Seduced by the Wolf

Chapter 6

Cassie didn't think the situation could get any worse. First, the she-wolf took off with her pups and hid them somewhere else. Then the she-wolf howled, but she was way too far away for Cassie to reach her quickly. Not only that, but a whole slew of male wolves were prowling the forest.

Then? Cassie discovered Leidolf tracking her, doggedly trying to locate her. But the worst-case scenario? A gunshot rang out from the direction where the wolf had been. What if Leidolf got shot because of her? She'd let the river carry her downstream for a couple of miles so he wouldn't find her scent anytime soon, and that had worked well for her. But now it seemed to have caused more problems than she ever thought possible.

Leidolf was a powerful runner and a much-too-thorough hunter. She'd had a head start when she caught him following her scent, and she'd quickly buried the fish. If she hadn't backtracked in a few places, quickly shifting and climbing a tree once to watch him--totally confusing him--he would have caught her. As soon as he had run off, she'd climbed down the tree, shifted, and raced off in a different direction. He was really, really good at tracking her, and she hadn't lost him for long. The river trick worked though, only she sure hadn't meant for the poor guy to get shot. If he got shot.

Her breathing quickened from all the running and swimming, she panted in the thick of the forest, looking upstream in the direction he had to be. She'd recrossed the river again and was on the same side she was originally on. Was he on this side with her? Or was he on the other side now?

She knew she should look for Leidolf, one of her own kind, and make sure he wasn't injured. It wouldn't do for hunters to get hold of him. While normally she wasn't afraid of much of anything, hunters terrified her. Her heart pounding in her dry throat, she thought of her adopted wolf pack members all dead, solely because of hunters, and the old guilt came into play--she had survived. And worse, what if she'd been the reason for their deaths?

But this time, she knew she had caused the wolf to come under fire.

She glanced back in the direction that the female wolf had howled. Hell. No matter that she was a wolf biologist, dedicated to studying wolves and educating people about them, or that she needed to help the mother in need, she had to ensure her own kind weren't found out.

Then again, maybe he wasn't shot. She paced some more. Damn, she couldn't risk not going to his aid. And if she had to protect him against hunters, she was ready. At least she thought she was. If she didn't locate him, that meant he was fine and she could go back to her she-wolf business.

Taking a deep breath, she bounded through the woods.

She barely heard the sound of the river not far away. Mostly she heard the blood rushing through her ears as she raced to locate the wolf, in the event he was injured, before the hunters could reach him.

As she drew closer to the location where she'd entered the river the first time, she heard two men's voices across the water, and she froze in place in the woods.

"I hit him. He was a big male and was running so fast, I'm sure he'll get some distance before we can locate him. Want to swim across?"

"Hell, Joe, I don't swim well, and in this frigid water, we'd both suffer from hypothermia before we knew it. We'll have to return to the truck, and the first bridge we come to, drive across to the other side, and hike in to find him."

Silence.

Her heart pounding, the blood still rushing through every artery, Cassie waited.

"Okay, Joe, let's go before it gets dark. We'll never find him then."

Kicking stones, they tromped across the bank and disappeared into the woods.

I hit him, echoed through her brain. She didn't want the trouble she could get into with dealing with a local lupus garou pack. She sure as hell didn't want to be the cause of a lupus garou's death. Not that he would die if he were shot with something other than silver, but once they found him, they could kill him by other means. Past experience haunted her with the knowledge, and that's what sent chills racing through her.

She knew she shouldn't advertise her location if others of his pack were out here searching for her, too. If she could, she'd alert them he needed help and then vanish, like she'd done with him. And if he was alone, maybe he still had the strength to communicate with her so she could locate him. After that, she didn't know what she could do. She had to get him to safety, somehow.

She sniffed the breeze, and if it had been blowing in the right direction, she could have smelled him up to a mile and a half away. She didn't smell any sign of him.

In the lowest, deepest, most woeful lonely wolf howl she could manage, she called to him, begging him to respond, praying no other hunters were in the area or that Leidolf's men would locate her.

In his foggy brain, Leidolf heard the red female wolf calling to him, her howl the most winsome he'd ever heard, just the right resonance, the right tempo, sexy and powerfully stirring, if he wasn't so damned drugged he would stir. It wasn't the same as the howl he'd heard earlier. That first had not been as deeply seductive or half as close by. Was it Cassie?

He tried to respond but only managed a feeble woof. Hell. How could he howl with his head plastered to the moss-covered forest floor?

Instead, he listened for her to repeat her call, hoping in his not-so-clear mind that she'd grow closer to him and smell him when he couldn't vocalize his location.

She didn't make another sound, and he tried to lift his head again. Without success. Cursing himself for the predicament he was in, he thought briefly about his pack and what they would say if they could see him now. Not only that but what his sister would say if she knew what had become of her brother, who never made a mistake.

And then the darkness overcame his thoughts, like a heavy mist forming in his brain, disguising his mental notes and thickening until everything blanked out.

When Leidolf didn't respond, Cassie figured he was passed out and unable to call to her. Frantically, she kept crisscrossing the area, searching for his location. Finally smelling the scent from his footpads on the path through the forest headed away from the river, she ran after him with her nose to the soil. Not far from the river, she located the large red male lying on his side, half-buried in ferns and dead to the world. A beautiful big red, his fur dark and shiny, his body powerful and sturdy. She needed to get him some place safe where the hunters couldn't locate him.

She moved in closer and nudged his nose with hers. He didn't respond. Not good. She tried again, this time licking his face, rubbed her muzzle against his, and then she pawed at his legs. She woofed low next to his ear, trying to stir him. How far away had the hunters parked their vehicle? How far to the nearest bridge where they would cross over and be on this side of the river? And how long would it take them to locate the male wolf from the trailhead near where they would have to park?

Maybe hours. Darkness would come soon. She couldn't wait. She shifted from a wolf to a human. Then, in her chilled and naked form, she crouched in front of the wolf's head and lifted it, talking to Leidolf, trying to get him to wake. He didn't move. She laid his head back down and then ran her hand over his body, sifting through his fur, searching for any kind of wound, unable to see where he'd been hit. Which meant he'd probably been shot on the other side.

Only one way to do this.

"Sorry," she apologized beforehand, not wanting to hurt him but needing to see the damage. She took hold of his legs and used them as a lever to turn him over. He didn't groan or growl or anything, which concerned her even more.

She gingerly swept her fingers through his fur looking for an injury. No blood on his fur and no wound anywhere, but a dart was lying on the ground where he had been resting. She picked up the dart. Tranquilizer? She didn't know what the drug smelled like, so that didn't help. Crouching at his back, she rested her head on his side and listened. His heart beat slowly, tired, drugged.

She let out her breath in relief. He wasn't wounded. If hunters found him, he could still be in real trouble.

"You need to get up," she whispered in his ear, one hand stroking his neck, the other the crown of his head. "Leidolf, you've got to get up before the hunters come for you."

Still, he didn't respond. Figuring more roughness was required to wake him, she growled and shoved at his back. "Get up! Now!" Which didn't work, either.

Hell.

Okay, fine. She stepped around him and knelt down in front of his snout, intending to offer him what she assumed he really wanted and hope that he would stir enough to get on his way, while she took off in another direction as a decoy for the hunters. Kneeling before him, she stroked the top of his head between his ears and whispered in one of them, "You chased me, and now that I'm all yours, you're too tired to come out and play?"

His eyes opened, but he didn't seem focused on anything. She rubbed her cheek against his and scratched some more between his ears. "Hmm, the big, bad wolf isn't so big and bad anymore."

She swore he smiled in a big, bad wolf way.

Naked, the redheaded woman of his lakeside fantasies, the same little wolf biologist who had stirred his interest earlier, stroked Leidolf's back and rubbed her cheek against his, a throwback to their wolf ways, not only a form of endearment but something deeper. Her brows furrowed, her expression remained concerned. When she was in her wolf form and had nuzzled his muzzle with her own, the wolf scent glands in her skin had rubbed against his, indicating she had claimed him as part of her pack. Whether she had done so consciously, or as a way to get him on his feet and hadn't meant anything by it, he wasn't sure.

He took another deep breath of her scent, memorizing it, and managed a feeble wolf smile. Her swim in the river had washed off the hunter's spray, and now he could smell her delectable scent just fine.

Hell, if he hadn't been so dead to the world, he would have responded to her touching him and claimed her right back, tenfold. Her fingers swept over his fur, examining every inch of him, sensually like a lover would in the wolf's courtship phase. Or like a pack member would groom an injured wolf, comforting him both physically and mentally. He would have been in heaven, if he hadn't been so out of it. Damn it.

Her breath tickled his ear as she whispered into it and stirred his need to have her as she pressed her heavy breasts against his shoulder. Then she moved her fingers to his head between his ears and began to scratch. Her touch wouldn't scratch the itch she'd started. The scent of her stirred-up feminine pheromones was an enticing concoction as she leaned in close to him.

He should have had a raging hard-on. Why was he too tired to respond to her loving ministrations? He couldn't fathom why his body didn't react to her shoving at him or her whispered words in his ear. Or even earlier, when she was a wolf, licking his face, kissing him wolf style. He sure as hell wanted to show her just what her attentions meant to him and give her back so much more in return.

The couple of times he'd managed to get his eyes open, he'd seen the woman of his dreams kneeling before him, the red curly thatch of hair between her legs teasing him, her delectable breasts tantalizing him.

But the last words she spoke really got his attention. Something clicked in his tired brain--"Hmm," she'd said in such a sultry, heated way--and he was ready to flip her on her back and take her, forgetting for the moment he was a wolf and she was a redheaded woodland nymph taunting him with her sexual prowess, urging him to do wicked things with that sweet naked body of hers.

He tried to pry an eye open again as her body pressed heavily again against him. He swore nerve endings in every hair follicle in his fur coat responded to her touch, sending an urgent message to his brain. Get up, shape-shift, and show the woman just how wickedly bad you can be.

The rest of her words were purred in his ear, and if he hadn't learned she was a wolf shape-shifter, he might have mistaken her for a big beautiful cat, a sleek panther type.

... The big bad wolf isn't so big and bad anymore, she had said, the words hauntingly seductive, encouraging him to take her.

He smiled. Oh, yes, he could be very bad. If he just wasn't so damned tired. Had she kept him up all night? Had his way with her for hours? He couldn't remember.

His thoughts drifted again, and he didn't remember anything until she shook him hard. "Get up, you lazy lout."

He managed to peel one eye open again and blinked. He sensed that the position of the sun had slipped a few notches in the sky. The air had grown colder. Her brow furrowed, Cassie kneeled before him. Lazy lout, she'd called him, he finally realized. He lifted his head slightly and looked at her.

The scowl remained fixed in place, her lips pursed, her red brows furrowed, her hair drifting in red curls over her shoulders. He stared at her hair, wanting to sift his fingers through the silky strands in the worst way. His gaze refocused on her eyes, sea green, heated... God, she was beautiful.

He had to shift. Show her what he could do with her after she had so blatantly called him out. He could barely lift his head. He tried to lie on his stomach but couldn't get the strength to lift his body in that direction.

Frowning, she looked worried and then leaned over, dangling her breasts in front of his nose as she tried to push him so he was lying on his stomach. He licked a breast, unable to help himself, wishing he was in his human form. She shook her head, rose to stand beside him, and folded her arms across her breasts, which left the rest of her bared for his viewing pleasure: long legs, the red thatch of hair covering her mound, pink feminine lips peeking out, teasing him to come and play.

"The hunters could be here any minute now, and you'd be in real trouble."

He refocused on her face. She spoke angrily, but no matter how much she growled at him, he loved the sound of her voice, her narrowed green eyes spitting fire, her full lips turned down. Which triggered the craving to hug her tight and kiss her into submission.

As soon as she said the words, they heard someone coming. The redhead's eyes grew big. Then she crouched next to Leidolf, her enticing breasts at eye level and his focal point as she whispered, "Lie down, and I'll bury you. Then I'll lead them away. Just stay here and sleep off the tranquilizer. Then go home. And leave me alone."

His gaze shifted back to hers, her expressive eyes showing a mixture of worry and pleading. He wouldn't lie down on his side again, not when he was finally lying on his stomach and felt more in control. But more than that, he was going to protect her, not the other way around.

Before he could tell her no in a wolf's growling way, she pushed him back on his side and started burying him with leaves--him, an alpha leader! Damn it. Then she shifted into the prettiest little red wolf he'd ever seen, her coat a rich red, a slightly lighter mask on her face highlighting her almond-shaped eyes, her ears perked, listening for danger, her tail tipped in black ink sticking straight out... an alpha female for sure. Before he could lift his head to tell her what to do in his wolf's commanding way, she dashed off. And if he could have, he would have cursed out loud.

Cassie started to run off in an attempt to lead the hunters away from Leidolf in his drugged state, until she smelled more lupus garous. Men, all of them, four or five, she thought. She stopped, hidden in the mosaic of evergreens and listened to their movement, no one saying a word. They had to be Leidolf's pack members. Thank God, for his sake.

She hoped they would find him without her having to give herself away. And if they located him, she was out of here.

"Elgin, do you smell what I smell?" one of the men asked, his voice hushed and a little nervous.

Crap. She figured they must have smelled her. Why wasn't the hunter's spray... oh, hell, the swim across the river must have washed it away. Having believed they were hunters to begin with, she knew she hadn't anything to worry about them smelling her, until they turned out to be lupus garous.

"In addition to Leidolf's scent? A red female. That one he said he smelled earlier, most likely. Maybe we shouldn't have come this way looking for him. He'll be pissed if he rendezvoused with that female and didn't want us to know about it yet," Elgin said, his voice a whisper.

"The female wolf howled, and we had to make sure she was all right," one of the men said.

"All right, Fergus. But I still say if we find him humping a redhead, we leave before he sees us, or you do all the talking."

The other two men, silent up until now, chuckled. One said, "Glad the two of you are his sub-leaders."

"Here, oh crap. Leidolf's..." Fergus said, shuffling through leaves. "Hell, he's alive. Heartbeat's really slow though."

Lots more rustling of leaves. "No bloody wound," Elgin said, sounding relieved. "He's... damn, he's been tranquilized. Let's get him out of here, now."

"What's he doing in a wolf coat?" one of the other men asked.

"You have to ask?" Elgin said.

They thought he was rendezvousing with her as a wolf in broad daylight? What kind of an alpha leader was he?

"He changed into his wolf form to track her more easily," Elgin added, in case the others hadn't figured it out. "I know he said he wouldn't, but if she was in need and called out to him, he would have found her more easily as a wolf."

Oh. Well they'd sure had her going for a second. She sighed. Good. She hated believing they thought she was fooling around with a lupus garou as a wolf before she'd even made his acquaintance as a human. Not that she intended to see any of these people again, but... still, she did have some pride.

"What about the female?" Fergus asked.

Cassie could envision the man's raised brows at the question, waiting for Elgin's response.

For what seemed like an eternity, although she was certain only a few seconds passed, no one said anything. Which didn't bode well. Then Elgin said, "We've got to get Leidolf back to the ranch. And we've got to send more of our men out here to search for Sarge and the twin brothers."

For a second, she breathed a sigh of relief.

Leidolf must have fallen asleep because he didn't make a peep. She was sure he would have thrown a fit when he learned his men planned to spirit him away from the woman who had been seducing him right before his groggy eyes and no one went looking for her.

No other words were spoken, but as the men began moving, they didn't all head in the same direction. Some returned the way they had come, but others began stalking her way.

Hell, they had to have used hand signals, figuring she might be nearby and didn't want to scare her off. Which meant? Some were trying to track her down. To give them the benefit of the doubt, maybe they worried she'd been tranquilized nearby also.

Still in her wolf form, she dashed off. The river trick could work again.

Omigod, Aimee thought as she caught sight of the scrawny red wolf moving her pups into a new den. Her fur-covered skin clung to her ribs, and she was way too gaunt to be able to nurse her pups well. Aimee had heard her howl and knew it wasn't Cassie's, but she'd lost Cassie some hours ago, if she was the woman in the safari outfit she'd tried to track. And the howl probably meant the female was in trouble. Aimee wanted to help her. But a real wolf? I mean, Aimee was a real wolf, too, at the moment, but this one was an honest-to-God lupus-only kind of wolf. The pups began crying.

Aimee quickly went in search of food. Was this what her cousin was trying to do? Take care of the female wolf? Sounded like something Cassie would get involved in.

Aimee had heard the other wolves howling but didn't believe they were part of this wolf's pack, or they would have been here with her now. Which meant?

She shuddered. Irving and Tynan, her would-be murderers, could be the ones calling to each other.