In slow motion, he approached, as if afraid she'd attempt to escape him. She had no intention of running away like a rabbit bound for a bunny hole.

Suddenly, she was falling, tumbling down into darkness, the smell earthy, the landing soft as she arrived inside the rabbit's burrow. Only the world opened up again, and a giant rabbit greeted her, wearing her hat, backpack, and tunic.

Desperately, she clawed at the hole, trying to get out, attempting to reach Poseidon, to show the god she wasn't running away from him, had no intention of hiding, and Poseidon shushed her. "Cassie, quiet. Be still. You're safe."

He lifted her into his arms and kissed her too sweetly, when she craved being ravished by his touch. She tried to open her lips to him, to kiss him back, to spear her tongue into his mouth, to invite him in, and take his pleasure in her, as she would take pleasure from him.

"Cassie, you keep this up, and I will be forced to be less than honorable."

His smile was devilishly predictable, wolfish, not in the least bit honorable looking, and she loved it.

She licked her lips, moistening them before she kissed him and squirmed against his firm embrace, eliciting a moan from deep within his chest. She couldn't seem to lift her head to look at him again and instead gave a tired sigh.

His fingers combed through her hair as she listened to his heart beating hard, as if he'd been running all day. And his skin was wet, smelling fresh and clean, wild and free. His raging hormones, the sexy smell caught her attention. Her pheromones... and his. The telltale sign they were ready to take the relationship further.

With a horrendous effort, she managed to lick his chest, tasted salty skin and water droplets, and again Poseidon groaned. "Vixen."

Cassie jerked awake, only she was no longer a wolf but a woman, lying against a very naked and hot-bodied man. Not Poseidon. Leidolf. He had wrapped his arms around her, resting against a bed of pine needles in a small log cabin, his own body serving as her mattress as he lay still, his eyes closed, droplets of water on his skin, his hair wet, a velvet-covered, limp air mattress rolled up beneath his head for a pillow. Outside it was gloomy, cloudy, the scent of rain heavy in the air, and still daylight. She guessed it was about midday or later.

She sighed and closed her eyes, resting her head against his chest again. If she had desired having a mate, she would want him to be just like Leidolf, protective and powerful.

Yet even as self-assured as he was, she saw the flaws in his character. The way he ordered his people around, how he was totally in charge, yet a vulnerable side kept appearing. The way he apologized when he'd lifted her while she was in her wolf form and she'd yelped. She hadn't meant to, but the pain had shot through her shoulder, and she couldn't help it. She thought he might drop her, he appeared so concerned. And then the way he brought her to this cabin, started a fire, even searched for the wolf they'd seen across the river, yet she'd sensed he hadn't wanted to leave her--even for a minute.

Although she knew that was due, in part, to his controlling nature, maybe worry that she might take off, she also knew he was concerned that someone might find her and try to eliminate her. She looked at the scratches on his arms that probably came from carrying the firewood. And listened to the steady beat of his heart, the blood whooshing through his veins, his body hot and his skin pure tactile delight. Like this, she could almost desire having him for a mate.

Almost. The problem with mates was that they had a lot of requirements. Lots of needs that had to be met. Especially when a mate was the alpha leader of a pack. And she'd have to be the alpha female. Not that she didn't have it in her. She could never be a beta. She'd bet her last paycheck he wouldn't like it if she continued her work studying wolves wherever she could locate the lupus kind. And never in a million years was she giving up her life work. Not when wolves had saved her life. Although no matter how hard she worked at it, she could never repay the pack that had taken her in.

Then a plan began to formulate. What if she did mate with Leidolf? No more having to deal with males who wanted an unmated female. What if he wanted her so badly that he'd negotiate for terms?

She mulled that over for a few seconds. She envisioned packing her gear for a trip to North Carolina to study the red wolves there, but when she reached the front door at the ranch, she would find Leidolf standing in the doorway, his arms folded across his broad chest, legs spread apart in battle stance, his expression an emphatic no.

So no, it would be an awful mistake. He wouldn't agree with her working, she was certain, and she would be stuck leading beside him, never fulfilling her own destiny.

Leidolf's fingers swept down her back in a tender caress, and she looked up to see him watching her. "How long have you been awake?" he asked, the timbre of his voice darkly seductive.

"Hmm," she said and burrowed her head against his chest, closing her eyes again. "Just woke. How long ago did I shift?"

He swept his hands lower, down her back until he reached her buttocks and made small circular swirls across her sensitive cheeks. "Hours ago. I tried to inflate the mattress, but it was hopeless. So I made a bed of pine needles and then pulled you off the cold floor so we could share some body heat."

She opened her eyes and looked at the fire, the flames stretching upward in little curlicues, sending out the steady heat still warming the small cabin. "Hmm. You made a nice fire, and you make an awfully nice mattress."

"You make a terrific blanket." And the way he said it made her think he believed they fit together in perfect harmony.

She knew better. Perfect meant making sure the wolf kind got a fair break. Although the way Leidolf was touching her made her desire something more.

His fingers continued their leisurely caress against her skin, heating her blood. She didn't want to feel anything for him, but already he was hot-wiring her pheromones, triggering her need to have him, to stay with him, to fulfill her sexual fantasies. But more than that. She still envisioned seeing the pups with Felicity, and that triggered Cassie's own mothering needs. She stifled a sigh. Everything and everyone were ganging up on her, trying to coerce her to take another path.

"How is your shoulder?" Leidolf asked, breaking into the dreamlike state she was still enjoying.

"It's really bad." She lied, knowing just where this dialogue was going.

His fingers stilled at her waist. Then he began the slow, methodical stroking again. "So being on top like you are now is less comfortable?"

"For what?" She knew what he was getting at. The alpha leader had a job to do. Take a mate. Create his offspring. Secure the future of his lupus garou pack. Similar to the wolf packs' existence, only the human element did come into play. He seemed to be leaving that part out.

He sighed heavily and then moved his hands up her waist, his thumbs touching the curve of the undersides of her breasts. "You know what we both need. What we both want. We're right for each other. You'd make a capable pack-leader's mate."

At first, she didn't say anything in response, her ire instantly stoked. Hell, of course she would make a capable pack-leader's mate. What happened to: I want you... I need you... I can't live without you? The human element, buster?

Then again, alpha males didn't wear their feelings on their sleeves, and if she had to guess what this was all about, she'd say he couldn't reveal his feelings until she said I do in a werewolf way. Or maybe it was all about sex with him. That and the possessiveness. Conquering a mate who seemed unconquerable. Laying claim to a female when there were fewer of them to be had. Maybe he would never be able to say he truly loved her.

Still, she felt as if she was sliding down a slippery mountain of negative responses, and when she reached the bottom, she'd ultimately end up saying yes.

Despite her mind saying he was wrong, that she didn't need to have a mate, her body kept telling her that, in one aspect, he was so right and she had to reconsider. She'd been a loner for too long. And she had a job to do. It's what made her whole. Not the idea of running some pack with an alpha male. Even if he was as delicious as Leidolf.

Leidolf moved his hands to either side of her head and turned it so she was resting her chin on his chest, his green eyes challenging her to be honest with him. "Tell me the truth, Cassie. You don't belong to a pack."

She turned her head away and laid it back down on his chest again. "So what gave me away?"

He chuckled lightly. "Every inch of your skin blushed when I looked at you--from your cheeks to your toes. You were embarrassed. Which told me you weren't with a pack and haven't been for a very long time. How long ago did you lose your family, Cassie?" His voice was soothing, like she envisioned a psychiatrist's voice would be as he made her lie down on a couch and reveal the guilt she felt that she alone had survived the humans' brutality to her family.

She swallowed hard and blinked away tears. She could live another two hundred years, but the images--the smoke, the blazing heat, the fires reaching for the sun as if to join it in one unholy blaze--would never fade completely from her mind.

"Cassie, how long ago?"

"Since I was a teen. Thirteen. I lost them when I was thirteen."

"Mother, father?"

"My parents, sister, three uncles, two aunts, and a cousin. It was a pretty summer day, and I'd been searching for a lupus pack in a forest near a river where I'd discovered them the previous spring. My father kept warning me to stay away from them, counseling me that we weren't like them. That without our human disposition, they could be dangerous. But I didn't believe it.

"They played like we play, hunted, and protected each other, just like we did. They even let me get close to the alpha female's pups and play with them. When I smelled the pack's scent in the area again, I was curious how different they would be from our own kind and if they'd accept me like a pack member, even if they hadn't seen me for over a year. Just for fun." She let out her breath in a sigh of frustration.

Leidolf stroked her hair, his fingers gently caressing the strands, making her feel wanted again, which terrified her. What if she got too close to him and he was killed also?