Howl (Howl #1) by Jody Morse, Jayme Morse Read Free Book Online

tear that skated its way d own her cheek , Samara lost herself in her thoughts. At some point , she drifted off to sleep.
     
    *
     
    Samara felt her legs moving under her, carrying her faster than she had ever run before. She glanced around at her surroundings. She couldn’t tell where she was exactly, but it looked like somewhere tropical . . . m aybe the rain forest or jungle.
    Samara heard a low roaring sound from behind her. Remembering that she had gotten attacked the last time she had heard a similar growling, Samara continued running.
    Even as she ran as quickly as she could, the growling noise caught up with her.
    Samara wasn’t afraid any more, though.
    Whirling around, she found hersel f standing face-to-face with an orange tiger, except it was browner than she had imagined one to be in real life. The tiger stared at her through its golden eyes, fluffing up its orange and black fur and licking its lips a s it prepared for its attack.
    Before the tiger had the chance to come any closer to her, Samara reared on it, sinking her teeth into its wide neck. She watched as the blood poured from the wound she had caused , inhaling the scent of its flesh, as she devo ured her prey.
     
     
    Samara jolted up in bed. Panting, she glanced around at the light purple walls and realized that she was still in her own bedroom. As real as the dream felt, she wasn’t in the jungle. Sa mara breathed a sigh of relief.
    She felt her stomach rumble. It was followed by a nauseating feeling that let her know that she was hungry. Glancing at the dolphin alarm clock on her nightstand, Samara realized that it was two o’clock in the morning. There was no way she was going to be able to hold off until she woke up for school at seven o’clock the next morning to eat breakfast.
    C lumsily c limbing out of bed, Samara went downstairs and into the kitchen. She glanced into the fridge. There were leftover slices of extra cheese pizza , a tub of garlic hummus, and blocks of cheddar cheese that Samara liked to eat with crackers. Then, she sp otted what she really wanted.
    Samara unsealed the plastic bag that the deli packed the roast beef in and began shoving slices into her mouth. The rich flavor of the juicy meat satisfied her palate , encouraging her to continue eating the roast beef until there was nothing l eft besides the plastic baggie.
    When there was no more roast beef left, she opened the refrigerator door again and pulled out another package. She stuffed piles of the round slices of pepperoni into her m outh until that, too, was gone.
    Tossing the empty deli packages into the garbage, Samara licked her fingers clean and thought about what she had just done. She had eaten a n entire pound of roast beef and prob ably a few ounces of pepperoni.
    Just t hinking about the food that she had practically inhaled mad e her feel sick to her stomach.
    Samara had been a vegetarian for as long as she could remember. She was only a child when she had decided that she didn’t want to eat meat. Samara loved animals and after she saw Bambi , she knew that she didn’t want to be a meat eater . Ever since then, just the idea of eating meat sickened her.
    So, what was she doing? What had compelled her to come downstairs in the middle of the night and eat all of that meat? More importantly, why did she suddenly like – no, not like, love – the way it tasted?
    Samara didn’t know what was happening to her, but something strange was definitely going on. Something that really sc ared her.
     
    *
     
    Samara got up and changed into a pair of dark wash skinny jeans and a burgundy hooded sweatshirt for school the next morning. It was October in Pennsylvania and, although the air was crisp, it wasn’t cold enough for her to wear the blue plaid peacoat that she had bought on a recent shop ping trip with Emma just yet.
    Thinking about Emma, Samara sighed. She knew that she was going to have to see her best friend in biology and literature today, and she