AGAINST MY WISH.

Chapter 5

When she stilled beneath him, Devlyn took a long, ragged breath and then

rolled off her. “Get some sleep, Bella. We’ll have several long days ahead of

us.”

She turned away from him, hurt, confused, angry. She wanted him to be her

mate forever and didn’t want to wait for that day.

Wrapping his arm around her waist, he pulled her against his arousal, her

backside bared to him, and she wanted him to take her like a wolf would in the

wild.

“To ensure you don’t get any ideas of slipping away in the night,” he said,

his face nuzzling her hair.

She attempted to jerk away from him.

He tightened his iron hold on her. “It’s hard enough for me to…well, just lie

still, Bella.”

But she couldn’t sleep, let alone think; the ache between her legs begged for

satisfaction. She rubbed her bottom against him, offering herself to him, and he

growled in response, the kind of growl that meant he was losing control. “Damn it, Bella, stop it.” To still her actions, he tightened his hold on her

waist, the insatiable urge to take her filling him with feral aggression.

“I can’t help it. Your scent and your touch are driving me nuts,” she growled.

“You only say that because you want me to let you go, but I don’t trust you.”

Ignoring him, she pressed herself hard against him, challenging him to mate.

No human or lupus garou b***h boasted the same alluring scent as Bella.

Taking a deep breath, he drank in her wild fragrance, a heady aphrodisiac

compelling him to mate with her against all common sense. He nuzzled his face

in her silky red hair, making the attraction stronger, not controlling his behavior

as he should.

Devlyn ran his hand over Bella’s side, down the gentle curve of her hip, to

her inner thigh. She parted her legs for him, and he groaned with insatiable l**t.

Sliding his hand up her belly, he reached her breast and squeezed the full soft

mound.

She moaned and pressed against his heavy loins again.

“Be still,” he whispered into her hair.

“You don’t want me to be still,” she growled. “Not if you’re going to keep

touching me.”

Hungering to mate with her, he lifted her leg over his.

She stiffened her back.

“Nothing that will get us into too much trouble, Bella. Just going to relieve

some of your tension.”. As soon as he slipped his fingers between her legs, into the hot, wet, swollen

folds, she trembled. Stroking her, he whispered next to her ear, “How does that

feel?”

“Harder, faster,” she managed to get out.

The thrill of having her tight against his body, n***d as he had imagined for

so many years, filled him with primal need. “Breathe, Bella. I don’t want you

passing out.”

Squirming against him, she prodded him to quit talking and do more.

Reveling in the sweet musky scent that was all Bella, he stroked in and out

and then touched her nub again. She placed her hand on his, pressing his fingers

harder against her, forcing him to rub faster. Arching her back, she groaned. His

arousal stretched out to her like a pike readied to enter her virgin territory,

touching her between the folds, but not penetrating. Her moans of ecstasy and

writhing lithe body undid him. With Bella’s body squirming against him, his

erection sliding against her folds, he fought losing control.

Her body shuddered, she cried out, her inner muscles contracting with her

climax, and he quickly pulled away before he finished what he’d started.

She gazed at him with darkened amber eyes. “Are you okay?”

His hormones raged out of control, his arousal ached for release, and she had

to ask if he was all right? In a husky voice, he motioned to the bathroom and

said, “Why don’t you wash up, Bella.”

“Right.” She crossed the floor to the bathroom, her silky skin covered in a

fine sheen of perspiration, her red hair in tangles as though she’d been well

loved.

God, how he wanted to make her his mate for real.

He was a fool to have touched her, knowing how she turned him on, but even

when he’d played with her when they were young, there was always the need to

conquer her, to make her his own. Pacing across the room, he tried to get his

wolf instincts under control, when instead he wanted to join her in the shower

and lick and nip every inch of her delectable skin and penetrate her slick folds.

The shower ran for a short while and then shut off, and she walked out of the

bathroom—the towel wrapped around her head, the rest of her n***d, her rosy

nipples extended, willing him to touch them with his tongue. He took a ragged

breath and stalked toward the bathroom. “I’ll wash up.” A dip in the icy stream

back home would cool him down nicely about now. He paused at the door,. scowling at her while she slipped into bed. “Don’t leave, Bella.”

A sly smile curved her lips, stirring his libido all over again. “Why would I

do that when you can relieve my…tension, so well?”

He growled. “Don’t mention it.”

“We didn’t mate,” she said softly, pulling the cover to her breast. “Don’t

give it another thought.”

As if that could ever happen. He’d think of every stroke, every moan of

ecstasy she’d made, the feel of her soft wet folds, her musky sweet scent, every

bit of her forever. Just as he couldn’t get out of his mind the kiss he’d given her

so long ago.

Not trusting her to stay put, he hesitated. She watched him, her expression

curious as he pondered what to do. Then he gathered their discarded clothes that

were piled on the floor. He didn’t think she’d try to run without them.

She cast him an annoyed look. He gave her a tight smile and hurried into the

bathroom, leaving the door open. A quick shower with the curtain pulled aside

would have to suffice, as he didn’t trust little Bella to not run off.

After he finished showering, he towel dried and then strode into the darkened

room. His blood heated when he saw only pillows stacked together where she’d

lain down.

He yanked the pillow away and stared at the vixen. Bella was sleeping

soundly, as innocent as an angel.

Innocent, my a*s. There was no innocence in the way she tasted, smelled, or

felt.

He walked around to the other side of the bed and slid between the coarse

bleached sheets. As soon as he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her

tight against his body, she hummed. “What took you so long? And why didn’t

you make me move over for you this time, Devlyn?”

He grunted. “I thought you were asleep. Guess you were only pretending.”

“Nearly asleep,” she said, her voice soft, alluring, tempting him.

He ran his fingers through her silky, damp hair. “Why haven’t you found this

human mate of yours yet?” He wasn’t sure what got into him to ask—maybe the

annoyance he felt that she wanted one, maybe the concern she’d come close to

finding one. But afterward he wondered if he should have brought the subject up

or kept it buried, like so many other things he didn’t ever want to discuss with

her. She tensed in his arms. “Haven’t had the time. I have to be selective, you

know. One chance for the mate of a lifetime.”

“You’ve had a lot of years to find one. You’re lucky we don’t age as fast as

humans or you’d be dead and gone by now.”

“All the more reason to find the right one. Besides, because I haven’t been

around our kind, this was the first wolf heat I’ve ever come into since I left the

pack. Not sure why it happened this time, unless it’s my human age catching up

with me. Haven’t had much of an urge to find a mate…until now.” She paused.

“What about you? Why have you never mated?”

“Maybe I have.”

She grew quiet.

Maybe she wasn’t so determined to find a human for companionship after

all. “I’ve never chosen a mate. Seems I can’t find the right one either.”

She let out her breath. “Why have you never left the pack? I thought you

would years ago.”

“I did, a few times.” He wasn’t about to tell how long and hard he’d searched

for her. “But I always longed to be back with my own kind. When Argos took

me in—”

“What?”

“I thought you knew.”

“Argos’s wolf pack wasn’t your own?”

Nuzzling his mouth against her ear, he nibbled at the lobe. “No. They took

me in like they did you.”

“I thought you were part of the family.” Her fingertips caressed his arm with

feather-light strokes.

His body hardened in response, but he fought giving into his baser instincts.

“I was…am. They’re my family. And, as much as I don’t care for Volan, he’s

the pack leader. For the most part, he rules well and keeps the pack safe. I’m not

a lone wolf kind of guy. I like being a member of a family.”

“So your cousins who came with you aren’t really your cousins?”

“They are, in a manner of speaking. You’re a distant cousin, if you want to

get right down to it.”

“Thank you, no.”

“Don’t think you’re good enough to be a cousin to a gray?”. A sensual chuckle issued from her belly, warming him several degrees.

Ringing her n****e with the tip of his finger, he enticed it to harden. The

sensation shot a spark of interest straight to his groin. He could never get enough

of touching her to make up for the time lost. Yet, in the back of his mind, he

knew she didn’t want him, that it was only her wolf’s heat that made her crave

him. “Argos wondered if we did you a disservice by not finding a red lupus

garou pack to return you to, if maybe you would have settled down with your

own kind.”

“I’m afraid I’ve been with the bigger grays for so long that the reds look

puny.”

He stilled his hands. “You’ve been in touch with some, Bella?”

“At…at the zoo.”

“What?”

“Two men. About our age. They said they’d break me out. One urinated

along the fence line. Didn’t you catch his odor?”

Hell and damnation. Fisting his hands in her hair, he knew damn well what

the red intended with his actions. “The breeze must have shifted.” Damn his bad

luck. Not only would the reds frown on another male lupus garou trespassing,

but a gray trying to take a red to another wolves’ territory wouldn’t set well with

them. “You should have told me.”

“You’re not worried about them, are you? We left the zoo and then ended up

at the hospital and now here. They won’t be able to follow me.”

“The news will carry the story about your hospital stay and subsequent

disappearance. The mystery woman found in the wolf’s pen, without clothes, the

disappearance of the red wolf, and most likely my description, too. If the red

who targeted you is a pack leader, no one would cross him. So he’d know I was

from out of town, not a member of his pack.”

“He was young, your age…early twenties, small. He wouldn’t be a leader.”

“Reds are smaller.” He wasn’t dismissing the fact that they could have more

trouble than they bargained for—first zoo man Thompson, then the cops, and

now a pack of red wolves.

“Besides, Devlyn, I am selecting my mate.”

“That’s what this is all about? You want to choose instead of a male

choosing you?” His voice sounded as incredulous as he felt.

“This is all about not wanting to be Volan’s mate. Don’t you see?”. “He’s the leader. You should be proud a leader wants you. He’ll always

safeguard you. Besides, I thought you and he shared a connection.” He couldn’t

help sounding peeved. But, in truth, besides the fact she wanted a human mate

and the way she denied wanting to be with Volan, he felt otherwise.

She didn’t respond.

“Bella?”

“Leave it,” she snapped.

“Why do you despise him so? It’s not because he killed the boy at the lake.

You hated Volan long before this, although I recall a time when that wasn’t the

case.” The instance when Volan had encouraged her to eat after the death of her

best friend—yet she’d bitten Devlyn when he’d tried to console her—hadn’t

faded from his memory. The image of Volan’s arms snug around her and Bella’s

head pressed against his chest still burned hot in Devlyn’s mind.

She abruptly changed the subject. “You never told me what happened

between you and Volan the day I ran. I didn’t think you’d survive.”

“Disappointed?” He knew there was something more to the story with Volan,

damn it.

She tried to wriggle out of his arms. “Don’t be an i***t. Of course I didn’t

want him hurting you. I didn’t want him hurting the human boy either.”

Attempting to squash the hard knot in the pit of his stomach when the image

of her lusting after the human in the lake came to mind, he redirected the

conversation. “Volan was pretty angry with me for kissing you.”

“Some kiss.”

The way she said it, dreamily and with intrigue, diminished his annoyance

with her over the human boy. “Did you like it?”

“It was all right,” she responded too nonchalantly—as if she were playing a

role in a movie but overplaying her part a bit.

“You’ve had better?” he asked, his tone mocking.

Silence greeted him.

Inwardly, he chuckled. “Thought not.”

“I’m not going to tell you about all of the guys I’ve kissed.” She tried to

squirm free, but he tightened his grip. Sighing heavily, she quit her struggles.

“What happened between you and Volan?”

“He planned to tear me to shreds until you ran off. Then Volan hesitated. He.wasn’t sure whether to kill me or chase you. After scrapping with me for a

couple of minutes to make a point, he took after you.”

“Were you badly injured?”

“Nothing that wouldn’t heal in a couple of days. When Volan returned home

two days later without you, he was hell to live with. After I healed, I left the

pack.”

“In search of me?”

He couldn’t reveal that a feminine red lupus garou had brought a big gray to

his knees. And he didn’t want to tell her that he not only couldn’t win against

Volan, but he couldn’t locate one little runaway female red wolf. This time he

didn’t answer her.

When he didn’t respond, she lifted his hand to her lips and kissed it, warming

him thoroughly. “Did you see a newscast about me?”

“Yeah, Argos said it was you right away.”

She shrugged and muttered under her breath, “Could have been another.”

“Nope, had your trademark all over it.”

“I’ve never been caught and stuck in a zoo before.”

He nudged her neck with his cheek. “No, but you’ve needed rescuing before.

So, how was Big Red?”

She slugged him in the shoulder, forcing him to laugh out loud. Playing with

her again felt good, but he wanted more. Resenting that he couldn’t take her for

his own, the powerful need to renew the good memories of their youth and to

form new ones as mates strangled him. But it wasn’t his business to want the

pack leader’s intended b***h and, worse, one who wanted a human companion.

With the need for sleep tantamount, both grew quiet; his arms securely

wrapped around her, and they slept soundly for a couple of hours.

Something woke Devlyn. He sat up in bed, his heightened wolf senses taking

hold. The smell of men’s cologne, the sound of a keycard sliding into a slot, and

the hush of men’s voices in the hallway of their hotel suite triggered adrenaline

to course through his blood at racetrack speed.

He jerked the covers aside, jumped off the mattress, and seized Bella’s wrist.

Clasping his hand over her mouth, he spoke against her ear in a hushed voice;

her heart beat hard and her eyes were wild with fear. “Police, I think, trying to

enter the living area of the hotel suite. Get dressed.”

He shoved her clothes to her and pushed the queensized bed against the door. Throwing on his clothes, he turned to see Bella, already dressed in the oversized

men’s garments, sliding the patio door open and running onto the balcony.

Before he could reach her, she climbed over the patio railing. For a moment, she

hung from the concrete patio like a monkey, swinging in the cold city jungle, a

drizzle coating everything in icy wetness.

He touched her hand. “Can you make it all right?”

“Yes,” she whispered, her amber eyes darkened.

She dropped to the grassy ground shimmering with water droplets. Devlyn

jumped down next to her and grabbed her hand. When he started to lift her, she

objected.

“You’re not wearing shoes, Bella. Let me do this my way.”

“All right, boss, do it.”

Black as night, Devlyn’s eyes studied her for a moment. “It’s about time you

said so.” His voice was hushed but different than Bella had ever heard it. Before

she could further consider the change in his mood, he lifted her in his arms and

ran across a road, the feel of his virile strength feeding her own. Skirting to the

backside of an apartment complex, he headed for an SUV.

“I hope it’s yours.”

“Rental. We had several, figuring we’d give the police a good chase with all

of us going in different directions. We kept this one here in case anyone

discovered us at the hotel.”

Releasing her, he unlocked the vehicle’s doors with the click of the button. “I

have a change of clothes for you in the backseat. Put them on while I get us out

of here.”

After she slipped into the back, he took the wheel and drove out of the

parking area. Unzipping the bag, she pulled out the contents—a scrappy pair of

red lace panties, a b*a the same color, a pair of pale blue running pants, a

sweatshirt, and socks and sneakers, trimmed with hearts.

“Who picked out the red scraps of lace?”

“Tanner.”

She laughed at the thought of Devlyn’s cousin, always playing the bad boy

role. “Figures. He always did have a thing for red.”

“If you don’t like the color, you don’t have to put them on.”

“Go without?” He glanced at the rearview mirror, his eyes smoldering.

She clicked the b*a closed in front and frowned. “It’s a pushup bra.”

“Didn’t need anything pushed up,” he said, his voice ragged. “But it suits

you.”

“Watch your driving.”

“Can’t help the distraction,” he growled.

Horny and frustrated, he acted like Big Red at the zoo. She pulled the rest of

the clothes on and climbed into the front seat. “I can’t believe I didn’t pick up on

those cops at the front door.”

“You were still recovering from your harrowing experience at the zoo. How

do you feel?”

“Like I’ll have to take another nap later on.”

“Want to crawl in the back and sleep for awhile?”

“I couldn’t right now. My skin’s still prickling from nearly getting caught.”

She ran her hands over the running pants, wiping off the clamminess.

“What’s bothering you, Bella?”

“Nothing.”

“Don’t tell me nothing. I can tell from the tension in your voice you’re

worried, and about more than the cops almost catching us.”

She turned away from him and stared out the window; a light mist drizzled

down the glass pane. “It’s nothing.”

“If you’re considering not going home with me, think again. You’re not safe

on your own. Lupus garous have to stick together to survive. Loners get

themselves killed. And no matter what, you can’t expose our kind.”

She glanced at him and opened her mouth to tell him off.

Tightening his grip on the steering wheel, Devlyn cursed under his breath.

“Ah, hell—trouble, straight ahead.”. A ROADBLOCK. TWO POLICE CRUISERS SAT DEAD AHEAD on the

shoulder of the road. While one policeman spoke to the driver of a compact,

another eyed Devlyn and Bella’s approaching SUV.

Despite the car’s heater running on high, a chill ran down Bella’s spine, and

she involuntarily shuddered. “Maybe they’re just looking for drunk drivers.”

Devlyn shook his head. “We can’t risk that they aren’t looking for us.”

“They’ll recognize us, won’t they, if they get a good look at us?”

“Yeah, I imagine so. Thompson probably gave them a rough description.

That long, red hair of yours will be a dead giveaway.” Devlyn turned down a

side street before they reached the checkpoint and switched off his headlights.

“Hold on tight. Someone will probably check us out because we avoided the

roadblock.”

She swallowed hard, not liking the situation at all. “See the carport in front

of those apartments? Pull into a vacant slot. A police helicopter searching from

above won’t see the SUV then.”

“I’m more concerned about the ones looking from the ground.”

“Do it, Devlyn.”

He grunted. “What happened to my being the boss?”

“You can be the boss later, stud.”

He turned to look at her, his eyes darker than usual, his expression surprised.

She sensed her new nickname for him pleased him in a sensual sort of way, and

her own body responded as the ache returned between her legs.

“Let’s try to find an apartment where no one’s home and get some more

sleep,” she suggested.

“I hope you’re right about this.” He turned into the two-story apartment. complex and parked underneath the metal carport.

“We probably couldn’t outrun them. But if they didn’t see us pull in here,

they’ll probably keep driving and—”

A police car approached and Bella and Devlyn ducked down.

Seconds passed. The vehicle continued down the road, its engine rumbling

slightly.

Devlyn peered out the windshield. “They’re still going. If they come back to

check the parking lots, they may find the SUV, especially if they caught sight of

the license plate before we turned down the street perpendicular to the one where

the roadblock was set up.”

She climbed out of the vehicle, glad the police hadn’t noticed the wet drizzle

on the vehicle when the ones parked next to it were dry as the desert. “You don’t

have to come.”

“You’re not running away from me again.” He slammed his door shut.

“Oh?” She darted across the parking area in the thickening mist, and he

dashed after her, catching her wrist with a vice-like grip. She would have loved

his possessiveness if he’d wanted her for his own. But no, he was keeping her

from running away so he could turn her over to Volan. The bastard.

“When did I ever run away from you?” Dropping down behind a razor-

toothed holly shrub, she listened for sounds in the apartment.

“When you left Colorado,” he said, his harsh tone hushed while he crouched

beside her.

“I slipped away from Volan, not you,” she whispered in retort.

He clamped his mouth shut.

She stared at him. He’d only kissed her so long ago to prove he was more

virile than the human boy, nothing more. Hell, he’d never even searched for her,

or Argos would have said. “Devlyn, you can’t mean you want me. Volan would

kill you.”

“Like hell he would.”

The image of the last wolf Volan had killed flashed through her mind, and,

with Devlyn not giving an inch, she tried to clear her thoughts of the vicious

memory. She darted past an apartment window, dragging Devlyn with her. She

listened again. “A man snoring.”

She ran past the apartment and Devlyn gave her a dark look. A dog barked in

the next one. Shaking her head, she moved to the next window. A distinctive