He remained silent. No one would be able to smell his scent unless they ventured in his direction. He watched the party as they all hoisted packs and began to move the injured lady. Their movements were quiet, but complementary, as if they’d been together as a pack forever.
A few of them took off down a trail leading away from him when Eric saw a flash of gray and beige fur in the woods off to his right. Before Eric could react, the large, male gray wolf lunged from the trees and attacked him. Why would they need to post a guard?
“Ohmigod,” one of the women said as the attacking wolf growled and snarled.
Adrenaline pouring through his veins, Eric shot around to defend himself against the male wolf’s vicious attack.
Eric didn’t know if the pack continued to move away or if they were monitoring the situation, but he couldn’t understand why the male wolf would attack him. Unless they were doing something illegal. Or maybe this wolf didn’t know he was the same man who had carried the injured wolf to the cabin. Unless they’d seen him before as a wolf, or could smell he was the same man who had helped them, he could be anyone. Even a wild wolf.
Eric snarled and bit at the hostile wolf, telling him to back off. The wolf was aggressive, alpha, not like any of the beta wolves he’d met in the pack. Since Eric hadn’t met this wolf, it made him wonder where the wolf had been all this time. He had to be the pack leader, and should have been helping the injured wolf long before this.
Eric intended to take off, his stance firm as he eyed the snarling wolf, who now stood still, half listening to the people clearing out of the cabin, half concentrating on Eric. Eric didn’t dare turn his back on the wolf just yet.
He didn’t take a step forward to dominate the space, instead waiting for the wolf to give up and take off with his pack mates. When the wolf didn’t, which was real alpha posturing, Eric had a choice: run off and leave the wolf’s territory, or wait him out until his pack was far enough away that he felt the need to keep up with them to protect them. Without proof the wolf was involved in anything illegal, Eric didn’t want to take him down. Protecting his pack would be a natural instinct for the wolf, one Eric could understand.
The wolf took a few steps back and turned as if to go, and Eric assumed the wolf wanted to rejoin his pack. Eric turned slightly to race off toward his truck, with every intention of returning when all the wolves were gone so he could conduct his investigation. Then the wolf swung around and lunged at him, biting Eric in the shoulder.
Hell and damnation!
Sharp pain wracked his shoulder, he swore it went straight down to the nerves on fire in the wound to his flank. Eric pivoted and clashed with the wolf. Snarling and growling, he matched the alpha’s anger, the pain of the wounds fading into the background as their teeth clashed.
Eric didn’t want to kill the wolf and upset the pack, when Eric was damned interested in the she-wolf named Pepper. Even so, he wanted to prove he wasn’t about to be bullied by another wolf. Any wolf. He’d had his fair share of wolf fights over the years, and he never backed down from a fight another wolf started.
Before he tore into the wolf and killed him for the unprovoked attack, Eric ran off, his tail straight out behind him, not tucked between his legs. It was his way of saying he wasn’t afraid in the least, but he wasn’t going to fight him.
Even so, the wolf doggedly tracked him, though Eric had a good lead on him by several hundred feet, until he heard another wolf growling and snarling at his attacker. Eric figured the other wolf was warning the alpha that the wolf he was chasing had just helped them out, and he didn’t want him fighting Eric. Or maybe they were afraid Eric would get suspicious of their activities because one of them had attacked him.
Then the woods were quiet. Eric assumed the guard wolf and the other wolf had caught up to their people.
His shoulder and flank still burning where the wolves had bitten him, Eric finally stopped and listened to the sound of the breeze rustling the tree limbs and crickets chirping. He heard an owl hooting in a tree several hundred feet away.
Despite how much he hurt, the woman in the blue gown—Pepper—fascinated him. He was dying to know more about the mystery wolf pack and this woman who had pinned him with a look that said she was in charge and he’d better mind. She could challenge him any day. He couldn’t help but love it. Then he wondered if the wolf who had attacked him was the one who wanted to mate her.
Ah, hell, that would be his luck. He wasn’t into stealing another wolf’s potential mate—at least not normally.
Still, he was dying to check out the wolf smells at the campsite. But he had to take care of his injuries first.
When he reached his truck, he shifted, got his clothes out, and quickly threw on his briefs, jeans, socks and boots.
Tomorrow early, he’d go back to the campsite.