Blood Moon (Howl #2) (5 page)

“Okay, but there’s a problem. My aunt Rae is the next female werewolf descendent since Grandpa Joe. That means that the belongings
are actually hers, not mine.”

“Nope,” Kyle said, ruffling his copper hair. “My mom’s not
a werewolf.”

“But I thought you said
she knew
,” Samara insisted. Kyle had said that, hadn’t he? She hadn’t just imagined that her Aunt Rae was in on all of this?

“Yes, she
does
know. She knew that werewolf blood ran in her family. She’s not a wolf herself, though. You’re the first female werewolf
to be born
in o
ur family since Grandpa Joe
was alive
.”

As Samara registered this new information, she heard
footsteps coming towards them.
Whirling around, she saw Luke walking down
the path. “Okay, we’re ready!”

“Awesome,” Colby said. The big smile on his face was illuminated by the light of the fire. He looked happier than Samara had ever seen him – which made her think of
the time
Jason had told her that the only reason Colby wanted her on his pack was for his own selfish reasons. Samara didn’t believe it for a minute; Colby was
genuinely
happy to have her on his pack.
Samara ran a hand through her hair. Was she going to have to cut off a piece like she would have had to do if she wanted to become a Vyka? How was she going
to explain that to her mother?

“No, you don’t have to cut your hair,” Luke said, chuckling. He handed Colby
a bag.

“Our initiation is
way cooler,” Colby chimed in.

“What is it?” Samara asked.

“We do a blood ritual.”

“Blood?” Samara managed to squeak. Even though she was a tomboy at heart, blood was the one thing that sort of freaked her out. She hated getting her blood work done at the doctor’s office. Though, she wasn’t sure what bothered her more:
the sight of blood or needles.

“Yes, you’ll see how it works,” Colby said. “
Luke went to get thumbtacks.”

“Thumb
tacks
?”

“We
used to use the Ima ceremonial
dagger
on everyone
until
someone
,” Colby said, glancing at Kyle, “nearly hit a vein. It wouldn’t kill you, but it wouldn’t be pretty either.” He began walking around the circle, handing
each of them a thumbtack
. “Thumbtacks are better because
we won’t have to worry about anyone hurting themselves
.”

Samara gulped. “Umm, no offense, but I like the V
yka initiation ritual better.”

Colby laughed. “You’re such a girl.” He
took a thumbtack from the b
ag
for himself
before pick
ing
up the next bag. This one was black velvet with a blue drawstring closure
.
With care
ful hands, Colby pulled a
silver dagger from the bag and handed it to Samara before taking his place across the fire from her.

“
Cut yourself with the dagger, Samara,
”
Colby instructed.

Samara glanced at the dagger in awe at how beautiful it was. The blade seemed to sparkle as she tilted it in her hands, which complemented the blue sapphire gemstones that decorated the handle. Normally, s
he would have been too afraid to make herself bleed, but she didn’t want to seem like a wimp in
front of her pack. Shakily,
she
pressed the
point of the
blade against
her skin,
watching as a trail of blood ran down her forearm
. “Okay,” she said, looking up at Col
by, unsure of what to do next.

Steve, who was standing closest to he
r, pricked his own skin with his
thumbtack. He
took a step
closer to her and reached for her arm. Hesitantly, she
allowed him to smear
his own blood into her open wound
, mixing their blood together.

When he was finished, Kyle did the same thing. And
then Chris, followed by Luke.

Finally, Colby walked over to her and
allowed a tiny blood drop to fall into her wound
. “It will happen now,” he whispered, but even before he finished his sentence, Samara felt
the change taking place in her.

The pain shot quickly from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet. Hunching over, Samara gripped her stomach before falling to her knees. The pain that flowed through her veins was more intense than anyt
hing she had ever felt before.

Samara felt a sudden pain shoot down her back. It felt like a thousand needles were
tearing
through her skin, like ca
t claws scraping down her back.

The pain subsided and, standing up, Samara watched as a blue smoky cloud enveloped her, blowing a strong gust of wind against her body, sending her chocolate brown
hair swirling through the air.

Samara felt her body being lifted by the wind, spinning in the air, hi
gh above the rest of her pack.

Ho
ly shit,
she heard Luke think.

“What’s going on?!” Samara screamed, even though sh
e meant to ask Luke privately.

Before anyone could answer her question, her vision became blocked by the cloud of blue smoke and sh
e came crashing to the ground.
 

*
 

When Samara woke up and stretched her legs, her foot
kicked against something hard
. Cracking open one eye, she realized that she was laying on a
comfortable
couch, but not in her own living ro
om.
She panicked. Where was she?

T
aking in her surroundings, Samara realized that t
he white carpet and sand-colored walls belonged to the Jackson fam
ily. She was in Colby’s house.
How had she gotten here? The last thing she remembered, she was at the lake.

Samara tried to sit up, but she felt a dizzy
spell
wash over her. She pressed her palm against her
temple
. There was a small bump. She
had hit
the ground hard, bu
t what had happened after that?

I can’t even believe this happened,
a voice said. The voice didn’t belong to Luke or Colby. Someone els
e was inside her head, but why?

This shit is crazy,
another
, more hyper,
voice chimed in. This time she recognized
the voice. It belonged to Kyle.

Samara was confused.
Was she hearing these voices in her head, or
were they trying to communi
cate with each other – or her?

Planting her feet on the ground, she went into the kitchen. Sure enough, the guys were all sitting around the table, looks of shock and
dumbfounded stares on all of their faces.

Samara plopped into a chair and grabbed a piece of pepperoni from a platt
er. “Why can I hear everyone?”

Colby stared back at her. “You’re kidding me, right? You don’t already know why
?”

Samara shook her head. “No. Is that supposed to happen w
hen we go through initiation?”
From what Colby had explained to her in the past about mind-speak, she knew that only certain people – your mate and your Alpha, to be specific – could be communicated with mentally when you were in human form. So, why was she hearing everything now? Was it some unique power that only she possessed?

Colby shook his head. “No, it’s not supposed to happen . . .  only in special cases.
Samara, you’re our new Alpha.”

Samara nearly choked on the pepperoni that she had been chewing. “What? What are you
talking about?
You’re
Alpha.”
Sure that Colby was joking, she found herself laughing at even the idea that she could be Alpha.

“He
was
Alpha,” Steve
corrected her
, shaking his head. “
He’s
not no more.”

“Can that even happen?” Samara asked. “I thought that once someone was named Alpha, it was a done deal.
”

“It usually is a done deal. It’s very rare for someone to be a placeholder for the pac
k’s real Alpha,” Luke replied matter-of-factly. “I’ve only ever heard of it happening a few times in the past.”

“Then, I don’t think it can be happening now,” Samara replied, shaking her head. “I’m sure you guys are just confused. I’m not Alpha.”

“
Trust me, you’re Alpha. To be completely
honest
, I always wondered if I was the real Alpha,” Colby said, rolling up his s
leeve. “Do you see my tattoo?”

Samara looked at his arm, remembering that someone had once explained to her that Colby’s tattoo was more elaborate than the other pack members’ because he was Alpha. The rest of the pack
members each
had a tattoo of the same
wolf
paw print in a color
that matched the
smoky
blue
cloud that surrounded them when they changed from human to wolf form. Colby’s tattoo was of the same paw print, but there was a blue halo
around his, which made it slightly more intricate than the tattoo that the rest of the Ima
had. “Yeah, I see it,” she replied, looking
up at Colby. “What about it?”

“It’s not as big or as complex as an Alpha’s tattoo is supposed to be,” Colby began. “My family thought I’d be
the Ima
Alpha because
it runs in our blood. My dad is an Alpha, as you know, and
my grandfather is also Alpha of one of our
other
adult packs. Then I went through initiation and I got my tattoo – and it wasn’t what we expected it to be. It is different from all of the others, but it should be a lot bigger than this. All Alphas’ tattoos are. We thought that maybe my tattoo would get bigger in time
, as I got more powerful
. It doesn’t usually happen that way, but it
can. It’s rare, but it
’s not unheard of.” Colby paused, running a hand through his curly
mess of
blonde hair. “I guess I was just always meant to be a temporary Alpha. It’s weird because I
did
get Alpha abilities . . . but they’ve all completely
disa
ppeared now that you’re
the new
Alpha.”

Samara opened her mouth to say something, but she found herself speechless. “I—I’
m sorry Colby,” she whispered.
She had a feeling that this was probably bothering him more than he was letting on; being Alpha was the only way he had ever shown any real confidence in life. As a wolf, he was confident, but as a human, he was just a class nerd who no one ever took seriously.
Samara felt guilty that she had taken this away from him.

Colby shrugged. “It’s okay. I knew I was n
ever fit to be Alpha, anyway.”

There was a big smile on Colby’s face. He was probably relieved that he no longer had to worry about the other pack members disobeying him. Even so, Samara still couldn’t help but feel bad. It’s not like she had asked to take away his place as Alpha. “I don’t know how this happ
ened . . . or why,” she said.

“I do,” Luke chimed in. “It happened because Colby changed everything.
He probably would have been our
Alpha i
f you didn’t choose our pack.”

That made a lot of sense. Luke was probably right. This had happened because it was destined to happen. It made Samara wonder what would have happened if she had decided to become a Vyka. Would she have been an Alpha on that pack, too? Considering her grandfather had been a Vyka, it would make sense that she would have been. Then again, Seth had already gone through the Vyka initiation ceremon
y, and he wasn’t Alpha.

Curious to see what her own tattoo looked like, Samara rolled up her sleeve. There was nothing there. Rolling up her other sleeve, she found that there wasn’t a tattoo on that arm either. Questioningly, she glanced up at Luke. “
Why don’t I have a tattoo?”

“Y
ou do
have one
.” Standing up, he grabbed her hand and pulled her down the hallway. Once he reached a bedroom, he closed th
e door. “Take off your shirt.”

As Samara pulled off the red sweater she was wearing, Luke fumbled in a drawer. When he stood up, he was holding a mirror. “Stand here,” Luke said, pointing to a spot in front of the
full length
m
irror that hung from the door.