Seduced by the Wolf

Chapter 24

Trying not to rush Cassie on the concrete as they crawled out of the wolves' tunnel, Leidolf led the way on his hands and knees and prayed they wouldn't get caught.

She grabbed his foot and wiggled it. "Hurry, Leidolf. I want out of this place." Her voice wasn't panicky or scared; she spoke in a teasing way as if trying to reduce the tension between them.

Loving the way she dealt with their dilemma, he chuckled. "This concrete is rough on my knees. You must have more padding."

She snorted. "I thought you were tougher than that. I'll have to remember you have delicate knees."

"You can kiss them when we're out of here."

"Hmm, and lots more than that. If we make it, someday we ought to revisit that lake I found you swimming in."

"Ready to take me up on my offer?" He hesitated and glanced back to see her expression.

"Maybe. I heard the soil made for a good comfy bed." She smiled at him as he raised a brow at her.

"Or ferns to lie down in, Douglas firs serving as our walls and canopy. Sounds good to me."

"And the Forest Club. I want to go back and dance. But this time I want to order the plate of roast tenderloin."

"Didn't get enough the last time?"

"You were such a gentleman. Thanks for sharing with me."

He paused. "I had to. If you licked your lips one more time while salivating over my roast, I would have had to join you on your side of the table and kiss you, right then and there. I didn't think you were quite ready for that. So I shared my roast with you instead."

She chuckled softly. He smiled again.

He reached the end of the tunnel and moved over so Cassie could kneel beside him. "We'll climb out there," he said, pointing to the fence on the north side of the wolves' exhibit. "Looks like one or two more fences beyond that. Once we've crossed all the fences, we'll shape-shift back into our wolf forms, and traverse Forest Park, which is closed now. We can reach Carver's house in a short while."

He took Cassie's face and kissed her mouth long and hard. "We can't get caught, Cassie. No matter what, we can't get caught."

She sighed. "I don't plan on it. All right. Let's do it." Cassie climbed out of the tunnel first and sprinted next to a building and through a group of trees, and then dove at the fence.

Intent on protecting her, Leidolf kept up with her, watching for any signs of trouble, sampling the air for human smells, listening for anyone's approach. At this time of night, Leidolf figured no one would be roaming around the grounds, unless someone thought the red wolves were in danger of being freed again. He smiled wryly.

When he joined Cassie in attempting to climb the high fence, he reached up and gave her ass a boost.

"Thanks," she whispered, struggling to get over the top. "We'll have to bring wire cutters next time."

"Won't be a next time." He dropped on the other side, and then he reached up and helped her to the ground.

They dashed for the next fence and the promise of deep woods and the security of Forest Park, the bugs cricketing in a chorus as if cheering them on. As long as no park rangers caught them running in the park after it was officially closed for the night, they'd make it just fine.

"How are your knees?" Cassie asked, trying to reach the top of the next fence.

"Need some tender loving care."

She shook her head. He gave her another boost. "Ahh," she said. "Watch where you put your fingers."

"Sorry, hand slipped, but someone seems ready for me again."

"Yeah, but this isn't a really good time." She glanced back at the first fence. The gray wolves were watching them from their enclosure. "Hope nobody sees them watching this way and comes to inspect."

They'd made it over the second fence when Leidolf grabbed Cassie's hand and ran full speed for the safety of the forest.

Footfalls hurried toward the wolf exhibit, and Thompson's deep voice said, "I know, Joe. I'm not happy about it, either. The crew to install security cameras won't be here for another couple of weeks. They have to get funding approved, work orders, you name it."

"That means we'll have to do some surveillance. But the word's not going out until tomorrow. If anyone's going to steal them, it'll take some planning and..."

Leidolf continued to race with Cassie through the woods and then pulled her to a stop. "Let's shift. You okay?"

She nodded, her face flushed, her breathing fast. "I get to do a lot of running when I'm around you."

He shook his head. "Running away from me, you mean. This time we're running together." He kissed her lips again, rubbed her chilled arms, and said, "Let's shift."

"Any second, Thompson and Joe are going to know we've escaped," Cassie said.

"Where are they?" Joe asked.

Cassie shape-shifted and then waited for Leidolf. "Stick close to me, Cassie." Then he shifted and ran off in the direction of Carver's home, his wolf mate by his side.

But this time he meant to keep her safe.

Tynan stood a little way away, while Irving tilted his head to the side and smiled, but the look was pure maliciousness as he faced Alice and her sister. "Your father wouldn't want you girls running around in a closed park at night, now would he?"

Tynan shook his head. "Nope. You belong in bed. Run along now."

"Leidolf's--" Sarah said.

Alice bumped her arm as if she lost her balance. She didn't trust the men, and the girls were supposed to be quiet about Leidolf and his confinement in the zoo.

"We were just taking a walk. Guess we lost track of time," Alice coolly said.

"We won't tell your dad. Run along home now." Irving wasn't much taller than Alice, and the way he considered her--like he'd finally noticed she was not just a kid--gave her the creeps.

She didn't like it that he thought he could boss her around, either. Her father, yes. Leidolf, certainly. One of the other sub-leaders, of course. But not these men who broke Leidolf's rules all the time.

"Thanks," Alice said, then grabbed Sarah's hand and hurried her back in the direction of the house.

"What about Leidolf?" Sarah whispered to her, trying to keep up with Alice's quickened pace.

"We'll have to go farther around, maybe by the elk exhibit." Alice's phone vibrated, and she jerked it out of her pocket. "Evan, where are you?" she asked, her voice hushed.

"I'm right outside the fence for the wolves' exhibit. But I smelled Leidolf and Cassie beyond the fence. I think they've already escaped. If they did slip out, they'll be headed for your house," he said, his voice low.

"Irving and Tynan are out here."

Silence.

"Evan?"

"Go home. I'm headed that way. Don't stop for anything. Just go."

"Evan, what's wrong?"

"Trust me... just go."

Alice's heart was beating spastically as she shoved her phone back in her pocket. She grabbed her sister's hand and rushed for the house.

"What's wrong?" Sarah whispered.

"I don't know. Evan knows something about Irving and Tynan, but he wouldn't say. It's not good. The good news is Leidolf and Cassie freed themselves and are on their way to our home."

That's when gunshots rang out. Alice and Sarah froze and then dropped to the ground.

"Where is the shooting coming from?" Sarah whispered.

"Directly behind us."

"From where we just left Irving and Tynan," Sarah added.

"But neither was carrying a rifle." Alice listened for any sounds to indicate the men were headed in their direction, but except for the bugs making all their ruckus and the breeze tossing the branches about, no other sounds intruded.

"Then someone's shooting at them."

"I want you to stay in the Humvee," Carver told Aimee as they pulled up along a street near the zoo, with five other pickups owned by pack members parking behind them as they arrived in rescue mode to free Leidolf and Cassie from the zoo.

But Aimee wasn't staying behind. If she could save her cousin this time, she'd be there for her. "What's the plan?" She climbed out of the vehicle wearing Carver's shirt and jacket and his boxers, while he was left wearing his sweater and jeans.

"You're not dressed for this kind of weather, no shoes even," he scolded, trying to convince her to stay behind.

Elgin, Fergus, and the other men gathered around. Elgin offered, "I'll leave a couple of my men with you."

"I'm not worried about Irving if I stay with you," she said, tugging at Carver's sweater.

Elgin sniffed the air. In a hushed voice, he said, "Leidolf and Cassie have already broken out on their own. But Evan's out here, too."

Fergus growled under his breath, "He'll be grounded for a year."

Carver hurried to join them with Aimee in tow, joining in on the conversation but keeping his voice low in the event that zoo personnel were in the vicinity. "They'll be headed for my place. Come on. Let's go."

That's when they heard men rushing out of the wolf's pen. Carver and the rest of Leidolf's people stood in the woods quietly listening.

"I can't believe they're really not there," Joe said. "How in the hell did they know the wolves were here already? And free them so quickly? No fences cut that I could see. Just a man and woman's bare footprints. Hell, how could anyone be running around in bare feet in this cold, and why?"

"We'll stop them this time," Thompson said. "They can't have freed the wolf with pups and Big Red, too." He paused at the next exhibit. "Gray wolves are still here. The thieves were only after the red wolves. Come on."

"You know what this reminds me of?"

"What, Joe?"

"That Bella Wilder found naked here last year. You don't think they're some kind of cult that runs around naked with wolves, do you?"

Thompson laughed. "Hell if I know. Maybe they didn't think we could track them if they left footprints instead of boot treads. Who knows?"

Carver and the others returned to the vehicles and drove to Carver's home just up the road. Built back in the late eighteen-hundreds, the house had large enclosed porches and five bedrooms. It was perfect for pack gatherings when members were in Portland because the house backed up on Forest Park. For once, Carver felt a pang of sympathy for Fergus having to deal with a son who was too busy kissing the girls to do any real ranching--and now was in as much trouble as their new pack members. Although he remembered being the same way when he was a teen, and he sure as hell didn't want Evan around his daughters because of it.

When he arrived at his home, he did a double take when he spied Leidolf's yellow Jag sitting in the driveway, and immediately he thought of... Evan.

But what was he doing at his house? No, they'd smelled his scent at the zoo. He had to have gone to rescue Leidolf.

His girls!

A sickening dread filled him. He'd kill Evan if the girls went with him and anything bad happened to them.

"Did your bullets hit Leidolf?" Tynan whispered, somewhere several yards away from where Alice and Sarah lay still in the ferns.

Terrified, Alice reached for her sister's hand and held on tight.

"I don't think so. He would have yelped," Irving whispered back.

They meant to kill Leidolf?

Sarah shivered, and a chill ran up Alice's spine. They had to warn Cassie and Leidolf. They had to warn Evan.

Alice's phone vibrated in her pocket, but she didn't dare open it for fear Irving and Tynan would see the light from it.

"We've got to reach them before they get to Carver's house. The pack will gather there as soon as the rest get word Leidolf's thought to be in the zoo," Irving warned.

"I think we should just get out of here. Leave well enough alone. We couldn't find that woman's body, and if Leidolf or any of their men discover it, we're in big trouble. We missed killing Leidolf again. We're going to end up just like Alfred, feeding the worms beneath the earth," Tynan said.

"He took us in, damn it. When no other pack wanted us, Alfred gave us a home and taught us what we needed to know about being werewolves. He appreciated us for all that we did for him. That damn Leidolf took over, and if he learns what we've done... hell, once we get rid of him permanently, we can take over. Elgin and the others will never be able to run the pack on their own without having to look to someone else for guidance. And they'll get it. From me. Come on, we're wasting time."

They moved away from the girls, and Alice's phone vibrated again. But the men were still too close for Alice to risk opening it.

Once the men's footfalls completely faded away, Alice opened her phone and looked at her missed calls. "One from Dad, and the other from Evan," she whispered to Sarah.

Since Evan was in the woods and in more danger, she called him first. "Evan," she whispered, "Irving's trying to kill Leidolf."

"Lock all the doors. Deadbolt them. You're home, right?"

Tears in her eyes, she shook her head. "No, we didn't make it. Irving started shooting, and we dropped to the ground."

A significant pause followed. "All right. Stay where you are. I'm tracking them."

"No, Evan. Stay away from them."

"My dad called to check up on me when they headed back to town and he could get reception again. He told me Irving and Tynan are to be taken into custody and held at the ranch. They tried to kill Cassie's cousin."

"Cassie's cousin?"

"Yeah, Aimee is her name. Just stay there. I'll call you later."

"Did you tell him about Leidolf and Cassie being at the zoo?"

"No. I figured since they're headed into town, he probably already knew. I didn't mention I was here. Figured I'd get an earful. Especially when he learns I drove the Jag here. I've got to go. Just stay quiet."

"Irving is armed, Evan. You can't risk going after him."

"He might be armed, but not the way he thinks. Keep yourself safe, Alice. I'll call you." Then he clicked the phone off, and the deafening silence stirred her into action.

She called her father. He immediately answered.

"Dad--," she said.

"Where--"

Alice broke in before she got a big lecture. "Irving and Tynan are trying to kill Leidolf. We're in the woods about a mile from home. Sarah and I are keeping still, but you need to save Leidolf and Cassie! Evan's trying to track Irving and Tynan down, but he's going to get himself killed." Unwelcome tears spilled down her cheeks.

"Are you safe?"

"Yes, we're fine. But the others aren't."

Her dad's voice an order, he said, "We're on our way. Stay put."

But staying put wasn't at all what Alice had in mind.

As soon as the gunshots sounded in Forest Park, Leidolf's heart leaped, and he prompted Cassie in their wolf forms as he bumped her shoulder to run in a more westerly direction. How did the zoo men locate them so quickly? He didn't think it could be hunters. But no matter what, whoever was shooting at them couldn't keep up at a wolf's pace. Police sirens soon wailed as they headed in the direction of the zoo.

His heart thundering, all Leidolf cared about was getting Cassie safely to Carver's place. The idea that she would get shot again made his blood run cold.

The sirens wailed louder as they drew closer. Thompson and Joe must have discovered that Cassie and he had escaped from the red wolf exhibit. Or maybe the police were after whoever was shooting unlawfully in the closed park.

Leidolf and Cassie were less than a quarter of a mile from Carver's house when the forest came alive with his men--Elgin, Fergus, Carver, armed with a rifle, and at least fifteen others--and a redheaded woman who resembled Cassie, her eyes wide when she spied Cassie. Her sister? Astounded that she had family still, he couldn't be more thrilled for Cassie.

"Omigod, Cassie! It really is you!" the woman said, hurrying toward Cassie with her arms wide open.

Cassie hesitated and then dashed to greet her, jumping at her like she was at play and nearly knocking the woman down.

But while the woman was hugging Cassie, Carver quickly spoke to Leidolf, "My girls are out there. Irving and Tynan were planning to kill you, but my girls are still out there."

"And Evan," Fergus said, his expression both worried and angry.

Leidolf quickly shape-shifted to speak with his men. "Police are on their way. I'll grab a change of clothes. Cassie can stay at the house, and you, too," he said to her relative.

"Aimee Roux," she said. "Cassie's cousin."

"Welcome to the pack, Aimee. Carver, lose the gun. If the police catch you with it, they'll suspect you've been doing the illegal shooting." Leidolf shifted back to his wolf form, nuzzled Cassie's face, and then encouraged her to race with him the rest of the way to the house. He hoped she'd be sensible and not want to come with them.

At the house, Carver hurried to get a change of clothes for both Cassie and Leidolf, and once they had shape-shifted and dressed, they met the men in the living room.

"The women will stay here and call us if the girls reach the house before we locate them," Leidolf said. He preferred chasing Irving and Tynan down as a wolf, but he didn't want to get caught that way if the police descended on the area in droves.

Cassie was fighting tears as she hugged her cousin again, but then she released her and gave Leidolf a tight embrace. "Don't get injured. Promise."

He smiled and kissed her lips. "Can't afford to. If the men come this way, don't let them in. Just call us." Then he kissed her again, squeezed her one more time, and hurried outside with his men. Irving and Tynan were dead men.

As soon as Leidolf and the others left, Aimee took Cassie's hand and led her to the couch. Although she was more filled out, more womanly, she was just as pretty and the way Cassie remembered her. Same light smattering of freckles bridging her nose that made her impish-looking in a sweet way. With her hair curled down about her shoulders, her eyes bright and moist, she was Aimee. Her cousin, as close as her sister had been.

"What... what happened to our family was all my fault," Aimee said. Tears filled her eyes as she sat down with Cassie and held her hand as if she never wanted to let go.

Cassie hugged her again, not accepting that their family's deaths were Aimee's fault, but still she couldn't believe that Aimee was really here, not dead as Cassie had thought all those years. "I... I can't believe you're all right. Better than all right, Aimee. But you're wrong about our families."

"No, you don't know what happened. I saw two of the rancher's sons, the Wheelers, stealing from your home while your father was fishing. Your mother was washing clothes at the river with your sister, and I thought you were with them. I heard noises coming from your house, believed it was that pesky raccoon that kept breaking into our places, and went to investigate. I caught the men red-handed, carrying a feed sack bulging with stuff--your mother's treasured silver candleholders and a silver tray that I could see.

"I should have gotten out of there before they saw me. But I was so shocked it wasn't the raccoon that I hesitated. They shot me a couple of times, and I cried out." She looked down at the floor and brushed away more tears.

Tears streaked Cassie's face, too. She hadn't known what had preceded the fire, only what she'd seen at the end.

"I shouldn't have made a sound. I should have played dead. Instead, because of my stupid screaming, your family came running from the river. Your father killed both boys at once, no hesitation, as he found them in the house and me bleeding on the floor. Old man Wheeler must have been in the woods nearby with his other two sons. Probably sent the first two to do his bidding.

"He and his remaining sons ambushed our families. I managed to crawl out of the house and into the woods. My only thought was to escape. I believed we'd all be all right. That we'd heal from our wounds. But later when I came to, I found the houses all burned to the ground, still smoldering."

"It wasn't your fault, Aimee. It was theirs! They were always robbing from all the neighboring houses. They caused our families' deaths. They should have been dealt with long before that. You couldn't have known how it would play out."

Aimee shook her head and hastily wiped away more tears dribbling down her cheeks. "I could barely get around because of my own injuries, but I tore off my clothes and shape-shifted. That was the only way I figured I had a chance to survive. I thought you must have died in the fire, too."

"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?"