She listened behind her for sounds of Devlyn stirring. Poor old gray. She’d worn him out. Wake up, Devlyn!
Alfred inched toward her.
“You don’t believe me?” She continued to speak loudly. Devlyn!
“I believe you, Bella, because you’re scared of the gray, Volan. But I don’t believe you’d use the bullets on one of us. We’re your kind, no matter how much you choose to deny it.”
He could see through her better than she’d hoped, and she didn’t feel he would listen to reason. She tried another tactic. “One of you might be the killer of all those women,” she lied, knowing none of their scents had been in the murdered girl’s apartment. Then again, any one of them, or all three, could be covering for the bastard who killed her, which was just as bad. “I’d be doing the rest of our kind a big service if I ended his life.”
“But which one, Bella? Which one of us would you choose? Surely you wouldn’t want to kill two innocent lupus garou. Two of your own kind” He repeated the last words, attempting to sway her. “Of course, that’s saying that one of us is the killer. It could be any of my pack, or even a lone, rogue wolf. No doubt some are living here. Why, look at you, sweet thing.” Alfred’s lips curved up. “Who would have ever thought we had a female right under our noses, living as a rogue for all of this time?”
“But we found evidence of her in the woods when we... “ Ross said, but Alfred waved his hand to silence him.
He continued to cross the floor at an easy pace, his step shortened, trying not to force her into a corner where she might use the weapon on him. The others waited. He was the alpha male. It was his business to take her, to make her obey him. To force her to tuck her tail, whimper, and bow her head.
Having no intention of giving in to the red’s words or actions, she lifted her chin and drew herself up as tall as she could. Then, remembering the gold necklace she found in the woods, she pulled it out of her pocket. “Recognize this?”
Alfred stared at it but didn’t say a word. Nicol looked a little green.
“Never saw it before in my life,” Alfred said. “What of it?”
“The killer dropped it after murdering one of the women. Sure you don’t recognize it? Nicol seems to.” “That’s a lie,” Nicol snarled.
Something wasn’t right. Did he know the killer? The girl the red had murdered?
She shoved the necklace back in her pocket. “Well, it’s evidence that will put the killer away. As for the three of you, I want you to leave my home this instant.”
Alfred sneered. “We can’t, Bella. You belong to our pack now. Most important — you belong to me. I thought I’d made that abundantly clear.”
The thought that she’d be Alfred’s soured her stomach. “I thought we had a date later today, to bring you the fur sample.” She took a step back toward the hall, hoping to keep him talking until she could wake Sleeping Beauty.
Alfred cast her a sinister smile. “I’ll have the sample now. And you along with it.” His darkened brown eyes suddenly focused on the hall behind her.
She thought she heard it, too. The sound like the shifting of a body on a mattress from the direction of the bedroom.
For a second, Alfred hesitated. Then he directed a deadly glower at Ross. Under his breath, he growled, “I thought you said he wasn’t here.”
“Listen, Alfred, Nicol, and Ross,” she said, hoping that, if Devlyn heard her conversation with the reds, he’d realize they had three to handle. “I’ve already told you. I’m Devlyn’s mate.”
Then, as if worried the big gray would soon be more of a threat than Bella with her silver bullets, Alfred lunged at her.
Slowly aware something wasn’t right, Devlyn had sensed he no longer wrapped Bella securely in his arms. His eyes shot open. As groggy as he was, her harsh words, spoken loudly in the living room, forced a surge of adrenaline to spike his blood, readying him instantly to face the threat.
All that raced through his mind was saving Bella. He heard her say the reds’ names, warning Devlyn that the three had broken into the house.
Naked, he rushed out of the room and down the hall. Before he reached his mate, Alfred lunged at her, shoving her hand up.
Devlyn’s gaze pivoted to the gun she held. What the hell?
Alfred forced her to drop the weapon, and in the ensuing struggle, kicked it underneath the sofa. Instantly, Devlyn dove into Alfred. Knocking him aside, Devlyn broke the red’s grip on Bella’s arm.
Alfred jumped back. In a flash, he yanked a knife out of a sheath attached to his belt. Taunting Devlyn, he waved the weapon in front of him. He struck and then retreated.
With agility, Devlyn withdrew from him, away from Bella’s direction, allowing her to escape. Facing the others, he ensured that they couldn’t strike at his back in case they had the cowardly notion to do so.Neither advanced for the moment, waiting for their leader to take care of the gray, as any pack should do.
“You can’t do this,” Bella screamed at Alfred. “You have to fight each other in your wolf form. It’s our way!”
“He’s too much of a coward,” Devlyn goaded the red on. “He can’t get you any other way.”
Alfred’s face reddened and his eyes narrowed to angry slits. His lips formed a thin, grim line as he growled. Without warning, he slashed at Devlyn.
Devlyn jumped out of the path of the ten-inch blade. Bella gasped. Even now, Devlyn could smell the red’s putrid fear. The red hunched over, like a lupus garou who knew he couldn’t win. Yet, Alfred couldn’t show his pack that he was unable to triumph over the female he had chosen for his own.
In an attempt to rile Alfred, to rattle him so that he’d make a fatal mistake, Devlyn provoked him further. “What’s the matter, Alfred? Can’t convince a human girl to agree to be your wolfmate?”
“You can’t pin those murders on me.”
Nicol advanced on Bella in two bounds. She dashed toward the kitchen. Both Nicol and Ross tore after her, forcing a splinter of ice down Devlyn’s spine. They wouldn’t endanger her, just take her for their own. That thought sent another charge of adrenaline through his system, urging him on to eliminate the threat.
Alfred sliced the air with the knife, aimed at Devlyn’s chest. Devlyn dove out of his reach, the blade whooshing past his ear.
A drawer drew open in the kitchen and then slammed shut.
Alfred stabbed at Devlyn’s throat. He dodged the blade. But Bella’s situation distracted Devlyn. Not liking that he couldn’t see what was happening to her, he backed toward the kitchen.
She growled. Nicol yelped. After what sounded like a chair crashing, Bella reappeared in the living room, brandishing a bloodied carving knife. Nicol and Ross followed some distance behind her while she backed away from them, her weapon readied.
Blood dripped from Nicol’s arm, but he and Ross approached her anyway, one on either side. Checking on Bella, Alfred turned for an instant.
Devlyn grappled for his knife. Alfred swung at him again. Leaping out of the way, Devlyn narrowly missed the blade cutting his torso.
Bella waved her knife between Nicol and Ross. “Give it up,” she snarled. “I don’t want to hurt either of you.”
“Volan will never let you have her,” Devlyn said, hoping to talk some sense into them. He would never let them have her, but he hoped maybe the threat of two grays wanting her would make the reds cease and desist.
When Alfred continued to attack at him, Devlyn realized he had only two choices. Either he took Bella home to his territory where he assumed the reds would leave well enough alone, not wanting to fight a pack of larger grays, or he had to kill the reds at the first glimpse of the moon, when they all could appear in wolf form, here in their own territory.
Ross grabbed for Bella’s arm. Nicol hesitated on her other side, favoring his bloodied arm. As soon as Ross seized her wrist, she struck at him with the knife, slicing across his arm. He screamed in pain, released her, and jumped back.
Devlyn couldn’t help the swell of pride that filled him. In the same instant, he pounced on Alfred, knocking the red to the floor.
Alfred’s head hit hard against the carpeted concrete. An “oof” from deep within his chest escaped his lips from the jolt. A string of curses followed.
Devlyn pinned him to the floor with his bigger frame. He grappled with Alfred’s arm, trying to free the knife from his hand, but it slipped and cut the red across the abdomen. Alfred squawked.
“Don’t make a move toward them,” Bella warned Ross and Nicol.
Managing to bend the red’s wrist back, Devlyn pressured so hard that Alfred’s thumb could no longer grasp the handle. Devlyn yanked the knife out of Alfred’s hand.
Bella waved her weapon at Nicol and Ross. “I didn’t want to hurt you. Any of you. But if you don’t leave now — “
“He can’t have you,” Nicol said, backing off. Ross followed him. “The gray can’t have you.”
Devlyn let Alfred up. He would have killed them all for trying to take his mate, but only if they’d been in wolf form. As humans, they were bound to obey human law. As wolves, the law of the jungle prevailed. The strongest and most cunning won. Survival of the fittest.
“You can’t have her,” Alfred said, standing, his face flushed and his eyes haunted. “She’s a red and in our territory.” His words were dark and menacing, but he bowed his head like a beta wolf in front of the alpha male, defeated and not willing to be whipped any further, submitting to the gray, no matter how much it hurt his male wolf pride.
“We fight like wolves the next time,” Devlyn said, his gaze intense, forcing the reds to agree.
Even if Alfred and his followers didn’t like the idea of dealing with him wolf to wolf, their failed attempt at taking Bella had wounded the red pack leader’s pride too deeply to try again. Plus, their injuries would need time to heal. Then the moon’s appearance would tell all.