His jaw tight, Devlyn hurried Bella toward the door past the station.
The woman said, “Wait! Sir! Miss!”
He hit the door with his shoulder and yanked Bella outside into the crisp, cold air. Grabbing her up in his arms, he ran for the black SUV parked curbside.
Gray-haired Argos tugged the door open. “Argos,” she said under her breath, the pleasure at seeing him overshadowed by the realization that the pack was returning her to Volan. She clenched her teeth.
He gave her a warm smile. “We’ve missed you.”
“Volan has missed me.” Argos’s smile faded.
“Hurry.” Tanner, Devlyn’s cousin, pointed out the window. “A security guard is headed this way.”
Devlyn jumped into the driver’s seat while Tanner and his brother Heath wedged Bella between them in the middle seat; then Devlyn gunned the engine. “We’ll split up. Give the police clues that Bella and I have headed in other directions.”
Bella was squished between Devlyn’s cousins, who sat too close for comfort. “Give me some more room,” she growled.
Tanner chuckled. “Spicy vinegar, just like the old days, eh, Bella?”
“Volan won’t like it if we split up,” Argos warned, glancing over the seat at her.
She shoved at Tanner to move his leg, uncomfortably wedged against her thigh, but he wouldn’t budge. His brother patted her bare thigh. “About time you returned to the pack. Sure missed having you around.”
She slapped his hand.
“They’ll catch all of us if we don’t split up,” Devlyn countered, shifting his attention from the road to his rearview mirror, and gave his cousins a dangerous glare. Murmured objections filtered forward, but by pack rules, Devlyn was older, and since Argos, though the eldest, had stepped down from pack leadership, Devlyn made the decisions.
“Bella stays with me. Everyone else takes whatever route they need to, to make it back to Colorado,” Devlyn clarified.
Argos took a deep breath. “And the two of you?”
“We’ll have a time with Thompson.” Devlyn shook his head at Bella. “You sure have confused him.”
She jerked Tanner’s fingers free from a coil of her hair. “Touch me again and you’ll lose your fingers.”
The cousins all laughed, but Devlyn gave them a look like he’d be the one to follow through with Bella’s threat if they didn’t behave.
When they arrived at the hotel, the time approached one in the morning. With obvious disdain, Devlyn’s cousins reluctantly drove off into the dark in separate vehicles. Argos gave Bella a warm embrace in the parking area of the five-story hotel. He’d been the father she’d lost so long ago, and her heart sank with the knowledge that she might never see him again.
“Welcome back to the pack, Bella. We’ll see you soon.” Instantly, he stoked her ire. She was never returning to Volan, ever. “It’s good to see you again, Argos. You take care.”
He’d always been kind to her, protecting her when the overly rambunctious males had overextended their boundaries with her during her teens, keeping in touch with her all of these years. She loved seeing him again, even briefly. But she knew she’d never be able to correspond with him again for fear Volan would discover her.
Argos nodded as if he knew her thoughts and acknowledged she would make Devlyn’s life hell if he contemplated returning her home.
He shook Devlyn’s hand. “Keep her safe and bring her home.”
“Will do.”
Argos quickly disappeared into the blackness, too. Instantly, being alone with Devlyn sent a spark of concern through her. All male, he was the right age to crave mating with a female in heat. Would he make a move on her while Volan remained out of the way?
Secretly, the urge to mate with Devlyn wreaked havoc with her feelings. She couldn’t encourage his attentions, or both would suffer Volan’s wrath. But still the desire to have Devlyn’s kiss again—
Devlyn grabbed her arm and pulled her into the cement stairwell, their footsteps echoing all the way up to the second floor. Down a long, carpeted, dusty smelling hall, he hastened her to his room.
“You’re barely able to stay on your feet and your eyes look soggy, half-drugged. We’ll sleep here for a couple of hours and then move.” He shoved the keycard into the slot and then opened the door into a living area furnished with a sofa and a couple of chairs.
At once, the idea that he’d take her back to the pack leader stirred her blood all over again. “You’re not taking me back to Volan.” She didn’t have to say it, but she wanted to state the facts up front, to let Devlyn know that, even if he thought he was the boss of the situation, she had other plans.
He walked her across the living room and then pulled her into the bedroom. “Whatever you say, Bella.” While blocking her escape path through the doorway, he yanked off his leather jacket.
The black shirt he wore fit over shoulders that had broadened since the last time she’d seen him. Were his pecs as hard and well sculpted as she imagined them? She was dying to see. On the other hand, she couldn’t let him know how much she desired him.
She folded her arms. “You’re not staying in here with me.”
He crossed the floor to her, pulled the way-too-big jacket from her shoulders, and then dropped it on the floor. “You’re not sleeping by yourself so you can give me the slip. We’ll have enough running to do. That Thompson fellow is like a bloodhound. He won’t be satisfied until he gets you back.”
“You mean the wolf back.”
“Yeah, and that means you.”
Her eyes remained riveted on his buttons while he worked to remove his shirt. When he pulled it off and dropped it on the floor, she stared at his dark-haired chest and chiseled abs. She sighed at the sight of his well-toned body. Already her hormones were set in high gear. She would be attracted to any male, she reminded herself, as much as she desired to mate. But she couldn’t help the feeling that this one stirred her like no other.
Her nipples tightened and her breasts swelled in anticipation of his touch. She was sure the short curls between her legs were drenched with expectation, as much as she ached for him. Damn being in heat.
She folded her arms again and hoped to both stop what she figured he had in mind and still leave herself a chance of escaping him. “Volan won’t like it if you share a bed with me.”
“He doesn’t have to like it.”
She raised her brows to hear his defiant words. “So, does that mean you’ve finally grown some balls?” If he were ready to fight Volan—
“Don’t, Bella. Don’t make anything more out of this than a bad case of necessity. You’ll run if I don’t stay with you. That’s all. You’re going home to the pack where you belong.”
She curbed the anger that simmered beneath the surface. He didn’t want her after all. He only used her to get in good with the leader of the pack. “Why didn’t you have Argos stay with me instead?”
“He’d have let you have your own way.” She didn’t believe Devlyn for an instant. Sure, Argos had always been good to her, but she was certain he felt she’d be safer at home with the pack and wouldn’t have let her off that easily.
“And your cousins?”
“Any one of them would have tried to have their way with you. They’re immature and would lose their heads over the thought of you naked in bed with them.” He reached over to touch her belly. “As ripe as you are, your smell is an aphrodisiac.”
She slapped his hand away. His intimation that her alluring scent was the only reason the other males wanted her forced a chill of irritation across her skin. But hell, maybe he was right. Maybe Volan was the only one who really desired her for a permanent mate. Her stomach rolled with nausea at the idea.
Devlyn walked over to the bedroom door and shut it. With a click, he locked it. But it wasn’t half as secure as the zoo cell. She smiled inwardly but glowered outwardly.