She'd parked her pickup a couple of miles from the site where she'd hiked in to locate the she-wolf. Once she could get to it, she'd have the two bags of clothes that were hidden under the seats. She groaned and ran her hands through her disheveled hair, but a shock of pain stabbed the bullet wound on her shoulder. She realized that, except for a bulky bandage, she was lying naked in the bed. It was the usual way for most of them to sleep, but she wasn't like the normal lupus garous and, instead, did her own thing.

Being naked felt way too sensual, particularly when she was lying in... She sniffed the freshly laundered sheets. His scent flooded her with a warm, tingling feeling. Leidolf's bed. And h.e.l.l, she'd dreamed she'd had her wicked way with him while he was Poseidon and she was Artemis. She shook her head at her silly fantasies. In the old days, her mother would have said it was a sign Ca.s.sie was burying deeper feelings, which she didn't want to consider.

The woman guarding Ca.s.sie jerked awake and stared at her for a minute, then smiled warmly. "I'm Laney, and now that you're up, I'll tell Leidolf."

Ca.s.sie took another deep breath and smelled his woodsy scent on the ultra-soft cotton sheets again, the same as she'd smelled when he'd carried her, except that the added aroma of his s.e.xual pheromones when he had held her were now imprinted on her brain.

"He'll be glad you're looking so much better. He brought you here because it's the nicest of all the bedrooms. He stayed with you until I was able to watch over you for a while so that he could dress down a couple of our people for going after you in their wolf coats. Now the local news station is reporting that a pack of red wolves is running through the area. All h.e.l.l's broken loose."

Ca.s.sie suspected Leidolf hadn't brought her here just because it was the nicest bedroom, but because it was his bedroom. The news about the reporters and hunters couldn't have been worse. Ca.s.sie had to get to the she-wolf and pups and Alex. "I need some clothes, and I have to go back there, p.r.o.nto."

The woman hurriedly rose and headed for the door as if to block it or warn Leidolf that the little red wolf was ready to make her escape. "You can't return there. Not now. A slew of hunters... Thompson and his friend, that Joe character, who are philanthropists for the zoo... reporters... you name it... will be all over the area. If that isn't bad enough, some guy called 911 and reported that two men had murdered a woman and dumped the body in the woods. And that someone had tranquilized Thompson and Joe."

Laney smiled. "Of course, Leidolf and my Elgin were the ones responsible for that once they found you with them. Well, in part because Quincy and Pierce went to attack the men--the two new members of our pack I mentioned before who were wearing their wolf coats during the day while searching for you--and Leidolf had to act quickly. So none of our people can visit the forest for a good long while until Leidolf okays it. Besides, you're wounded, for heaven's sake."

"Did they mention any name? Of the one who called 911?" Ca.s.sie prayed it was Alex and he had made it out all right. Although thinking further on the situation, she figured since he and she were the only two there when they overheard the murderers speaking, it had to be him.

"No. The sheriff's office is trying to sort it all out. They said that a man had called from the highway and reported the two tranquilized men from the zoo. Then he gave directions to where they were located because he couldn't get reception where the men had been drugged. Two more men were involved in some kind of murder scheme that he'd overheard while hiking in the forest. And one of the men had shot a rare red wolf, illegally hunting, and tried to shoot him for overhearing them.

"To top that all off, some wolf biologist is running around the area, and he's worried she's lost or come to harm. Until the police know what they're up against, I'm sure they're not saying who the man was who called 911. He's probably considered a suspect in some of the goings-on. You know how it is, since he seems to know so much. He reported the descriptions of the men, both wearing camouflaged clothes, one a short strawberry blond with a butch haircut, and the other with long, black curly hair."

"Blackbeard," Ca.s.sie said under her breath.

"What?" Laney asked, her eyes widening.

"Sounds like the guy looked like Blackbeard. The pirate. You know."

"I didn't mention that he wore a beard. No one said anything about that."

Ca.s.sie clamped her mouth shut.

Laney frowned. "Did you see the men?" She clapped a hand over her mouth and then dropped her hand away. "Of course, you did. One of those men shot you. You're the wolf biologist the man had mentioned. Oh, oh, Leidolf won't like this at all."

Quickly, Ca.s.sie changed the subject. "I'm surprised, the way reporters get hold of a story, that they haven't discovered who the 911 caller was and are reporting the guy's name all over the place."

Unless he was afraid for his life. Sure. He was a witness, and h.e.l.l, so was she. At least the men didn't get a look at her in her human form, and she hoped they hadn't gotten hold of Alex, either. She did get a good look at both men, and she should have known their scent if they hadn't been hiding it with hunter's spray. She a.s.sumed that's what was covering up their smell. But lupus garous didn't interfere in strictly human affairs. Too much could go wrong.

h.e.l.l, if she had smelled them, she could see the police asking her to stand behind one of those two-way mirrors and point out the two men in a lineup. She'd want to be sure she got the right men by sniffing them first since her sense of smell was the best identifier there was. If she insisted on checking them out that way, the police would think she was a nutcase for sure.

Laney studied Ca.s.sie in a thoughtful wolf way. "If a man called 911, saying he knew you'd been shot and that he'd heard the murderers' conversation, had you also? Do you know the man who called 911? Is he your mate?"

"No," Ca.s.sie said, not about to reveal who he was or anything about him or what she'd been doing there. Lupus garous would not appreciate that she'd been in her wolf form with a human, or that she'd behaved uncharacteristically as a wolf in front of him. "It's dark out. Surely they wouldn't all be out there in the middle of the night. Even if they were, they couldn't see where they were going."

The pause between them was heavy with speculation.

Laney's gray brows pinched together. "You're probably right. I've heard some hunters have binoculars that allow them to see in the half-light of dawn and dusk, but it would be too dark for them unless they're wearing night-vision goggles. Leidolf is worried that they would want to kill the wolves, despite the fact red wolves are rare. The reporters and the others probably wouldn't be in the woods this late." Then Laney switched topics and said, "Leidolf is a royal, by the way. You wouldn't happen to be one, too, would you?" She looked hopeful.

For a heart-wrenching moment, Ca.s.sie thought of her own family--royals, too. She hadn't considered what it might be like being with a lupus garou family, a pack, again. The way that pack members all looked after each other appealed on some level. Maneuvering was always tantamount in a pack, wanting to please the leader, always trying to be on top, but she missed the closeness with others. She'd been fighting those feelings for years. Never wanting to replace her own family, as if it would hurt her memory of them. Never wanting to fear losing her family to some new lethal threat, if she joined a new one.

She couldn't deceive the woman who reminded her of her mother, caring, kind, but also not someone who was easily deceived.

The desire to have hearth and home and a family pack was starting to get on Ca.s.sie's nerves. She attributed it to the need to settle down and have children of her own, which she'd been effectively squashing. Spring and the rebirth of trees and flowers had something to do with it. Oddly, the she-wolf and her pups had stirred that need all over again to an even greater degree. Well, and being with that alpha male, Leidolf, and the way his nearness triggered estrogen levels she didn't know she had. She didn't want to desire a man like that. Ever. Although her feelings for Leidolf already ran deep, she had no intention of giving in to such needs.

"I need clothes," Ca.s.sie reiterated, avoiding Laney's question about being a royal. When few humans diluted the lineage, the biggest advantage was being able to shift when the new moon was out, or not having to shift when the other phases of the moon came into play.

She yanked aside the covers and climbed out of bed, but winced when the pain in her bandaged shoulder sent a message straight to her brain--she wasn't perfectly healed yet. She felt a lot better than she had earlier, though. Probably sleeping for several hours had helped.

"If you were recently turned, where's the pack that took you in?" Laney asked.

"In the redwoods in California."

"Northern California, oh." Then Laney frowned, and instantly, Ca.s.sie worried that frown meant she knew Ca.s.sie wasn't from there. Then the woman gave a pleasant smile, one that said she'd lived too many years for a younger lupus garou to attempt to deceive her with tall tales. "You can't leave yet."

Ca.s.sie raised her brows at the lady, not liking that Leidolf would dictate to her. She headed for the closet. "I'm doing some research, which I'm being paid for, and I'm on a deadline. So I want to thank Leidolf and all of you for taking care of me, but I need to return to the woods, finish my work, and return home to my pack p.r.o.nto."

"No women's clothes in there," Laney warned.

Ca.s.sie stopped in the middle of the floor, knowing that would probably be the case, but she didn't care. Any clothes would do. Even the pack leader's. Then again, she probably should wait until Laney left the room. Which meant Ca.s.sie wasn't thinking very clearly, and if she hadn't needed so badly to go to Alex and the she-wolf's aid, she would rest a while longer until her brain was functioning more properly and her shoulder didn't hurt so much.

She'd considered telling Laney about the wolf pups, but not all lupus garous had the same sympathies for real wolves that she did. As long as the wolves didn't interfere with lupus garous' own pack dynamics, they tolerated them. She couldn't risk telling them if they thought her safety more important than that of the she-wolf and her litter. She was certain Leidolf wouldn't like it if he knew she planned risking her neck to return to the woods to check on a human wolf biologist, either.

Without knowing Leidolf's politics, she wasn't about to let him know what she had in mind to do. Only this time, she'd have to risk looking for the pups and Alex as a human. She didn't think that zoo man and his friend or any hunter would mess with her, but could she find the wolf before someone killed her? And the puppies were left to fend for themselves? They'd never last.

Laney considered the bandage on Ca.s.sie's shoulder. "Is your shoulder hurting a lot?"

"No, it's fine." No way did Ca.s.sie want Laney or anyone else thinking she needed further medical care. And her shoulder really was much better.

"Hmm. I'll let Leidolf know you're awake." Laney turned, opened the door, and let out a squeak, her hand flying to her breast.

Chapter 12.

Ca.s.sie's own heart skipped a couple of beats as she stared at Leidolf standing in the open doorway of his bedroom, his fist raised, ready to rap on the door. He looked from Laney to Ca.s.sie, who still stood in the middle of his bedroom floor--totally aware she was naked except for the bandage over her shoulder and feeling way too vulnerable. Too late to hide her nakedness or her unnatural reaction. Which would be a sure indication she was a loner... and didn't live with a pack.

Wearing a pair of jeans, rugged hiking boots, and a soft, fuzzy flannel shirt, Leidolf was gorgeous in a dangerous, feral sort of way and taller than most red males she'd encountered. His chestnut hair, tinged red, had been ruffled by the wind, making him look wild and untamable. His darkened eyes held hers captive for a moment, like a wolf would challenge her, watching to see if she'd back down. The same way he had done when he saw her at the lake.

Was she alpha enough? That's what he was trying to determine. Or at least she thought so. She'd lived longer with real wolves than with her own kind, so she wasn't really experienced in dealing with a l.u.s.ty alpha male lupus garou who was interested in her. Still, he had the same alpha male posturing.

His gaze roamed lower, all the way down her naked body, as if he was looking over his ultimate conquest. She glared at him and folded her arms across her chest, which sent another stab of pain into her shoulder. She winced, although she attempted to hide her discomfort. "I'm not looking for a mate, if you want to know my status."

His eyes flicked back to hers. She had a job to do--and mixing it up with a red lupus garou alpha leader and joining a pack were not in the plans.

Then his stern expression softened. "Where is your family, Ca.s.sie?"

"My family was killed," she said, not having told anyone the truth for many years. Saying it still hurt.

His expression turned sympathetic; she'd rather he was scowling at her. Much easier to deal with someone who was annoyed with her than someone who was tugging at her heartstrings.

"You said they had died. Did you mean your family?" he ventured.

Died? She frowned at him. She was certain she hadn't told him her life's story when she'd been out of it. "I don't remember what I said to you. It must have been the drugs."

He looked skeptical. Then he c.o.c.ked a brow heavenward. "You don't have a mate." She'd stated she wasn't looking for one, but that wouldn't make any difference to him as long as she didn't already have one.

"No, I don't. Like I said, I'm not looking for one." She reiterated her stance because he seemed to need to hear it again, although she didn't sound as firm in her resolve as she meant to.

He smiled deeply, his eyes devilishly speculating. He bowed his head slightly, his tone nurturing when he said, "If you're feeling well enough and desire something to eat, you can join us in the den." The way he spoke wasn't an offer, but rather a command. His gaze slid over her again, this time in a languorous manner, as if she was there for his viewing pleasure. "I recommend you dress first. My bachelor males might get a little restless at the sight of you."

As if he wasn't the one who was restless at the sight of her!

"She said she's from a pack in the redwoods of California," Laney offered, her brows raised a little.

Did Laney know something about the pack living there, or was she just suspicious of Ca.s.sie's story?

Leidolf's eyes rounded as he looked from Laney to Ca.s.sie. "The California redwoods? Really. And your pack leader's name?"

Ca.s.sie ground her teeth and then attempted a smile. Leidolf probably didn't know a pack that far away from his own territory. Most leaders wouldn't. So it was a bluff on his part, she was certain. "Harold Wilden."

"Really. I thought the leader of the redwood area was a gray pack leader."

Her lips parted in surprise. "Uhm, yes, a gray." h.e.l.l, a gray pack lived there?

"Wilden's a red's last name. Hunter Greymere was the leader in that area until a fire forced his pack to move north. He took over his uncle's cabin resort along the Oregon coast. One of his grays actually joined my pack."

Oh, that's how Leidolf knew about them. Great. "Well, a little more south of the redwoods," Ca.s.sie amended.

"Ah. A red pack."

"Yes."

"The leader by the name of Wilden." His eyes sparkled in the low light of the room, and he shifted his attention to Laney. "We'll see you both in a few minutes." He spoke as if he was leaving Ca.s.sie in Laney's charge, and Ca.s.sie stiffened a bit.

No one was in charge of her. Not when she'd been a loner all these years and did just fine on her own.

"She's hurting," Laney said, telling on her.

Ca.s.sie wasn't about to take anything for the pain. Not when it would make it more difficult for her to return to the forest.

Leidolf frowned. "We have pain medication."

"No, I'm fine." Ca.s.sie tried to sound convincing, but she saw the look in Leidolf's eyes. He knew she needed something for the pain, but she wasn't going for it. And he knew why.

Then he inclined his head toward Ca.s.sie, his eyes spearing her with a look that said he wanted her and she was already his, so get used to the idea. "Just to let you know my status, I am looking for a mate." He bowed his head a little, punctuating his remark.

The way he said it, he acted as though she was available just for him anyway. He was so arrogant! The last time she had put up with a male that had wanted her like that, he hadn't been half as egotistical, or half as hot, either. And she definitely hadn't felt anything for him. Leidolf? He was real trouble, triggering needs she didn't even want to consider. More than just feeling the physical needs, though, she didn't want to deal with the emotional baggage. She'd always worked extra hard to avoid feeling anything for her kind because it brought back memories of what she'd lost.

Leidolf was undoing that resolve.

And then the physical side of the equation created more punishment. Her nipples tingled beneath her arms, traitors, and she had the unfathomable urge to either throw him on the bed and make him show her just what he had in mind to do with her--or strangle him. She tried to convince herself that strangling him was preferable. It wasn't working.

He seemed a little hesitant to leave and shoved his hands into his pockets, the all-powerful alpha male now appearing a little unsure of himself, which made her feel somewhat uptight. Even Laney looked a little apprehensive, as if she didn't know what to do.

Then Leidolf directed his question at Laney. "Can you leave us alone for a moment?"

She glanced back at Ca.s.sie, almost as if she wanted to stay and chaperone, but she quickly bowed her head to Leidolf and left the room, closing the door behind her. Leidolf pulled the fuzzy, brown blanket off the recliner and wrapped it around Ca.s.sie in such a protective, endearing way that tears formed in her eyes. d.a.m.n it.

He led her to the bed and sat her down, then knelt beside her and took her hands in his. "Ca.s.sie, you were pretty out of it when I talked with you earlier. I asked if you would like to stay with our pack. No strings attached. Just join us. Get to know us. And--"

She attempted a sincere smile when she was really trying to hide her true feelings. h.e.l.l, she ought to just come clean. Although if she did, he would think he had more leverage.

"But I have a pack." Which, in a way, she did. Although not just one, several. Except the wolves couldn't shape-shift. "I want to thank you and your people for your generosity in taking care of me, but I really have business to attend to. So if Laney could drive me back to the forest and drop me off, I'd be forever grateful."

Leidolf gave a conceited half smile, not buying into her story or her request. "Laney must have told you what's happening in the forest right now. With hunters crawling all over the place? The police? Reporters? Not only that, but you're still injured. And it wouldn't do to let you return there and get yourself into more trouble." He swept away a curl of hair tickling her cheek and tucked it behind her ear. His gaze shifted from her eyes to her lips, and she knew he wanted to kiss her.

And d.a.m.n it, she wanted him to!

A little voice nagged at her to do it, just because she was dying to feel what it would be like to be kissed by the alpha pack leader. It wouldn't mean anything, she a.s.sured herself. Just a kiss. Her lips feeling dry as sand, she licked them. His mouth curved up a hint, and his gaze refocused on hers. Then he took her hand and kissed it, as if he were a proper English gentleman coming to call.

That's not what she had in mind! He rose, continued to watch her, and hollered, "Laney!"

The door immediately opened. Ca.s.sie figured the woman had been glued to it while trying to hear what was going on.

"Yes?" Laney asked, as if she were completely above suspicion.

"Get Ca.s.sie something to wear so she can join us for dinner." Then he bowed his head slightly to Ca.s.sie, turned around, and left the room.

Ca.s.sie immediately got up from the bed, the blanket still wrapped around her as she stared at the departing alpha leader.

That was it? That was the only kind of a kiss he was going to bestow upon her?

As soon as he shut the door behind him, Ca.s.sie switched her attention to Laney, whose expression was one of refrained amus.e.m.e.nt.

"Clothes?" Ca.s.sie asked in a sweetly innocent voice that sounded way too calculating to her ears. And keys to a fast getaway car? Before she changed her mind and decided to stay.

Laney's smile grew. "Sure. My things might be a bit big for you, but I may have something that's a little snug on me. My home is across the compound, but it shouldn't take me too long to drive over there, grab a couple of items, and return."

Ca.s.sie gave her a camera smile back, but she recognized that the woman wanted her to stay with the pack. Probably to satisfy the alpha leader's needs. A cold beer and a good woman could do wonders for an alpha male's disposition. So much the better for his pack members. And with fewer females in most packs, she imagined Laney would have loved another woman to talk to.

While she waited for Laney, Ca.s.sie quickly noted a messy pile of papers sitting on a desk next to a computer on the other side of the room, a brown leather couch in a sitting area, and an empty bookshelf. She raised her brows. Not a reader? Then she saw a book opened on top of the desk. Wondering what would appeal to Leidolf when he had no other books, she peered a little closer and saw the biographical page of Julia Wildthorn, the red lupus garou romance writer, and a colorful photo of the pretty redhead. Probably doctored with the miracles of photo-reworking programs.

She scowled. h.e.l.l, here he was acting like he wanted Ca.s.sie, while he had been ogling the picture of a romance author? And as evidenced by no other books in the room, he didn't even read? Maybe he had read Julia Wildthorn's book. Probably all her books, so he could tell her how much he loved her work, whether he did or not.

Then Ca.s.sie saw his desktop calendar and edged a little closer to take a peek. A cleanly handwritten note on Sat.u.r.day boldly proclaimed: Book signing, 2-4 p.m., Julia, Powell's.