Viki turned her attention back to Diana. Her hair stood straight from the nape to the tip of her tail, she. She advanced aggressively, then stopped.
Torn between giving herself to Viki to protect Diana and fighting Viki herself, she knew neither would work. Diana would have hated him anyway - damn female wolf pride.
Viki growled again. Diana took off her shirt. Her bra was exposed, her golden skin gleaming with sweat in the summer sun. Another day, she loved to see every ounce of her beautiful physique—the muscular thighs, the dark curly hair between her legs, and the erection she stimulated. But not now, not when Viki is threatening to tear him apart.
As soon as Diana stood naked, she began to change, her body took the shape of a wolf, her nose became longer. His long legs and torso were covered with a thick brown fur as rich as a mink. He howled as the change took place. Viki waited patiently before making a move.
He couldn't watch her tear Diana apart. He couldn't bear to see the tyrant hurt the other wolf of the pack. But it's definitely not the Diana he played as a cub, not Diana who saved him from the wildfire that took the life of a pack of red wolves. He couldn't save her now... just maybe himself. However, when Viki made the move towards Diana, she stepped in to protect Diana. Viki pressed her teeth into his arm, having the ability to break bone with her powerful canine teeth. She cried out as a pain stabbed her arm and blood dripped from the wound. She snarled to stay away from him, even though her eyes flashed remorse and released him. So is Diana.
Maybe if she ran away, Viki would follow. Maybe that's how he could save Diana. But he would never return to the herd.
He sprang out with his legs stretched out, his heart beating fast, his breathing even, but his mind frantic—his only chance was to throw off his clothes and flee like a wolf.
Nowadays
One hundred and fifty years later—one aging for every thirty that passes by the time lupus garou reaches puberty—Bella was the equivalent of a twenty-one-year-old human. More than ever, Diana yearned for her husband to be reunited, wishing she hadn't had to hide from the herd all these years. Whenever she entered the wolf's fire, burning desire for him filled her veins. His body longed for his touch, but his mind had given up hoping to possess it. If a strong, compatible human could find a mate, she could turn him into a lupus garou and she could protect him from Viki.
He shook his head, trying to rid himself of the ferocious demon image, and continued packing his night bag. Any woman would be better than him - a good wife to help him start his own herd.
He turned to look at the photo of Diana on the nightstand, the last photo sent by the former, retired pack leader Argos. Taking a deep breath, she tossed another pair of jeans into her purse, determined to take her mind off Diana.
Knowing that he could no longer delay mating, he realized that one's second choice far outweighed living alone; Even the sound of a dog's howling in the night breeze triggered a gnawing longing to be with a pack.
She sneaked into his office and left an e-mail message for Argos, a routine he adopted as he insisted that he notify her whenever he went into the woods. As a loner, he would have no backup. We're going to the cabin again for the weekend, Argos. Give love to the herd, secretly. Always yours, my love, Bella
He didn't have to tell him to keep his correspondence confidential; She knew what would happen if Viki found out where he was...
Turning off her computer, she picked up her phone and called her next-door neighbor—a woman who partially alleviated Bella's loneliness after she lost her twin sister in a fire years ago. "Chrissie, I'm going back to my cabin for the weekend. Can you watch for me?"
"Sure Bella. Pick up your mail on Saturday if you want. And I'll water your greenhouse plants. Hey, I don't want to hold you back, but did you hear about the last murder?"
"Yes, the police need to catch the bastard ASAP."
That was one of the reasons she went to her cabin, to escape, to ponder the truth about the murders, to look for clues in the woods. He must have been from Portland or its environs, for he had killed all the women because it was there. And from time to time she had to take a stroll through a forest. The call of the savage was too strong within them. Where she was running, so far from the city, she didn't expect to smell the red lupus garou. He hadn't had a trace of them in three years. Not until the end of last week. Was the murderer one of them? He had to know.
Bella tossed a pink sweatshirt into the bag.
"Be careful, honey. The victims are all in their twenties with red hair. And the last one was killed not far from here."
"Don't worry, Chrissie. I have a gun to protect." Well, two: one cambetween, the other at home, but who was counting? Silver bullets too; Bella had them made for Viki. Lupus garou wasn't the way, but there was no other way to fight it. She would never be his.
"A . . . a gun? Do you know how to shoot?"
Yes, he had learned how to shoot guns since his early days in the wilderness trying to survive in the lands west of Colorado a century and a half ago.
"Yeah, don't worry. Give your kids a hug for me, okay? Tell Mary I want to see the painting she made for art class and when I get back to Jimmy I want to see the science project."
Chrissie sighed. "I'll tell them. Be careful out there alone. That is, if you're going alone."
Always in control. Chrissie was looking for husband number two and assumed she was meeting a mountain man every time Bella returned to her cabin.
"See you on Monday."
"Be careful, Bella. You never know where that maniac will end up."
"I'll be cautious. I have to go."
Bella hung up and zipped up her suitcase. Before dark, he was intent on searching the forest for more clues to the red lupus garou—not a wild dog, a mixed breed of wolf-dog, or, as some think, a pit bull that a bastard had trained to kill his victims. - it could be killing women.
Why had he caught the scent of red lupus garou in the area near his hut, when he had been free of his kind in the forest for the past three years? She imagined that a lonely woman wouldn't have a chance to stay that way. She was nauseous at the thought of giving up her hut and finding a new place to escape to. One more worry to add to the growing list of concerns.