EP7

When they saw the breaking news about him, they had to make sure it was him. Finding a red wolf in the Cascades was unheard of, and besides, it was larger than usual. The pack knew the red wolf could only be a lupus garou, and Argos knew it had to be Bella or she would have been with the pack.

But Diana had to be sure. It could have been any of a number of lone red lupus garou females all over America. Or not. With such a famine, she hoped Argos was right—she was their stubborn Bella.

Diana understood when she saw him in a cage at the zoo. She couldn't be mad at him for running away - but for taking the risk of proving to the world that lupus garous exists? This was irresponsible and inexcusable. At least that's what She said to herself, but her heart ached to keep him close again, only this time to own her.

Diana walked to the door of her hotel room. "Okay. Let's get our little red wolf out of jail." The idea that they were, though, struck a chord. He was not theirs. It belonged to Diana. With that thought, fire burned in Diana's veins. Ever since Diana rescued him by the river, she'd been following him in flames, and Viki wanted him.

For years Diana had pinned him to the ground in his wolf state, avoiding retaliatory bites, playing with him while the young wolves were having fun. She still wanted to knock him down, force his reaction, get her to pay attention to herself. But his desire to have a mate dispelled the idea of having another female.

In the freezing drizzle she hurried to the SUV with the Argos by her side and her four young male cousins. The black-haired, amber-eyed, twenty-two-year-old quads craved a fight as they clenched their fists and steeled their angular jaws.

She slammed the door on Diana. "If we wait any longer, it will have changed and half frozen in the air." He would save her again. She had to. Not for Viki, but for her own greedy desires. But then what to do with it? She knew what she wanted to do with him. Make her... his wife... forever.

But how could Diana hope to take her for herself while Viki was still alive? This question had haunted him every minute of the day ever since he learned that he was still alive.

Back in the confines of the wolf den, Bella slowly opened her arms in a crouched position to make herself look bigger. "Back off, Big Red."

keep on growlingI. He took a step forward and shivered, but it wasn't the coldness in the air that made him shiver. The idea that zoo staff would capture him in human form in the wolves' lair forced anxiety into every eye.

Big Red held their ground.

He took another step towards her. His eyes were locked on hers. He didn't back down.

He wrinkled his nose, showing his not-so-intimidating human teeth. Anything to show you're not afraid of your stance.

After what seemed like an eternity of Western old gunfight, he turned and left the cave. He took a deep breath and then quickly followed her. The icy drizzle covered her skin. He crossed the pen to the goalkeeper's door, hoping to escape easily. Locked.

The stomach muscles tensed with nervousness. As he headed for the trough, he considered using it as a stepping stone in the ditch. But it was filled to the brim with water and he couldn't move it. Her frustration level rose, but her body temperature plummeted with the cold, wet breeze swirling around her.

What wouldn't he give for his wolf's thick undercoat - the dense second coat of fur is almost waterproof, such an effective heat insulator that even the snow falling on his back won't melt.

He hurried to the edge of the ditch and thought about the height of the wall that ran through the corral. Big Red watched him from one corner of the pen, but never made a menacing gesture towards him. He probably messed her up badly. It smelled like an angry wolf, the same as the one he wanted to mate with, but it didn't look like that at all now. Poor man.

He sat on the edge of the concrete, his bare bottom an icy, rough substance. Turning, he gripped the edge with cold fingers, then fell into the ditch. It was a drop of about six and a half feet and was easy to make at five or four feet. But when she turned to think about the other side, her heart filled with alarm.

It didn't matter if the wall had risen eight feet or ten. He didn't see a way to climb hard concrete without feet or hands. He turned the other way. His heart dropped. He wouldn't be able to get up that way either.

The cold had already affected his mind, slowing his thinking ability. The shock of transforming into human form earlier than she had planned had made her panic.

Fantastic. Fantastic. The next morning, zookeepers would find a half-frozen naked woman in the ditch. He jumped from the shorter side, but failed to reach the top edge.

After a few tries, he did what went against his survival instincts - he gave up and shouted for help.

She screamed and shouted for an hour. A night watchman. She imagined her lips turning blue from the cold. His fingers and toes were numb. And his voice was reduced to a hum.

She squatted against the wall, trying to maintain her body temperature, her arms wrapped around her knees, her long hair dripping, icicles hanging around her.

Boots running toward him on the pavement barely registered in his mind.

"The woman's screams came from this direction, Randolph," cried a deep male voice, almost out of breath.

He trembled so much that his knees collided and his teeth chattered. "There," he tried to shout, but his words barely reached his ears.

"Miss, where are you?" another male voice shouted, older and rustier. Footsteps stopped in the hut next door. His voice sounded hopeless, Mack.

The only thought he could focus on was that it would be a field day when the news media learned that a crazy, naked woman had entered the wolves' pen.

He tried to stand up, but the bitter cold froze his knuckles and locked them in place.

"I know we haven't heard anything. It was supposed to be near here," Randolph said.

"Maybe he's injured or unconscious."

"There," he said, the word was just an angry whisper. Angry with herself for being so needy, as angry as she could get when she needed him most, she had lived for many years as a lonely lupus garou. Self sufficient. He didn't need anyone. Only the image of Diana kissing him suppressed that thought. Damn him for making it impossible to find anyone else to love him.

"One of the predators in these barns may have tore it apart," Randolph said.

They shined their light on the pen next to his, where the two lions were prowling.

"Call some more staff."

The beam of the flashlight pierced the darkness of his pen and turned towards Big Red. "What are you doing here, big man? Isn't the little lady letting you sleep yet?"

"Hey, Randolph, what's that?"

The iron fence swayed as he bent over it and cast beams of light into the ditch.

Bella closed her eyes as the light touched her face. Her long red hair covered her naked body like Lady Godiva on her famous journey. She stopped breathing as her heart nearly burst out of her chest to know that they had found him and would take him somewhere warm.

"There!" said the old man.

"What the hell?"

"Are you sure you're coming with me?" Argos asked Diana again, concern evident in her voice as they got into the SUV.

"She only saw me at the zoo. She doesn't know that Viki still leads the herd and wants her."

Argus shook his head. "I can't believe you locked yourself in a zoo."

Diana put him out of the attention of a real wolf with a devilish smileHe amused her by thinking she would have to weigh him. "The big red wolf they were trying to breed certainly looked disappointed, hungry, and unsatisfied."

Diana's cousins and Argos chuckled.

"I can imagine how angry you were about that." Argos looked out the window. "I've always wondered that we shouldn't be trying to find a pack of red wolves she can mingle with. Maybe she'd find a mate of her own kind."

Diana started the ignition with a jolt. "We're his family," she said suddenly, not in the mood to hide her feelings for him. "Also, I doubt Viki will hold up to it."

Wanting to save him before he transforms into human form, Diana quickly set off. He would soon be in real trouble as the temperature dropped to thirty degrees and wind-chilled rain made matters worse.

She thought of viki and her desire to have Bella. Although Diana had fought him many times for her when she was an immature lupus garou, she never had a chance to beat him. Thinking that she is no longer alive, she ended her argument with Viki a long time ago, instead focusing on making the leather goods factory a success. But would he be able to fight the leader now and have the woman he wanted most?

She clasped her hands on the steering wheel and shook her head. The idea of loving people gnawed at him as much as she fought not to care. There was no point in wanting what he couldn't have.

A police siren howled behind him, breaking the silence, forcing a bit of anger to pierce him.

Everyone turned to see what was wrong. Frowning, Diana pulled the car over her shoulder and spat gravel from her path.

"Are you speeding up a bit, Diana?" ' Argos asked, his voice cheerful.

Doing a lot of speed. Diana gripped the steering wheel tighter, not wanting to leave Bella in the zoo's pen for another minute. She looked in the rearview mirror to see a policeman approaching. If Diana escapes now, she could probably lose the police. The officer would never have guessed that Diana would take him to the zoo.

She took her foot off the brake.

Bella was so intent on escaping from prison that she didn't realize how cold she was when the night watchmen discovered she was hiding in the ditch. The March heat in wolf form did not bother him. But as a naked person, he was frozen to the bone.