Then she dashed out of the water, and it took every nerve he possessed not to get up and ready himself for the onslaught. He wasn't used to baring his vulnerabilities to another wolf. Not as an alpha.
She pounced on his chest and bit at his mouth in a mock fight, and he loved it. He growled and snarled as much as she did, their teeth clashing, her body pinning him down. Or he should say he let her pin him down, because if he'd wanted to get up, she didn't have enough weight to keep him on his back. After a vigorous workout, she lay beside him, and they watched the creek rumble by and the breeze rustling the leaves of the forest around them. Leaving the pack to get away would never be the same if he didn't have Cassie by his side.
She leaned against him and laid her head on her paws and then closed her eyes. He licked her ear but continued to watch their surroundings, ever watchful. And when Cassie woke, she rose, a little stiffly, he thought, and stretched. Then they both raced into the creek to hunt fish for dinner.
He was so busy observing her and the way she focused on the water, watching for a chance to catch her prey, that when she caught one, he realized he should have been fishing, too. He loved to observe her in everything she did. She grabbed the fish and raised it up out of the water. The expression on her face said it all. I have mine... Where's yours?
Then she trotted back to the cabin, tail and head raised high, ears perked up, fish in mouth. After dinner, he knew exactly what he was having for dessert.
Cassie knew playing with Leidolf in the creek was a very bad mistake. Yet after having the best sex ever, she'd felt on a runner's high. What better way to extend that feeling of power than to play a little? The trouble was that the play had sexual connotations, not innocent in the least.
And the worst of it? She loved Leidolf for participating with her. Since she'd lost her family, she hadn't engaged in recreation with another lupus garou in wolf form. She hadn't remembered how much fun it could be. She glanced back at Leidolf still trying to catch his fish in the creek. He looked at her and gave her a wolf smile.
Inwardly, she laughed. Then she headed inside the cabin and set her fish in the pot.
After a few minutes, Leidolf headed inside with his fish between his wolf's teeth, the trout smaller than hers. She felt like a lazybones, though, as she rested next to the fire, drying her fur, hoping to give her shoulder a break. She shouldn't have played so hard. Not giving it her all when challenging the alpha male was not her way, but now the injury was coming back to haunt her.
Leidolf dropped his fish in the pot, then came over and nuzzled her face with his own.
Then he shifted into his gorgeous hunk of a human self, water droplets sliding down his smooth skin and clinging to his hair and the shadow of a beard.
"We did too much," he said, frowning as he crouched next to her and ran his hand over her head. "I'm sorry, Cassie. I should have given more thought to--"
Cassie shifted into her human form and rolled onto her back on the pine-needle bed. "Hurry and cook the fish, Leidolf." She ran a finger over his muscular thigh. "I'm ravenous."
A slow, hungry smile appeared on his lips. "Are we still just at the fooling-around stage, Cassie?" He sifted his fingers through her wet hair. "Not ready for the real thing?"
She glanced at his crotch. Already the "real thing" was swelling with interest.
"We'd have to make a deal," she said softly, her eyes focused on his.
"A deal."
She knew he wouldn't like what she had to offer. Already his tone was aloof and his posture stiffened. One didn't make deals with alpha males.
"Like what, Cassie?" He shifted his fingers down her arm in a sweeping, tender caress.
"If I become your mate, I continue to do what I'm doing. Anytime, anywhere, without anyone's interference." Meaning, of course, Leidolf's.
He took a deep breath and let it out in a dissatisfied way. He didn't say anything right away, just continued to meet her gaze. Then he said, "I have a pack to run, Cassie." He continued to touch her in a loving way.
"Yes, I know. And that's why I have to have your assurance that if I was to become your mate, I would continue to do my research."
"And when you're pregnant?"
She twisted her mouth.
"We don't use birth control."
"All right, if I became pregnant, I would stay at home. Only once I begin showing. Not early on."
His fingers stilled on her arm, and he ground his teeth.
"All right?"
"What about after our children come?"
She let out her breath in exasperation. "Leidolf, when they're little, I'll be there for them. When they get older..."
"You're not taking them on hunting expeditions."
She raised a brow.
"Only when they're old enough," he said.
"What age? I want everything ironed out now. I don't want you telling me later that I can't take them with me on my research until they're eighteen or some such nonsense."
Leidolf rose to his full height and folded his arms. "What age then?"
She shrugged and winced.
His brows furrowed, he crouched back at her side. "Cassie, you shouldn't have played so hard. Now you're hurting, aren't you?" He touched her cheek so tenderly she wanted to cry.
No one had cared about her hurting anywhere since her own family had shown concern for her so many years ago. But she couldn't let him sidetrack her on the important issues. "Ten."
"Ten years old? No way. They'd get into all kinds of mischief at that age."
"Why? Because you did?"
He smiled coyly. "Yeah, and since they would be of my blood, I could just imagine the trouble they might get into. Not to mention you probably pulled your fair share of shenanigans when you were that age."
She had, but she wasn't about to let on. She scowled at him. "Twelve then."
He harrumphed. "Sixteen."
"Sixteen? You've got to be kidding. They'd be ready to run the ranch by then. Thirteen."
"Fourteen."
She narrowed her eyes at him. "Thirteen."
"What will our pack members say if they see their alpha female always leaving the pack?"
"Your pack members will live. Just like they've done fine without me before this. And don't you dare take it out on your pack when I leave you in charge by yourself," Cassie warned.
Leidolf sighed darkly and took Cassie's hand and rubbed his cheek against the top. "When you came to rescue me after I'd been tranquilized, you had already claimed me, Cassie. You rubbed your scent against my face, declaring we were a match, that I was yours. And I declare it back. But a female alpha doesn't set the rules for the alpha male."
Cassie licked her dry lips. Although Leidolf was right, she wouldn't exactly concede his point. "A pregnant one does. Just think of me as being perpetually pregnant."
His lips lifted in an arrogant smile.
"I mean, envision it, not make it true."
He hesitated as if giving the matter serious thought, but he was so tense she figured he wanted to jump in and agree with all his heart right away.
"All right," he finally said, "we have a deal."
His expression was way too satisfied, and she was sure she'd fallen into that rabbit's hole with no way out. She felt as though she were making a deal with the devil, that he wouldn't make the concessions he had agreed to a reality, and an inkling of fear streaked through her. Her freedom was at stake. The oral contract was binding. She'd set out the rules... hell, had she left any important ones out? And he had agreed. Now they only had to consummate the relationship, and it was a done deal.