Howl (Howl #1)

by Jody Morse

  Jason was the Vyka Alpha.

  She felt tempted to run away, to tell them that there was no way she was going to be on their pack. There was still one last person who she hadn’t seen yet, though. Someone who seemed familiar and, for some reason, wanted to reveal himself to her last. It made her all the more curious to know who he was.

  When she turned around, she noticed that the red smoky cloud was already swooping over him. As the cloud disintegrated, Samara clamped a hand over her mouth.

  It was Declan. Her best friend was a Vyka.

  Chapter 17

  ****

  “Are you surprised that I’m Alpha?” Jason asked, interrupting her moment of shock about Declan.

  Samara shrugged. She wasn’t about to tell him that she didn’t like him. If her choice in pack depended solely on Alpha, she would have gladly chosen Colby. They weren’t the only ones in the pack, though. There were other people – people who she loved and cared about – in both packs. That made her decision so much harder to make.

  On the Ima, she had Luke and Kyle, two people who she cared about so much. But on the Vyka, she had her brother and Josh, who she felt a certain amount of closeness to for some reason. And Declan, her best friend in the world.

  How could Declan be a werewolf? How long had it been since he had made the change? Did he know that he was a werewolf when she had asked him about it?

  Yes.

  Samara stared at Declan with wide eyes. She was positive that she had just heard his voice inside her head, loud and clear, even though he was in human form. Was she imagining it?

  She heard Declan chuckle inside his own head. No, you’re not imagining this. You can hear me.

  So, that means . . . you’re my mate? Samara asked.

  Declan shrugged his shoulders, which looked a little wider to her right now than she remembered them to be. Was it because she was physically attracted to him now, or was it because becoming a werewolf was changing his appearance?

  I suppose that I am your mate, Declan said. Of course, I’ll only be your mate if you decide to be on the Vyka. If you go back to the Ima, you’ll have another mate. I’m not sure if you know that.

  Samara nodded her head. Yes, I already know who my Ima mate is. How do you feel about me being your mate?

  “I don’t know,” Declan said out loud. “It’s too new to me and a little weird, honestly.”

  Samara looked down at the ground. She wasn’t sure how she felt about it herself, but for some reason, it hurt her to think that Declan might not even want her to be his mate if she chose this pack. Sure, the circumstances were kind of strange. They had been best friends for years, and Samara had even compared him to a gay best friend or brother at one point because she didn’t think it was remotely possible for her to be interested in him.

  She wasn’t so sure now, though.

  Tonight, Samara noticed that Declan’s face had a certain glow to it, a glow that she had never noticed before. Was she becoming attracted to him?

  Samara didn’t know, but one thing was for sure: she knew that she didn’t want to be rejected by him either. If she did choose to be a Vyka, she wanted to make sure that she would have a mate. Life was too long for a werewolf to be all alone.

  As Samara looked at him, trying to catch his gaze to see if he had just heard all of her thoughts, she realized that Declan wouldn’t even look at her.

  “So, you wanted to find out who we are. Now you know. Do you have enough information to make a decision?” Jason snapped at her. “I mean, we don’t have all day. Are you going to be on our pack or not?”

  “I need time to think about this,” Samara replied. “It’s a big decision. The Ima have given me to the next full moon to decide. That’s four days from now. I guess everyone will know what my decision is then.”

  “Are you serious, Sam? You really need to make a decision about this?” Seth asked, an angry tone in his voice.

  “Umm, yeah. This is my life,” Samara said. “It’s not like choosing what color of crayon you want to use when you’re a kid or what ice cream flavor you want. This decision is going to affect the rest of my life, so I think it’s important for me to be absolutely sure of which pack I want to belong to.”

  “How could you be so selfish?” Seth yelled at her. “Grandpa Joe wouldn’t be happy if he thought you were going to turn against his pack.”

  Samara sighed. “Seth, if you want me to be perfectly honest, I’m not sure if I really even care how Grandpa Joe would feel about this. We barely even knew him. I have, like, one memory of him, and it’s not even that clear. We didn’t get to have a relationship with him, probably because he was too busy off fighting werewolves. I barely even consider him family.”

  Glancing around at the pack, she noticed that each of the guys was scowling at her, even Declan. It was obvious that there was a strong sense of camaraderie among pack members, living or dead.

  “Well, as Alpha, I’m going to tell you the same thing. Take until the next full moon to decide. We want to know your answer, even if you decide that you don’t want to be one of us.”

  Samara turned to walk away. As she was climbing up the rocky path that would lead her back home, Jason shouted, “And Samara? If you decide that you don’t want to be a Vyka, just know that you will no longer be on our side. You will be our enemy.”

  *

  Samara woke up in the middle of the night to see someone hovering over her. Blinking her eyes, she realized that it was Seth. “What do you want?” she asked groggily, rubbing her eyes.

  “To talk,” Seth replied, sitting down on the edge of her bed. “We need to talk about this.”

  Samara sat up. “Yeah, I guess we do. You didn’t tell me what was going on with you when I asked you all those times, though. So if you’re just trying to convince me to be a Vyka, please leave.”

  “Well, I do want you to be a Vyka. You’re my sister. I don’t want you to be my enemy.”

  “I don’t want to be your enemy either, Seth, but don’t you think that Grandpa Joe would have wanted us to do what we felt was right for us? What if I would rather be an Ima?”

  Seth shook his head. “I don’t know what Grandpa Joe would have wanted. You’re right. We didn’t know him all that well. He was barely even a grandfather to us.”

  Samara nodded. “Speaking of that, have you talked to Mom and Dad yet about all of this?”

  Seth scoffed. “I’ve been fighting with them for the past few months. Of course I haven’t told them. Why, have you?”

  Samara shook her head. “No, I haven’t. I was just curious. I’ve been wondering if Dad even knew that Grandpa Joe was a werewolf. He’s never mentioned it. You would think he would have told us that this could happen to us.”

  “I know. That’s part of why I’ve been so angry at him,” Seth replied. “How could he let something like this happen to me without at least giving me a warning? That’s all I’ve been thinking about lately. He didn’t even tell us, but he still expects us to have respect for him. I don’t. I’ve lost all respect for him.”

  “Maybe he really had no idea,” Samara said. “There’s always that chance that Grandpa Joe might never have told him. I don’t think we can really blame him for sure until we know either.”

  “I guess,” Seth said, shrugging.

  She paused. “I thought that he may have been waiting until it was my sixteenth birthday to tell me, but if that was the case, he would have told you.”

  “Yeah, and he didn’t,” Seth sighed. “I also wanted to tell you something else. I’m pretty sure that you don’t already know this. Lilly Philips is on our pack.”

  Samara’s eyes widened. “She is? Why wasn’t she there tonight then?”

  “Lilly doesn’t want to be a part of this,” Seth replied. “Like you and me, she was completely unprepared for this. Her mother apparently was a werewolf, but she abandoned Lilly when she was just a baby. She doesn’t even remember her. I don’t know if her dad knew she was a werewolf or not, but
if he did, he never told Lilly. Anyway, Lilly just wants to make it go away. She’s been having a really hard time accepting it”

  “Can it just go away? If you want no part of it, can you just . . . get rid of it?” Samara asked hopefully. She hadn’t even considered the possibility before, but it seemed like there had to be a way to become human again. She loved being a werewolf. It made her feel free. But if she could go back to the way her life had been before she found out she was a werewolf, she wouldn’t have to worry about choosing a pack and all that came with it. But it also meant she would be turning her back on her own family and friends and Samara knew she could never do that.

  “No, Jason said that’s not possible. It was one of the first things I asked him. I didn’t exactly take the news well at first either, but I eventually began to accept it,” Seth admitted. “Lilly doesn’t want to be a part of any pack. But she’s stuck as a Vyka, whether she likes it or not.”

  “Well, unless she switches packs,” Samara said. “Maybe that will make her feel better about it.”

  Seth shook his head. “No, she can’t switch packs. You’re only allowed to switch packs if your Alpha gives you permission to. Jason said there’s no way he will allow her to switch.”

  “Why, though? What’s special about Lilly?”

  “I’m not really sure,” Seth shrugged. “I think it just has to do with him being in control of the pack. He wants to be powerful, so he uses his authority to his advantage. He doesn’t want Lilly to switch packs, so she won’t. End of story.”

  Samara made a mental note of that. If she didn’t want to stay a Vyka after she joined, Jason wasn’t going to let her change her mind. In fact, he’d probably be even less likely to let Samara switch packs than Lilly because he wanted her power for the Vyka.

  Would Colby let her leave if she decided she didn’t want to be an Ima after she went through initiation, though? Samara wasn’t sure because it was obvious that he needed her to help the Ima, but she guessed that there would be a better chance of convincing Colby to let her leave than Jason if it was what she really wanted.

  “All I know is that I have lots of decisions to make over the next four days. I have no idea what I’ll decide, but I do know that I am going to need to get a good night’s sleep for tomorrow so I’m not a zombie instead of a werewolf,” Samara said, laughing at her own attempt at a lame joke. “Goodnight, Seth.”

  Seth looked like he wanted to say something else, but he walked towards her bedroom door instead. “Goodnight, Sam.”

  After her brother had left the room, Samara laid back down. Almost as soon as her head hit the pillow, she heard, Sam?

  She realized that there was going to be a problem with having two mates at the moment because both Declan and Luke had fairly deep voices, and they both called her Sam. Samara was going to have a difficult time being able to tell them apart. She hoped that she wouldn’t turn into one of those people who accidentally called their boyfriends by the wrong names. It was annoying because if it were up to her, she wouldn’t be involved with two guys at all.

  Yes? she asked back.

  Look, I’m sorry I acted weird tonight, Declan said. This is all just so new and crazy to me. I mean, of all the people who could have been my mate, it’s my best friend.

  Is that really such a bad thing? Samara asked. She didn’t know that much about soul mates and, to be honest, she didn’t even know that much about relationships. If she had to choose someone to spend the rest of her life with, it didn’t seem like it would be that awful for it to be someone who she had been best friends with for many years, though. At least she knew she could trust him, if nothing else.

  After a moment’s hesitation, Declan answered her. It’s not that it’s a bad thing. It’s just that . . . this isn’t the first time I’ve felt attracted to you. And I feel really attracted to you right now.

  I didn’t know you had feelings . . . or an attraction . . . for me in the past, Samara responded. She wiggled her toes. Samara wasn’t sure if she actually had feelings for Declan or if she just liked his attention right now, but either way it made her happy.

  Oh, yeah. I did. I had the hugest crush on you, but I was afraid that it would ruin our friendship if I told you. I knew you weren’t interested in me at the time because I’m just the goofy big brother type to you. But to me, you’ve always been someone really special.

  Samara smiled. She wasn’t sure if she would have been happy to hear this about a week ago, but it made her pretty excited now that she knew that he was her mate. Well, one of her potential mates. There was still a chance that she could end up with Luke if she decided that she wanted to be an Ima. I always thought you would have been interested in Emma, if anything, she said.

  Emma? God, no. Emma is a selfish, materialistic bitch. Forgive my language, but she is. You’re one of the most down to earth people I know. I feel like I connect with you, more than I have with anyone else really. I guess in a way, I’m not even surprised that you might be my mate, Declan admitted.

  It’s weird that I didn’t know before I heard you say something to me in my head, Samara admitted. If that didn’t happen . . . I’m not sure if I would feel any different right now, but somehow it changes everything.

  Did anyone explain to you how different it is to have two potential mates than one chosen mate? Declan asked her hesitantly.

  No, no one has explained much of anything to me lately.

  The way you feel about me right now . . . and the way that you feel about your other mate right now, Declan began, and Samara immediately sensed the jealousy in his voice, it’s not the way a werewolf normally feels about their mate.

  What do you mean?

  When a werewolf has a mate, they normally feel this really strong powerful bond with each other. It’s physical and emotional. At least, that’s what I’m told, Declan said. When you have two potential mates, it changes everything, though. The bond is basically cut in half. When you decide which pack you belong on and you have your chosen mate, the connection that you’ll feel for him will be much more powerful.

  Samara thought about what Declan had just told her and asked carefully, So, basically, what you’re telling me is that I don’t feel as strongly for either of you as I will when one of you is my mate?

  Yes, pretty much.

  That helped Samara understand things a little more. Samara knew that she felt some sort of connection with both of her potential mates since she had found out that they may end up spending the rest of their lives together, but what she didn’t understand was why the connections weren’t stronger. She had attributed it to the fact that she had just met Luke and that Declan had always been a friend, so it was going to be hard to see him as a mate. Now, things made more sense. What she still couldn’t understand was why Declan had kept his life as a werewolf a secret from her. Why didn’t you tell me you were a werewolf when I asked you about them?

  Declan sighed in his head. It was a difficult thing for me to keep from you. I wasn’t sure if you started going through the change yet or not. Jason told me afterwards that Colby bit you. Remember when I told you that my dad saw a werewolf when he was out hunting? Well, that story was true, sort of. He met her human form while he was out hunting, and he fell in love with her. Then they had me, and she told him she was a werewolf. I’ve always told you that my mom left us when I was born, but that wasn’t true. My mom was killed by a Seku.

  A Seku? Samara asked.

  A Seku is another one of the werewolf packs in the Pocono Mountains. They used to be really powerful during my mom’s generation, but their youth pack isn’t as strong as the Vyka or the Ima. I’ve heard that they’re trying to build up their pack so that they can outnumber us. I haven’t seen it happen yet, though, so I have my doubts that it will.

  How many werewolf packs are in the area total? Samara questioned. Even though she knew that other packs had been mentioned to her, she had assumed that there were none that close – she’d figured that the packs in the Catsk
ills were the closest ones. It was crazy to think that there were other packs in the Poconos, especially because she had only ever come across packs from the Ima and Vyka packs.

  Five. There’s the Vyka, the Ima, the Seku, the Zuri, and the Shomecossee.

  Do any of them get along?

  Declan chuckled inside his head. No. None of us get along. Befriending someone from another pack is considered completely unacceptable and it’s also a common reason to be exiled from your pack.

  Samara thought about how Kyle and Josh were still friends, even though they were on opposing packs. She wondered if either of their Alphas knew that they had been best friends for years. It would be really sad if they had to end their friendship just because they were destined to be on different packs. In a way, it almost didn’t seem fair.

  I don’t think either of the Alphas do know, Declan cut in, interrupting her thoughts. Sorry, I heard what you were thinking. I didn’t mean to intrude. I just wanted to let you know because it would be best if you didn’t say anything. Kyle and Josh are carrying on their friendship in secret, as far as I know. I’ve seen them sneaking around to talk to each other, but they’re avoiding each other the rest of the time and especially when they’re around Colby and Jason.

  I won’t say anything. And it’s okay. About you reading my thoughts, I mean, Samara said. I’m beginning to get used to it…with my other possible mate. Anyway, I think I’m going to get going to bed. I’m really tired and I need to get up soon.

  Okay, Declan replied. Goodnight.

  Goodnight. Samara rolled over to her side and tried to get comfortable on her pillow, but it seemed unusually firm and difficult to sleep on tonight.

  Samara? Luke’s voice asked.

  Samara groaned. What? Between you and my brother, I’m not going to get any sleep tonight.

  And your other mate, Luke replied. Samara sensed the jealousy in his voice. I’m sorry, but I heard your conversation with him. I’m sure he can hear my conversation with you right now since I just heard his, but I don’t really care.