by Jane Jamison
He smiled, his gaze still fixed on her bottom. It didn’t hurt that she’d given Rosh a run for his money, struggling against him as he’d carried her through the forest then thrown her over the cliff and into the waterfall. He wished he could have seen that.
She was everything he’d dreamed of and more. She’d wrapped him in a spell as surely as if she were a witch.
Hating to do so, he forced his mind away from her apple bottom, away from the seductive sway of her hips, and away from her hair that swung back and forth. He had to keep watch in case Burac decided to try again.
He breathed a sigh of relief once they reentered the camp. Their friends had already returned home, and the camp was buzzing with the news of Burac’s attempt to snatch Shay. The women surrounded her, making sure she was all right.
Myla, a shape-shifter and Kira’s mother, offered her a soothing drink then turned to the men and scowled. Her bright green eyes could’ve turned them to stone if she’d had Medusa’s power. Her curly red hair stood out from her head as though the fury she felt sent energy to the tips of her locks. Her petite frame, her height being less than five feet, might’ve tricked a man into thinking she was timid and even demure, but Renkon had witnessed her temper too many times to be fooled by her size.
Renkon stayed behind Rosh and Walker. Myla’s temper was legendary, and he had no wish to catch the full brunt of it.
“What are you men doing? Why haven’t you told her about us? About you?” She pushed against Rosh’s chest and sent him stumbling backward.
“I was going to.”
“Bullshit. That’s an excuse and you know it. It’s bad enough that she was brought here against her will, but to keep her in the dark about the world around her is nothing short of irresponsible.”
“I brought her here to save her life. She knows that.”
“Well, obviously she either doesn’t care or didn’t understand. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have taken off in the middle of the night. What if they’d gotten her? What then?”
Rosh backed up again when Myla took another step toward him. Walker played it safe and moved closer to Renkon, out of the line of fire. “I get it, Myla, I screwed up. But let’s remember how this all got started. If you hadn’t let Kira go off into the woods by herself, I wouldn’t have had to chase after her and get involved.”
Myla crossed her arms over her chest and lowered her chin to stare up at him with hooded eyes. “And you’d have never met her, either. Remember that. And remember this, too, you flea-ridden hound, I asked you to fetch my daughter, not to play a game of chase. But none of that means anything. You should’ve told her the first chance you got, and you didn’t.”
Rosh finally held up his hands, admitting the defeat everyone else had known was inevitable. “You’re right. But don’t worry. We’re explaining everything tonight.”
“See that you do.” Myla whirled to face the crowd of women surrounding Shay. “Let her be now. She needs to go with her men.”
Her men. That sounds damn good. Renkon couldn’t hold back his smile. “Come with us into the hut, Shay. We have a lot to tell you.”
Shay thanked the women, and, letting Rosh lead the way, she followed Walker and Renkon into the hut. Renkon cast a grin at Myla, winked, then hurried inside when her scowl grew bigger.
Shay sat cross-legged in the middle of their bed. Her dark hair floated around her shoulders and her clasped hands pushed the dress in between her legs. Need washed over Renkon, and with one look, he knew the other two men felt the same way. If they had their way, she’d have already disrobed and stretched out on her back, her arms spread wide to welcome them.
He settled next to Rosh and across from Walker. A dim light seeped through the opening above while candles that the women had lit in preparation for her safe return cast their shadows on the walls. If she said yes, if she accepted her new life with them, they’d have to get a larger dwelling. Although they preferred sleeping close to the ground, they’d build her a cabin of her own if she wanted. Hopefully, he’d help her fill it with lots of children.
“Okay, I’m listening. Start talking. Tell me that you and Renkon are really werewolves.”
They’d known she had spirit and had discussed how much they loved that about her. But her spirit could mean that she might be difficult to handle, and she’d shown them that it was true. Still, he wouldn’t have asked her to change.
Rosh started them off, and Renkon could only trust that he wouldn’t get angry if she didn’t react the way he thought she should. His cousin kept his head down, his attention on the bed, before finally lifting his head. His expression was solemn, and Renkon could sense his nervousness. If she didn’t agree to stay, they’d be lost forever, loveless and alone. He doubted that he could remain in The Hidden if she wasn’t there with him.
“Let me start from the beginning. It’ll make more sense that way.” Rosh dragged in a long breath. “When I found you that day—”
“I think it was the other way around. I sort of found you and whacked you over the head.”
Renkon rolled his lips under to keep from chuckling. She was feisty and ready to speak her mind. Life with her wouldn’t be dull.
To Rosh’s credit, he let her interruption slide. “Anyway, you had a gash on your head and a car that wasn’t going to take you anywhere. Then, after you ‘whacked me over the head’ as you put it, you passed out. I could’ve left you there in the snow or put you back in the car. Either way I doubt you would’ve survived. At least not without losing a few fingers and toes from frostbite. The only other option was to bring you here.”
“No. You could’ve taken me down the mountain or phoned for help.”
Renkon shook his head along with Rosh. “Not true. If you’ll remember, I didn’t have a phone on me. Plus, I wasn’t about to walk into a gas station or anywhere else buck naked, carrying an unknown injured woman. No, my only option was to bring you to The Hidden.”
“The Hidden. What does that mean anyway? Hidden from what?” She leaned forward, her expression frustrated, yet curious.
Rosh paused, and Walker took the chance to answer. “The Hidden is a place where people like us can come and let our true natures show. Not many on The Outside, in the world you know, are aware of The Hidden.”
“But I don’t get it. How can you keep a place like this unknown? It’s not like we’re in the middle of Africa or on the moon.” She paused, hopping her gaze from Walker, to Rosh, and finally to him. “We’re not, are we? I mean, in some faraway country.”
“I told you. We’re still in Montana, not far from where we met.”
“But that’s not possible, Rosh. There was at least two feet of snow on the ground. And here? This is like springtime. It doesn’t make sense.”
“The Hidden has the same weather year round. It never snows or gets too cold or too hot. We have enough rain to keep things green, and there’s always plenty of sunshine.” Walter shrugged. “How else could we run around without much on our bodies?”
“But how? It’s like you’re telling me that this place is magical. Like a Shangri-La deep in the middle of the Montana mountains. Did we come through a secret passageway? Because I sure don’t remember it if we did.”
Renkon decided he had to help explain. “Actually, you’re very close to getting it right. The Hidden is magical. Oh, I don’t mean as in hocus-pocus kind of magic. But in the fact that it’s a place that was meant for supernatural beings like us.”
She gaped at him, and it was apparent that she was trying her best to understand and believe him. Would she believe them more if they showed her?
“I did bring you through a secret passageway. Do you remember when we jumped off the cliff and into the waterfall?”
She studied Rosh. “I remember getting thrown off the cliff and into the water. But nothing after that until I woke up inside this hut.”
“That scared the hell out of us when Rosh brought you here and we couldn’t get you to wake up.” Walker touched her le
g.
She studied his hand on her leg but didn’t take it away. “Go on.”
Renkon cleared his throat before he spoke again. The fact that she let Walker rest his hand on her leg was encouraging. Was she starting to accept them? Or was she only ready to let Walker in because she didn’t know he was a werewolf, too?
Renkon checked his cousin. Walker’s gesture hadn’t gotten Rosh upset. Had the two of them really come to an understanding? If so, then getting Shay to accept the three of them had a better chance of succeeding.
“One reason that The Hidden has remained a secret is that you can only come and go during certain times. They’re called The Time of Coming and The Time of Leaving. We can sense when it’s the right time, and Rosh knew he could bring you through. When you two jumped into the water, he pulled you through the underwater entrance and brought you into The Hidden through the lake.”
Alarm filled her face. “Are you saying the only way out is a way under the water? Wait. Does that mean you have to somehow get back up the waterfall to leave? But how?”
He wanted to take the fear away not just now but forever. If he had his way, she’d never worry about another thing for the rest of her life. “No, the exit is in another location in the mountains. But again, leaving is only possible on certain days. It’s like a portal that opens between our worlds. Those of us who live in The Hidden can sense when it’s about to open and close. That way we can tell how long we have on The Outside.”
“Tell her the rest.” Walker’s eyes darkened.
“What’s he talking about?”
“Shay, even if the time was right, you couldn’t leave by yourself. You have to have one of us to lead the way and get you through. If you tried, you’d never find the way out.”
“So I’m stuck here until you decide to let me go? I thought I wasn’t kidnapped, but I’m a prisoner all the same.”
“Again, I know that’s how it seems, but I had no choice.”
She rested back on her hands, her eyes clouded in confusion. “This is all too much, and you haven’t even told me about the werewolf thing yet.” She laughed, a short, caustic sound. “The werewolf thing. I can’t believe I’m saying those words.”
Walker took his hand off her but leaned forward, his intensity flowing off of him. “Maybe you should take some time to let what we’ve told you sink in. We can tell you the rest later.”
She shook her head vigorously. “No way. I want to hear it all. Keep going.”
Rosh grabbed the bottle containing wine and then four cups. “Let’s have a drink. I think we’re all going to need it.”
Shay took her cup, as did the others, and waited for Rosh to pick up the story. She took a long drink, closed her eyes, then opened them and settled her gaze on him.
“The stories you’ve heard all your life are real. On The Outside, we’re ordinary people with regular lives and jobs. I was an attorney, Renkon did all sorts of jobs, and Walker was a plastic surgeon. We did well and had money, but we weren’t happy there. How could we be when we had to hide what we were?”
“Werewolves.” Her eyes grew big as she turned to Walker, the question she’d asked before written on her face.
“Yes, I’m a werewolf, too. But not everyone in The Hidden is.”
Rosh took a drink. “I’m not sure who found The Hidden first because it was so long ago, before records were kept. Some say it was a Sioux warrior. But from that point on, certain people of the supernatural world have used it as a place where we can come, shift without fear of being seen, and run free and wild. As werewolves, we can hunt the regular animals of the forest and get lost in our other side.”
“Kind of like a Club Med for supernaturals, but the vacation never ends.” Renkon grinned. A little humor never hurt.
“Renkon’s right. If we didn’t have this place to release and let our other half out, I think we’d go crazy. Other supernatural beings can live on the outside and be fine, but the ones who make it inside here are different. I don’t know why that is, but I know it’s true.”
“So you’re telling me that not only are there people like you here, there are more of them on The Outside”—she added quotes around the words—“living with humans, and no one knows it?”
“That’s right.” Walker helped himself to more wine.
“Holy shit.” She chugged the rest of her drink and let him refill her cup. “Are there communities of supernaturals? Like in Los Angeles and places like that?”
“Exactly. And even in smaller towns across the country and spread out over the world. Most of the werewolves, at least, tend to mate two or more men to one woman, so if you see that kind of arrangement, it could mean that they’re werewolves.”
Her eyes grew big again. “Oh, my God. One of my best friends, Tatum Griffin, is living with three men in Passion, Colorado. She told me they’re special and different, but I thought she meant the normal kind of special and different. Could she be involved with werewolves and not know it?”
Renkon wanted to hold her and comfort her. “First, we consider ourselves normal, too. Some of us, from werewolves to fairies to shape-shifters, were born the way we are. Other shifters were made, changed by someone else. But to answer your question about your friend, no werewolves would do that without the woman knowing what they are. But, yeah, it’s possible that she’s involved with supernaturals. I’ve heard that Passion has a fairly large shifter community.”
She put her cup down and put her hands over her face. Was she crying? Had they told her too much, too soon?
* * * *
This is crazy. I’m sitting in a hut with three gorgeous men who are telling me they’re werewolves. And that they live in a hidden world deep inside a mountain.
She dropped her hands and swallowed hard. She wasn’t dreaming, not when Walker’s touch was real enough to send shivers through her. Even after all they’d told her, she ached to pull them to her and let them do whatever they wanted to her body.
“Are you okay?”
Renkon, the more easygoing one of the three, stared at her, worry making lines in his forehead where usually there were none. She didn’t want to be the cause of that. “Yeah, I’m okay. I just need a little time. But you have more to tell me, don’t you?”
“You need to know about Burac and The Cursed.” Walker fisted his hands. “After what they almost did to you, I could throttle each and every one of them.”
“It’s one of the few things we agree on.” Rosh shot her a soft look. “Aside from you, of course.”
“What are they? Another kind of supernatural?”
“Yes and no.” Renkon’s tone was mellower and filled with pity. “They’re…different. We don’t know why it happened since they came into being a long time ago, but the tales say that they were born to werewolf parents but they couldn’t change. You see, werewolf babies will transform within a few weeks of being born. It’s only a quick change, and I won’t lie, it’s painful, but it gets their body ready to morph into a full werewolf later on. But the legend says that The Cursed tried to go through the change and made only a partial transformation. They’re stuck between their human and werewolf bodies.”
“So that’s why they look the way they do.” As hard as it was to believe that she could feel anything but revulsion toward Burac and his kind, her heart bled for them. “That’s the thing that I almost hit before I ran off the road. So they’re in the real world, too?”
“Only Burac can leave The Hidden. The others don’t have enough power. But he can’t go far.”
“Thank goodness. I’d hate to think of those things running around the city.”
“If they got out, they’d expose not only themselves but all other supernaturals, too. We’re trying to make sure that Burac can’t leave, but sometimes he manages to get out for a short time.”
“Our ancestors lived in a different era, when only the strong could survive. Nonetheless, they couldn’t bring themselves to kill the poor things so, once the babies had grown int
o children, they brought them here to live or die on their own.”
“But surely their parents loved them. How could they abandon their children?” She didn’t care what problems a child of hers might have, she could never turn her back on him.
“It was a harder time. Our kind was barely surviving. They did what they thought was best for the pack.”
She understood what Rosh was saying, but it didn’t make her feel any better about it. “Obviously some of them survived.”
“They did and even flourished, breeding among themselves.”
“It’s why they hate the rest of us.” Renkon took a drink then set his cup down. “Their kind wants revenge for abandoning their ancestors, but I think their hatred is fueled by jealousy, too. They want what we have, our homes and our families. Instead, they live like brutal animals, unable to control their beast sides. They try to harm us whenever they can, but they’re cowards at heart. Although they’ll attack groups, most of the time, they wait to catch one of us alone.”
“Have they killed anyone?” How close had she come to losing her life?
“Not until recent years.”
“About thirty years ago, Burac was born. He’s more intelligent than the rest, but he’s also crueler. He rules over them, and they do as he commands. Until he came along, they’d never managed to kill one of us. He wants to rule The Hidden.”
“Tell her what else he wants.” Walker rose and paced to the door to pull back the flap. He stood, staring into the night.
Rosh didn’t answer right away. Instead, he and Renkon bowed their heads, keeping their gazes from hers.
“Tell me, Rosh.” Her words came out a whisper.
Rosh lifted his head, his dark eyes flashing bits of amber. “He wants you.”
Chapter Six
She was a strong woman, both in body and in mind, but she couldn’t hide the panic Rosh saw in her eyes. If he could take away her fear, he would. But maybe being afraid would make her realize how close she’d come to disaster.
