Black Magic (Howl #4) Read Free Page B

we’re moving everything.”
    “We should leave the living room furniture here so they don’t notice anything’s different,” Colby suggested. “The new house is already furnished, anyway, but it will help us keep up our act.”
    Samara nodded. “Yeah, that’s probably a good idea. Smart thinking.” She glanced over at him and casually asked, “By the way, have you talked to Emma at all over the past few days?”
    Colby shook his head. “No, I tried calling her, but she hasn’t wanted to talk to me that much.” A saddened expression crossed his face.
    None of the Ima pack really understood how Emma could be his mate. Meagan, his first mate, had been killed by Jason. Since a werewolf could only have one mate over the course of a lifetime, it hadn’t seemed possible for Colby and Emma to be mated to one another.
    Then again, maybe it wasn’t all that strange. When Samara had become the Ima’s new Alpha, it was the first time a girl had ever taken on the role. Fate was working in unusual ways lately, ways that no one was able to understand . . . but ways that weren’t always bad, either.
    “I’m sure that Emma’s probably just confused lately,” Samara offered as an excuse to Colby for why he hadn’t heard from her best friend. “I know she’s been having a hard time trying to figure out how to tell her mom about the whole werewolf thing, and I think she’s still kind of confused about you being her mate. I mean, the two of you did seem to hate each other before this happened.”
    Colby glanced down at the ground. “I’m not sure that confused about ‘us’ is the best way to describe what she’s feeling.”
    Samara raised her eyebrows. “What do you mean?”
    “I think she’s been avoiding me because she’s embarrassed to be seen with me. I mean, I’m just a dorky loser kid, and she’s all about being the most popular girl in school.” Colby rolled his eyes and laughed, but Samara could tell that it really bothered him. “She doesn’t want to be seen with me.”
    Samara opened her mouth to respond, but before she could get any words out, Colby sniffed the air. “Do I smell bacon?”
    She nodded and smiled. “Yes, Luke and I brought breakfast over.”
    “Neat. I’m as hungry as a hippo.” Grinning, he rose to his feet and strolled out of his bedroom in the direction of the kitchen.
    Samara stood there, frozen in place, his words lingering in her mind. Was her best friend embarrassed of him? Maybe. It was going to surprise people for her to go from dating guys that all of the other girls at school crushed on, like Jason, to going out with the less than popular guys, like Colby. It would ruin the image that her best friend worked so hard to create—and maintain—for herself.
    Following Colby out of the room, Samara realized something. Even if popularity had nothing to do with the reason her best friend was acting so flaky, Colby had no reason to be feeling this way when she could easily do something about it.
    She had waited too long to give him the makeover that she had been wanting to give him since she found out that he had originally been the leader of her pack, before she had initiated and taken over the role of Alpha. It would give him a major boost to his self-esteem, which was what he needed more now than ever.
    “Hey, Colbs?” she called, as she entered the dining room. “Do you have any plans for tomorrow afternoon?”
    Colby glanced up at her over the sausage patty that he was stuffing into his mouth. “No, what makes you ask?”
    Samara grinned. “Well, you do now.”

 
     
     
    Chapter 3
     
    “It doesn’t seem like any of these books have any information on fighting against someone using black magic,” Samara commented, flipping through the last few pages of the old book she held in her hands. Once she was done, she tossed it onto the table in front of her frustratedly. “I don’t think there’s anything in any of these library books. Looking through the rest