The Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance

autopilot.
    “Marlee.”
    Joshua sat on the edge of the bed. His posture was casual, but there was nothing relaxed in his gaze. He looked me over as if I were a potentially contagious virus. I fought not to hold my breath.
    “What happened yesterday was very unfortunate,” Joshua began.
    “Yesterday?” I couldn’t help but exclaim, glancing at the window. It was nearly dusk. I’d thought it was the same day as the attack.
    “Yesterday,” Joshua repeated, giving me a frown that said he wasn’t used to being interrupted. “A member of our pack was . . . distraught over his wife’s death. He and a few others began hunting you. You were lucky Daniel found them when he did, but you’d been bitten, so we couldn’t drop you off at the nearest hospital. You haven’t heard of our kind before, Marlee, and there’s a reason. We do whatever’s necessary to protect our existence.”
    We’ll kill for it was left unsaid, but I heard that loud and clear. I nodded, striving to hold on to my numbness. Hysteria wouldn’t help me, no matter how tempting it was to give in to it.
    “A person has to be bitten several times to be at risk of transforming, and half the people who’ve been bitten still don’t shift,” Joshua went on briskly. “We won’t know whether you’ll turn into one of us until the next full moon, two weeks away.”
    Two weeks? It would take that long for me to find out whether or not I’d become a monster? I’d go insane wondering until then. And if it did happen . . . well, suicide didn’t sound like a bad idea all of a sudden.
    “What happens if after the full moon, I’m not... ah ... like the rest of you?” I couldn’t bring myself to say “a werewolf. I just couldn’t.
    Joshua gave me a thin smile. “That depends on you. Either you stay with us, as a member of the skinwalker part of our pack, or . . .” He shrugged. That single gesture completed his sentence. Or we kill you.
    One way or the other, I was screwed.
Three
    “Hungry?”
    I sat in the chair, my broken ankle finally in a cast, and glared at Daniel before replying. “Somewhere between the death threats and the thought of turning into a four-legged monster, I lost my appetite.”
    Part of me wondered why I dared to be so surly. The other part figured I was as good as dead anyway, so it didn’t matter.
    Daniel grunted. “Suit yourself, but I’m getting something.” He stood, stretched, and then held out a hand.
    I just stared at it. “What?”
    “You’re coming with me,” he replied. “Who knows what kind of trouble you’d stir up if I left you alone?”
    “And I suppose you’ll just drag me along anyway if I refuse?”
    A smile quirked his mouth. “You learn fast, don’t you?”
    I gave Daniel another withering look that didn’t seem to faze him. He was extremely striking, in an outdoorsy-type of way. His hair was chin length and russet, and he had a faint weathering to his features that spoke of long days outside. Daniel only looked a couple of years older than me, which would put him at about thirty, but there was an air of command about him that made him seem older. None of the lawyers at my office had such a dominating presence, in fact.
    But I wasn’t about to let him know how much he intimidated me. Wasn’t there a saying that showing fear in front of an animal made it more aggressive? “So, you’re the group’s babysitter, is that it?”
    “I’m the Pack’s enforcer, so it’s my job to make sure anyone who’s a danger to us - like you - doesn’t get away. And I’m very good at my job, Marlee.”
    At over six feet tall with muscles bulging from every limb, yeah, Daniel looked like he did a good job of enforcing. He’d scare anyone with half a brain.
    “What are you going to do with me for two weeks? You can’t keep me tied to your hip.” I didn’t even want to think about after that, or what might happen on the full moon.
    He rubbed a knuckle under his chin and considered me. “With your limp, you wouldn’t get far even if you did manage to slip away from me - which you wouldn’t. So, let’s get some dinner, then you can wash up and begin plotting ways to outsmart us dumb animals.”
    Daniel said that last part with a challenging look that let me know he was both aware of my aversion to what they were and of my dreams of escape. I glanced away, gritting my teeth.
    “Didn’t you say you were hungry?”
    He held out his hand again. “Come on. Let’s eat.”
    I had to take