Marked (Howl #5)

by Jody Morse

  “Who wants cake?” Samara asked. Her mom had ordered the biggest cake the bakery sold—the perfect size for a pack of hungry wolves.

  As she began to cut the cake and Emma handed out the plates to everyone who wanted it, Marnie rose to her feet. “Can I just say something, Samara?”

  Samara blinked. She hadn’t expected Luke’s mom to even show up at their rehearsal dinner tonight, let alone make a speech, but she wasn’t about to tell the woman ‘no’. “Of course you can.”

  Marnie glanced around nervously before speaking. “When Luke came home and told me he was getting married—that he had proposed to the girl who he told us was the love of his life—I have to admit, I was a little bit surprised at first. At first, I was hesitant to give him my permission. As his legal guardian, I wasn’t sure why Luke was in such a rush to get married, but I quickly realized the reason. He doesn’t want to miss out on you, Samara. Because girls like her, the type of girl who you hope your son goes on to marry, don’t come along very often. I understand, fully and completely, why my son doesn’t want to let this one go.” She paused to pick her champagne glass up off the table. “So, I want to make a toast—to wonderful future daughter-in-laws.”

  Samara’s mom rose to her feet and smoothed her blouse out as well. “Actually, I’d like to say a word as well. I was also surprised when Luke came to us and asked us for Samara’s hand in marriage. I was never hesitant, but I also didn’t understand the rush at first.” She paused. “But it doesn’t matter. Because when a couple has a love that is as strong as the love Luke and Samara share, it’s easy why they would be so anxious to spend their life together as soon as possible. I couldn’t have chosen a better ma—”

  Samara’s heart skipped a beat as she began to panic. In the midst of the excitement of planning the wedding, she had completely forgotten to tell her parents not to mention in front of Luke’s mom that she was a werewolf.

  “—man for my daughter,” Mrs. McKinley said, glancing over at Samara and Luke with a smile.

  Samara exhaled. As one of the restaurant’s servers walked over, she realized what had happened. Her mom had been about to call Luke Samara’s mate, but she hadn’t wanted the server to overhear what she was saying. How would it sound for a bystander to hear someone talking about mates? So, she’d quickly changed what she was saying to ‘man’. Thank goodness.

  Samara heard Luke’s thoughts fill her mind. That was a close call.

  She glanced over at him and nodded, as she handed him a piece of birthday cake. Samara felt relieved to know that Marnie seemed to be accepting of her right now, but she knew that it wouldn’t last long. Marnie’s opinion would probably change once she found out the truth—that Samara was a werewolf. But it didn’t matter so much to Samara now.

  At least she would know that if Marnie’s mind changed, it would be because Samara was a werewolf and not because Marnie had a personal problem with her.

  An hour later, they all rose to leave the restaurant. Emma threw her arms around Samara in a big hug. “I can’t believe it! Tomorrow, you’re going to be a married woman.”

  Samara smiled. “I don’t think I’m old enough to be considered a woman yet, but I will be married.”

  “I’m pretty sure you can consider yourself a woman,” Colby said. Lowering his voice so that Luke’s mom wouldn’t hear him, he added, “I mean, you’re more powerful than typical human girls.”

  “Anyway. Don’t forget to wake up at seven o’clock. We need to get you to the beauty salon ASAP,” Emma instructed. “Silas and I made an appointment with Daniela.”

  “She’s seriously, like, the best stylist in town,” Silas chimed in. “She’s also really hard to book because she’s so in demand, but luckily, I have connections.”

  “Thanks, Silas.” Samara smiled at him. The whole wedding had come together because he was such a good event planner. She didn’t even want to think about what a disaster everything would have been or how much stress she would have been experiencing at that moment if she had decided to plan the wedding herself.

  “Goodnight, Sam,” Kyle said, as he took Silas’ hand. “Good luck tomorrow. Give me a call if you need anything.”

  “Bye, guys,” Chris said, as he and Kyana left the restaurant. Kyana turned back to give everyone a small wave over her shoulder.

  As the others left, Samara glanced around to find Declan. He had been sitting in the corner, keeping mostly to himself, earlier that night. He hadn’t said much to anyone, and she’d seen him get up and leave the dining room that they had reserved for the rehearsal dinner. Samara had assumed that he had gone to the bathroom, but she realized he had still been gone when she’d opened his birthday present to her.

  As Luke said goodbye to his parents, Samara whispered to Emma, “Do you see Declan anywhere?”

  “No, he left earlier,” Emma replied. Narrowing her eyes at Samara, she asked, “Why?”

  Hoping that her best friend didn’t think anything unusual because she was asking questions about Declan, Samara quickly replied, “I was just surprised that he didn’t say goodbye to me before leaving. That’s all.”

  “I’m not surprised,” Emma replied.

  Samara raised her eyebrows. She was about to question what Emma meant when Luke strode back over to them. “Are you ready to leave, Sam? I already told your parents I’ll drive you home.”

  Even though she still wanted to know what Emma meant, she nodded. “Yeah, I’m ready,” she replied, pulling on her light pink pea coat. “Let’s go. Goodnight, Em.”

  “Goodnight, Love Birds!” Emma chirped. “See you in the morning. I can’t wait!”

  Samara rolled her eyes and smiled. She hoped it wasn’t a bad thing that Emma seemed to be more excited about her wedding than she was.

  Linking her arm through Luke’s, she followed him outside. The cold air felt crisp against her warm skin.

  Once they climbed into the car and Luke backed out of the parking lot, he turned over to her. “Are you excited about tomorrow?”

  “Yeah, I am,” Samara replied, even though she wasn’t sure how excited she really was. She felt more excited to get the wedding over with than she was to actually go through it.

  Luke grinned. “Good. I’m excited, too.” Quietly, he added, “I know it’s going to sound lame, but . . . I feel like I’ve been waiting for this day my whole life.”

  Samara glanced over at him. “You’ve wanted to get married your whole life?”

  “Well, sort of. I mean, I always wanted to find my mate. When I was a little kid, I dreamed about who my mate was . . . or if I was going to be lucky enough to be given one at all. And then when I heard your thoughts for the first time, I was just dumbfounded. I couldn’t believe my mate was someone who was such a good person . . . and someone who was so beautiful.”

  Samara smiled. “Thanks, but . . . I have a question. You never really told me the answer to this, and I’m not sure if there actually is an answer. What made you propose on Christmas? I mean, like your mom said, we’re only sixteen years old. I have to agree that we are kind of rushing it. Why didn’t you want to wait longer to marry me?”

  “Because, like my mom also said, I didn’t want to wait another moment to spend my life with you,” Luke said, as he backed into her driveway. Her parents hadn’t gotten home yet. Once he was parked, he turned to her. “And I knew it was going to happen eventually. I mean, it’s what werewolves do. They get married so their mate will be marked and other wolves know to stay away from them. It’s not really any different from what we’re doing right now. Not too much will change.”

  A knot tightened in the pit of Samara’s stomach. This suddenly didn’t feel right. “So, that’s why you want to marry me? To put a mark on me?”

  “What? No, I didn’t say that,” Luke said defensively. “I was just explaining why werewolves get married at all. It’s not uncommon for them to go through with a traditional werewolf wedding ceremony at a younger age than this. I didn’t mean that I just want to p
ut a mark on you the way you’re implying.”

  “But you made it seem like that’s the reason you want to speed this up,” Samara replied, shaking her head in disgust. “And if that’s the truth, if that’s how you really feel about marrying me, it would mean that your mother was right all along. You might not abuse me physically, but you just want to brand me as yours so no one else can have me.”

  “Sam, I’m sorry,” Luke said. Shaking his head, he explained, “I’m sorry if that’s how you took what I said, but that’s not what I meant at all. No matter what, I was going to marry you, whether it was now or later. It does make me happy that other werewolf guys will know you’re mine after we say our vows, but that’s not the only thing that matters. What matters is that I’m in love with you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

  Samara stared into his eyes, searching their green depth to see if he was lying, but all she saw was a pure, genuine honesty. She was about to tell him that she forgave him when he inched closer to her.

  When Luke’s lips came down on hers, nothing else mattered: not the reason he had proposed to her, not the full moon that hung above them, and not even the fact that Declan had left the restaurant without saying goodbye. All that mattered, in that moment, was that they loved each other and that, the next day, they would be husband and wife.

  *

  As Samara lay in bed, thinking about the kiss that she’d shared with Luke that night and worrying about the fact that as of the next day, she was no longer going to be a McKinley, she heard the sound of rocks being thrown against the window. She didn’t feel any shock or nervousness, the way she normally did when she was awoken by this same sound. It was obvious that it was the same person who always threw rocks against her window at all hours of the night to get her to come outside.

  Samara quietly opened the window. She glanced over at the bed, where Lucy was curled up in a tiny ball, staring at her curiously. Lucy was used to her leaving in the middle of the night now; whenever Samara came home, the Yorkie puppy was always in the same spot—staring at the open window, waiting for her to return.

  Once she slid out of the window, Samara approached Declan. “What are you doing here?”

  “I came to give you your birthday present.”

  “But you already gave me my birthday present tonight at the restaurant,” Samara said. Declan had given her the latest Katy Perry CD. It had actually made her smile when she’d opened it. Even though she and Declan hadn’t talked about music in a long time, he had still managed to remember that Katy Perry was her favorite musician.

  “No, I . . . I got you another present. I wanted you to open it in private, though,” Declan replied, quietly. He pulled a tiny box out of his pocket and handed it to her. “Open it.”

  Sliding her fingers underneath the tape that held the silvery wrapping paper together, Samara looked down at the present that she held in her hands. She felt too nervous to look up at Declan, as she wondered what could be inside the box. What could he possibly be giving her that he didn’t want to give her in front of everyone else?

  A thought came to mind, but it quickly passed. It couldn’t be an engagement ring. There was no way Declan would dare think of proposing to her tonight, the night before her wedding, would he?

  When she opened the box, Samara’s breath caught in the back of her throat. The sparkly, diamond-encrusted star pendant gleamed in the moonlight. She met Declan’s eyes. “It’s beautiful,” she whispered. “Thank you.”

  Declan nodded, seemingly pleased by the fact that she liked his gift. “I know how much you love stars. And I wanted to give you something, well . . . special. Something for you to always remember me by.”

  “Are you going somewhere?” Samara asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

  Declan shrugged. “Anything could happen, I guess. You just never know what tomorrow will bring.”

  “I see.” A feeling of pain washed over her. As much as she didn’t want to think that he meant ‘what tomorrow will bring’ in its literal sense, it seemed like he did. Because after tomorrow, everything would be different for both of them.

  Just the thought that Declan, her other mate, could be going somewhere made her heart feel like it was going to shatter into a thousand pieces. She hated the idea of being that far away from him. She hated knowing that there was a possibility that, after tomorrow, he could join another pack and never speak to her again.

  A long moment of silence crossed between the two of them.

  “You can’t just ignore this, Samara,” Declan said finally, his voice low and breathy. It sounded like he was trying harder than he should have been to keep it at an even level.

  “Can’t ignore what?”

  Declan took a deep breath before meeting her eyes. “You and me. The fact that we’re mates.”

  “Declan . . .” Samara started to say, but he interrupted her. Not that it mattered; she didn’t know what to say, anyway.

  “Do you remember when I started to tell you that I was afraid to be a member of the new pack we were forming?” Declan questioned.

  Samara’s mind flashed back to the moment they’d shared at the playground when Declan had mentioned being afraid. He’d never told her what he’d been afraid of, though, and she’d never bothered to ask him what he meant later on. “Yes, I remember. What were you afraid of?”

  Declan took a deep breath. “I was afraid of being on the same pack as you and Luke because I wasn’t sure where that would leave me. The only thing I wanted—the only thing I’ve ever wanted since I found out you were a werewolf, too—was to be your mate. But you already had a mate and the way I saw it, it was impossible for you to ever be mine. I thought it was pointless to be a part of a pack where I could never be with you . . . but I did it because you said it would make you happy. And that’s all I want, is for you to be happy. Still, the idea of having to watch Luke with you every day, knowing he had the one thing I really wanted, scared the hell out of me.”

  Closing his eyes, as though the memory pained him, Declan paused. “But that was before I found out that you and I were still a possibility. It was before you started to look at me the way you look at me now. I was afraid you would never see me this way again, but now that you do, I know you can’t stop it . . . because I can’t stop it. If I could change this—if I could stop loving you—I would do it because it would hurt a whole lot less. Instead, I have to live with the fact that even if you do marry Luke tomorrow, there’s a chance that you’re still always going to look at me this way because we don’t know what’s going to happen to our bond . . . and we’ll never be able to do anything about it.”

  “Declan . . .” Samara didn’t know what to say. All she knew was that he was only a few inches away from her face, and she couldn’t do what she wanted to do because she was already tied to someone else. If Luke found out that she was mated to Declan—if he found out they were even having this conversation—it would crush him.

  So many emotions swirled through her head that she wasn’t even sure how she should feel. Then again, there were no set standards for the way she should feel, no precedent, because as far as she knew, she was the first werewolf to ever have gone through this before. To her knowledge, no werewolf had ever been given more than one mate at one time. “It’s not—”

  “I already know what you’re going to say, Samara,” Declan interrupted, exasperatedly. “You’re going to say it’s not fair to Luke. And do you know how I know that? Because I know you better than anyone . . . better than you even know yourself sometimes. And you know what? Maybe you’re right. Maybe this isn’t fair to Luke. But it’s not fair to me, either.”

  And then Declan did what Samara had been hoping he would do—and what she had been hoping he wouldn’t do, all at the same time; he moved in closer to her and, pulling her to him, his lips came down on hers.

  Samara didn’t even have time to react; she didn’t move her head away, as his soft, warm lips brushed against her own.

  His ki
ss was calculated and careful, gentle and passionate. It lasted for merely seconds, but as Samara stood there, wrapped in his arms, it felt like an eternity.

  After what seemed like forever, Samara finally forced herself to pull away from him. As she did, she could feel the hurt that washed over him—and it matched the pain that she felt, too. “I . . . I have to go,” she mumbled, knowing that she didn’t sound too convincing as she stood there, her feet rooted firmly in place, staring into the depths of Declan’s light brown eyes.

  “Wait. Before you go, there’s something I need to ask you.”

  “What is it?” Samara managed to whisper, staring at his lips and thinking about the fact that they’d just shared their very first kiss—something she had thought about so many times over the past month, as she lay in bed every night wondering how different her life would be if Declan was the one she was marrying instead of Luke. Her mind had always drifted to the time when Declan had told her that he wanted to kiss her, but that he couldn’t, or wouldn’t, because Luke would be able to pick up on his scent.

  Would Luke be able to pick up on Declan’s scent now that he had finally kissed her? Or was everything different because Declan was her mate, too?

  “Don’t do it, Sam.” When Declan met her eyes, the pleading look in them tugged at her insides.

  Samara closed her eyes before turning away from him, gripping the tiny box that contained the star pendant. She didn’t even need to question what he was asking her not to do because she already knew.

  Declan was asking her not to marry Luke.

  “Can you promise me something?” Samara asked, turning to look at him once last time.

  “Anything, Sam.”

  “Promise me that, no matter what happens, you’ll be there for me tomorrow.”

  Declan didn’t blink at all when he nodded his head. “I promise.”

  Chapter 20

  Samara anxiously paced back and forth across the wooden floor of the Meadow Inn, holding up the bottom of her dress so that she wouldn’t step on it with her white heels. The wedding ceremony would be starting soon, and she was no longer worried about falling as she made her way down the aisle. She was now more worried about puking on all of her guests.