Then the awful realization hit her. The mother appeared to be alone. Ca.s.sie hadn"t seen a sign of any other wolves in the area. Alone, the mother and her pups couldn"t fend for themselves.
Even though it was broad daylight, and her lupus garou instincts warned her not to shift, Ca.s.sie had no other choice. Not when she had to protect the mother and her brood, and also bring them food so the mother could stay near her litter and feed them.
Ca.s.sie listened again, this time for any sounds of humans in the area. She lifted her nose and sampled the breeze. No human scent either.
Reasonably a.s.sured she could shift without anyone spying her, she pulled off her backpack and her Indiana Jones hat. Then she freed her hair bound in a ponytail and shook it out. After sitting on her b.u.t.t on the cold, damp earth, she removed her boots and socks, observing the wolf the whole time.
She couldn"t help wondering about Leidolf, the image of a sea G.o.d still imprinted in her thoughts, and what he would think if he spied her stripping before she shifted. If she hadn"t been wearing hunter"s spray, would he have tried to track her down? Most likely.
The wolf"s back was still turned to Ca.s.sie, so the female didn"t notice her. Ca.s.sie continued to strip, then stuffed her clothes into the backpack, at least keeping them dry from the light rain drizzling down on her, and buried the waterproof pack underneath leaves and a labyrinth of branches. Naked, Ca.s.sie shivered. Then she began the shift, stretching her muscles.
Luxuriating in the feel of the change, she trembled as the cool air swept over her nakedness until the heat of the shift warmed her thoroughly and fur covered her skin, her body transforming into the shape of a red wolf instantly. She dropped to all fours, her black claws digging into the fertile soil. And instantly felt even more at home in the woods.
The sound of a long, low howl suddenly pierced the air, maybe a half mile away in the direction directly behind her. That"s when the she-wolf turned fully around and looked Ca.s.sie"s way. The two locked gazes, the wolf mother standing stock still, half hidden in the undergrowth beneath the trees. Her amber eyes stared at Ca.s.sie"s eyes, watching her for her reaction. h.e.l.l, if Ca.s.sie spooked the mother, she might abandon her pups. Ca.s.sie wasn"t equipped to move the whole kit and caboodle to a safe place by herself at this point and then capture the mother so that she could join her brood.
Even though the howl--the call for a gathering of wolves by an older male--had disturbed Ca.s.sie, she concentrated on the she-wolf in front of her, who likewise continued to observe Ca.s.sie, the closer threat.
Another wolf howled, this one a lot closer to them than the other, and Leidolf frowned at Elgin. "It"s Quincy returning Satros"s call. Hopefully, Pierce--"
Pierce let out a companion call. He wasn"t in close proximity to his twin, though, when the two were usually joined at the hip.
"Now where the h.e.l.l is Sarge?" Leidolf asked.
"Most likely he won"t howl. At least he hasn"t before when he"s changed into his wolf coat," Fergus said.
"All right. You search in the direction Quincy and Pierce called from. Tell them I"m out here and expect them to mind you, and they will. I"m going after Satros. He"s a crafty old wolf, and if anyone can track Sarge down, it"ll be him."
Elgin tried to hide a look of disbelief, but then he quickly nodded. Despite Satros"s age, he still could smell and hear almost as well as anyone. Although he had discovered a coyote and a couple of red-furred dogs he mistakenly thought were red wolves off in the distance. No one would let the old fellow live the mistakes down, either. But Leidolf couldn"t help respect him for all that he had contributed to the pack in the past and the stability he provided to them now. Leidolf didn"t want him or anyone else running in their wolf forms during the day. Not unless they were in a secure place.
"In our human forms, right?" Elgin asked.
"Yes." Leidolf wanted to run as a wolf so he could move faster and sniff the ground for the scent left by wolf paws. And he would, as soon as his men were out of sight. He didn"t want them sharing the danger, nor did he want them knowing that their pack leader was going against his own rules.
"I"ll have Satros howl a message when I"ve reached him. When you find Quincy and Pierce, guide them to where I am. We"ll gather the pack and then search as a group for Sarge, if he doesn"t join us voluntarily."
"All right. Hook up with you shortly." Elgin stalked off with the other men in the direction they"d heard Quincy howl.
Leidolf headed straight for the sound of Satros"s communication, concentrating on a good location to ditch his clothes, intending to shape-shift to locate Satros but to return with the old wolf and change before letting the others know to join them. Before he could find a good location to hide his clothes, he smelled a woman"s aroused scent. Ca.s.sie. But something was wrong with the scenario. She wasn"t anywhere nearby.
Unsure why he could smell her, he paced around the area. The closer he grew to a pile of branches and leaves, the stronger her beckoning fragrance. He poked around at debris and discovered a backpack. For a second, he just stared at it. He didn"t doubt for an instant that it was Ca.s.sie"s olive-green backpack. But why would she leave it behind?
He jerked it free from the branches and unzipped the bag. Inside, he found the clothes she"d been wearing, so she must have changed into something else. But why leave her backpack behind? A couple of water bottles jostled around in the bottom along with several energy bars, but underneath everything, he discovered hunter"s concealing spray.
He glanced around the area. Her boot treads had stopped right here where she"d changed clothes. And then? Wolf tracks led away from the site. Wolf prints smaller than his own would make. And...
He leaned over to touch a few strands of fur snagged on a branch... a red wolf"s fur. If Ca.s.sie was one of them, why couldn"t he smell...
He yanked the can of hunter"s spray out of the bag. She had to be one of them. No other tracks were located anywhere near the site. Only her boot prints walking to this point and wolf prints leading away. No wonder she"d fascinated him so. And why she had been so concerned he might learn the truth about her. Yet her natural inclination to be with one of her kind must have led her to dance with him anyway all night long.
With his wolf"s nose to the ground, he could detect the scent her paws had left on the ground and follow her trail much more easily. Even hunter"s spray wouldn"t stop the natural secretion of a wolf"s scent while walking. And Leidolf could move a h.e.l.l of a lot faster. But the instinct for self-preservation ran high also, and he knew the danger he could be in if he shifted and a hunter caught him in his sights. Which made him wonder why she was running in her wolf coat during daylight. Unless she had no other choice.
That"s when he heard another wolf"s howl in the distance. Maybe five miles away. The wolf sounded as though she was pleading for help. Wolves called to others to gather them together when they were separated. So were other wolves in the area? Lupus only? Was she searching for a mate? The other wolf he"d smelled? His woodland nymph?
He tore off his clothes, decided Ca.s.sie"s backpack was as good a place as any to hide his things, and shoved them inside. Then he hid the backpack again, all of his senses on higher alert as he surveyed the area, making sure no one was about. Once a.s.sured he was alone, he stretched his arms heavenward, welcoming the warmth in his muscles as if he had just immersed himself in a steamy bath designed to loosen up the tension in every cell. Then with super lupus garou speed, he shifted, his muscles and bones reshaping wondrously, effortlessly, so fast he was human, then wolf the next instant. Adrenaline coursed through his bloodstream as the exhilaration of hunting down the red wolf filled him with urgency.
He dashed off with a twist, heading straight for the wolf in need, hoping he"d find Ca.s.sie.
In the instances where Ca.s.sie had observed litters as a wolf biologist, the wolf packs had allowed her to watch the pups, even play with them as they grew older and began to leave the den, usually in her human form.
In the case of the wolf pack she"d lived with after her family died, she"d stayed with the pack in mostly her wolf form because of her youth and having no one else"s protection.
This situation was different. The female was warier and had every right to be. She didn"t have anyone to protect her litter of pups if Ca.s.sie turned out to be bad news. Unless the males she heard calling were from the she-wolf"s pack. Then Ca.s.sie would have a whole pack to observe. It didn"t make any sense that they wouldn"t be near the she-wolf, protecting her and the pups.
A peace offering and a much needed meal for the she-wolf and her pups might help the mother accept Ca.s.sie. Sniffing the wet air, she smelled a rabbit nearby. Ready to hunt, Ca.s.sie turned and loped off, despite having hunted only for the sake of survival when she"d been a teen, too many years ago. How hard could it be?
She was a wolf, and hunting had to be instinctive. Like riding a bicycle was for a human.
Ca.s.sie poked her nose around and spied the elusive brown rabbit, half hidden in the dripping wet brush, his eyes wide. Ca.s.sie dodged for it, but with his big back feet, he shoved away from the ground and fled. Before she could reach him, he dove into a burrow. She poked her nose into the damp hole, her hope to provide a meal for the half-starved wolf and pups her overriding incentive.
The rabbit hopped out of another tunnel entrance to the den a few feet away and into a thicket of blackberries. Ca.s.sie thrust her nose into the brambles attempting to reach him, but he disappeared into another rabbit hole in the middle of the th.o.r.n.y shrubs. No matter how hard Ca.s.sie dug with her front paws, trying to reach him, and shoved her snout through the arching, twisting blackberry vines, scratching her nose on the barbed thicket, she could not reach the fur ball. Which made her think of Alice in Wonderland and the Mad Hatter and how futile her efforts were. Exasperated with herself, Ca.s.sie smelled... water. And when she listened hard... the sound of running water. A creek or river nearby. Fish maybe?
With the rain still lightly falling, she ran in the direction of the water and soon came upon a rushing creek splashing over boulders. A fallen tree limb ambushed the creek"s path on one side. Fifteen Mile Creek, if she recalled the map she had of the area. Dorsal fins surfaced all over the place! Salmon. And lots of them.
Nearer the center of the creek, the boulders were bigger, the water deeper, swifter, and darker. Entering the creek in her red-wolf form, her eyes glued to the salmon, Ca.s.sie watched them swim closer to her, and she began stalking them in the shallows. Clouds hung low in the sky, and the water was snow-chilled. The raindrops increasing in volume and frequency, striking the water with a loud slushing sound, but Ca.s.sie"s outer guard hairs kept her from getting soaked and prevented her from freezing. The salmon swam nearer over the water-rounded stones, some drawing close to her legs, immersed in the flowing stream, and b.u.mping her a time or two.
Just a minute or two more, patience being a great wolf virtue, she waited, panting, her jaws readied. Almost smiling. Then spying the biggest, fattest salmon headed in her direction, perfect for a wolf-litter feast, she lunged. Her paws spread wide, her footing sure even on the slippery moss-covered rocks, she snapped up what must have been about a ten-pounder.
The salmon struggled to get loose. She gripped him tighter, her mouth dripping with water, her outer dense coat of fur wet. She clambered over the rocks and left the stream, shook, and headed back toward the wolves" den, her head held high.
With a loping gait, Ca.s.sie raced back to the area where she had discovered the wolf and her pups, the Chinook salmon held tight in her jaws. When she reached the site where she"d seen the wolf, the female had vanished. Her stomach flip-flopping, Ca.s.sie hurried to the location where she thought the pups had been. She dropped the fish and poked around at the blackberry brambles.
Smelling the pups and the meat and milk the mother had fed to them, which meant they were around two weeks or older to be eating meat, but not hearing any sound from them, Ca.s.sie lifted her nose. She tried to get a whiff of the scent of the red wolf or her litter of pups and which direction she"d moved. Ca.s.sie headed away from the den, pausing to poke her snout into a hole that a badger had hastily dug. No scent of the wolf or her pups. She woofed low, attempting to get them to respond to her if they were nearby but hidden from sight.
A spotted owl hooted from a tree, and Ca.s.sie twisted her head in his direction, listening for sounds of the wolf pups mewling. Screeching its arrival, a peregrine falcon flew high above the coniferous treetops. But Ca.s.sie could detect no sounds of the wolf litter.
She retrieved the salmon and then brushed by a red cedar, the branches giving off an aromatic smell, momentarily adding spice to the fishy smell of the salmon in her mouth. She slipped through the lush ferns, ended up back on a hiking trail where humans traveled, and edged off it again through more ferns, rain droplets clinging to the feathery fronds as the rain grew heavier. Her heart beating harder, Ca.s.sie frantically searched the area for the new wolf"s den and the pups that needed their mother close by. But where had the female red moved them?
h.e.l.l, Ca.s.sie knew she"d taken too long to reach the creek and fish. Not that fishing was the problem, she soon realized, but going after the blasted rabbit earlier had taken precious time when she should have found the creek first and gone fishing instead. Hunting for prey wasn"t her usual job, nor did it interest her when she ran in her wolf coat, but she hadn"t thought she could be that inept at it. Or that a cotton-tailed rabbit could outwit her so easily.
She reached a high point on a hill and stood still, listening, sniffing the air. Come on, where have you gone to now?
And then something moved in the distance through a clearing. A red wolf. Instantly, she froze. The wolf was bigger, not the she-wolf. It didn"t see her yet.
Ca.s.sie remained frozen in the downpour, a sheet of gray coming straight down from the same-colored sky, the only other thing moving--the salmon, its tail and head jerking slightly in her mouth. And she knew if the wolf looked in her direction, he"d see her. His head suddenly swiveled her way. The wolf"s amber eyes caught sight of the movement, of her and the fish.
The wolf was a male, had to be as large as he was. And a beautiful red. Was he the one that had called for a gathering? She hadn"t seen any sign of other wolves anywhere near the female and her pups. She couldn"t believe the mother wolf was on her own. Was he with her then? Protecting her? That would be good news.
But what if he was a lupus garou? Yet... he shouldn"t be out here running in daylight in his wolf coat, just like she shouldn"t be. Maybe he was just a lupus.
Like her, the male wolf didn"t move, his gaze focused on hers. She stayed put, waiting to see what he did. She didn"t want to try to locate the pups while another wolf watched. Most wolves adored young ones, played, fed, and taught them how to survive, but she"d read of a group of phantom wolves who killed off another wolf pack, leaving their pups to starve in a cave. And then the phantom wolves had disappeared from the area.
In another case, a rabid wolf had killed a whole pack he"d come across. Not that this wolf was anything like either case, but as much as she"d studied wolves" behavior, any of them could be unpredictable. In any event, she had no plan to lead him to the she-wolf"s new den, if she could locate it herself.
The wolf continued to observe her, and then he gave a wolf"s version of a smile as if he"d made a decision and headed straight for her.
Her heart took a dive. She was an intruder in their territory, and he was part of a pack. She d.a.m.n well bet it was Leidolf"s red lupus garou pack. And if she didn"t find the female and her pups and soon, she was sure a whole gang of lupus garous--mate-hungry bachelor male types--would be in the area, searching for her.
Adrenaline flooding her veins, she ran down the other side of the ridge, her jaws growing tired of carrying the salmon. She had to lose the red male, find the she-wolf, give her the fish for the pups, and figure out a way to take care of the pups and the she-wolf somewhere beyond the vicinity of a lupus garou pack"s territory.
But where was the blasted new den? And how was she going to lose the red male in the meantime?
She was too far away to reach quickly, but Leidolf hoped the red wolf on top of the ridge, carrying a salmon in her mouth, was Ca.s.sie. As soon as he reached the peak of the ridge, he sniffed the ground and caught her scent. And then raced off again. He was torn between locating his men and finding the little red female, but she could be in as much danger as his men. He reminded himself he had others looking for them, but no one else to look after her.
It was the oddest thing, though. Just when he thought he was within inches of locating her, Ca.s.sie"s scent would disappear. Back and forth, he continued to track her, and then he"d get another whiff and take off again. Almost as if she knew he was tracking her, and she was trying to avoid capture.
His spirits soared when he believed he would soon catch her. When he came to the river, he lost her scent. Not liking that he was exposed to prying hunter eyes on the naked bank, Leidolf ran downstream anyway in a rush but, not locating her scent, tried upstream. Same thing. He couldn"t sense her at all. He stopped and stared at the river. She had to have crossed it.
h.e.l.l. He dove in and wolf paddled through the choppy currents. When he finally reached the other side, he shook the excess water off his fur and then sniffed at the ground. No sign of her scent here, either. He ran upstream. Nothing. Then downstream. He found no smell of her there. He stared at the river. Had she been caught by an undercurrent, being not as strong as he was and unable to swim straight across?
"Hey, Joe," someone whispered, hidden in the woods on his side of the riverbank. "Do you see what I see?"
Leidolf"s heart beat even harder.
"Hot d.a.m.n, a red wolf, but it"s too big to be Rosa, Thompson. You want to get the male or should..."
That"s all Leidolf had to overhear. He darted into the river, swimming as fast as a wolf could, which he swore was a h.e.l.l of a lot slower than he could swim as a human. Despite the sound of the flowing water m.u.f.fling the noise, he heard the men scrambling across the riverbank, their boots scattering rocks. He just hoped their guns didn"t have the range to shoot him across the river. And thankfully, they didn"t fire at him while he was swimming.
As soon as he reached the other side, his natural instinct was to shake the water from his fur coat, but his human half compelled him to forget the ritual and head for the forest. A gunshot rang out, and Leidolf dodged into the woods, but not before he felt a p.r.i.c.k in the meat of his left flank. d.a.m.n it. Which reminded him why he and his pack members were never to risk changing in broad daylight and run around as wolves unless they had no choice.
He continued to race through the woods, intending to reach his clothes and shift, and then hide his wound. But whatever the men had shot him with wasn"t causing him to bleed. He glanced back at his hip. A tranquilizer dart dangled from his flank. h.e.l.l.
Pushing himself to reach the location where his clothes were stashed, Leidolf stumbled but caught himself and kept running. He felt as though he"d had a ton of beers to drink and the alcohol was slipping through his bloodstream at a phenomenal rate. Thoughts of the redheaded wood nymph flashed through his mind until he envisioned in his fading consciousness that he could actually see her shape-shift.
He didn"t remember collapsing, or that he lay still, panting, buried under cool lacy ferns. He barely remembered Joe or a guy named Thompson who had fired the dart that was buried in his flank. Instead, his thoughts drifted to the river, to Ca.s.sie"s scent, her mournful howl, if it was hers, and the river that had swallowed her up.
What the h.e.l.l had happened to her? It was as if she just simply vanished.
All he knew was he had to find her before the hunters caught her, too.
Chapter 6.
Ca.s.sie 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 Ca.s.sie to reach her quickly. Not only that, but a whole slew of male wolves were prowling the forest.
Then? Ca.s.sie 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. h.e.l.l. 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. d.a.m.n, 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?"
"h.e.l.l, 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, Ca.s.sie 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 h.e.l.l 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, s.e.xy and powerfully stirring, if he wasn"t so d.a.m.ned 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 Ca.s.sie?