Kelley Armstrong - Frostbitten

I huddled there, shaking violently. I tried to concentrate, but it was like standing on the precipice to oblivion-it took everything I had just to stay conscious and breathe.

"She fell in," Noah called back. His voice had changed, concern falling away, the timbre deepening, like a teen boy with his buddies. "Stupid city bitch. She ran out onto the river and fell through. If you want her alive, you're going to need to get her back to the cabin, pronto. She needs to get out of those wet clothes."

Tesler bent over me, teeth and eyes glittering. "Well, then, that's what we'll have to do. I wasn't planning to keep her in them for long anyway."

I WISH I could say I fought every step of the way. But even as that primitive part of me went wild with fear and panic, the rational part leapt in. I could feel my body shutting down, hypothermia like a sedative creeping through my veins, whispering for me to go to sleep, just go to sleep. The only fighting I could do now was to struggle to stay alive. And staying alive at this moment meant letting Tesler sling me over his shoulder and carry me to their cabin.

THEIR "CABIN" WAS a big vacation house. The thick layer of dust over the knickknacks told me it didn't get much use, so I presumed they were squatting here, knowing there was little danger of the owner showing up. The security system had been ripped from the wall. Pizza boxes were piled by the door. Stains covered the carpets. The place reeked like a frat house-of spilled beer and sweaty bodies.

"You need to get her undressed," Noah said, dogging Tesler's heels as he entered the living room.

"Oh, believe me, I'm getting to it."

"Now, Travis. I'm not kidding."

I tried to look at Noah, but he'd turned away. Tesler dumped me on the bearskin rug in front of a smoldering fireplace.

"Strip."

"I'll grab her some-" Noah began.

Tesler wheeled on him. "You'll get her nothing, boy." To me, he said, "Strip. Unless you'd prefer I did it for you."

I pulled off my shirt. It took a few tries-my fingers refused to clamp on the fabric. I finally pushed my hands under and shoved it up over my head.

The cabin was already warm, with the fireplace still going and a woodstove blasting across the room. Tesler threw another log on the fire, then added tinder-pages ripped from books stacked by the fireplace. He looked over sharply as Noah reappeared in the living room, a towel in hand.

"Didn't I tell you-?"

"It's one towel. She needs to dry off." He walked over to me, and lowered his voice. "Don't rub too hard. Just pat your skin. You need to warm up slowly. Don't get close to the fire."

"You're a regular Boy Scout, aren't you?" Tesler said.

Noah shot a glower Tesler's way. "Do you want her with her fingers and toes or without?"

I was fumbling with the button on my jeans as Noah approached. He slung the towel over his shoulder and grunted "Here." He undid the button for me, as circumspectly as he could. His knuckles brushed my belly, but I couldn't feel it. He pulled the zipper down, then hesitated.

"Got it," I said as I wedged my hands under my waistband.

I pushed my jeans down over my hips. He didn't move, staying so close I could hear his breath picking up speed.

"Oh, he's a Boy Scout all right," Eddie said. "Never seen a naked woman before, Noah?"

"Only on his computer screen," Tesler said.

They laughed as Noah muttered, "Fuck off," handed me the towel and started backing up, gaze still on me.

"Better get that bra, too, boy," Tesler said. "I don't want those freezing and falling off."

"I can manage." I slipped my hands under the straps. I got them down over my arms, but no farther, the chest band still tightly fastened, cups hanging, fingers too numb to work the front clasp.

"Come on, Noah," Eddie said. "Be a gentleman. Help the lady."

Noah slid forward and stopped in front of me, eyeing the clasp. He unhooked it, hands trembling, fingers grazing the bottom of my breasts as the Tesler laughed at him.

I doubt it was the first time the seventeen-year-old had unfastened a bra, but it was more than that making his breath speed up. His nostrils flared as he drank in my scent.

He took the bra off, wrapped it around his hands and stood there, looking down at me in my panties, his own pants tenting furiously.

"Thanks," I murmured, gaze averted as I took my bra from him.

He backed away slowly, still staring. I tried to wrap the towel around me, but it was only a hand towel-I'm sure Tesler would have taken it away if it covered more. I could feel all three of them staring now. I resisted the urge to cover myself or turn away. If Travis wanted me to cower in shame, I wasn't giving him that satisfaction.

"You forgot something." He pointed at my panties. "Noah, give the lady a hand."

I pushed them down to my ankles and kicked them aside.

"You owe me twenty bucks, bro," Eddie said. "I told you she was a natural blond."

I moved a little closer to the fire. Not too close, heeding Noah's warning about warming up too fast and knowing it was true-I'd had frostbite before.

A few feet from the fire, I bent and sat cross-legged, then started drying my hair. They continued to stare as if none of them had ever seen a naked woman before.

"You know, you look even better without your clothes," Tesler said. "And you looked damned fine in them."

I ignored him and squeezed water out of my hair.

He continued. "I heard you have a couple of kids. Can't tell. You didn't lose your figure, that's for sure."

Actually, any "figure" I had these days came courtesy of my kids. I'd always been thin-athletic and boyish. But now there was some swell to my hips and I'd graduated to a B cup. Not that Clay cared-if he even noticed. Things like that weren't important to him.

At that moment, though, I would have preferred my old body. Maybe it would make Tesler change his mind. Wishful thinking, I know. He didn't care what I looked like. His interest had nothing to do with sex and attraction. It was all about dominance and control.

"I want her," Noah said, making my head whip around. He turned so I couldn't see his face, then said again, "I want her."

"I'm sure you do," Tesler chuckled. "And if you're a very good boy, I'll let you take a ride, just as soon as I've had my fill."

"I want to go first."

Tesler sputtered. "Excuse me?"

Noah turned toward him, face still averted from me. "Without me, you'd be humping a frozen corpse. I saved her. I risked my own life to do it. I deserve the first go."

"And I'm supposed to take seconds?" An edge crept into Tester's voice.

"Just once. After that, she's all yours."

"Is she?" Tesler advanced on the boy. "How generous of you."

Eddie stepped between them. "Come on. Let the kid lose his cherry with a female werewolf. How many guys get that chance?"

"I'm not a-" Noah stopped, realizing it wouldn't help his cause to say he wasn't a virgin.

He still wouldn't look my way. He couldn't. As I stared at him, the anger rose. He'd been nice to me. Even when he'd been gawking, he'd seemed embarrassed. Faced with three antagonists, I'd looked for a friendly face and been too eager to see it, unconsciously shifting Noah into the role of potential ally.

I forgotten what he really was-a punk who'd let his grandfather be murdered by his new pals. Part of me had hoped that there was an explanation. Now I realized there wasn't. Dennis had taken Noah in and given him a chance to start over. He'd repaid him by hooking up with these murdering bastards. That blood of Noah's I'd found in the cabin? It could have come from a fight with Dennis, not defending him.

Noah was studiously avoiding my gaze; he might not have a rapist's heart, but he still saw me as an object. He wanted me, and what I thought of that didn't matter. The only person whose opinion counted was Tesler.