Read Cursed (Howl, #6) for Free Online

expected for it to hurt so much just to hear the name of her old best friend and the guy she had almost been mated to spoken aloud, but she wasn’t sure why. She had loved him . . . and as much as she wanted to deny it and she knew that Luke could never find out, a part of her always would.
    “Has anyone heard from Declan?” Luke asked from his spot next to her. He glanced over at Samara with an uncomfortable glance, and she couldn’t help but wonder if he had overheard her thoughts about loving Declan. When she met his emerald green eyes, though, she knew that he hadn’t. Even though he looked uncomfortab le, his eyes revealed no pain.
    “The last I heard from Declan was when he called me to say he couldn’t make it to the wedding,” Silas answered, as he stood next to Kyle, holding his hand. “I don’t think anyone else h as heard from him since then.”
    “We haven’t seen him since before the wedding,” Emma agreed. “I texted him to see if he wanted to go see a movie with me, so I could get away from Colby for a bit—”
    “Hey, I wasn’t being that annoy ing that day!” Colby insisted.
    “No, you were just following me around like a puppy dog,” Emma replied with an eye roll. She turned back to Samara. “Anyway, he never answered my text message, and I haven’t heard from him since. It’s kind of strange, because Declan’s always the type to get back to me right away.”
    “You’re right,” Samara murmured. At least, when Declan had only been just a friend, he had been the type to get back to her right away. Things had changed when she’d first been bitten by Colby and then later when she found out she was mated to Luke. Even after that happened, though, when the Ima and Vyka packs had merged, Samara had been able to feel rest assured knowing that Declan would be there if she needed him to be.
    Now, she knew that he wouldn’t be. At least, she assumed that he wouldn’t be, considering she hadn’t heard from him since the day before the wedding, and it was obvious that he was avoiding their entire pack just because he wanted to avoid her.
    “Are we all sure he’s okay? Do you think Darren might have gotten to him?” Colby questioned. Even though Colby hadn’t called Darren Jackson his dad in quite some time now, it was still strange for Samara to hear Colby refer to his father by his first name.
    “Anything could have happened,” Seth replied. “Except, don’t you think that Darren would have used Declan as some sort of ransom or something? He would have made sure that he let us know if he did anyth ing to hurt him . . . I think.”
    “Darren probably would have, but another pack might not have let us know,” Kyle said, ruffling his copper hair. “I don’t think it was the Shomecossee, now that we’re on good terms with them, but it might been another pack in the area. Or maybe even another p ack that was passing through.”
    “That’s so scary. Poor Declan,” Silas said, a look of fear in his eyes.
    “Guys, we don’t even know that’s what happened,” Kyana said gently. “Let’s try not to get ahead of ourselves. There’s probably a perfectly logical explanation for why Declan hasn’t been around. If I had to guess, I would say it’s probably because he feels dumb because he didn’t show up for Samara and Luke’s wedding.”
    “True, he probably knows what bad wedding etiquette it is to cancel on the day of the wedding,” Silas agreed, his brown eyes relaxing a little bit. “Especially when you’re supposed to be in the wedding,” he added with what sounded like disgust.
    “Or something really bad did happen to him,” Chris said. “I know Declan’s a quiet guy who sticks to himself most of the time, but he’s not a wimp, either. I think somethin g might have happened to him.”
    Even though Samara knew that the theory her pack was mentioning about something happening to Declan was a possibility, she somehow knew, deep down, that nothing had happened to