by Terry Spear
Once they’d seen the newsflash concerning her, they had to be sure it was her, though. Finding a red wolf in the Cascades was unheard of, and to top that off, she was larger than normal. The pack knew the red wolf could only be a lupus garou, and Argos knew it had to be Bella or she would have been with a pack.
But Devlyn had to make sure. She could have been any one of a number of lone red lupus garou females all across the States. Or not. Because such a shortage existed, he sure as hell hoped Argos was right—that she was their stubborn Bella.
When Devlyn saw her in the pen at the zoo, he knew. He couldn’t be angry with her for having run away—but for her to risk proving to the world that lupus garous existed? That was irresponsible and unforgivable. At least that’s what he told himself, though his heart ached to hold her close again, only this time to claim her for his own.
Devlyn stalked toward the door of his hotel suite. “All right. Let’s break our little red wolf out of jail.” The notion that she was theirs, though, struck a chord. She wasn’t theirs. She belonged to Volan. Fire burned in Devlyn’s veins with the thought. Ever since Devlyn had rescued her near the river, the wildfire in hot pursuit of her, Volan had wanted her, too.
For years Devlyn had pinned her to the ground in their wolf states, avoiding her retaliatory bites, playing with her as young wolves frolicked. He still wanted to tackle her to the ground, to force her reaction, to have her pay attention to him. But the burning desire to have her for his mate drove away any notion of having another female.
He hurried his four younger male cousins out to the SUV with Argos at his side in the freezing drizzle. The black-haired, amber-eyed quadruplets, twenty-two years of age, all itched for a fight as they clenched their fists and steeled their square jaws.
Devlyn slammed his door. “If we wait much longer, she’ll have changed and be half frozen in this weather.” He’d rescue her again. He had to. Not for Volan, but for his own greedy desires. But what to do with her afterwards? He knew what he wanted to do with her. Make her his…forever…his mate for life.
But with Volan still living, how could Devlyn hope to take her for his own? That question had plagued him every minute of the day since he’d learned she still lived.
Backed into the confines of the wolf den, Bella spread her arms out, slowly, in her crouched position, to make herself appear larger. “Back off, Big Red.”
He continued to snarl. She took a step forward, and shivered, but it wasn’t the chill in the air that made her tremble. The notion that the zoo staff would catch her in the wolves’ den in human form forced concern to worm its way into every pore.
Big Red held his ground.
She took another step in his direction. Her eyes remained locked onto his. He didn’t back down.
Wrinkling her nose, she bared her not-very-scary human teeth. Anything to show him she wasn’t intimidated by his posturing.
After what seemed like an eternity of an old western gunfight showdown, he turned, and trotted out of the den. She took a deep breath, then quickly followed him out. The icy drizzle coated her skin. Hoping to make her escape easily, she crossed the pen to the keeper’s door.
Locked.
Her stomach muscles tightened with irritation. Heading for the water trough, she thought to use it as a step in the moat. But it was filled to the brim with water, and she couldn’t budge it. Her frustration level mounted, but her body temperature dropped rapidly with the chilly wet breeze swirling about her.
What she wouldn’t have given for her wolf’s thick undercoat—the dense second coat of fur virtually waterproof, a thermal insulator so effective even snow falling on her back wouldn’t melt.
She hurried to the edge of the moat and considered the height of the wall across from the pen. Big Red watched her from a corner of the pen, but never made a menacing move toward her. She’d probably confused the hell out of him. She smelled like a wolf in heat, the same one he wanted to mate, but she didn’t look like one in the least bit now. Poor fellow.
She sat on the edge of the concrete, the substance icy and rough on her bare bottom. After twisting around, she clung to the edge with frigid fingers, then dropped into the moat. It was about a six-and-a-half-foot drop and, with her five-four height, easy to make. But when she turned to consider the other side her heart filled with alarm.
Whether the wall rose eight feet or ten…didn’t matter. She didn’t see any way to climb the rough concrete without foot or hand holds. She turned back to the other side. Her heart fell. She wouldn’t be able to climb out that way, either.
The cold had already affected her mind, slowing her ability to think. The shock at turning into her human form earlier than she’d planned had compelled her to panic.
Great. Just great. The next morning, the zookeepers would find a half-frozen, naked woman in the moat. She jumped at the shorter side, but couldn’t reach the top edge.
After several tries, she did what went against every instinct for survival—she gave up and yelled for help.
For an hour she screamed and hollered. Some night watchman. She imagined her lips were blue from the cold. Her fingers and toes grew numb. And her voice was reduced to a croak.
Attempting to conserve her body heat, she crouched against the wall, her arms around her knees, her long hair dripping, with icicles dangling about her.
Boots running on pavement in her direction barely registered in her mind.
“The woman’s screams came from this direction, Randolph,” a deep male voice shouted, nearly out of breath.
She shivered so hard her knees knocked together and her teeth chattered. “Here,” she attempted to shout, but her word barely reached her own ears.
“Miss, where are you?” another male voice shouted, older and rustier. Their footsteps stopped at the pen next door. “She sounded desperate, Mack.”
The only thought she could focus on was that the news media would have a field day when they learned a crazy, naked woman slipped into the wolves’ pen.
She attempted to stand, but the bitter cold froze her joints, locking them in place.
“I know we weren’t hearing things. She had to be close to here,” Randolph said.
“Maybe she’s injured or unconscious.”
“Here,” she said, the word merely an angry whisper. Furious with herself for being so needy, furious that her voice gave out on her when she needed it most, she had lived for many years as a lone lupus garou. Self-sufficient. She didn’t need anyone. Only the image of Devlyn kissing her overran that thought. Damn him for making it impossible to find someone else for her to love.
“One of the predators in these pens could have torn her up,” Randolph said.
They flashed their lights into the pen beside hers where two lions prowled.
“Call in some more of the staff.”
The flashlight’s beam poked into the darkness of her pen, angled toward Big Red. “What are you doing out here, big fellow? Little lady won’t let you snuggle yet?”
“Hey, Randolph, what’s that?”
The iron fence rattled as they leaned over it and poured their beams of light into the moat.
Bella closed her eyes as the light touched her face. Her long red hair covered her naked body like Lady Godiva on her famous ride. She stopped breathing while her heart nearly leapt out of her chest to know they’d found her, and would take her someplace warm.
“There!” the older man said.
“What the hell?”
“Are you sure she’ll go with me?” Argos asked Devlyn again, worry evident in his voice as they climbed into the SUV.
“She only saw me at the zoo. She doesn’t know Volan still rules the pack and wants her.”
Argos shook his head. “I can’t believe she got herself locked up in a zoo.”
Devlyn gave an evil smile, the notion he’d have to rescue her from a real wolf’s attentions amusing him. “The big red wolf they tried to mate her with sure looked disappointed, hungry, and dissatisfied.”<
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Devlyn’s cousins and Argos chuckled.
“I can just imagine how mad she is over that.” Argos stared out the window. “I’ve always wondered if we shouldn’t have tried to find a red wolf pack for her to mix with. Maybe she would have found a mate with one of her own kind.”
Devlyn started the ignition with a jerk. “We’re her family,” he said abruptly, not in the mood for hiding his feelings for her. “Besides, I doubt Volan would have stood for it.”
Intent on freeing her before she turned into her human form, Devlyn sped down the road. With the temperature dropping to thirty degrees and a wind-chilled rain making it even worse, she’d be in real trouble soon.
He thought back to Volan and his desire to have Bella. Although Devlyn had warred with him over her so many times in the past when he was an immature lupus garou, he’d never had a chance to best him. Thinking she no longer lived, he had long ago ended his quarrel with Volan, concentrating instead on making his leather goods factory a success. But now, could he fight the leader and have the female he wanted most?
His hands fisted on the steering wheel, he shook his head. The notion that she loved humans gnawed at him as much as he fought not wanting to care. There was no sense in wanting what he couldn’t have.
A police siren wailed behind him, shattering the otherwise quiet, and forced a shard of anger to rip through him.
Everyone turned around to see what was wrong. Frowning, Devlyn pulled the vehicle to the shoulder, spitting gravel out of its path.
“Speeding a little, Devlyn?” Argos asked, his voice amused.
Speeding a lot. Devlyn tightened his grip on the steering wheel, not wanting to leave Bella in the zoo’s pen one more minute. He glanced at the rearview mirror to see a policeman approaching. If Devlyn tore off now, he could probably lose the cop. The officer would never guess Devlyn would hightail it to the zoo.
He slipped his foot off the brake.
Bella had been so intent on fleeing confinement that, when the night watchmen discovered her hiding in the moat, she didn’t realize how chilled she’d become. In her wolf form, the March temperature didn’t bother her. But, as a naked human, she was frozen to the bone.
“Jesus, Randolph, she’s…she’s naked,” the younger male voice said, as he hung over the railing where zoo patrons normally observed the animals in the pen.
“Yeah, Mack. Call for backup. We don’t know yet how badly she’s hurt.” He tugged off his jacket and dropped it on top of her. “Miss, we’ll reach you as soon as we can. Are you injured?”
Her mind was fuzzy and disoriented. Hurt? Tired. Sleepy.
“She’s probably hypothermic.” He ran toward the entrance to the wolf’s pen.
His companion relayed the messages into a phone, his footsteps running behind the other. “We have a naked woman in Big Red’s pen, down in the moat. Yeah, yeah!” he hollered. “I’m serious. She’s naked. We don’t know if she’s injured or not. Randolph says she’s got to be hypothermic as cold as it is. All right.” He snapped the phone shut. “The boss is making all of the calls. We’re not to move her if she’s hurt, just try to keep her warm. But how in the hell did…” His voice faded; then the metal door squeaked open to the building housing the inside part of the wolves’ exhibit. They disappeared inside the building; then the door creaked open to the outer portion of the pen.
Numb and stiff, Bella couldn’t even move to put on the jacket that the man had tossed to her. Still, the fleece helped warm her.
The men ran across the pen to the moat from the shorter concrete wall on the opposite side. “Watch my back, Randolph, in case Big Red or Rosa get any ideas. If either injured the woman, they may still feel threatened.”
“Rosa must be sleeping in her den. Big Red’s sitting in the corner watching us.”
“Keep an eye on him. I’ll lift the woman to you.”
He sat at the edge of the moat, turned, and eased himself down. When his feet hit the ground, he whipped around and ran to her. “Are you hurt?”
Trembling so hard that her teeth chattered, she couldn’t croak a word.
He ran his flashlight over her and then helped her into his jacket. “She doesn’t appear to be injured, but she’s half frozen.” He covered her lap with the other jacket. “She’s got hypothermia really bad.” Lifting her off the rough pavement, he carried her to the older man, who was leaning down with his arms outstretched.
With the two men’s heavy jackets covering her, her body warmed some while she lay on the rough concrete above the moat, yet she still shivered out of control, craved sleep, and could barely focus on much of anything.
Vaguely, she worried about being caught, about freeing herself from her current predicament, about hiding before Volan found her.
Suddenly, more shouts erupted and running footsteps headed toward the patron’s safety railing across the moat.
“Is she injured?” Thompson hollered from the iron fence.
“It appears she’s just hypothermic,” Mack shouted back. “Her pulse is awfully slow. She has some scratches but doesn’t appear to have been bitten or to have broken any bones.”
Mack rubbed her hand while Randolph wrapped his coat around her legs. The door squeaked open, and she turned her head slightly when blond-bearded Thompson dashed into the pen, his blue eyes worried.
Yanking off his coat, he laid it over her. He touched her cheek with clinical concern. “Who are you, and how did you get in here?”
She stared at him, hearing the question and vaguely remembering that he’d shot her with a tranquilizer and incarcerated her here. That’s how she’d gotten in here. The men’s faces wavered in front of her, and she blinked her eyes slowly, trying to focus.
“What’s your name?” He turned to Mack. “Has she spoken at all?”
“We heard her screaming and yelling. By the time we located her, she was crouched against the wall of the moat and hasn’t said a word. She’s barely conscious.”
“The ambulance is on its way,” Thompson said. “What about the wolves?”
“Big Red’s sitting over there watching. Rosa must be sleeping in the den,” Randolph said.
Thompson crouched down in front of her and touched her wrist. “Miss, what’s your name? What happened?”
More flashlights wavered in the night. More men were shouting, issuing directions to the wolves’ pen. Bella blinked when two policemen in their blue uniforms hurried into the pen; then she closed her eyes, wondering how she was going to extract herself from this mess.
“What happened here, Mr. Thompson?” one of the policemen asked.
Thompson explained all he knew and then reached over and held Bella’s hand. “She’s ice-cold.”
The men piled two more coats on top of her.
“Most bizarre thing I’ve ever seen in the fifteen years I’ve been a night watchman,” Randolph said.
“Damn,” Mack said, tightening his grip on Bella’s other hand. “Here come the media.”
Before Devlyn could step on the gas and leave the cop behind in the dust, Argos grabbed his arm. “Wait.”
The policeman spoke into his radio. “You’ve got what?” Then he leaned into the open SUV window and said to Devlyn, “Got another call. Slow it down, will you, bud?”
“Yes, sir,” Devlyn said, as amicably as he could. His hands still clutched the steering wheel with a death grip.
The policeman nodded and then hurried back to his car, shouting to the other officer, “Problem at the zoo. You’re never going to believe this.”
Devlyn glanced at Argos, whose tanned face had turned gray.
When Devlyn finally reached the zoo’s main entrance, he shut off his headlights and drove into the zoo’s lower parking lot. But the sight of the police cars’ and an ambulance’s flashing lights washing the area near the zoo’s entrance in a prism of color sent a splinter of ice into his heart. She would live. The cold or some animal’s injury—if minor enough—wouldn’t kill her, but how in the hell was he t
o secret her away?
“When the ambulance leaves, follow them to the hospital,” Argos said, as if reading Devlyn’s mind. “We can more easily slip her out of there than we could have here.”
Sitting in the dark, like when the pack went on a hunt, they waited quietly for their prey to appear. The thought of hunting Bella sent a surge of heat through his system, a longing he had no business feeling, a lustful desire for her he could never fulfill.
The paramedics rolled her out to the ambulance; her red hair spilled over the stretcher, the blankets burying her under the covers. Devlyn could only imagine how close to death she’d come. His anger boiled deep inside. How could she be so foolish as to leave the pack like she did? This is the kind of trouble she’d get in for it. She needed a pack leader to keep her in line. No, not the pack leader…him.
Despite the knowledge that she didn’t want him, or any of his kind, she was tied to him—bound together not only by the fire that killed her family, but by something deeper, more primal. He sought to rise above the darkness that filled him with wanting—with the soul-wrenching yearning for the little red wolf. But part of him wouldn’t submit.
Argos cleared his gravelly throat. “We’ll all go into the hospital and try to create some distraction so that we can remove her. Until then, I’ll let you find out where she is and how serious her injuries are. If she’s too bad, we may have to let her stay overnight and take her out sometime after that.”
Still brooding over the circumstances of her captivity, Devlyn had every intention of moving her tonight. Their own healers could take care of her much better than the human doctors could because of the many years they’d practiced medicine. Devlyn and his packmates had to remove her before anyone discovered too much about her. But it was more than that. He wanted to hold her tightly in his grasp again, to reassure himself that she was safe in his care. He wouldn’t wait a second longer than necessary.