To an extent, he didn't believe in fate, but after learning Cassie was a lupus garou, he was rethinking his beliefs. His sister would just smile with that expression that said she told him so. He'd probably have to agree with her.
After about an hour of mulling over everything that had happened from the first time he'd seen Cassie until now, and thinking about how he was going to convince her to stay with him, he finally drifted off. And returned to the place he loved to go, to get away, to recapture the wildness, to enjoy the solitude, to gather his thoughts and meditate.
Snow-capped Mount Hood stretched heavenward as fluffy clouds embraced its peak, the scene majestic, monumental, so far away.
The chilled water lapped at his legs and at the stony beach as he observed the beauty. He considered running in his wolf coat all the way there, letting the wind ruffle his fur, stretching his legs in the wilderness, getting away from the pack for longer than he'd planned, when a branch snapped in the woods behind him.
Whipping around, he saw her watching him. Red hair struggling to break free of its confinement. Green eyes challenging him to come for her. To take her. To make her his.
Cassie.
His body grew taut with need. Her parted lips beckoned him, taunted him to kiss them. She took a step back. She wasn't running away. Her eyes took in every bit of his nakedness. He smiled. She wanted him. And he wanted her. He stalked toward her, intending to help her make a decision to stay. And then she was running. She was his. All his, and he took chase. He was faster. He'd catch her. He couldn't let her get away.
Then he was jerked from the dream as Cassie crawled on top of him, her soft mouth forming quiet words that didn't make any sense, whispered against his chest, and she shivered. She was cold. He wrapped his arms tight around her and wanted so much more, but until she healed, until she agreed to be his... as difficult as it was, he would wait. He wouldn't quit trying to help her make up her mind faster, though.
He slipped into the dream again. Saw the mountain, felt the cold of the lake, heard the snapping branch, and faced the woman who would be his own.
Cassie slowly woke to the feel of a naked man beneath her. Not just any man. Leidolf. His heated body, hard beneath her, warmed her, comforted her. She breathed in his maleness, the woods, the sexy smell of him, of his wanting her. What a mess she'd gotten herself into. Somehow she had to leave these people. The she-wolf depended on her. She was afraid Alex did also. Yet already she was feeling torn about leaving the pack behind.
The way they wanted her to stay, to be part of their family, she couldn't help but feel something for them. Even the way the band members who had played the music at the Forest Club, some of whom she'd seen watching and smiling at her as they ate their meals, the twin girls who seemed to look up to her, Laney, who acted motherly toward her... she sighed. Leidolf wasn't the only one who was making her feel the need to stay.
She lay very still, half-wanting to slip away into what was left of the night and take care of business, half-wanting to stay here and entice the man beneath her to make love to her, to claim her for his very own as she would claim him.
Then again, she knew what she had to do. Set aside these crazy lupus garou feelings she had and concentrate on what was important. She had to move off Leidolf, dress, and get away, but she feared any movement would wake him and he'd stop her.
With a monumental effort at trying to create the least amount of friction between them, she attempted to disentangle herself from the possessive man who had both arms wrapped around her back and one leg hooked over hers. The same leg she had sandwiched between his. She'd never been in this sexy a position with a man she hadn't had sex with. And she was having a hard time not envisioning what it would be like to give herself to him.
As she tried to pull her leg free, her skin slid over his. He stirred, and she didn't move a muscle. And then she worried. She hadn't had sex with him last night by mistake, thinking in her dreamlike state that he was a human, had she? She wasn't sure he would have stopped her if she'd gotten too amorous, and he'd been in an aroused state, thinking she was willingly giving herself to him. She felt perfectly lubricated, as though she'd had sex.
She sighed softly. When she attempted to pull her leg the rest of the way free, his leg caged hers in again, his heel hooking over hers like a manacle. She stayed stock still. Was he awake? Her heartbeat quickened. She couldn't get caught. Not this time.
Then his hand drifted down her back, lower still to her butt, and he stroked for a few seconds. Even though she was perfectly still, her heart was beating way out of bounds, and she feared he'd open his eyes and realize she was awake and planning to escape.
His free hand drifted to her hair, and he sifted his fingers through the strands. Oh, God, he was awake. Or half awake, because she was sure he would have noticed how rapid her heart was beating, as astute as he was. And probably come to the conclusion she was preparing to bolt. Finally, his hands settled down and stopped their heavenly caresses.
Forever, it seemed, she lay still, not moving a hair. She listened to his breathing and thought from the steady, slow rhythm that he was truly asleep. She again tried to extricate herself from his leg, which was pinning hers down. And pulled free. She paused, waiting for him to wake. His hand tightened on her ass again. Controlling alpha male!
Finally he appeared to drift off again. She eased herself off his stomach. He shifted his hand to his chest, and she slipped the pillow next to his head onto his belly. To her relief, he seemed dead to the world.
She imagined that running a pack was exhausting work. Probably more so than studying wolves. Although trying to track her and his men down might have had something to do with how tired he was.
She hesitated, ensuring he truly was asleep. And then she slid out from under the comforter, trying not to tug it away from him too much. She finally scooted away from him and off the edge of the mattress, which shook to high heaven despite how gently she tried to leave the bed. As soon as her feet hit the carpeted floor, she raced to the double-wide closet.
Jeez, Leidolf would have looked destitute, if it hadn't been for the size of his bedroom and its sumptuous features: velvet comforter, heavy, rich oak furniture, sitting area, and French doors leading out to a patio. But the walls were bare, the shadow of where paintings or pictures had once been the only evidence the place had at one time been decorated.
Cassie pulled the closet door open, cringing in case it creaked. It was quiet, thank goodness.
The thought unwillingly flitted across her mind that the place needed a woman decorator's touch as she unbuttoned a shirt to pull it off the hanger. Yeah, as in Julia Wildthorn's sexy, romantic touch. If Julia got hold of the bedroom and redid it in her own theme, Cassie envisioned a gold-gilt mirror hanging on the ceiling over the bed, a hot tub in the bathroom, silky pale blue sheets, and an indoor-outdoor shower with a view of the forest and Mount Hood beyond. She harrumphed at herself for thinking anything of the sort. Jealousy was not part of her psyche. Not professional, not personal. She attributed her annoyance with his interest in Ms. Wildthorn to the fact he was attempting to seduce her and planning on seeing another woman on Saturday.
Cassie growled under her breath and yanked a blue-and-black plaid flannel shirt off a hanger. Immediately, a bolt of pain shot through her shoulder, and she stifled a moan. She didn't have time for gingerly movements and jerked her arms through the sleeves, clenching her teeth against the pain.