by Jody Morse
When they all sat around the breakfast table the next morning, Samara noticed right away that Colby still seemed out of sorts. He was quieter than he normally was, and she knew it was because he was still upset about his dad. Not that she could blame him. His father was working with the enemy.
When Josh came downstairs from his bedroom and sat down at the kitchen table, he shoved a piece of bacon in his mouth like a hungry animal. “It makes sense. I look like our mother, but Jason doesn’t look anything like our father . . . you know, our non-biological father. But he does look a lot like Darren.”
“It’s those eyes,” Steve said, crunching on his own bacon. “They have the same exact dark eyes.”
“You know, you’re right,” Samara agreed with him. “Both of them have always creeped me out, and I think that’s what it was about both of them. Those eyes.”
“We don’t have time to sit around and talk about this all day,” Colby said, standing up from the table. “We need to get ready to go see Troy.”
Samara gulped down the last of her sausage. She only felt a little bit nervous about confronting Troy. He didn’t scare her. Even Rocco, his cousin who had threatened to kill her if she didn’t agree to become a Shomecossee, didn’t freak her out that much. Not the way Jason or Colby’s dad did.
If it came down to fighting with either Troy or Rocco, she believed she would be able to win. Because unlike Jason, neither of them used black fighting—not that she was aware of, at least.
“I had an idea,” Luke said, carrying his dishes to the sink. “I’m not sure if everyone else will be willing to go for it, but I think it could help us get the talisman back.”
Samara glanced up at him, curious about whatever it was that he was about to propose. “What’s your idea?”
“What if we offered Troy something in exchange for the talisman?” Luke asked. When she didn’t respond, he explained further. “I mean, we could see if there’s something that he might want already, but if he doesn’t come up with anything on his own. . . what if we agree to tell him about wolfsbane in exchange for the talisman?”
“No, absolutely not.” Samara shook her head firmly. “Grandpa Joe wouldn’t have wanted me to tell anyone about that information. That’s why he left it for me—and me, alone. If it starts getting well-known in the werewolf world that wolfsbane can do what it does . . . It’s bad enough that the Vyka might already know. I just think letting Troy in on it, too, would be a bad idea.”
“Actually,” Kyle said, pouring himself another glass of orange juice, “I don’t think Grandpa would have cared that much.”
“How do you figure?” Samara asked, pulling her chocolate brown hair into a ponytail. “You think he didn’t care about wolfsbane?”
Kyle shook his head. “No, that’s not what I’m saying at all. What I’m saying is . . . I think he cared more about his talisman than he did about wolfsbane. I think if he had to choose between the two, he would have rather you traded your knowledge if you knew, for sure, that you were going to get the talisman back.”
“Hmm, I guess you’re right,” Samara agreed. “I didn’t really think of it that way, but the talisman does seem much more important. Anyone could stumble on the wolfsbane secret if they really wanted to—I’m almost surprised that no one’s made the information more widely known. But only one person in the whole world can have the talisman at one time, and I believe it has more to do with his power than wolfsbane did.”
“So, we’re going to go with my idea, then?” Luke asked, grinning proudly at the fact that he had come up with it.
Samara nodded. “Yeah, I think it’s a good idea. Well, it could be. Unless we find that it’s easier to get the talisman from Troy than I’m thinking it will be. We’ll have to test the waters first to see.”
Luke nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”
At that moment, Linda Jackson strolled into the kitchen. She looked awful. Her hair was disheveled, and there were bags under her eyes, which gave Samara that impression that she hadn’t slept an ounce the night before. Her eyes were also bloodshot, a sign that she’d been crying.
Samara couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like if she were to wake up in thirty or forty years from now and find out that Luke had betrayed her by having a secret family she had never known about—a secret son who he was plotting with to kill the son that the two of them had together.
That will never happen to you and me, Luke insisted. You have to know that by now.
I do, Samara smiled at him from across the room. I know you would never betray me.
“Good morning, everyone,” Linda said groggily, grabbing a carton of milk from the fridge and then slumping down into one of the chairs at the dining table.
“Morning, Mom,” Colby said, as he strolled back into the kitchen with fresh clothes on. He hesitated before saying, “I have a question, but I’m not sure if it’s too soon for me to ask about this.”
“Ask whatever you want, Colby,” his mom replied. “I’m so thankful that I have a son who is decent enough to be honest with me after finding text messages like that last night.”
Colby glanced down at his hands. “Are you going to kick him out? I mean, this is our home. We should be able to stay here. He’s the one who screwed up, so shouldn’t he be the one who has to leave?”
Linda sighed. “I don’t know yet, Colby. We’ll figure out what we’re going to do. I haven’t had the chance to even think about what I’ll say to your father when he does get home. I’m not sure if I want to confront him over this and kick him out, or if I should just leave him without saying a word. Either way, it’s going to be a painful experience since it means that we’ll de-mark.”
“De-mark?” Samara asked. “What does that mean?” She had only just learned about marking; it was possible to de-mark?
“When a person gets divorced, they lose their mark,” Steve explained. “Remember how you feel when you initiated, and you got your tattoo?”
Samara nodded. The experience had been a painful one; it had felt like a cat was tearing its claws through her back.
“When you de-mark, it feels like that but ten times worse because you’re literally removing a tattoo. With it, you’re also removing years’ worth of emotions. Not only is your own mark removed, but the other person’s mark is also removed. It’s thought to be traumatic,” Steve explained.
Linda sighed. “They say it’s traumatic, but nobody really knows. The truth is, very few werewolves ever get divorced because most mates stay together for the duration of their lives. There aren’t a lot of case studies on this sort of thing.”
“And I thought divorcing was hard enough as a human,” Samara replied half-jokingly. She couldn’t even imagine what it must be like to de-mark from someone.
Don’t worry, Luke told her. You and I will never need to worry about it.
She smiled at him and nodded. De-marking didn’t seem like it was something that would be in their future. She knew that, even if they weren’t that happy in the future, there was no way things could be as bad for them as they had been for Linda and Darren Jackson.
“Were you surprised?” Colby asked. When his mom didn’t respond right away, he explained, “I’m only asking because you seem to be taking it pretty well. Well, not that you’re taking it well, but . . . you accepted it for what it was. You didn’t accuse me of making up those texts or something.”
Linda’s eyes widened. “I would never accuse you of such a thing. You’re the most honest man I know.” She poured Cheerios into her bowl before topping it off with bacon bits (which was the strangest concoction Samara had ever seen, but seemed somewhat fitting for a wolf who liked cereal). “I always suspected that your father had been hiding something from me, I just never knew what it was.”
“How did you know?” Samara asked, hoping that she didn’t sound too nosy. Mostly, she was just concerned for Colby’s mom. She hated to see the woman so depressed.
“He
always went on these business trips that never quite added up,” Linda explained. “For example, one time, he told me he was staying at a Holiday Inn in Seattle. So, I called every Holiday Inn in the surrounding areas trying to get ahold of him because Colby was sick with pneumonia. When he got home, he told me that he meant to say that he was staying at a Comfort Inn, not a Holiday Inn. Lots of little things like that have happened over the years.”
“Did you think he was cheating on you?” Colby asked. “Or that he had a secret family?”
Linda shook her head, one of her blonde curly locks falling in front of her face. “No, I never suspected that. To be honest, I always thought he might have been involved in something I wouldn’t approve of.”
“Like what?” Luke asked, coming to stand behind Samara. He rubbed her shoulders and even through the sweater that she wore, his hands felt good against her skin.
“Black magic,” Colby’s mom replied in between a spoonful of cereal. “Darren was always fascinated with black magic.”
“Interesting,” Samara murmured, glancing over her shoulder at Luke. Are you thinking what I’m thinking?
That Colby’s dad is working even closer with Jason than we originally realized? Luke asked.
Samara nodded and when she met Colby’s eyes, she knew that he was thinking the same thing. Darren Jackson was probably who Jason Masterson was learning black magic from—which also meant that they were one step closer to learning more about it. She was convinced that somewhere, inside this house, there would be a clue that was bound to lead them to everything they needed to know to win a battle with someone who used black fighting.
Chapter 27
Shortly after breakfast, Samara and the guys all headed over to Troy’s house. Kyana stayed at the Jackson’s house, mostly because Chris didn’t feel comfortable about her going to the house in case a fight ensued, but also so that someone could stick around and keep an eye on Emma, in case she woke up, and watch out for Linda, in case Darren came home from Alaska.
If anything bad were to happen while they were gone, Kyana was to alert Chris of it.
No one had heard from Rain since the initiation ceremonies, even though Steve had called her a few times to make sure that she was okay. Samara decided that if she didn’t call him back within the next few days, she was going to have to make sure Rain really wanted to be an Ima.
Samara led her pack to the house that Emma had taken her to the night they’d gone to see Troy. It made her so angry knowing that this whole situation might have been avoidable in the first place; if she could go back to that night and find a way to keep both Emma and the talisman, she would have.
When they rang the doorbell, no one answered.
“Well, it looks like no one’s home,” Chris said after a few moments of waiting.
The house was dark inside, and everything was quiet—but it had been the same way the night she and Emma had gone there by themselves. Would Troy open the door knowing that most of the Ima pack was standing on his doorstep?
“I have a feeling,” Samara began, before reaching out her hand and turning the doorknob. The door opened. She turned to her pack. “Come on.”
“How did you know it was going to be open?” Luke whispered to her.
Samara shrugged. “It was open the last time I was here, too.”
They all stared back at her questioningly, and she knew they were probably wondering the same thing as she was: what had happened to the girl who had been too afraid to open the door to Joe McKinley’s cabin even though she’d had a key? Here she was now, breaking and entering for real this time.
Samara was no longer afraid. She couldn’t be—not if she was going to be the Alpha her pack deserved.
The afternoon sunlight streamed in through the windows, making it easy to see everything in the house this time, unlike the last time she had been inside, when everything had been dark and a little bit scary. She hadn’t been able to see the first time that Troy’s family had a really modern, spacey home. It almost seemed like the type of house that she didn’t expect a werewolf family to live in for some reason.
Luckily, Troy’s parents didn’t seem to be home, so Samara did the first thing she could think of; she climbed the staircase. Her pack members hesitantly followed her, and she was positive that the only reason they were letting her lead them was because they wanted to make sure that she stayed safe if something did go wrong.
When she reached the top of the staircase, Samara found that one of the doors was closed. She pressed her ear against the wood and noticed the sound of faint snoring behind it. Glancing over her shoulder to make sure her pack was still close behind, she flung open the bedroom door.
Sure enough, Troy was sprawled out across his bed, his legs entwined with the blue comforter.
Deciding that she wanted to just get this over with, she tapped Troy on the shoulder. When his eyes popped open, he let out a low, distinctive growling sound.
“What do you want?” Troy snapped at her.
“We need to talk to you,” Samara told him, sitting down at his computer desk and crossing her legs. She stared at him intently, as if to prove to him that she wasn’t going anywhere until he spoke to them.
“What is it?” Troy asked groggily, sitting up in bed. He had an unhappy look on his face.
“Well, we need that ring back,” Samara began, and Troy shook his head immediately.
“No. I refuse to discuss this with you,” Troy replied, glancing down at his hands. “If that’s all you came here for, then we’re done.”
Samara glanced over at Luke, who nodded encouragingly. “Here’s the thing, Troy. It’s not just one-sided. We’re willing to make a bargain with you. If you can give us the ring back, we can let you in on a valuable piece of information.”
Troy perked up. “What is it?”
“Well, I’m not going to tell you unless you give the ring to me,” Samara replied. “But let’s just say, it’s something that you would be interested in knowing about. Your whole pack would be interested in knowing about it, really, since it would benefit all of you. It has to do with my grandfather, Joe McKinley. It’s a family secret, so to speak.” She winked at him, trying to make her offer seem enticing.
Troy sat up. “If you can tell me what it is, I might be able to get you the talisman.”
Ah, so he did know that the blue sapphire ring was her grandfather’s legendary talisman. It made her wonder how he knew when Colby, the werewolf history buff, hadn’t even known until he’d seen the McKinley family photo album.
Luke shook his head. “No, we want to see the talisman in your hands ready to hand to us before we give you this piece of information. All we can say is that it will make you and your pack stronger.”
“Damnit, I thought I could trick you into just telling me without the talisman,” Troy muttered.
Samara gritted her teeth. “Look, Troy. We’re playing nice right now. We need the talisman. If you hand it over to us, we’ll give you something in exchange for it. But if you don’t, we will do whatever it takes to get it . . . even if that means killing you or any of the other members from your pack.” Wow, she had never threatened to kill anyone before, and even after the words came out of her mouth, she wasn’t sure how she felt about it. She just hoped that it would be nothing more than a threat.
Troy met her gaze with his hazel eyes. “I would consider your offer if I had the talisman. The problem is, I don’t.”
“Are you lying to me?” Samara asked. “Pretending that you don’t have it is all fine and dandy, but I will go through your whole entire house if I have to in order to find it.”
Troy shook his head. “No, I’m telling you the truth. I-I don’t have it. I gotta be honest, I sort of wish I did because I’m curious about what info you can give me.” He paused. “Someone—a man—came here, in the middle of the night, threatening to kill my parents if I didn’t hand over the talisman. So, I did what anyone who loves their parents would do. I gave it to him.”
<
br /> Colby’s opened his mouth, and Samara was pretty sure he was going to defend his dad at first. But then his face paled, as he remembered last night’s events, and he didn’t say anything.
“I believe you,” Samara said quietly, convinced by his story. She wasn’t sure why, but she really believed Troy about this.
At that moment, something dawned on her.
“Troy?” she asked. “You told me that Jason stole the talisman from you at one point. Did you have it first, or did he?”
“I did,” Troy replied. “It was given to me by someone—someone who asked me to keep it safe. Then one day, Jason came here in the middle of the night and stole it out of my bedroom.” He shrugged. “I never knew how Jason found out that I was the one who had it.”
“Who asked you to keep it safe?” Samara questioned, mostly out of curiosity than the need to know.
Troy ran a hand over his hair, which was disheveled from having just slept on it. “That’s really none of your concern. Someone who wants it, that’s all.”
Samara sighed. She wanted to question him further, but from the tone in his voice, she could tell that he was going to start getting irritated with her soon. “Okay, I guess we’ll let you be right now. I’m sorry we just barged in here like that. It was rude, and I hope it doesn’t cause any issues between us.” The last thing she needed was Rocco threatening to kill her—even though she wasn’t afraid of him, she had enough on her plate to deal with right now. She didn’t want to have to worry about Rocco, too.
“It’s okay.” Troy shrugged. As her pack members backed out of the room and she was about to follow them, he added, “Samara? If I ever get the talisman back, I might think about taking you up on that offer. I’ll just need to talk to the person I’m supposed to be keeping it safe for first. I guess I’m not such a good jewelry baby-sitter, though, anyway.”
Samara laughed. “Thanks, Troy, that means a lot to me.”
Once they were back outside and most of the pack was walking in front of her , Luke turned to her. “So, you really believe him.”
