Wolfsbane (Howl #3)

by Jody Morse

  “It’s not a problem.” Orkos smiled. “If you ever decide that you want to keep her, you can have her.”

  “I’ll consider it,” Samara replied. She wondered how it would even be possible if the dog refused to leave Joe’s cabin as it was. “So, what am I supposed to do with the house? You said it belongs to me . . . but I don’t live in Alaska.”

  “Maybe you will someday,” Orkos said with a shrug. “As of right now, you don’t need to worry about it. Kyana and I care for the cabin. Financially, you have nothing to worry about, either. There’s plenty of money in the trust that Joe left behind for you to pay for the yearly expenses.”

  “Trust? What trust?” Samara asked.

  Orkos glanced over at her. “No one’s told you about the trust yet?”

  “No,” Samara said slowly, surprised by this new information. “He left me money?”

  Orkos nodded and smiled. “I think that you’ll be pretty pleased with the amount that’s been left for you. There’s enough to take care of you for the average span of a human life—assuming that you want the most luxurious life, that is. Otherwise, there’s probably more.”

  “How much exactly is there in the trust?” Kyle asked.

  Orkos shrugged. “Millions of dollars. I don’t know how much exactly, since the estate attorney handles it.”

  “Why did he leave it to Samara?” Kyle asked shakily, and Samara thought that she picked up on a note of defensiveness in his voice. She glanced over at him. The redness was beginning to rise to his cheeks, and he looked angry. When he didn’t look her in the eye, Samara realized what was wrong; it bothered him that their grandfather had left all this money to her and nothing to him.

  Orkos cracked his knuckles, as he explained, “Joe knew Samara was going to be the next female werewolf in the McKinley family. He used to have prophetic dreams . . . visions, if you will, and he saw it. I told him that he shouldn’t worry about a trust or anything until he knew if she was going to be a werewolf for sure, but he wanted to make sure that she would be well taken care of if something should happen to him.” He looked down at the ground. “I sometimes wonder if he knew, even back then, that his life would end sooner than it was supposed to.”

  The answer didn’t seem to satisfy Kyle; she could see that he was still upset about it. He’d probably been expecting Orkos to say that Grandpa Joe had left something for all of his grandchildren, including him, instead of only something for Samara. It made her feel bad—like it was her fault—but it’s not like she’d had any control over who their grandfather had left his house or money to. She’d barely known the man.

  “I don’t understand why he wanted to leave everything to the first female werewolf in our family. Maybe he knew I was going to be a werewolf, but if he could see the future, he should have known that Kyle and my brother, Seth, would be werewolves, too,” Samara said quietly, trying not to look at Kyle. “Do you know the reason he only left something to me?”

  Orkos met her gaze. “It’s because of a dream that Joe had when he was only just a child. He knew you’d be stronger than him one day.”

  Chapter 13

  When Samara and her pack got back to the cabin, she felt both physically and mentally exhausted. From all of the walking they’d done to being threatened by those guys at the club and learning that she had become a millionaire overnight, Samara just wanted to go to sleep.

  But she couldn’t. They had to finish looking through the house tonight because, if all went according to plan, they had to leave Alaska tomorrow to go to Massachusetts to look for Jason.

  “I have this feeling,” Samara told the pack, recalling what she had realized earlier that night. “I think we should be looking outside for whatever it is that we’re searching for instead of inside.”

  “That seems like a reasonable idea,” Colby said, nodding. “It would make a lot of sense that your grandfather would have tried to hide whatever we’re looking for so that no one would be able to find it if they broke into the house. Quite clever, actually.”

  “Unless . . .” Josh trailed off.

  “Unless what?” Samara questioned.

  “Unless we’re looking for something that isn’t actually there,” Josh said, looking down at the ground. “What if this is all there is for us to find—the cabin that you now own? What if Joe McKinley didn’t actually leave anything for you besides the cabin and your trust fund? We don’t have any proof that he left you anything else, do we? Orkos probably would have mentioned it.”

  “No, there’s something here. I can feel it.” Samara wasn’t about to tell them the truth; she was only hoping at this point that there was something else somewhere on Joe’s property. Her grandfather had already left her more than enough and the truth was, Kyle was right; nothing said Joe McKinley had to leave her anything more than what she already knew about.

  Samara wondered how Grandpa Joe even had millions of dollars to leave her. It was one of the questions that she was going to have to ask Orkos about when she saw him the next morning, since Orkos and Kyana were supposed to stop by with breakfast.

  Once they were outside, Samara glanced around. “I don’t know where we should be looking.”

  “Probably around the greenhouse I’m guessing,” Luke replied.

  They walked over to the greenhouse and crouched down. Scanning the area, Samara searched for something—anything—that seemed out of place. But she didn’t notice anything that looked out of the usual through the white, powdery snow that covered the ground. “I don’t see anything.”

  “Maybe there’s something in the greenhouse itself,” Chris suggested. “Something we missed before.”

  “Maybe, but it looked like the only thing that was in there was wolfsbane,” Samara replied with a sigh, plopping down in the snow. The cold didn’t seep through her pants, now that the cooler temperatures no longer seemed to bother her.

  Someone called out her name. She turned around to see Kyle waving something in the air. “We found something, guys! It’s some type of weird vacuum or robot or something!”

  He raced over to them, carrying the long neck of the vacuum-robot thing. Colby laughed out loud when he saw what Kyle was holding. “Are you for serious, Kyle? You really thought that was a robot or vacuum?”

  “Uh . . . yeah. Why, do you know what it is, Colby Jack?” Kyle asked, using the nickname that most of the school’s popular kids—including Jason—called Colby when they were making fun of him. Samara knew that her cousin was taking his anger out on Colby, even though the reason he was irritated was still because of their grandfather.

  Colby laughed again, unfazed by the nickname. “It’s a metal detector. This is actually a very rare model. Me and my dad always used to use a metal detector similar to this one to find gold and other trinkets people left on the beach. It was fun times.” He paused. “But I wonder why Joe McKinley has one just lying around his cabin.”

  “Probably so we could find it,” Luke replied. He turned to Samara. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

  Samara nodded. “Let’s get to work.”

  An hour later, the metal detector began beeping as they waved it over the snowy ground.

  “Jackpot!” Chris exclaimed. “I didn’t think we would actually find anything.”

  “Well, we don’t actually know what it is yet, so it’s best not to get our hopes up,” Colby pointed out. “At the beach, me and my dad found lots of garbage. It could be an aluminum can or something under the ground for all we know.”

  Samara nodded in agreement. “Yeah, let’s try not to count our chickens before they hatch. This really could be nothing.”

  “Let’s start shoveling,” Luke told Josh, who had come outside to join them. Josh and Kyle had found shovels in one of the coat closets.

  Josh began to shovel the snow. “Wow, this is really hard to shovel. The ground’s frozen.”

  “Yeah, thank God we’re strong,” Luke said, flexing his muscle and grinning at Samara. “I’m not sure we woul
d be able to dig this up if it weren’t for the fact that we’re werewolves.” He turned back to digging up the ground, tossing piles of snow and then dirt into the air.

  When Josh’s shovel hit something hard, Samara perked up. Could there actually be something important for them buried under the ground?

  Josh met her gaze. “It’s some sort of box or something.”

  Luke and Josh continued to dig up the box. Once the dirt was piled high around them, they pulled it out, and Samara gasped.

  Taking one glance at the dirt-covered box, Samara suggested, “Let’s take it inside and find out what’s in it.”

  Once they were in the house and had placed the box on the table, Steve wiped the dirt off it, revealing the intricately carved wooden chest, which was adorned with jewels.

  “Is there a lock on it?” Samara asked Kyle, who was closer to the front of the box than she was.

  Kyle glanced down at the box, examining it. “Yeah, there is.”

  “Great,” Samara muttered. “Where would my grandfather have put the key?”

  “I didn’t see any keys earlier,” Josh admitted. “Maybe he told Orkos where to find it.”

  “Maybe . . . or maybe we already have the key,” Colby said, turning to Samara. “Where’s the key to the house?”

  Samara pulled it out of her purse and handed it over to him, confused by what he was doing.

  “Actually,” Colby said, turning the key into the box and lifting its lid successfully, “this was really smart of him. Who would have thought to use the house key? Most people would still be searching for the key to the box.”

  “I definitely would have been if you weren’t here,” Samara admitted.

  Colby grinned proudly. “Am I a genius . . . or am I a genius?”

  “I don’t know if that puts you into the genius category,” Steve said. “It’s not like you’re Bill Nye the Science Guy or that dude who invented the light bulb or anything. But it was pretty damn smart. I never would have thought of it myself, I’ll tell you that much.”

  “Well, what’s inside?” Samara asked, realizing that every moment they weren’t looking into the box was a moment they were wasting. Whatever was inside it had to have been important; she couldn’t imagine any other reason why her grandfather would have gone through the effort of keeping it hidden under the ground.

  Colby pulled a long envelope out of the box and handed it to her. “Here, open it. It has your name on it.”

  Samara glanced down at the white manila envelope that she held in her hands. Her grandfather had written Samara Alyce McKinley in his neat handwriting. When she tore open the envelope and pulled out the letter that was tucked inside, she read it aloud.

  “My dearest Samara, it is with great pain that I write this to you, but I know that it is necessary. If you are reading this, it means that I am already gone. It is important for you to know what to do once you have made the transformation.” She breathed in deeply. Orkos was right; her grandfather had known that she would become a wolf one day.

  She glanced back down at the words that were written on the paper and continued reading. “There is going to come a time in your life when you must make an important decision, and I hope that you make the right one if you haven’t made it already at the time of reading this letter.” She paused. Was he talking about the decision she had to make when she chose between packs? There was no further reference to the decision as she read on.

  “There are going to be people who will want to interfere in your life, once they know who you are. Don’t let them. The reason they’ll bother you is because of me and because of the things that I have done. I can’t change my past, nor can I fix the things that I have done wrong. What I can do is help you prepare for the future that you will have to face as a result of me. I have enclosed several objects that you must never lose, as well as instructions on how to find things that I have hidden for you in a safe place. These things will be of great importance to you throughout your journey.

  “You must always remember who you are, Samara. Follow your heart. Let it guide you. Make decisions that you will be able to live with at the end of the day. Because the truth is, you are going to have to live with them longer than a mortal will. You may have to live with them until the end of time.” Samara paused. She’d never thought of her grandfather as a sentimental guy, or the type who would offer her this type of advice. Then again, she’d barely known Joe McKinley. How would she have known what type of advice he was capable of giving?

  Glancing at the bottom of the letter, she read the final words, “P.S. Please make sure Nuka is always taken care of for me. Love, Grandpa Joe.”

  She looked up at her pack members, who all seemed to be mesmerized by what she was reading. Samara realized it was probably the equivalent of reading a letter by some notorious celebrity whose death was a mystery, like Marilyn Monroe or Elvis Presley. It was strange for her to think that those few times she had spent with her grandfather, people were practically worshipping his great powers.

  “What else is inside the box?” Samara asked.

  When Colby pulled the next object out of the box, he met her eyes, as he placed it in front of her. Wolfsbane.

  Chapter 14

  “What is that doing in there?” Samara asked, staring at the purple flower that lay on the table in front of her.

  Colby shook his head. “I don’t know, but there is a note attached.” He handed it to her, rubbing his eyes tiredly.

  “Don’t do that!” Samara yelled at him. “It’s toxic. You’re going to make yourself blind or something.”

  “Oh, please, Sam,” Colby replied, laughing. “It doesn’t feel like I’m going to die. My hand feels fine where I touched it. Besides, I doubt that he’d put it in the box if it was all that deadly. Maybe it is for humans, but I doubt it is for us.”

  “Yeah, just relax,” Steve chimed in. “I think Colby’s right about this. I’ve never heard of a werewolf losing his vision before.”

  Deciding not to argue with them, Samara unfolded the piece of paper that Colby had handed her and began to read from it. “I have made several attempts in scattering this flower throughout my home and property in hopes that you would find it. If you don’t already know, this flower is called wolfsbane. It’s in the greenhouse in my backyard, and I’ve placed several packets of seeds in my cabin in hopes that you would discover them by now. If you haven’t seen the flower yet, this is what it looks like. Embrace wolfsbane. It’s not deadly to us,” she read, glancing up at Colby, and feeling an overwhelming sense of relief. “However, it can be useful to us. I’ll let you in on a little secret that is unbeknownst to most of the werewolf world: wolfsbane makes us more powerful.

  “Wolfsbane offers us two advantages. The first is that it works similarly to a steroid when it is consumed. It makes us stronger, faster, and more agile than other werewolves. It also hides our scent from other wolves, which makes it easier for us to attack without anyone suspecting it.” Samara looked up at Luke first and then the other guys in the pack, a wide grin on her face. “This is it! Wolfsbane is what’s going to help us beat Jason!”

  “Is that all that the letter says?” Josh asked. “Or is there more?”

  “There’s more,” Samara replied, glancing back down at the note. “There are only two ways to take advantage of the benefits that wolfsbane has to offer. The first is to wear it around your neck, but note that this will only hide your scent. It will also only work while you are in human form, unless you place a necklace around your neck while your wolf form is present. The flower will not remain on your neck while you make the transition from human to werewolf form; just like clothes, it will disappear once you have your fur, and you will not be able to take advantage of the benefits that it has to offer.

  “The second way to use wolfsbane is to boil the flower in water to create a soup to be eaten during the full moon. The benefits of the flower will extend until the next full moon, during which they must be restored. When wolfsbane is
consumed, you can take advantage of its strengthening benefits, as well as its protective benefits.”

  “So, what you’re saying is, the whole reason Joe McKinley was more powerful than every other werewolf is because he either drank this shit or wore it around his neck?” Steve asked, his chocolate brown eyes filled with wonder.

  “I guess so,” Samara nodded.

  “I can’t believe it,” Luke said, shaking his head. “It’s hard to believe that he did what he did the natural way . . . for the most part. I mean, it’s just a flower. He didn’t use black fighting or anything.”

  “So, he’s innocent then? He wasn’t a black fighter?” Samara questioned. Black fighting was what it was called when werewolves used black magic to help their fights. As far as she knew, a lot of people in the werewolf world had hated her grandfather because they thought he was involved in it.

  “Well, it seems that way now,” Kyle replied, his voice full of surprise. Even he must have been convinced that black fighting was the only way his own grandfather had been able to accomplish everything he did.

  “Guys, do you think there’s any chance that the Vyka know about wolfsbane?” Samara asked. She’d been convinced that the Vyka used black fighting, but maybe they knew about wolfsbane’s powers, too. Then again, that didn’t explain how Jason had disappeared into thin air on the night the Ima had tried to kill him. Wolfsbane couldn’t have been behind that—at least, she assumed it couldn’t be because her grandfather probably would have included it in his letter if it were.

  Colby shook his head. “I’ve never seen wolfsbane mentioned in any of the old history books. I don’t know how they would know, unless . . .” He paused, considering what he was about to say next. “Unless Joe told the rest of the Vyka about it, and the information got passed down to Jason and his pack.”

  “That’s exactly what I’m thinking may have happened,” Samara replied. She felt disappointed knowing that they might not be the first living wolves to learn about wolfsbane’s benefits. It might not be top secret information—even though she would have thought that others would have heard about it by now if someone else besides them knew about it.