“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.