EP3

Later that day, when Bella arrived at her cottage, the waning moon called out to her, although it was still quite bright. Standing on the porch of his cedar house in the woods, he lifted his nose into the breeze, the building now pale gray. It served as his hideout for weekends when he lived on the wild side, away from the hustle and bustle of the city of Portland. If she found him, she would be the right age to be Victor's wife. Her smile faded as a coyote howled, smiling at how clever she had been to avoid him. It wasn't about being a rogue wolf living alone without a pack. Some are naturally tuned that way. not him.

Moreover, Diana was still holding her heart hostage, damn it. She could still feel his long slender fingers gripping her shoulders possessively, smelling her wild desire to possess him, she could feel her heart pounding as she crushed him against him. Why couldn't she run away with him, she?

She nodded and she tried to get rid of her thoughts about the person who had her soul all along.

It wasn't that she didn't care about the gray wolf pack, the lupus garou family that had let her in. It was the unbelievable idea that she would become Viki's wife that hurled her soul into the depths of hell. She was stronger than the others, she wasn't smarter, or she didn't care in the slightest. Just a tyrant, as in ancient times when the strongest men ruled. Why couldn't she find a mate to treat him as an equal?

Somewhere, such a woman had to exist.

Taking a deep breath, She took off her sweater, turtleneck, jeans, and hiking boots, and set them on a patio chair. She shivered as she stood naked, then inhaled the heavenly scent of pine needles, triggering the memory of Diana kissing her once again. No woman had kissed him the way he kissed her since.

She grit her teeth and swallowed hard. She awakened in him primitive longings that were too strong to be extinguished. The desire to feel it deep inside, to fill it with her seed, to produce offspring, to produce families - to share a lifelong commitment as a forever partner - overwhelmed him. But he was not the leader of the pack. She didn't think she would be strong enough to have Diana, even if she wanted to as his wife. Still, he couldn't help but contact the former leader of the pack, Argos. Knowing that Diana is alive and well...

She growled in exasperation. For now, he had to hunt like a wolf, and in the meantime seek a different prey—the ferocious predator that pursued the red-haired women and killed them like a rabid wolf.

Yawning again, his weak body began to take the shape of a wolf. Painless transformation was always swift, filling it with a sense of urgency - hunting ran wild among the other creatures of the forest.

A thick cinnamon-red pelt covered his skin as his snout elongated and his teeth prepared for prey. He straightened his back, howled at the change, then fell on his paws. His nails turned into sharp claws, itching to dig in the pine needle cushioned earth.

Although he preferred venison to rabbit, he hunted the latter. It was a crime to kill deer in season. If anyone finds the remains of such a murder, an investigation is opened. Soon news spread that a wolf had killed a deer in the area. A wolf that can go after farmers' sheep or cattle, pets or children. extinction in these regionsA wolf thought to have landed.

Leaping off the patio, his long legs carried him with graceful strides into the wilderness. He toured several hundred acres before spying on another cottage—quiet, empty. Now that it's winter and it's no longer hunting season, he shouldn't have seen another human except for the end of the dark Canada goose season.

He thought he smelled something familiar. Hesitating, he sniffed the air and recognized the distinctive scent of lupus garou - red lupus garou.

Turning towards the source of the scent, he sprinted past the pines and firs, stooped under low branches, jumped in front of a moss-covered log…then stopped.A piece of red fur was stuck to the bark of an oak tree. Definitely the red wolf; and since there were none here, a red lupus garou had to be.

He considered returning to human form and taking the evidence back to his shack, but he was miles from there, and no matter how cold it was, his human equivalent would probably not be able to make it.

The wind changed direction. He could feel the scent of red more strongly now. He had urinated somewhere nearby, pointing to his territory. He hesitated. If he was looking for a mate, he would be the main target; and if she were an alpha female, she wouldn't be strong enough to fight him if she decided to forcefully mate.

The leaves rustled. A branch broke under the foot a short distance away. A chill ran down his spine, down to the tip of his taut tail. An eerie feeling of being watched froze him in place.What if he was the murderer? What if he's hunting her now? But what if he could pull it out into the open, play its game, and hand it over to any herd living in the area? Even if he was alone, the herd in the area would have condemned him to death. Killing people puts every lupus garou at risk. Keeping their secret was the only way they could survive.Then again, there might be a lot of herd members hunting for fresh meat – just like her enjoying the freedom of change – a lone lupus garou who encounters her, violating the herd's territory. Unless, of course, their reds don't have a female shortage like Colorado grays and.Damn, why hadn't he thought of that before?

He gazed out into the shadowy forest, where insects chirped in a muffled chorus and a breeze rippled the pine needles in whispered silence. If there was a severe shortage of female lupus garou, was the killer anciently trying to turn a human into a female? To make her his wife?