Book 1 - Page 19 (2/2)

She ran her hand over Devlyn’s arm, wrapped securely around her waist. Folded over her like a b.u.t.terfly’s protective coc.o.o.n before hatching, he made her feel safe and secure — until he turned her over to Volan.

“Did you sleep well?” he murmured against her hair.

“Yes. And you?” she whispered back, not entirely ready to shrug off the relaxed state she was in despite the vivid nightmare.

“I had an ache when you squirmed against me.”

She smiled.

“You seemed restless and whimpered in your sleep. Are you still having nightmares about the wildfire?”

“Sometimes.” She kissed the palm of his hand.

His chest swelled against her back. “You have other nightmares?”

“Sometimes.” Those nightmares she didn’t want to discuss with Devlyn. She worried he’d rashly take action against Volan for what he’d tried to do to her as a youngster.

“Nightmares about what?” he prompted.

She shrugged a shoulder. “You know how nightmares are. You often can’t remember them when you wake.” She glanced at the window. The lightness of the sky indicated they had another couple of hours before they went to the club.

“Devlyn, you said Argos had taken you in. What happened to your family?”

He ran his hand over her hair in a sensual caress that sent another wave of desire sliding through her. “They died.”

“In a wildfire like mine?”

“No.”

She waited for an explanation, but he didn’t seem to wish to speak of it any more than she wanted to tell him about Volan. Yet curiosity caught hold. “Devlyn? What happened?”

“Men killed them. Set our house on fire. I’d gotten into trouble earlier in the day for playing in the creek without letting anyone know where I was. My father made me sleep in an outer building, where we stored leather goods, to punish me when we all lay down for our afternoon nap.”

He paused.

“Devlyn?”

“I heard the screams, but flames already engulfed the house. I couldn’t save anyone, not even my brothers.” He took a deep breath. “We were triplets, did everything together, except for the morning I’d played down by the creek.”

Bella listened quietly, envisioning the heat of the flames devouring everything in her path the day Devlyn found her. She blinked away the tears.

“I remained at the smoldering remains of the house for days, somehow thinking that if I stayed long enough, I’d wake and find out the horror had been an ugly nightmare. Then hunger forced me to change into the wolf and I ran.

“For weeks I survived on my own, living off the land, not daring to turn into my human form in the wilderness. I’d have never survived, yet the phase of the new moon was fast approaching. I knew inevitably I’d have to face new perils soon.”

Chill b.u.mps covered her arms. She could imagine how he must have felt — not much older than she when she lost her family, on his own, alone in the wilderness, terrified, and worse, his heart aching for the only family he’d ever known. She’d never have survived that long had she been on her own at such a young age.

He took a ragged breath. “I kept moving west and then I ran into Argos and some of his pack hunting and he took me in.”

“I’m sorry, Devlyn.” Her heart ached for him. The painful loss of her family had never faded entirely from her memories. “I didn’t know. You must really hate humans for what they did to your family.”

“The human males, although in truth it was probably my uncle’s fault. He’d gotten into a drunken brawl in town and killed two men. At least I suspected it was because of his rash actions that men came out to the ranch and burned the house.”

Now she could understand why Devlyn grew angry when she said she wanted a human male for a mate. “You’ve been right about me all along, Devlyn. I could never find a human that interested me.”

He traced her breast with his fingers, triggering a l.u.s.tful desire to have him make love to her. “I know,” he said softly. “That’s why you have photos of us all over your fridge. But more of me. And a bigger one beside your bed.”

He was never going to let her live that down. “You’re so arrogant. No female could ever put up with you.” She pulled the comforter over her shoulder. “I bet if you could get away with it, you would say the original lupus garou was a gray.”

“He was,” Devlyn said with conviction.

She looked over her shoulder at him. “You can’t be serious.” But his expression was completely resolute.

“Sure. The first was a gray. I can’t imagine you’d ever heard otherwise. Somewhere along the line, a smaller gray female turned a redheaded Scot and he started a pack far away from any of the gray clans. Their pups were smaller, some gray, some more red. The reds began to turn other redheads until they were able to find mates among the lupus garou.”

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