Seduced by the Wolf hotw-5

by Terry Spear

  Alex rose from the couch, too, the look on his face as he studied Cassie one of admiration and a little longing.

  Leidolf pulled Cassie close again. She distinctly got the impression he wanted her to leave the situation well enough alone. But the more Cassie thought of the wolf in the zoo, the more she wanted to free her. Not here where there were no red wolves, but why couldn't she live in Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in northeastern North Carolina where other red wolves had been reintroduced and now lived in family packs?

  She wasn't sure if Big Red could handle being out in the wilderness with a bunch of wild wolves, but she hated to leave him alone in the zoo. Besides, just the way Thompson talked about Big Red, the man sounded concerned that the male wolf would be left alone if they didn't steal him also. Or maybe that was just wishful thinking on her part.

  "Was Big Red originally a wild wolf or bred in captivity?" Cassie asked.

  Thompson's brows shot up, and a small smile touched his lips as if he knew she'd ask and he knew just why, too. "Wild, brought in a year ago, shortly before Rosa was captured."

  Good. He would most likely adjust back to living in the wild.

  "If you're through," Leidolf said, motioning for Thompson and Alex to leave.

  "Thank you for your time," Thompson said curtly. When he and Alex headed for the front door as Leidolf walked with Cassie to see their guests off, they heard Felicity's wolf pups whining and woofing.

  Hell.

  Immediately, Thompson switched direction and headed down the hall toward the guest bedroom she was staying in while Leidolf stalked after him. "You can't go down there."

  "I hear... pups, damn it. How could you have stolen the wolf and her pups that quickly?" Thompson glanced over his shoulder at Leidolf, while Alex hurried after them.

  "This is private property, and you can't disturb a mother and her newborns."

  Thompson laughed. "Newborns? Right." He jerked open the door to the bedroom where Felicity was staying and stood stock-still in the entryway to the room. Cassie peeked around Leidolf, hoping Felicity and her litter had enough time to shape-shift. With one baby suckling on each breast, Felicity looked tired and annoyed at the interruption.

  Harvey held a baby in each arm and scowled. "Who the hell are you? Get the hell out of our bedroom."

  "I... I thought I..." Thompson's face was crimson. "Sorry, my mistake." He pulled the door shut and faced a furious Leidolf.

  "Should I call the police about an invasion of privacy, or can we settle this right here?" Leidolf asked.

  Thompson glanced back at the door. "I could have sworn..." He shook his head and looked at Alex for confirmation, but the wolf biologist looked just as shocked. "Just remember what I said about the surveillance and alarms. They'll be up by tomorrow morning after what happened there tonight," Thompson warned. He gave Cassie a stern look, and she swore he was telling her to take the wolves before she lost the chance to free them.

  She smiled. "It's good the wolves have an advocate in you." She took his arm and walked him down the hall, ignoring the way her mate looked like he was about to have a conniption. "I hope you catch that cougar. If you need any help in catching him, I'm sure Leidolf or his ranch hands would be happy to help."

  Thompson paused at the front door. "No room for cougars here, too, eh?"

  "You know how it is. Dog and cat fights." She shrugged.

  "You know, Cassie, you sure remind me of Bella Wilder. You're not related to her, are you?"

  "Never know. You just never know."

  "Yeah, that's what I was thinking." He glanced back at Leidolf. "Thanks for your time. I'll let you know if I learn anything about the cougar."

  But Alex finally broke his silence. "Cassie, are you looking for wolves anytime soon?"

  "Soon, yes. If you didn't know, Leidolf and I got married."

  "Already? It wasn't supposed to be--"

  "We couldn't wait," Leidolf said, pulling Cassie into his hard embrace, protecting her from the outsider.

  Another strange hint of recognition flashed across Thompson's face. As if it was deja vu. Someone else, Bella and Devlyn maybe, had acted in a similar manner and made Thompson see the similarity.

  "Good-bye, Alex, Mr. Thompson," Cassie said.

  "Remember what I said about the security." Thompson headed out the door as Alex gave Cassie one last look of longing.

  Fergus hurried to shut the door, while several others joined them.

  "Everything all right?" Elgin asked, wearing a worried frown.

  "Everything's fine." Leidolf said to Cassie, "We can't free her. She and her pups are safe where they are."

  Leidolf slipped his arm around his waist, while Cassie's thoughts switched to just how they could steal her away.

  "What if we--" Quincy started to say.

  Leidolf's glower shut him up.

  Pierce shoved his hands in his pockets, looking like he wanted to offer a piece of advice but thought better of it.

  Elgin appeared uneasy. Cassie thought it might be because he figured this could cause a big rift between her and Leidolf. He was right.

  She began to pull away. Leidolf tightened his hold around her waist. "It's late."

  She wasn't in the mood.

  Laney folded her arms and looked crossly at Leidolf.

  If Cassie hadn't been so irritated with him, she would have smiled to see his people's reactions. At least she had their vote of confidence.

  "She doesn't belong in the zoo. You know it, and I know it," Cassie said to Leidolf.

  "Even if you remove her and take her somewhere that red wolves are, she might not be accepted. She needs a mate and territory of her own."

  "Just what I was thinking."

  Leidolf let out his breath. "Cassie, if you're thinking of Big Red..."

  "I am."

  "They need time to get to know each other."

  "Here. With all our other red wolves." She gave him a quick smile.

  He shook his head. "I just got you out of the zoo. And now you want to go back? They'll be waiting for you, Cassie, and then I'll have to find a way to get you out of jail."

  "That sheriff was a friend of yours, wasn't he? You can get him to let me out."

  Leidolf ran his hand down her arm, then took her hand and squeezed. "I take it we're not going to get any sleep tonight until we try this crazy scheme of yours."

  She took a deep breath. "It's my life work to study wolves. She doesn't belong there. They breed many of the animals in captivity to keep the zoo's exhibits full, and the animals never know anything else but a life of captivity. She's feral, not the same thing."

  "All right, Cassie Roux, little wolf biologist. You are bound to get us into a whole lot of hot water, but what the hell." He looked at Elgin. "You're in charge while I'm... we're gone."

  Elgin frowned. "You can't go alone."

  "Pierce and Quincy can come along," Leidolf said.

  Sarge looked hopeful, but Leidolf shook his head at him. "When you learn to behave, and I don't mean taking my mate hostage when she slips away in my Jag, then you can go on missions like this."

  Cassie bit her tongue. She thought maybe Sarge would finally fit in if he could do something positive. Even if in doing so, it was something illegal. Probably the reason he wanted to go along in the first place. But she'd finally gotten Leidolf's okay, and she didn't want to go against his ruling on this. Choose your battles wisely rattled around in her brain.

  "I'll join you," Fergus said.

  "All right. That makes five of us. Let's go, because I want to get some sleep tonight." He gave Cassie one of his devilish winks that said he didn't intend to sleep in the least, and she'd better damn well make this up to him.

  She was totally ready to, but after they completed their mission.

  Chapter 27

  When Cassie and her team of she-wolf rescuers arrived in the dark outside the second fence barrier to the wolves' exhibit three hours later, she felt both excitement and apprehension. It
hadn't been that long ago that she and Leidolf were escaping the place and now, all dressed in black, the five of them--Fergus, Quincy, Pierce, Leidolf, and she--made a motley group.

  Everything was so quiet that she suspected a trap. Fergus, Pierce, and Quincy were ready with cages for the wolves, one for each of the adults and one for the pups, while Leidolf was getting ready to cut the wire on one of the fences.

  "Wait," Thompson shouted, coming out from behind the wolves' building with Joe trailing behind. "I'll make this easy for you."

  Leidolf moved Cassie behind him. "Go, Cassie. Go home. I'll deal with this. Fergus, go with her."

  "No, I'm staying with you. I'm just as guilty, and I'm staying with my mate," she said.

  Thompson stood at the first fence and took a deep breath. "I knew you'd try to steal her. You'll move her and the pups and Big Red to your ranch first, and then where to?"

  Dumbfounded, Cassie stared at him.

  "We don't have long. The security team will be here in an hour or so," Thompson warned. "They called and said they're coming early because of other priority jobs they have to complete due to thefts."

  Leidolf gave him a wry smile. "You're serious."

  "What the hell?" Thompson said, his hands spread, palms up. "You're going to steal them anyway. Might as well do it right. And safely for all concerned. But I want Big Red to go with the family. And I don't want them released out there where hunters might take potshots at them."

  "No. We'll move them when the pups are older. To a place where others of their kind live," Cassie said, as Thompson opened a secured gate.

  They hurried to get the cages to the indoor enclosure where the she-wolf, her pups, and Big Red were staying. Everyone helped to get the wolves into the cages as quickly as possible.

  "Joe and I will help you get them to the gate."

  "But what if you get caught?" Cassie asked.

  Thompson waved a piece of paper. "Forged transfer documents."

  "Thank you, Mr. Thompson."

  He raised his brows at her. "You made a pretty persuasive argument back at Leidolf's ranch, young lady. We still have the gray wolves for the exhibit, and they came from another zoo, so they're zoo inhabitants through and through. I hope you don't plan to move them. Maybe some day we'll have reds in an exhibit that were born in captivity."

  She squeezed his hand, her eyes blurry with tears. "Thanks again."

  Then they pulled the cages through the gate and Thompson locked it again. "Keep them safe. Oh, and we caught the cougar. Litter of five. All of them are happy and healthy and well fed, sleeping in the big-cats exhibit. Seems like a fair trade."

  Leidolf thanked him this time, and they all headed out across the woods toward the street where they'd parked a van. After loading their precious cargo, they drove back to the ranch. Cassie finally caught her breath, when Leidolf said, "I don't know how you talked me into this."

  Cassie lifted her chin. "She's like one of the pack."

  "Just how long are we to keep the mother and her pups and Big Red at the ranch?"

  "Until they're ready to begin life all over in North Carolina. Won't the park rangers there be surprised to see the new additions all of a sudden?"

  "You're not babysitting them tonight."

  "They'll be fine left to their own devices. Do you have a secure place to keep them?"

  Leidolf snorted. "Now you ask."

  "Yeah," Fergus said. "We have an enclosed building with an outdoor run that'll be perfect. Pierce and Quincy and I can make some straw beds for them for the night."

  "Anything else you have in mind to do with what's left of the night?" Leidolf asked Cassie.

  "Just collapse in bed and sleep, unless my mate has something else in mind."

  "Just what I'd hoped you would say, Cassie."

  Once they were home, they didn't sleep at all except for a few catnaps. Cassie felt she was close to being in heaven. The way Leidolf was so attuned to her needs, the way she could turn him on, and prime him to such an extent that she drove him right over the edge.

  She sighed, loving how he couldn't get enough of her any more than she could of him, and cuddled next to him while he slept soundly once again.

  For three days, she tried to fight her compulsion to leave and do her job. She hadn't seen Aimee, but she and Carver and the girls were getting to know each other and she was happy with that. But the looming deadline for a contracted magazine article was setting Cassie's nerves on edge. She'd never missed a deadline... ever. And she couldn't quit thinking about it.

  Somehow, she managed to sleep in between love fests with Leidolf, but after sharing a bite to eat with him and returning to the bedroom where he began mulling over the financial mess the ranch was in, she paced.

  "Don't worry about it, Cassie. They'll use someone else's article, and you can send them yours later." Leidolf looked up at her. "Unless you're here to distract me from this... so that we can return to that." He motioned to the bed.

  She'd quickly learned that when he was trying to figure out finances, it was better to let him stew in private. She knew if she mentioned leaving to him again, he'd stop what he was doing and give her another excuse why she couldn't leave yet. She had to get away.

  She folded her arms. "I could just run over to Idaho and do a story on the wolves there."

  "No. My mother and father and sister are coming soon to meet you."

  "Soon. It could be weeks."

  Leidolf shuffled more papers, poked at an adding machine, and watched as the paper rolled out with more numbers on it.

  "I could be back long before they showed up."

  "We need to take care of Irving and Tynan. Since the new moon has given way to the waxing crescent moon, they can now shift, so we can take care of this business once and for all. Tonight. You need to see that justice prevails."

  She sighed deeply. "Fine." And paced some more. She stopped suddenly. "My backpack. I need to return to where I stowed it. It's my favorite outfit for observing wolves in."

  Leidolf was frowning as he stared hard at the papers, muttering numbers to himself.

  "Shouldn't take long. I'll see you late tonight. Earlier if I find my backpack sooner." She walked out of the room.

  She had nearly made it to the front door when Leidolf stalked out of the bedroom. "Where are you going?"

  She turned around and gave him an exasperated look. "To the place where I stashed my backpack."

  "Alone?" He acted like she was going to take a trip to the moon, solo.

  "Yes, alone. Everyone's got work to do. I'm just going to the forest. I'll grab my backpack and return. You're busy with your financial reports and--"

  "I'll go with you." He yelled for Elgin. "Cassie and I are going to Mount Hood National Forest."

  Elgin came out of the kitchen holding a glass of milk and an oatmeal bun. Fergus appeared with Evan, who was hastily finishing a piece of toast before he had to do his extra ranching duties.

  "You're in charge, Elgin. We'll decide Irving and Tynan's fate tonight."

  "We've got everything under control here," Elgin said, with a very commanding presence, the connotation being that Leidolf and Cassie could stay at the lake as long as they liked.

  "Thanks, Elgin." Leidolf took Cassie's hand and headed outside as Fergus, Elgin, and Evan saw them off. "Do you want to go fishing?" Leidolf asked Cassie.

  "Fishing?"

  "I saw a huntress at my lake dressed in safari gear, and before I could make her mine, she vanished in a sea of green."

  "I saw a sea god dripping with water, but before I could take advantage of him, I smelled my prey, the mother wolf."

  Leidolf pulled out the keys to his Humvee. "Sea god? I like that. Much more impressive than pack leader."

  "Hmm," she said as he tucked her under his arm, "then I must be a goddess."

  "Beyond a doubt." He glanced at Elgin and Fergus. "I shall return, but make sure no one takes my Jag out for a ride without my express permission." He gave Evan a hard
look.

  "Guess there's no chance of me taking it out for a spin on a date." The alpha teen grinned and bowed his head.

  Leidolf shook his head at him. Shades of himself at that age, except Jags hadn't been invented back then.

  Inside the garage, Leidolf grabbed a sleeping bag and another bag of camping gear. "Creature comforts I usually don't bother with when I go to the lake, but for my nymph..."

  "I get royal treatment?"

  He chuckled. "Here I thought you were newly turned, and instead you were a royal."

  "Yeah, well, sometimes it's a good idea to play down our heritage."

  They climbed into the Humvee and, with as much fanfare as royalty would get on short notice, several of Leidolf's people stopped working to wave at them.

  "When the cat's away, the mice will play," Cassie remarked, and smiled, getting comfortable in the seat. She definitely hadn't had enough sleep. She glanced at the cloud-filled sky. She couldn't see it, but she knew the waxing crescent moon was headed on its way into the night sky. "Do you think Irving and Tynan are equally guilty in the crimes they've committed?"

  "Yes. Even though Tynan's the follower, he's participated just as much as Irving has."

  "I've, well, I've never witnessed a wolf fight to the death like that."

  Leidolf reached over and rubbed her thigh. "You don't have to watch if you don't want to."

  "It's different when the wolf is attacking you. Then I wouldn't have any qualms."

  "They'll be attacking, rest assured."

  "You won't be fighting both at once, will you?"

  "It's the only fair thing to do."

  She scowled at Leidolf. "So what will you be trying to prove? How macho you are?"

  Leidolf didn't respond, and she realized she'd hit a nerve. "Why would you have to prove anything? You're the pack leader. Everyone looks up to you and respects you."