Book 1 - Page 33 (1/2)

Bella ran her hands over her jeans and stared at the floor. Her words were no more than a whispered croak. “Argos stopped him.”

“d.a.m.n it, Bella, why didn’t you tell me? I would have killed him! Why didn’t Argos tell the rest of the — “

Her eyes shot up in warning.

“Family,” he said, swallowing the word he’d almost used.

“You were adopted, too?” Chrissie asked, her eyes as big as melons. “A brother, too?”

He nodded. “Yeah.” He knew what Chrissie was getting at. He and Bella shared an incestuous relations.h.i.+p, although they wouldn’t have been blood relatives. “We weren’t raised together for long before she ran away.” They had been, but humans wouldn’t understand the lupus garou longevity, nor would they understand the workings of a pack. Besides, they were different kinds of wolves, sharing no close lineage — a red and a gray.

Befuddled, Thompson just stared at them.

Chrissie collapsed in her chair. “So, that explains why you don’t go out with guys and you stay home most of the time. And have a post office box and all.”

“But about Rosa,” Thompson said, “why would he want her?”

“She’s like a wild pet,” Bella explained.

Devlyn linked his fingers with hers. He couldn’t believe Argos hadn’t at least told Devlyn to protect Bella. Then he realized Argos couldn’t have. No one could have protected her back then.

She handed the photo of Volan to Thompson.

Frowning, he considered the picture. “I saw him at the dance club tonight.”

Bella’s face paled. “Yeah, he pretended to be Argos, my adoptive father, in an email to me.”

“You were at the dance club?” Thompson said in surprise. “I — “

Bella gave an elusive smile. “What name did you use on your email to me?”

“Charlie. I thought maybe there was some kind of conspiracy to free all red wolves. I knew it had to be you, the unnamed girl from the hospital, or at least I’d hoped so.”

“Charlie, the one who’s independently wealthy.” Bella noticed Chrissie’s eyes grow big. “Volan doesn’t know where I live, for now. But he’s pretty cagey. He’ll find out sooner or later.”

Thompson glanced at Devlyn. “I won’t press charges against you for knocking me out.”

Devlyn raised a brow. “Who said I struck you?”

Bella’s fingers tightened around his.

He gave her a rea.s.suring squeeze back. “You didn’t see who hit you, did you? Volan was there. That’s why I had to rescue Bella from the hospital. I discovered he’d already knocked out the police officers. He must have gotten to you later.”

Thompson rubbed the back of his head as if remembering the pain. “Yeah, you could be right. I only a.s.sumed it was you because I’d seen you at the zoo earlier and then again at the nurse’s station. Downstairs, the receptionist said you’d left with a half-dressed, redheaded woman in a man’s oversized clothes. I just a.s.sumed — “

“No one could have protected Bella if I hadn’t slipped her away from the hospital.”

Bella’s fingers still squeezed his, cutting off the circulation, waiting for Thompson’s final verdict.

“Yeah,” Thompson said, nodding. “I’m sure I got a glimpse of this fellow right before he hit me. He’s the one all right.”

Devlyn wrapped his arm around her waist, glad that the zoo man could help corroborate their story, made up as it was. Now the problem was, if the police did arrest Volan, they’d have no proof. Plus imprisoning Volan wasn’t the solution. Like any lupus garou, if he were exposed to the full moon when it shone in all its glory, Volan’s wolf coat could appear. No way could they risk Volan’s imprisonment. To secure Bella’s freedom, Devlyn had to kill Volan.

“You need to make a statement to the police about what he did to you, Miss Wilder,” Thompson said.