Wolfsbane (Howl #3) (2 page)

Chapter 3

In the midst of everything else, Sa
mara had totally forgotten that she needed to see her best friend, Emma Taylor
. As Luke drove over to her
Emma’s house
, she seethed. Just thinking about what Jason had done to Emma made her feel sick inside . . . and it made
her want to kill him even more than she already did.

“It isn’t going to be easy for you to tell her, but I know that you can,” Luke said. He reached over and locked his fingers around hers, squeezing her with his own strong hand. His touch gave Samara a sense of reassurance. He was right; she could do this.

As Luke pulled into Emma’s driveway, Samara leaned in and gave him a small kiss on the lips. “Thank you for believing in me,” she whispered before climbing out of the car. “I’m sorry ab
out earlier. I feel so much better
now that my dad knows.”

She crunched across the fallen leaves that were scattered across the front lawn until she reached the front door. Before she even had a chance to knock, the door was pulled open, and Emma’s mom, Dana, stared back at her. Her naturally fair skin had taken on an even paler, ghostly shade of white. “Samara, what’s going on?”

“Um, I, uh,” Samara stumbled over her words, trying to figure out how much she should tell
Dana
about what had happened. Had Emma already told her mom that she’d been bitten by a wolf or, even worse, that she had seen Samara transform from human to wolf?

Luckily, she didn’t have to wonder for long. Emma’s mom explained, “I know
breakups can
be rough, but I’ve never seen my daughter
act
like this before.
I don’t know how she could be so attached already . . .
I’ve never even met this Troy guy. Do you know why they broke up? I wonder if he cheated on her. Emma hates being the loser, if you know what I mean.”

Samara breathed a sigh of relief. Emma
hadn’t
said anything to her mom yet. Good. Shaking her head, Samara looked up at Dana. “I don’t know what happened, but I think she needs me right now. I should go talk to her, i
f that’s okay.”

Even before Dana nodded, Samara knew that she wouldn’t object. Unlike her own mom, Emma’s mom didn’t care if her daughter had visitors late at night. It was surprising enough that Dana was even home tonight, since she and her husband usua
lly went away on
the weekend
s
, which gave Emma the chance to host drinking parties that helped her stay on good terms with the
‘in crowd’.

As Samara raced upstairs to Emma’s bedroom, she heard sniffles from the hallway. She knocked on the closed door. “Emma
?” she called. “Can I come in?”

At first, there was no resp
onse at all. After a few moments
of silence, the door was slowly opened. When Samara saw her best friend’s eyes, which were red and puffy from crying,
she embraced her in a big hug.

“I’m so sorry, Emma,” Samara whispered, feeling the guilt build up inside of her. “If it weren’t for me, this ne
ver would have happened to you.”

“What are you talking about?” Emma asked, pushing Samara away from her. “How is it
your
fault?
You’re not the one who bit me.
”

Samara told Emma everything. She explained that she was a werewolf and that was why Emma had seen her shift in fro
nt of her earlier that night.

When she explained to Emma that she, too, was a werewolf, her best friend’s light blue eyes
flashed with a look of disbelief.

“How can I be a werewolf? Werewolves are—they’re beasts!” Emma protested, shaking her head violently. She met Samara’s eyes. “You’re insane. Werewolves don’t even exist!” She laughed, as though she were embarrassed that she had almost been convinced so easily at the idea
that she could be a werewolf.

“Emma, you’re a werewolf. I know it sounds crazy, but trust me. You’ll find out soon. You’ll start sleepwalking, and you’ll change
into a werewolf and wake up outside
without your clothes
on
, and--” Samara trailed off. How could she convince her best f
riend of what she really was?

“Okay, let’s
just
pretend that what you’re saying
is
true. Who would
want to
do this to me?” Emma asked incredulously. “It’s not like I have enemies. Who woul
d want me to become a monster?”

“Jason would,” Samara replied quietly. When Emma stared back at her questioningly, she continued. “Jason wants to kill me, but I tried to kill him first.” Samara took one look at the clueless expression on Emma’s face and explained, “Jason’s really mad at me right now, and I think he used you
to get to me.”

Emma stood up, her wrists clenched in fists. “Well, let’s go ge
t revenge on him then, dammit!”

“I would love to, but we have no idea where he is. And you have no clue what you’re dealing with yet, Emma. Jaso
n is crazy. He’s not just crazy . . . H
e’s dangerous.” Samara paused, realizing something for th
e first time. “And if I’m right—if Jason
is
the one who did this to you—we
aren’t going to be allowed to speak to each other
very
soon.”

Emma’s forehead wrinkled in confusion. “Why wou
ldn’t we talk? We always talk.”

“There’s a rule that werewolves from opposing packs aren’t allowed to speak to each other or they could be exiled from their pack. Jason wants a large pack even more than he wants to hurt me.” She paused, knowi
ng that the next thing she was about to
say was the tr
uth
, even if she didn’t have any proof of it
. “He won’t just exile you . . .
not without a fight. He’ll kill you for speaking to me if he has to.”

*

That night, Samara slept over at Emma’s house. She was afraid to leave Emma there alone, knowing that she would spend the night worrying that
Jason would come
see her. Samara also knew that she and her best friend wouldn’t be able to have many
more sleepovers after tonight
, so they should enjoy them while they could
.

The next afternoon, Samara’s cell phone blared, waking both her and Emma up. “Hello?” she asked groggily into the phone, not even bothering to check the caller ID first. She just
wanted to stop it from ringing.

“Sam?” Her mom’s voice came from the other line. “We need to talk.”

“I know,” Samara replied, sitting up alertly. “Did Dad tell you?”

There was a long pause before Mrs. McKinley said, “Yes, he’s out of his mind. I’m thinking of havi
ng the two of you committed.”

Samara had a feeling tha
t her mother wouldn’t believe she was a werewolf so
easily; her mom had
always had a difficult time believing in the supernatural.
“Mom, I’m coming home. I have something to show you,” she replied before hitting the ‘end’ button on her cell phone and standing up. She didn’t bother changing
out of the
sweatpants and sweatshirt
she’d borrowed from Emma
; there were more important things to worry about right now than clean clothes.

“You’re leaving?” Emma asked.

Samara nodded. “My dad
finally
just found out I’m a werewolf, and I have
to talk to my mom about it now.”

“Should I . . . I
s it a good idea for me to tell
my mom?” Emma asked quietly.

“Are you saying you believe me now
about you being a werewolf
?” Samara asked. She had expected it t
o take a lot more convincing—or for
Emma to morph into her wolf form and see for herself
—before her best friend believed her.

Emma shrugged
her fair-skinned shoulders
. “I don’t know.
I haven’t really decided yet, but I’m leaning towards believing you.
I don’t know why you would lie to me.
Or why you would tell your parents if it wasn’t true.
And I did see that crazy wolf transformation thing you did in the school parking lot.
If it can happen to you, I don’t see why it couldn’t happen to me
.
It must be true. I’m a beast.”

“Being a werewolf doesn’t make you a beast. I’m not a beast.” Samara glanced over her shoulder at Emma, whose eyes were filled with fear. “You have to do what’s right for you, Em. I waited until I thought I was ready to tell my parents, but it killed me to keep
it
a secret from them. And then they find out on their own, anywa
y. Well, my dad did, at least.”

Emma walked Samara out the front door.
“I guess you’re right. Werewolves can’t always be beasts. I, for one, know that I can’t be both beauty
and
the beast.”

Samara felt relieved
by how her best friend was handling the news.
She’d be
en expecting Emma
to go through a period of not talking to her or telling her that she was wrong
about this
.
If their roles had reversed, Samara
wasn’t even sure if she would have believed it so quickly.

Actually, if it weren’t for Emma actually seeing her as a wolf, Samara was pretty sure that
Emma
wouldn’t believe it ei
ther. That was the only thing Samara
really had going for her.
“I’ll try
to call you later, okay?” she
said, slipping outside. The bitter air hit
against her cheeks.

Emma nodded. “Yeah, see you later.”

*

As Samara walked up her front driveway, she tried to relax.
After seeing her
turn into her wolf form
firsthand, her mom
had to at least believe that it was
the truth. The question was: would she be accepting of it once she found out that it was true?
There was a risk that she would disown her.

As she walked through
the front door, Mrs. McKinley leapt up from the sofa a
nd wrapped her arms around her.

“Oh, Samara,” she whispered, and Samara could hear from the sniffles in her voice that her mother had
been crying. “What is going on with you?
Are we not giving you enough attention?
Is that what this is all about?
”

Samara pulled away from her mom and met her eyes. “No,
I don’t need attention. B
ut
I do have something to show you,
”
she said, remembering her dad’s advice from the night before.

Her mom sta
red back at her with wide eyes. Samara had a feeling that her mo
m knew what was going to happen; she just didn’t believe it . . . or she didn’t want to, perhaps.

“Do you mind if I do it in the house? It’s too light outside.
The neighbors might notice.”

Her mom just stared back at her. When she didn’t answer, Samara thought about how she wanted to turn to wolf form and, within seconds, she felt the blue cloud of smoke swirling around her. As her body was lowered to the floor, she watched as her mom cupped her mouth with both hands, tears of shock streaming down her face as she cried out something inaudible.

Samara’s father entered the living
room from his office, alerted by his wife’s
crying.

Deciding that she had to prove to both of her parents that just because she was a werewolf
, it
didn’t mean she was a monster, Samara took a step forward. Her mom looked startled at first, but she seemed to relax when she noticed Samara’s tail wagging in the air.

“Look, Reed, she has white fur,”
her mom told her father quietly
, as she cautiously
ran a shaking hand through it.

“I
know . . .  I saw it earlier tonight. I was a little surprised myself. I
thought werewolves would have gray fur,”
her dad
replied, a hint of confusion in his voice.

Samara willed herself to change back to her human form and grinned at her parents as they stared back at her. She hadn’t needed to convince her father of what she was, but even he appeared to be in awe when he sa
w her transformation take place.

“I have white fur because Grandpa Joe was from Alaska,” Samara explained, as she sat down on the couch. “Most werewolves do have gray fur, but some have brown and black fur. It really just depends on our origins.”
She turned around, pulling her shirt up so that her parents could see the paw print tattoo that trailed down her spine. “I also have a tattoo.”