Blood Moon (Howl #2) (7 page)

Just thinking about what Jason would do if he found
out about it made her shudder.
At least she had
(unintentionally)
done something right throughout all of this – she had been able to keep Colby safe
, though that meant that she now had an even larger target placed onto her back.

I think you need to call a pack meeting tonight – except we shouldn’t go to the woods. It’s not safe right now,
Luke said.
Let’s have it at Colby’s house instead.

Why do we need a pack meeting?

Luke hesitated.
There are some things that we need to talk about now that you’re Alpha. So, you should let the pack know that we’re meeting tonight.

I don’t see most of them
during the day
,
Samara replied.

She heard Luke chuckle inside his head.
No
w
that you’re Alpha, you don’t need to see them
, remember?
You just have to communicate with them mentally.

Oh,
Samara said.
Umm, do you know how I do that?

Do I look like I’ve ever been Alpha?
Luke asked, laughing.
That’s probably a better question for Colby. But I can’t imagine that it would be much
different than talking to me.

Okay, I’m going to try,
Samara said. She closed her eyes and thought about how she wanted Colby, Steve, Kyle, and Chris to all hear her.
Guys, we’re meeting at Colby’s house aroun
d eight. Be there or be square.

Colby’s voice immediately filled her head.
Okay, cool.

The rest of the guys agreed, and Samara breathed a sigh of relief. Being Alpha wasn’t going to be easy, but she would get used to it.

*

Samara walked into the classroom that was scheduled to host the
Grandview High ski club meetings. They wouldn’t be officially skiing until the ski slopes opened
this winter
, but they would be going over some of the routine stuff, like safety. Today, all Samara had to do was drop off her parental consent form . . . an
d she was dreading it.

Ski club was the one thing that she and Declan had always done together, so he would probably be at the meeting. Even though Samara wanted to just quit ski club now that they could no longer be friends, she knew that her parents would probably start to ask questions – and she wasn’t ready to answer them yet.

Samara hadn’t even seen Declan since she had become an Ima. She had no idea how he was going to act. There was always the off-chance that he would act like everything was normal, like they were still best friends, and she would have to find a way to hide her friendship from the rest of the pack like Kyle did with Josh.

Samara knew that wouldn’t happen, though. She had really hurt Declan. He would definitely be giving her the cold shoulder and, most likely, acting like she didn’t exist. She was going to have to find a way to compose herself because having Declan hate her was the only thing worse than having to choose another pack over him.

As she rounded the corner and went inside the classroom that the ski club meetings were held in, Samara nearly bumped into Chrissy, one of the girls who was also in the club. “Samara, hi!” Chrissy trilled. “How have you been?”

“Good,” Samara replied, giving her a warm smile. “How about you?”

“Bad, actually.
Ben
and I
broke up.”

“Aww, that sucks,” Samara said sympathetically. “What happened?” Even though she didn’t really care, Samara figured that it was best to try to pretend to. That’s what other normal teenagers who didn’t have life or death matters would do.

“Between his new afterschool job and basketball, he just doesn’t have time for me,” Chrissy replied. Her eyes became cloudy with tears. She wiped one away. “I should be a priority, ya know?”

“You should,” Samara said, trying not to roll her eyes like she wanted to. Was Chrissy seriously crying over this breakup? It didn’t sound like they even had that many problems. Samara wondered what Chrissy would do if she had to give up her best friend who she had just realized that she sort of maybe had a crush on, but had to stop being friends with him
for the rest of her life
because they were going to be rivals for possibly hundreds of years to come. Chrissy could probably fill up buckets with those tears she’d cry. Samara realized, right then, how strong she had really been through all of this. There wasn’t even anyone who she could really vent her true feelings to. Sure, she had Luke, but she didn’t want to
keep
talk
ing
about Decla
n around him. It just felt wrong.

As though she had read Samara’s mind, Chrissy tossed back her light brown hair and asked, “Where’s Declan? He’s usually here by now.”

Samara glanced at the clock on the wall. Chrissy was right. Declan usually was here by now. In fact, he usually got here long before Samara did. Timeliness was one of his virtues. For him to not be here now, something was wrong. Samara reached into her pocket to grab her cell phone before she remembered that she couldn’t call him.

Once the meeting started, Samara realized that Declan wasn’t late. He was just avoiding her. He had given up ski club, one of his favorite things, just so that he wouldn’t have to see
her anymore.

Samara blinked back the tears. This was how it was going to be from now on.
And it hurt.

Chapter 5

****

“So, why did you call a pack meeting?” Steve asked as he flopped down on the white plush sofa at Colby’s house.

“Umm, I don’t actually know,” Samara said, scanning the room for Luke, who had suddenly disappeared
, just when she needed him to explain why they were here since he hadn’t already told her – which, of course, made her feel stupid
.
Wouldn’t a good Alpha know these things?
“I guess Luke will explain it when he gets back.”

“Figures,” Chris whispered from across the room, an annoyed look on his angular face.
“Wonder what else he’ll need to do for her.”

Colby elbowed him and said, “Dude, shut up. She’s still new at this.”

Samara eyed them both curiously. She wanted to ask what Chris was trying to get at, but she didn’t want to seem too nosy. The last thing her pack members needed was another mother. Samara wanted to like them, even if that meant forcing herself
to stay out of their business.

He thinks you’re going to be a bad Alpha because you’re a girl
, Colby said, allowin
g Samara to hear his thoughts.

Samara looked down at the
floor
, surprised by what Colby had just told her. She had figured that it was going to be weird for her pack members to have a female Alpha since they weren’t used to it – and because she was the first one to ever exist. Since most of them had been raised by werewolf parents, they were probably brought up to believe that a male-dominated werewolf pack was best. What she hadn’t realized was that
some
of the guys in her pack
might
give her a hard time because she was a girl. It made her understand how Colby had fe
lt when the pack disobeyed him.

Thinking about Chris’s comment, Samara felt the ager rising to her cheeks. Luke came back into the living room then – and just in time because Samara had a feeling that she wasn’t going to be able to control h
er inner wolf for much longer.

Luke sat down next to her and grabbed her hand. Samara felt a tingly feeling shoot down her spine. Luke’s touch felt so much different now that she
was
initiated. It made it feel like they were
bonded
. It was as though he belonged to her; when he h
eld her hand, he was all hers.

“We need to talk about keeping Sam safe,” Luke told the pack. “She may be the Alpha, but she still needs to learn how to fight. In the meantime, we know that Jason’s going to try to at
tack. We need to be prepared.”

“What can we do about it if we don’t know when he’ll attack?” Kyle asked, coming into the living room and sitting down on the floor next to Samara’s spot o
n the couch. “Sorry I’m late.”

“They’ll try to catch us off guard, which is why we need to be ready for them. I want one of us to be with her
or within say, five hundred feet of her,
at all times,” Luke said firmly. Samara noted a protective tone in his voice
, which comforted her
. “I want us all to take shifts guarding the forest by her house. I also want one of us to be with her at all times. Kyle, you and I are the only ones who are going to be allowed in the house without her parents asking questions, and they’ll never
allow me to spend the night.”

“You want me to spend the night?” Kyle asked. Samara thought that he looked surprised at the idea, and she couldn’t blame him. It
had
been years since Kyle had stayed the night at the McKinley’s house. The last time she could remember was when his mom and dad had gone on a trip to Hawaii to celebrate their tenth wedding anniversary, which had to be at least seven years ago.
Kyle and Samara had drifted apart sometime after his father had passed away.

“I was thinking you could pretend to be having problems at home and ask to spend the night on days when you need to? Do you think your mom would be on
board with that?” Luke asked.

“Yeah,” Kyle replied hesitantly, ruffling his copper hair.
“She should go along with it.”

“And my parents should be easy to conv
ince now that Seth moved out.”

“He did?” Kyle asked, a look of surprise on his face.
Samara nodded. “Yeah, he left la
st night . . . I guess because of my initiation
. We have
no idea who he’s staying with.”

“Declan,” Steve chimed in. When everyone stared at him accusingly, wondering if he had willingly communicated with a Vyka, he explained, “I heard Declan talki
ng about it in history class.”

Samara felt her insides warm up a bit. At least her brother was staying with her old best friend. Declan’s dad was a nice guy, so she knew that he would be safe at the Kingsbury’s house. Samara wished that she could thank Declan for taking her brother in, but she k
new that she couldn’t do that.

No, you can’t
, Luke told her softly.
You need to remind yourself that the reason Seth lef
t is because of your decision.

Samara met his emerald green eyes and sighed. This was going to be even harder than she realized. “Okay, so, the next thing that we need to talk about is fighting. I know that Colby was supposed to work with me, but . . . who is the best fighter here? I
need to learn from the best.”

For a moment, all of the guys were quiet. They stared around the room at each other. Colby had a look in his turquoise blue eyes that told Samara that he wanted to say so
mething, but he kept it to himself.

“I think we’re all good at something,” Steve said slowly. “Kyle is good at catching his opponents off guard. Luke knows how to go all bestial and intimidate his enemies. Colby exudes this confidence that intimidates some wolves who haven’t met him b
efore. Chris is good at
biting; he knows all the right places to make a werewolf yelp. And me, I’m pretty good at figuring out who the weakest links are.”
Samara couldn’t help but flinch. Did he think that
she
was the weakest link of their pack?

“So, you’re all good fighters,” Samara said slowly, noticing that Colby was staring down at the
floor. “What’s wrong, Colby?”

Colby looked up at her, twitching his freckle-covered nose. “It’s just . . . my best quality as a wolf is that I’m confident. It’s my worst quality as a human.” He shrugged. “I guess it just bothers me.”
Samara was surprised that he had been able to talk about this so casually in front of the pack, but then
again
, there are no secrets within a pack.

No one said anything. Everyone knew that Colby wasn’t a confident human. Samara took in the outfit that he was wearing today: a yellow and orange striped turtleneck sweater with brown corduroy pants. Even though Colby thought that he was being cool, he usually wasn’t
– and Samara suspected that it bothered him more than he let on.

She was going to make sure that she gave him a makeover from head-to-toe. Hopefully, that would help to boost his confidence as a human, even if it was just a l
ittle bit.

That’s all fine and dandy, but not yet, okay? We have more important things that you need to be doing right now than giving Colby a makeover,
Luke told her. Out loud, he said, “So, it’s settled then. We’re all going to teach Samara how to fight
.”