“Okay, let’s start off all over again. My name is Henry Thompson, one of the biggest contributors to the zoo. I oversee some of the more endangered species, including red wolves. I’ve worked with other zoos for years, trying to return a select number to the wild, but we can’t set Rosa loose out here. No red wolves exist in the Cascades for her to mate. She’d end up mating with coyotes, and the result wouldn’t be pure red wolf, which is what has happened in Texas, nearly obliterating the original red wolf species until more recently.”
When she wouldn’t respond, the cop said, “We have to know what you were doing in the wolves’ pen, miss.”
She looked back at the blankets covering her, considered the I.V. attached to her arm, and wondered which floor of the hospital her room was located on.
Thompson sat in the chair beside her. “I’m not leaving until I have some answers.”
Maybe not, but perhaps he’d grow sleepy, or take a bathroom break, or ...
The cop’s phone rang. “Yeah? I’ll be right down.” He hung up and then said, “The media man vanished. I’m going to help my partner look for the news van. The lady at the front desk gave out the wrong room number for wolf lady here.”
She couldn’t help but cast him a sardonic smile at the name he called her.
“You won’t be smiling when we put you in jail for this little stunt you’ve just pulled,” Thompson said, his tone harsh.
Wouldn’t that be ironic? If she sat in jail long enough, she could turn back into the wolf. Then the charges would be dropped against Bella, and she’d be returned to the wolf pen as Rosa.
“You might want to stay with her in the event someone locates her anyway,” the cop said. “Be back in a little while.”
“I’ll be here.”
The cop hurried out of the room and shut the door behind him with a click.
Fleeing seemed much more plausible now with Thompson all alone with her in the room. He leaned closer to the bed and tapped his fingers on the mattress, his eyes pinning her with authority. “We might not be able to make the charges of wolf-napping stick against you, but we can get you for trespassing.”
She closed her eyes.
He grunted. “You’re as stubborn as my ex-wife. When she’d made up her mind not to say something, there wasn’t anything I could do to convince her to open up.”
Bella wanted to ask why they were divorced, but she figured she was better off keeping quiet.
The door opened, and Bella opened her eyes. The nurse poked her head in. “The doctor said you have ten more minutes and then the patient needs to rest. Visitors aren’t normally allowed in the rooms at this hour.”
“But—”
The nurse raised her hand. “Doctor’s orders.” Before she shut the door, another scent filtered into the room—Devlyn’s aromatic male scent.
Hell, he was coming for her, the traitor, and he’d return her to Volan posthaste.
“Get me out of here now, and I’ll tell you where Rosa is.” Bella’s voice was still little more than a whisper, which probably saved her butt or Devlyn would have heard her.
Thompson folded his arms and leaned back in the chair. “No. You’re too weak. Not until the doctor says—”
She glanced at the I.V. in her arm and then yanked it out. To stop the bleeding, she clamped her hand over the tape that had held the I.V. in place.
“Wait, miss—”
Jerking her blankets to the floor, she stumbled out of bed. What she wouldn’t have given for some swift wolf’s legs about now. Although she could run long and hard as a human, too, a nice warm wolf pelt would have been preferable in the cold winter weather to a human’s naked body.
Thompson jumped up from the chair and headed for her.
Her head swam, and she grabbed the mattress. The idea that she had completely recovered was a delusion.
Thompson skirted around the bed to help her. “I’m— I’m sorry. You need to return to bed, miss. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
She rushed past him into the bathroom. With only a flimsy hospital gown tied at the back and nothing else to clothe her body, she was out of luck. She locked the bathroom door and then looked at the window. No way to open it. No escape. She hurried out of the bathroom.
Thompson hit the nurse’s call button, his tanned face now pale. “I’ll get a nurse to put the I.V. back—”
Desperate to escape Devlyn, Bella ran out of the room. She dashed for the nearest exit sign down the long corridor.
“Miss!” Thompson shouted after her.
She slammed into the fire stairs door, glancing back to see Devlyn at the nurses’ station and Thompson tearing out of the room.
Thompson looked back at Devlyn, evidently to see what caught her eye. Both men stared at each other for a moment. She didn’t wait to see what happened next.
After charging down two flights of stairs, she bolted onto the first floor. One man’s boots tromped down the stairwell in hasty pursuit of her. She dove undetected into a hospital room. Thank God an elderly patient snored in his sleep in one of the beds. Heart pounding, she slid under the unoccupied bed.
The door to the room opened. She scarcely breathed. Boots stood in the doorway but then moved away and the door closed.
Hurrying out from underneath the bed, she searched through the man’s wall closet.
After tossing the hospital gown, she slipped on his large button-down, collared shirt that reached mid-thigh. She pulled a bulky sweater over this. His baggy trousers and canoe-sized shoes were way too big. Grabbing his corduroy jacket, she shoved her arms into the sleeves. Barefooted and barelegged, she ran to the door and peeked out.
The hallway remained empty, but Thompson, the police, and Devlyn had to be nearby. She leaned against the doorframe, dizzy—not yet herself. Her head fuzzed and her heart beat way out of control.
When her head cleared, she dashed for the front door that she envisioned lay beyond the bend in the hall, centered in the middle of the building.
Devlyn suddenly walked out of a room down the hall and into her path, his back to her. Her breath caught in her throat. Bolting, she tried to dash past him, but he jumped to block her. She slammed against his body instead, and he wrapped his arms around her in a secure vice.
Panic filled her. His touch forced her to want more from him—a searing embrace, another kiss, full of passion. Madness. He’d turn her over to the pack leader, damn him.
Devlyn pulled her into the room. To her horror, Thompson and the two cops lay still as death on the floor, forcing a gasp from her lips. “What—”
His eyes burning with anger, he held a finger to her lips. Then he took her hand and whispered harshly, “We’re leaving through the front door, quietly.” When she tried to jerk free, he gripped her hand tighter. “Quietly, damn it, Bella. Behave for once.”
Straightening her shoulders, she narrowed her eyes. She’d slipped away from the pack before. She could do it again. And, for now, Devlyn seemed her only chance to flee the hospital. Yet, God, how she hungered for more than his hand gripping hers. It was mating season, she reminded herself, nothing more, and she would lust after any male that ... hell, who was she trying to kid? The way he looked at her bare legs, even while they stood in imminent danger of being discovered, the way he touched her—he craved her as much as she did him.
He walked her back into the hall toward the center of the building, his stride long and indomitable, his arm wrapped tightly around her waist. His touch should have warmed her ... well, hell, it did. But for all of the wrong reasons. She craved more of his touch, at the same time resenting the implication. He was her captor, her new zookeeper; her blood sizzled.
When they walked past the nurses’ station, a woman wearing polka-dot scrubs spoke on the phone, her eyes wide. “The patient is missing?”