Under His Skin (35 page)

The selkie moved toward her, but she used the last of her strength to throw herself toward the cabin. The bear caught her body in his arms and dragged her inside, slamming the door behind them.

The sound of his brother screaming Ana’s name sent a wave of adrenaline singing through Brec’s veins. He pressed down on the snowmobile’s gas pedal, not bothering to follow Ana’s paw prints anymore and instead followed the sound of his brother’s voice. He burst into the clearing just in time to see a flash of pale skin vanish behind a slamming door.

His brother and the two warriors with him exploded into a flurry of movement.

“Get Elsie back to the water!” Micah shouted. “Adam, keep your gun on the door!” He turned to Brec. “Get over here, now!”

Brec’s heart leapt into his throat as he stopped the snowmobile. Not bothering to retrieve the keys from the ignition, he leapt off the seat and dashed to his brother’s side. “What the fuck is going on, Micah? Was that Ana?”

Micah snorted. “That woman is insane.
Fucking insane.
We had the place under guard, we were trying to get the
medved
to let Elsie go and all of a sudden your woman walks up and tells the guy she’s the one who took his skin.”

Brec jaw dropped, horror frosting like ice up his spine. Whatever he’d been feeling about Ana earlier, this wasn’t how he wanted it to end. “That’s suicide!”

“No shit. Then she offers him this little strip of white fur—says it’s to make them even. Next thing I know she’s telling me to tell you she’s sorry and that she’s ‘very very grateful’ and then she dives toward the psycho and he pulls her inside.”

Brec stared at the cabin door. Ana had offered the
medved
her fur? That couldn’t be right. Nothing mattered more to Ana than that fur. She’d only just got it back. The sheer multitude of paw prints around her cabin had told him just how much she’d enjoyed having her
foxskin
back, what on earth could have possessed her to give it up?

“
It’s
okay, Brec, just relax,” Micah said soothingly. “We’re going to get her out of there. We just need to—”

The door to the cabin slammed open again, the rickety wood nearly falling off its hinges. A hulking figure appeared in the doorway.

“Come on, you bastard, come out so I can shoot you,” Micah muttered.

“What if Ana’s behind him?” Brec hissed.

The man was huge, there could have been a whole army standing behind him and they wouldn’t see it. Brec’s blood turned to ice as he thought of Ana trapped in there with that man. Brec kept his eyes on the
medved
, looking him over as if he could read his intentions in his body language. Judging from the tension in his shoulders and the dark scowl on his face, things didn’t look good for Ana. Brec took a deep breath to calm
himself
. At least he didn’t see any blood.

“I’m not shooting, am I?” Micah growled. Louder he said, “No one takes a shot until I give the word!”

“One of you
get
in here!” the
medved
yelled, ignoring the guns trained on him.

“Don’t even think about—”

Brec missed the last part of what his brother was saying as he dashed forward toward the cabin. Ana was in there, and in the worst case scenario she didn’t need a warrior--she needed a healer. And Brec sure as saltwater wasn’t going to stand outside and wonder what was happening to the woman he’d gone through so much to save. The mountain man moved back inside as Brec barreled through the doorway, slamming the door behind him.

The silence of the cabin was broken only by the crackling of the fire in the hearth and Ana’s broken sobs. Brec glanced around at the sparsely decorated room, assuring himself that there were no other threats inside, save the
medved
. There was a couch against the far right wall with a picture window above it. Micah might be able to shoot the man if he was standing in the right spot. He frowned. Unfortunately, their captor was standing just in front of the door. Micah wouldn’t even be able to see him.

“She freaks out screaming every time I try to make her come closer to the fire and she’s shivering too bad to answer my fucking questions,” the man snarled. “What the fuck is the matter with her?”

His rough question forced Brec’s attention to the real reason he was there. He turned to the source of the sobs and his heart wrenched in his chest.

“Oh, Ana,” Brec breathed.

The
lisitsa
sat curled up in the corner, far away from the fireplace. Her arms held her knees close to her chest, and her entire body shivered violently. There was no coat in sight, not surprising since she’d likely been wearing her
foxskin
on the way here. She kept her chin tucked against her legs, her eyes locked on the
medved
. She didn’t look at Brec, didn’t even seem to register his presence. Brec’s gaze landed on her skin, lying on the floor between her and the other
skinwalker
.

The fact that she wouldn’t take her eyes off of her skin long enough to look at him pounded into Brec’s spirit like an iron spike. It only confirmed what he’d already figured out, but it still hurt. Shoving aside his emotions, he shook himself and concentrated on the task at hand. He pulled his sealskin from his shoulders as he walked toward her.

“Ana,
it’s
okay, I’m here.”

He tried to keep his voice steady as he searched Ana’s face for signs of shock. Her eyes twitched to his as he gently eased her out of the corner just enough to slide in behind her. He put both legs on either side of her and pulled her against his back. Whipping his skin out like a blanket, he covered her up, tucking it in as best he could. He wrapped his arms around her and willed his body heat to stop her shivering even though he knew it was only partly from the cold. If she was going to get out of here alive, she had to answer the
medved’s
questions.

“Why won’t she get closer to the fire?” the
skinwalker
demanded. “Does she think I’m
gonna
throw her in there?”

“Her skin was burned by a human who wanted to keep her for a wife,” Brec explained calmly. “Fire triggers the memory and sends her into a post traumatic episode.”

Something like horror passed through the other man’s eyes, but it was gone too soon for Brec to tell for sure what it was. Then the man was glaring at Ana again.

“That’s impossible. I saw her change form and that little strip of fur couldn’t do that. She’s not a
skinwalker
, she’s a werefox.”

“She’s a
skinwalker
,” Brec insisted. “I made that belt out of her original skin. It was all that could be
salvaged,
the rest was burnt to--”

Ana whined piteously as if hearing them talk about what had happened to her skin made strengthened the effects of the traumatic episode. The sound pricked at his heart and Brec clenched his teeth. It made him angry that her pain still affected him so, even when he didn’t want to care anymore. He turned that anger outward, glaring at the
skinwalker
. “The goddess Morrigan told me a spell to make her a belt that would work like her original skin did. It’s magic.”

“That’s not possible,” the
medved
grumbled.

“But it’s true. I swear on the powers granted to me by the god Alaunus, this woman is a
lisitsa
.”

“Wait a minute--you’re Brec?
The selkie healer?”

Brec nodded.

The
medved
stared at him and then looked away. He shifted from foot to foot as if trying to figure out what to do now. Once again, Brec found
himself
apologizing to Alaunus for ever taking his powers for granted. His reputation may very well save both their lives.

After several long moments, the
skinwalker
sighed. “I bear you no ill will, healer,” he said finally. “You may leave.”

“I’m not leaving without her,” Brec said firmly. “She’s still my patient and she’s suffering.”

His determination must have showed in his face because the
medved
didn’t argue. Instead, he turned to Ana, his face darkening with rage at just the sight of her.

“Why did you take my skin?”

Ana tried to speak but her teeth chattered so hard it was impossible to understand the jagged sounds that came out. Brec put his lips to her hair.

“
Shhhh
, it’s okay,” he whispered. He met the big man’s eyes. “She stole your skin to try and replace her own.”

“So she was going to trade my misery for hers?” the
medved
sneered. He scooped up her fur from the floor, tightening his fist around it. It looked even smaller in his hand, just a pathetic strip of fur. “Give me one good reason I shouldn’t destroy this.”

Ana sobbed and turned to bury her face in Brec’s chest.
His heart clenched at the utter despair in the sounds coming from her lips and he tightened his hold on her. He narrowed his eyes at the
medved
.

“How long have you been without your skin?” he demanded.

“Six. Months,” the
skinwalker
hissed.

“Hers was destroyed two years ago. I made that belt last night.”

The look came back into the
medved’s
eyes and this time Brec knew it was horror. The large man stared at Ana with a combination of disbelief and dismay. “Two years?” he whispered.

Brec nodded. “She survived for two years without her skin--knowing it was burnt beyond repair. This wasn’t one of the old stories where the
skinwalker
lives happily with her spouse while searching for her skin. She had no husband, no friends,
no
family.”

The bear turned his attention back to Ana. There was a thoughtful look on his face now. He looked at Ana as if he were measuring her up for something.

“So after she got her skin back she decided to return mine?”

“No,” Brec said firmly. “She turned it over to me before that. She wanted to make amends.”

The
medved
took a deep breath and started pacing.
Ana stirred in Brec’s arms, cuddling closer to him.
Her body wasn’t shaking as violently now and he was relieved to feel some warmth coming back to her skin. As long as he got her back in her skin before her extremities got frostbite, she would be fine.

The bear stopped pacing and turned to Ana again. “Is she okay enough to answer a question yet?”

“Yes,” Ana said softly, her voice still wavering, but intelligible.

“Why did you offer me your skin?”

“I thought . . . it would make you let the selkie girl go.”

Brec stiffened in surprise.
So Ana had been willing to trade her skin for Elsie’s freedom.

The
medved
shook his head. “You went two years without your skin. You know what kind of misery that is, what it does to you . . .” His voice trailed off as if his mind was replaying the last six months. It seemed to take an almost physical effort for him to shake it off. He cleared his throat. “How could that selkie’s freedom be worth more to you than your own skin?”

Brec went completely still, holding his breath as he waited for Ana’s answer.

“It’s not.”

Ana laid her head back on his chest and Brec found
himself
staring into crystal blue eyes full of emotion. “I thought if I could show you that I’m not selfish anymore, that I really can care about someone else more than myself,
that
you would forgive me.” She bit her lip and then continued. “I thought maybe you would believe me when I say that I loved you even before you gave me my skin back.”

Brec froze, staring down at her. Her confession was so unexpected, he didn’t know what to say, what to feel.
Ana sighed and leaned back against him.

“I thought my skin was all I needed to be happy,” she said quietly. “I thought it was my whole life. Then you gave it back to me and it was wonderful and amazing . . . but not enough.” She raised a hand to caress his jaw and Brec allowed himself to lean in to her touch. “I don’t want to go back to living a life without you.” Tears welled up in her eyes and she tightened her jaw as if fighting not to cry. “I would give up my skin if it would convince you how much you mean to me. If it would make you forgive me.”