Leidolf tried really hard not to watch every move Cassie made as she raced through the woods, while she continually stopped to smell for the red wolves and then ran off again. He loved to observe her in her wolf form, the way she moved so fluidly, darting one way and then the other. The way she held her head and tail high, alert, alphalike. The way she concentrated on the mission as if nothing or nobody else existed. He was searching also, but he loved watching her pursuit of the two reds.
She suddenly turned her head toward him, her ears twisting back and forth as she listened for...
Hell, he heard it, too. Pups whimpering for their mother. Cassie dug around in a bunch of leaves, sniffed, and then turned. She headed for a thicket of blackberries and shoved her nose into a hole. Pulling her snout out of the hole, she wagged her tail and made a little woofing sound. Tinier woofs responded.
Leidolf joined her and then nudged her face in greeting. He'd catch some fish for the mother. But what he hadn't expected to see was Cassie with a full-blown case of empathy for a mother wolf and her brood. Seeing her excitement at finding the pups made him desire having children with Cassie even more.
With a final glance back at her as she sat near the den in guard mode, he took off toward the river.
Cassie lay near the den, watching over the pups and hoping to see the mother soon. When Leidolf left, she couldn't have been more proud of him. She knew he was getting food for the mother, and for now, he'd let her do what she needed to do, provide protection.
But that's when the real trouble began. She thought she smelled a human. She lifted her nose and breathed in the air. No, two. She froze in place. No, no, no. The zoo men were somewhere close by. She prayed they hadn't seen her or Leidolf. That they hadn't spied the mother wolf.
Then a shot sounded in the woods nearby and a familiar twinge of pain went through her shoulder as a reminder of the past, even though she hadn't been shot this time. She wanted to make sure Leidolf was all right, but she couldn't leave the pups alone. No matter what, she couldn't abandon them.
Everything was really quiet, way too quiet, and she feared the zoo men were watching her in the woods. She couldn't see them, but she still smelled them. If she took off running and they tranquilized her, they might not ever know the pups existed.
It was a standoff. Her not moving. Them not revealing themselves. Another shot rang out in another direction. Her heart drummed in panic. Leidolf. Where was Leidolf?
Before she made out the rest of him blending with the forest, she saw Thompson's blue eyes. He had his rifle readied. He planned to shoot her. She rose. He shouldered his rifle. She turned and pulled a pup from its hastily dug den.
"Holy cow," Joe said, emerging from the trees. "She has a litter of pups."
Thompson lowered the rifle, pointed it at the ground, and smiled. "We're going to take care of you, Rosa. You and the other wolves and your pups." He raised the rifle again and fired a shot.
Cassie cursed Thompson as the dart struck her in the flank. She collapsed and dropped the pup.
"Think there are any more of them?" Joe asked, hurrying with Thompson to check on Cassie, who was lying prone on the ground, the damned tranquilizer quickly zipping through her body.
If she could have, she would have bitten the bastard. She wanted the pups and their mother taken care of, not her!
"No. From the looks of the tracks where we were tranquilized, there were three wolves. Two others besides Rosa."
"Wait," Joe said, lifting her back leg. "She's not nursing. We'd checked her before and found she hadn't had pups."
"Then she's the babysitter. Maybe the sister of the other. Okay, well, let's get them to the cages, take them back to Portland, and have the vet check them out." Thompson poked his hand into the den. "Man, look at this. One, two... three... and four. Two males and two females."
"Hey, so the male we got was the mate of the one who had the pups, don't you suspect? So Rosa still needs a mate."
"Big Red will be happy to learn of it," Thompson agreed.
Cassie groaned.
Then out of the corner of her eye, she saw another red female and blinked. Aimee? The drug was making her hallucinate if she was now seeing her long-dead cousin.
Thompson turned around to see what she was looking at so hard, but the wolf flipped around and disappeared into the trees, the branches she brushed against swaying slightly. Cassie blinked and dropped her head to the ground. The wolf couldn't be real.
When Leidolf woke still in his wolf form, he smelled dozens of animal smells and realized he was in a cage in some kind of room full of medical supplies and metal exam tables. Shit.
He looked around the room and saw a ragged-looking red wolf sleeping off the tranquilizer inside another cage. The mother wolf. No sign of the pups, though. Farther over, he saw Cassie in a cage. She was sound asleep, too. Hell. Were they at the zoo? Probably a holding room of some sort to check them out. Make sure they didn't have worms or other medical problems.
An elephant trumpeted in the distance, the sound muffled. Yeah, they were at the zoo. Damn it.
He sat up and woofed at Cassie, trying to get her attention. Instead, the mother wolf lifted her head, but she was too groggy, and she dropped her head down and blinked at him.
"The female that had the pups was treated for worms," a man said, shoving the door aside, as Thompson walked inside with him. "And she had a bad case of ear mites."
"You're awake," Thompson said, observing Leidolf. "He's a good-looking red wolf for living in the wild, don't you think, Dr. Chavez?"
"Healthy, good weight," the doctor agreed. "Good-looking teeth." He waved a hand at Cassie. "Same with the female. The mother wolf's half-starved, though. Can't figure it out. Her mate would have been bringing her and the pups food."
"What if he's not the mother's mate?"
"You said they're the only red wolves you've found. The male and female have to be the alpha pair."
"It would seem so. What about the other? She's of breeding age. Health-wise, can we mate her to Big Red soon?"
"We'll have to put them together and see how they take to each other. In the wild, she wouldn't have had a chance to mate, unless she'd started a pack of her own. Here, if she's agreeable, he's all hers." The veterinarian smiled.
"I think this one's Rosa," Thompson said, peering into Cassie's cage at a crouch. "She didn't want Big Red before. But maybe now that she's a little older, she'll be more interested in him." Thompson stood. "She wouldn't find another red male in the wilderness. She's lucky to have Big Red as a mate."
Leidolf rose to his feet. Hell, they planned on giving Cassie to a real red wolf? And Leidolf was joining the mother and her pups? When his people learned of his being paired off with a regular lupus, accused of being the father of the pups...
He shook his head, irritated with himself. He didn't even want to think of what they would say. Not to his face, of course.
"When are you going to let her see Big Red again? Maybe since she's been away from him for a while, she'll be pleased to see a familiar face." Thompson glanced back at Leidolf. "He looks anxious. Maybe we should let him go to his mate."
"As soon as she wakes, we'll move them to a holding pen."
Cassie lifted her head, and Leidolf saw the look of disbelief in her eyes. He felt the same way, only he was responsible for her. How did he get himself and her in such a bind? More importantly, how was he going to get them out of it?
Cassie rose to a sitting position in her cage as Leidolf desperately wanted to go to her, to comfort and protect her.
Thompson rubbed his whiskered chin as he looked her over. "She looks in as good a shape as when we found her last year, despite getting shot."
Someone knocked on the door to the room. A young woman poked her head in. "Pups need their mom. Can they join her?"