Under Her Skin

Now I was sure I laughed, but it had an edge of hysteria to it. 'Never better.'

I looked at his face – and gasped. His eyes were amber and slanted, just like the wolves' eyes, and the same wildness lurked in them.

God, please let this be a dream!

The man stood. He had a gun pointed at the gray wolf. 'You've gone too far, Gabriel,' he said. 'Hunting humans is forbidden. The pack will judge you for this.'

The wolf snarled. 'They hunt us,' it said.

'They don't know better,' the man replied. 'We do. Either you come with us, or I shoot you with her gun.'

I was shaking my head from side to side, even though no one was paying attention to me anymore, it seemed. Talking wolves didn't exist. Muscular men didn't walk around naked in the forest, chatting with non- existent talking wolves. Why I couldn't I wake up? And what was that noise? It was getting louder, like a swarm of bees approaching.

When the gray wolf sat down, shuddered, and its fur began disappearing into its body, I didn't even blink. I was concentrating more on finding the source of that buzzing noise. It was almost deafening now.

The last thing I saw before the noise rose to a crescendo and my vision went black was the wolf's fur being replaced by skin…and the body of a naked man where the gray wolf had just been.

Chapter Two

Pain tugged on my leg. My eyes opened with a rush of terror as my last memory came roaring back.

The wolves. Attacking me.

'No!' I screamed, trying to defend myself.

Something big held me down. I was so panicked, it took me a moment to realize that it wasn't biting me or covered in fur.

'You're all right, the doctor is just setting your ankle,' said a deep voice.

My head felt cottony, but I tried to shake that off. I was in a bed. An older blond woman was giving me a mildly irate look as she bent over my ankle. Someone held my upper body in an unyielding grip, and whoever it was didn't look like a nurse.

'Let go of me.'

That grip didn't loosen. 'Doc?'

'You can let her go, Daniel,' the blond woman said.

In my next blink, I was free, staring around the room with its wood walls, rustic interior, and bloody bandages on the floor. Sure, I had healthcare, but unless medical standards had really dropped, this wasn't a hospital.

It took a second for me to recognize the tall, russet-haired man by the bed. 'You're the naked guy,' I blurted. He wasn't naked now, wearing a pair of loose-fitting denim jeans and a long-sleeved shirt.

He smiled, but it looked strained. 'You remember.'

Not all of it. I knew he'd stopped the wolves from attacking me, but I couldn't remember how, exactly. Or why he'd been naked in the woods in the first place.

There was something about the wolves. Something really important that my groggy mind couldn't quite recall.

'The wolves…' I began.

'I need to finish this,' the woman interrupted me. 'Hold still. You'll feel some pressure.'

She certainly sounds like a doctor, I thought. Professional, uncaring, and using the word 'pressure' to describe what would probably hurt like hell.

My premonition proved correct. A burning pain started in my ankle as she probed, muttering to herself while she shifted it a few times.

'Where am I?' I asked, biting back a yelp. 'Is this a Ranger station or something?'

The man stared at me, his hazel eyes seeming to probe as much as the doctor's pitiless fingers.

'What's your name?'

'Marlee. Marlee Peters.'

'The sedative shouldn't have worn off this quickly,' the woman remarked when I couldn't help but yank back as she manipulated my ankle in a direction it didn't want to go. 'You know that, Daniel.'

'So give me another one,' I said, clenching my teeth as the pain began to throb. 'Pressure', my ass!

Daniel, as the doctor called him, let out a sigh. 'Damn Gabriel,' he muttered.

Gabriel.

The name conjured up an image of a huge gray wolf glaring at me, one eye bleeding. They hunt us, it had said. Then it started writhing on the ground, its fur disappearing…

I tried to bolt out of bed, but Daniel had me pinned back before I'd even cleared the covers.

'It's all right, Marlee,' he said.

'Like hell it is!' Whatever remains of the sedative they'd given me wore off in the flash of that memory. Run, my mind urged.

From over his shoulder, I could see the blond woman sit back in disgust. 'I can't work like this,' she said.

'Get Joshua,' Daniel told her, still holding me to the bed.

I screamed for help, which drowned out any reply the woman made. I kicked, too, even though that hurt my ankle like I'd set it on fire.

Daniel went from holding me down to flattening me on the bed with his body. It was like a ton of bricks just landed on me. He even had his legs tangled in mine so I couldn't kick. I couldn't move, but I could keep screaming, which I did, long and loud. He winced.

'Stop that. You're hurting my ears.'

His arms were pinning mine down, but his hands were loose near my face. He could have covered my mouth to shut me up, but he didn't. That meant he wasn't concerned about anyone overhearing, which meant there was no one near enough to help.

I stopped screaming, trying another tactic. 'Let me go. I'll leave and you'll never see me again.'

'Why were you in the woods alone, Marlee?' he asked. 'That's not very safe.'

Considering my current situation, the absurdity of that statement made me laugh. 'You don't say?'

He ignored that. 'You remember what you saw. That's why you stink like fear now.'

'It wasn't real,' I muttered. 'I was tired, I'd been lost for days, and I panicked because of the attack –'

'You know it's real,' he cut me off. 'Sorry, but you know, so we can't just let you go. Even if nothing comes of your bites.'

That froze me more than the two hundred pounds of muscle holding me down. I'd been bitten – several times, in fact. I'd seen the movies, knew enough of the folklore to know what happened to a person who'd been bitten by a…

'This can't be real,' I whispered.

His gaze was grim. 'It's as real as it gets.'

* * *

I insisted on sitting in a chair to meet Joshua. Daniel stood next to me, his presence a silent threat that any attempts to leave would be quickly stopped. Still, when one met the leader of a pack of werewolves, one wanted not to be trapped under another werewolf in bed, right? Yeah, I thought so, too.

Of course, I was also still thinking – hoping – that I'd just eaten some bad mushrooms along the trail and none of this was real. Be careful what you wish for, ran through my mind. I'd wished for years to go to Yellowstone. My ex-boyfriend Paul and I had planned this trip, down to the places we'd hike and where we'd camp. We were thrilled when my best friend Brandy and her boyfriend agreed to come. The more the merrier, right?

But things changed. Paul moved to Manhattan, our relationship couldn't overcome the long-distance strain,