Howl (Howl #1) (24 page)

What Luke had said to her before she fell asleep last night kept running through her head
and had kept her up most of the night
. She hadn’t really thought about it beforehand, but he was right. If she chose to be an Ima, she would lose
Declan’s friendship forever.

On the other hand, if she chose the Vyka,
she would lose Luke forever.

Samara decided that no matter what decision she made, this wasn’t going to be easy. She was
either
going to lose a best friend and
her
brother
,
or
the
guy who she was falling really hard
for and
her
cousin. Samara wished that someone could just make the decision for her because t
his was going to be too hard.

For the first time in a long time, Samara wasn’t that hungry but she went into the kitchen to grab something to eat anyway. As she was digging through the refrigerator, her mom came into th
e room, her eyes puffy again.

“Where were you last ni
ght?” Mrs. McKinley demanded.

“Umm, in my bedroom?”

“No, you weren’t. I checked your room around twelve o’clock, and you weren’t there,” Mrs. McKinley replied, putting her hands on her hips. “That boy you went off with, without my permission no less, promised me that he was going to have you back home by nine o’clock. What were you out doing so late o
n a school night?”

“Oh, I – umm
,” Samara stuttered. She couldn’t tell her mom that she had met up with a werewolf pack because that would just sound crazy. If she didn’t come up with some type of excuse, her mom wasn’t going to let her see Luke again. “I saw Seth go out his bedroom window
, so I decided to follow him.”

Mrs. McKinley tilted her head
to the left, as though she was
trying to decide if she believed Samara
. “I looked in Seth’s room, and he was gone, too. Where did he go?” 
             
Samara shrugged. “I followed him, and he went to this house. But, I couldn’t really follow him any further than that. I don’t know whose house
it was or anything,” she lied.

“Well, at least now we’ll know whose house he might be staying at when he runs away for days at a time,” Mrs. McKinley replied, glancing at the cheeseburger that Samara was putting on a paper plate to put in the microwave. “A
leftover
cheeseburger for brea
kfast? Really? It’s seven o’clock in the morning, Samara.”

“I didn’t see anything else that looked good,” Samara replied. It was the truth. The fridge was filled with more fruits and vegetables than anything else. Nothing appealed to her anymore unless it included m
eat. She used to eat lettuce,
tomato
, and cheese
sandwiches, but now she wouldn’t eat them unless they came wit
h some sort of deli meat.

“Samara . . .
I don’t mean to sound like I’m accusing you of anything, but I just have to ask this. Are you pregnant?” Mrs. McKinley asked.
“You know that you can tell me, and I’ll do my best to support you
in whatever you decide to do.”

Samara raised her eyebrows. “No, of course I’m not pregnant
! Why would you even ask that?”

“Well, your eating habits have just changed so much,” Mrs. McKinley replied, shaking her head. “I can’t understand why my daughter, who has fought with me ever since she was a little girl over eating meat, is suddenly eating
cheeseburgers
for breakfast. Not even bacon
and eggs
like normal Americans
.”

“I eat bacon, too,” Samara said, taking
a huge bite of the cheeseburger and gulping it down.
“The burger
was the easiest thing to make
.
Don’t worry
,
though.
I’m not pregnant.
I’m not even having sex.” Samara felt relieved that she could finally tell her
the
truth about something
. . .
for
once.
 

*

“
Well?” Emma asked impatiently.

Samar
a slammed her locker door shut
. “Well, what?”

“You never told me what happened on your dat
e with Luke! Was it amazing?”

“Yeah, it really was,” Samara replied, thinking back to their date. It had been a lot of f
un. He
had
even let her pick the movie.

“Is that it?” Emma asked, a surprised look on her face. “No interesting details? Come on, you
have to give your BFF something to go on.
”

Samara shrugged. “
We kissed? And it was great.”

“You just kissed? When are you going to sleep with him? God, you’ve been seeing him for, like, a
month or something already.”

Samara shook her head. “I’m not ready for that yet. I don’t think he is either. At least, he hasn’t brought it up yet, so I assume that it hasn’t been on his mind.
We’re taking things slow
.
”

“Luke Davenport not ready for sex?” Emma scoffed. “Please! He’s had more sex partners than most of the othe
r guys on the football team.”

Samara frowned. She had never considered the possibility that Luke had slept with other people. For some reason, she’d assumed that the fact that they were mates wou
ld have kept him from being interested in anyone else
. Maybe he hadn’t known that she was his mate all along, but Samara wanted to believe that it had to do with why her own love life had been so boring until now.
She liked to think that everything happened for a reason. In this case, that would mean that she hadn’t met anyone because she was going to have a mate soon
, whether it be Luke or Declan.

Samara was probably wrong, though. Things probably didn’t really happen for a reason like that. Luke probably had been with tons of other girls like Emma was saying.

“Oh, Samara, I’m sorry,” Emma said, putting on an apologetic act. “I probably just made you feel like he’s not even really interested in you since he doesn’t want to have sex
with you. I’m such a moron.”

“It’s okay,” Sama
ra replied. “I’m going to go find Luke. I’ll see you in homeroom.”

Samara walked down the hallway that led to Luke’s locker. As she expected, he was standing in front of it fishing for
his
books.
I have a question fo
r you,
Samara said.

What?
Luke asked.

Turn around and look at me.

Luke turned around slowly. He looked at her, his
emerald
gr
een eyes piercing through hers.

Why don’
t you want to have sex with me?
Samara asked.
I hear that you’ve had sex with a bunch
of other girls, so why not me?

Luke smiled.
I think that it would be an exaggeration to say that I’ve had sex with a bunch of other girl
s. It really wasn’t that many. And t
hey were all
before I met you, by the way.

Who cares why he won’t have sex wi
th you, Samara?
Declan asked.

Oh, my Go
d. Butt out of my conversation!
Samara screamed at him in her head.
An
d for your information, I care!

When Declan didn’t say anything else, Samara turned her attention back to Luke.
So? Why?

You’re my mate, Samara. At least, you could be my mate if you choose to be. You’re different to me than any other girl. You’re more important. I don’t want us to just have sex. If it happens, it should be at the right time
. . .
which isn’
t now. I want it to be perfect.
I don’t want it to ruin anything for us.

Samara studied his face to see if he could be lying. Nothing about his expression told her that he wasn’t telling the truth. She couldn’t come up with a valid reason to believe that it was just an excuse.
Samara also knew that she couldn’t hold the past against him, either. What he had done before he had met her or even before they had become involved was his business.

Smiling, Samara
pecked him on the cheek, turned, and began walking to her first period class.

When she sat down in the back of the classroom, Ethan turned and smiled at her. “Hey, remember a while back when you were doing a lab and you told someone the h
andle on the sink burnt you?”

Samara nodded
at the memory
. She had
almost
forgotten that had h
appened.

“It’s because it’s sterling silver. That’s why. I only remembered because it happened to me
a few minutes ago
,” Ethan said.
“It hurt like a bitch.”

“Oh,
glad I’m not the only one then
,” Samara replied, just as Ms. Shay walked into the classroom. Emma came in behind her and walked to the back of the classroom, the heels of her boot
ies clacking against the tiled floor.

“Jason asked me to go out with him tonight!” Emma whispered cheerfully. “He said it’s a really important date for us, so he wants me to wear something re
ally nice.”

Samara opened her mouth and closed it. She wasn’t going to say anything to Emma, but she couldn’t help but wonder why Jason wanted anything to do with her
. Emma was a human, so she probably wasn’t his mate. And if she wasn’t his mate, why would he want to be in a relationship with
her? None of it made any sense.

A thought that Samara hadn’t considered before crossed her mind. Maybe he was using Emma to get to Samara. Samara wasn’t sure how he would be able to pull this off without letting Emma know that they were both werewolves, but it seemed
like something Jason would do.

“That’s great
, I’m so happy for you,” Samara
lied.

*

As she was walking home from school, Samara noticed a movement in the bushes. Ever since she had become a werewolf, it felt like her senses had
become
heightened. She
felt like she
had supersoni
c vision
and an extremely sensitive sense of smell
now
. So, it was no surprise
to her
when she heard the
deep low growl from behind her.

The wolf stepped out from behind the bushes and stared at her with its deep blue eyes, baring its tee
th with its ears pinned back.

She could tell from its large size that it wasn’t just an ordinary gray wolf. It was a werewolf. Samara didn’t know what to do. If she ran, she would probably just make the werewolf even more angry and determined to attack. Besides, could she really outrun a werewolf? Judging from the times when she had run in wolf form, she knew that she had been pretty
fast – and
she was only just a pup.

The wolf took a step closer to her, its growls escalating as it continued to show her its teeth. She was pretty sure that Jason had told her that the only way a werewolf could die while they were in human form was with sterling silver, so she probably shouldn’t worry too much about
dying right now. She hoped.

As Samara looked around for a way to escape, she heard a
nother growl from behind her.

Whirling around, she stared into the face of another wolf. This time it was a familiar wo
lf, though. It was her wolf.

Dun da da da,
I’ve come to the rescue,
Luke said excitedly.

Okay, Superwolf, j
ust be careful,
Samara commanded.
He just . . .
came up to me and started growlin
g. I don’t even know who it is. He hasn’t said anything, so I have no idea what he wants. I assume it’s a he, at least.

Luke took a step toward the wolf and let out a ferocious growl. Samara knew that she was more physically attracted to Luke because he was her mate, but there was no denying that he
looked
more intimidating
than the other wolf,
which
no
w looked timid
in
c
omparison.

Samara watched as the two of them growled back and forth at each other before the other wolf eventually walked away. She could tell from the way the wolf kept looking back at them over his shoulder that he wa
s reluctant to leave.