Authors: Terry Spear
Liar.
Do you know Papagalli’s? Rosa The dance club? Charlie Yep. Make it for seven? Rosa
The more the merrier.
See you there. Oh, what will you be wearing? Charlie Something black. And you? Rosa Something to match. Charlie
Most everyone wore black to the club, and she had no plan to stick out. Another lupus would smell her scent.
Humans wouldn’t have a clue as to who she was, and best to leave it that way.
The kitchen door to the garage slammed shut, sending her heart skittering. Jumping up from the chair, she nearly knocked it over in her haste and headed for the garage. She didn’t believe Devlyn would run off and expose himself to the world while the police were looking for them just because she’d angered him. She yanked the door open.
He’d taken the SUV.
Her heart sank. Damn him!
Still, she hated herself for having said he couldn’t fight a gray, stomping his male wolf ego into the ground.
Trying not to worry about him, she toasted a slice of bread and coated it with wild blackberry jam, the smell reminding her of picking berries fresh over the summer. The tart sweet flavor touched her tongue, and instantly the image of Devlyn crowding her while she leaned over blackberry brambles filled her mind with wishful thinking. Attempting to clear her mind of the foolish notion, she finished her toast and headed out to the greenhouse.
The fragrant scent of Colorado wildflowers comforted her and she pruned, watered, and weeded for a couple of hours before she returned to the house. Because of the time she’d spent in the zoo, the website contracts she received were piling up, so she headed back to her office, trying to ignore the fact that all she really could think about was Devlyn and making up with him.
But the making up would come only after she got over being mad at him for leaving like he did and worrying her sick.
While she designed a redwood forest for a lumber company, her email butler walked across the screen.
She clicked on her email messages. Ten new messages. But the address of the sixth message caught her eye: Argos.
Bella, I’m worried that we haven’t heard from you. Can we meet somewhere? I have some news I’m sure you’ll want to hear. Argos
She rubbed her temple. Was Volan dead? That’s the only news she’d want to hear. Had another wolf infiltrated the pack and was now the leader?
Argos, where are you? Bella
I’m here, in town. I’m using the main library’s computer, but there aren’t many patrons and I fear someone’s following me. Can we meet somewhere later? Argos
She took a deep breath. Argos and Devlyn could both protect her if she were meeting the killer red wolf tonight. She considered telling him about the wolf they were trying to catch, but decided against it. He’d be just like Devlyn — his only concern would be returning her home. Argos wouldn’t agree to her risking her life over a red
lupus garou
from another pack.
Papagalli’s Dance Club. Seven. Bella
See you there. Argos
Email messages were an addiction. She had no ability to shut them off; instead, she began to read all of them. Most had the same kind of message. Red male
lupus
wishes to meet with female of his kind. Can we arrange to rendezvous and when? Like soonest? She responded to all of them:
Meet me at Papagalli’s Dance Club.
The biggest crowd Papagalli’s had ever seen on a Thursday night would show up. She sent the last of the responses zinging into cyberspace and then returned to working on clients’ web pages.
A nagging at the back of her mind gnawed at her — that Devlyn was living a James Bond life of danger when he stormed out of the house. He had no right to worry her. But she knew he had to get away, stretch his legs, work his anger out on his own. Still, she had every intention of giving him a tongue lashing when he returned home for worrying her so.
She groaned as the thought of his tongue sliding down her skin popped into her mind. Maybe a little bit of wolf courtship would smooth out the rough edges of what she’d said to hurt his ego.
Bella worked for several hours on web pages, getting so wrapped up in her designs that she hadn’t noticed the time slip away. When she realized the noon hour had arrived and Devlyn still hadn’t returned, a slice of worry cut into her heart.
She walked into the living room and stared out the picture window. No sign of the SUV. Damn him for leaving.
A knock at her front door forced a shudder down her spine. She stalked toward the door but then hesitated.
What if the police had caught Devlyn? What if they came for her now, too?
Peering out the peephole,Bella found Chrissie standing on her doorstep and figured the questioning would truly begin. Taking a deep breath, she yanked the door open, relieved it wasn’t the police. “Hi, Chrissie.”
Her next-door neighbor looked a bit astonished, her blue eyes wide and her blushing lips parted. She was wearing a short chiffon skirt and flowery blouse, a little too spring-like for the weather and a lot too dressy for just dropping by. “Oh, I, well, I wondered if you might like an apple pie. To thank you for taking me to the grocery store this morning.”
An apple pie?
Chrissie had always been generous to a fault with Bella, relishing their friendship because she had been an only child and was estranged from her parents — they had told her the guy she married was no good and were still mad at her for not listening to them. Now she was raising her two kids on her own and Bella couldn’t understand how Chrissie’s parents could be so insensitive. But the kids were the ex’s, too, and that made all the difference in the world to the parents.
Bella sighed.
Had Chrissie thought
Bella
had left the house and not Devlyn? Chrissie had never baked a pie for Bella before when she’d taken her to the grocery store or on other errands. She was after the man hunk, only she wasn’t taming that big gray.
Bella should have been annoyed, but she was more amused than anything. “Thank you, Chrissie. I have to warn you, though, Devlyn’s more of a red meat kind of guy. Not all that much into sweets.”
The kitchen door slammed shut and Bella jumped slightly. She glanced back at Devlyn, furious he’d taken off, but glad to see him safely home. He strode across the living room, his expression still stormy, his back stiff, a light sheen of sweat above his brows shimmering in the living room’s natural light.
“Who says I’m not into sweets?” he countered, his brows raised, challenging Bella. “I like my dessert, often, just as much as any other guy.”
She knew damned well he didn’t like sugary treats all that much. Was he trying to undermine her? Get in good with Chrissie for Bella cutting his masculinity down earlier?
“Well, that’s good then.” Chrissie beamed at Devlyn and handed the pie to Bella, pausing as if waiting for an invitation.
“I guess your kids are due home soon,” Bella said, hoping they were.
“Not for another three and a half hours.” Chrissie looked at Devlyn, a smile still curving her lips. Her dark curls framed her sweet face like a gray
lupus garou’s
might when in human form. She stood taller than Bella, too, more like the females of his pack, and she definitely had the hots for Devlyn.
Placing his hands on his hips, Devlyn turned to Bella. “I took a run to work out some tension and then picked up a couple of things for us to eat. Didn’t care for the slim pickings in your fridge. Maybe you can fix the steak for us. You know how I like it — on the bloody side. I’m going to hop in the shower.” He wiped his cheek on his sleeve. “I smell kind of... ripe.”
She couldn’t help giving him a crooked smile. Yeah, she could smell the scent of him, all male, sweaty, and totally loveable. “Um, yeah, well... “
He waited for her response. She wanted to tell him she would join him, but she couldn’t, not unless she told him she’d be his mate. Otherwise, she’d let things go too far.
He raised a brow, challenging her. “Coming?”
As a mature
lupus garou,
Devlyn proved hotter than the blue flicker of the flame — a
wicked
wolf, and all hers if she’d just give the go ahead.
She turned to her neighbor. “Um, Chrissie, thanks for the pie. I’ll talk to you later.”
Chrissie’s green eyes bulged like a Pekinese’s.
Bella smiled. “Sorry, that’s the problem with renewing old relationships. They can be awfully demanding.”
Chrissie stammered, “Uh, yeah, well, okay. Talk to you later.”
Bella closed the door and then turned to Devlyn. “Where the hell have you been?” she snapped, the irritation still racing high to think she’d worried so about his safety.
“Running. I already said so,” he retorted, his own voice still angry. He stormed off in the direction of the bedroom.
Setting the pie on the coffee table, she dashed after him. “You do not like sweets, liar.”
He turned to her, his eyes dark and angry. “I do too love sweets, Bella. Your kind of sweets.” But he wasn’t smiling.
A surge of lust coursed through her body. She wanted him, really she did. But... “You’ve been gone several hours. You couldn’t have been running all that time.”
“I took a trip to the Cascades.”
Her heart sped up. “Because?”
“The killer might have run there sometime or another.” His hard gaze pierced her. “Were the reds aware you had a cabin there? That you took your jaunts there?”
She bit her lip. “I saw two in their wolf forms and smelled their scent on the breeze. I thought the murdering wolf might have been one of them. But I didn’t know at the time what he smelled like. How did you know I had a cabin there?”
“Found paperwork in your office when I went to email Argos.”
“You could have asked. So, did you find any clues?”
He shook his head. “But what bothers me is, if they knew you were there, why didn’t any try to approach you?”
“They did, except they must have smelled the hunter nearby and took off right before I was shot. I’d only smelled their scent in the area the weekend before. Tons of forests exist in Oregon. The clan must normally go somewhere else, probably closer to Portland, maybe around Mount Hood.”
“Then somehow one of them must have been in the area near your cabin, getting away from the rest of the clan. Maybe the one who murdered the human girl was with her there and he picked up your scent. If he let it slip to anyone else, any of the eligible males would have been searching for you after that.” Devlyn snorted. “Good thing I came along when I did.”
Despite agreeing with him silently, she hmpfed back.
He motioned to the bedroom. “Join me?” His offer was more than a proposal to shower with him. It was tantamount to joining him as his mate.
“I’ve already showered.”
Turning his back to her, he stalked into the bedroom. “Fix lunch, then. I’ll be out in a few.”
His demand and dismissal should have bothered her, but they didn’t. What annoyed her were her own actions, or rather inactions. She listened to the shower turn on and his shoes drop on the floor. If she joined him, he’d be one satisfied wolf mate, but she couldn’t do it. It would be like sacrificing him to the devil wolf, Volan. She couldn’t stomach the idea that the pack leader would kill him.
When Bella didn’t join Devlyn in the bathroom, he knew he’d have a hell of a time convincing her that he was the only one for her, but he wasn’t giving up. Then it occurred to him. What had she been doing the whole time he’d been gone?
He finished his shower, grabbed a towel, and wrapped it around his waist.
With a quick stride, he returned to her office and checked her email. He read through the messages she’d sent in response to her red wolf invitation, not believing she’d invited half of the world to a dance club that night. More worrisome was Argos’s cryptic message to her.
The old pack leader wouldn’t return for her unless something terrible had happened, but he would have said if Volan had been killed.
He turned when Bella’s light footsteps entered the office.
“Your bloody steak is ready.” She glanced down at his towel. “Going to dress, or eat like that?”
He rose from the chair and crossed the floor to her. Taking her shoulders in his hands, he massaged them lightly. “Which do you prefer?”
Her gaze took in his bare chest. “Men don’t come to the dining table half-dressed.”
“Just the answer I was waiting for.” Yanking off the towel, he dropped it on the floor. “Ready?”
She glanced down at the towel and then back at his eyes, ignoring his full-blown erection. “I hope you intend to pick up after yourself.” She turned and headed down the hallway.
Following her, he enjoyed the wiggle of her cute little butt covered in the tight black denims. “Is that what you’re wearing tonight to meet all of your suitors?”
“Something a little sexier.”
“Don’t see anything unsexy about the jeans.”
She glanced over her shoulder. “Did you practice your smooth words on human females for all of those years?”
“Did it have the right effect on you?”
She gave a half grunt. “No. So what do you think about my plan?”
“Sounds like it could be a circus.” Sitting down at the head of the table, he smelled the rich blood of the fresh meat, warm and rare like he preferred.
She sat down opposite him. “Yeah, I thought maybe the more possible candidates we could draw out — “
“Fou could draw out.” He still couldn’t curb his anger with the notion of her acting as the killer’s live bait.
“I thought if a red acted aggressively about my seeing others — “
He pointed his steak knife at her. “What if that’s the problem? What if he can’t deal with other reds and because of that is having a difficult time finding a female to mate with him? What if the only ones he’s able to interest are human, but when he changes into the wolf, they’re terrified of him? As a wolf, he could bite her and still change her, but it’s not the same as having a mate who is willing. Most males nowadays wouldn’t want a female who has to be forced to accept him.”
“You’re right.” She sliced off a piece of meat. “So then we find one who cowers or is angered when others are interested in me.”