Chapter Thirteen

Glenna’s pulse hammered in her ears. She’d never seen a wolf, didn’t know they even lived in Colorado, let alone that they would hunt humans like this. The brown one had flattened to his belly above her. The big grey’s fur stood on end, his body dropped low, his teeth bared. She scrambled to her feet and braced for the attack.

The big grey’s muscles quivered, then the skin rolled and cracked, pulled away from the flesh and rippled into a shimmering mist. Blood and bone contorted. Fur disappeared and became smooth tan skin as the wolf morphed into a naked man. Tall and deeply muscled with black ink running over his skin, and a wild mane of rock star hair and blue eyes that burned fury.

Sam.

His body seemed bigger naked. Tattoos that had been hidden under his t-shirt swirled down his shoulders and over three deep scars slashing across his chest. Her gaze slid down between his thighs and rebounded fast back up from the evidence of his maleness amid the nest of dark hair.

He was panting, his hands hardened into fists. His body was tense and she braced for whatever was coming. But then she realized his focus was all on the brown wolf. Not her.

The prostrate wolf at the top of the hill whined, and the aggression in Sam’s eyes eased. His fists opened and he flexed his fingers. Sam blew out a breath and nodded at the wolf. “It’s okay, Ian.”

Ian. Sam. These were the men she’d met yesterday. And they were wolves.

The adrenaline in her body coursed higher. She started to shake, almost uncontrollably, her teeth clacking together with shivers she couldn’t control.

“What the hell is going on?” she chattered out.

The brown wolf’s body contorted. Fur roiled and Glenna turned away. She couldn’t watch the bones and skin morph again. When she looked back, Ian stood there, just as naked as Sam.

Glenna didn’t know her mouth had dropped open until Sam’s long, gentle fingers pushed her jaw closed.

“Flies will get in that way, you know,” he said. “Are you ready to climb up to the road?”

She took a panicked step back and slipped on the steep surface. His hand shot out grabbing a firm hold of her upper arm.

“Get away from me!” She pushed at him with both hands, furiously lashing out with her sneakered feet, but his fingers held on bruisingly tight and he avoided her kicking feet with ease.

“Come on. Up top first, then we talk.” He pulled her up to a flatter space. She leaned all her body weight away from his, pulling and pulling away until finally he let go and she nearly fell to the ground with the rebound. “Okay, but it’s pretty steep.” He proffered a helping hand.

She brushed past. “Screw you.” She worked her way up the steep slope, slick with pine needles, on her own, despite her need to stop and sink to the ground. She’d pushed her worn-out body too far, but she’d be damned if she’d let him touch her. Something was freaking wrong. Wolves didn’t just shake off their skins and become men. Either they were playing some hellish trick on her, or it was the lycanthroism after all, and she was hallucinating, but instead of thinking she was a wolf, she was seeing wolves.

Or she was crazy. Her brain shied away from that one, skittering away like water on a hot skillet.

She stuck her chin out and kept moving. Any way it turned out, she only had herself to depend on. But she was used to that.

Sam snorted. Followed her too close behind, all six foot plus of naked muscle making the skin on her neck tingle.

There was nowhere to run. Nowhere to go, except towards Ian waiting at the top of the hill. A grim smile flitted across her lips. She was surrounded in the woods by two naked, tattooed thugs. Her grandmother would be having kittens.

She reached the top of the slope and bent over her shaking legs, trying to wheeze air back into her lungs.

“Can you make it?” Sam wasn’t breathing hard at all and she wanted to smack the condescending look right off his face. Something about him raised her hackles, even when she suspected he might be trying to be nice.

“Smug, aren’t you? You try climbing at altitude when you’ve done nothing but lay in a bed for weeks.” She was damned if she were going to give in, but her legs had a different agenda and if she didn’t sit down soon, they’d give out and give her away.

“Why don’t you sit on this rock, and Ian can go for the car.” He didn’t wait for her response, just tilted his head at the other man. Ian nodded and took off at a fast lope, leaving her alone with Sam.

One less kidnapper to deal with, but somehow her nerves stretched tighter. She tried like hell to keep her eyes off him, looking everywhere but his scarred skin and tattoos and over-large cock. Were the twisty green and black lines on his hip Celtic knot work? She sat on a rock and kept her ears peeled for cars, looking anywhere but at Sam and his over-the-top masculinity.

Sam stood, looking up and down the road, his head tilted, as if listening. His long back tapered down to slimmer hips and long legs, and he stood there with utter confidence, totally ignoring his lack of clothes. It was as if he were Tarzan, utterly masculine, utterly unaware that being naked on the side of a Colorado road in the morning light were anything other than normal. She expected him to catch a dragging vine, scoop her up, and swing through the aspen and pine forest.

Her mouth dried up.

She couldn’t picture Roger or any of the guys at her accounting firm, standing stark naked by the side of the road with such utter confidence. It was positively scary the way he simply didn’t care. And attractive.

Damn, it shouldn’t be attractive, it made no sense. She shook off the reaction. She was engaged to safe, sane Roger, for all the right reasons. And Sam? Sam was a criminal. She had a life she needed to get back to. So why was her body giving her the go-ahead when her brain said whoa?

The first rays of the sun peeked over the next mountain, starting their job of warming up the day. Glenna took off the too-small jacket, wincing as it pulled her shoulders back.

“You’re hurt.” Sam kneeled down next to her.

She flinched away. “No, I’m fine.”

“Liar.” He pulled the sleeve of her t-shirt up high on her shoulder. “You’re turning purple already. Man, Lana will have my tail.” He slid the sleeve back down, his fingers burning a trail on her skin.

She turned her head away, up into the clear blue sky and a hawk wheeling on the morning breeze. “Let me go.” Her voice was husky.

Damn. She hadn’t meant to sound like she was begging. She found his gaze to tell him more forcefully but the look in his eyes had her heart skittering back into overdrive. His face was inches away, his lips parted. And, for a second, just a second, she let her body tell her what to do.

She leaned in.

Lust flared hot between them and he closed the gap. His breath skimmed her face. The details of his eyes became absolutely clear. The dark ring around blue irises, the fringe of lashes that were too thick, the way his pupils had become huge and black.

Her breathing quickened. She was still held captive by his hand wrapped around her shoulder. God, he smelled so good, his sweat underlain with cinnamon and cloves. He was almost there, almost kissing her, and she wanted the heat of his mouth on her lips more than she’d ever wanted anything in her life.

She jerked her mouth away from danger. “No!”

His gaze iced over.

She pulled slowly out of his grip, yanking her short sleeve back into place. “I mean it. Let me go. I need to go home. See my family, my sister.”

“I can’t.” He’d let her go, but he’d stayed too close, keeping her heart beat drumming way to fast.

“Why not? You said I’m not contagious, and I’m not like you. I’m not a—” she cleared her throat and tried for calm “—wolf.”

“You are like us. You just don’t know it yet.” His hand drifted up, scooped her fall of hair out of her face and tucked it behind an ear in an oddly gentle gesture that belied the heat still burning in his eyes. “I didn’t know it, until just now.”

An urge to run pushed her to make her aching body move, to run, to get anywhere but this crazy dream that kept getting crazier by the moment. Instead she marshaled her courage and demanded, “What do you mean?”

“I nearly attacked Ian today. I didn’t pick it up. You don’t smell like a wolf because you haven’t shifted yet. But I think your pheromones have changed and my wolf is picking it up, seeing you as a potential mate.” He gave a bitter laugh. “Despite my best efforts, and all the fucked up results of the first time, my wolf is determined to mate.” He shook his head and the motion ran down his body, as if he were shaking off the idea like drops of unwanted water. “So, we know you’ve completed the first stage of the change. We know you’re going to be some form of pack now, we just don’t know what kind.”

A cold chill slid down her back.

She drew back, as far back as her seat on the rock could take her.

“I’m not a wolf. I’m human. Look at me.” She stood up, held her hands out palm up, flipping them so he could see the smooth hairless backs. “I’m human!” The air wouldn’t come fast enough, and black spots danced in front of her eyes.

“No, sugar. You’re not.” The hawk keened, its distant mate keened back. Sam’s eyes were deep and dark, as Glenna’s world twisted inside out. “You’re one of us. And now we know—you can never go home.” The echo of Sam’s words thundered in her ears drowning out the sound of the birds.

You can never go home. Never go home.

Black crept around the edges of her vision, stealing away the dawn’s bright light as the truth seeped in—this wasn’t a dream, it was a nightmare.

There was the sound of an engine, and Ian pulled up in a big, black SUV. Glenna couldn’t move. Did they honestly expect her to believe this was real? Lycanthroism made you think you were a wolf. It was all a hallucination as you sickened until you died. Were they all victims with some crazy mass delusion? Or was she so deep into the disease that she’d created an entire community of people in her mind?

“Come on, let’s get you back to the cabin.” Sam’s arm curled around her shoulders.

She shoved him away. “No!” The word tore out of her throat.

He moved in, wrapping his arms around her in a straightjacket and trying to swing her off her feet. She fought, her arms and legs wind-milling in a furious attempt at freedom. She had to push him away, push it all away.

“Glenna, stop.” Sam’s voice shoved her harder into her flight response, and she screamed, clawing and scratching whatever part of him she could reach.

“You have to calm down, Glenna.”

Calm down. Calm down. Be a good little girl. Don’t run. Don’t yell. Don’t cause trouble.

His face was a blur. His call to Ian for help too far away for her to hear as panic rose up inside and took over.

She didn’t even feel the needle jammed into her arm and she fought all the way down into darkness.