Book 1 - Page 13 (1/2)

“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. h.e.l.l, 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 h.e.l.l 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.

Das.h.i.+ng 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 s.h.i.+fted 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 gla.s.s 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 a.s.sumed 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. Coa.r.s.e 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 gla.s.s 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.”