He hesitated to speak any further for so long that she thought he'd changed his mind.
He ground his teeth and let out his breath. "Cassie, if you're awake, I want you to know that we have a lot of eligible bachelors in the pack. Carver is one, and his daughters are lovely girls and could use a mother." His hand stilled on Cassie's back.
He was giving her up, just like that?
"What I mean to say is that since you don't have a pack, we'd love for you to join ours. No strings attached. And if you have a friend you left behind in the woods, she can join us also."
How did he know she didn't have a pack? And what friend was he referring to?
She snuggled closer to him, slipped her hand around his waist, and sighed. He was hers, and she wasn't going to be any other man's... conquest. Well, not... not...
She lifted her head slightly and looked into his eyes. Leidolf. In the flesh. She wasn't dreaming after all.
He gave her a worried smile, and she closed her eyes and rested her head against his chest again. "Hmm, not interested in anyone else in your pack," she mumbled, unbelievably tired. "Anyone," she amended. "In your pack."
He resumed stroking her back, sending delicious spikes of interest through her willing body. Her mind wasn't falling for the deal.
"I meant to say the other bachelor males might be interested in the other woman, and the both of you could join our pack." He gathered her tighter into his embrace as if claiming her for his very own. No matter what her groggy mind thought of the situation, she felt right at home with the wicked hunk of a lupus garou.
Why couldn't he be just a cute human good for a quick fling? He was so much more, and that's what scared her.
"I assume you figured out that I'm the pack leader in Portland and the surrounding areas. So why didn't you let me in on your little secret that you were one of us? Did you think I'd bite?" He sighed deeply, and for an instant, she felt badly she'd kept her true nature hidden. Except that she had a job to do, and she was sure Leidolf wouldn't let her do it. "Who is the other woman, Cassie?"
"A female red wolf," she whispered and then licked her dry lips, so, so tired.
"A lupus garou, you mean?"
"No."
He renewed his gentle, sweeping caress. "She's not one of my pack. You have to realize the danger she's in while wearing her wolf coat and running through the woods."
"I've never seen her before." Cassie yawned.
"Sorry, Cassie. You must be pretty tired still. I'm used to coaxing answers from my pack members, mistreated under an earlier lupus garou's leadership."
"Mistreated," she whispered, the thought of hunters killing wolves coming to mind. She couldn't imagine a werewolf pack mistreating each other. Maybe because the only one she'd ever truly known was her extended family's.
"Badly mistreated, yes. So you spotted a red wolf in our woods around here, lectured at the town hall about wolves and their importance, and then went to the forest to locate her? Why go alone? Why not tell me about it? You recognized I was a lupus garou. That I'd have to look into the matter. If she's another lupus garou, she--"
"Needs to know who's boss?"
He smiled.
Cassie closed her eyes. "She's a wolf. Not one of us."
His hand stilled on her back. "Why are you so interested in the wolf kind? If she's just a wolf and not one of us, you put yourself at risk for what reason?"
"They... they killed them. All. No more killing. I... I have to... to educate people about them."
"Who killed whom?"
Hunters. Slaughtered wolves. Gunfire. Pop! Pop! Pop! Whimpers and groans and death. Her adopted family. No more.
Leidolf didn't ask any more questions. He began to stroke her hair as if he was comforting her, and he was. He knew all the right touches, the kind that could make her melt against him and want everything he was offering... for the moment. As soon as she was more alert, she'd be off doing what she knew best how to do. Not be a pack leader's mate, not live with a pack, but continue to go it alone, helping those who needed her.
His hands slipped down to rest on her back, and she waited for him to begin stroking her again... until he softly snored.
Snored? She shook her head against his broad chest and sighed deeply, vaguely thinking she needed to leave, to return to the forest, to renew her search for the she-wolf and her pups until everything--the hard contours of his muscles, his once rigid erection, the warmth of his body, the feel of his arms wrapped tightly around her in a lover's embrace--faded completely away.
Several hours later, the darkness gripped the bedroom Cassie rested in. With her wolf's night vision, she could see an older woman, her strawberry curls streaked with strands of silver, as she sat dozing in an overstuffed chair, her round face peaceful in sleep. She wore jeans and a sweater, a blanket over her lap, as if she was staying the night--and would act as the pack's first warning when Cassie woke.
That's when Cassie's mind snapped to, her thoughts instantly clearing. The realization that a murderer had shot her near where she had been searching for the she-wolf and her den--and Alex's predicament--came back to her in a flood of memories.
And now? She was a guest in Leidolf's home. How far from the woods was she? How was she going to return there?
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 hell, 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 Cassie was burying deeper feelings, which she didn't want to consider.
The woman guarding Cassie 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."
Cassie 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 sexual 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 hell's broken loose."
Cassie 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. Cassie had to get to the she-wolf and pups and Alex. "I need some clothes, and I have to go back there, pronto."
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."