Page 11 of The Mating Need
Breath fled her lungs in a whoosh. Oh damn. Her fearsconfirmed.
“Come with me. Make it permanent. I need you, Jenny. But damn, I need pack, too. A realhome.”
“If I don’t, you’ll leave me?” She struggled to get the wordsout.
Little stabbing pains in her chest made it hard to breathe. Suddenly the forest seemed menacing, alive, and sinister, the sun-dappled tree limbs stretching out like arms to grab her. Suffocating from the pressure, she felt gray push at the sides of hervision.
Troy bolted to her side, his strong arms urging her to bend over. “Breathe deep, easy, easy, Jenny. I wouldn’t leave you,darling.”
At first she couldn’t, and then she focused on his deep, soothing tone. Jenny stared at her feet, centering herself, and took long, deep and even breaths. Finally her vision cleared and the pressure in her chesteased.
She looked up to see him squatted down before her, his expression concerned. “You okaynow?”
“Yeah.” The panic attacks were usually controlled with effort. This one was bad. She hadn’t had a panic attack like thissince…
The day her family died. The day she’d lost everything, including her sense of belonging in theworld.
With Troy at her side, she’d found a place to belong again. Now she stood to lose that as well. Knew teaming with him would be amistake.
But damn, she was attracted to him the same way he gravitated towardher.
Was his need for pack stronger than his need forher?
Jenny didn’t want to think about that. She’d tied him down long enough and if he needed to finallysettle…
“I can’t go with you, Troy. I can’t. There’s too many Lupines there. I’d have to stay in Skin and you know what that means, how dangerous being in Skin can be for me around others. Can’t you wait until we find another pack that likes to roam inwolfskin?”
A deep sigh rumbled from his chest. “Hon, you keep saying that. You’re looking for a Lupine utopia. Maybe a hundred years ago, yeah, but the world’s changed, darling. We had to change withit.”
How could she be selfish and beg him to stay with her, keep searching? Jenny knew there were smaller packs out west that stayed mainly in wolfskin and avoided humans. But this place wasn’t one of them. She sensedthat.
It was critical she remain as wolf for as long as she could. Being in Skin presented too much temptation to use those otherpowers.
The ones that terrified her and helped to kill herfamily…
“Come with me, Jenny. It’ll befine.”
“Doubtit.”
He pushed back the hood from his head. “You worried they’ll see you’redifferent?”
Troy had seen some of her magick in the alley that day and she’d told him about her power to read auras and tell a person’s state of mind. But he didn’t know how different she was, or the extent of herpowers.
“Aren’t we all different?” A forced laugh. “We’re creatures who live partly in human skin, partly inwolfskin.”
“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 Ican.”
Three days bought her time to think, to find her balance again. Right now everything seem spinning around like a wolf chasing itstail.
Troy went to another plastic bag. He removed a phone and tossed it toher.
“Here. Fully charged. You’ll need this. Call mycell.”
After she did, he entered the number. “Day or night you need me, callme.”
She nodded, feeling a little lessdisconnected.
“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 getthere.”
