"Can"t say that I have."
"Mr. Wellington said you were out there looking for your red wolf. Called her Red. Said she protected him from two men, and since he"s a wolf biologist, he knew it wasn"t natural for a feral wolf, so he figured she had to have been someone"s pet. As much as wild wolves can be pets. But two other wolves were with her. So where did you say your wolves are on the ranch?"
To Leidolf"s surprise, Ca.s.sie stalked into the den. He hadn"t wanted Alex to see her ever again. And he didn"t want her exposed to Thompson"s grilling.
She smiled at Thompson, bowed her head at Alex in greeting, and then headed straight to Leidolf"s chair and leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. "Did you tell Mr. Thompson about the cougar, darling? How he"s killing our poor little calves? I think it"s a mother feeding her young. So it would be horrible if she was hunted down and her kits not cared for."
Leidolf pulled Ca.s.sie into his lap and wrapped his arms around her.
The look on Thompson"s face was strange, as if their actions had revealed something important to him. He rubbed his whiskered chin. "Are you that wolf biologist Alex had been looking for?"
"Ca.s.sie Roux, yes. He wasn"t searching for me as much as he was wolves for his study."
"From what Alex says, you"re from California. Been here long?"
"For a while."
Immediately, Leidolf didn"t like Thompson"s questioning of his mate. When he gave her body a squeeze to let her know so, she leaned back against him and relaxed, indicating she wasn"t concerned about the questions, so Leidolf shouldn"t worry. He did worry. Any wrong answer could prove disastrous.
"You wouldn"t happen to have known Bella Wilder, would you?" Thompson asked.
She smiled. "I heard about the case. Anything concerning wolves catches my attention."
"You wouldn"t have wanted to remove a wolf from the zoo, would you have?"
Still relaxed, she shook her head. "I study wolves in the wild. Caged and human-owned wolf "pets" don"t qualify for the kind of research I do. I study wolf pack dynamics, how they hunt together, act toward one another, the family unit. In a zoo environment, it"s not the same."
"So you wouldn"t want to see them in a zoo."
She didn"t respond.
"She didn"t say that at all," Leidolf said, sounding perturbed. She looked annoyed at him for responding on her behalf. He didn"t like that she hesitated to respond. It made her sound guiltier than sin. Which he suspected she was when it came to not wanting wolves incarcerated in the zoo.
Thompson cleared his throat, sat taller and folded his arms across his broad chest, and directed his comment to Leidolf. "I believe you tranquilized me and my friend, Joe, when we discovered Rosa injured in Mount Hood National Forest. I suspect that you took off with Rosa, which you refer to as Red. Not only was she one of your pets, but you have a couple more wolves here at the ranch. And I a.s.sume that you freed Rosa and her mate from the zoo more recently."
Ca.s.sie stiffened her back and Leidolf tightened his hold on her, worried she was going to punch Thompson or say something she ought not to.
"Did you know that a wolf daughter killed her mother and a son killed his father while in captivity, Mr. Thompson?" Ca.s.sie asked.
Thompson opened his mouth to speak but clamped his lips shut before he said anything, but he seemed clearly surprised.
Ca.s.sie continued, "In the wild, wolves live in family units. Eventually the children move on, start their own packs, become the pack leaders, and start their own families in their very own territories. When they"re forced to live in a captive environment, the natural order isn"t natural any longer."
She waved her finger at him in a scolding manner. "Let me tell you of yet another scenario, Mr. Thompson. In the wild, the alpha male and alpha female mate. They"re affectionate beforehand during the courtship phase. And then she is treated like the queen when she has her pups." She glanced at Leidolf and smiled.
He gave her a smug smile back. "She has to be pregnant first." And getting Ca.s.sie that way would only be half the fun.
"I was observing wolves in captivity, Mr. Thompson, where the pack behavior was all askew. A male was trying to mate a female in heat. He mounted her, and she snapped at him, not wanting his attention. His tail and hers were down the whole time. He wasn"t the alpha male. Just a h.o.r.n.y wolf. The alpha male stood nearby and put his head over the female"s back at one point, ears perked up, his tail up, his gaze focused on the troublemaker.
"When the beta male tried to mate with the female again, what did the alpha do? She was trying to get as close to him as she could for protection. The alpha male scooted his rump around her backside some and the alpha male and female stood side by side while he attempted to protect her. Do you think the alpha male would have accepted that behavior from a beta when they"re in the wild? He would have bared his teeth, snapped, and snarled. He probably would have bitten him, pinned him down, forced him to accept his leadership."
Thompson opened his mouth but then shut it again without commenting.
"So you see, they"re better off in the wild."
"But that doesn"t mean we"re taking the female and her litter of pups out of the zoo," Leidolf hastily said.
"I suspect that, deep down, you realize how dangerous it would be for the mother wolf and her pups in the wild without a mate." Thompson almost looked sympathetic about the whole mess.
Ca.s.sie sighed. "I agree. She couldn"t have lasted without another wolf to help her raise the pups."
"So where"s her mate then? The father of the pups? Here? At the ranch?" Thompson asked, and this time he sounded like he might have goofed and separated a family.
"She"s strictly wild," Ca.s.sie said. "I imagine hunters killed her mate."
Thompson switched tactics. "How long have you known Mr. Wildhaven?"
"Why all the questions, Mr. Thompson?" Ca.s.sie asked, sounding a little taken aback.
"We"ve never been able to piece together how Bella was left naked in freezing weather in the zoo. And then the red wolf we placed in the zoo pen with a male wolf disappears. But not the male. Just the female. Anyone who likes wolves might have had an interest in removing her from the pen. Particularly if she"d been a pet and had run off."
"And got in your way?"
"She"s a rare red wolf." Thompson looked at Leidolf. "Can I see Rosa... Red?"
"She"s not here right now." Leidolf stood, through with the interrogation that he should have ended once it began.
"At least whoever stole the two wolves had enough sense to leave the mother wolf with her pups at the zoo for their own safety." Thompson cast Leidolf a searing look. "But what I don"t understand is why no one wants to steal Big Red. Why only Rosa and now her mate?" Thompson drummed his thumbs on the arms of the chair and then rose. "Plenty of safeguards will be in place, in other words, lots of security at the zoo, in the event you"re planning on taking her and the pups out."
Alex rose from the couch, too, the look on his face as he studied Ca.s.sie one of admiration and a little longing.
Leidolf pulled Ca.s.sie close again. She distinctly got the impression he wanted her to leave the situation well enough alone. But the more Ca.s.sie 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?" Ca.s.sie 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 Ca.s.sie to see their guests off, they heard Felicity"s wolf pups whining and woofing.
h.e.l.l.
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, d.a.m.n 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. Ca.s.sie 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 h.e.l.l are you? Get the h.e.l.l 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 Ca.s.sie 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, Ca.s.sie, 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. "Ca.s.sie, 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 Ca.s.sie 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," Ca.s.sie said.
"Remember what I said about the security." Thompson headed out the door as Alex gave Ca.s.sie 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 Ca.s.sie, "We can"t free her. She and her pups are safe where they are."
Leidolf slipped his arm around his waist, while Ca.s.sie"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. Ca.s.sie 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 Ca.s.sie 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," Ca.s.sie 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. "Ca.s.sie, 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, Ca.s.sie, 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, Ca.s.sie Roux, little wolf biologist. You are bound to get us into a whole lot of hot water, but what the h.e.l.l." 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."
Ca.s.sie 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 Ca.s.sie one of his devilish winks that said he didn"t intend to sleep in the least, and she"d better d.a.m.n well make this up to him.