Part 23 (1/2)
”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 s.h.i.+ft 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-s.h.i.+ft. 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-s.h.i.+ft 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 ravis.h.i.+ng me for hours, now you ask?”
His eyes sparkled, and he gave her a devious smile back.
But now their relations.h.i.+p 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.