He snorted, then tried to climb out of bed but fell back against the pillows and swore under his breath.
The great hall remained silent, not a word spoken or a body moving around. He envisioned his pack members waiting in horrified silence until he gave them permission to speak. He groaned.
Hell, the nymph's last words to him were Leave me alone, and those three little words ricocheted around his tired brain. She was damned good at evasion, as much as he was damned good at tracking one of his kind down. So he was certain that if half his men were chasing her in the woods, they'd scare her off, and she'd leave the area pronto for good.
He reached up to run his hands through his tangled hair. He had to do something, even if he couldn't do much of anything.
"Elgin!" He tried to curb his anger, but he was afraid he didn't quite manage it.
Someone hurried down the hall and then poked his head in the bedroom.
"You wanted me?"
Leidolf ground his teeth and glowered at Elgin. "We need a damn nurse or doctor in our pack. Now! Damn it. If we had one, she could most likely give me something to counteract the drug in my system."
"Yes, sir, but we don't know any."
"Help me get dressed."
Elgin didn't move an inch into the room. "You can't stand."
Leidolf took an exasperated breath. "I have to make sure she's all right."
"Why didn't she stay with you until we arrived?" The accusation was right out front. Cassie didn't want him, that's why.
"She thought you were hunters. So she was trying to lead you away from me, only..."
Elgin's eyes widened a little.
Yeah, Leidolf knew just what Elgin suspected, that the woman realized the men were part of his wolf pack and had taken off, instead of coming home with them.
"She may already have a mate and a wolf pack," Elgin offered.
Not the way she tried to seduce Leidolf. Or had it only been an act, an attempt to protect him, get him on his feet, and on his way to a safer place? Sure, she'd said so. Then again, she smelled too provocatively not to have been intrigued by him. And the fact she danced with him... she was more interested than she wished to let on.
He smiled wryly.
Elgin stood taller. "Fergus and I are personally searching for the little lady."
Leidolf frowned. "No, she--"
His face flushed, cell phone in hand, Fergus rushed into the room. "All hell's broken loose. Sorry, Leidolf. Quincy and Pierce are determined to make up for all their mistakes, so as soon as they learned you found a red in Mount Hood National Forest, they took off to get her and bring her back to you... wearing their wolf coats--again."
"Holy hell. Gather our men, Fergus. And, Elgin, tell Laney to make me some coffee to go--"
"I'll fix a couple of thermoses," Laney promised, her voice raised so he could hear her from where she was hidden in the hallway, eavesdropping. She hadn't needed to raise her voice. As close as she was to the door, he heard her just fine.
Leidolf shook his head.
Fergus punched in numbers on his phone and headed down the hallway. "Boss said it's a go, Carver. Spread the word to your group."
"Elgin, help me get dressed," Leidolf demanded.
"But you can barely--"
Leidolf gave him a look that said he wouldn't argue about this, and Elgin headed straight for the closet. So much for trying to ensure he kept on an even keel where his people were concerned.
Hell, it was bad enough that Cassie was racing through the woods on her own in danger of being tranquilized by the same men who shot him, but once Pierce and Quincy joined her, it could turn into a total disaster. And Sarge? He didn't totally trust that Satros could locate Sarge on his own if he hadn't by now.
Cassie had successfully evaded Leidolf's men and hadn't run into any signs of the men with the tranquilizer guns. So she was back to her goal of finding the she-wolf and her litter. After she returned to the place a mile away where she had left the buried salmon, she uncovered it and then seized the fish and took off.
The advantage of being a wolf biologist was that federal and state grants and even magazines paid Cassie to do what she loved best--mingle with feral wolves to study them and document their behavior. If these people saw her now as she raced through the ancient Douglas firs, flourishing beside the creek in her red wolf coat, fish in mouth, they'd think she was one of those she was paid to research. She just had to be very careful she didn't provide the people who paid her all the money with clues about wolves that sounded like they had a lot of human characteristics, thereby giving anything away about her own wolf genetics.
Plus, she was an oddity in her field, beyond the obvious wolf difference. When other researchers studied wolves, they'd often go as teams. And many had asked to accompany her on her searches since she was so successful at winning wolves over. What techniques did she use? How was she able to get so close and document so much?
A smug smile touched her lips. Wouldn't they like to know why she had such a special rapport with the feral animals? She hadn't expected to find a female wolf in a dire situation that needed her help. Or a lupus garou she'd put in harm's way.
She stopped and listened for sounds of anyone following her again. No one seemed to have tracked her yet. Or they were being awfully quiet about it.
She had to hurry more now, had to find the wolf before Leidolf woke wherever his pack was taking him, regained his strength, and came back to locate her, insisting she taunt him with her attempts at seduction when he was fully awake.
She dove through the woods, searching again for the she-wolf, and hoped this didn't take the rest of the day and night. She had to sleep sometime. Definitely not during the day.
But after several hours, she brushed through the branches of a Douglas fir and stopped dead in her tracks.
Only a few hundred yards away, a man crouched over a patch of ferns. Nearly having a stroke, she stood still. Alex Wellington. The blond, blue-eyed wolf biologist was easy on the eyes and a nice enough guy. He thought he was a real ladies' man, and if she'd been interested in the type, she might have fallen for him herself. But although he loved wolves, she was sure he wouldn't be able to cope with what she truly was. And she wasn't interested in settling down with either a human or a lupus garou.
Alex's hand clutched a stick as he poked around at leaves and pushed aside fern fronds, his backpack most likely containing gear for a hike of several days. He was tracking her, damn it. Or the mother wolf. In some of the areas she had traversed, she was sure she'd left a few muddy wolf prints, enough to give her away to someone like him who could track a wolf.
A couple of Douglas firs screened her in part, so she half-blended in the woods. With her heart pounding double time, she hoped he wouldn't look up and spy her before she could back out of here, traverse the creek, and head to another area. As if he'd read her thoughts, he raised his head and looked in her direction. His lips parted slightly, and his eyes grew wide.
He'd never seen her in her wolf form, but he had the same look of admiration on his face as he did when she caught him studying her as she lectured on wolves. He really did love wolves, and if she had been in her human form, she might have enlisted his help at this point with the mother wolf and her brood.
He didn't move, and she knew he was afraid of frightening her off. She also knew he wouldn't hurt her, but then again, she feared he might have spooked the mother worse if she could have solicited his help.
Then men's voices carried to them, and she looked in their direction. Angry voices. Dangerous voices. "I told you, damn it. All you had to do was hide the body out here until I could get the proper tools to bury her. So where the hell is her body?"
Alex's tanned face paled as he remained crouched, unmoving, his head turned in the direction of the men's voices.