"Where have the two of you been?" Leidolf growled. "And what the hell happened to you, Tynan?"
"We were hunting for that cougar," Irving said, his steely eyes focused on Leidolf's, not backing down. He jerked a thumb in Tynan's direction. "Because of the rain, he slipped on some rocks and hit his head hard against a boulder. Hard head, though, nothing damaged. Much."
At least the twin brothers didn't give Leidolf new headaches maliciously. And Sarge was just a major nuisance. But Irving and Tynan? Leidolf was beginning to suspect they were real trouble.
He wished Elgin hadn't been so reluctant to make him aware of them months earlier when Leidolf first arrived in the pack. Leidolf's complacency could be seen as a weakness. Further, not realizing the problem was also an indication that he didn't have what it took to lead the pack. At least anyone who had half a notion to challenge him might think so.
Leidolf narrowed his eyes at Tynan and Irving. "I didn't give you permission to leave and neglect your duties, and you haven't let Elgin or Fergus know your whereabouts for several days."
The look on the two men's faces remained frozen in stone. No regret for what they had been up to. Just as arrogant as Alfred's cronies had been.
Leidolf scowled at the men, his voice low and menacing. "Did you kill any of the human girls like Alfred and his henchmen had done?"
Tynan glanced at Irving, which told Leidolf that Irving was running the show and also that they were involved somehow in what Alfred had done.
"Did you?" Leidolf growled. He knew if they had, they wouldn't admit to it. They would have signed their death warrant by doing so. But their reactions would reveal the truth in part.
Tynan quickly shook his head.
Irving said, "No." But the way he spoke was a challenge. Prove it.
And Leidolf would do just that. He lifted his nose and smelled the air, but he couldn't capture any scent from the two men. "Why are you wearing hunter's spray?"
"I told you we went hunting for the cougar," Irving said, with a snide twist to his words.
"Your guns were armed with regular bullets?"
A flutter of concern crossed Tynan's face.
"Of course," Irving said, as if the question was idiotic.
Leidolf stood taller like an alpha wolf leader would, his posture and voice threatening mayhem if the men didn't take heed. "The cougar will be tranquilized, not killed. Do you understand?"
"Alfred would have killed the cat and been done with it," Irving said, challenging Leidolf's authority.
A couple of the men grumbled something Leidolf couldn't make out. Elgin snorted but held his tongue. Fergus and Carver both scowled at Irving, fists tightening and appearing as though they were ready to tear Irving apart.
Although Irving and his cousin weren't born lupus garous, they'd been werewolves for a long time. But a pecking order still existed, and Irving would be no match for Leidolf.
"And you know where Alfred is now." Leidolf gave him a look that said if he didn't mind pack rules, he could join his former pack leader, six feet under.
If these men had murdered innocent women, they would be dealt with in the only way their kind dealt with pack members who committed such atrocities. Wolf to wolf in the ancient way. And Irving and Tynan had to realize that.
So what was making them hang around and not tuck tail and run before they met their fate? The only reason Leidolf hadn't torn into them before this was that before he did so, he had to learn beyond a shadow of a doubt that the men were guilty of a crime.
Chapter 13
With only a penlight to illuminate his way, his lantern having given out hours earlier, Alex reached his truck and leaned against it. He hesitated to return to the thick of the woods close to where he might still encounter the men who had tried to shoot him and who had shot the red wolf. He assumed the wolf was in good hands now with the men who had rescued her from the zoo staff, if only because wolves had been running with them. They probably belonged to the men, which would explain the female's unnatural protective behavior around Alex.
So much for observing red wolves in the wild. He should have known that finding a pack of red wolves living out here was too good to be true.
Police officers and an ambulance crew had already rescued the drugged men who worked for the zoo. Alex had kept a low profile, watching from the woods to ensure they would be all right, never revealing himself or his identity. But what kept him from leaving the area was Cassie's truck. He peered inside it again. She hadn't been here since she left it yesterday sometime, and he couldn't help worrying about her. No matter how much he told himself she was a capable woman when roaming through the wilderness, he couldn't help the concern that nagged at him. What if she'd run afoul of the murderers? Or she ran into some other trouble? An injury? A wild-animal attack? Other hunters mistaking her for a deer?
Then he recalled the man's footprints that had followed Cassie's. Had he been with her or stalking her?
He let out his breath in exasperation, threw his backpack over his shoulders, and headed into the woods again, determined to stay in the national forest until he could locate her.
* * *As soon as Leidolf stepped inside the bedroom, Cassie yanked the covers back over her body, trying to pretend she hadn't intended to run off. She was sure he could hear her heart beating too fast. He smiled at Cassie in a way that said he knew just what she'd been planning. As hot as her cheeks felt, they were probably flushed.
"Two young ladies in our pack would like to visit with you," Leidolf said, but instead of anyone else coming into the room as she expected, he shut the door. "But first, I wanted to talk to you further."
Oh, brother, more of his trying to convince her she needed to join his pack. Not about to be swayed, but to be polite for their caring for her, she took a deep breath, sat back against the pillows with the covers tucked up under her arms, and motioned to the recliner. "Go ahead."
She had no intention of saying anything further about herself, though. The less said, the better.
He gave her a shadow of a smile, his expression saying that there was no way he was putting that much distance between them, and then sat on the mattress next to her, his hip pressed against hers. He was the personification of seduction.
She would not look at his lips again, calculating how they would feel pressed against hers. Instead, she tilted her chin up, and when he didn't say anything, she prompted again, "Proceed."
She didn't know if his need to talk was a delaying tactic to give Laney more time to arrive, or if he wanted to stay close to Cassie longer, but whatever it was, the more she was with him, the more she couldn't see Leidolf as just a one-night-stand kind of guy. That wasn't helping her remain objective in the least.
He finally reached down and took hold of her hand and massaged the top with his thumb using a gentle stroke, which again, wasn't helping her objectivity one iota.
"I left my pack a couple of years ago because of problems with the leadership, but it was a dangerous situation for my family," Leidolf began, his voice dark.
Already she didn't like the tone of this talk. She kept her eyes focused on his when she wanted to turn away, bury her feelings deep, and not speak about families or danger or what had become of them.
"Because I left them, my sister died."
Cassie swallowed hard and this time looked away. What if she had been the reason her family died? Because she'd run off to be with the wolf pack that day? What if she had been home instead, and she could have warned her family before they were murdered?
"I tried to get my family to move away, but they wouldn't. My father owned the territory before he was injured permanently in an avalanche, and he was bound and determined to stay. It had been his family's home for generations," Leidolf continued.
Cassie looked back at him. He still watched her and analyzed her expression to learn whatever he could from her reactions. She'd never met a man who was so attuned to watching people's actions and reactions while attempting to understand them.
"I tried to get my sisters to come with me at least. But I didn't have any luck, and one of my sisters died."
"It wasn't your fault," Cassie said. She knew it wasn't. Even if Leidolf thought he was responsible. He couldn't be, not the way he had taken over this pack, one that, in his own words, had been abused. She swallowed hard. Although she was sure it couldn't have been his fault, she still couldn't come to grips with the way she felt about her own family.
"You're right, Cassie, but for a long time I felt it was my fault, that I was the cause of my sister's death. My remaining sister blamed me. What's worse, she was the one who tried to uncover what had happened to our sister when I should have been the one to do so. But I didn't know that Larissa had run off, or mated with a gray, and then was murdered. Even so, she was my responsibility."
"Your father's, since he was still alive," Cassie said.
"My father was disabled."
"Yet she listened to him, not you. What if your father had moved the family?"
Leidolf nodded, but the pain was still reflected in his expression.
"It wasn't your fault," Cassie said again, softly, with feeling.
"I came here to live, away from my home in Colorado, the life of a loner in the wilderness, a mountain man."
"Poseidon," she said under her breath.
"What?"
She took a deep breath and shook her head. "A mountain man. Or nature lover. That's what I thought you were when I saw you at the lake." And Poseidon, god-like, seductive, edible.
"I had been a mountain man, scruffy, scraggly beard, long hair."
She smiled.
He chuckled. "I looked like a wolf even without my fur coat on."
"Not when I saw you. I figured you were just..." She shrugged.
"Sexy as hell?" He leaned over, kissed her forehead, and then leaned back and gave her one of those unbelievably devilish winks that said he knew her too damned well. "I thought that about you, too."