"Welcome To Wolf Lake"

Part Two

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Sophia looked around nervously at her surroundings, and self-consciously rubbed the sides of her arms. Sheathed in the denim fabric of her jean jacket.

She had only been there for thirty minutes, but she was starting to realize just how big a mistake she had made. How could she have ever thought that she would enjoy this?

Shortly after arrival, Luke had disappeared with Presley in tow. Shawn had tried to convince her to dance, but the bumping and grinding that substituted for said dancing didn't look all that an appealing process to perform with him. Especially after being cooped up on the back seat with the guy and his hormones for the trip up.

After her refusal, he had just shrugged, stated "Suit yourself." and was currently over by the speakers, the dark head female that had also been in the back seat, was rubbing herself all over his body as they swayed to the throbbing beat of the music. But what they were doing was weak in comparison to some of the other couples dancing.

Sophia turned away from the sight of so many bodies crushed together – skin slick with perspiration regardless of the cool temperature – in various degrees of primal foreplay.

Swallowing against the lump in her throat, she drew deeper into the shadows. Wishing she could just melt away into their darkness, and hopefully escape the bombardment that her senses were receiving.

The music was loud, but it also had an addicting beat to it. Throbbing richly in her veins. Singing seductively under her skin. Frightening in its intensity. She'd never heard music like this before. Compelling. Dangerous.

But, even under all that, what she heard the strongest, was the hoarse howls and moans and pants… the faint musk of sex hanging in the air, intermingling with the strong, overpowering smell of the burning bonfires. Blazing against the blackness of the cool night. Coupled with the lingering scent of liquor.

Blinding white and green strobe lights went off to the pulse of the music. Sending brief flares of intense light out to bathe the writhing dancers before submersing them in the cloak of blackness once more.

Sophia blinked. Eyes burning from the lights and smoke, unable to adapt and focus on one thing, before having to be disrupted once more. It didn't matter if she closed her lids or not. She could see them all so clearly. The flow of their bodies moving to the music like waves moving in a storm.

Turning away from the sight, she looked deep into the forest behind her, only to turn back sharply in stunned surprise. A small gasp escaping her lips before she could stop it.

She would rather be faced with the dancing taking place in front of her, then focus on what she had just seen. Hands gripping the rough bark under her fingers tightly. Grounding her. An anchor of which she didn't plan on letting go of.  The memory of the images she had seen still imprinted upon her mind when she closed her eyes again helplessly.

Skinwalkers in both forms. Fur and naked flesh. Some only changing halfway. Running through the forest, chasing after their partners. Backs pressed up against the trees very much like hers was now. Hands stroking a melding of fur and skin. Whimpers changing into growls. Shifting bodies intertwined erotically in the leaves covering the forest floor.

Raising a hand to her mouth to still any sounds of disbelief that might escape, she pushed herself away from the trunk, and began to slowly walk away. Putting distance between herself and those images, those sounds, and those smells. Muscles quivering in her thighs as she continued to move. Walking away from the sight of the dancers, with their legs and torsos rubbing up against each other provocatively. Walking away from the throbbing rhythm of the music, which was slowly, steadily slipping under her skin and seeping into her bones. Walking away from the lovers hidden from not-so-obvious sight in the tree-line, unable to deny the sudden heating in her blood the sight invoked, that frightened her more than anything else had up until now. An unfamiliar feeling uncoiling from deep within her. Shocking her body with its intensity.

This had been a very bad idea.

She moved away from the dance area and music, as well as the sight of the lovers, only to find that she may have jumped from the boiling pot, but it had been straight into the fire.

Sticking close to the thankfully bereft shadows of the trees, she shied away from the various groups that she passed, comprised of both men and women. Some were drinking, the smell of it clinging strongly to their skin in the glowing firelight of the bonfires that they were settled in front of. Others were involved in a rather heated game of what appeared to be strip poker. And yet others…

Sophia jerked her gaze away, a shudder racing down her spine, and clenching her fist tightly at her side. Nails biting painfully into her palm, and aiding her in regaining some measure of control over her rebelling stomach, when invitations were sent to her from where they curled around each other sensuously on the ground in front of the flickering firelight. Asking her to join them.

What had she gotten herself into?

Taking in a shaky breath, she allowed her eyes to drift up to glance over at the edge of the lake, in which she could see brief flashes of pale skin submersed under the surface.

Making the decision right then and there to forget this direction, and head into the soothing blackness of the forest, she quickly ducked away. Ignoring another raucous call sent her way as she slipped quickly from their view.

And failing to sense or notice the pair of pale green eyes that observed her hungrily from those shadows that she thought herself so safe within.

A corner of his mouth tilted upwards at her blind ignorance, as he slowly followed her. The bare skin of his chest gleaming in the faint moonlight that managed to infiltrate the thick cover of the trees overhead. Muscles rippling enviously along his back shoulders as he slipped quietly through the shadows cloaking her. Becoming a part of them, His eyes never leaving her form. Listening to the hesitant sounds of her steps as she picked her way through unfamiliar territory, watching the innocent sway of her slender hips – hips that he burned to feel under his palms – and the fall of her dark silken hair that caressed the back of her neck and shoulders.

She was foolish to believe that she was safer in the deep reaches of the forest than she was out in the open, with the rest of the group. His group. Foolish to not realize that what her innocent senses had been exposed to out by the bonfires was rather mundane, given the sensuality of their species. Foolish to not understand that the deeper into the forest she went, the more darkly erotic the acts occurring around her in those shadows were. Just beyond her line of vision. Just beyond the reach of her still developing senses.

Not to mention the danger that she was putting herself in. With her unfamiliar innocent arousal wafting around her body like the sweetest of perfumes, calling out to every male in the area. Causing his to not be the only shadow following her.

And it was only his position within their ranks, and the promise of quick retaliation should she be touched or confronted, that kept Sophia from discovering just how perilous a situation she had found herself in.

The smile spreading across his lips at the sight of her wandering, completely oblivious to the male posturing going on around her, was quickly paired up with his eyes flaring bright gold in the black shadows surrounding them both. Embracing the hunt that had just begun. With her as the unknowing prize.

Slowly inhaling her subtly aroused scent – so subtle, she probably wasn't even aware of it herself – his eyes glowed even brighter as he paced silently behind her. Patience wearing thin as he thought of what tasting her for the first time would be like.

And knowing that he would find its innocence to be sweeter on the tongue than anything else that he had ever sampled.

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