"Yeah, Ca.s.sie, and I'm not easily dissuaded."

She grinned. "So... what are you waiting for?"

The s.e.xual festivities lasted only another hour when they heard something moving about the forest beyond the cabin. The dark had enveloped the woods and it would have been time for them to shift and search for the two female reds, but the untimely arrival of unwanted guests gave Ca.s.sie's heart a start.

Leidolf pointed to the corner of the cabin where she guessed he wanted her to wait for him.

She wouldn't leave him.

"Ca.s.sie," he whispered, "if they're hunters, we don't dare shape-shift. Wrap the mattress around you, and stay out of sight in the corner over there on the other side of the fireplace. If they're trouble, whoever they are, we can always shape-shift and take care of them."

"You can't face hunters alone, Leidolf."

His face dark, Leidolf escorted Ca.s.sie to the other side of the fireplace. "Stay," he whispered, and she scowled back at him.

She was not a wilting d.a.m.n wallflower.

Whoever moved around outside the cabin grunted, and Leidolf looked back at Ca.s.sie with raised brows. "Bear?" she whispered.

Little squeals of mild distress followed, and Ca.s.sie smiled. "Bear cubs and the mother," she whispered. But a mother being protective of her cubs could be dangerous if Leidolf or Ca.s.sie ventured outside in either their wolf or human forms.

"Probably smell our fish. I'll cook it once she moves away," Leidolf said, moving away from the door. "After we eat, we can track the female wolves."

"And then?" Ca.s.sie asked, tossing some more twigs on the fire.

"I'll need to let our pack know we're fine." He glanced at Ca.s.sie. "Your shoulder, is it all right?"

She smiled. "After ravishing me for hours, now you ask?"

His eyes sparkled, and he gave her a devious smile back.

But now their relationship had truly changed, Ca.s.sie realized. She'd have to meet his family, and even though she didn't intend to stay with the pack always, they were also her new family with problems like all families had. But worse, the niggling fear that Leidolf couldn't give her up when it was time for her to go on her next mission... that's what really bothered her.

Look at what happened when the bear came around.

She watched Leidolf poking at the fish in the pot over the fire and feared the worst-case scenario--he'd use every excuse he could to always keep her at his side.

Chapter 22.

When the day had turned completely to darkness, the clouds blocking any hint of stars, Leidolf and Ca.s.sie left the relative security of their timber cabin and headed out on their mission of searching for the two female reds.

Leidolf tried really hard not to watch every move Ca.s.sie made as she raced through the woods, while she continually stopped to smell for the red wolves and then ran off again. He loved to observe her in her wolf form, the way she moved so fluidly, darting one way and then the other. The way she held her head and tail high, alert, alphalike. The way she concentrated on the mission as if nothing or n.o.body else existed. He was searching also, but he loved watching her pursuit of the two reds.

She suddenly turned her head toward him, her ears twisting back and forth as she listened for...

h.e.l.l, he heard it, too. Pups whimpering for their mother. Ca.s.sie dug around in a bunch of leaves, sniffed, and then turned. She headed for a thicket of blackberries and shoved her nose into a hole. Pulling her snout out of the hole, she wagged her tail and made a little woofing sound. Tinier woofs responded.

Leidolf joined her and then nudged her face in greeting. He'd catch some fish for the mother. But what he hadn't expected to see was Ca.s.sie with a full-blown case of empathy for a mother wolf and her brood. Seeing her excitement at finding the pups made him desire having children with Ca.s.sie even more.

With a final glance back at her as she sat near the den in guard mode, he took off toward the river.

Ca.s.sie lay near the den, watching over the pups and hoping to see the mother soon. When Leidolf left, she couldn't have been more proud of him. She knew he was getting food for the mother, and for now, he'd let her do what she needed to do, provide protection.

But that's when the real trouble began. She thought she smelled a human. She lifted her nose and breathed in the air. No, two. She froze in place. No, no, no. The zoo men were somewhere close by. She prayed they hadn't seen her or Leidolf. That they hadn't spied the mother wolf.

Then a shot sounded in the woods nearby and a familiar twinge of pain went through her shoulder as a reminder of the past, even though she hadn't been shot this time. She wanted to make sure Leidolf was all right, but she couldn't leave the pups alone. No matter what, she couldn't abandon them.

Everything was really quiet, way too quiet, and she feared the zoo men were watching her in the woods. She couldn't see them, but she still smelled them. If she took off running and they tranquilized her, they might not ever know the pups existed.

It was a standoff. Her not moving. Them not revealing themselves. Another shot rang out in another direction. Her heart drummed in panic. Leidolf. Where was Leidolf?

Before she made out the rest of him blending with the forest, she saw Thompson's blue eyes. He had his rifle readied. He planned to shoot her. She rose. He shouldered his rifle. She turned and pulled a pup from its hastily dug den.

"Holy cow," Joe said, emerging from the trees. "She has a litter of pups."

Thompson lowered the rifle, pointed it at the ground, and smiled. "We're going to take care of you, Rosa. You and the other wolves and your pups." He raised the rifle again and fired a shot.

Ca.s.sie cursed Thompson as the dart struck her in the flank. She collapsed and dropped the pup.

"Think there are any more of them?" Joe asked, hurrying with Thompson to check on Ca.s.sie, who was lying p.r.o.ne on the ground, the d.a.m.ned tranquilizer quickly zipping through her body.

If she could have, she would have bitten the b.a.s.t.a.r.d. She wanted the pups and their mother taken care of, not her!

"No. From the looks of the tracks where we were tranquilized, there were three wolves. Two others besides Rosa."

"Wait," Joe said, lifting her back leg. "She's not nursing. We'd checked her before and found she hadn't had pups."

"Then she's the babysitter. Maybe the sister of the other. Okay, well, let's get them to the cages, take them back to Portland, and have the vet check them out." Thompson poked his hand into the den. "Man, look at this. One, two... three... and four. Two males and two females."

"Hey, so the male we got was the mate of the one who had the pups, don't you suspect? So Rosa still needs a mate."

"Big Red will be happy to learn of it," Thompson agreed.

Ca.s.sie groaned.

Then out of the corner of her eye, she saw another red female and blinked. Aimee? The drug was making her hallucinate if she was now seeing her long-dead cousin.

Thompson turned around to see what she was looking at so hard, but the wolf flipped around and disappeared into the trees, the branches she brushed against swaying slightly. Ca.s.sie blinked and dropped her head to the ground. The wolf couldn't be real.

When Leidolf woke still in his wolf form, he smelled dozens of animal smells and realized he was in a cage in some kind of room full of medical supplies and metal exam tables. s.h.i.t.

He looked around the room and saw a ragged-looking red wolf sleeping off the tranquilizer inside another cage. The mother wolf. No sign of the pups, though. Farther over, he saw Ca.s.sie in a cage. She was sound asleep, too. h.e.l.l. Were they at the zoo? Probably a holding room of some sort to check them out. Make sure they didn't have worms or other medical problems.

An elephant trumpeted in the distance, the sound m.u.f.fled. Yeah, they were at the zoo. d.a.m.n it.

He sat up and woofed at Ca.s.sie, trying to get her attention. Instead, the mother wolf lifted her head, but she was too groggy, and she dropped her head down and blinked at him.

"The female that had the pups was treated for worms," a man said, shoving the door aside, as Thompson walked inside with him. "And she had a bad case of ear mites."

"You're awake," Thompson said, observing Leidolf. "He's a good-looking red wolf for living in the wild, don't you think, Dr. Chavez?"

"Healthy, good weight," the doctor agreed. "Good-looking teeth." He waved a hand at Ca.s.sie. "Same with the female. The mother wolf's half-starved, though. Can't figure it out. Her mate would have been bringing her and the pups food."

"What if he's not the mother's mate?"

"You said they're the only red wolves you've found. The male and female have to be the alpha pair."

"It would seem so. What about the other? She's of breeding age. Health-wise, can we mate her to Big Red soon?"

"We'll have to put them together and see how they take to each other. In the wild, she wouldn't have had a chance to mate, unless she'd started a pack of her own. Here, if she's agreeable, he's all hers." The veterinarian smiled.

"I think this one's Rosa," Thompson said, peering into Ca.s.sie's cage at a crouch. "She didn't want Big Red before. But maybe now that she's a little older, she'll be more interested in him." Thompson stood. "She wouldn't find another red male in the wilderness. She's lucky to have Big Red as a mate."

Leidolf rose to his feet. h.e.l.l, they planned on giving Ca.s.sie to a real red wolf? And Leidolf was joining the mother and her pups? When his people learned of his being paired off with a regular lupus, accused of being the father of the pups...

He shook his head, irritated with himself. He didn't even want to think of what they would say. Not to his face, of course.

"When are you going to let her see Big Red again? Maybe since she's been away from him for a while, she'll be pleased to see a familiar face." Thompson glanced back at Leidolf. "He looks anxious. Maybe we should let him go to his mate."

"As soon as she wakes, we'll move them to a holding pen."

Ca.s.sie lifted her head, and Leidolf saw the look of disbelief in her eyes. He felt the same way, only he was responsible for her. How did he get himself and her in such a bind? More importantly, how was he going to get them out of it?

Ca.s.sie rose to a sitting position in her cage as Leidolf desperately wanted to go to her, to comfort and protect her.

Thompson rubbed his whiskered chin as he looked her over. "She looks in as good a shape as when we found her last year, despite getting shot."

Someone knocked on the door to the room. A young woman poked her head in. "Pups need their mom. Can they join her?"

As if on cue, the she-wolf sat up. She still looked a little groggy, her eyes a little dazed.

"Let's move them to the holding pen," the doctor said. "Rosa looks ready enough to pay Big Red a visit. Have you got a name for the alpha pair, Henry?"

Thompson rubbed the beard on his chin and then folded his arms as he looked at the she-wolf. "I'll think on it." He turned and observed Leidolf. "Same with him."

The woman had disappeared and suddenly reappeared with a bunch of men. They loaded the cages on carts and pushed them out of the room, down a long hallway, and then to a metal door.

"She goes into the next holding area," Thompson said, motioning to Ca.s.sie. "We'll have Big Red join her here once she's settled."

Leidolf thought for the first time since he'd laid eyes on Ca.s.sie that she looked really stricken. He wanted to tear anyone to shreds who took his mate away from him, but his human half warned of the consequences. Instead, although it killed him to do so, he behaved himself and held her gaze as long as he could to rea.s.sure her, until his cage and hers were rolled into their respective pens.

Inside the room, the walls were metal, the floor concrete. A trough of water sat against one wall. There were no windows, no bars, just a room to get to know his "mate," the supposed mother of his pups, who was already there. And a viewing door, with a nice-sized window.

The men opened the cage doors, and a couple of more men brought in the she-wolf's pups, leaving them next to her, and then the men all stood back, watching the reunion. The she-wolf checked out her pups, inspecting them as they eagerly stepped on each other, trying to get to her teats for supper. She was so absorbed in the return of her brood that she ignored the men in the room and the alpha male who stood far away, watching her.

"Something isn't right," Thompson said, his voice low, as if to avoid disturbing the wolf family reunion.

Joe shoved his hands in his pockets. "The male should have greeted her and the pups."

If Leidolf had, he'd risk the female tearing into him and upsetting her pups. Best to be standoffish and let the zoo staff sort it all out by themselves.

"Maybe we're upsetting him," Joe said. "Maybe if we leave them alone, he'll join her. Notice the way he keeps watching us? Not her. He doesn't like it that we're in here with her and the pups."

Thompson folded his arms. "Something more isn't right. I can't put a finger on it... but, well, if I were to put it in human terms, it is almost as though he has something going on with Rosa."

Joe's brows shot up. "Well, h.e.l.l, if that's the case, maybe we should put the two of them together."

Thompson shook his head. "He has to be the alpha male, and the female wouldn't have had pups if she wasn't the alpha female. Look at his stance. Tail high, ears perked up, back rigid, gaze focused on... me. In fact, the whole time we've been speaking, he's been watching me. Even when you spoke, he continued to stare me down."

Joe chuckled. "He knows you're always in charge."

Thompson smiled at Leidolf. "All right. Let's check on Rosa and see how she's getting along with Big Red." Thompson turned, and one of the staff members opened the door. Then the four of them filed out and Thompson closed the door.

Leidolf didn't take his eyes off the door, and sure enough, Thompson soon looked through the window. Thompson grinned as Joe took a peek also. "See, he's still watching me, almost as if he thought I'd check on him."

"Yeah, we'll have to give them some privacy for a while and then come back later and check on them. But I halfway suspect he'll still be watching the door for danger, or maybe an escape route. Eventually he'll let down his guard and join his mate."

Not in this lifetime. But Joe was right. Leidolf continued to watch the door. And knew just what he had to do next.

Ca.s.sie shook off the tranquilizer's effects and stared at the wolf observing her in an enclosed room. She sniffed the air. He was a male and a red, but because of their genetics, he smelled just like a wolf, as much as she did to him. Which wasn't good. A few times when she'd been with a real wolf pack in her wolf form, some over-rambunctious male had thought to mate her. If it hadn't been for the alpha leader of the pack discouraging the junior males--only one litter per alpha couple in the pack--she might have been in trouble.

For now, she was on her own, which she'd never been before when facing a situation like this. Big Red looked awfully interested. Still, he held back and sniffed the air.

She stood her ground, her back to the door. It was definitely a standoff. Neither moving an inch in any direction, their gazes locked, hers saying stay away, his saying he was already love-struck.

Footfalls headed in the direction of her cell, but she continued to watch Big Red. Whoever was approaching wasn't half the problem the wolf could be.

She wondered how Bella Wilder had handled Big Red. Probably snarled at him to back off. A male wolf wouldn't usually attempt to take advantage of a female if she wasn't willing. That didn't mean he wouldn't keep trying if she was ripe for the action.

The door opened, and Thompson and Joe stood in the opening watching her.

"She doesn't look like she's any more interested in Big Red than she was earlier," Thompson said, sounding disappointed.

Joe added, "She's still wearing the pants in the family."

"Let's switch them and see what happens."

"Are you sure?"