by Terry Spear
Bella whispered to Devlyn, “Thompson is never going to know what hit him.”
“Husband candidate number two, don’t you think?”
Bella nodded. “Poor man. Wait until he finds out she’s got a couple of elementary school-age kids.”
When Chrissie reached the front door, she said to Thompson, “Maybe you can explain to me why the animals are so much better off in a zoo. Never know. You might even convince me to change my mind.”
“Yeah, well, Miss Wilder—”
“Call me Chrissie. That’s what everyone calls me. Here, can you help me with my coat?”
“Sure.”
“Hmm, such a big man with large capable hands, but with a tender touch. I bet you keep all those wild animals in line, don’t you, but with finesse?”
The front door slammed shut.
If Bella hadn’t been trembling so hard, Devlyn would have laughed out loud at Chrissie’s actions. Instead, he held Bella close and hugged the breath from her chest. Kissing her head, he said, “What do you want to do now?”
“My heart tells me to run…to hide. I don’t want to go to jail or back to a zoo cage. I don’t want to expose our people for what they are.”
“What about the red lupus garou killer?”
“We have to stop him no matter what.” She ran her hands over Devlyn’s arms. “I hope Chrissie won’t be hurt.”
“What do you imagine she thinks about us?”
Bella looked up at Devlyn. “That you’re some kind of wild guy. She’s always thought of me as very tame-natured. Quiet lifestyle—no dating, carousing, partying. Just nature retreats from time to time. But since you arrived—”
Devlyn chuckled.
“I’m sure she thinks you’re a bad influence.”
“What do you think?”
“I’d have to agree…happily.”
Kissing her cheek, he slipped his hands inside her dress. She shook her head.
“Ah, Bella.”
“We have work to do. Play later. You know as well as I do—”
“We have to find the killer.”
“And we won’t find him—”
Devlyn smiled. “In your bed.”
“You always could finish my sentences when we were young.” She changed out of her dress and into black denims and a turtleneck.
“I always knew what you were thinking, lovely Bella.”
“Not always.” She pulled her hiking boots out of the closet.
“Oh? Tell me a for instance.” He pulled his shirt on.
“The time I caught you kissing Vernetta.”
“You wished it was you and not her.” He buttoned the last of his buttons.
Bella growled. “I did not! I wanted to…to—”
“You wanted me to kiss you. Admit it, Bella.” The scene played back in his mind like it was only yesterday. She’d just turned sixteen, he nineteen. Vernetta was twenty, but meaner than a bull on steroids. If it hadn’t been for Volan keeping an eye on Bella, the rufus lupus would have been the one Devlyn would have shared his kisses with.
Bella growled again and yanked one of her shoes on, tied the leather laces, and then the other.
He smiled to see her cheeks on fire, now as red as her hair. “I only kissed her on a dare.”
“Right,” she snapped.
“Really. Three of my older cousins had tried to kiss her. She’d bitten each in return. They bet me that she would bite me, too.”
Bella rose and folded her arms. “But she didn’t. She kissed you back.”
He buckled his belt. “Yeah, I won that bet, but I hadn’t expected it. She wasn’t the one I wanted to kiss.”
“Volan,” Bella said with disgust.
Devlyn laughed. “No, I didn’t want to kiss him, either.”
“No, Devlyn, I meant, ohhhhh…” She stormed down the hall in the direction of the kitchen.
He stalked after her. “You’re right. I wanted to kiss you, but Volan was always in my way.”
She grabbed her fleece-lined jacket and headed for the kitchen door to the garage. “But that day after the lake—”
“I had to have you, Bella.” He pulled her into his arms. “I had to taste you, savor you, force myself to realize you weren’t the one for me, only some lustful desire that drove me insane. Some dream I had that you were all I had imagined you to be and more, but just a dream. I had to wake myself from the dream, prove once and for all that you were nothing more than forbidden fruit. Tantalizing, tasty, but really just like all of the others. But once I felt you against my body, soft and curvy, wet and…hell, Bella, you were real and my dreams of you were real. Once I’d kissed you, held you close, I knew no one could ever replace you in my heart.”
“And Vernetta?”
“Becoming an old wolf maid.”
“Good.” Bella separated from Devlyn, yanked the door open, and crossed the floor to the vehicle.
“Where are we going?”
She sighed deeply. “I was thinking of taking a drive to my cabin.”
“I thought we were trying to catch a red lupus garou killer.” He could tell by the gentle upward curve of her mouth she was thinking of something sinful.
She ran her tongue over her lips. “All work and no play…but truthfully, near there is where I smelled the reds before. Maybe we could find some evidence that we missed before.”
“Gotcha.” He jumped into the driver’s seat.
“I only wish we could be in our wolf forms for a while.”
Knowing she wanted him to make love to her in both states—in civilization, in their silky human skin, and in the wild, covered in sleek pelts of fur—he totally agreed. “Four more days.”
“The longest I’ve ever had to wait for the moon to appear.”
The two-hour long drive to Bella’s cabin seemed like it grew longer with every mile they drove. Maybe because her thoughts were in such turmoil. What if they discovered the killer in the woods? Or Alfred and his gang?
She shook her head at herself, annoyed she could work herself up likely over nothing. Alfred and his pack members wouldn’t be running around in the woods unless they could change into wolves. And surely the killer wouldn’t hang around there either.
Devlyn reached over and rubbed her shoulder. “A deep trench is dug into your forehead. Want to tell me what’s worrying you?”
“Chrissie and the zoo man. For starters. What if Chrissie let something slip by accident? I know she’s smart, and after having raised her two kids as a single parent for the last three years, she has a lone wolf’s wariness. But Thompson is clever, too. What if he hit on Chrissie’s vulnerability? She desperately wants a man in her life again. Someone who cares for her children, and believe me—they mean the world to her. But she wants someone who loves her and she loves in return, too. It could happen if she thinks he might be the one.”
“I think she’s got a lot more moxie than you give her credit for. I’ll bet she doesn’t give an inch. I can just see her talking Thompson around in circles over the wolves and what might have happened to Rosa. And all he’ll get out of it is another commitment for a dinner out or some other kind of date.”
Bella gave Devlyn a sly smile. “Yeah. I’m sure you’re right. You certainly are observant. Most males aren’t half as perceptive.”
He cast her a smug look. “It’s in the genes. So what else is bothering you?”
“Well, I worried that maybe Alfred and his pack would be running around the woods, but I dismissed that because I’m sure they wouldn’t unless they were wearing their wolf suits.”
“Agreed.”
“But then I wondered if maybe the killer might be there, hiding somewhere.”
Devlyn squared his shoulders and sat taller. “Maybe. If so, I’ll take care of him and that will be the end of that matter.”
She took a deep breath and released it.
“Do you have a problem with that?” he asked, giving her a quizzical look.
“No. He couldn’t kill any
longer. Mission accomplished. Then we could return home.”
“What about Alfred and the rest?”
Bella touched Devlyn’s hair. “They’ll have to get along without me.” She pointed to a gravel road off to the right ahead. “Turn there.”
He headed off the main road and drove down the gravel road for five miles until they finally arrived at her cabin. Her Escape was still parked out front. Everything appeared the same as before, when she’d gone on her wolf run and Thompson had found her.
“You don’t mind going home anymore?” Devlyn asked.
Hating that she was living such a horrible lie, she swallowed hard. “If…when Volan returns home, I have every faith you’ll handle him.”
Devlyn leaned back against the driver’s seat. “If?”
“I meant when. It’ll probably take him a while before he realizes we’ve returned to Colorado, don’t you think?”
He cast a wary look her way and then opened his door. “Right.” But he sounded like he didn’t believe her.
Damn it, she had to get her feelings under control. Not only that, but she worried he might smell her nervousness. Oh, hell, of course he had. Except he said he saw the furrow in her brow instead.
He lifted his chin up and observed the thunderheads building overhead; she pulled her jacket on and zipped it up. She smelled the rain in the air and knew it wouldn’t hold off for long. “Storm on its way.”
“Maybe we can find something before the rain starts.” He buttoned up his jacket and joined her. Slipping his hands under her jacket, he rested them on her waist. Brushing her lips, he pressed further and gave her a searing kiss. She kissed him back but trembled, and he pulled her tight against his body. “Tell me, Bella, what’s really bothering you?”
She fought the tears welling up.
“Bella honey?” His dark eyes willed her to speak the truth.
She took a hesitant breath. “I’ve always felt safe here until the day Thompson shot me. I didn’t think it would bother me, but, well, it…does. A…a little.”
Devlyn nuzzled her cheek, warming the cold skin. “I thought so. No hunting season right now. Most likely no one will be tromping around in the cold and wet. And it’s a weekday, so most everyone is in school or at work. Thompson’s busy with Chrissie, so no worry about him looking to find additions for the zoo. But if you’d like, you can wait for me at your cabin and—”
She straightened her back. “No. I’ll show you where I smelled the reds’ scents. I didn’t know what the murderer’s scent smelled like before, but now that we both do, maybe we can pick it up here.”
He kissed her nose and smiled. “Your nose is icy. Let’s get this over with quickly then.”
She agreed. Her veins already felt like they were filled with ice and her fingers and toes were beginning to numb. She reached into her pockets and pulled out a pair of gloves. “Let’s go.”
For an hour, Devlyn and Bella searched for clues, listening to every sound they could hear—the shivering of pine needles and leaves; the whoosh of the wet, chilly breeze; the rustling of a deer moving through the underbrush; Bella’s rapid breathing.
He moved closer to her and rubbed her arms, her cheeks, and her nose red. Part of him wished she’d stayed back at her cabin, but another part was glad she was with him where he could keep an eye on her. Twice, he’d smelled the scent of Alfred and Ross on the breeze; he thought it was an old scent, yet he didn’t trust her being alone.
“You’re not too cold, are you?” he asked, his voice hushed.
Her eyes had darkened and grew wide. He’d sensed it, too—someone watching, and a hint of something else. He moved closer to the smell and caught sight of drops of dried blood spread over a cluster of brown leaves. Bella crouched beside him, barely breathing, yet he could hear her heart beating pell-mell. He lifted to his nose a leaf covered in drops of blood and took a deep breath.
“Is it hers?” Bella whispered.
He shook his head, relieved but dismayed, too. They needed to find evidence of the red’s complicity. “Rabbit’s,” he clarified.
Letting out her breath, she surveyed the area. He shifted his attention and made a wide sweep but saw nothing out of the ordinary. The breeze picked up and a clap of thunder shook the ground.
He glanced at Bella and saw her tremble again. “Do you want to go back to the vehicle?”
“No. We’ll keep looking. Let’s search where I was shot.”
Admiring her determination, he grasped her arm and helped her up. “You let me know when you want to go back.”
They moved at a slow pace, searching the ground for canine prints or blood and the branches for broken twigs or any other sign of a struggle.
Lightning streaked across the sky and another clash of thunder sounded like it broke the sound barrier. Devlyn stuck close to Bella and they moved away from the spot of the rabbit kill, climbing over moss-covered logs and through dense ferns, lifting their noses to smell any scents that could give them a clue about the murderer or the murdered girl.
When he smelled the water, heard it rushing over the stony creek bed, Bella seized Devlyn’s hand and pulled him to a stop. “Omigosh, look, a family of mink,” she whispered, her voice excited as she pointed through the trees to the creek’s bank.
Devlyn’s attention was rooted to the ground. “Fresh bear tracks,” he warned. Looking around, he spied movement in the trees about twenty yards away. “Over there.” He pointed to the striking cinnamon-colored black bear lumbering in the woods.
“We’re upwind of him. I can’t smell him.”
“You’re right. He’s gotten wind of us,” Devlyn said, his voice raised. He knew from experience to always keep upwind of a bear and to make noise so that he wouldn’t startle one. Although a wolf could take on a bear, bears were known to have killed wolves, too. Certainly as humans, they didn’t stand a chance if the bear decided to attack and kill.
“He was foraging in the blackberry bushes,” Bella added, her voice just as loud. “We need to give him a wide berth.”
The bear rose to stand on his hind legs.
“He’s checking us out,” Devlyn said, moving Bella away from the beast.
The bear lifted his nose and smelled the air and then exhaled a series of several sharp, rasping huffs.
The wind shifted and now they could smell him.
“He’s agitated.” Bella took hold of Devlyn’s hand.
The bear’s long snout curled up and he snarled.
“He’s really not happy.” Bella took a few steps backward. “I think he’s going to charge.”
As unpredictable as bears could be, humans usually couldn’t tell what they intended to do. But as lupus garous, they could smell the bear’s fear and agitation.
“Keep moving backward,” Devlyn said in a firm, controlled voice. “Keep talking and moving away from him.”
Bella stumbled over a broken tree limb behind her, and the bear dropped to his feet and charged.
Devlyn yanked Bella to her feet and shoved her behind him, but the bear stopped a few yards short and roared.
“We’re going!” Devlyn yelled back at the bear. “I sure as hell wish I had my wolf teeth about now.”
The bear stood facing them, either getting ready to charge again or waiting for them to withdraw.
Another fork of wicked lightning smacked the ground a mile away and deafening thunder boomed a second later, unleashing the rains.
Unruffled, the bear stood his ground despite the rain pelting all of them.
Devlyn maneuvered Bella back toward the edge of the forest next to the creek. “Ready to ford it?”
“I don’t think we have much of a choice, although I hadn’t really planned on wading today.”
“Come on, let’s go.” Devlyn hurried her across the stony bank and pulled her into the icy water.
They started to cross the creek, taking it easy over the moss-covered stones while the bear lumbered toward them. As soon as Devlyn felt his feet slipping out
from under him, he released Bella so he wouldn’t pull her down with him, but she lost her balance anyway and they both fell into the creek.
“Damn, sorry, Bella honey.” Both soaking wet, Devlyn scrambled to his feet, helped Bella up, and then moved her as fast as he could to the other side.
Her lips were turning blue and her pace was sluggish.
“He’s not following us across the creek,” Bella said, casting a glance over her shoulder, her teeth chattering.
“No, but we’ll have to make a wide sweep north of him, where the land’s not as steep, and head back toward the…” Devlyn pulled Bella to a stop on the opposite bank, and his gaze searched the woods for signs of anyone. He thought he’d smelled the murdering red. He thought he’d caught a glimpse of a dark green jacket, nearly blending with the Douglas fir, withdrawing deeper into the forest. But the rainfall was so heavy and the water ran down his face so hard that he could barely see.
“It’s him,” Bella whispered, her voice on edge.
“Did you see him, too?”
She cast Devlyn a fearful glance. “Did you see him?”
“Not sure. Come on. We need to head north.”
“You smelled him, didn’t you, Devlyn?”
“Might have been an old scent.”
He thought he heard her snort, but the sound was muffled in the rain.
For a good half hour, Devlyn and Bella moved through the forest. Although the woods impeded their progress, he didn’t want them exposed along the rocky bank of the creek. And the trees helped deflect some of the pounding rain. But he couldn’t help feeling that the red was following them.
He thought he heard a branch snap behind them once, but the rain poured down in such a torrent that it was hard to hear anything else.
“I think we should cross here,” Bella said, her teeth clattering. “The terrain isn’t as steep on the other side of the creek.”
Holding her hand with a titan grip, he helped her across the creek and up on the opposite bank. When they reached the shelter of the Douglas firs, he pulled her to a stop and watched for any signs of movement in the woods they’d left behind.
Silently, they observed the sheets of rain pounding the branches and the creek bank while he tucked Bella under his arm and held her shivering body close.