"If we don't get caught. And what about Evan? What if he wants to tell everyone how he helped rescue our pack leader?"
"He won't." But Alice didn't sound as sure of herself as she wanted. What if Evan did tell the rest of the pack how he rescued Leidolf? He might. He'd leave Sarah and her out of his rescue version if she asked him to, she was fairly sure. "He won't tell anyone," Alice said, with a little more conviction.
"Yeah. Whenever you're unsure of a situation, you repeat yourself."
Alice ignored Sarah, hating when she was right.
They stalked through the woods toward the zoo with another mile to go before they reached the perimeter. What next? They'd have to sit tight until Evan arrived.
"How long do you think it will take until Evan gets here?" Sarah asked.
"Two hours. That's how long the drive is from Portland to Leidolf's ranch. Zoo closes at seven, and probably not much staff will be here after that."
"I wonder how Leidolf got caught," Sarah said again.
"Rescuing Cassie." Alice put her hands to her chest in a dramatic gesture. "True love. Nothing will separate them. The zoo men took her hostage. He came to rescue her, and he got zapped with tranquilizers. That's what had to have happened."
Sarah chewed on her bottom lip. "What if Leidolf got shot first, and Cassie came to his rescue instead? Julia Wildthorn writes how her heroines save pack leaders sometimes. So maybe Cassie was trying to rescue Leidolf and then she got shot."
Alice tried to envision the scenario. "She did try to aid him the first time he was tranquilized."
Sarah nodded.
Alice shook her head. "Nah. Got to be the other way around this time. This time, Leidolf was rescuing her when..."
A branch snapped several feet away, and the girls came to a dead stop. Her heart racing, Alice listened, trying to identify what had made the noise.
"There," Carver said, catching sight of the red wolf watching them from across the river. Half hidden in the dark woods, her fluorescent eyes shined like a welcoming beacon in the night. It wasn't Leidolf or Cassie but the one they had chased after initially. He stalked back into the woods.
Elgin and Fergus ran after him.
"I'm shifting. She's here for a reason." Carver unbuttoned his shirt.
"I'm going with you," Elgin said.
Carver grabbed his arm before he could begin to strip. "You're in charge while Leidolf's not here. You and Fergus. If I drown, no problem."
"Your daughters," Fergus said quietly, always the voice of reason whether it was wanted or not.
Carver jerked off his shirt. "Right. So I won't drown. Just think of this as delegating responsibility."
"Yeah, but we're supposed to be the ones giving the orders," Elgin said, casting Fergus a wink.
Fergus nodded as Carver paused, his hands on his bootlaces. "What are you waiting for, Carver? Get to it," Fergus commanded.
Carver gave a half smile, jerked off the rest of his clothes, and shifted in the dark woods. Then faster than he'd ever moved before, he raced for the river in wolf form. Although he wasn't sure what he was going to do once he reached the red wolf.
"How come he gets to go after the girl?" one of the other bachelor males complained. Since many of them weren't royals, having had too many human influences in their genetic backgrounds, they had no way to shift anyway during the new moon and would have had to track her down in human form.
"Because I said so," Elgin explained, his voice hard. "While Leidolf's gone, that's all you need to know."
That's all that Carver heard before the sound of the rush of the river filled his ears. He sure as hell wished he could wolf paddle faster than this. He hadn't realized how slow he was at swimming as a wolf, not ever having needed the feat in an emergency. He kept his eyes on the female as she stayed where she was in the woods. Occasionally she'd look over at the other men as if wondering if they'd come, too, but she didn't seem afraid of him. However, once he made it to shore, he suspected she might change her mind and run.
In that case, he would just have to change it back.
As soon as he reached the shore, he shook the excess water off his coat and looked back at the men, all who watched him with great expectancy. Fergus motioned to Carver to fetch her. Then he turned to observe the female. She stayed motionless, her gaze on his. Yet something about her expression told him she was going to make a run for it, her ears slightly flattened, her tail down.
He trotted toward her, sure that if she ran, he'd catch her soon enough.
She dashed deeper into the woods, and he heard the men shouting across the river. "Go get her, Carver. You can do it!"
"She's yours once you catch her!
"Good luck!"
He smiled, but only because he was catching up, or she was already slowing down. He'd reach her soon.
The last of the zoo visitors were gone, lights were off, and Leidolf lifted his head and then stood. None of his pack members had shown up to rescue them, so it was nearly time for him to set Plan B into motion.
He walked to the area hidden from the viewing windows, only he'd have to stoop once he shifted. Cassie watched him, and he thought she looked a little hopeful that he'd get them out of this bind. He had hoped that Carver's daughters might send word to other pack members about the mess they were in. He and Cassie couldn't wait for dawn to come, which meant the arrival of new visitors to the zoo. And the nuisance of having to wait until dark fell and the zoo closed again.
He shifted and sat down on the rough concrete. Cassie hurried over to join him, licked his cheek, and then stretched before she shifted. As soon as she changed into her human form, he admired her beauty. He would never get enough of it, from her red curls to her milky skin. Silky, sensuous delight. He pulled her naked body into his arms, and she sat on his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck.
"Now what, hero of mine?" she whispered.
He smiled and kissed her nose. "Now it's time to rescue the damsel in distress."
"Hmm, seems you're in the same predicament as me. Your people are probably in Mount Hood National Forest still, don't you think? Waiting for your return? And the location of your ranch isn't that close to the Oregon Zoo, is it?"
"Carver's girls should be home. They live on the perimeter of Forest Park, close to the zoo. About two miles from here."
"Would he have left his girls home alone?" Cassie asked, cuddling with Leidolf in the cold, damp cement wolves' den.
"Maybe. We'll give it a shot. If the girls were home and heard us, they'll know to call my ranch house and alert whoever is left there, maybe Laney or one of the men. They'll know what to do."
"And if they don't?"
"It'll take them two and a half hours or so to reach us. It's been nearly that long. If we have no word from anyone in a few minutes, we'll do it our way."
"Which is?"
"We'll climb over the fence, although I hadn't wanted us to be exposed in that manner. Too much speculation if we get caught--two more naked people in the zoo? Two more red wolves vanish?" He shook his head. "I had hoped some of our people could have gotten us out while we remained in our wolf forms in the event someone spotted us trying to escape."
"Couldn't we just jump the fence as wolves?"
"Too high."
Cassie sighed. "Bella couldn't manage either."
"The exhibit was different back then. The moat and the wall were such that she couldn't make it out. An elk exhibit didn't border the wolf exhibit at the time with just a fence in between, either."
"If we make it out of this all right, I have a question to ask you."
Leidolf tightened his hold on Cassie. "You might as well just ask now. We have nothing better to do to kill time."
She sat quietly for some time, her fingers stroking his arm, the silence killing him.
He finally let out his breath and said what he had to say, even if she couldn't find the nerve to ask her question. "Cassie, you're not a lone wolf at heart."
"I've been one forever."
He dragged his fingers through her hair and held on tight. "You did what you had to do in the beginning as a necessity. But later..." He looked into her green gaze, her spirit drawing him in. "... later, you did so because you were used to being alone."
"I didn't want to lose anyone else I cared about."
"You can't stop that part of yourself from being." He leaned down and kissed her lips, her mouth softening against his. "You can't hide what your heart is truly telling you. That you want babies. You want to be part of a pack. You want to have a family. A mate. Physically you're very aware of your needs. Psychologically, I feel you're still in part holding back."
"You can't understand. I know you said your sister died, but you can't feel that it was your fault, not like in my situation. I did want to ask you how you came to be a loner, though."
He touched his thumb to her bottom lip and briefly caressed it. "I left my family back in Colorado to keep from getting myself killed tangling with the leader who had taken over when my father had become injured. I traveled all over the States until I settled in a cabin in the mountains, far from civilization. But I missed my family and having a pack, their idiosyncrasies, the good and the bad. My father..." He took a deep breath.
"He was injured in an avalanche. His entire pack died. When I arrived here, I saw the troubles the pack was having, but I couldn't fight the ones in charge. Not all of them. It was like living the whole horrible scenario all over again. At first, I fought the notion that this pack needed me. Then I realized they were just what I needed to live again."
He stroked her cheek. "I still love to get away, but pack business takes priority, and I needed that focus again in my life. You study wolf packs because you want what they have--the pack dynamics, the closeness, the loyalties." He smiled and kissed her forehead. "Playing games. You've just been afraid to be part of a lupus garou pack. Now that you've found me, you have to realize this is where you belong."
