When Cassie heard them approach, she stopped and narrowed her eyes. Their fluorescent color shimmered in the still dark, early-morning hour, but she seemed tired, her body, tail, and head sagging. Her shoulder had to be giving her fits.
"Are you looking for Alex Wellington?" Leidolf asked, motioning for his men to surround her but keeping her attention. He wasn't letting her go, not the way she was injured. She wouldn't make it anywhere safe when the sun shone in a few hours.
His expression told her she'd better not even think of crossing the river. He didn't believe she'd mind him if she wasn't hurting so much. "We'll find him, but you need to return to the ranch for your own safety." He hadn't meant to sound so irritated, but the notion of her risking her life and exposing their kind to be with Alex annoyed the hell out of him.
Suddenly, Elgin and Fergus came out of the brush from behind a Douglas fir, both gripping a man's arms. The man's blue eyes were bloodshot, but he couldn't see in the dark like they could.
Alex Wellington.
"What the hell are you doing out here? And who are these guys?" Alex tugged to free himself, but Leidolf's men would hold him tight until Leidolf said otherwise.
Had Alex been Cassie's human lover? If so, Leidolf planned to quickly remedy the situation. He frowned. "Did the men you overheard say they'd murdered a woman also shoot the red wolf?"
Alex didn't say anything, but he turned a little pale.
Leidolf didn't like having to repeat himself, and he figured that if Alex could have seen the look he was being given for his disobedience, he would have taken more heed. Leidolf tried again. This time, he growled: "Did one of them?"
Elgin sounded equally ferocious as he shook Alex's arm, "Answer the question."
"All right, all right. It's none of your concern. Hell, all you are is a damned rancher."
In response, Elgin smirked. Carver shook his head. Satros studied the wolf biologist but didn't say a word, his expression hard. He didn't have much to do with humans, as old as he was. And he didn't tolerate them well when he had to deal with them. Fergus cleared his throat as if he was going to speak but then didn't.
"Was that your truck across the creek on the turnout south of here?" Leidolf asked, even though he knew it was.
"Yeah. What's it to you?" Alex finally shook loose of Elgin and Fergus as Leidolf gave them the go-ahead to release him.
Leidolf growled, "What are you doing out here still?"
"If it's any of your business, I was looking for Cassie and an injured wolf. Instead of my locating the wolf, she found me again. But I haven't discovered any signs of Cassie."
None of which explained what Cassie was doing at the river's edge. Why didn't she lead Alex back to his truck? No, she was restless, pacing near the water like she was searching for something else. "We have a vet at the ranch. We'll take her with us and get her medical attention," Leidolf explained, trying to curb his irritation with both her and this friend of hers.
"If you're a rancher, why the hell would you want to take care of a wolf?"
"She's not a problem. We're having trouble with a cougar, though. Killed a couple of our calves. Even so, we're turning the cat over to the zoo once we tranquilize it."
Alex's eyes rounded. "You didn't shoot those zoo men with tranquilizers, did you?"
Leidolf smiled, knowing the man couldn't see his expression in the dark. "We're only out to get the wolf medical attention and put the cougar in the zoo."
Alex's expression indicated that he thought Leidolf had shot the men and taken off with the wolf to protect her. Alex's face brightened, but then he frowned. "You tranquilized the men and took her home with you, didn't you? She must have run away again and come looking for me." He rubbed his stubbly chin and stared at the ground.
"Or she came back because of something else. I don't understand, though. She seems anxious, like she was looking for something but was afraid to leave me alone. She's wounded still, too. Limping pretty badly. Why didn't you keep her safely at home? I mean, I'm grateful she found me and then you did, but you should have locked her up for her own safety."
"Just what I intend to do." Leidolf gave Cassie a look that meant he was going to back up his words.
"Let me go with you," Alex said.
"We can't. Fergus can escort you back to your truck. Sheriff wants to talk to you about what you saw as far as the men are concerned."
"You think he could protect me? She knocked the one down but didn't bite him even. She was protecting me. She's got to have been your pet. Was she?"
"Yeah, she's mine. She got loose. We'll take it from here." Hell, Cassie. How could she have gotten so involved with a human. Leidolf gave her an annoyed look.
"Have you guys got night-vision goggles? I can't see a blamed thing out here with just this flashlight of mine," Alex said, waving the small light around, highlighting a few needles of the Douglas fir straight ahead of him with a pinprick of light. "I figured I'd have to wait it out until morning to locate Cassie, when here comes the wolf. What's her name, by the way?"
"Red," Leidolf said.
Fergus turned on a penlight. "We're from around here and know the woods forward and backward... blindfolded. Come on. I'll take you to your truck."
"But Cassie is somewhere out here also."
Leidolf stalked toward him, ready to learn the truth about her relationship with him. "Who is she to you?"
The guy's eyes widened. Hell, Leidolf meant to ask more about her, not sound like a jealous damn lover.
His men smirked at him. Cassie growled softly in her wolf form, now lying on her stomach, nose on her paws, her eyes focused on Leidolf. He continued to scowl, and Alex frowned. "The woman I'm going to marry. We'll make a damned good team."
The guy couldn't have surprised Leidolf any more with the news. His men looked just as stunned, their mouths gaping.
"Marriage?" He swore she gave him a what-of-it look, although she appeared worn out from her ordeal.
"Yeah, we'll make a terrific husband-and-wife team. Really go places once we make a pact. It's not safe for her to be running around in the wilderness alone."
"She's engaged to you?" Leidolf asked, not bothering to hide the skepticism in his tone of voice.
Alex shoved his hands in his jacket pockets. "As soon as I can propose properly to her. I figured once I'd made the wolf find," he said, motioning to Cassie, "and hooked up with Cassie, I'd share the good news with her and that would be what did it. Hell, if the wolf is just a pet, that won't interest her."
"If you ask her to marry you, she won't say yes." Leidolf couldn't tell what Cassie was thinking, but she was staring at Alex, waiting for a response. Leidolf could sure as hell tell her what he was thinking. No unmated red female was changing some human to be her mate.
"Sure, she'll say yes. As soon as she realizes how perfect we'll be for each other."
"Are you lovers?"
Everyone was rabidly watching Alex for his response. Leidolf thought he heard Cassie emit a very low growl, directed at him, not at Alex.
"None of your damn business."
Leidolf smiled. Just the answer he wanted. No, they weren't lovers.
Leidolf folded his arms across his chest and stood taller. "I can tell you right now that she won't marry you. We're engaged to be married. Couple of weeks, and the knot will be tied."
Cassie shook her head and narrowed her eyes at Leidolf.
Elgin smiled broadly. "Yeah, I'll be best man at the wedding."
Motioning to the other men, Carver spoke up, "We're all Leidolf's groomsmen."
Alex closed his gaping mouth. Poor bastard was outnumbered and outmaneuvered. It paid at times like this to be a member of a werewolf pack.
"Cassie's at home in bed where she ought to be, safe and sound. But now I need to get Red to the vet to take care of her injury. And lock her up so that she doesn't get loose and hurt herself further." Leidolf gave her a pointed look. "Fergus, take Alex to his truck, will you?"
Alex looked back at Cassie. "I'd like to drop by and tell Cassie congratulations on her upcoming marriage and see Red when she's healed up. Where did you say they'd be staying?"
"Fergus?" Leidolf said, not about to let this guy get anywhere near Cassie again, if he could help it.
"Come on," Fergus said, leading the way with his small penlight.
Alex walked behind him in the direction of the turnout, muttering under his breath, "I don't know how you could see anything in this dark. Your light is even smaller than mine." Suddenly he stopped and turned. "What about the other wolves?"
Leidolf felt the tension in the air renew among his pack members. "What other wolves?" He tried to curb his agitation that the guy would continue to question him.
Alex stiffened and gave Leidolf a look like he wasn't that dumb. "I'm a wolf biologist by trade. At least two other wolves were in the vicinity where the men from the zoo were tranquilized. As evidenced by the tracks they left behind, the wolves ran beside the men, who most likely drugged the guys from the zoo. So where are the other wolves?"
"Take him back to his vehicle, Fergus." Hell, what else could Leidolf say? He had a pack of wolves at the ranch--but he didn't have a license to keep wild animals on the premises? He didn't have any other wolves--and Alex would know he was lying? At least he assumed the man would know the difference between wolf tracks and dog's or even hybrid wolf-dog tracks. Unless the animals were more wolf than dog.
Besides, he would be damned if he'd explain anything to a wannabe lover of Cassie's.
Alex snorted. "All right." He turned and headed off with Fergus in the direction of his truck.
Once they were beyond earshot, Elgin warned, "He believes we have a whole pack of wolves back at the ranch."
Leidolf frowned at Elgin. "I'm not changing another damn human and taking him into the pack. Sure as hell not when the guy has the hots for Cassie."
"You don't think he'll learn too much, do you?" Carver asked, and the dark expression on his face said he'd take care of the guy one way or another.
"Tell everyone to be on the alert for a black pickup truck with California license plates. If he comes to the ranch, make sure no one is in their wolf coats and direct him to me."
"He knows we tranquilized the zoo men. He seemed to approve, most likely because he wants to study wolves in the wild and not have them penned up in the zoo, but he could still tell the authorities we were the ones who knocked out Thompson and his buddy," Elgin said.
Leidolf gave Cassie a stern look. This was what happened when werewolves got involved in human affairs. "We'll cross that bridge when we have to. Call Quincy and Pierce, if you can get hold of them on their cell phones. If not, send someone to run ahead and warn them to vacate Alex and Cassie's vehicles and lie low. Once Alex has driven off, have them take Cassie's truck to the ranch."
He turned to Cassie. "And you are returning with me to the ranch now." He stalked toward her. "You're welcome to shape-shift." He smiled a little. "Easier to carry that way." More than that, he wanted to claim her as a woman, hold her tight, enjoy the feel of her close all over again, but he figured she already knew how he felt about her. Although he did want to know if she was keen on mating with a human and turning him. He had every intention of setting her straight on that matter.
Carver pointed to the river. "Hell, Leidolf, it's another one of them."
Leidolf stopped next to Cassie and looked across the river. A red wolf watched them. Smaller than a male, it had to be a female. Cassie was on her feet in an instant, as if she'd drawn on a pocket of energy. Before he could stop what she was about to do, she dove into the river.
"Hell and damnation, woman!"