“Aren’t we all different?” A forced laugh. “We’re creatures who live partly in human skin, partly in wolfskin.”
“Tell you what.” His thumb grazed her chin in a tender caress. “Stay here but remain hidden so you’ll be safe. I’ll go check out the ranch, hire myself on. Give me three days to see how it goes. I’ll come check on you as much as I can.”
Three days bought her time to think, to find her balance again. Right now everything seem spinning around like a wolf chasing its tail.
Troy went to another plastic bag. He removed a phone and tossed it to her.
“Here. Fully charged. You’ll need this. Call my cell.”
After she did, he entered the number. “Day or night you need me, call me.”
She nodded, feeling a little less disconnected.
“I want you to stay in Skin as much as you can, Jenny. I know that’s hard for you and scary.” A muscle twitched in his neck. “But the longer Lupines remain as wolves, the more feral we can become. Don’t risk it. Stay in that cabin again, sleep there and I’ll meet you and we’ll talk things out. When I can get there.”
Dryness coated her tongue. She managed to find her voice again. “What if some of the Lupines decide to bunk there for the night and they see me?”
Troy’s palm felt warm as he cupped her cheek. “I won’t let anything happen to you, darling. I’ll say you’re my girl, and you weren’t ready to mingle with a lot of Lupines until you felt comfortable. Deal?”
Did she have a choice? Jenny nodded, fighting the urge to flee again, never look back. She had made it on her own for more than a year, struggling to survive, shifting at night because the dark sky and the stars provided safe cover. Since meeting Troy she’d grown comfortable.
Maybe too comfortable, relying on him.
Best to never rely on another, no matter how attracted she was to him.
“Promise me you’ll stay.”
Clever Troy. He read her like a well-worn book.
“I promise,” she whispered, knowing she was stuck, swimming in his brown gaze, the tenderness she saw there. Tenderness no one bothered to show her for a long time. Maybe years. “For a while.”
How easily she’d fallen for this Lupine. How hard it would be to leave him.
He sighed. “I hate leaving you. Come with me. Knock on the front door. With your pretty face, they won’t be as scared of my ugly mug.”
His easy grin coaxed a laugh out of her. “Right. One look at you and all the females will swoon at your feet.”
He grinned again. “Maybe it is. Never did care for silly females swooning over a guy.”
His expression turned serious. “You’re the only girl for me Jenny. In wolfskin or out of it.”
The glint in his eye indicated as well, in bed or out of it.
Jenny cherished their relationship too much and was far too honest with Troy to start playing those kind of games other females did to entice a male into staying. She wanted him, badly, but intimacy was risky.
Handing over her body and her heart meant chaining herself to his side. Like her mother did with her father.
Troy glanced overhead at the sky, his nostrils flaring. “Smells like rain coming. Bad thunderstorm. Let’s get you settled in that cabin before I leave.”
Typical Troy, ensuring she had all she needed before attending to himself. That unselfishness was far different from what she’d encountered in her previous life, even before she lost her family.
He knew how much she hated thunderstorms. Thunder like that day when she’d lost her entire world.
At the cabin, he brightened the gloomy interior with wildflowers he picked for her, putting them in a glass jar filled with water. Troy checked the propane refrigerator and nodded.
“You have enough fresh meat and supplies to last you a while. Reckon it’ll be enough for now, until I can get here and visit.”
He closed the door and leaned against it. “I don’t want them knowing about you until they learn to trust me a little.”
He cupped her cheek and she leaned into his caress. “Maybe I’ll trot down to the ranch as wolf and visit you, Troy.”
“No.” Troy’s tone was sharp as he jerked away his hand. “Too risky. The only way you should approach the ranch as in Skin. Lone wolves are suspicious enough, Jenny. If you want to run as wolf, stick to this territory and hunt game here. Don’t even go near the pasture or the lodge as wolf. They’ll shoot you. They have pack, and cattle, to protect.”
“Okay. I’ll stay here.”
Over the jagged, distant mountains, indigo clouds scuttled across the sunny blue sky, the threat of rain growing closer. Jenny smiled at Troy to mask her fear. Much as she longed for him to remain with her, she knew he needed to do this.
I have no right to hold you back. You have to go your own way.
“I promise I’ll be fine. Now go. Maybe if you’re lucky, they’ll have a nice steak for dinner. Those sure did look like fat cattle when we saw them the other night.”
Troy hesitated. “What about dinner for you?”
Jenny nodded at the propane refrigerator and the stove next to it. “I know how to cook. I’ll be fine. Besides all that fruit and veggies, well, I’ll probably grow fat and lazy while you’re gone.”
Jamming his hands into the pockets of his jeans, he growled. “Damnit, I don’t want this. I don’t want you here. I want you with me. Safe. I want you to be mine, Jenny.”
She sucked in a breath. Time to reassure him because she feared if they capitulated to the rising passion between them, she’d follow him anywhere. Just as her fool parents followed the alpha into their deaths.
“I’ll be fine. I know how to survive on my own, Troy. I
