Slip the Skin

by Shanley, Tera

  Every note of his inflection rang honest. Tristan wasn’t the traitor. But then who? Who in the pack had the motivation to shove Graham the rest of the way into his grave? She was in over her head. She’d been a member for a few days and didn’t know everyone. Not really. She had no history with the gang of biking werewolves.

  Graham laid his head back down and sighed, the end tapering into a whine.

  “Who?” she asked. “Who would do this?”

  Tristan pulled a troubled gaze to the stairs and shook his head. “I don’t know. But I’ll help you find out.”

  Chapter Nine

  Fifteen years. Fifteen years of friendship and Linden was just throwing it away. Oh, Meredith knew how this worked. Linden would keep blowing her off and hiding her life until one day they would stop talking altogether. That’s how friendships ended. Well, not this one. She’d been the one beside her through all of the ups of childhood and the letdowns of her sickness — not a gang of hairy bikers.

  She pulled the binoculars to her face and squinted at the man in a dark suit who paced the front porch of Biker Ned’s house. She couldn’t be certain from here, but she was pretty sure it was Biker Ned himself. Linden had disappeared inside minutes before in what looked like a black lace dress.

  “What the hell are you into?” she muttered, popping another Skittle into her mouth.

  An unorganized pile of spy trinkets littered the front seat of her car. One tape recorder, two walkie talkies, a remote control car with a camera attached to it, and bugs. Not the creepy legged kind, but the kind you drop into potted plants in someone’s home so you can listen to unwitting confessions.

  And she’d seen every episode of Britain’s reality show, How to Be A Spy, so she was forty-eight percent sure she could actually use this stuff correctly.

  “Oh hello,” she said as a tall man in a suit ducked the front door. He stood with his arms crossed as he talked to Biker Ned. She’d only met Linden’s friends once and this sexy yeti hadn’t been among them.

  The suit he wore clung to a fit physique and his crossed arms stretched against the fabric as his shoulders flexed. Longer medium brown hair had been pulled away from his face, and he was cleanly shaved, which showed off every chiseled angle of his jawline. A slight frown worried his features.

  “Bad day?” she murmured. “I could fix you right up.”

  Scanning the street around the house, his gaze landed on her for a split moment before she muttered an oath and slid down into the seat of her Honda Civic. “Shit shit shit,” she breathed. He probably hadn’t seen her. She was pretty far away and there were other cars parked on the street.

  Clutching her tiny package of sugary rainbow treaties, she stared at the air vent, currently blasting her in the forehead with hot air. “Eee,” she squeaked as she lifted up just enough to peek over the dash.

  The porch was empty, and she let out a shaky breath.

  “What are you doing?” A deep voice sounded from her open window.

  “Aaah!” she screamed, clutching her chest and holding the note as he covered his ears.

  “Why are you screaming?”

  When she was sure her heart wasn’t actually going to project itself from her body, she frowned. “I thought you were going to kill me.”

  His hands gripped the frame, and nearly covered the entire space of her tiny window opening. Holy moly. Her eyes drifted to the seat of his pants, and then to his face as he asked, “Why would I kill you? You’re Linden’s friend, right?”

  “How do you know?”

  “I was at the bar when she brought you by last week.”

  “No you weren’t. I think I would’ve noticed someone with your…hand size,” she ended lamely.

  A slow and knowing smile curved his too sensual lips and his eyes narrowed. “What are you doing here?” he asked as his gaze flicked to the passenger seat cluttered with spy equipment and back.

  “Would you care for a Skittle?” she asked.

  The smirk lingered on his masculine lips and he cocked his head to the side like she was a puzzle he couldn’t figure out. “I prefer the red ones.”

  “Sorry,” she said, chomping the red one that poured from the open mouth of the bag. “Red is my favorite too, but I will part with two purples and a green if we can just forget I was here.”

  “Are you a Hell Hunter?” he asked suddenly.

  “Uuh, are the Hell Hunter’s part of a rival biker gang? Obviously,” she said, waving to her pink sweater and skinny jeans, “I’m not into wearing biker cuts. Or carrying weapons. Or spitting.”

  He stood back and rubbed a hand over his jaw. If he was trying to hide his smile, he was doing a terrible job of it. “I’m Tristan.”

  She offered her tiny hand through the car window and it was immersed in his. “Meredith. Listen, it’s been fun but I should be going. Please don’t tell Linden about this.”

  “I don’t think you should come around here anymore,” he said in a low voice.

  She gripped the wheel. “Are you threatening me?”

  A slow shake of his head and he squatted beside her car. Geez, they were almost eye level. The man had to be six-foot-three while slouching. “Some stuff has been going on with our friends, and it’s not safe for you to be around it. I won’t tell Linden you were checking up on her if you promise to steer clear.”

  What a dick. She had even more questions about the trouble Linden was in now than ever, and he was telling her to piss off? He had completely underestimated the bond between women and their best friends.

  “Alright,” she said sweetly, handing him a yellow Skittle — the grossest flavor. “See you when I see you.” She pulled away and glared at him through the rearview. “Which will be sooner than you think,” she muttered.

  Chapter Ten

  Linden was out of time.

  She bit her thumbnail furiously as she paced outside of teeth range of the cage. She’d accomplished nothing in a week. Graham was still distrustful and showed no emotion but loathing when she was in the room with him.

  And now Ned was on his way to pick up a transportation cage for Graham to relocate him to his new home in the freaking wilderness.

  Tristan sat the stairs with his hands clenched in front of his mouth. He hadn’t said a word in the last hour and was negative help. None of her plan had been implemented because she never got past step one with Graham’s wolf.

  “Graham,” she pleaded, dropping to her knees in front of him.

  He stuck his nose through the bars and tried to eat her.

  “Graham! If you’re in there, you have to hear this. They are taking you away from here, away from me, and you’ll never see me again. I’m your mate. We were bound together and you’re going to lose everything if you don’t come back to me now. I’m breaking to pieces without you!” Her throat tightened until it was hard to swallow. She’d never been so scared in her life. Not of the snarling animal in front of her, but of losing the man she’d only begun to build a forever with. “I can’t lose you,” she whispered.

  The wolf’s focus moved from her to Tristan for a split second, and she twisted. Tristan still sat where he was, unmoving. Baffled, she turned back to Graham. “What?”

  A tiny spark lit her mind, glowing to an ember, and then to a tiny blue flame.

  “If you don’t come back to me, Ned will make me choose another mate. I’ll belong to someone else. Another man will touch me and hold me and talk to me because you didn’t try hard enough.” Defiantly, she arched an eyebrow and stood.

  The rumbling in Graham’s chest quieted to a soft hum.

  “Tristan, come here.”

  “Why?” A suspicious note polluted the word.

  “Because I want to kiss you.”

  “You what?”

  She stared and waited.

  With a put upon sigh, he said, “Fine.”

  His approach was slow and measured and he wrapped his hand around the back of her head, tilting her chin up to meet his gaze. His eyes dipp
ed to Graham as his snarls reached a fever pitch, and with a look of determination, he leaned forward and pressed his lips against hers.

  Graham lunged at the cage and bayed, and she pushed against Tristan’s chest. “Graham, I swear, if you don’t come back to me now, you’ll lose me.”

  As she lifted the key from its place on the wall, she said, “Tristan, I want you to leave.”

  “No.”

  “This won’t work if you’re here. All he can do is focus on you right now.”

  Graham’s eyes hadn’t left Tristan since she’d pulled away.

  “He’ll kill you.”

  “Tristan! Can’t you see that either way I die? Leave and know whatever happens, this was my choice.”

  He sagged. “I can’t, Linden. Don’t ask me to do this.”

  “If you value our friendship at all, you’ll do as I ask. This is his last chance. Please.”

  He stood frozen, staring, his features warring between fear and understanding.

  The door creaked open above him.

  “What the hell is going on here?” Meredith asked, a look of utter shock on her face as she stared at the caged wolf, who now bled freely from a gash on his face.

  Linden made an effort to close her mouth but her best friend was definitely staring at a werewolf and how in Oden’s green pastures was she supposed to explain this away?

  “Wha—what are you doing here, Mere?”

  “What are you doing here, Linden?” she asked an octave higher. “You’re into some kind of sick animal torture now? Is this what you think healed your head? Some weird, tribal rituals... Are you worshipping Satan?” she screamed.

  “No!” She didn’t have time for this. Ned would be back any minute to take Graham away and making up a lie to cover all that Meredith was seeing was going to take time. “Tristan, get her out of here.”

  He hesitated putting his hands on her tiny, fuming friend. Wise man, too. Meredith had claws. “Come on,” he said gently.

  “What is she going to do to the wolf?” she demanded.

  With a growl, Tristan flung her over his shoulder and took the stairs a pair at a time. When the door was slammed behind them, Linden brought wide eyes back to Graham. “Don’t you leave me alone with this shit storm. I need you.”

  Before she could change her mind, she pulled the cage door open. Backward she fell as the wolf lunged. Straddled over her with a look of pure triumph, he brought his gleaming teeth down onto her neck.

  ****

  Just as Graham’s teeth pierced the tender flesh of her neck, he pulled back. He’d tasted her blood before. She cried out under him in pain and fear. Even the smell of her terror was familiar. He shook his head and growled uncertainly.

  The woman shouted, “Graham Hayes, how dare you! Does that feel familiar? Well does it? That’s because you’ve done it before. Without my permission then too.”

  Her words were easier to understand. He’d heard nothing but a blur of syllables for days, but now she was communicating with him. A flash of memory staggered him. A room with gold wallpaper, the woman under him, his teeth against her neck. He’d tried to kill her before.

  She grabbed the loose skin around his neck and pulled his face to hers. “Graham.”

  He snarled and she reared back and hit him across the snout with a closed fist. Rage took him until she pulled him close again. A single tear fled the corner of her eye as she whispered, “I love you.”

  Love.

  Love?

  What did love mean to a wolf? Loyalty, protection, sex. Those had meaning, but love?

  “Don’t you leave me,” she said in a ragged whisper that ripped at his guts.

  And suddenly he didn’t want to. He wanted to kill the man who’d kissed her and punish this woman for causing him such pain and confusion. He wanted to stay and make her pay for the torture.

  She stared, waiting, but for what?

  He bared his teeth once more and backed away.

  Change, a tiny voice said. Change.

  He roared as pain ripped through him, blinding him until he lost control of his trembling limbs. They bent and contorted into something unrecognizable, and a cry of pain was leeched from his throat in the last moments of transformation.

  The woman sat with a trembling smile as tears slid down her cheeks. “Graham,” she whispered, like it was a prayer on her lips.

  His body, now hairless, human, weak, was no longer his own. He lifted an accusing glare to the women who’d ruined everything. “What have you done to me?”

  Chapter Eleven

  Graham’s words made no sense. What had Linden done to him? Saved him, that’s what.

  He crouched across from her, unclothed, savagely masculine, and perfect. She’d thought she’d never again see him like this, but her happiness was diminished by the look of distain that transformed his face from the one she loved, to one that frightened her.

  “What do you mean, what did I do to you? I saved you.”

  So fast he blurred, he pressed her against the wall by the throat. His lips brushed her ear when he whispered, “I could break you.” A slow circle enflamed her neck as he stroked gentle shapes with the pad of his thumb.

  Never had she experienced such raw power as what he had just displayed, and fear collapsed her throat, making it hard to talk. “You won’t break me. You can’t hurt something you love.”

  Her hair lifted under the warm breeze of his chilling chuckle. “Love.” He pressed his erection against her hip and nibbled on her trembling lip. “Love is a human emotion.”

  A fire had started inside of her at his touch. Her breath shook with a mixture of want and fear, and she raked her nails against his hips. Something was wrong with him, but her bond had awakened, stretching and pulling her forward at the promise of connection.

  With an unbreakable grasp, he closed the space between their waists. “I’m going to kill the man who touched you,” he said in a soft stroke against her ear.

  Oh God, she was melting. She’d been so cold in his absence, and now he stood here, his warmth beckoning her, challenging her to deny him, but his words… “Graham—”

  “Don’t call me that,” he murmured as the button to her jeans popped open. He took his time with the zipper, smiling against her lips, seducing her.

  “It’s your name.”

  “Graham’s not here anymore.”

  Her jeans slid down her hips under his confident touch, and her shirt was lifted over her head.

  “If you do this, it will bond us again,” she rasped as his fingers dug into the skin of her waist. She wanted nothing more than to feel the connection with her mate, but it didn’t feel right if he went into it unknowing.

  “Good.” He tugged the skin of her injured neck between two gentle teeth until she hissed at the mixture of pleasure and pain. “That’ll be your punishment.”

  Moving her panties to the side, he pressed into her and she cried out in ecstasy.

  He couldn’t mean it. It wasn’t a punishment to be close to him like this. And whether he wanted to admit it or not, Graham was in there and getting stronger. His human form proved that.

  He moved within her, slowly, pushing her back against the wall until she was surrounded by him. His shoulders flexed as he lifted her to set the pace and she threw her head back, gasping. The first wave of climax crashed through her and he rumbled against her neck.

  Lowering her lips to his, she drank him in and was met with the force of a storm. His kiss grew harder, more frantic, and a desperate sound wrested from his throat. He crushed her to him tighter and tighter, rocking until they cried out together.

  And everything was different.

  He panted against her neck, throbbing within the depths of her body and the bond brightened and tightened until she could feel his soul again. Closing her eyes, she smiled with the drunken haze of totality and release.

  “Can you feel it?” she asked.

  His teeth grazed her collarbone. “Yeah,” he said, turning away f
rom her. “Someone’s coming.”

  That was definitely not what she was talking about, but the door up the stairs creaked open and she rushed to pull her jeans on.

  “Linden?” Ned asked with a frown in his tone. “There’s a note on the door that says not to go down there. What’s going on?”

  “Uhhh.” How to explain the very naked Graham, who crouched in front of her with an empty smile that said he’d love to maim whoever dared prance down the stairs? Best if Ned didn’t get filleted today. “Can you grab some of Graham’s clothes from the bag in my room?”

  “Why?” he asked carefully.

  “Because he’s back.” Kind of.

  ****

  “Where are you taking me?” Meredith asked.

  The old leather bench seat creaked as Tristan adjusted his position under her thunderous gaze. “To my place.”

  “No thank you. Take me home.”

  “Not until I explain what you saw back there.”

  “Oh yeah? With a string of lies like Linden has been feeding me? No thanks. I’m all full up for the day. And where do you live? In the forest?”

  Tall trees dotted the roadside whizzing past her window. She wasn’t a professional foliage identifier, but they were definitely of the Christmas tree variety.

  “I have a cabin a little ways out.”

  He said it like he totally wasn’t going to murder her and stash her body in a leaf shredder, but she’d seen enough horror movies to know where this was going. “Let me out.”

  “We’re almost there.”

  “Let me out!” Panic tore at her and she clawed at the door handle but it wouldn’t open. “Let me out of here!”

  Swerving, he maneuvered to the side of the road. “Would you stop freaking out? I didn’t lock you in here. You locked your own damned door when you climbed in here. Lift the latch.”

  Click, went the latch and heat flooded her cheeks. “Well, why are you taking me out to the woods then if you mean me no harm?”