Legend of the White Wolf (32 page)

"Tell me."

   George took a seat and wrung his hands, his eyes avoiding Kintail's glower. "Officer Adams and Whitson were injured badly in a snowmobile accident. Michael took them both to the hospital. We couldn't wait to get word to you to send your people here to take care of them. But they'll both be all right, several broken bones, Adams had a concussion."

   Kintail stared at him in disbelief. "How did it happen?"

   George shook his head, still not looking Kintail eye to eye.

   "Guess."

   George's gaze flicked his way, and then returned to study the floor. "They were following Cameron and Faith. We think they might have run into a barricade."

   "A barricade."

   "Yes, hastily made on a trail through the woods. A felled tree had blocked the main road, probably dropped down by whoever is doing the same on other roads and trails in the area. It appeared Cameron and Faith took a trail into the woods to go around the obstacle. Adams said that Cameron was joined by another man. I later found out it was his partner, Gavin Summerfield."

   "Where's Faith now?"

   "She's at Leidolf's cabin, but she and Cameron are returning to the Black Bear Den to talk with Trevor."

   The way George fidgeted, Kintail suspected there was other news. "What else?"

   George rose unsteadily from the chair. "Your broth er's been shot. He was in his wolf form and knocked Cameron from his snowmobile. Cameron's partner, Gavin, shot Hilson four times, afraid the wolf planned to kill Cameron. Hilson's resting in Charles's bedroom, feeling well enough to demand three meals already, but not in any shape to go anywhere. Because of the bullet wounds, we couldn't risk transporting him to the hospital and the questions that would follow."

   Kintail clenched and unclenched his fists. Half the time he was perturbed with his brother, and he couldn't help being annoyed that Hilson had gone against his wishes, but when it came right down to it, he was Kintail's brother. Damn it.

   Cameron and Gavin were dead men.

   Kintail hated to ask, although he couldn't imagine anything else could have gone wrong. "Anything else?"

   George paused at the office door, his gaze finally focusing on Kintail's. "Cameron's partners escaped your lodge. Elizabeth's with them."

AS SOON AS OWEN AND DAVID HEARD SNOWMOBILES, THEY darted deeper into the woods with Elizabeth, knowing Kintail's people wouldn't give up on trying to return them to Kintail's lodge. They'd dodged them several times already, and Owen was slightly worried the men were trying to corral them. But he was pretty sure he, David, and Elizabeth were getting closer to Charles's resort also.

   That's when he thought something was different about the men in pursuit of them. The snowmobiles were plain noisy, no masking the sound. But they had never heard a peep out of the men stalking them in silence, just like wolves on the hunt. And Owen felt a kinship to them, understood their ways.

   Now he heard shouts of glee, "Woohoo!" "There they are!" like kids at a circus. And that's when he felt in his bones, the predators had changed. They might sound like silly ass kids, but his gut instinct told him they were a hell of a lot more dangerous than Kintail's people.

   David tensed, his hackles raised, his ears twitching back and forth. He recognized the change in their circum stances, too. And Elizabeth appeared almost frantic, running between David and Owen, panicked. He didn't believe she'd feel that way about her own people.

   They had to reach the cabins. There, they could join forces with Cameron and Gavin, if he'd already arrived. There, they stood a chance.

"Trevor can't be here to speak to us about Bigfoot," Faith said, getting dressed while Cameron watched her in Leidolf's bedroom. Cameron looked like he could devour her in one wolfish bite. She raised a brow at him as she pulled on her pants.

   He smiled back, the look just as devious.

   "Pay attention, Cameron. We can't allow Gavin to be in the same room with us when we talk to Trevor."

   Cameron ran his hands down Faith's sweater-covered arms, then held her hands tightly. "I don't want to lose you ever, Faith."

   She gave him a coy smile back. "I have news for you. You're not getting rid of me that easily."

   He pulled her into his embrace and squeezed the breath out of her, his hands sweeping down her back, his body pressed against her, already hard and wanting. If they hadn't had important matters to take care of, she would have been willing to relieve both his needs and her own right this very minute.

   "I thought I might have lost you. I even clobbered poor Gavin when he mentioned you running off with Leidolf and having wolf pups."

   Faith's lips parted slightly. "Wolf pups? What next?" She didn't even want to think about that scenario. Although if Leidolf's assumption was right, the mistake she and Cameron had made with not using a condom the last time wouldn't have mattered, not if a werewolf couldn't get a human pregnant.

   Cameron held onto her tight as if he was afraid he truly had lost her, and she loved the way he was—protective, desiring her and only her, and a little bit jealous that anyone else might want her.

   But with Gavin in the next room, and unable to focus on much more than getting this business with Kintail over with, she pulled free from Cameron's embrace. "Let's see what Trevor has to say."

   Cameron slipped his hand over hers and held it tight, his gaze saying other issues were at stake and just as important to him. But for her, business always came before pleasure, although she snuggled up against him to reassure him she was just as willing. That seemed to relieve some of his tension, and he hugged her close as he opened the bedroom door.

   As soon as they left Leidolf's bedroom, the appraising look Gavin gave her and the small smile that sparkled in his eyes told her he approved. She noted the bruise on the side of his jaw, though, and hoped he and Cameron weren't too mad at each other. He probably couldn't figure out what had set Cameron off like that. If only he had known.

   She squeezed Cameron's hand and the three headed out of doors.

   "So," Gavin said as he mounted his snowmobile, and Faith climbed onto Cameron's with him, "I understand Cameron named a female wolf after you."

   Faith smiled, closing her arms around Cameron's waist, hugging him tight. "Yes, sweet of him, wasn't it?"

   Gavin looked to see Cameron's reaction, but he seemed deep in thought because he never said anything in response, but she wondered if he'd made the slip inadvertently or deep down, he wanted his friend to know she and the wolf were the same.

   When they arrived at the cabin, Leidolf and Trevor were standing on the deck, watching their approach. At least that's who she assumed the gray-haired man was. His gray eyes seemed wary when he observed Gavin, but he seemed pleased to see Faith, although his eyes widened a bit and then he seemed surprised as she, Cameron, and Gavin joined him on the deck.

   "I wish a word with only the young lady, if you don't mind," Trevor said, speaking to Cameron.

   Cameron put his arm around her shoulder. "We stay together."

   Trevor flicked a glance Gavin's way, then said to Cameron, "It's private."

   "I'll talk to him." Faith wanted to hear the news Trevor had from Kintail, but if the hunter insisted, she'd speak with him alone. They couldn't include Gavin; that much was clear.

   "Leidolf and Gavin can wait out here for us, but I stay with the lady," Cameron said, his voice a barely controlled growl.

   She was beginning to think his losing her for a while when she turned into the wolf had really affected him worse than she'd first thought. "The two of us, then."

   Trevor bowed his head slightly, although he looked displeased.

   Cameron opened the door for them, and after closing it behind them, they took seats at the dining room table.

   "Who bit you?" Trevor asked first.

   Cameron tensed at once. She folded her arms. "You were supposed to tell me about my father's trip out here."

   Trevor took a deep breath and leaned back in the chair. "All right. I suppose it really doesn't matter who bit you, but Kintail will be displeased." His eyes remained focused on Faith's as he continued. "I really liked your father. He had a great sense of humor, spoke privately to me about his real purpose here, to observe the Bigfoot hunters while he did a research paper. On the hunt, we spotted nothing but a bird occasionally and a rabbit. Until the guys on the expedition found wolf tracks and thought they might have been a small Bigfoot, although from what I've ever heard, the footprint is supposed to be more like a human's print, not a wolf's. But since we weren't finding anything else, and the prints were old, I allowed the men to follow them. At the same time, your father took copious notes on the group's behavior, casting me small smiles unobserved by the others on the team. Although they were grown men, they behaved like excited teens playing a video game."

   "But my father saw something he shouldn't have."

   "I was supposed to perpetuate the Bigfoot myth with you, but Kintail doesn't know you're one of us now. So yes, your father and I became separated from the team. They'd run off wildly into the woods after the old wolf trail. Your father got a stitch in his side and I waited with him, figuring I could catch up to the team members if they got lost, when I spied Lila in the forest. She was stripping out of her clothes, then shifted into the wolf. I don't know what she was up to, didn't want to tell Kintail in case it was something he didn't want to hear, and I didn't speak of it to your father. I hoped he had been too busy writing notes to have noticed. Well, he was busy writing, but I hoped it was about the team and their behavior rather than anything he had seen with respect to Lila."

   "You didn't ask him?"

   "I'm not dumb. Self-preservation for our kind is tantamount. I did like your father, but exposing our kind to the world is not something any of us want. So when everyone was asleep in the tents that night, I read through your father's notes. He said nothing about what he'd seen. But he was strangely quiet the rest of the time. As if he had seen Lila shift. As if he had seen me observe her. But most telling, I said nothing. Which for him—for a sociologist—was just as telling. I couldn't know that for sure, though. Just speculation on my part."

   "But if you didn't tell anyone, how did Hilson learn of it?"

   Trevor snorted. "Here I was afraid to get Lila in trouble, and she managed to turn the trick. Probably figuring she better do so before I did. Anyway, she wasn't supposed to change in the open like that, and certainly not with so many humans close by. But I denied that your father saw anything. Hilson took it upon himself to watch your father, following him all the way back to Portland."

   "And when he couldn't get enough information from him from a distance?"

   "I imagine he approached you."

   "So now what do we do? My father is at risk, isn't he?"

   Trevor didn't say anything.

   Faith took in a deep breath. "I don't want him killed."

   "It's not up to you."

   But it was, damn it. Fine, no way did she want to bite her father and turn him into what she was, but she didn't want him dead either. "What about Cameron's friends?"

   Trevor had been sitting so regally, so confident, until she mentioned that part of the equation. Then he fidgeted a bit, his hands on the table, then back off the table, on his lap, hidden. He glanced Cameron's way and looked back at Faith. "Both of you are in danger if you remain here. Kintail…"

   "Where are they?" a man roared to Leidolf and Gavin, stalking across the deck outside.

   Immediately Trevor rose from the table and said under his breath, "Kintail."

   The door flew open and a giant of a man barged in, as tall as Hilson, but instead of being an overstuffed teddy bear, this guy looked like an enraged polar bear standing in the entryway, filling the entryway, blocking out the sun. Blond hair nearly white, square jaw clenched, his narrowed pale yellow eyes shifted from Trevor to Cameron… to Faith. Clenched fists swung at the polar bear's side as he strode into the cabin where Cameron had already pulled Faith to his side, close, protecting her. The hulking man got in their space. Maybe it was fine for a wolf's space, or the way an alpha showed dominance, but it was much too close for Faith's liking and as tense as Cameron was, he didn't like it either.

   Faith felt the heat of Kintail's body, the smell of the fresh wind on him, saw specks of black in his eyes that seemed to expand and consume the pale yellow color as he turned his angry gaze from Trevor to Cameron.

   Cameron didn't move until the man flicked a look Faith's way, the same kind of threatening expression— yet there was a hint of something else, interest maybe? Intrigue? Garnering her attention again, Cameron tight ened his hand on Faith's back, squeezing her closer.

   The man growled something under his breath, jerked his lethal eyes back to Cameron, then turned to look at the open doorway. Both Gavin and Leidolf had moved inside, waiting, anticipating trouble, ready to be of service.

   "This is private," he snapped at Gavin, ignoring Leidolf.

   Faith felt badly for Gavin who wanted to stick by his partner's side, but was being dismissed by everyone he came in contact with, even his own partner.