Chapter 18

The rental Suburban pulled out of Bella’s driveway and headed through the development, an older couple from the red lupus garou pack driving it. After a moment’s hesitation, the unmarked police car followed.

“Now what, Devlyn?” Bella asked. Her voice was tight and worried. Her cheeks flushed faintly.

He hated to see her so concerned, and he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “Now we wait for—”

A different Suburban, this one black, pulled in front of the house.

“Is it a red escort? The police wouldn’t send someone else, would they?”

“I don’t think so.” Devlyn started to walk outside.

Bella tugged at his arm. “Wait for me. I’ve got to do something.”

He couldn’t help looking at her in disbelief.

“My mother always said to use the bathroom before I went anywhere,” she hastily explained. “Just don’t leave without me.”

He tilted his chin down. “I won’t be leaving without you, honey, that’s for certain.”

Her eyes held a wealth of worry. She nodded and whipped around, disappearing down the hall.

Folding his arms, he watched out the window while a man climbed out of the vehicle. Again, this one appeared older, only his hair was nearly white. They must have thought Devlyn and Bella wouldn’t feel threatened by pack members who were way past the age of scrapping well.

Bella soon joined Devlyn and placed her hand in his. “Sorry, I really had to go to the bathroom.”

Her hand was ice cold, and he hated that she seemed so scared. Gripping her hand tightly, he tried to warm it up on the way to the SUV.

Once inside the vehicle, the man glanced at them through the rearview mirror, his gaze shifting from Bella to Devlyn. He snorted and then drove the vehicle past Chrissie’s house. Plain as day, Chrissie was watching out the window with a phone pressed against her ear, her brow wrinkled with concern, her hand waving in distress as she spoke. Devlyn looked back and observed her as she bolted outside and recorded the license plate of the vehicle on a slip of paper.

“Great neighborhood watch, eh? A force of one,” Bella whispered to Devlyn.

“Yeah, hope Henry doesn’t have the police chief put an all-points out on us before we make it to our destination and take care of business.”

She sighed deeply. “They’ll think we’re in on some kind of bad-guy caper, what with leading the police astray.”

“They might think we’ve been coerced into leaving with them. Hopefully, we’ll be long gone before they question us further. The killings of the women will stop—”

She shook her head. “But Rosa will never be found.”

“She’ll be with me in Colorado, if anyone knows where to look.”

She nestled her head against his chest. “Do you think Henry will suspect you’re going to fight Volan?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“He’ll try to stop you.”

With a light caress, he rubbed her arm. “Yeah. Only wouldn’t he be surprised to find Volan’s not there, and instead three other men are waiting to have a piece of me?”

She ran her hand over his thigh, instantly stirring his libido. He cast her an interested smile and glanced at the driver, whose eyes remained glued to the road as they drove out of Portland.

“Bella,” Devlyn whispered in her ear and then slipped his hand down her shirt and worked his fingers under her lace bra. “Why don’t we move to the seat that’s way in back?”

She gave him a soulful smile. “All right, stud.”

They had a long drive out to Wolf Rock. No sense in wasting precious minutes.

“Need some tension relieved?” she whispered to him as she climbed over the back of the middle seat, her bottom suspended at the top of the seatback for a moment. Immediately, he ran his hands over her butt and squeezed.

“Yeah, you always bring it out in me.”

* * *

Two hours later, they arrived at their destination at the base of Wolf Rock, an ancient volcanic plug, a barren rock face in summer, now sporting a topping of fresh snow like a whipped cream–topped sundae. Devlyn stared up at the daunting monolithic rock: rising over forty-five hundred feet, the nine-hundred-foot pinnacle towered above them, surrounded by the Willamette National Forest.

The fragrance of ponderosa pine and Douglas fir scented the cool, crisp air. Birds chirped in the cover of the forest. A hawk screeched high above, soaring, searching for his next meal, all of it belying the deadly confrontation that would soon take place. Other than the black SUV, there was no sign of anyone else yet.

“No climbers,” Devlyn stated, wondering if they were on the other side of the rock face.

“Not allowed,” Bella explained. “From January 1 through July 31, raptors nest up there and no one wants to piss off a mother eagle. And, really, hikers only climb between August and October unless the roads are blocked with snow.”

“Good time for a rumble, then.”

Bella ran her hand over Devlyn’s arm. “Yeah.”

But she didn’t sound like she thought the time was good for the coming fight.

The driver turned to look at them. “Seems I drove a little faster than usual. If you want to get out and stretch before the others arrive, you can.”

“Who killed the human women?” Bella asked, combing her fingers through her hair.

Devlyn couldn’t believe she’d ask another red that question. Then again, he could. She wasn’t really the shy type. Still, he didn’t believe any one of the red pack would tell them if he or she knew who had done it.

“Sad state of affairs when lupus garous can’t find a mate. Unnatural. In the beginning, there was only one. Of course, you probably know the story. Some say he was from some other world, or a genetic abomination; others say a virus mutated him. Anyway, he had to change a human woman to satisfy the wolf’s urge to have a mate. Then more were changed, until all we had to do was mate with our own kind, no longer needing to change humans in the ancient way. Somewhere along the line, the males outnumbered the females and that led to the imbalance that has caused all of the trouble.”

Bella frowned. “The first lupus garou was a berserker gifted with the change by Odin’s will.”

The old man nodded. “That’s another version.”

She growled. “It’s the true one. And the first was a red.”

The old man’s lips rose in a sly smile.

“Well, he was,” Bella insisted.

“Never gave it much thought what kind of wolf the original lupus garou was. I suspect it could’ve been a red.”

“But,” Devlyn interjected with authority, “it was a gray.”

The old man’s eyes caught Devlyn’s gaze, but he wouldn’t respond to the bait. Then he took a deep breath and stared out the windshield, glancing up to look at them through the rearview mirror.

Devlyn nodded for him to continue. He squeezed Bella’s hand when her breathing grew shallow.

The old man sighed. “It’s not right for a lupus garou to do what’s been done.” He shook his head, sorrow filling his voice. “Not right at all. If the woman couldn’t accept him…well, in the old days it was different. She had no choice, and, once she was changed, she acknowledged it, learning to love her new life. Today, it’s not the same. We can’t just kill a human because she won’t accept us.”

Bella said softly, “All of us are at risk with their actions. They’ll expose all lupus garous to manhunts and extermination if they learn the truth about us.”

“That’s what I’ve said all along. They’ll be the death of us.”

“How can we help put a stop to this?”

“By that mate of yours fighting tonight.”

Bella’s eyes widened. “It’s all three of them then—Alfred, Nicol, and Ross—and a fourth?”

The man studied her in the rearview mirror. “You would have made an exceptional alpha female for our pack, but it won’t ever happen. Not the way you’re attached to the gray.” He gazed out the window again. “When it’s all said and done, we’ll be leaderless, but one of the older males can guide the pack in the interim. Maybe we need someone with more sense than strength for a while. Although…” He shook his head.

“So there’s another who might be fit to take over?” Bella glanced at Devlyn. “Does he drive a Humvee?”

“He’s a loner, for the most part. Been gone for most of the year, some say searching for a mate somewhere else in the States. But he’s not been successful as far as I hear. By the way, he only just learned about you, missy.”

“Would he take over?”

“If your mate gets rid of some of the bad seeds, I suspect he might come down from the mountains.”

“But what about the other murdering red? The one that’s sneakier than the rest?”

The old man remained silent.

Bella tightened her grip on Devlyn’s hand. “They all took part in the killings—one for each girl, four of them.”

This time, the old man glanced up at the mirror, and the look in his eyes revealed the truth. Four younger males had taken part in the killings. All seeking a mate. All failing. They were bound together in the killing spree, and, with so many involved, the rest of the pack feared speaking out against them.

Devlyn knew then it was his destiny to fight them when their own could not. To right a wrong that could hurt all lupus garous in the end.

“Who’s the other red?” Bella asked again.

“Simon.”

“Simon? We haven’t met this Simon.”

“He’s the least aggressive of the pack in their age range. I’m sure he was there when the others went to meet you at the dance club.”

Bella swallowed hard.

Devlyn wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. He tried to think of another red he might have missed, who’d watched them, quietly surveying the female he wished to make his own at the dance club. But Devlyn had been so intent on Ross, Nicol, and Alfred that he never thought there’d be anyone else. Kissing her cheek, Devlyn whispered, “I’ll be all right, Bella.”

“There’ll be four of them, Devlyn.”

“They won’t attack all at once, not in front of their pack.”

“If anyone can do it, it’ll be your mate,” the old man said. “In truth, and I’d be burned at the stake for saying so—your gray is the only one who has a chance at saving this red pack from extermination. And it’s rattling Alfred a bit to think the gray devil wolf from his great-grandfather’s day did away with that bad hombre, too.”

“But if you have no others to lead the pack and this other one won’t leave his mountain home…” Devlyn said, concerned about the pack dying out without younger leadership.

The man’s wizened face lifted, and his eyes turned brighter for an instant. “Leidolf returns to the city on occasion—checking out the pack, we figure. Mainly after he learned your mate was here, too. We believe he plans to take over once the gray culls out some of the bad wood. Leidolf’s name means ‘wolf descendant.’ Some say his line ties in directly to the original lupus garou, one of the rarest of our kind, with only a human or two thrown into the mix.”

“A red royal,” Bella said under her breath.

Devlyn grunted. A royal, my ass. That kind of lineage didn’t make him a better wolf.

“Yeah, he’d be a royal all right. Give our clan a good name. We could certainly use the likes of him to give new life to the pack. Alfred hates him because he fears the elusive lupus garou. An animal magnetism surrounds him, and whenever he appears, we’re drawn to him. If Alfred and his gang are banished, we hope the rogue will agree to be our leader.”

“But what if he’s not strong enough?” Bella asked.

The man chuckled. “Alfred tried to take him several months ago, but the red took care of him instead—sent Alfred to the healers. Even though Alfred denied that the loner had torn him up good. He insisted he’d tangled with a cougar. But we all know better.”

“So why hasn’t he taken on Alfred and his gang?”

The old man shook his head. “Too many of them, missy. No red could hope to fight four fit males and survive.”

Bella leaned her head against Devlyn’s chest. “We should have gone home to Colorado when you said.”

“No, Bella. You were right all along. We needed to be here, to set things right. Just have faith in me.”

He wished she trusted his abilities more. Already the adrenaline flooded his system, preparing him for battle. Both mentally and physically, he readied himself.

Still, the sound of tires rolling on gravel startled him, and they both turned to look behind them.

“Here they are. Time to give it all you’ve got, young man.”

Devlyn would. He wouldn’t give Bella up to a pack of reds, if he had to fight every last one of them. Proving to any wolf that he’d claimed her, particularly to her own kind, gave him great satisfaction.

Four SUVs barreled up, scattering the gravel on the shoulder. Two parked in front of them, two behind, as if wedging them in, allowing them no chance of escape.

The sun had nearly faded from the sky, and already the reds were ditching their clothes in the vehicles. Bella and Devlyn waited. Despite the old man’s words, the gray was not likely a welcome sight among the reds, and the notion that Devlyn—instead of a red—would kill their leader most likely didn’t bode well with many of them. As the old man said, there were many who probably felt that Bella could solve their problems by mating with one of the reds and thereby end the killings. What was done was done, and it wouldn’t be repeated, but the problem was that, if Alfred won the prize, Ross, Nicol, and Simon would still be without mates. And they would continue their killing spree.

The urge to mate ran in their blood. Desiring a mate who would race in the wild with them proved tantamount. Sexual relations with a woman in human form only wouldn’t be enough to satisfy them.

Bella would have had more of a chance at changing a human male—with their more warlike, hunter attitudes—than a male lupus garou would at changing a female human. Devlyn was well pleased when she’d said she’d given up that notion.

When night fell and the sliver of the moon sat suspended against the navy velvet backdrop, Devlyn and Bella exited the vehicle. The reds had already turned into their wolf forms, but Bella seemed reluctant to remove her clothes. Surprised to see her shyness, Devlyn realized she hadn’t been with her own kind for eons, and living with humans had changed her. Then he reconsidered. She didn’t want to become a wolf because it meant that then he would, too, and the battle would begin.

Because he didn’t want the reds to see her nakedness, he stood in front of her, with the SUV at her back, the door wide open to provide her some privacy.

Her eyes filled with tears, striking a chord of sympathy deep inside of him. She had to be strong, his alpha female, forever by his side.

“Be strong for me, Bella honey. I need your strength to win.”

She swallowed hard and nodded.

“I love you.” He kissed her lips; it was the last time he could touch her in their human form until he finished with the reds. He wanted to do so much more, to assure her in some way that he’d come out on top. Until he fought the others and won, he figured that no amount of convincing would work.

They deepened the kiss, and growls erupted behind them.

Bella wrapped her arms around him in a warm embrace, ignoring the reds’ dislike of Devlyn and his mate showing such affection. “I love you, too, you big gray. You’ll win. I know it.”

But she didn’t sound sure.

“You’d give me hell if I didn’t. Are you ready?”

She nodded.

“All right, let’s do it, Bella darling.”

Bella took a deep breath and began to change as Devlyn kept her shielded. Once she had dropped to all four paws, he shape-shifted, glad to be in his wolf form and ready to finish this.

He rubbed her face with his muzzle and then moved away from her. His heart thundered with determination.

Bella watched her big gray with sadness in her heart. She couldn’t help but worry about how he would fare. But worse, she knew she had to leave him once it was over. Had to run so that he wouldn’t fight Volan.

Here, if he began to lose the battle, she’d change into her human form and get the gun. After all, four against one wasn’t fair by either kind’s standards, lupus garous or humans. And regular bullets were better than nothing.

Even though her wolf coat kept her warm, she shivered. She couldn’t shake the fear that one of the reds might seriously injure Devlyn.

The wolves formed a jagged circle while Devlyn and Alfred faced off in the center. Although Alfred was decidedly smaller, he was wiry and moved quickly, pacing back and forth, highly agitated and aggressive. Devlyn’s larger build had the power of the pounce and the pinning that had always beat her when they played as youngsters and preteens. But this was entirely different. This was a battle to the death.

She assumed that, if Devlyn had not learned that Alfred was one of the killers, he would have let him live, barely, just to make the point that Bella was his and no other’s. Then Alfred could heal and come back to run the pack, if another hadn’t taken it over. But Alfred and his companions in crime warranted the death sentence, and Devlyn would mete it out if he could.

Devlyn stood stiff legged and tall—a show of dominance. His ears were erect and held forward, his hackles bristling. He held his tail vertical and slightly curled toward his back, alpha posturing at its best and not to be trifled with. His lips curled up, and he bared his incisors. Alfred promptly growled, showing off his canines. If Devlyn dove in and got Alfred just right, his powerful jaws—twice as strong as those of a German shepherd’s—could crush the large bones of his prey.

Alfred continued to pace, which was not normal for two wolves fighting for the alpha male role. She wondered if her kissing Devlyn with such affection had unmanned the killer red.

Appearing not to want to attack the red unprovoked, because of his size and the fact that he wasn’t in the red’s territory, Devlyn waited.

Alfred finally whipped around, as if he got the courage to take a nip at the gray, and leapt nearly six feet into the air.

Devlyn sidestepped where Alfred would land. As soon as the red’s paws were planted firmly on the ground, Devlyn attacked.

Devlyn’s teeth sank into the red’s flank. Yelping, Alfred scurried away, his side bleeding, his ears flattened, his tail straight down. The rest of the wolves waited, tongues panting, as if they stood at a sporting exhibition, watching to see which fighter won.

Bella fought the urge to rush into the fray and bite the red who could have exposed their kind for what they were, to give back a little of what they’d done to the girls they’d murdered.

Devlyn watched Alfred, never taking his eyes off him, calculating his next move, conserving his energy for the next three in line. He was a crafty wolf, and she loved him dearly for his size, strength, and cunning.

Limping slightly to the side of the circle, Alfred paced again, only slower this time, not as steadily or as sure of himself. He never looked at her once, just at the ground, already exhibiting signs of defeat. The way he acted, he appeared to think he’d lost the fight before he’d even begun. He was probably right. The last two wolves might have a chance to take a bite out of Devlyn when he was tired and worn down. But not the first.

Bella hoped with all her heart that Devlyn wouldn’t be hurt, even a scratch, despite the fact that they healed quickly.

Attempting the same maneuver, Alfred whipped around and leapt through the air. Maybe it worked for him when he became the alpha leader for the reds, but with Devlyn, it didn’t.

Devlyn lunged this time and grabbed Alfred’s throat, instantly crushing his neck. He had to end the game quickly if he were to conserve enough strength to fight the other three.

For a minute, no more, the reds watched him when he released the dead body of their alpha leader. The deed was done. No one had time to reflect on the sudden shift in power.

Instantly, Ross attacked. His teeth snapped at Devlyn’s neck, but Bella’s gray mate lithely avoided Ross’s wicked canines.

Her heart pounded ferociously.

Grabbing Ross’s ear, Devlyn tore the leather. Ross whined in protest and dodged out of the way.

So much for the bad red wolf who’d killed his victim so brutally.

Sitting on her haunches, every nerve on edge, Bella tried to stretch her muscles to release the tension.

Devlyn faced Ross, but he got a glimpse of her. His tongue hung over his teeth as he panted, but his lips curved up slightly as if in a smile. He’d beaten Alfred, and he’d done it for her. He was one proud big gray wolf.

Bowing her head slightly to him, her eyes gazed into his, showing him how much she loved him and how proud she was of him.

Ross attacked again.

Bella stiffened her back, but Devlyn was prepared. He immediately responded with a bite at the red’s right shoulder. Bleeding profusely, Ross yelped and bolted away.

Bella glanced at Nicol; his eyes darkened, his body tensed. As soon as Devlyn finished Ross, Nicol wouldn’t wait either, but which one was the sneaky Simon?

Fear niggled at her that he was an emergent leader. The kind that waited until the battle ended before he rushed in to take over. Was it as Ross and Nicol had said? There wasn’t any reason to take over the pack until she came along?

She stood. Then realizing her anxiety might bother Devlyn, she lay down and rested her head on her paws as if the whole matter served simply as a pleasing walk in the woods.

Ross stood still at the edge of the circle, panting hard, his chest filling and emptying with intense breaths. No longer just a spectator, he battled for his life. Fresh blood matted his fur. The rest stood on end as he raised his tail behind him. His posture indicated that he wasn’t ready to give up the fight, not yet.

Neither was Devlyn. He stood ready, his body somewhat relaxed between sparring, to allow him time to rest.

A wolf howled in the distance. As unique to wolves as fingerprints were to humans, Bella immediately recognized the warning sound…Volan.