"I was with the wolves," Cassie said, swallowing hard. "I was with them when I should have been with my family."
"You would have been dead, too." Aimee patted Cassie's shoulder. "We're all that's left of the family. Will you forgive me?"
"There's nothing to forgive, Aimee. God, I'm glad you're here with me now." Cassie hugged her again. "You did nothing wrong."
"When I healed up, I planned to kill our families' murderers. But Wheeler cheated over cards, got into a confrontation with the sheriff, and was shot and killed in the street. His remaining sons got into a brawl with a couple of drunken cowboys later that night. I planned to kill them after they were bodily thrown out of the saloon and began to stumble home in a drunken stupor." Aimee hesitated and took a deep breath. "But I... I lost my nerve."
Recalling how she'd moved silently as a wolf, carefully staying in the shadows of the buildings night after night, following them, Cassie said, "I stalked them for several days right after they killed our family. Then like you, I couldn't do it. I gave up, left the town, and joined the wolf pack. The wolves I lived with were killed later that year. I vowed to help people realize that the wolves deserved to live in the wilderness like we did."
"I should have guessed that if you had survived, you'd go to live with them. But I was sure no one in our family had lived. Then again..."
"What if...?" Both Cassie and Aimee said at the same time.
"What if our families didn't all die?" Cassie finished for them both. "You and I didn't. What if some of the rest of our family survived?"
Aimee took her hands and squeezed. "They might not have. We might get our hopes up for nothing."
Excited to think of the possibility, Cassie stood up from the couch and paced. "But what if any of them are alive?"
Aimee didn't say anything right away as if she was mulling over the possibility. Finally she asked, "How could we hope to locate them?"
Cassie shook her head. "I don't know. I've been published in several magazines. Wouldn't they have heard of me and then contacted me?"
"Science types? Nature magazines? Regional? Would our families have read them?"
Cassie had to agree with her cousin. "The chances would be pretty slim."
"Wait." Aimee stood. "Your mother and mine were always researching genealogy, curious if they could discover out how far back our royal lines go. They found a relative in France and two in England, corresponded with them even. Remember? Of course, back then it took a year to hear from them."
"You... you think maybe if they were still living, they might still be researching genealogy roots? They probably have stuff like that online now. Come on."
Cassie and Aimee rushed through Carver's house until they found a computer in an office, but when she turned it on, the access was locked. The same with the computers in the girls' rooms.
Exasperated, Cassie said, "We'll have to do this later." She led her cousin back to the living room, still hopeful they might locate some of their family. "How did you end up here?"
"I teach botany at Portland Community College." She shrugged. "I went from climbing trees when we were young to teaching about them. Well, and other kinds of plants. The nature lover in me, I guess... except I concentrated on plants rather than animals."
"Did you ever run through Forest Park in your wolf form?"
Aimee sighed. "Yeah. I hadn't shifted in eons, but the moon was full and I'd broken up with a geology professor and I just had to run as a wolf to get back on track. You know how it is for us."
"He wasn't one of our kind, was he?"
"No, just a lover and friend. Was a friend. Then he got the hots for a biology teacher at a high school." Aimee growled at the last.
Not wanting to upset her cousin further with the discussion of her former lover, Cassie asked, "Didn't you know about the pack living here?"
"No. I never ran across them. Not as big as Portland is. And many of them live outside of the city limits."
Cassie nodded. "Here I thought it was the she-wolf whose scent Carver and Leidolf had run across in Forest Park."
"No, probably me. But I'd run into Irving and Tynan at a convenience store and overheard them talking about taking over a pack and how they'd picked up a woman who wasn't pliable. They'd murdered her, Cassie. Left her body in the woods. That's when they saw me in a security mirror, listening to them from another aisle. I got out of there as fast as I could, but they followed me. Tried to shoot me, but I shifted and tore off into the woods. After Irving tried to kill me and I saw you, I couldn't leave. Not before I knew the truth. That you were indeed my cousin." She leaned back on the couch and smiled at Cassie. "You took Leidolf as your mate, didn't you?"
"Yes, but only with the agreement that I would continue to do my wolf studies."
"And he agreed?"
"Sure, he had to." Cassie turned to listen to the back door. She swore she heard a noise.
"I believe you've finally met your match." Aimee glanced at the kitchen. "Did you hear someone using a key on the back door?"
Chapter 25
Leidolf and his men combed the woods, careful not to alert Irving and Tynan that they were looking for them. If Irving thought to kill Leidolf, silver was the only kind of bullet that could do the trick.
Carver had tried calling his daughters' cell phones several times, but neither was answering. Fergus had tried Evan's phone also, but his son didn't respond, either. Everyone was tense and silent as they continued the search through the forest.
No more gunfire had sounded. Had Irving and Tynan aborted their mission?
Then lights suddenly appeared like specters, filtering through the thick woodland landscape, bobbing here and there and everywhere. And noisy footfalls. Men approaching. Several. No conversation, though. Silent.
Leidolf motioned for his men to stop. Either they were police or zoo officials, Leidolf assumed. He figured Irving and Tynan would head out of the area pronto before the police caught them carrying rifles.
"Police!" a man shouted, identifying himself to someone deeper in the woods. "Put your hands up where I can see them."
Hell, one of Leidolf's men was in trouble. Leidolf hurried in the direction the police officer's voice came. "We're searching for three teens, Officer," he called out, hoping he wouldn't alarm the man and get shot himself. "Two men are shooting in these woods, and three of our kids got lost. When they called to tell us, they heard gunshots and are hunkered down somewhere."
"And you are?" the officer asked, tall, focused, his brows knit in a frown, gun in hand.
"Leidolf Wildhaven. Own a ranch out of the city, but Carver's house is located right next to the park. His twin sixteen-year-old daughters went for a walk, and Evan, Fergus's seventeen-year-old son went to find them. They may be separated. We don't know. They're not answering their cell phones now, though."
"All right." The man called the specifics in to someone else and gave his location, and the place was soon swarming with police.
"We found them," a policeman said, hurrying through the trees, bringing the girls with him.
They broke free and ran to hug their father, their eyes filled with tears.
"Where's Evan?" Fergus quickly asked.
"We couldn't find him," Alice said. "He went..." She glanced at the police officers and hesitated. "We don't know."
"If it's all right with you, Officer, we'll take the girls back to their father's house in case the shooters are still out here," Leidolf said.
After verifying names and addresses, the police officers released them with a warning. "Until the woods are secured, stay at the house."