Terry Spear’s Wolf Bundle (8 page)

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.”

A
ROADBLOCK
. T
WO 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 away 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.”

“Natural causes. Let it be by natural causes.” But she knew it wasn’t, knew it had to be the killer she’d tried to track in the Cascades. She recognized his scent right before zoo man Thompson had caught her on her jaunt through the woods. Was it one of the two wolves she saw watching her at the stream? She couldn’t be sure. The
breeze had shifted and it might have disguised which of them it was. Or it might have been another, one she hadn’t seen, hidden in the woods.

The sound of shattering glass in a room down the hall incited Devlyn to surge forward, but as an afterthought, he turned to her. “Stay here…and don’t leave.”

She nodded, realizing he wanted to keep her safe, but her blood heated that he’d think she’d run out on him when their situation only grew bleaker by the moment.

The strong odor of incense filling the living area overwhelmed the faint odor of blood emanating from what she assumed must be the bedroom.

Everything in the place appeared immaculately clean, as though a maid had just tidied up, except for a patch of…

She drew closer to the pale blue sofa. Coarse brown hair, reddish at the tips, clung to the back. She reached out to collect it.

Devlyn rushed out of the bedroom. “Let’s go, Bella.” His stern face allowed no argument. He seized her wrist and jerked her toward the door. “Now, Bella, now!”

“What happened?”

After pulling her from the apartment, he slammed the door. “A woman around your age, murdered in bed.” He rushed Bella back to the SUV. “We have to risk driving. We can’t be caught here.”

“How was she killed?”

He banged her door shut and ran to the other side of the vehicle. As soon as he started the ignition, he turned to her. “A wild animal ripped out her throat.”

“
Lupus garou,
” she whispered. “They’ll think it’s us.”

“They’ll think it’s a wild animal. Werewolves are fanciful legends concocted by our human ancestors, remember? But it fits. He killed her before the waning moon completely faded.”

“But the sound of the glass shattering—”

“He must have been living here for the last couple of days. By breaking into the place, we startled him, and he busted the window and took off. The window must have been stuck tight.” Devlyn sped out of the parking lot.

“They’ll think the killer is Rosa, the freed wolf…me, because she’d be the only wild wolf loose in the city.”

He pursed his lips and pinched his brows in a frown. “Possibly. If zoo man Thompson gets hold of this news, he may think the woman had something to do with freeing Rosa, that she kept her in the apartment, or maybe they’ll think it’s another wild wolf.”

“We have to stop him.”

He glanced at her, his dark brows lifted. “I have only one mission and that’s returning you to Colorado and the pack.”

She shook her head. “He’s one of mine.”

Devlyn stared at her like she’d lost her mind.

“He’s a red.” She raised the clump of hair she’d hastily plucked from the couch. “We have to stop him before he exposes the legend for what it really is—fact.”

“No. Humans are already hunting us.”

“You didn’t…didn’t kill Thompson or the cops, did you?”

The look Devlyn gave her made her wish she had never spoken the cutting words. Dark-seated hurt flashed
across his eyes. He clenched his jaw and turned to watch his driving. “We’re being hunted because you and I freed a little red wolf from the zoo and because I liberated you from the hospital, knocking some officials out in the process. I’m sure they consider me armed and dangerous. I’m not sure what they think of you, considering you were naked and nearly frozen.”

“I’m sorry, Devlyn. This whole thing’s kind of gotten to me.
Lupus garous
don’t kill humans without good reason.”

“This one did.”

“Yes, and we have to make sure he doesn’t again.”

“Not us. His own pack, Bella.”

“Then we have to make them aware that he’s doing this.” She wouldn’t stand by and let it continue, though her own investigation hadn’t turned up much. But the scent of the one in the apartment definitely matched the smell she had caught a whiff of in the woods. Was he one of the ones she saw at the zoo? She’d been only able to catch the smell of one of them because of the way the breeze shifted at random. She couldn’t have identified which one the scent had belonged to. But at least one was in the clear.

Concentrating on his driving, Devlyn didn’t say anything for a moment. “No, Bella, we’re not contacting the reds.”

Taking an exasperated breath, she reached over and touched his hand. “We have to.”

“Damn it, Bella, you’re going to get us both caught and in a hell of a lot more trouble.”

She folded her arms. “We have to,” she growled. “We owe it to our kind.”

Again, a shimmer of something elusive crossed his face. For several more minutes, he remained quiet, and she knew he was coming to a decision. He finally let out his breath. “All right.”

Relief shadowed with worry skittered across her skin. “Thank you.”

“I hope we don’t live to regret this,” he groused, “but it’s about time you realized where you belonged.”

For a second, she didn’t respond, wondering where the hell that came from. Then the realization struck her—she’d given up
lupus garou
to live with humans and now wanted to help her own kind.
That’s
why he agreed. Hoping what? She’d give up the notion of finding a human male to mate?

Figuring he had made a concession and might change his mind if she ticked him off, she bit her tongue before she made a hasty retort. “Did he urinate in the apartment?” she asked instead.

Devlyn studied her for a moment, took a long breath, and nodded.

“His territory. Do you think he wanted her, and she grew terrified when he changed into the wolf?”

“Maybe.”

“Maybe not? Does he just want to kill humans?”

Devlyn gripped the steering wheel tightly.

“Devlyn?”

Through clenched teeth, he said, “She was a redhead, Bella. He’s a red
lupus garou
looking for a mate. There must be a shortage of eligible females in the area.”

Bella’s throat felt parched as if she’d crossed the Badlands without a lick of water.

Devlyn continued, “He must have convinced her he loved her and then risked changing to turn her. Only she would have been terrified. Humans can’t deal with what we are, Bella. Can’t you understand that?”

This wasn’t about the woman. She figured this was about Bella wanting a human male.

“You see now why I didn’t want you involved?” he asked. “If he catches sight of you…”

He shook his head.

Rubbing her temple, she tried to figure out a way to alert the killer’s pack. “The two men at the zoo are probably related to the killer’s pack. We have to send word to them. Find them somehow.”

“How do you propose to do that when we’re on the run?”

“Take us to Tigard; it’s south of Portland. That’s where I live, and we can use it as our base for the time being.”

He scowled at her. “The things I do for you.”

“Yeah,” she said huskily, “like relieving my…tension.”

He glanced at her, granting her a wicked, wolfish smile that said he wanted to eat her all up, and she wondered then if he’d want to do more to relieve her tension the next time. But a police cruiser passed them by, and she shrank in her seat, remembering the danger they were still in.

Thirty minutes later, they reached Bella’s house without incident, thank the stars. But until they’d hidden
the rental SUV, she still didn’t feel safe. And if her neighbor saw her coming home in a different vehicle than the one she’d left in, the questioning would begin in earnest.

Good-natured Chrissie was truly a friend, but she was also too curious for her own good.

At four in the morning, the area remained blanketed in black, except for two security lights highlighting the entryway of the peach stone two-bedroom house.