know Lilly
all that well
, Samara felt det
ermined to find out what it was; she just wasn’t sure how.

*

Samara stared out her window at the full moon and waited. She wasn’t going
to let herself fall asleep.
Tonight, she wanted to be in complete control over her mind and body
– although
, in reality, she wasn’t sure how possible that really was.
She still was barely conscious of the things that she did when it was nighttime. Her body just seemed to do its own th
ing when it turned into a wolf.

Feeling the urge to be outside, Samara smiled. It was going to happen soon. Very soon. She could feel the changes that were about to take place running through her veins, warming her body up to the point where she could no longer resist
the temptation
. She tore off her clothes before she had even climbed out the window this time,
tossing them over
her shoulder and onto her bed.

Samara wrapped her arms around her chest in
an
attempt to cover her body and raced across the backyard.
If anyone ever saw her running through the woods without her clothes on, they’d think she was completely insane; to Samara, it felt completely insane to not give into this urge.

Coming to a halt in front of the lake, she felt it happening. It started at the tip of her head and sent a tingling
electric
sensation down through her toes. For the first time since she had turned into a wolf,
she was prepared for the change. It was no longer scary, but it still hurt, and Samara couldn’t stop herself from howling out in pain.

As she felt her body sink
to
the ground, she felt herself quiver
ing from
the p
ainful sensation
that
slowly faded from her body.

Samara felt a sense of accomplishment. She had changed; the first part of her mission was complete. Now, she
just
had to work on what she had set out to do. Samara walked over to where she had been sitting the night before when the gray wolf had talked to her. Sniffing the ground where he had stood, she instantly picked up on his scent: a strange mixtu
re of pineapple and peppermints.

Now, Samara had to find him.

Running through the woods behind her house, Samara searched for the gray wolf. Fi
nding him wasn’t going to be
nearly
as
difficult as she thought it was going to be.
Dogs (she could consider herself a dog, right?) really did have a good sense of smell.
She got a whiff of him near the lake dock
,
but she could tell that his scent
had faded; he had already left.

Samara pranced up a hill that led her deeper into the forest. She couldn’t help but wag her tail; the gray wolf was nearby
, and she was proud of herself for knowing this information simply by smelling him down
.

When she reached the top of the hill, Samara spotted him. He was sitting in front of a fire that looked like it should be surrounded by a circle of people roasting mar
shmallows and
drinking spiked hot chocolate.

What are you doing here?
Samara asked.

The wolf stood up and turned to look at her.
I should ask you the same thing.

Well, I asked you first.

The wolf let out a low growl, obviously annoyed at her.
I like to come here to think. The pack can get a little hard to handle sometimes. It’s therapeutic for me.

Are you like the king of the pack or whatever?
Samara asked. She had never really been interested in werewolves, so she hadn’t learned much about were
wolf mythology
. She assumed that it was probably similar to the way lions we
re kings of the jungle, though.

The wolf stared at her intently, his eyes full of amusement.
We call the ‘king of the pack’ the Alpha
.
And, yes, that would be me.

Are you the Alpha o
f my pack?
Samara asked.

Yes, you are one of us,
the wolf replied, seeming to hesitate.

Samara sat down on the ground across from him, watching him through the burning flames.
What determines whose pack I’m on?

You’re on our pack because I bit you. It made you one of us.

Why did you bite me?
Samara asked.

The wolf stared at her with his icy blue eyes
. She noted a look of desperation in them
.
Our pack needs you.

Samara felt a wave of anger pass over her. A growl that she couldn’t control escaped from her throat. She had been hoping that the wolf would tell her that he had no control over biting her. Somehow, she had known that it was intentional,
that he had bitten her for a reason
.
So, who are you? If you need me, you must have known who I am
.

I’ve always known that we would need you one day, even before I met you
, the wolf answered slowly.
But yes, I
do know you in my human form.