He reached up and held her face with such loving care and looked into her eyes, his own cloudy with lust, as if asking her one last time if she wanted this, and she knew then that she loved him. She smiled. "If you don't hurry, I'm canceling the contract," she whispered, her voice strangely husky.

"That won't do, Cassie. I told you that you were all mine."

"Then..."

She didn't have time to tell him to do it before he centered himself between her legs, her knees spread and readied, and eased himself inside her. Then he was thrusting fully into her, their bodies joined like two primal beings as one, horny, without reservation or regret, and destined to be. The feeling of exultation filled her as his deep thrusts enhanced the climax rippling through her, a heated wave washing over her again and again. He kept his gaze on hers, watching her expression, the awe, the buildup, the culmination, only leaning down once to kiss her lips.

There was a ragged cry from him and a gasp from her as he came and warmed her inside with the heat of his seed, thrusting still with the last of his power, her own orgasm filling her with aftershocks, and she swore she had to be glowing like the full moon on a clear, cold night, as glorious as she felt.

Still inside her, he slowly moved onto his back and pulled her with him at the same time so she was on top of him, his penis still connecting them like a steel lifeline. She was his, but he was hers also. For the first time in a century, she felt at home. Not here in a cabin with pine needles for a bed. But with Leidolf, her mate and her lover. Who looked to have the kind of stamina she needed in a man.

He was already stroking her back, and she folded her arms over his chest and rested her chin on her arms, looking down at him. His eyes and lips smiled like the devil. "Don't tell me you want to eat now." His voice was still husky with need.

"Something tells me you have something else in mind." Her voice sounded just as intrigued.

"Yeah, Cassie, and I'm not easily dissuaded."

She grinned. "So... what are you waiting for?"

The sexual festivities lasted only another hour when they heard something moving about the forest beyond the cabin. The dark had enveloped the woods and it would have been time for them to shift and search for the two female reds, but the untimely arrival of unwanted guests gave Cassie's heart a start.

Leidolf pointed to the corner of the cabin where she guessed he wanted her to wait for him.

She wouldn't leave him.

"Cassie," he whispered, "if they're hunters, we don't dare shape-shift. Wrap the mattress around you, and stay out of sight in the corner over there on the other side of the fireplace. If they're trouble, whoever they are, we can always shape-shift and take care of them."

"You can't face hunters alone, Leidolf."

His face dark, Leidolf escorted Cassie to the other side of the fireplace. "Stay," he whispered, and she scowled back at him.

She was not a wilting damn wallflower.

Whoever moved around outside the cabin grunted, and Leidolf looked back at Cassie with raised brows. "Bear?" she whispered.

Little squeals of mild distress followed, and Cassie smiled. "Bear cubs and the mother," she whispered. But a mother being protective of her cubs could be dangerous if Leidolf or Cassie ventured outside in either their wolf or human forms.

"Probably smell our fish. I'll cook it once she moves away," Leidolf said, moving away from the door. "After we eat, we can track the female wolves."

"And then?" Cassie asked, tossing some more twigs on the fire.

"I'll need to let our pack know we're fine." He glanced at Cassie. "Your shoulder, is it all right?"

She smiled. "After ravishing me for hours, now you ask?"

His eyes sparkled, and he gave her a devious smile back.

But now their relationship had truly changed, Cassie realized. She'd have to meet his family, and even though she didn't intend to stay with the pack always, they were also her new family with problems like all families had. But worse, the niggling fear that Leidolf couldn't give her up when it was time for her to go on her next mission... that's what really bothered her.

Look at what happened when the bear came around.

She watched Leidolf poking at the fish in the pot over the fire and feared the worst-case scenario--he'd use every excuse he could to always keep her at his side.

Chapter 22

When the day had turned completely to darkness, the clouds blocking any hint of stars, Leidolf and Cassie left the relative security of their timber cabin and headed out on their mission of searching for the two female reds.

Leidolf tried really hard not to watch every move Cassie made as she raced through the woods, while she continually stopped to smell for the red wolves and then ran off again. He loved to observe her in her wolf form, the way she moved so fluidly, darting one way and then the other. The way she held her head and tail high, alert, alphalike. The way she concentrated on the mission as if nothing or nobody else existed. He was searching also, but he loved watching her pursuit of the two reds.

She suddenly turned her head toward him, her ears twisting back and forth as she listened for...

Hell, he heard it, too. Pups whimpering for their mother. Cassie dug around in a bunch of leaves, sniffed, and then turned. She headed for a thicket of blackberries and shoved her nose into a hole. Pulling her snout out of the hole, she wagged her tail and made a little woofing sound. Tinier woofs responded.

Leidolf joined her and then nudged her face in greeting. He'd catch some fish for the mother. But what he hadn't expected to see was Cassie with a full-blown case of empathy for a mother wolf and her brood. Seeing her excitement at finding the pups made him desire having children with Cassie even more.

With a final glance back at her as she sat near the den in guard mode, he took off toward the river.

Cassie lay near the den, watching over the pups and hoping to see the mother soon. When Leidolf left, she couldn't have been more proud of him. She knew he was getting food for the mother, and for now, he'd let her do what she needed to do, provide protection.

But that's when the real trouble began. She thought she smelled a human. She lifted her nose and breathed in the air. No, two. She froze in place. No, no, no. The zoo men were somewhere close by. She prayed they hadn't seen her or Leidolf. That they hadn't spied the mother wolf.

Then a shot sounded in the woods nearby and a familiar twinge of pain went through her shoulder as a reminder of the past, even though she hadn't been shot this time. She wanted to make sure Leidolf was all right, but she couldn't leave the pups alone. No matter what, she couldn't abandon them.

Everything was really quiet, way too quiet, and she feared the zoo men were watching her in the woods. She couldn't see them, but she still smelled them. If she took off running and they tranquilized her, they might not ever know the pups existed.

It was a standoff. Her not moving. Them not revealing themselves. Another shot rang out in another direction. Her heart drummed in panic. Leidolf. Where was Leidolf?

Before she made out the rest of him blending with the forest, she saw Thompson's blue eyes. He had his rifle readied. He planned to shoot her. She rose. He shouldered his rifle. She turned and pulled a pup from its hastily dug den.

"Holy cow," Joe said, emerging from the trees. "She has a litter of pups."

Thompson lowered the rifle, pointed it at the ground, and smiled. "We're going to take care of you, Rosa. You and the other wolves and your pups." He raised the rifle again and fired a shot.

Cassie cursed Thompson as the dart struck her in the flank. She collapsed and dropped the pup.

"Think there are any more of them?" Joe asked, hurrying with Thompson to check on Cassie, who was lying prone on the ground, the damned tranquilizer quickly zipping through her body.

If she could have, she would have bitten the bastard. She wanted the pups and their mother taken care of, not her!

"No. From the looks of the tracks where we were tranquilized, there were three wolves. Two others besides Rosa."

"Wait," Joe said, lifting her back leg. "She's not nursing. We'd checked her before and found she hadn't had pups."

"Then she's the babysitter. Maybe the sister of the other. Okay, well, let's get them to the cages, take them back to Portland, and have the vet check them out." Thompson poked his hand into the den. "Man, look at this. One, two... three... and four. Two males and two females."

"Hey, so the male we got was the mate of the one who had the pups, don't you suspect? So Rosa still needs a mate."

"Big Red will be happy to learn of it," Thompson agreed.

Cassie groaned.

Then out of the corner of her eye, she saw another red female and blinked. Aimee? The drug was making her hallucinate if she was now seeing her long-dead cousin.

Thompson turned around to see what she was looking at so hard, but the wolf flipped around and disappeared into the trees, the branches she brushed against swaying slightly. Cassie blinked and dropped her head to the ground. The wolf couldn't be real.

* * *

When Leidolf woke still in his wolf form, he smelled dozens of animal smells and realized he was in a cage in some kind of room full of medical supplies and metal exam tables. Shit.

He looked around the room and saw a ragged-looking red wolf sleeping off the tranquilizer inside another cage. The mother wolf. No sign of the pups, though. Farther over, he saw Cassie in a cage. She was sound asleep, too. Hell. Were they at the zoo? Probably a holding room of some sort to check them out. Make sure they didn't have worms or other medical problems.

An elephant trumpeted in the distance, the sound muffled. Yeah, they were at the zoo. Damn it.

He sat up and woofed at Cassie, trying to get her attention. Instead, the mother wolf lifted her head, but she was too groggy, and she dropped her head down and blinked at him.

"The female that had the pups was treated for worms," a man said, shoving the door aside, as Thompson walked inside with him. "And she had a bad case of ear mites."