by Terry Spear
"Spread out," he told the ten men with him. "Pass the word along if you see a sign of any of them."
Elgin and the rest of Leidolf's men quickly spread out in a long line through the woods.
Within minutes, shots rang out, and Leidolf feared the worst. Maybe Quincy or Pierce, who had gone in search of the female in their wolf coats, had been shot. Or maybe Sarge or Satros or his woodland nymph had. But perhaps none of that had happened. Maybe hunters had killed a deer or some other unfortunate creature.
Praying his men were safe and Cassie was also, Leidolf hurried toward the sound of the last shots fired, while five of his men, led by Fergus, took off for the area where the first gunfire had sounded. Elgin, Carver, and three other men followed Leidolf, searching for any clues.
"Female red," Elgin soon warned, pointing to drops of blood and wisps of red fur snagged on a couple of branches.
His heart hammering, Leidolf lifted the soft fur to his nose and smelled. It was hers. Cassie's. His blood pounded as he quickly studied the ground for the trail of blood she would leave behind. "This way."
"It's the female who was with you, watching over you, isn't it?" Elgin asked, keeping close by, searching for any evidence of her trail. "We'll find her, Leidolf. We'll take her back to the ranch with us. No damned hunters are going to kill her."
Leidolf barely heard him, his temper ready to explode. If he found the man who had shot her, he'd have to rein in the darker side of his personality, or he would rip him to shreds.
* * *
Hurting like hell from the bullet in her shoulder now, lying on the ground in no condition to run or fight back, Cassie felt as if whoever had been following her had turned into a couple of wraiths that would suddenly appear before her, their expressions grisly as they condemned her to death. She had watched too many horror movies. The men stood quietly some distance from her, hidden in the woods from her view.
"Blood trail leads this way," a man's gruff voice finally said. "Damned hunters. They're wolf tracks, too, Joe."
Oh, hell. Whoever they were, they'd tracked her.
Again, silence. Then, the man spoke again. "Red fur, red wolf."
Great. They even knew what she was. More wolf biologists? That would be highly unlikely. Were they Leidolf's men then? Still searching for her after they had taken their pack leader home?
"You think it's her, don't you, Thompson? Rosa? The wolf we caught and put in the zoo last year?"
Her heart skipped a beat. Zoo? Not Leidolf's men then.
"She's a red wolf all right. This is definitely some of her fur. Got to be Rosa."
Rosa? Was that the name of the she-wolf with the pups Cassie had discovered?
She lay very still as the men headed for her again, closing in. She didn't know who they were, but at least they didn't seem to be hunters intent on killing her. But the mention of zoos put a terrifying new spin on her situation.
Their heavy boots tromped the ground, growing closer and closer.
"There! Hell, she's been hit," Thompson said, stopping suddenly, his blue eyes wide, his brow furrowed. He stretched his hands out as if to show he wouldn't shoot her, while a rifle hung ominously from a strap over his shoulder. His clothes were a mottled green and black in an attempt to blend in with his surroundings, but his blue eyes caught her attention the most. If he was peering out of a hunter's blind, his eyes would easily have given him away.
She stirred, or at least attempted to, but a stabbing pain streaked through her shoulder, and she moaned.
"Easy, girl. I'm not going to hurt you," he said quietly, reassuringly as if he picked up injured feral wolves all of the time.
She lifted her head to growl, to warn the two men to stay away, but she didn't have the strength.
"She's in bad shape. Should we tranquilize her?" Joe asked, drawing closer. He was not quite as tall as Thompson. He looked like an army guy in camouflage fatigues, except that his clothes were so wrinkled and baggy that she figured he would have failed an inspection in a military formation.
"Use a lighter dose on her. It'll help ease her pain."
No, damn it, not a drug. She tried to rally and lifted her head but dropped it back down in exasperation, her strength zapped.
Joe readied his rifle and fired. A stab in her flank followed. She jerked a little in response. So much for the dart helping her fight the pain. She thought she growled at them, but she wasn't sure. Now she knew how Leidolf had to have felt. Well, not from the pain, but from the tranquilizer. She almost wished he was kneeling over her, naked, coaxing her to take him on, nuzzling her face, and shoving her limp body, anything to get her lazy butt off the ground and in wolf motion again. Strong, agile, quick, and out of here.
Thompson walked around her, taking in her appearance. "Must be Rosa. But what of the other we shot? He has to be her mate."
Other wolf? So these were the guys who shot Leidolf! With a tranquilizer dart. Sure. Hell. Here she had saved his butt, not that she hadn't been the one to get him into the perilous situation in the first place, but where was he when she needed rescuing?
Probably happily sleeping it off in a soft bed at home, while she ended up in a wolf pen with a concrete floor and a trough of water, caged in! Thompson took a deep breath and crouched close to her back, running his hand over her like she was his pet dog. "We've got to get her to the vet, have her patched up, and save her life."
A vet? Her wolf genetics would appear perfectly normal to the vet, so no problem there. She just didn't need an animal doctor poking around at her insides.
"Grab her muzzle, will you, Joe?"
Whatever Thompson planned on doing, she assumed she wasn't going to like it. She tried to twist her head away, but she couldn't move it an inch any which way. Joe took hold of her muzzle and held on tight. She growled low from the throat.
Thompson examined her belly, running his hand over her teats, and then lifted her leg. "She hasn't had a litter of pups, but she's in heat."
Yeah, not as a human, of course, but anytime between January and April, the wolf side of her was in heat, her wolf half-ready for a lupus garou mate. She sighed. No wonder Leidolf had sent her pheromone levels racing to the moon. Poor tired wolf. If he had been awake enough when she located him sleeping in the ferns to smell her elevated estrogen levels and felt the way she touched him so intimately like a lover would, he wouldn't have given her a chance to escape him. And she wasn't sure she would have wanted to, either.
"Just wanted to make sure we didn't leave a litter behind in a den somewhere nearby when we pack her out of here. But the big male we shot might have already serviced her."
Gently, Thompson let go of her leg and moved away from her. Joe quickly released her muzzle and stepped back. She didn't have the strength to snap at him for confining her anyway, so he needn't have worried.
"Call it in, if you can get some reception way out here. We really need to find the male, too," Thompson said.
She closed her eyes. At least Leidolf would be safe. And for that, she was grateful.
The sun was diminishing fast. The smell of the sweaty men and the feel of the cool breeze against her face disappeared. A strange heat pumped through her veins until her mind could no longer focus on what her mission was. Her thoughts about wolf pups and the she-wolf, about murderers and these men and the blond, blue-eyed wolf biologist, about vets and zoos, and Leidolf standing naked in the lake, his green eyes willing her to spend the night with him, about the way she taunted him to take her when he was a drugged wolf, and the way he smiled devilishly back, and any other thought she managed to grab onto, all faded into oblivion.
Chapter 9
Leidolf and his men had traveled over a mile, finding the red's blood trail in spots to help them track her, when he heard two men talking. He motioned for Elgin and the rest of his men to stop in place. They were too far away to see what was going on, but they could hear the men's conversation just fine.
"I can't get any reception on the phone way out here
, either, Thompson. I tried closer to the highway while I was looking for the male wolf."
"Hell, we've got to get her to the vet. At least the bleeding's stopped. We can use this between us to carry her to the truck. Here, help me roll it out. But I'd hoped we could get some more men out here to search for her mate, and we could take them both to the zoo at the same time, Joe."
Mate? Hell, these were the two men across the river who had shot him! And planned to take him to the zoo?
Elgin looked at Leidolf and smiled as if Thompson's words were an indication of things to come--as far as the mate comment went. He better not be smiling about the fact Leidolf could have ended up in the zoo.
Thompson? Henry Thompson? Hell, the zoo man. This was not the way Leidolf had in mind to get to know the man better.
"I couldn't find any sign of the male after looking for him for the last few hours. The drug in his system might have worn off," Joe said. "He could be anywhere by now. But I guess if she's got a mate, this means we can't hook Rosa up with Big Red once she's sufficiently healed."
"Never know," Thompson said. "We might not ever find the male out here to pair them up again, so Big Red might have a chance. As soon as we get her to the zoo, we'd better ensure some additional security measures are in place in case someone tries to free her again."
No way was his woodland nymph going to be stuck in a pen with a horny lupus.
"Should we shoot them and rescue her?" Elgin whispered to Leidolf.
Moving as quietly as a wolf, Leidolf nodded, stepped closer to get a visual on the men, and raised his rifle, but before he could give the final order, all hell broke loose. In their wolf coats, his lupus garou upstarts raced toward Thompson and Joe, their hackles raised, their teeth bared, both fiercely growling and prepared to lunge.
Holy crap! Pierce and Quincy!
Leidolf would kill them.
* * *
Alex hid in the woods, desperate to chase after the wounded red wolf and take care of her, but he didn't dare move. The black-bearded man had fallen hard, hit his head on the edge of a rock, and wasn't moving. Dead, maybe? At least Alex could hope. Even though he believed in justice by trial, in a case like this where the murderer had just shot a wolf and was ready to kill him, too, he hoped the rock had done the guy in.
His companion paced, called to him, tried to get him to his feet, but the guy was too big. The other man was a sawed-off reddish-blond with a butch haircut, a tough-looking little dude, but despite his determined scowl, he couldn't budge the bigger man.
The blood in Alex's veins ran like ice as he worried about the fate of the wolf. He had to find her. He couldn't fail her after she had protected him.
He gripped his knife tighter. Normally a pacifist at heart, he wanted to kill the shooter himself for wounding the rare red wolf.
But what he couldn't get over was the way the wolf had attacked the hunter. Not attacked him exactly though. Leapt at him, and at once Alex had expected to see a torn jugular. But instead of hurting him, she'd just stopped him from shooting her, as if she had human instincts. As if she had been someone's pet.
As a wolf, she should have continued to run away. She should have left Alex behind to fend for himself. Her actions didn't make any sense.
"Can you hear me?" The short guy paced some more. "Hell, you just stay here then. I'll look for the guy who was listening to us." He cocked his rifle and stalked into the woods to the left of where Alex was hiding.
As soon as the man disappeared from sight, Alex headed for the wolf's trail as quietly as he could, hoping like hell the shooter wouldn't find it, too. He suspected the shooter would only go after him, not a wounded wolf. He scrambled over tree roots, tripping through ferns and wildflowers after the wolf, trying to locate the trail of blood she was leaving on leaves and branches before the shooter discovered it. This was not the kind of study Alex had had in mind when he began his wolf research eight years earlier.
As a weird afterthought, he wondered what Cassie would do for the wolf, if she were in his shoes. Then a new concern flooded his thoughts. What if she was nearby and ran into this maniac on her own? And the shooter thought she also had overheard their conversation?
She would be in terrible peril.
* * *
Hidden in the woods, Leidolf cursed his impulsive new red lupus garous right before they attacked Thompson and Joe as they were laying out a makeshift canvas stretcher while the wolf lay still on the ground. Leidolf immediately fired a shot.
Both of his wolves fled from the sound of the gunfire, and the dart made its target. Thompson reached for the dart in his left buttock and tried to stand but stumbled. Before a stunned Joe could react, Elgin took a shot at him and the man parroted Thompson's actions.
"We've... we've been tranqed," Joe slurred and then passed out next to the wolf.
"Hell." Thompson fell beside him, his eyes shut tight in sleep, and he began to snore.
Leidolf and his men hurried forth to check on Cassie, while his wayward lupus garous licked her face, whimpered, and pawed at her feet, trying to get her to stir. Then the sound of crashing through the woods garnered all their attention. Leidolf readied his rifle, but it was only Fergus, his face red with exertion.
"Got trouble..." Fergus stopped speaking and stared at the red wolf. "Is she one of us?"
"Yeah." Leidolf jerked off his coat, then tugged his shirt free and tied it against the wound on her shoulder as best as he could manage. "What's the trouble, Fergus?"
"The hunters who shot her, I suspect, are on their way here."
"All right. Let's get her out of here." Leidolf yanked his jacket back on and then lifted Cassie off the damp earth. He gave his new pack members a scowl that said he'd deal with them later. He had to get his pack members to work together as a bona fide pack. It was the only way they'd ever survive and flourish.
"What are you going to do with her?" Elgin asked, looking hopeful that he'd keep her.
Leidolf's wolf half said that he rescued her while she was in his territory and that she as much as attempted to seduce him when he wasn't able to respond, which meant she wanted to be his. His human half warned him to get used to disappointment. "She stays at the ranch until we learn why she was out here."
"But are you going to make her one of us?" Elgin asked.
Leidolf raised a brow at him. Everyone in the pack had to know he would be interested in Cassie if she was free to mate. But did they think he'd stoop so low as to force her to join them?
"What about them?" Fergus asked, motioning to Thompson and Joe as Leidolf carried the injured wolf away from the zoo men.
"The hunters can take care of them. Just be thankful that Thompson and Joe didn't see us. But how is anyone going to explain the appearance of two male reds and the female in the area?"
Not to mention Leidolf's own run-in with the men from the zoo.
Leidolf let out his breath. "They'll think a whole pack of reds have moved into the woods around here. No more hunting in our wolf coats here now for a long damn time. But something else concerns me. The wolf I smelled earlier was a different one. Had Cassie been alone? Or had she been with another?"
Elgin rubbed his chin and frowned. "If another unattached lupus garou female is in the area, you'll have a fight on your hands for sure."
Over only one of them. This one for damned sure was his to pursue.
As they stalked in the direction of the turnout where they'd parked the SUV about four miles from there, Cassie slept soundly in Leidolf's arms, and he held her closer. Then she stirred. He'd expected she would remain asleep until after they got her in the SUV, or even better, until they got her back to his ranch, but she wriggled a little more.
Leidolf shifted his hold on her, tightening his grip in case she became combative. A wolf was a wolf, whether it was a feral lupus or a lupus garou, and either could be a handful if it took exception to being transported in this manner, especially one that was wounded.
Elgin frowned. "She's wakin
g."
No shit.
And she was waking fast. Again she squirmed, struggling to get free, as if she didn't like being confined by him. She hadn't opened her eyes yet and appeared to be sleeping still.
Fergus drew closer. "Want me to hold her muzzle so she doesn't try to bite you?"
Before Leidolf could respond, Cassie shape-shifted. Right in his arms. She barely gave any warning, just growled low and jerked her head up as if she was going to bite him. She didn't bare her canines, but her green eyes narrowed as she looked up at him, a strange flicker of recognition, and then... she shape-shifted...
... into a soft, naked, beautiful woman.
"Holy cow," Fergus said, jerking off his coat.
Elgin was shedding his, too, and quickly draped it over her nude body. He lifted his brows and his lips slightly. "Hot damn, she truly is the woman I saw running through the woods yesterday. No wonder you danced with her until way past closing this morning."
Leidolf ducked his head underneath a tree branch and hid a smile. His look would have been pure wickedness had he allowed his pack members to see it as he tightened his hold on the curvaceous woman. One hot, red lupus garou in the flesh. He took a deep breath of her sweet, sexy scent, all woman and wolf, and enjoyed the softness of her body, her heat pressing against him.
"Everyone said she pulled you onto the dance floor and wouldn't let go until the wee hours of the morning. And you did say she approached you yesterday at the lake, right? And she acted real interested in you?" Elgin continued, a twinkle in his eye.
It was the first time Leidolf had seen this side of Elgin, more at ease, the conversation more lighthearted.
His expression neutral, Fergus watched Leidolf to see his reaction. Leidolf refused to react in front of his men.
"Since she hung around you when you were drugged until we arrived, I'd say there's something there." Elgin seemed coolly amused. "We'll have to ensure she sticks around this time and doesn't run off again."
