He slipped his hand around hers and pulled her from the chair, his touch gentle and warm, like a boyfriend on a first date. She looked up at him, wondering what had gotten into him. Did he think he had to act human to change her mind about him?

She glanced down at his erection, stirring a surge of interest. She couldn’t help the deep chuckle that erupted from her lips.

He gave her a squeeze. “Yeah, you make it happen, Bella, all of the time. When you agree to be my mate, I’ll have to wear a lot fewer clothes most of the time.”

“You can’t wear any fewer than what you have on now, stud.”

“Your neighbor would approve. When I walked into the living room, I kind of imagined she wished she could see me the way she saw me earlier in the day.”

He released Bella and took his towel into the bathroom. Unbuttoning her blouse, she watched him walk back into the room. “I have a feeling Chrissie thought I drove off this morning and not you. I believe,” she said, pulling off her blouse, “she thought she might visit with you a bit and see what she’s been missing since the divorce.”

“She wouldn’t have gotten it from me.”

Although Bella was glad he made the remark, she wondered how many human females he’d been with over the years. It shouldn’t have mattered, but a smidgeon of envy ran through her veins... well, more than a smidgeon — gallons. If Chrissie pushed it any further, she’d see a new side of Bella... a wolf’s territorial side.

“Dollar for your thoughts.” Devlyn unbuckled Bella’s belt. “A dollar?”

“Inflation.”

“Just thinking how the wolf in me might respond if Chrissie makes any more advances toward you.”

“Hmm, now that’s sounding mighty possessive.” Devlyn nuzzled her face, as if he were starting the wolf courting process.

“I’m a mite territorial, sometimes.” She nipped his ear. “We’re supposed to nap.”

“We will.” But the darkness of his eyes and the husk-iness of his voice said otherwise.

After unfastening her bra, he slipped the straps off her shoulders. His warm fingers trailed down her arms to her fingertips in a sensual brush. Pulling her hands to his face, he kissed them, his gaze focused on her fingers.

“You sure know how to warm a girl up, but — “

He kissed her lips gently. But when she wrapped her arms around him and tried to kiss him back, he broke free, his actions confirming that he wanted to control how far they went.

When she tilted her chin up, he kissed her neck with gentle brushes of his lips against her sensitive skin. “You smell of wild rose, Bella.” He ran his tongue down the hollow of her throat while she scarcely breathed. “Breathe. I don’t want you passing out.”

Running her fingers through his damp hair, she hmpfed. “Right.” Yet she did feel lightheaded with him touching her so tenderly.

He traced her nipple with his fingertips and she drew in her breath. Leaning down, he swept his tongue, wet and warm, over the tip of one breast and then sucked.

Inwardly, she groaned.

His fingers slipped down to her jeans and struggled to remove them. Her whole body thrilled with his touch; remembering to breathe was the least of her worries.

How she wished he’d give up the quest to fight Volan and stay with her forever. She’d do anything for Devlyn then.

He discarded her jeans on the carpeted floor and ran his fingers over the waistband of her panties. Again she tried to touch him, but he growled at her.

“I’m supposed to growl at you, Devlyn,” she said, kissing the nape of his neck when he took the nipple of her other breast in his mouth, “if you go too far with me. You’re supposed to whine for more.”

Lifting his head, he gave her an evil grin. “We’re not in our wolf states, Bella. For now, I’ll growl when you go too far with me.” He yanked her panties down and knelt and then buried his face in her crotch. “But you sure smell fine.”

She tangled her fingers in his hair and was ready to give in to him when he stood and eased her onto the bed, growling a curse under his breath. “Sleep. You’re going to make me an old wolf before my time.”

Crawling into bed, she wished the erection he held out to her could be put to good use, as her body readied itself for his penetration, moist, hot, and aching deeply, longing for satisfaction.

“I’ll join you in a moment.”

“Can I... “

Shaking his head, he walked out of the room. She groaned and turned away, knowing he would relieve the tension she’d created in him, by himself this time. But she couldn’t have him without putting his life in real danger. Volan was danger. And she knew if he learned she wasn’t coming home soon, he’d be coming for her.

Chapter Eight

Her heart pumping at twice its normal speed, Bella fled the fire. The searing heat singed her fur, the pads of her paws, and choked the breath from her. And then he appeared, the gray wolf, a large, fearless juvenile, intent on only one thing: grabbing her and carrying her across the swollen river.

She whimpered and Devlyn tightened his hold on her. “Bella, you’re safe.”

The nightmare... the damnable nightmare that she’d had for years.

She ran her hand over Devlyn’s arm, wrapped securely around her waist. Folded over her like a butterfly’s protective cocoon 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 bumps 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 lustful 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.”