Under My Skin (Wildlings) Read Online Free Page A

guilty about lying to my mom, but I've had some practice with the detective, so the story rolls off my tongue pretty easily, even though I'm squirming inside. Mom's always trusted me and I've tried to live up to that trust. But I'm just not ready to tell her I'm a Wildling. Up until yesterday, I thought they were freaks. But now I'm one of them. What does that say about me?
    "Josh, I'm so sorry about Steve. I can't understand what would have gotten into him that he would actually hit you."
    Like I said, she's got this blind spot. I can tell she's feeling kind of mad and depressed at the same time.
    "I swear, Mom. I really didn't touch Steve's computer."
    "I know you wouldn't do anything like that. He's been under a lot of pressure at work, but what he did was completely unacceptable. That's the end of it. He doesn't get a do-over."
    "Thanks. I'm going to go take a shower if that's okay."
    "That would probably be a very good idea," she says, smiling sadly and wrinkling her nose. That's what I get for sleeping behind a Dumpster in an alleyway.
    I grab some fresh clothes from my room.

    When I'm inside the bathroom, I strip down and look at myself in the mirror. I don't look any different. I guess I thought maybe I'd be a little more buff or something, but I'm still the skinny kid I've always been. Or, as I like to say when Desmond rags me, I'm wiry.
    I lean on the sink and give my reflection a closer look. Okay. Cory said that you just have to think about it to change. I've been wanting to do this ever since he started filling my head with all this stuff. Is it really true, or just some weird-ass delusion?
    I figure it's safe in here. The window's too small for me to squeeze through, never mind a mountain lion, and the door's locked. Nobody can get hurt.
    So ...
    As I will the change, I keep studying my reflection, looking for whatever telltale sign is going to show it starting to happen. I never get the chance to see it. As soon as I make the decision to change, the mountain lion's face is glaring at me from the reflection.
    I panic, pushing on the sink to get away because, for one long second, I don't realize that's me in the mirror. Me, in my Wildling shape.
    The mountain lion's powerful muscles shove down hard on the sink and the plumbing breaks away from the wall. Water spews out of the broken pipes, drenching me.
    I think the water spraying me in the face is all that saves me from completely losing it. It kicks me out of the mountain lion's point of view and, just like that, I shift back to myself. I scrabble in the debris of the sink, which is half hanging from the wall. Water's gushing everywhere until I finally find the shut-off valves and twist them closed.
    I sit back on the floor, water pooling all around me, my heart drumming in my chest. Then comes the banging on the door that almost shifts me back into the mountain lion.
    "Josh! Joshua! Are you all right in there?"
    It's Mom.
    I look at the mess I've created.
    "Joshua!"
    "I'm okay," I call back. "I was just leaning a little too hard on the sink and it kind of broke away."
    I get up and wrap a towel around myself before I unlock the door.
    "Oh, God," Mom says, taking in the mess. "What were you doing in here?"
    "Nothing. I was just leaning in close and it came away under me. Honest. I'll clean this all up."
    "But the sink ..."
    "I can fix it."
    "When did you become a plumber?" she asks.
    "I'm not. But I'll look it up on the Internet. How hard can it be to fix?"
    She looks like she's going to say something else, but then she shakes her head and turns away.
    "Just finish your shower," she says in the same tone of voice that she had when I hit a baseball through the front window a couple of years ago. "At least you weren't hurt."
    I close the door slowly and look in the mirror again. I can't see any trace of the mountain lion. It's like it was before, just me, except this time I'm soaking wet. Finally, I turn away. I drop the towel and get into the