Thompson folded his arms and leaned back in the chair. “No. You’re too weak. Not until the doctor says — “

She glanced at the I.V. in her arm and then yanked it out. To stop the bleeding, she clamped her hand over the tape that had held the I.V. in place.

“Wait, miss — “

Jerking her blankets to the floor, she stumbled out of bed. What she wouldn’t have given for some swift wolf’s legs about now. Although she could run long and hard as a human, too, a nice warm wolf pelt would have been preferable in the cold winter weather to a human’s naked body.

Thompson jumped up from the chair and headed for her.

Her head swam, and she grabbed the mattress. The idea that she had completely recovered was a delusion.

Thompson skirted around the bed to help her. “I’m — I’m sorry. You need to return to bed, miss. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

She rushed past him into the bathroom. With only a flimsy hospital gown tied at the back and nothing else to clothe her body, she was out of luck. She locked the bathroom door and then looked at the window. No way to open it. No escape. She hurried out of the bathroom.

Thompson hit the nurse’s call button, his tanned face now pale. “I’ll get a nurse to put the I.V. back — “

Desperate to escape Devlyn, Bella ran out of the room. She dashed for the nearest exit sign down the long corridor.

“Miss!” Thompson shouted after her.

She slammed into the fire stairs door, glancing back to see Devlyn at the nurses’ station and Thompson tearing out of the room.

Thompson looked back at Devlyn, evidently to see what caught her eye. Both men stared at each other for a moment. She didn’t wait to see what happened next.

After charging down two flights of stairs, she bolted onto the first floor. One man’s boots tromped down the stairwell in hasty pursuit of her. She dove undetected into a hospital room. Thank God an elderly patient snored in his sleep in one of the beds. Heart pounding, she slid under the unoccupied bed.

The door to the room opened. She scarcely breathed. Boots stood in the doorway but then moved away and the door closed.

Hurrying out from underneath the bed, she searched through the man’s wall closet.

After tossing the hospital gown, she slipped on his large button-down, collared shirt that reached mid-thigh. She pulled a bulky sweater over this. His baggy trousers and canoe-sized shoes were way too big. Grabbing his corduroy jacket, she shoved her arms into the sleeves. Barefooted and barelegged, she ran to the door and peeked out.

The hallway remained empty, but Thompson, the police, and Devlyn had to be nearby. She leaned against the doorframe, dizzy — not yet herself. Her head fuzzed and her heart beat way out of control.

When her head cleared, she dashed for the front door that she envisioned lay beyond the bend in the hall, centered in the middle of the building.

Devlyn suddenly walked out of a room down the hall and into her path, his back to her. Her breath caught in her throat. Bolting, she tried to dash past him, but he jumped to block her. She slammed against his body instead, and he wrapped his arms around her in a secure vice.

Panic filled her. His touch forced her to want more from him — a searing embrace, another kiss, full of passion. Madness. He’d turn her over to the pack leader, damn him.

Devlyn pulled her into the room. To her horror, Thompson and the two cops lay still as death on the floor, forcing a gasp from her lips. “What — “

His eyes burning with anger, he held a finger to her lips. Then he took her hand and whispered harshly, “We’re leaving through the front door, quietly.” When she tried to jerk free, he gripped her hand tighter. “Quietly, damn it, Bella. Behave for once.”

Straightening her shoulders, she narrowed her eyes. She’d slipped away from the pack before. She could do it again. And, for now, Devlyn seemed her only chance to flee the hospital. Yet, God, how she hungered for more than his hand gripping hers. It was mating season, she reminded herself, nothing more, and she would lust after any male that... hell, who was she trying to kid? The way he looked at her bare legs, even while they stood in imminent danger of being discovered, the way he touched her — he craved her as much as she did him.

He walked her back into the hall toward the center of the building, his stride long and indomitable, his arm wrapped tightly around her waist. His touch should have warmed her... well, hell, it did. But for all of the wrong reasons. She craved more of his touch, at the same time resenting the implication. He was her captor, her new zookeeper; her blood sizzled.

When they walked past the nurses’ station, a woman wearing polka-dot scrubs spoke on the phone, her eyes wide. “The patient is missing?”

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.”