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.
"The wolf I smelled wasn't the woman."
Elgin's smile faded, and he frowned deeply. "Oh. Was the one you smelled one of us?"
"Possibly."
Elgin didn't say anything for several seconds and then finally said, "Do you want me to go after her?"
Hell no. Leidolf tried to curb the disagreeable expression he cast Elgin, but from the concerned look on his sub-leader's face, he didn't veil it well enough.
"I can't make Sarge mind me. You're the only one who can," Elgin warned.
As if Leidolf would neglect his leadership duties when it could mean exposing their kind to the world just to chase down a possible female lupus garou. "I'll track her down later, after I've taken care of this business."
Appearing relieved, Elgin nodded. "There's... well... another situation that needs to be addressed. Irving and Tynan are off somewhere again without telling me or Fergus. God knows where. I seriously think they're pulling something, and not anything that's good.
"When you first came to lead our pack, we got rid of the four who were really running things. Unfortunately there were a few more who went along with Alfred's rule. The rest of us couldn't fight against them. But some holdouts from the old regime who received Alfred's favors for... well, bringing women to him may very well still exist in the pack."
"You think Irving and Tynan might have been some of Alfred's henchmen?"
"Possibly. Alfred's henchmen were secretive. We were always looking over our shoulders, wondering who might tell Alfred what we were saying about him and his thugs. Five men took off immediately after Alfred and his cohorts died, so we figured that they were part of his network and thought that was the end of it. Now I think these two men were also involved."
"What's their background?"
"Part of the pack in the beginning. They were bitten and turned in California a couple of hundred years ago. They're cousins."
Hell if Leidolf didn't already have a truckload of problems to deal with. "They know the rules. If they work for me, they have to let you know if they're going to be out of the area."
Elgin gave a stiff nod.
"When they return, have them report to me."
An eerie howl reverberated through the vicinity, originating more than five miles away.
"Satros," Leidolf said under his breath. The oldest member of the pack and the least agile, Satros should never have been wearing his wolf coat in broad daylight in the woods.
Hell, what now?
Chapter 5
Her heart racing with excitement, Cassie hid in the thick brush, watching the highly agitated, scrawny female red wolf pace back and forth in front of a tangle of blackberry brambles. What was she doing? With her back to Cassie, the wolf stopped, her ears twitching, listening to the sounds in the breeze.
The air was thick with moisture, and suddenly a mist of rain began to pitter-patter on the leaves around Cassie.
Then she heard a noise that made her heart nearly quit beating. The sound of wolf pups mewling. The wolf was a mother. And protecting her litter. No wonder she'd been on the move so much.