by Morse, Jayme
As his lips met hers, she was jolted by the intensity of their kiss; it felt like his lips were burning her, but at the same time, the icy cold feeling that she always felt when their skin touched extinguished the fire. Ignoring the feeling, she tugged him by the hair, pulling him in closer to her. He wrapped his arms around her, and she kissed him with all of the passion that burned inside her.
His thoughts filled her mind, and hers filled his just as loudly. They were both thinking the same thing; in that moment, they both knew that no matter what happened between them, from then on, they belonged to each other, fully and completely.
Chapter 25
When Samara and Luke went back into the house, everyone cried out, “Congratulations!”
Samara’s jaw fell open. “You all knew Luke was going to propose to me?”
Emma laughed. “I told you I knew what your Christmas present was!”
“I thought you were talking about the gold hoop earrings Luke gave me earlier! You really knew about this, and you kept it from me?”
Emma nodded, proudly. “I told you I wasn’t going to spill the beans about your Christmas present. I’m so happy for you!” she squealed, throwing her arms around her. “It’s going to be so fun to start planning your wedding!”
Samara smiled and turned to her parents. “You knew about this, too?”
Her dad nodded. “Luke’s a good man. He came to ask us for our permission.”
“And you said yes?” Samara asked, dumbfounded. She hadn’t been expecting her parents to be okay with this; before she came in the house, she was afraid she was going to have to break the news and talk them into letting her get married, maybe once she turned eighteen, but they had known the whole time that this engagement was going to happen.
“We couldn’t say no,” her mom replied. “He is your mate, after all. You’re going to be with him one day, no matter what we say. Besides, letting you get married while you’re still in high school isn’t the strangest thing, considering the fact that you’re a werewolf.” Pausing, she added, “You have to wait until your sixteenth birthday, though, at the very least. Pennsylvania state law says you can get married when you’re sixteen with our permission.”
“Okay, we can wait,” Samara beamed. “I’m not in any rush.”
“I’m so happy for you guys,” Colby said, giving Samara a small hug. “I guess since Luke is sort of like my brother, this means that you’re going to be sort of like my sister-in-law.”
Samara laughed. “Yeah . . . sort of.”
“Congratulations, Cuz,” Kyle said from the couch where he was sitting. Samara noticed that an attractive olive-skinned guy was sitting next to him. They both had that happy, glowing look that could only be worn by two people who were in love. Sometime while she was outside with Luke, Silas must have arrived at the house and came through the back door.
“Hi, Samara, it’s nice to meet you,” Silas said with a smile. “And congrats on your engagement. You must be so excited! If you ever want some help on wedding colors and themes, you know where to find me.” He winked.
“Thanks. It’s nice to meet you, too.” Samara smiled. She could already tell she and Silas were going to be good friends.
“Hey, Sam,” Steve called from the hallway that led to the entertainment room. “We’re happy to hear about your engagement and all, but we need you to come in here for a sec.”
“Okay,” Samara replied, grabbing Luke’s hand—her fiancé’s hand—as they followed their pack members into the entertainment room.
Once they were inside, Chris explained, “We were just playing Candy Land, and—”
Luke laughed. “You were playing Candy Land? Are you serious?”
“Dude, shut up. It’s always been a Christmukkah tradition in my house,” Chris replied, rolling his eyes. “Anyway, we were playing Candy Land, and the Ouija board just started moving all on its own. It was the craziest thing. So, we went over and talked to Bennett for a few minutes, and he wanted us to light some candles.”
Steve pulled a match out of the box and lit a few white candles. Once they were lit, they were blown out by a gust of wind and the walls shook a little before coming to a halt. Bennett, Dante, and Nadia appeared in front of them.
“Hello, everyone,” Bennett greeted them, taking a small bow before them.
“Hi,” Samara replied with a smile. “I was actually going to summon you soon, anyway. I wanted to thank you for saving me.”
“It’s not a problem,” Bennett replied. “I’m going to be honest, though. Saving you wasn’t the easiest thing we’ve ever done.”
“A lot of spirits were invoked last night,” Nadia said. “More spirits than we’ve ever had to deal with. Luckily, we were able to round up a lot of other trusted spirits to help us out, or you would have been toast.”
“Burnt toast,” Dante agreed.
“Luckily, Dante owed a favor to another spirit, so we were able to save the day,” Bennett explained.
“Yeah, so you can all thank me,” Dante nodded, smiling.
“Thanks for saving my mate,” Luke told him. “I really appreciate it.”
“Why did you need us to call you here?” Steve questioned.
“Yeah, I don’t like ghosties who keep secrets!” Emma whined.
“Don’t insult the ‘ghosty’ who knows all of your secrets,” Dante teased. “I could tell everyone in this room about what I saw you and someone else in this room doing the other night,” he said, glancing over at Colby.
Emma’s cheeks reddened and she crossed her arms over her chest angrily.
Curious about what Dante had seen but knowing that Emma didn’t want to talk about it in front of the whole pack, Samara shrugged it off. Glancing over at Bennett, she asked, “Anyway, what’s going on, Bennett?”
“We were eavesdropping on your conversation with Luke on the front porch,” Bennett explained, lowering his eyes to the ground. “Congratulations on your engagement. But what we wanted to tell you was that you’re wrong about something.”
“What?” Samara asked.
“The dark spirits are growing stronger every day, and they’re being invoked by the masses.”
Luke narrowed his eyebrows. “So, what exactly are you saying?”
Bennett sighed. “This isn’t over yet. It’s not even close to being over.”
Marked (Book #5 of the Howl Series) COMING SOON!
An excerpt from a new young adult paranormal romance series by Jayme Morse and Jody Morse:
Surface (Siren’s Lullaby, Book 1)
Awakened from a dreamless sleep, I sat up in bed and looked around. The soft pink satin sheets clung to my skin, which was drenched in sweat from the heat of the mid-August night.
Something was wrong; I didn’t know what, but I could feel it.
Glancing across the room, I saw that the twin-sized bed next to me was empty, the daffodil yellow sheets illuminated by the light of the full moon.
Scarlett was gone.
I flung myself out of bed and ran out of our shared bedroom, peeking into our mother’s room across the hall. She lay sprawled out across her queen-sized bed, our Jack Russell Terrier, Mickey, curled up at her side. Scarlett hadn’t left our room to climb into our mother’s bed after another bad dream.
I poked my head into the bathroom, living room, and kitchen. I even checked Scarlett’s favorite hiding place, which was inside the hamper. My sister wasn’t anywhere to be found.
That could only mean one thing: Scarlett must be outside. Again.
I ran to the back sliding glass door and opened it quietly so that my mother wouldn’t wake up. I knew she hadn’t been sleeping much lately, often getting up in the middle of the night to brew a cup of coffee that we both knew she wouldn’t drink. I would feel bad about waking her up when, chances were, Scarlett was just trying to do something to draw attention to herself.
She seemed to be doing that a lot lately, ever since our father had died. Last week, she had pretended she had broken her
wrist after she fell off her bicycle.
Once I was outside, I scanned our sandy backyard for my sister.
That’s when I heard a voice.
The melody drifted through the air, filling my ears. I had never heard my sister sing before, but I now discovered that her voice sounded as sweet as a songbird’s.
I followed her voice to the dock she was perched on. Her back was to me as she sang, overlooking the bay. Her red hair, a beautiful coppery auburn color that I had been jealous of ever since we were little, cascaded around her shoulders in waves, catching the moon’s reflection.
“Scarlett! What are you doing out here?” I hissed at her. I glanced down at my bare legs; goose bumps had risen on my sun-kissed skin. The hem of my nightgown fell just above my knees. There was no way I could be cold in the humidity of the Georgia summer night. It had to be that nagging feeling that something wasn’t right creeping up on me again.
The song broke into silence, and Scarlett turned to look at me. Her bright green eyes were crazed, her expression aloof.
“What are you doing out here, Scarlett?” I repeated. “Mom’s going to be worried if she wakes up and we’re both gone. Come inside with me!”
My sister turned away from me, gazing back at the water.
The singing began again, but this time, it sounded like it was further away. The song was sinfully sweet, and I found myself fascinated by it, as I wondered where or who it was coming from. I watched fearfully as Scarlett leapt, head-first, off of the dock in front of me. Without thinking twice, I ran to the edge of the dock and peered into the water.
All I could see were thousands of bubbles rising to surface of the water that my sister had just disappeared into.
“Scarlett!” I screamed, unsure of what to do. I looked around quickly and, then, deciding there wasn’t another soul around that could hear me, I plunged myself into the bay after her.
Salt water stung at my eyes as I searched the black, murky water for my sister.
I recoiled, panicked, as my hand grasped at something slimy, but I calmed myself, realizing it was just a fish.
Swimming further under the water, my arm brushed up against something warm.
Scarlett’s arms reached out to me, flailing as if she were trying to swim up to the surface, but it seemed as though she were frozen in place. I gripped one of her arms with both of my hands and tried to pull her closer to me to swim us both to safety.
She wouldn’t budge.
My chest ached. Hungry for air, I quickly kicked up to the surface. I took a deep, ragged gasp of breath before plummeting myself back into the depths of the water.
At the right of my sister, I saw a bright glowing explosion of blue shining light. The force of it jolted me away from her. I scrambled to reach her again. Scarlett stared up at me, with a scared, helpless look in her eyes. I kicked hard, pushing myself through the water, closer to her.
Just as our fingers interlocked, I felt something grab me around the waist, prying me away from my sister.
I fought hard against the strong arms that were trying to pull me closer to the shore, but it was no use. The person was stronger than me.
As I was pulled from the water, I watched as Scarlett became farther and farther away from me. I could see her drifting deeper into the bay.
As soon as I felt the fresh air hit against my face, I took a few deep breaths, accidentally swallowing a mouthful of salt water.
My head bobbed in the water. Without turning to look at the person who was still tugging me to shore, I screamed, “Let me go! We need to save my sister!”
My head was throbbing, and I couldn’t see clearly.
“Ain’t nobody under that water but you,” the elderly man said, beaming his blue-tinted flashlight across the water, as if to prove it to me. “I saw you come up for a minute and that’s when I decided to come help you. It looked like you were struggling. I was just down there looking for you.” The man paused. “You shouldn’t go off swimming in this bay at night, anyways. The sharks’ll get you.”
My chest hurt, but I started screaming, “Help!” If he didn’t believe me, I needed to find someone else who would.
I heard footsteps running across the dock and voices coming closer to where we stood on the shore, but I didn’t turn to see who they belonged to. Everything had turned into a big blur.
The melody that I had heard earlier turned into a sorrowful tune; it was the last thing I heard before everything went black.
Jody Morse and Jayme Morse are sisters that reside in the Poconos. They write young adult paranormal romance and suspense novels. To connect with the authors, please visit:
http://www.jodymorse.com/
http://www.jaymemorse.com/
