WILD [JENLISA]

14

Lying had never come naturally to Lisa.

Until she was sixteen years old, she hadn't wanted or needed to cultivate the skill. She loved her adoptive parents and was generally a good kid. But the night of her first uncontrolled shift, when she'd killed those sheep, lying suddenly became necessary for survival.

That night she lost everything important to her: her home, her adoptive parents, her girlfriend. Her innocence. She gained the keen awareness that even those people who professed to love her would never accept her true nature, so in order to stay alive, she had to learn to hide in plain sight.

That meant becoming a master of deception.

Fifteen years of practice had made Lisa very good at living in the shadows. She maintained relationships with escort services, did contract graphic-design work for numerous employers, and kept an apartment in one of the bigger cities in the United States without letting anyone know who or what she really was. For a child who had once been unable to sell even the most reasonable half-truth, as an adult Lisa excelled at keeping secrets and misleading people.

She didn't enjoy telling lies. It still made her nervous, not to mention guilty. Although she was good at hiding that emotional turmoil from most people, she wouldn't be able to hide from Jennie.

How could she lie to a woman who felt what she felt? A woman who'd already captured her heart, who'd shown her what it was like to feel loved? Not only would lying be difficult, but also Lisa just plain didn't want to do it. She knew how Jennie felt about dishonesty, how broken trust had been the crux of her problems with Irene, and she dreaded the thought of starting down that road with the woman who'd quickly become as essential as the air she breathed.

Even so, she had just a week until the next full moon. That meant she was rapidly running out of time to come up with a good story for why she wouldn't be around that night. She had to work on staying calm when she told that lie. She had to believe it. Otherwise Jennie would sense her dishonesty just as surely as she sensed everything else Lisa felt.

Hating herself, Lisa hung up from her call to the escort service she'd been using for the past year and a half. She'd just arranged for a new girl, someone who could tie knots to her satisfaction. Escaping as her beast-self wasn't an option this time, not when she wasn't sure who or what she might seek out in her most primal form now that she'd found a mate.

Lisa sensed Jennie a moment before she heard a knock at her front door. Excited to see Jennie despite her anxiety, she struck a casual pose as she answered. "I was just thinking about you."

Jennie beamed. "Good things, I hope."

Her bright mood washed over Lisa, lifting her spirits. "Always."

"You okay?" Jennie tilted her head as she stepped inside. "You seem... unsettled."

"No, I'm great." Lisa pulled Jennie into her arms. Their connection flared deep in her chest, soothing her worries and refocusing her on what was important. This woman. She had to do whatever it took to keep Jennie, and if that meant lying, then so be it.

"You sure?" Jennie put a hand on the back of Lisa's head and held her close, turning her face so their foreheads touched. "Because it's like I can feel things, you know. It sounds ridiculous, but with you... I don't know. I guess you're easy to read." Giggling shyly, Jennie said, "I feel things."

Lisa put every ounce of her concentration into not reacting to Jennie's confession. She knew that they had an empathetic bond, but Jennie didn't. Scientist that she was, Jennie most likely wouldn't even believe in such a concept. And yet here Jennie was, skirting the edge of articulating what it was between them that made their chemistry so explosive.