Howl at the Moon: A novel of The Others [Mass Market Paperback]

"[A] sexy, engaging world…that draws you in, never lets you go, and will leave you begging for more!"--USA Today bestselling author Cheyenne McCray

Noah Baker never wanted to betray The Others. But if his military commanders want him to covertly investigate a Lupine scientist--whose extraordinary research on sensory perception in werewolves could be used to develop werewolf-sharp senses in human soldiers--Noah must oblige. Even if it means deceiving the woman he desires the most.
 
Samantha Carstairs is the personal assistant to the Alpha of the Silverback Clan, and as best friend to the Lupine community's most brilliant scientist, she is privy to its most dangerous secret. Noah knows that Sam will never leak the scientific research…so he must find another way to get it, while keeping Sam close. But someone else is after Sam's secret. Who is the other spy infiltrating The Others? If their genetic secrets get into the wrong hands, all hell could break loose. Now Noah's true loyalty is put to the test as he fights to protect The Others--and his beloved Sam--and find the imposter…before it's too late.

Bestselling author Christine Warren returns to the mesmerizing world of The Others, a place of dangerous passions and persuasions…
 
A WHITE LIE COVERED IN DARKNESS
Noah Baker never wanted to betray The Others. But if his military commanders want him to covertly investigate a Lupine scientist--whose extraordinary research on sensory perception in werewolves could be used to develop werewolf-sharp senses in human soldiers--Noah must oblige. Even if it means deceiving the woman he desires the most.
 
IS ABOUT TO COME FULL CIRCLE…
Samantha Carstairs is the personal assistant to the Alpha of the Silverback Clan, and as best friend to the Lupine community's most brilliant scientist, she is privy to its most dangerous secret. Noah knows that Sam will never leak the scientific research…so he must find another way to get it, while keeping Sam close. But someone else is after Sam's secret. Who is the other spy infiltrating The Others? If their genetic secrets get into the wrong hands, all hell could break loose. Now Noah's true loyalty is put to the test as he fights to protect The Others--and his beloved Sam--and find the imposter…before it's too late.
 
HOWL AT THE MOON
 
"[A] sexy, engaging world…that draws you in, never lets you go, and will leave you begging for more!"--USA Today bestselling author Cheyenne McCray

Chapter 1

Seriously, there’s this thing called ‘the sun,’ and it gives off this stuff called ‘sunlight’ that it’s important to have occasional contact with.”

“Uh-huh.”

Samantha Carstairs narrowed her eyes and glared over her left shoulder at her best friend. Annie clearly wasn’t paying any attention, which, though annoying, wasn’t exactly unusual.

“Without this ‘sunlight’ stuff, your body can’t make any vitamin D.”

“Yeah.”

“And if your body doesn’t make enough vitamin D . . .” Sam barely blinked as the phlebotomy needle bit into her skin. She was too busy trying to figure out if her friend remembered that more than just her forearm and veins was still in the room. “. . . your tail is going to shrivel up and drop off.”

“It would not. At most, if the tailbones softened that badly, I might develop a slight curve.” Annie Cryer untied the rubber tourniquet around Sam’s bicep and dropped it onto the stainless-steel laboratory counter. “Open and close your fist a few times. Your veins are being stingy today for some reason.”

“Maybe because you’ve already sucked more blood from me than a vampire with an iron deficiency,” Sam grumbled, but she made the fist obediently. She had this routine down after the last eight months of regular withdrawals. The only thing she didn’t have a handle on at the moment was what had added the barely perceptible sharpness of nerves to the other woman’s scent.

Annie looked up from the slowly filling vial of blood and frowned. “Have you been feeling light-headed? Damn it, Sam, I told you to let me know if you started to not feel well after the donations. I’ll stop collecting from you. I’ve got a couple of vials left from last time. Those would last me a few more weeks, if I just cut down on the number of tests I’m running in each batch.”

“It’s fine, Annie. I feel fine,” Sam sighed. Not because she was lying, but because it was so like Annie for the subtle approach to go flying over her head without even slowing down. Not that subtlety happened to be one of Sam’s specialties. “You’re the one I’m worried about. You need to get out of this building before your muscles atrophy. Have you even been back to your apartment in the past week?”

Annie shrugged and efficiently switched out vials. “There’s a sofa in my office. And I can shower in the doctors’ lounge.”

“Not my point. You’re a werewolf, An, remember? You need to get outside.”

Sam knew the truth of that better than most. After all, she was a werewolf, too, a member of the same pack. In fact, her mother and Annie’s mother had given birth within a few weeks of each other, and the girls had been raised as littermates from the age of four. They had, literally, grown up together.

“I’m fine.”

“Sure, the way Victor Frankenstein was fine,” Samantha retorted. “I’m starting to worry about leaving you alone during electrical storms.”

That was only a slight exaggeration. Before today, Sam had just been exasperated. She had assumed Annie was going through one of the phases she hit every time one of her experiments reached a critical stage. She always disappeared at those times, but she usually came back a few days later, riding a high of scientific accomplishment the way a manic-depressive rode a high of dopamine. Only this time it had been weeks, Annie still hadn’t crawled out from her lab, and she looked a long way from giddy with intellectual triumph. She looked almost haunted.

Annie’s interest in science had always bordered on the obsessive, so it wasn’t the disappearance or the single-mindedness that worried Sam. Her friend had been that way ever since grade school, which was about how long Sam had been nagging Annie to take a break now and then. Usually even when she was in the midst of one of her experimental breakthroughs and Sam came to drag her back to the world of the living, Annie would kick and scream but then spend hours describing her work to Sam in loving detail. This time, Annie hadn’t said a word. If it weren’t for the fact that she hadn’t left the lab in two weeks, Sam would have shrugged off her worry and gotten on with her life. But Annie remained silent and didn’t even mention the words “data” or “P value.” It was creepy.

Not that it did Annie any good to try to explain her work. The length of time Sam had been trying to drag her friend out of her lab coat was also how long it had been since the two of them had shared a classroom. While Sam had struggled to master the intricacies of long division, Annie had been skipping grades like boxes on a hopscotch board. At fifteen, she had landed herself in the biochemistry department at Columbia University. She’d gotten her PhD at twenty-one. Her first PhD. She had two now: one in biochemistry and the other in molecular biology. Sam was lucky her bachelor’s from CUNY hadn’t been snatched out of her hand, rolled into a tube, and used by her professors to whack her a few times over her nose. An intellectual she wasn’t.

Which, Sam figured ruefully, she should have thought of before she tried to lecture Annie on vitamin deficiencies. And Sam still didn’t have an answer to the question she had come here to ask. Time for a change of tactics.

Where humor hadn’t worked, maybe pity would. Or guilt.

“Annie, come on. Your mother is worried about you. And if that weren’t bad enough, she’s given up trying to reach you and turned on me instead. If I don’t bring her proof of your continued health and well-being, I think she’s going to challenge me.” Sam watched her friend’s face for any sign of weakening. “And you know what? I think she could take me.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. My mother is almost thirty years older than you, and she hasn’t issued a dominance challenge in decades.” Annie popped the fourth and last tube free and withdrew the needle, pressing a gauze pad against the puncture mark. Her movements remained as brisk and competent as always, but the shadows in the back of her eyes didn’t escape the notice of someone who knew her better than a sibling.

“She hasn’t had to. There isn’t a Lupine in Manhattan who would be willing to accept one. We know when to show our bellies, sweetheart.”

Annie’s pen didn’t even pause as she labeled the tubes. “I’ve never seen you show your belly to anyone, Samantha. Not even Graham.”

Samantha felt her eyebrows shoot up. “You think I’d defy the Alpha of the Silverback Clan? Do I look suicidal to you? I can assure you the only reason our pack leader hasn’t seen my belly is because he’s never asked to. But I still do my crunches every day, just in case.”

“Right.”

Annie turned away so abruptly, she banged her hip into the counter and sent the vials of blood skittering toward the floor.

Sam’s hand shot out and caught them before they had time to fall more than two or three inches.

“All right, that does it,” she growled, slapping the vials back onto the counter with restrained ferocity. Guilt could go screw itself. She switched to threats. “You seriously need to tell me what’s going on with you, Annie, before I tell your mother to come down here and find out for herself.”

With both her palms, noticeably shaking, pressed to the cool countertop, Annie bent forward and shook her head. “I can’t.”

“Why the hell not?” Sam figured she probably looked as confused as she sounded. She could feel herself scowling. “I’m your best friend. You told me when you had your first change, your first period, and your first orgasm. What could you possibly have to say that would freak me out?”

Annie shook her head, her dark hair falling forward to conceal her face. “I’m not worried about you freaking. I’m worried about you telling the Alpha.”

Sam’s stomach took a sudden trip on an amusement park ride, climbing into her throat before dropping so fast, gravity seemed to keep it airborne for a long, queasy moment. Damn it, this was going to be worse than she’d feared. Her instincts barked at her not to ask any more questions, but the words were out before she could stop them. “What do you mean?”

“Exactly what you think I mean, Sam.”

Oh, shit. Her instincts shifted from trying to shut Annie up to trying to get her out the nearest door, window, or unreinforced concrete wall. Something very not good was going on here. So not good it bordered on bad.

For a second, she couldn’t seem to remember how to speak, as if the primitive side of her brain had taken over and left her inarticulate and powerless. She watched while Annie calmly gathered up the blood vials and stowed them carefully in the small refrigerator on top of the counter. Her motions looked jerky and uncoordinated for the first time Sam could remember. Annie wasn’t clumsy. She was smart, not always careful, and often oblivious, but she’d never been clumsy.

“Holy hell, An, what have you gotten yourself into?” she whispered.

Annie shook her head emphatically and slammed the refrigerator door. “Forget about it. I’m not draggin...