Slip the Skin

by Shanley, Tera

  Gripping her waist, he pulled her against him as he tumbled closer to release. Lowering his lips to hers, his body tensed and jerked as he convulsed into her, and she panted his name again and again as she followed him over the edge.

  Oh, he chose her all right. She was his in every way, and like it or not, his heart was bound to hers now. He couldn’t imagine letting her out of his arms right now, much less moving on to try and find another mate.

  “Jesus, woman,” he murmured. “You’ve demolished us both.”

  Her breath faltered and she eased back. “I was so scared today when that man stopped me, and all I could think about was getting back to you.”

  “Why?” he whispered, terrified of how much the answer really meant to him.

  “Because I feel safe with you. This hasn’t ever happened to me before. Please tell me there is something here. That we aren’t just doing this because Graham ordered it.”

  Locking his elbows, he leaned against the table and kissed her gently, still unwilling to pull out of her. “Go out with me.”

  “Mmm, you’re finally giving in to Graham’s order?”

  “Fuck Graham’s order. Go out with me. I’ll date you proper, take you out. I’ll make you happy.”

  A smile crooked his mouth, and she nibbled his bottom lip until his inner wolf practically purred for the woman. “Are you going to woo me, Tristan?”

  A rumbling growl rattled his chest at her teasing, and he pressed her knees apart and slid further into her. At her groan, he whispered, “Graham has his reasons for forcing this, but I’ll do it on my own terms. I want you, and I’ll be damned if I’ll have you questioning whether our relationship is the product of some punishment.” He stroked his tongue into her mouth, tasting her, then rested his forehead against hers. “I choose you. Not just because of the rule, but because I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you since I saw you in your car outside of Ned’s house.”

  Jerking back, she looked startled. “Really?”

  He chuckled low and brushed his lips against the satiny skin of her shoulder, pressing into her again. His half-mast was firming up quick buried inside of her. Sexy woman. “Yes, really. I trust you, Meredith. I wouldn’t have told you my secret if I didn’t. That means something with me. I might not be everything you want right now, but I’ll try to be what you need.”

  “Tristan?”

  “Yeah?”

  She wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. “I pick you, too.”

  Those words were the most important he’d ever heard. Leaning into her, he kissed her softly, reverently like she deserved. His. She was his and he wouldn’t let anything or anyone hurt her.

  He opened his lips to tell her so, but the soft hum of an engine making its way up the gravel drive sounded against his sensitive ears.

  He turned for the window and moved aside the curtain with his fingertip. A white SUV picked its way toward them.

  Horror filled him until he stood frozen into place. It wasn’t just him in the crosshairs. He turned his head slowly, watched fear pool in the green depths of Meredith’s eyes.

  He had to save her.

  Hell Hunters were coming.

  Chapter Nine

  Before Meredith had any chance to react, Tristan pulled up his pants and yanked her toward the back door. As she whizzed past the window, there was, in fact, a giant white vehicle coming down the driveway.

  “Oh my gosh,” she murmured as she scrambled back into her fitted sweater. “But I made sure nobody followed me. I made sure of it!”

  “You did good, but if I had to guess, you have a bug on your car somewhere. They must’ve planted it before you entered the parking garage.” His voice was stony, mechanical, and she could almost see him ticking off escape routes as he threw the back door open and shoved her through.

  A workshop stood against the waning evening and inside, a Harley shone in rays of sunlight that dared pierce through the old wooden walls. He shoved tools out of the way and kicked at a wooden box that had been shoved near the back tire. She leapt out of the way as he pushed the bike back. He straddled it and ripped the engine, then held his hand out to her. “We have to go now.”

  The bike looked terrifying and the thought of speeding without airbags made her feel queasy. “Why can’t we take the truck?”

  “Because I’m not entirely sure they didn’t bug it when we were at Danny’s, and I don’t have time to find it. Plus we’ll never escape them in the truck. We have a shot on this.”

  The set of his lips screamed impatience, and she growled to psych herself up. Yep, she was going to ride a motorcycle and it looked like she was doing this joyride helmet free. Dammit, she’d imagined a nice cuddle after what they’d done in the hallway of his house, not an utter adrenaline dump into her system. Stupid murderous Hell Hunters. She settled on the seat behind Tristan, and he revved the engine twice, then peeled out, the back tire spinning gravel against the shed.

  She squealed as her stomach felt like it was left in the shop, and clamping her eyes tightly closed, she gripped his waist in an anaconda squeeze. The wind was relentless and her hair whipped all around. She was so dizzy but couldn’t decide if her stomach would feel better if she peeked at the scenery or not. At the moment, she was dangling on the edge of a full-blown panic attack. She opened her eyes just as they blasted by the SUV and hit the gravel road, which smoothed out their ride considerably.

  She dared a glance behind. The SUV threw dirt as it spun toward them. “They’re turning around.”

  If Tristan heard, she couldn’t tell. He was silent and focused, and as they hit a forty-five degree angle to turn onto the main road, she stifled lung piercing scream. When he straightened out, he hit the gas in earnest and the breath was sucked straight from her lungs. She gasped, desperate to inhale as her throat constricted.

  She was human, and though Tristan was mortal, he would heal from a crash much better than she would. Terror zinged through her until she couldn’t let loose her grip on his sweater if she tried. She was going to be bug splat on the Hell Hunter’s windshield.

  He weaved around an old Chevy and came close to a head on collision with a blue sedan before veering back into the right lane. Oh yeah, it was definitely better to keep her eyes closed. Minutes ticked by as Tristan snaked this way and that, never slowing his speed. She was pretty sure they’d broken at least five to seventy-three traffic laws, but he seemed bent on never stopping.

  She was riding a Harley behind the hottest man she’d ever laid eyes on, human or Lycan. If she survived this ordeal, the night would be a memory to tell her nine cats about when she got older.

  At long last, he slowed and pulled off the main road, into a town she didn’t recognize. On and on they coasted until the outskirts revealed an old, dilapidated park. He pulled under the rusted archway and around a lake. Parked in an old campsite parking spot, he stumbled off before she could even ask where they were.

  Tugging at the neck of his sweater like it was choking him, he lurched for the shadows of the trees. Oh, hell no was he leaving her in these creepy woods alone with a giant man-eating bike idling between her thighs.

  She turned the ignition off, pocketed the keys and jogged after him. Tristan hadn’t made it far, and his shoulders heaved like he couldn’t breathe. He’d fallen to his hands and knees and rocked gently.

  “Tristan,” she said, placing the palm of her hand against the muscles of his back. She gasped and drew away at the guttural snarl that parted his lips.

  “Get back.”

  “No, no, no, no. You can’t change now. Linden told me how this works. You’ll be a wolf all night and I’ll be here alone with those Hell Hunters tracking us.” She pulled his shoulders until he faced her. He clutched leaves and dry grass on either side of his hips and when his lifted his gaze, it was a monstrous effort to quiet the terror the roiling mercury in his eyes induced.

  What was she supposed to do? A helpless sound scratched her throat and she looked
around in desperation. When nothing presented a solution, she straddled him.

  Tristan looked away, neck strained. She curled against his chest, drawing her arms in as close as she could. “Don’t leave me here alone,” she whispered.

  Her cheek rose and fell against his chest. His body was rigid and stony against her, and slowly, so slowly, he began to relax. His hand lifted her sweater and gripped her bare skin, and when his other hand pulled her tighter against him, she knew he was okay. His breathing evened out and he murmured nonsensical things against her earlobe. Dry leaves rustled around them, and branches creaked in the wind. The chill bit into her skin, reminding her that her jacket lay in the entryway of Tristan’s house. No matter. A fire had started within her at the touch of his palm against her back, warming her despite winter’s breath.

  “I need to eat,” he rasped against her neck.

  All right, eating was definitely not what she had in mind at the moment, but one look at him as his muscles jerked and twitched, and everything but worry blasted from her mind. His face was twisted like he was in pain, and it tugged painfully at her heart.

  “Do you mean squirrels or human cuisine?”

  “Regular food.”

  “I saw a Chinese takeout place back in town. I left my purse at your house, but I shoved a twenty dollar bill in my pocket earlier when I grabbed lunch at the office.”

  “Keep your money, I have my wallet. Dinner’s on me.”

  “Oh, is this like our first date?” She lowered her voice and waggled her eyebrows. “Our first mate date?”

  He leaned his head back and cursed quietly, but the corner of his mouth crooked up with the hint of a smile. As the green returned to his eyes, his gaze caressed her, daring her to look away. “Don’t ever do that again.” His fingertips ran the length of her neck and came to rest against the tripping pulse under her ear.

  “Do what?” She would promise anything if he kept looking at her like this.

  “Get that close when I’m changing. It’s not safe for you.”

  “You won’t hurt me.”

  “You don’t know that, Meredith. All it takes is one accidental nip from me and you’d be gone forever. When I’m a wolf, I’d never hurt you. I’d know you, recognize you. But the change is painful. I’m blind to everything but how badly it hurts in those moments between one form and the other.”

  “Okay. I’ll be more careful.”

  The concern in his eyes was for her safety. He cared about her on some level, and as much as he usually fought whatever attraction they shared, his guard was down tonight.

  Tristan parked his motorcycle several blocks away from the restaurant to limit the noise and helped her off. His nostrils flared often enough, but he seemed to ease into his surroundings as they walked. After the tenth twitch of his head in her direction, he slid his hand down her arm and intertwined his fingers in hers. She’d had butterflies from boys before, but this was different. A gaggle of gargoyles rioted in her belly, and she shuddered at the sensation.

  “Are you okay,” Tristan asked.

  “Yeah, just cold,” she lied.

  He smirked like he could hear the false note in her voice. Maybe he really could. Weirder things had happened.

  A glimpse at her reflection in a store front window had her skidding to a stop. “Oh,” she groaned at the snarled mane that sat atop her head like microwaved marshmallow. “Why didn’t you tell me I look ridiculous?”

  “Uh,” Tristan said as his reflection appeared next to hers. “Because you don’t.”

  She couldn’t even run her fingers through the matted mess that was her hair, and pulled a leaf from it, then flicked it at his chest for emphasis. “Motorcycles rides are not how they look in the movies. It’s not softly flowing locks and smiling in the sunshine. I look like I got slapped by a tsunami.”

  Humor danced in his eyes as she pulled the blue hairband from her wrist and knotted her hair into a high, and very voluminous, messy bun.

  One last mournful look at her reflection, standing next to an Adonis with perfectly tousled hair and looking very much like he just hopped off a runway stage, and she turned to follow him with a dejected slump to her shoulders.

  “You know,” he said, draping his arm around her. “I didn’t say anything because I like the way you looked, all wild and fierce.”

  “I looked like a serial killer,” she muttered as the restaurant came into view.

  Starving, she ordered sesame chicken with a side of green beans, fried rice and egg drop soup to warm her up. Tristan ordered enough food to feed a small militia, and ate every bite of it. Then he polished off the leftovers she couldn’t find room for. He hadn’t been kidding. The man needed to eat, and it showed after he took a long gulp of water to wash it all down. He looked completely recovered.

  She leaned against the wall of the booth, adjusting her position on the uncomfortable plastic chair. “So, what’s the plan, wolfman?”

  “Besides not getting ourselves killed?”

  “Naturally.”

  “First off I need to call Diana and apologize for standing her up. Then we need to call Graham and let him know what’s happened. And tomorrow morning you need to call into work and take some time off. Do you have any vacation days left to use?”

  It was late in the year but she rarely took time off. The boss frowned upon it, the old Grinch. “Yeah, I can take some time off. How long?”

  “I don’t think you should go back the city alone until we figure this stuff out. They’re after you. Me too, but it’s you I’m concerned about. They can take you whenever they want if you’re alone. For now, until we know our next move, you need to take a leave of absence. A week at least. Do you have Diana’s number memorized?”

  She recited the number as he punched it into his phone, then stood and left the restaurant.

  Equal parts relief and fear flooded her as she realized Diana really wouldn’t be part of Tristan’s life. Relief because her friend would be safe from the chaos of the pack, and because Meredith wouldn’t have to watch them bond as a couple. Fear because now Meredith would be bound even tighter to the Lycans, and to all the violence that followed them.

  Watching Tristan pace in front of the window, hand shoved in his pocket as he apologized to Diana, she thought maybe the last part she would eventually get over if it meant being close to him.

  Chapter Ten

  “What are we going to do?” Linden asked, clutching tighter to Graham’s hand. She’d come this close to losing her best friend. To Graham losing his.

  His face stayed dark and withdrawn, just as it had settled when he’d talked to Tristan on the phone earlier. His eyes, steady silver, stayed focused on the road ahead, and the steering wheel made a creaking sound under the intense grip of his hand. Graham had adopted the chaos Ned threw the pack into with his betrayal. Still, the old alpha’s treachery echoed through the bones of the remaining New York Lycans, and now their survival depended directly on her mate’s ability to make hard decisions.

  “We could leave,” she said low. “Your dad says you have land. That every Legacy family does, and it’s yours since you are the last of your line. The wilderness could keep us safe.”

  “At the cost of running, Linden.”

  “Running doesn’t matter if it saves the pack.”

  “It does to Lycans.”

  “I am a Lycan! You bit me, remember? I turned into a wolf, and then I watched my pack get peppered with silver shot. I watched them die. I watched you attack those hunters to protect me, and you died too.” Her voice lowered, became ragged. “Part of you is still unreachable. Sometimes the cost of standing against something for pride’s sake is too great. With Danny, and Ned, and the wolves who died in the woods, we’ve lost half the pack already. Running is an option for us now.”

  “They’ll find us. If we don’t fight the Hell Hunters now, we’ll run for the rest of our lives and never be safe.”

  “So what do we do?”

  “We cut off p
hysical contact with the rest of the pack to protect their identities. The Hunters are still fishing or why else would they track Meredith’s car? They’re getting desperate, trying to smoke out the rest of the pack, but we cut that off immediately. We take a breath, study our enemy, and make informed decisions. This is how they work. They throw a pack into discord, come from all sides and while we panic and scramble, they work the edges, taking us all out. They’ve annihilated entire packs like this for centuries, but I’ll be damned if they’re doing it to mine. We won’t run, Linden. I won’t allow you to live looking over your shoulder in fear for the rest of your days.”

  She sighed and stared at the blurred passing lights of the city. “Okay. We’ll stay and fight.”

  Graham called Barret and told him to relay what was happening to the rest of the pack. He gave the order for them to stay away from the bar until he gave the all clear—to go about their lives as if nothing was amiss. If any of the wolves even got the feeling they were being tailed, they were to call immediately.

  “I guess I’m not starting work at the bar next week then.”

  “We have to assume whatever human told the Hell Hunters about that little hunting trip in the woods, they’re going to have Ned’s Bar under surveillance. Barret says he keeps all of the paperwork at his house and there is nothing in the bar that can tie us to it. It’s still in Ned’s name until all of the paperwork is taken care of, so we should be okay for now.”

  He pulled the truck into the parking lot of a seedy looking motel with a flickering sign that advertised rooms for twenty dollars a night.

  A far cry from the ritzy hotel they’d met in.

  Tristan’s bike was parked in front of one of the first floor rooms. She could tell it was his because a tribal wolf emblem decorated the seat.

  “Graham, I’m scared.”

  His fingers rested against the door handle, but he didn’t move to get out. His eyes, for a rare moment blue and clear, filled with such fierce determination. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”