Black Magic (Howl #4) (8 page)

Samara had assumed that the Vyka hadn’t caused any type of damage or harmed anyone, but maybe something had happened after the Ima was on their way back to Pennsylvania.

Orkos shook his head. “No, I wanted to speak to you in person.” He took a deep breath. “I wanted to tell you that I’m very upset with you for what you did.”

Samara stared back at him, wide-eyed and confused.

“I trust that you’re a responsible person, Samara. Lord knows you’ll need to be in order for you to live up to the expectations that your grandfather had for you, and I don’t doubt that he was wrong about you. You’re a brave young lady.” Orkos met her gaze. “But no matter how responsible you are or will become in the future, the fact of the matter is that you had no right to convince Kyana to come back here with you. It wasn’t your place to convince her to become an Ima.”

So, that was why Orkos was angry with her; he thought it was her fault that Kyana had left home to come live in Pennsylvania and join a new pack.

“I understand why you would think that,” Samara began. “But I’m not the one who convinced Kyana to come to Pennsylvania. She had such a connection with Josh. I mean, you saw it yourself before the attack . . . They really thought they were meant to be mates. It was a little surprising to everyone when she and Chris found out that they were mated instead, but . . . Josh was the main reason why she came.”

Samara decided to leave out the part about how Kyana didn’t want to get married or have babies at a young age like Orkos and the Koto pack wanted her to, and that joining a new pack would give her more freedom. It wasn’t for Samara to share; if Kyana wanted her father to know that information, she could tell him herself.

Orkos let out a deep sigh. “Whether it was you or Josh who convinced her to leave, you still had no right. She belongs to the Koto. Alaska is her home.”

Samara forced herself to offer Orkos a small smile, but she could tell from the look in his eyes that he knew it wasn’t genuine. “We did have the right to bring her here, Orkos. Akar gave us his permission.”

Orkos shook his head. “No, it doesn’t work that way. Akar is the Alpha of the youth pack, but his decisions only hold true when I’m unable to fulfill my duties and make the decisions on my own. Our youth pack must obey the wishes of the Alpha of our adult pack.” He paused. “I’m not angry with Akar for giving Kyana permission to come here because I wasn’t able to tell her she wasn’t allowed to become an Ima. But now that I’m back to normal, Akar’s choice no longer matters. I’ve come to take Kyana back to Alaska with me.”

Samara raised her eyebrows at him. “You’re joking, right? Kyana is working on building her life here already. She’s just started school, and she’s settling into her new life in Pennsylvania. You can’t just take her home after she’s worked so hard to start fresh. It doesn’t seem fair.”

Orkos shrugged unsympathetically. “Kyana should have thought about that before she made the decision to come here. She should have thought about the consequences when she went through her Ima initiation. It doesn’t matter now, though, because she’s going to be a Koto again.” He rose to his feet and turned to go in the house.

“Wait!” Samara hissed at him. “I didn’t agree to let her become a Koto again. If you want her back on your pack, you’re going to need my permission.”

Orkos’ eyes widened. “I would have thought that after all the favors I’ve done for you—taking care of Nuka and all of the things that your grandfather left behind for you—the least you could do was let me take my daughter back home, where she belongs.”

Samara searched her head for a way to convince him to let Kyana stay in Pennsylvania, but she couldn’t come up with anything. She didn’t want to tell him that she needed Kyana to stay because they needed strength in numbers if they had any shot at beating Jason; that would probably just make Orkos nervous by reminding him that his daughter was going to have to fight, and there was a chance that she could die if things got out of hand.

Instead, Samara said the first thing that she could think of. “Why don’t we let Kyana decide if she wants to stay here or go back to Alaska with you? It seems fair to let her decide where she wants to be, doesn’t it?”

Orkos hesitated, considering this option. Finally, he nodded his head. “Okay, this sounds like a good idea to me. Let’s let Kyana decide. It only seems fair. She’s the one who’s going to have to live the rest of eternity with whichever pack she should choose.”

“Okay. I guess we’ll see what she decides.” Feeling herself growing competitive, she thought,
let the best pack win.
If Kyana did choose the Koto over the Ima, it was probably because she was homesick . . . but Samara hoped that wouldn’t happen right now. The last thing they needed was to lose two members when they were trying to build a pack that was strong enough to take on the Vyka.

When they went back into the living room, Kyana was sitting on the couch next to Chris, who had his arm wrapped around her shoulders. They both had nervous expressions written all over their faces as Orkos sat down in a recliner.

“Kyana, there’s a decision you need to make,” he told his daughter.

Kyana glanced over at Chris nervously. “What is it, Papa?”

“You need to decide if you want to stay here and remain an Ima, or if you want to go back to Alaska and be a Koto again,” Orkos replied.

Kyana shrugged. “Well, that’s an easy choice. I’m going to stay here.”

“Daughter, please don’t choose so hastily. I didn’t tell you all of the terms yet,” Orkos snapped at her. “If you choose to become an Ima, you are no longer welcome in Alaska. I will no longer recognize you as my daughter.”

Chapter 11

Samara stared back at Orkos, dumbfounded by what he had just told Kyana. Why hadn’t he given Samara any warning that this was the offer he was going to present to his daughter? It felt like he was being sneaky and trying to force Kyana to become a Koto. It seemed really manipulative of him.

As much as Samara wanted to be able to like Orkos since he had been such a good friend to her grandfather, or so it had seemed, the respect that she had for him was starting to fade really quickly. It almost felt like he was against her, even though it hadn’t felt that way when she’d first met him in Alaska; he had seemed to be genuinely happy to meet her because she was his best friend’s granddaughter.

Samara wondered what had changed since then. The only thing that she could think of was that he must have blamed the attack by Norm and Martin, two members of the Savia pack, on her because she was the one who had pissed them off at a nightclub. They had then tracked the Ima pack down to Orkos’ home, where they’d attacked him.

“Papa! You can’t be serious!” Kyana replied shrilly. “You can’t force me to choose between my own family and the Ima, who are now my second family.”

“Yes, I can,” Orkos replied, nodding. “It shouldn’t be such a hard decision for you to make. In my eyes, you made it once already. You chose the Ima over your own family. I’m giving you a chance now to make it right . . . or be out of our lives forever.”

Samara gaped at him, still in disbelief that Orkos was willing to sacrifice his relationship with his own daughter if she didn’t agree to go back to Alaska with him. If she were Kyana, she would feel insulted. If anything, it would make her want to stay an Ima more, just to prove to her parents that she was capable of making her own decisions.

Kyana turned to Samara; her almond-shaped eyes had a look of worry in them. “What about you? Are you offering me the same thing?”

“What do you mean?”

“If I choose to go back to the Koto, will you disown me, too?” Kyana asked quietly.

Samara shook her head. “No, I won’t. You’ll always be welcome here,” she replied. “Chris will always be welcome, too.”

“Chris? Why wouldn’t Chris be welcome here?” Orkos questioned, turning to Samara. “He’s not invited to join the Koto.”

“Papa, how could you say that?” Kyana asked shrilly, her eyes filling up with tears. “How could you tell me that you’ll disown me if I don’t go back to the Koto, but you won’t let me bring my mate with me?”

Orkos glanced over at his daughter, his nose wrinkling at the sight of Chris’s hand, which had drifted to her thigh. “Kyana, when you were just a baby, this isn’t the way I imagined your life to be. I didn’t want you to come to Pennsylvania to become an Ima. I thought you would stay a Koto—and that you would be mated with a nice boy from our own pack. One of Kristos’ sons, perhaps. I never thought, for a second, that you would be mated to a boy who lived so far away from your family . . . someone who comes from a completely different world than you do.”

“Excuse me, Sir,” Chris interrupted, “but the truth is, we’re really not all that different. We have a lot of things in common.”

Orkos let out a sarcastic chuckle, his laughter echoing through the room. “Name one thing that you and my daughter could possibly have in common.”

Chris shrugged. “We love each other . . . We’re in love with each other. Isn’t that enough?”

“Quite frankly, no, it’s not enough. You might think you love my daughter now, but are you going to be able to sustain that love until the end of time? You come from the new world—a world where werewolves live in houses instead of huts and where the choice to have children is only an option, a mere afterthought. My daughter has been born and raised to live her life the old way, the way in which material things play little significance in her life. Just looking at you, I can tell that’s not the way you’re used to living.”

Chris ran a hand through Kyana’s hair. “All I know is one thing, Sir. I love your daughter. I’m willing to live whatever type of lifestyle she wants to live. If she wants to live life the old-fashioned way, I’m not gonna lie. It’s gonna take some time for me adapt to that life, but I don’t care. I’ll do it because I love her.” He met Orkos’ gaze. “Now that I have her in my life, I don’t want to ever let her go. So, if you want her to come back to Alaska to be a part of your pack, then you need to accept me, too.”

Orkos was quiet for a long moment. Finally, he said, “I’m sorry, but I can’t do that.” He rose from his feet. Glancing at Kyana, he said, “You have until two Sundays from now when I fly back to Alaska to make your decision. I’ll be sleeping in the woods until then.”

As Orkos left the room, Samara glanced around awkwardly, noting that Luke and none of the other pack members were anywhere nearby. They must have been in Colby’s bedroom. Glancing over at Kyana, whose eyes were glassy with tears, she walked out of the room. Chris and Kyana probably needed some privacy, anyway.

She found Luke and Colby deeply involved in a video game in the entertainment room. When she entered the room, he said, “That didn’t go well.”

Remembering that she hadn’t blocked him out of her thoughts so he had heard the conversation that she’d had with Orkos, Samara sat down on the leather couch in the room. “No, it didn’t.” She sighed. “What do you think she’s going to do?”

Luke shrugged. “If I were her, I’d probably go back home.”

“You would?” Samara questioned, feeling slightly offended and betrayed that Luke would say that he would go back home to his old pack, even if it meant leaving her behind, if he were in Kyana’s shoes. “Why?”

“It’s safer for her in Alaska. For every night that she sleeps in this house, there’s a risk that Darren might walk through that door one day,” Luke said.

“You think he’s going to find this place?”

Tearing his eyes away from the TV, Luke glanced over his shoulder at her and shrugged.

“I think he’s going to,” Colby chimed in. “All it would take is one slip on my mom’s part. I’m not saying it would be her fault if Darren does find out where we are, but if she ever forgets to block him out when she’s thinking about where the house is or when she’s driving and sees a road sign or anything like that—anything that could lead him here—there’s a pretty good chance that he’ll figure it out.”

Samara felt her stomach drop to the floor. She hadn’t even considered that Linda could make it easy for Darren to find the place if she ever forgot to block him out of her thoughts. As much as Samara wanted to think that wouldn’t happen, she knew from firsthand experience how easy it was to forget that your mate could be listening to what you were thinking at times. Knowing it was a risk made her feel uneasy.

“Anyway, don’t forget that we’re going to meet my parents tomorrow afternoon,” Luke reminded her.

“How could I forget?” Samara asked. “I’m so looking forward to it.”

*

When Luke pulled into Samara’s driveway that night, all of the lights in the house were turned off. “Hmm, that’s strange. My parents must not be home.”

“I’m not leaving, then,” Luke told her. “I don’t want you to be here all by yourself.”

She glanced over at him. “I’m fully capable of spending a night alone. Assuming they don’t come back tonight, that is. They could be home any minute now . . . and if they find you here, they won’t be happy.” Even though her parents mostly seemed okay about her dating Luke, she knew they wouldn’t be comfortable with him sleeping over . . . especially when they weren’t home to supervise them.

Luke shook his head. “No, not when I know that Seth and Declan are out there somewhere, probably near your house. And that means Jason is probably close behind. I don’t care what you say or what your parents say about me sleeping over tonight, but I’m not leaving you here alone. I just don’t feel comfortable with it.”

“Okay. I guess we’ll deal with my parents later.” Samara smiled. Even though Luke could be stubborn at times, there was also something so genuine about him that she loved. And the truth was, she really
did
feel safer knowing that he would be there with her.

She would at least have a good argument for why she had allowed Luke to sleep over when she did speak to her parents. It was mostly their fault for leaving her home alone. No, they didn’t know just how dangerous Jason was, but they also had to know that life would never be completely safe for a teenage werewolf . . . especially considering what had happened to her grandmother.

Unlocking the front door, Samara swung it open. The house was dark inside, but her nostrils instantly picked up on the musky scent that filled the air. Vyka.