by Terry Spear
He ran his fingers through her silky, damp hair. “Why haven’t you found this human mate of yours yet?” He wasn’t sure what got into him to ask—maybe the annoyance he felt that she wanted one, maybe the concern she’d come close to finding one. But afterward he wondered if he should have brought the subject up or kept it buried, like so many other things he didn’t ever want to discuss with her.
She tensed in his arms. “Haven’t had the time. I have to be selective, you know. One chance for the mate of a lifetime.”
“You’ve had a lot of years to find one. You’re lucky we don’t age as fast as humans or you’d be dead and gone by now.”
“All the more reason to find the right one. Besides, because I haven’t been around our kind, this was the first wolf heat I’ve ever come into since I left the pack. Not sure why it happened this time, unless it’s my human age catching up with me. Haven’t had much of an urge to find a mate…until now.” She paused. “What about you? Why have you never mated?”
“Maybe I have.”
She grew quiet.
Maybe she wasn’t so determined to find a human for companionship after all. “I’ve never chosen a mate. Seems I can’t find the right one either.”
She let out her breath. “Why have you never left the pack? I thought you would years ago.”
“I did, a few times.” He wasn’t about to tell how long and hard he’d searched for her. “But I always longed to be back with my own kind. When Argos took me in—”
“What?”
“I thought you knew.”
“Argos’s wolf pack wasn’t your own?”
Nuzzling his mouth against her ear, he nibbled at the lobe. “No. They took me in like they did you.”
“I thought you were part of the family.” Her fingertips caressed his arm with feather-light strokes.
His body hardened in response, but he fought giving into his baser instincts. “I was…am. They’re my family. And, as much as I don’t care for Volan, he’s the pack leader. For the most part, he rules well and keeps the pack safe. I’m not a lone wolf kind of guy. I like being a member of a family.”
“So your cousins who came with you aren’t really your cousins?”
“They are, in a manner of speaking. You’re a distant cousin, if you want to get right down to it.”
“Thank you, no.”
“Don’t think you’re good enough to be a cousin to a gray?”
A sensual chuckle issued from her belly, warming him several degrees.
Ringing her nipple with the tip of his finger, he enticed it to harden. The sensation shot a spark of interest straight to his groin. He could never get enough of touching her to make up for the time lost. Yet, in the back of his mind, he knew she didn’t want him, that it was only her wolf’s heat that made her crave him. “Argos wondered if we did you a disservice by not finding a red lupus garou pack to return you to, if maybe you would have settled down with your own kind.”
“I’m afraid I’ve been with the bigger grays for so long that the reds look puny.”
He stilled his hands. “You’ve been in touch with some, Bella?”
“At…at the zoo.”
“What?”
“Two men. About our age. They said they’d break me out. One urinated along the fence line. Didn’t you catch his odor?”
Hell and damnation. Fisting his hands in her hair, he knew damn well what the red intended with his actions. “The breeze must have shifted.” Damn his bad luck. Not only would the reds frown on another male lupus garou trespassing, but a gray trying to take a red to another wolves’ territory wouldn’t set well with them. “You should have told me.”
“You’re not worried about them, are you? We left the zoo and then ended up at the hospital and now here. They won’t be able to follow me.”
“The news will carry the story about your hospital stay and subsequent disappearance. The mystery woman found in the wolf’s pen, without clothes, the disappearance of the red wolf, and most likely my description, too. If the red who targeted you is a pack leader, no one would cross him. So he’d know I was from out of town, not a member of his pack.”
“He was young, your age…early twenties, small. He wouldn’t be a leader.”
“Reds are smaller.” He wasn’t dismissing the fact that they could have more trouble than they bargained for—first zoo man Thompson, then the cops, and now a pack of red wolves.
“Besides, Devlyn, I am selecting my mate.”
“That’s what this is all about? You want to choose instead of a male choosing you?” His voice sounded as incredulous as he felt.
“This is all about not wanting to be Volan’s mate. Don’t you see?”
“He’s the leader. You should be proud a leader wants you. He’ll always safeguard you. Besides, I thought you and he shared a connection.” He couldn’t help sounding peeved. But, in truth, besides the fact she wanted a human mate and the way she denied wanting to be with Volan, he felt otherwise.
She didn’t respond.
“Bella?”
“Leave it,” she snapped.
“Why do you despise him so? It’s not because he killed the boy at the lake. You hated Volan long before this, although I recall a time when that wasn’t the case.” The instance when Volan had encouraged her to eat after the death of her best friend—yet she’d bitten Devlyn when he’d tried to console her—hadn’t faded from his memory. The image of Volan’s arms snug around her and Bella’s head pressed against his chest still burned hot in Devlyn’s mind.
She abruptly changed the subject. “You never told me what happened between you and Volan the day I ran. I didn’t think you’d survive.”
“Disappointed?” He knew there was something more to the story with Volan, damn it.
She tried to wriggle out of his arms. “Don’t be an idiot. Of course I didn’t want him hurting you. I didn’t want him hurting the human boy either.”
Attempting to squash the hard knot in the pit of his stomach when the image of her lusting after the human in the lake came to mind, he redirected the conversation. “Volan was pretty angry with me for kissing you.”
“Some kiss.”
The way she said it, dreamily and with intrigue, diminished his annoyance with her over the human boy. “Did you like it?”
“It was all right,” she responded too nonchalantly—as if she were playing a role in a movie but overplaying her part a bit.
“You’ve had better?” he asked, his tone mocking.
Silence greeted him.
Inwardly, he chuckled. “Thought not.”
“I’m not going to tell you about all of the guys I’ve kissed.” She tried to squirm free, but he tightened his grip. Sighing heavily, she quit her struggles. “What happened between you and Volan?”
“He planned to tear me to shreds until you ran off. Then Volan hesitated. He wasn’t sure whether to kill me or chase you. After scrapping with me for a couple of minutes to make a point, he took after you.”
“Were you badly injured?”
“Nothing that wouldn’t heal in a couple of days. When Volan returned home two days later without you, he was hell to live with. After I healed, I left the pack.”
“In search of me?”
He couldn’t reveal that a feminine red lupus garou had brought a big gray to his knees. And he didn’t want to tell her that he not only couldn’t win against Volan, but he couldn’t locate one little runaway female red wolf. This time he didn’t answer her.
When he didn’t respond, she lifted his hand to her lips and kissed it, warming him thoroughly. “Did you see a newscast about me?”
“Yeah, Argos said it was you right away.”
She shrugged and muttered under her breath, “Could have been another.”
“Nope, had your trademark all over it.”
“I’ve never been caught and stuck in a zoo before.”
He nudged her neck with his cheek. “No, but you’ve needed rescuing before. So, how w
as Big Red?”
She slugged him in the shoulder, forcing him to laugh out loud. Playing with her again felt good, but he wanted more. Resenting that he couldn’t take her for his own, the powerful need to renew the good memories of their youth and to form new ones as mates strangled him. But it wasn’t his business to want the pack leader’s intended bitch and, worse, one who wanted a human companion.
With the need for sleep tantamount, both grew quiet; his arms securely wrapped around her, and they slept soundly for a couple of hours.
Something woke Devlyn. He sat up in bed, his heightened wolf senses taking hold. The smell of men’s cologne, the sound of a keycard sliding into a slot, and the hush of men’s voices in the hallway of their hotel suite triggered adrenaline to course through his blood at racetrack speed.
He jerked the covers aside, jumped off the mattress, and seized Bella’s wrist. Clasping his hand over her mouth, he spoke against her ear in a hushed voice; her heart beat hard and her eyes were wild with fear. “Police, I think, trying to enter the living area of the hotel suite. Get dressed.”
He shoved her clothes to her and pushed the queensized bed against the door. Throwing on his clothes, he turned to see Bella, already dressed in the oversized men’s garments, sliding the patio door open and running onto the balcony. Before he could reach her, she climbed over the patio railing. For a moment, she hung from the concrete patio like a monkey, swinging in the cold city jungle, a drizzle coating everything in icy wetness.
He touched her hand. “Can you make it all right?”
“Yes,” she whispered, her amber eyes darkened.
She dropped to the grassy ground shimmering with water droplets. Devlyn jumped down next to her and grabbed her hand. When he started to lift her, she objected.
“You’re not wearing shoes, Bella. Let me do this my way.”
“All right, boss, do it.”
Black as night, Devlyn’s eyes studied her for a moment. “It’s about time you said so.” His voice was hushed but different than Bella had ever heard it. Before she could further consider the change in his mood, he lifted her in his arms and ran across a road, the feel of his virile strength feeding her own. Skirting to the backside of an apartment complex, he headed for an SUV.
“I hope it’s yours.”
“Rental. We had several, figuring we’d give the police a good chase with all of us going in different directions. We kept this one here in case anyone discovered us at the hotel.”
Releasing her, he unlocked the vehicle’s doors with the click of the button. “I have a change of clothes for you in the backseat. Put them on while I get us out of here.”
After she slipped into the back, he took the wheel and drove out of the parking area. Unzipping the bag, she pulled out the contents—a scrappy pair of red lace panties, a bra the same color, a pair of pale blue running pants, a sweatshirt, and socks and sneakers, trimmed with hearts.
“Who picked out the red scraps of lace?”
“Tanner.”
She laughed at the thought of Devlyn’s cousin, always playing the bad boy role. “Figures. He always did have a thing for red.”
“If you don’t like the color, you don’t have to put them on.”
“Go without?”
He glanced at the rearview mirror, his eyes smoldering.
She clicked the bra closed in front and frowned. “It’s a pushup bra.”
“Didn’t need anything pushed up,” he said, his voice ragged. “But it suits you.”
“Watch your driving.”
“Can’t help the distraction,” he growled.
Horny and frustrated, he acted like Big Red at the zoo. She pulled the rest of the clothes on and climbed into the front seat. “I can’t believe I didn’t pick up on those cops at the front door.”
“You were still recovering from your harrowing experience at the zoo. How do you feel?”
“Like I’ll have to take another nap later on.”
“Want to crawl in the back and sleep for awhile?”
“I couldn’t right now. My skin’s still prickling from nearly getting caught.” She ran her hands over the running pants, wiping off the clamminess.
“What’s bothering you, Bella?”
“Nothing.”
“Don’t tell me nothing. I can tell from the tension in your voice you’re worried, and about more than the cops almost catching us.”
She turned away from him and stared out the window; a light mist drizzled down the glass pane. “It’s nothing.”
“If you’re considering not going home with me, think again. You’re not safe on your own. Lupus garous have to stick together to survive. Loners get themselves killed. And no matter what, you can’t expose our kind.”
She glanced at him and opened her mouth to tell him off.
Tightening his grip on the steering wheel, Devlyn cursed under his breath. “Ah, hell—trouble, straight ahead.”
Chapter Five
A ROADBLOCK. TWO POLICE CRUISERS SAT DEAD AHEAD on the shoulder of the road. While one policeman spoke to the driver of a compact, another eyed Devlyn and Bella’s approaching SUV.
Despite the car’s heater running on high, a chill ran down Bella’s spine, and she involuntarily shuddered. “Maybe they’re just looking for drunk drivers.”
Devlyn shook his head. “We can’t risk that they aren’t looking for us.”
“They’ll recognize us, won’t they, if they get a good look at us?”
“Yeah, I imagine so. Thompson probably gave them a rough description. That long, red hair of yours will be a dead giveaway.” Devlyn turned down a side street before they reached the checkpoint and switched off his headlights. “Hold on tight. Someone will probably check us out because we avoided the roadblock.”
She swallowed hard, not liking the situation at all. “See the carport in front of those apartments? Pull into a vacant slot. A police helicopter searching from above won’t see the SUV then.”
“I’m more concerned about the ones looking from the ground.”
“Do it, Devlyn.”
He grunted. “What happened to my being the boss?”
“You can be the boss later, stud.”
He turned to look at her, his eyes darker than usual, his expression surprised. She sensed her new nickname for him pleased him in a sensual sort of way, and her own body responded as the ache returned between her legs.
“Let’s try to find an apartment where no one’s home and get some more sleep,” she suggested.
“I hope you’re right about this.” He turned into the two-story apartment complex and parked underneath the metal carport.
“We probably couldn’t outrun them. But if they didn’t see us pull in here, they’ll probably keep driving and—”
A police car approached and Bella and Devlyn ducked down.
Seconds passed. The vehicle continued down the road, its engine rumbling slightly.
Devlyn peered out the windshield. “They’re still going. If they come back to check the parking lots, they may find the SUV, especially if they caught sight of the license plate before we turned down the street perpendicular to the one where the roadblock was set up.”
She climbed out of the vehicle, glad the police hadn’t noticed the wet drizzle on the vehicle when the ones parked next to it were dry as the desert. “You don’t have to come.”
“You’re not running away from me again.” He slammed his door shut.
“Oh?” She darted across the parking area in the thickening mist, and he dashed after her, catching her wrist with a vice-like grip. She would have loved his possessiveness if he’d wanted her for his own. But no, he was keeping her from running away so he could turn her over to Volan. The bastard.
“When did I ever run away from you?” Dropping down behind a razor-toothed holly shrub, she listened for sounds in the apartment.
“When you left Colorado,” he said, his harsh tone hushed while he crouched beside her.
“I slipped a
way from Volan, not you,” she whispered in retort.
He clamped his mouth shut.
She stared at him. He’d only kissed her so long ago to prove he was more virile than the human boy, nothing more. Hell, he’d never even searched for her, or Argos would have said. “Devlyn, you can’t mean you want me. Volan would kill you.”
“Like hell he would.”
The image of the last wolf Volan had killed flashed through her mind, and, with Devlyn not giving an inch, she tried to clear her thoughts of the vicious memory. She darted past an apartment window, dragging Devlyn with her. She listened again. “A man snoring.”
She ran past the apartment and Devlyn gave her a dark look. A dog barked in the next one. Shaking her head, she moved to the next window. A distinctive odor of death and something more caught her attention—the smell of a red male lupus garou. Instantly, she made the connection between the rogue she’d caught a whiff of in the woods and the one who had been here. Her skin chilled. She was used to the hunt, but this was something else, something purely evil.
Intending to investigate and sure that Devlyn would not agree, she twisted her arm free of him and ran up the steps to the front door.
Dashing after her, Devlyn grabbed her wrist. “No,” he whispered harshly. “You stay here and I’ll check it out.”
Grateful he would, she asked, “Do you smell it, too?”
A look of feral hostility flashed across his face.
“Maybe we can…help.” But she doubted they could. She yanked at his leather jacket. “You have a lock pick, don’t you?”
“Standard lupus garou toolkit. Where’s yours?” He pulled out a leather kit and slid a tool out.
“I never sneaked into human’s homes like you and your cousins did for fun, remember?”
“Only because you were too shy.”
She snorted.
Jiggling the pick in the lock, he sprang the mechanism open. He shoved the door aside and walked into the room. “The air is foul,” he whispered.
“Someone’s died,” she whispered back, her skin damp and crawling.
“A few days ago. Decay’s already set in despite the place being ice-cold. Air conditioner’s running on high even though the temperature is barely above freezing outside.”
