Blood Moon (Howl #2) (18 page)

“What if
I want to kill?” Samara asked.

Chris laughed out loud. “You’re joking, right?” He snorted thro
ugh his laughter. “You? Kill?”

Samara stomped her foot on the ground. “Yes, me kill. In case you haven’t realized, a lot of people want to kill me right now. I need to know how to fight back and defend myself if necessary. Th
at’s the whole point of this.”

Chris stared back at her as though she were an alien. “Right, well . . . if you want to kill through a bite, you need to bite a certain area of the body with all of your strength.” He paused and looked at the life-sized werewolf stuffed animal that Colby’s dad had given them to use for this lesson. “You have two choices. You can either go for the throat to constrict the airways or you can pierce the heart. I prefer
going for the throat myself.”

“Why?” Sa
mara asked.

“Easy. If a wolf has teeth sinking into its throat, cutting off its ability to breathe, it will be harder for it to fight back. When you pierce the he
art, the wolf can fight back.”

Samara raised an eyebrow. “Have you killed many other wolves
during attacks?”

Chris shook his head. “Not really . . . just three. All of t
hem were out of self-defense.”

Samara took a step closer to the stuffed werewolf before turning to Chris. “How do you p
ierce a heart through a bite?”

“You need to bite the chest, right where the heart is, and sink your teeth in as hard as you can,” Chris explained. “Very few werewolves have ever b
een able to do pierce hearts.”

“But you have?” Samara asked doubtfully. What were the chances that one of the wolves on her pack had done something that
few other werewolves could do?

Chris nodded. “My dad taught me. He was one of the best biters in history.” He shrugged. “I guess th
at’s why I’m so good at this.”

“Well, thanks for teaching me,” Samara said, impressed by Chris’s talent. “It means a lot because I kn
ow you’re not too fond of me.”

Chris sat down on one of the lawn chairs and looked up at the sky. “That’s not it. I don’t have a problem with you personally. It’s just . . . if Colby isn’t Alpha, why did it have to be you? Why couldn’t it have been me? This is a man’s world . . . and i
t’s like I’m not good enough.”

“I don’t know why it happened this way,” Samara replied, sitting down on the grass next to him. Luckily, she had on dark jeans because the grass was wet. “It just
was meant to be, I guess.
I promise it’s not because yo
u’re not good enough, though.”

“How do you know that?” Chr
is asked, looking over at her.

“You just told me about something that you’ve done that hardly anyone else can do,” Samara said. “You have a talent. And to be honest, I’m supposed to be one of the most powerful werewolves in the world. You’re on my pack. That says something ab
out how powerful you must be.”

For the first time since Samara had become Alpha, Chris smiled at her. “I guess you’re right. I’m sorry
I haven’t taken this so well.”

“That’s okay,” Samara replied, smiling back. “I’m just glad you were finally honest with me. I just thought you didn’t want a
girl to be your pack leader.”

Chris laughed. “No,
it’s okay. I feel better now.”

“Good.” Samara glanced back at Colby’s house, which was lit up by the gold Christmas lights. She noticed a dark figure looming in the kitchen window. When the person looked up, Sama
ra knew who it was right away.

Mr. Jackson. The way he stared back at her from behind his dark eyes, it felt like he was trying to search her soul for something – but Samara had no idea what. She wished that, at the very least, she knew what he wanted from her. He w
as beginning to freak her out.

Feeling goose bumps rise on her arms, Samara turned to Chris. “I’m going to get Luke so
he can give me my lesson now.”

“Good luck wit
h that,” Chris said, laughing.

“What’s so funny?
” Samara asked.

“You’ll see.”

Rolling her eyes and chuckling, Samara headed back to the house.
Instead of following Chris through the back door
, she chose to go to the front door, so that she didn’t have to come
face-to-face with Mr. Jackson.

Before she could turn the doorknob, the door swung open, and Luke stepped out. When Samara looked at him strangely, Luke explained, “I heard you think about m
e giving you your lesson now.”

“Okay, well let’s go to the backyard.” Samara began walking down the grassy slope in the Jackson’s yard that led to where she and Chris had
just been doing their lesson.

“We’ll want to want to go in the woods behind the house,” Luke said. “I don’t want any of Colby’s neighbors to frea
k out if they see or hear us.”

“Hear us?” Samara
asked with an eyebrow raised.

"Yeah,” Luke replied, leading her to the woods. Once they were in a blanket of trees, he changed into a wolf, the blue smoke creating a fog-like
appearance in the dark night.

Samara followed his lead, changing into wolf form, too. When she was level with him, she asked,
now what?

Now, I’m going to teach you how to become a ferocious beast who can intimidate her opponents
, Luke replied.

Samara gulped. She had never thought about the fact that, once she finally did get into a fight with other werewolves, she was going to have to find a way to intimidate them – to make them feel fearful of her. Even though Samara now knew how to make herself look confident physically, she was still lacking in the emotional department, although part of that probably had to do with the fact that so many people – err, we
rewolves – wanted to kill her.

You can’t let them get to you.
You can’t let them know you’re afraid
. If they know you’re intimidated,
then they’ll know your weakness, and
they’ll be more likely to succeed
, Luke told her. He turned around and walked away from her, leaving her standing alone under
the canopy of trees overheard.

When Luke came back, he raced towards her; he was growling loudly. When he was in front of her, he snarled, baring
his pearly white teeth at her.

Luke got closer to her face, continuing to show her his teeth
and growl
ing
.

For a moment, Samara froze, forgetting that this was Luke – her Luke, her mate. He wasn’t going to attack her. This was all just to teach her,
to help her do the same thing.

When Luke took a step back, he sat down in front of her.
Your turn n
ow.

I – I don’t know if I can do it as good as you just did,
Samara replied, already feeling nervous at the idea of having to do what Luke had just done. Was it possible for her to make
herself that scary?

You won’t know until you try,
Luke pointed out.
Now try.

Samara took a few steps away from him before turning back, walking towards him on all fours quickly. She growled louder than she ever had before and parted her lips, showing her teeth. Samara got closer to his face, continuing to let out
her growls
, while baring her teeth.

Weak
, Luke said.
I know you’re not going to attack me. Try it again.
Samara turned away and repeated the process of growling and gnarling at him. The second time around, he shook his head at her.
It won’t cut it. Try
again.

Feeling the anger build up inside her, Samara walked away from him again. She thought about all of the things that had happened in the past few months – all of the things that made her mad: Rocco wanting to kill her; Jason wanting to kill her; Jaso
n killing Lilly and Meagan.

This time, when she walked closer to Luke and growled at him, showing him her teeth, she felt more powerful, more in control. If someone messed with her, Samara wasn’t going to let them intimidate her; she wasn’t a weakling. Sh
e was going to fight back.

After she growled in Luke’s face for a few minutes, he stared back at her with his golden eyes.
Perfect.

*

The doorbell chimed loudly, interrupting Samara’s thoughts. For the past hour, she had been laying on the couch, flipping through the stations on the television. Samara didn’t even want to watch anything; she only had the TV on to keep her mind occupied. She’d been so busy worrying about the Homecoming dance and the events that were going to take place afterwards that she couldn’t have focused on watching so
mething even if she wanted to.

Samara got up and opened the door. When she looked outside, she found Luke’s light green eyes staring down at h
er. “Let’s go out,” Luke said.

“Now?” Samara asked, glancing down at the ratty sweatshirt and Victoria’s Secret sweatpants that she had been lounging in. Luke nodded. “Wher
e are we going?” Samara asked.

“I thought that we could go on a date,” Luke repl
ied.

“What
type of date?” Samara pressed.

“I was thinking dinner and a movie,” Luke said. “You know, the type of date that normal teenagers usually
go on . . . something normal.”

Samara smiled at Luke’s werewolf humor. “O
kay, just let me get changed.”

When she was back in her room, Samara pulled a white lacy camisole over her head, followed by a hunter green sweater. She debated wearing a jean skirt but decided against it because it was so cold outside. Samara slid into a pair of dark wash skinny jeans
instead.

When she went back into the living room, Luke was talking to Mr. McKinley, who, surprisingly, was laughing. Samara raised an eyebrow. She knew that her dad had taken to Luke better than she had been expecting, but this was the first time she had seen her f
ather laugh in Luke’s presence.

“Have her home by ten,” Mr. McKinley said before winking at Samar
a and heading into the kitchen.

As Samara followed Luke outside and climbed into his Honda Accord, the relief washed over her. At least her parents didn’t absolutely hate her mate. Her life would be far more comp
licated than it was right now.

“So, did you hear the
news about Lilly?” Luke asked.

Samara shook her head. “No, I haven’t been keeping up with the news.
What’s going on?”

“The police think Lilly lied about running away,” Luke began. “They think she might have been kidnapped . . . or that she was involved with someone who had really jealous tendencies. They think the
same person . . . the kidnapper
or the person she was involved with . . . is
who killed her that night.”

Samara let out a loud sigh. “I seriously ho
pe this doesn’t fall on Josh.”

Luke stiffened and no
dded, looking ahead. “I know.”

“You don’t need to get so jealous, you know. I would say that about anyone who I genuinely thought was innocent. It’s not because I like him or s
omething,” Samara shot at him.

“I know,” Luke said gently. “I just don’t like the kid. I’m sorry. If there was a girl who you knew liked me, you proba
bly wouldn’t like her either.”

Samara sighed again. She wasn’t going to argue that Josh didn’t like her in that way; it wasn’t worth wasting her breath over. Luke was right about one thing, though. Samara still couldn’t seem to like Ashley Everest after what had happened that night at Emma’s party, and she had been
friendly with her before then.

Luke pulled into the parking lot at Finecelli’s, a cute little Italian restaurant, and Samara climbed out of the
car.

Once the hostess had seated them at a table, Samara opened the menu and began looking through it. She used to love Finecelli’s vegetarian lasagna, but that was back when she was a vegetarian – before she felt
the constant urge to eat meat.

Luke placed his hand over hers. “It’s nice to finally be alone with you. I feel like that
doesn’t happen nearly enough.”

“I agree,” Samara replied, smiling at him. It felt like they were always with the pack – and if they weren’t with the pack, they were at school, and when they weren’t at school, they were with her family or Emma. It w
as never just the two of them.

“When you tell your parents about everything, I want them to know that,” Luke began, just as the redheaded waitress, who was standing next to their table, cleared her throat. “Hi, my name is Kelli, and I’ll be your server this evening,” the waitress said. “Can I start you
off with something to drink?”