Under Her Skin

by Frost, Jeaniene; Brook, Meljean; Andrews, Ilona

  Daniel grunted. "Suit yourself, but I'm getting something."

  He stood, stretched, and then held out a hand. I just stared at it.

  "What?"

  "You're coming with me," he replied. "Who knows what kind of trouble you'd stir up if I left you alone?"

  "And I suppose you'll just drag me along anyway if I refuse?"

  A smile quirked his mouth. "You learn fast, don't you?"

  I gave Daniel another withering look that didn't seem to faze him. He was extremely striking, in an outdoorsy-type of way. His hair was chin length and russet, and he had a faint weathering to his features that spoke of long days outside. Daniel only looked a couple years older than me, which would put him at about thirty, but there was an air of command about him that made him seem older. None of the lawyers at my

  office had such a dominating presence, in fact.

  But I wasn't about to let him know how much he intimidated me. Wasn't there a saying that showing fear in front of an animal made it more aggressive? "So, you're the group's babysitter, is that it?"

  "I'm the pack's enforcer, so it's my job to make sure anyone who's a danger to us – like you – doesn't get away. And I'm very good at my job, Marlee."

  At over six feet tall with muscles bulging from every limb, yeah, Daniel looked like he did a good job of enforcing. He'd scare anyone with half a brain.

  "What are you going to do with me for two weeks? You can't keep me tied to your hip." I didn't even want to think about after that, or what might happen on the full moon.

  He rubbed a knuckle under his chin and considered me. "With your limp, you wouldn't get far even if you did manage to slip away from me – which you wouldn't. So, let's get some dinner, then you can wash up and begin plotting ways to outsmart us dumb animals."

  Daniel said that last part with a challenging look that let me know he was both aware of my aversion to what they were and of my dreams of escape. I glanced away, gritting my teeth.

  "Didn't you say you were hungry?"

  He held out his hand again. "Come on. Let's eat."

  * * *

  I had to take Daniel's arm to avoid hopping on one leg to the dining lodge. They didn't give me any crutches, which I supposed was deliberate so as to keep me at a disadvantage. It looked like I was in some sort of tiny Wild West town, of all things. A narrow strip of street ran down between the twin rows of shops, lodgings,

  and…were those saloons? I half expected someone to gallop by on horseback, shooting at the moon.

  "What is this place?" I asked.

  Daniel grunted. "Not what you were expecting, right? Let me guess. You thought we'd live in a big den in the woods?"

  From his expression, he was teasing, but I wasn't trying to make friends with my kidnapper.

  "The 1800's called. They want their Tombstone replica back," I replied. Two could play at being a smart ass.

  Daniel kept perfect pace with me. I was using his arm as a sort of brace. His reflexes were so fast, he counter-balanced my every step, so I almost walked at my normal speed.

  "You're not far off," he said, ignoring my sarcasm. "This was an old mining town back in the nineteenth century. It was empty for decades after the silver dried up, but then some of my relatives bought it and the surrounding land. We restored many of the original buildings and cabins, plus added upgrades. Now, we rent it out seasonally as a private resort area."

  That brought me to a stop. "Werewolves running a resort town?" I asked incredulously.

  He shrugged. "We have to make a living, just like everyone else."

  This was like being in an episode of The Twilight Zone.

  We passed several people on our way down the street. I was surprised at how normal they looked. There were men and women of varying ages, plus a couple children, and everyone appeared to be minding their own business – aside from all the sideways glances I was getting.

  "Are all of them like you?" I asked, keeping my voice calm. My heart had started to pound, however, and if the movies were right, they could hear it. There were so many of them. How would I ever get away?

  "Most of them," Daniel said. "The others are skinwalkers – normal people, to you. But you don't have to be afraid of anyone, Marlee. We're not what you think."

  "I've already had some of your group try to kill me, and you and Joshua seem pretty open about how you'll finish the job," I replied shortly. "So you'll excuse me if I don't buy the whole 'we're misunderstood' speech."

  Something flashed in Daniel's eyes. It made me back up a step, but his hand shot out and gripped my arm.

  "Why'd you bring that gun camping with you?" he asked, voice soft. "You brought it for protection, right? Because if anyone tried to hurt you, you'd hurt them, right? Well, now imagine someone's trying to hurt your entire family. How far would you go to stop that?"

  Daniel leaned in, tightening his grip so I couldn't pull back. "I'd do anything to stop that," he whispered near my ear. "Including holding you hostage. If you got away, you'd tell people about us. People who would come and hurt my family. So yeah, I'm ruthless when it comes to protecting my pack. But don't pretend you wouldn't be the same way, if the shoe were on the other foot."

  That gleam of wildness was in his eyes again. The otherness that reminded me that an animal lurked inside him. I shivered.

  "Let go of me."

  He did, dropping my arm only to hold his out again. "We're almost there," he said, nodding at the square building to the left.

  I balanced on his arm again. We didn't speak as we walked the rest of the way to the dining lodge.

  * * *

  It looked like any normal, rustic restaurant inside, if a little more upscale. Instead of smaller tables scattered throughout, there were several long tables arranged in the room, each seating over a dozen. The food seemed to be served family-style, with large dishes placed in the middle of the tables from which everyone took their

  servings. There was a moment of quiet as Daniel and I walked in.

  "This is Marlee," Daniel said to the room at large. "She's joining us."

  I didn't know if he meant for dinner, as a possible new werewolf, or some other cryptic thing. I didn't argue, though. Not while feeling like a piece of meat dangled above a crocodile pit.

  "Hi," I said. God, that sounded stupid, but what else was I supposed to say? Somebody call 911 sounded tempting, but I didn't think it would do any good.

  An older woman bustled up to me, smiling. "Welcome, dear! Aren't you pretty? Such beautiful brown hair."

  I just wanted to sit, hide, and plot my escape, not exchange pleasantries with Mrs. Butterworth's version of a werewolf.

  "Um, thanks."

  "Let's set you up over here, it's quieter," she said, leading Daniel and I to a table that only had four other people at it.

  "Thanks, Mom," Daniel said.

  I stopped so fast, I almost staggered. "Mom?"

  A grin edged his mouth. "Everyone has one, after all."

  "Quit teasing Marlee, she looks starved," his mother said to Daniel, holding out a chair for me. "We have excellent venison stew tonight. That should help put the color back in your face."

  I sat at the table, avoiding eye contact with the other four people, though I did notice one was a female. Daniel sat next to me, that half-smile still on his face.

  "Not what you expected again?" he asked.

  I glanced around the room once more. People were laughing, eating, and chatting. Sure, I kept getting discreet looks, but no one was licking their chops in a menacing way at me. It all looked terribly…civilized.

  "No," I replied, and left it at that. These people might look nice, but they were my kidnappers. My executioners, if I refused to become one of their group. All the table manners in the world couldn't make up for that.

  "Daniel," someone at the table said. "Introduce me."

  I glanced up, meeting a pair of blue eyes on a smiling face. Black hair hung past his shoulders, untamed and playful, like his expression.
>
  "Finn." There was a hint of a growl in Daniel's voice that hadn't been there before. "This is Marlee. Marlee, my younger brother, Finn."

  Again I was surprised at the family connection, though I shouldn't have been. Why wouldn't all of their kind congregate together?

  "Hi," I said in the same non-committal tone I'd used before.

  "Charmed," Finn replied, grin widening.

  "Cut her a break, she's had a bad day," the girl next to him muttered before giving me a sympathetic glance. "I'm Laurel, Daniel's cousin. Sorry about what happened."

  "Which part?" I couldn't help but ask.

  She sighed. "All of it."

  There was no stopping my snort. "Yeah. Me, too."

  Daniel cleared his throat. I returned my gaze to the table in front of me, tracing its edge. It'll be another day or so before people even realize something's happened to me. How long after that before Brandy or my parents organize a search, if there is one? How many days will go by before they give me up for dead? How am I supposed to just sit here, surrounded by werewolves, and pretend nothing is wrong?

  A tear slid down my cheek. I sucked in my breath, aghast, but that only made it worse. Another one came down. Then another. I bent my head, hoping my hair would hide it, when a warm hand landed on my shoulder.

  "Laurel, have the food sent to my cabin," Daniel said, then he scooped me up before I could even protest. We were out of the dining lodge and down the street in the next few heartbeats.

  "God, you're so fast," I gasped in astonishment. Fresh tears spurted. How could I ever get away, if he moved this fast and there was a town full of more creatures like him?

  "You're going to be okay, Marlee," he said.

  No, I wasn't. I was trapped in a strange place surrounded by creatures that weren't supposed to exist. My old life might not have been all champagne and roses, but no one had the right to rip me away from it without my consent. The enormity of what I'd lost between yesterday and today slammed into me. I didn't care anymore that the tears wouldn't stop, or that I started hitting Daniel. My grief was too sharp to worry about embarrassment or consequences.

  Chapter Four

  Wolves were chasing me, biting at my ankles, snarling as they crowded around me, letting out howls that made my blood turn to ice. I ran, twigs stinging me as I darted between the trees, gasping for breath, crying out with each new flash of pain in my legs. They were toying with me. My death was only a matter of time.

  The full moon came into view between the trees, illuminating more wolves in my path. I screamed at them, but it came out as a howl. Horrified, I looked down to see that my feet had turned into paws. Fur slithered up my body, replacing my skin. I fell forward, claws shooting out of my fingers…

  "NO!"

  I woke up screaming the word, flinging the sheets away like they were animals attacking me. It took me a second to orient myself. Wood ceiling, wood walls, an antler chandelier above me. Right. I was in Daniel's cabin. All the better to make sure I couldn't escape.

  He sat in the reclining chair on the opposite side of the room, eyes slitted. Watching me. He'd slept in the chair last night. I guess I should appreciate him giving me the bed, but my gratitude was in short supply.

  "Another nightmare?" he asked quietly.

  I'd had them all night. Either I was getting eaten by wolves, or I was turning into one. Terrifying no matter which way you sliced it.

  Daniel stretched. The afghan he'd thrown over himself slipped, revealing that he'd taken off his shirt. Cords of muscles flexed beneath taut, tanned skin.

  Despite everything, I looked. I'd never seen such a perfectly muscled body before – at least, one that wasn't on TV advertising gym equipment. Daniel didn't have the bloated look associated with steroid users, but he had a thick, brawny frame that usually spoke of many hours in a gym. Absurdly, the image of a werewolf

  bench-pressing flashed in my mind.

  I glanced up to find Daniel staring at me. He didn't wink or make a comment, but there was no doubt he knew I'd been staring at his body.

  I managed to shrug. "Stockholm syndrome," I said. "The whole 'bonding with your captor' thing. I've already cried in your arms, now I'm checking you out. Just ignore it. Of course, I can't be your first captive, so you're probably used to this."

  A faint smile touched his mouth. "You're the first female I've had to quarantine, and none of the men looked at me the way you did."

  There was something deeper in his voice with that last sentence. I shivered, both from unease and other things. Yes, Daniel was very attractive with his dark hair, thick brows, full mouth, and piercing hazel eyes – not to mention that body. But this wasn't a first date. This was a hostage situation, and a macabre one at that.

  "Don't let it go to your head. I'm scared to death and looking for any form of comfort," I said, regaining control. "Speaking of that, since a certain murderous gray wolf keeps appearing in my nightmares, I need to know. What happened to Gabriel?"

  Daniel's face became shuttered. "He's under arrest. If you shift, he dies for infecting you against your will. If you don't turn, Joshua said Gabriel losing his eye was punishment enough. Joshua had liquid silver poured into Gabriel's eye so it wouldn't heal."

  Their harshness apparently wasn't limited just to outsiders. I felt mildly sick over what I'd heard, but under the circumstances, pity for Gabriel was beyond me.

  "And the others?" Gabriel hadn't been alone.

  "They run the gauntlet."

  Daniel said it lightly, but I swallowed. "As in, the thing Native Indians used to do with captives, where they line up on both sides and beat the shit out of the person as he tries to dash down the center?"

  That hint of wildness was back in Daniel's gaze again, a primal, untamed gleam I'd never seen except in the eyes of an animal. On a full-grown man, it both was mesmerizing and frightening.

  "Something like that. Except we'll be in our fur, and they won't."

  I couldn't help but gulp. That sounded barbaric, and it was on my account. Something occurred to me.

  "But it isn't the full moon. How can you…you know?" In fact, how had any of

  the werewolves changed form the other day, if I had to wait until the full moon to see if I was infected?

  "Once we're past the first year, we can shift at will. New pack members are dependent on the full moon to change, though."

  I digested this. "So, right now, you could turn into a –"

  "Wolf," he finished for me. "Yes."

  So many emotions crashed through me. Fear. Revulsion. Curiosity. Disbelief. What if all of this was a twisted farce, and I hadn't seen what I'd thought was a wolf turning into a man in the woods? What if this was just a town full of crazies who thought they were wolves, and in my stress, I'd bought into that?

  "Show me."

  The words were out of my mouth before I could form another thought. I had to see it. No matter what.

  Daniel stood, the afghan falling to the floor. He met my eyes, and a ripple went through me. His were even wilder than before, starting to slant and gleam with amber. He undid his jeans, letting them drop to the floor.

  Nothing but bare skin underneath.

  I might have made a sound. Seeing a magnificent naked male body only a few feet away is worth a sharp intake of breath, no matter the circumstances. But all my feminine appreciation fell away when he crouched on the floor and rivers of silvery hair began to replace the skin on his back. There was a crunching sound as bones curved, popped, and formed where none had been before. It didn't look the same as in the movies. There was no screaming. No slow protracting of a muzzle replacing a face, blood spurting, or drawn-out writhing. Daniel had simply crouched on the floor and then, in about ten seconds, a wolf the size of a pony, covered in silver and charcoal fur, stared at me with bright yellow eyes.

  "Marlee," it – Daniel – rumbled.

  I felt light-headed. Nope, you're not crazy, and neither are they. But that's the bad news.

  I had moved toward
the door without even being aware of it. Daniel sat on his haunches in front of it, those golden eyes drilling into mine.

  "Sit," he said.

  A rather unhinged cackle came out of me. What looked like a huge dog was telling me to sit. How backward was that?

  "Woof," I replied in a shaky voice, but sat in the chair he'd recently vacated. The wolf's lips pulled back in a canine version of a grin.

  "Stay."

  I was about to say he was pushing it, when there was another ripple over his body. As seamlessly as water flowing on rocks, skin covered that thick silvery coat of hair, bones elongated, reformed, and in less time than it took me to get over the shock of seeing a wolf in the room, a naked man knelt on the floor. The only thing left over from the unbelievable transformation was a fine sheen of sweat on his skin.

  "Does it hurt?"

  Daniel sat back. "The first few times. Then you get used to it, and it feels…freeing."

  He looked like a man. A beautiful, mouth-watering specimen of a man, in fact. But an enormous animal was inside him, and took up God only knew how much of his mind and conscience.

  Daniel smiled slightly. "You smell like fear again, Marlee, but I've already told you – you have nothing to be afraid of."

  "That's the scariest thing I've ever seen," I replied, glad my voice was steady even though I was shaking inside. "How do I even know I'm talking to you? It might just as well be the wolf."

  "It's both," he said at once. "Always. And you still don't need to be afraid."

  Yeah. Sure. Considering it might be me shifting into an animal in a couple weeks. From where I was sitting, I had plenty to be afraid about.

  "I want to go home."

  Even as I said it, I knew it was useless. But it was true—so true that the very words ached.

  "I'm sorry for what brought you here. But even if you left and never told anyone about the pack, think of your family. You'd hurt one of them, Marlee. You wouldn't mean to, but you'd do it."

  Ice crept up my spine. "What are you talking about?"

  He inclined his head. "Your ankle."