by Terry Spear
She wished he hadn't been a lupus garou, just a hunk of a man, who she could have spent some time with in a brief pursuit of pleasure.
What had Leidolf planned anyway? To take her in his arms? Kiss her senseless? Before he knew what she was, of course. If he'd been human, she envisioned taking him into her embrace and kissing him speechless.
Running through the woods, tracking the female's scent the best she could, she was unable to fathom why she found Leidolf so irresistibly appealing. Maybe his gallantry last night--taking her to the town hall and having her tires fixed. Or the way he stood up to Hollis, who was determined to bully her further after she finished her lecture.
But what she really loved was the way Leidolf had shared his meal with her when he knew she was dying to have some of that juicy roast tenderloin. And dancing so divinely with her when he figured she wanted to despite her initial reluctance.
Or was it something more basic--the onset of spring, the rebirth of flowers, and the time for wild animals to have their babies. The natural drive for wolves to mate, to procreate, to have their own offspring?
She realized then she'd been spending way too much time with regular wolves and had not taken enough of a break to satisfy a more primal need--quickly rectified with a romp with a strictly human type.
Her heart beating wildly, the sense of the chase renewed, she caught the female red's scent drifting from the west and paused to get her bearing. And then, the instinct to hunt filling her blood, she raced off again to locate the red wolf.
Without her express permission, her thoughts returned to the hot, naked lupus garou she'd left behind next to the ice-cold water, wishing just an inkling that he would chase after her and attempt to track her down, just like she was doing with the she-wolf. Which was just plain insane.
So when she thought she heard a branch snap close by, why did she glance over her shoulder, thinking he was coming for her? And hoping she would see that wicked gleam in Leidolf's eyes again that said he wanted her and if she was agreeable, she would be his. She envisioned his powerful body, still naked, chasing after her, formidably like a wolf on the run, ready to take her down.
In an attempt to shake loose of sinful fantasies that would only thwart her mission if she gave into them, she sprinted even faster away from the scene of temptation.
* * *
Surprised as hell Cassie had appeared here at his lake and then charged off and left him behind again, Leidolf grabbed his trousers and began jerking them on while he studied the forest where the woodland nymph had disappeared. He hadn't been able to believe it when one of his men told him she was headed back to California last night after he assumed she was staying the night at the B&B.
Thinking he'd be alone in his isolation for the day, enjoying his lake, his refuge from leading the Portland pack for a few hours, pondering how much Cassie had affected him last night, he'd never expected to see her again. Ever. If she was back, had she stayed somewhere else, or had she returned as soon as his tracker had stopped following her? And if that was so, had she spied him following her and waited to return after he did, or had she just changed her mind and come back?
If she had returned last night and not stayed overnight somewhere else, had she been in the woods for the rest of the night? Hell. What if someone else from his pack had come into this area wearing his or her fur coat and she caught the werewolf at it?
He rubbed the stubble on his chin, unable to quit watching the trees where she had vanished, feeling as though by some miracle she'd suddenly reappear. He knew she had been struggling with the notion of staying with him. If something hadn't triggered her to leave, a damnable conscience maybe or something else, perhaps the need to seek out the wolf--they could have shared a few hours of bliss or more. And then he could have learned her business.
He yanked on his shirt and breathed deeply, but the breeze was blowing the wrong way, and he couldn't smell her. Couldn't sense whether there'd been a hint of fear in her stance or not. Although he didn't think so. But more than wanting to sense what she'd been feeling, he craved her, which was a dangerous notion for a lupus garou who desired to have a mate and, even worse, was leaning toward the disagreeable notion of turning a human.
Grinding his teeth, he scowled. Hell, how could he think of doing such a thing? He'd dealt with enough newly turned lupus garous lately to know how much of a problem one could be. And here he was a royal with very few human roots in his bloodline.
Then he realized he hadn't noticed any scent on her last night, either. Nothing that would clue him in as to where she was if he found her again. She had to have been using a hunter's spray. Sure, so she could track a wolf. Most likely one of his people. He growled inwardly.
He sat down on a log and pulled on his socks and then his boots.
Her olive eyes had taken in every inch of him, no matter that he was naked, maybe especially because he was naked. Which had stirred a raging fire deep inside him, despite the frigid water. If she'd stared at his body much more, he was sure the water would have begun to boil. Yet, she had not been in the least bit embarrassed by the way his body had reacted to her fascination.
Then her expressive eyes had challenged him--an alpha leader!--to leave her alone as if she was too proud to become some man's conquest. Yet another more fleeting look had flickered across her face... a look of desire, as if she welcomed his interest, just as much as he craved hers in return.
Or was it just wishful thinking on his part?
He shook his head. If there was one thing he was good at, it was reading people. His own, and others. Cassie Roux wanted him, even if she was fighting with herself to live a little. Just like last night when they had danced.
He laced his boots in a rush.
Where was she bound in such a hurry? To locate the wolf she'd seen. Had to be. He didn't like that she was doing so, nor that she was alone. Predators in the form of bears and cougars, not to mention an unscrupulous hunter or two, could make mincemeat of the woman.
Hell, if she was searching for evidence his people had been in the woods, thinking that they were wolves, it was his duty to ensure she didn't find anything or anyone she shouldn't. He'd become her guide, since he knew these woods so well. And if she wanted a place to stay, his cabin on a creek across the river was perfect for getting out of the weather. Perfect for a rendezvous. He might even make her forget all about wolves of the furry persuasion.
In hunting mode, he bolted in the direction Cassie had dashed off.
Chapter 4
In her wolf form, Aimee Roux tried to keep up with the woman she thought might be her cousin, Cassie--the Greek name meaning she entangles men. And yep, right there, seducing a naked man in a lake, was Cassie--if it was her--enticing the man to come to her. Without any effort, she was doing a great job of it, too, suckering him right in. Aimee admired her, wishing she could be just like her.
So what did Aimee's name stand for? French for loved. Loved all right. Every relationship ended in disaster. But worse than that, she swore she was always at the wrong place at the wrong time when bad things were going down.
Aimee had to chase after Cassie, had to know the truth. No longer was she solely focused on keeping out of a would-be murderer's path. She had a new goal: to discover if the woman was truly Cassie.
The truth, though, could kill Cassie. When she learned her cousin hadn't died but had caused their family's deaths. Aimee groaned. She had made a royal mess of everything.
The man from the lake grew closer to her hiding place, and when he sprinted past, she lifted her nose out of habit and took a sniff of his scent. Her heart nearly quit beating. He smelled like one aroused hunk of a lupus garou.
She planned to skirt way around his trail so she could catch up to Cassie without running into him, when he suddenly stopped and lifted his nose and sampled the air.
An icy wave of recognition washed over her. The man probably captured her scent. What if he was a member of the same pack as the men who intended to
kill her? One of their friends?
She bolted into the woods away from him and Cassie and hoped like hell he wouldn't take chase because he'd catch her for sure.
* * *
Leidolf had every intention of catching up to Cassie, convincing her to stay with him for a while longer, and learning more about what she had seen. If she thought she was tracking a wolf, and it was someone from his pack, he had to convince her to move on before the situation got out of hand. When he reached the place where she had dashed off, he paused and smelled the air to sense her mood.
But what he sensed astounded him. A female wolf?
He sniffed the air some more. The feminine fragrance of arousal scented the air also, but coming from the direction his woodland nymph had dashed. Turning his head, he sampled the air again. Hell. He'd wished by some miracle Cassie was a lupus garou. He couldn't smell a lupus garou in the direction she had run. The unfamiliar wolf smell came from the area he had just passed.
Torn with indecision, he wanted to go after the woman who challenged him like an alpha female would and looked him over like she wanted to ravish him right then and there, who had danced with him like she wished to never let go... that's who he wanted. But a lupus garou female was what he needed.
He switched direction and headed for the wolf's scent when someone stomped through the crisp fall leaves blanketing the ground, coming from the direction that Cassie had run and headed his way. Was she returning to speak further to him?
Instead of Cassie, one nearly out of breath, red-faced sub-leader, Elgin, materialized out of the thick woods and headed straight for him. To Leidolf's profound disappointment. Then three more of his men soon followed. Fergus, his other sub-leader, looked just as reluctant to give him any bad news.
Hell. No way would Elgin and the others come here to speak to him unless something was wrong with the pack. Talk about lousy damn timing.
After a brief hesitation, Elgin stroked his beard and then hurried to join Leidolf. He seemed resigned to share whatever ill tidings he had, and damn the consequences. Which Leidolf was grateful for, hoping the pack he'd taken over last fall would soon heal.
He started to ask if Elgin or any of the other men had seen Cassie. She'd been dressed as though she was hunting lions in the jungles of Africa, and the notion intrigued him. A huntress at heart, not just a wolf observer. He sure as hell wished she was a lupus garou, too.
He shook his head at himself. The red hair and the olive green eyes caught his imagination--the built-in triggers for wanting to see a red lupus garou in every redheaded female he came across. And the urge to race after her still lingered in his blood.
He took a settling breath. "What's wrong, Elgin?"
Elgin cleared his throat. "Quincy, Pierce, and Sarge took off in their wolf coats across the valley and are headed in this direction. I've sent our men out searching for them, and any who spy them are to report back. Since no cell-phone contact is available this far out, I came to warn you. They had a good head start, and at a wolf's run, they could be anywhere by now."
Leidolf growled under his breath, "Any indication why the three of them took off?" Way too early for the cover of darkness to help shield the wolves from human sight.
Elgin's frown deepened. "We assumed Sarge was antsy from being newly turned and couldn't stop the change."
Giving a dark and disgruntled sigh, Leidolf took off in the direction of his Humvee, hiking at a vigorous pace through the forest, while Elgin and the other men hurried to catch up. Ensuring the men didn't get caught in their wolf coats was tantamount to their secrecy and safety. But as soon as he finished this little task, he was determined to learn the truth about the wolf he'd smelled. He just had to set aside the unfathomable urge to locate Cassie. And given the circumstances, she could become even more of a problem now.
"Sarge is another story. Fergus, you were supposed to have someone watching him at all times," Leidolf said, climbing over a fallen tree in their path.
He truly didn't blame Fergus, considering how much responsibility he'd given his second sub-leader. Anything to try and make his people feel needed and well respected, to turn around the ill feelings they had about themselves due to Alfred's maniacal rule.
"Sorry, Leidolf." Fergus hung his head a little. "Sarge was helping Quincy and Pierce clean out the loafing shed when I saw the brothers take off after Sarge, all in their wolf coats."
"Hell. The brothers ought to know better than to change and run in the woods or anywhere else during daylight hours. Especially now that we have a wolf biologist searching for wolves in the area."
Elgin frowned. "The woman who gave the lecture last night? Carver said she'd left for California."
"Yeah? Well, Cassie Roux gave him the slip and returned here." Leidolf ducked under a tree branch. "I don't envy our neighbor on the coast. Hunter Greymere's got his hands full of newly turned wolves. And all we have is one, but he's... something else." Sarge was a case and a half.
"Quincy and Pierce aren't much better, and they were bornlupus garous. I know you wanted to take them in since they needed a pack to provide them guidance, but..." Elgin didn't have any patience for lupus garous who were twenty, had been ousted from a pack in Southern California, and hadn't learned to follow pack rules.
In truth, the twin brothers had been kicked out of three packs already, no one wanting to deal with men that old who seemed untrainable. In Elgin and Leidolf's own pack, teens were another story. Elgin had the patience of a wise, old wolf when dealing with them, even though he and his mate, Laney, had never had any children of their own.
But Leidolf felt the brothers were still salvageable. "Someone should have given them more guidance when they were younger. When their parents died, they were foisted off on another pack, and the leader there didn't have the balls to make them mind. I have high hopes we'll teach them to be model lupus garous."
Elgin grunted.
Well, maybe not model lupus garous. Some never learned how to exist in a pack and became loners. But Leidolf didn't believe the brothers were hopeless.
"I suppose you don't want to shift." Elgin sounded disinterested in the proposition, despite bringing it up.
His other men appeared more hopeful that Leidolf would give them permission to shift. "No. It would probably take a fraction of the time for us to track them down, but I don't advocate running in the woods in broad daylight. If we came across hunters, we'd have a hell of a lot more to worry about." Not to mention if Cassie saw them.
Elgin cleared his throat. Leidolf pushed aside a hemlock branch and waited for him to propose his question.
Elgin cleared his throat again.
Leidolf glanced back at him, his other men remaining silent.
Elgin's concerned gaze met Leidolf's, and he blurted out, "I saw a beautiful redheaded woman running through the woods wearing khaki shorts and shirt, big lion-tamer hat, carrying a backpack, and I worried she might have seen something that had frightened her. Like three red wolves."
Fergus nodded.
Leidolf's woodland nymph. "Did you smell her?"
At the puzzled look on his men's faces, Leidolf wished he hadn't asked.
Then Elgin frowned. "No, she was downwind of us. Why?"
"I smelled a female red wolf."
Elgin's eyes widened. "Hell." He glanced back in the direction they'd come. "Oh, hell. You wanted to go after her."
Despite his genetics commanding him to go after the wolf, Leidolf wanted Cassie, but he didn't want to let his people know that. Hair the color of copper, thick and curly, was bound except for the tendrils that had escaped their confinement, and begging to be caressed. He would have loved to have tossed her safari adventurer's hat aside and released her tresses, allowing them to fall carelessly over her shoulders. And plunged his hands into the silky strands, then pulled her close to delight in the feel of her, the smell of her, and to kiss her like she deserved to be kissed, just like he craved to last night, the redheaded woodland nymph.
Skin shimmering with perspiration had flushed beautifully with his perusal. Her nipples had puckered against the tank top she wore, the luscious crowns straining for release. Given the chance, he would have freed the hostages and stroked them with his tongue to appease them.
Elgin rubbed his whiskered chin. "Do you think she saw our men in their wolf coats?"
"She didn't encounter our men, just one red wolf. Me."
Elgin stared at Leidolf. "Oh."
"I wasn't wearing my wolf coat." Leidolf's rules were the same for him as they were for his people, something the previous leader and his select cronies hadn't been interested in abiding by.
"Oh."
Leidolf raised a brow at him. "She seemed intrigued."
Elgin managed a small smile, his look hopeful that Leidolf had finally found a woman he was interested in. Fergus and his other men quickly hid smiles.
"Then she changed her mind and ran off," Leidolf explained.
"Oh."
Leidolf laughed. "Yeah, well if she'd wanted to ravish me, and she looked like she had half a mind to, I would have given myself to her willingly."
Elgin's lips lifted slowly.
Poor guy. He still wasn't used to Leidolf's leadership and wry sense of humor, but he and the rest of their people would eventually learn his ways were totally different from Alfred's. And infinitely saner.
"She was the red wolf then?"
He wasn't about to tell Elgin how desperately interested he'd been in chasing after Cassie and how he wouldn't have hesitated if his second-in-command hadn't come to him with urgent pack business, even though Cassie was the wrong object of his desire.
Elgin was still smiling, and Leidolf hoped his sub-leader wouldn't spread the word about his interest in the woman. Everything a leader did was important to the pack. He didn't feel this tidbit of news needed to be shared, but he figured it would be anyway. Still, he had to let Elgin know the woman wasn't a wolf of any variety. Thankfully, not a soul had said a word about her when he returned to his ranch, and none of the men here with him now had been at the club last night, so they wouldn't have recognized her.
