SEAL Wolf In Too Deep(89)
She was so angry, she could have killed Waldron for his unwarranted actions.
When she spied Waldron still chasing after Eric, she tore into Waldron, growling and snapping to let him know just how angry he’d made her. He whipped around as if to attack, then recognized her, and realized he’d lose any chance he had with courting and mating her—not that he had any—so he backed off. From his narrow-eyed, harsh gaze, she could tell he was irritated to the max with her. If he could have, he would have continued to hunt the other wolf down and finished him off. She worried about Eric—she smelled his blood on Waldron. How badly had Waldron hurt Eric?
But she knew Eric had been injured even before this because she’d smelled both an antiseptic and blood on him when she first met him.
She listened, but didn’t hear any sign of Eric. Growling at Waldron again, she turned and ran off. She continued to pay attention to the sounds around her, making sure he wasn’t following her back to their campsite. She didn’t want to have to say a word to him about any of this when she reached camp. Her only intent at that point was seeing that Susan was taken care of.
She wondered if he’d gone after Eric again when she didn’t hear him follow her.
As for Eric, she already had trouble with one alpha male wanting to court her. She sure didn’t need a second one bugging her, if Eric had any such notion. Still, she felt badly Waldron had attacked him, and she really hoped he wasn’t hurt too seriously.
*
Later that night, after a doctor had x-rayed Susan’s leg and found her cousin had suffered a hairline fracture, Susan and Pepper settled on the couches for a late night glass of wine and chips at Pepper’s home in the woods. Susan had her wrapped leg propped up on Pepper’s coffee table to help reduce the swelling.
“You should have played in the creek with us instead running off and starting a rock slide,” Pepper said, unable to let go of the annoyance over Waldron. “It would have been safer that way.” Had Waldron been watching the women playing in the creek before he attacked Eric? Most likely. She was certain Waldron wouldn’t have been spying on the rest of the pack.
She still couldn’t believe that Eric Silver had stood up to her about taking Susan to see his own pack’s doctor. The challenge in his whole expression had said he didn’t agree with her and that he wanted to do things his way. She didn’t know anything about his pack, and she had no intention of relying on a doctor she didn’t know. She and her pack might not have a wolf doctor, but they trusted the human ones they saw. Not that their doctors knew anything about the lupus garous.
She still could envision Eric finally bowing his head in concession, giving in to her ruling.
“Yeah, but then the most handsome of wolves wouldn’t have carried me back to the cabin,” Susan replied. “I couldn’t believe it when Richard told Eric he couldn’t take me to see their doctor. Their pack actually has a doctor! Now how cool is that?”
“Cool.” Pepper thought it was great, but she didn’t want to get involved with another pack. She was surprised there was another pack living only four hours south of where she and her people lived. Still, since each pack tended to run in their own territory, Pepper could see how they wouldn’t have encountered each other before.
Susan snorted. “You wouldn’t know a hot wolf if he knocked you down and licked you all over.” Susan smiled. “Now that gives me some interesting ideas. Let’s see.” She lifted her phone off the table.
Pepper wondered what she was up to.
“He said his name was Eric Silver, and he’s a park ranger.” Susan pulled up an Internet browser. “Yep, here he is. Giving a lecture to a group of senior citizens. With his dark hair and eyes, his height, and that gorgeous smile, he looks like every woman’s fantasy.” She sighed dreamily. “And,” she said in a pointed way, “he’s all smiles with the gray-haired women and men, so he wasn’t putting on a show just for you.”
“He wasn’t putting on a show for me. He wanted me to do what he said. If he’d wanted to put a show on for me, he wouldn’t have suggested taking you to Silver Town.”
“He’s clearly an alpha wolf, not a beta. And he’s a park ranger, so he knows something about taking care of people in the park who are injured.” Then Susan frowned. “Ohmigod, you don’t think he’s the wolf Waldron attacked, do you?”
“Yeah, he was. Though I’m surprised Eric returned to our campsite as a wolf.”
“See? He’s interested in you. Or, well, maybe he ditched his clothes somewhere nearby and was watching us as a wolf. Although”—Susan elongated the word, putting her phone over her heart and looking up at the ceiling—“in my fantasy of him, he would be thinking only of me and not you.”
Pepper laughed.
“Did you bite Waldron?” Susan asked. “Richard said you took off after him and you smelled of blood when you returned. Not your blood. I was in the car by then and missed out on all the action.”
“Waldron was chasing him, though I didn’t see any sign of the wolf. Waldron had bitten him, and I had to do something to get Waldron’s attention. He was definitely in hunting mode and determined to catch hold of his prey.”
“And kill him?” Susan sounded horrified.
“If he could have gotten hold of him, I’d say that was a good bet.” That brought back memories of the alpha who had killed her mate—though her mate had been a beta—and Pepper shuddered.