Alpha Wolf Need Not Apply (5 page)

“I earned a bachelor's degree in forest ecosystem management and conservation,” Pepper said to the Scouts. “After that, I worked on a forest inventory project and timber cruising, which means I examined a stand of timber to determine its potential value. What I do now is make presentations, like to all of you. One of the things I do is show people how to identify trees.” She paused and motioned to them. “Come with me.”

She led them to a pine tree and explained how to tell it was a red pine. Then she pointed off in the distance and said, “That slender tree—the quaking aspen—provides one of the most beautiful fall colors, turning gold in the autumn. It also protects other tree seedlings—such as spruce, fir, and pine trees—from the hot, dry sun so they have a chance to grow up big and tall.”

“She's good,” the Scoutmaster said to Eric. “We've had her come out and speak to us for about five years now. Every time she comes, she lectures about something different and the kids love her.”

Five years? If only Eric had known she'd been coming here all that time. He had either been working at another national forest or had stayed in his pack's own wolf territory. Besides, he could have run for years in the park's million acres and not come across her. This was Eric's first year to do this with Scouts, and he hoped the kids would enjoy his lecture just as much. He did work with the kids in their pack on the kinds of things she was discussing with the Scouts. Everyone who had some field of expertise in the Silver pack shared their knowledge with the homeschooled kids.

But more importantly, he hoped Ms. Grayling lived in the general vicinity and wasn't actively courting a wolf or doing anything illegal. He hadn't felt this kind of initial attraction to another she-wolf in years. Despite her telling him she hadn't needed his help, he'd felt a connection right away. Maybe because he'd challenged her authority, which had seemed to intrigue her a bit.

He followed her, listening to her talk in case she had some good ideas he could use in teaching the kids in his pack. Since they were wolves, they also taught how to smell for certain signs of decay or injury to trees, and how to identify the smell of different trees and of birds and other animals.

Pepper brought the boys up close to a tree and showed where a woodpecker had been pecking for insects. She pulled out her iPad and showed them pictures of the kinds of woodpeckers that could have pecked away at the tree. Then she pointed out some of the insects crawling about the tree bark and the difference between healthy and diseased trees.

“See the fungus on this tree? Sometimes you'll see these fanlike fungi growing on dying or dead trees. The pine beetle borers have really destroyed a lot of pine trees in Colorado, and they multiply so quickly, we have to catch them right away or we lose the tree. So the park service now uses insecticides to protect the pine trees. The beetles are attracted to the sap. If a pine tree has been damaged because of lightning, humans, drought, disease, or other insect damage, even a woodpecker pecking on it, this increases its chance of being attacked by pine beetles.

“We want the trees to remain healthy, so we remove the diseased ones from the forest.” Then she began showing them pictures of evergreen tree varieties at a Christmas tree farm and asked which kind of tree they'd like best if they got to cut one down for Christmas. Or even better, have a living tree they could plant outside after Christmas.

Eric was impressed with all she was qualified to talk about, and he did get a couple of ideas to add to his homeschool lectures, but she had him beat on the show-and-tell aspects of her talk.

“We also manage the deer to ensure the forest survives. The deer population had destroyed the forest. Here's a video of how a few wolves were introduced into the area and how they helped the forest to grow back. The wolves only killed off a few deer to sustain their pack, but the deer quit eating the trees in the areas where the wolves were and the trees began to grow. Lots of wildlife lives in the forest, so the wolves made a really big impact on the return of wildlife to the area.”

Now the kids were really in awe. Eric was too while he watched over their shoulders as the wolves chased after the deer and the trees had a chance to renew. Other animals began to return to the forest, and the trees helped to stabilize the riverbanks and changed the course of the rivers, making them deeper and healthier too. Which allowed for the increase of bird and other wildlife populations such as the beavers to return.

“We have programs for kids to study shrubs and trees, to learn more about how important our natural resources are to us.” She pulled a tiny pine tree out of the side pocket of her backpack. The roots were wrapped in wet newspaper and sitting in a plastic bag. She unwrapped the roots and showed the boys what they looked like. “One tiny sapling,” she said, rewrapping the roots in the damp newspaper and motioning to the forest surrounding them, “is just the beginning of the growth of an entire forest. How many of you have been to the amusement park Wally Land?”

Several of the kids raised their hands.

“Well, big companies and small ones and individuals like yourselves can help to reforest acreage that has been burned off during a major fire. Over seven hundred acres in a Colorado national forest are being replanted with the help of Wally and others. Trees produce oxygen, the air that we breathe, so it's important to have our national forests to help take the carbon dioxide out of the air.”

Which had Eric's thoughts winging back to the weed growing in the park.

He smelled his brother's scent and looked around to see him watching the show. Sarandon raised his brows a little and smiled at him. Eric wondered what
he'd
brought for show-and-tell. But his brother probably realized that if Eric was listening in on the she-wolf's talk with such interest, he was intrigued by more than Pepper's lecture.

The Scoutmaster thanked Pepper for her talk, and Eric was afraid she'd leave before he could speak with her privately about last night. He was going to suggest Sarandon go first, but the Scoutmaster introduced Eric next.

Eric thought the kids would be interested in some of his adventures, so they were what he'd planned to discuss. No show-and-tell.

“As a national park ranger, I give lectures like Ms. Grayling does as a forester. A number of accidents occur every summer in the park, so part of my job is search and rescue, fire safety, first aid, and the like. Last year the rangers had 190 search-and-rescue operations. Search and rescue are really two separate missions. In the one, the visitor is missing and it can be really difficult to locate the individual. Lots and lots of acreage. Lots of trees. Cold nights. High-altitude sickness for those not used to the area. Just lots of dangers for someone who gets lost and doesn't have the survival skills needed to last out in the wilderness for any length of time.

“Often someone who is lost will think they can find their way out or reach a location that will help others find them. We might have some idea of where they were initially, but if they continue to move, our search area grows wider and wider with each passing hour and the person is more difficult to locate.”

“Hug a tree,” one of the boys said. “We learned about a nine-year-old boy who died in the mountains and so some of the searchers started a Hug-a-Tree and Survive program.”

“Right. If you're lost, hug a tree. That way you know you're not alone. Talk to the tree.”

Some of the kids laughed.

“Seriously. If you're all by yourself and feeling scared, talk to a tree. Let him know how you're feeling. Give him a hug. It can make a world of difference. By staying put, you won't fall and injure yourself. Or stay with a vehicle if it breaks down somewhere. The vehicle can protect you from the cold winds, for one thing. We had a case where the woman and kids stayed with the car during a snowstorm. Their vehicle had gotten stuck in a snowdrift. The woman's husband went looking for help. The husband died because of the freezing weather conditions. His wife and kids were fine, and we found them much more quickly than we found him. So it's really important to stay put.

“We also conduct rescue missions. Often we have highly trained rescue specialists. But sometimes the park ranger is the first one on the scene and must give first aid. We deal with falls, avalanches, rock slides, snow, ice, and vehicle accidents. But we also help animals when we can.

“Last winter, I got a call that a deer was stuck on six-inch-thick lake ice. He kept slipping and falling, and couldn't stand up. For us, walking across ice can be treacherous enough, but to approach a wild animal on ice is downright dangerous. There's also the possibility of the ice breaking through. I watched for a long time before I approached the deer, hoping he'd make it out on his own.” Eric also knew the deer would smell Eric's wolf half and was afraid he would frighten it further.

“I donned an ice rescue suit and slowly made my way across the ice. I tried to shoo the deer away, but he just couldn't make it on his own. I finally lassoed his antlers, shuffled back to shore, and then pulled the deer to shore. I tugged off the lasso before he ran off, and then he disappeared into the forest.”

“Cool,” one of the kids said.

Eric could see his deer story was more fascinating than the pine tree sapling, but maybe not as entertaining as the wolves changing the course of the river.

“Then another time, a man from south Texas was snowshoeing in the Rockies alone. You have buddies when you go places, don't you?”

“Yeah, we always have to take a buddy,” one boy said. “Even to go to the bathroom.”

“Right. It's really safer to go with a buddy. And that's for your protection. So he had no buddy, but he had his cell phone with him. He called, told us his location, and wanted to get directions. We gave them to him, assuming he would manage to get out on his own as confident as he sounded, but a little while later, he called back. He had become so disoriented, he didn't know which way he was going. Worse, he wasn't prepared for the cold at night. And as the temperature dropped, he was afraid he wouldn't make it out at all.” Eric paused to ask, “What's your Scout motto?”

“Be prepared,” all the boys chimed in.

“Right, so what would you have done if you were him?” Eric asked.

“Taken a buddy.”

“Had warm clothes and lots of food.” The other kids laughed at that.

“So you had to go and rescue him?” one of the boys asked.

“Yeah. Me and three other rangers. We followed his fresh snowshoe tracks and located him in a heavily forested area near a creek. It took us three hours to hike him out.”

“Was he tired?”

“He was. We brought warm clothes and food for him, and just being with people who knew where they were going lifted his spirits.”

Because of the severity of summer storms, Eric wanted to talk about lightning and the dangers for the kids hiking in the backcountry during school break. Even as recently as last night, they'd had a huge storm pop up in the area. “You might have been out here during your summer camping when a thunderstorm cropped up. You should always move to a safe place—a building or vehicle—and avoid hilltops, ridges, or flat, open areas. Once, a group of people clustered together beneath a tree to protect themselves from the rain. In a similar case, a group of cattle did the same thing. In both situations, the lightning hit the trees, and the electricity spread through them and across the ground beneath them. All of the people and the cattle were hit by the lightning.

“You want to seek shelter under a thick growth of small trees in a low area, rather than stand beneath a single tall tree. You don't want to hold on to anything metal—like a bicycle, metal fence, or metal canoe. The same with water. You want to get out of water immediately if a lightning storm comes up. If you're in a canoe, take it to shore, and tuck yourself close to a rock overhang or anything that can provide protection.”

The kids started asking him a million different questions. Had he rescued a bear cub? Was he ever attacked by a cougar? Who else did he rescue? Did he ever get struck by lightning?

Of course, his first thought was about trying to rescue the wolf last night and then being attacked by a wolf later. But those were the kinds of stories he couldn't tell.

He glanced at Pepper to see her smiling as she stood next to his brother. At first, Eric was so distracted by the boys' questions that he didn't think about what Sarandon could be telling her. Maybe just about himself or the Silver pack. But what if he was telling her about him?

Eric didn't want her to hear about Sarandon's version of him.

Pepper had to admit that Eric had wowed the kids. And her too. She was in charge of protecting the forests. But he protected them, the people visiting them, and the animals that made the forests their home. She admired that about him. And she loved how good he was with the kids—a true storyteller. He didn't act like he wanted to tell his story and go, but instead hung around to answer all their questions. She couldn't help but see him in a new light.

She got the impression he really was interested in her lecture, which won her over a little more. Sarandon was a real outdoorsman like Eric, and the two brothers seemed to be really close. Family meant everything to her and so she liked that about them.

She also appreciated the fact that Eric had known just what to do when he learned Susan had been injured. Pepper always had to make all the decisions for the pack, so it was nice to meet someone else capable of doing so—as far as carrying Susan back to camp. She suspected that with the kind of work Eric did, he was always ready for any contingency.

She was amused that Sarandon was telling her all about Eric, as if he was the best brother anyone could have. She thought he was giving her a sales pitch and realized Eric must have said something about her that made Sarandon go straight to priming the pump. But how did he know Eric had met her? She hadn't given Eric her name when she'd met him the other night, and Sarandon hadn't been here when the Scoutmaster was making introductions.

“Eric wanted to tell you he hadn't meant to intrude on you and your pack last night,” Sarandon said.

“We appreciated his concern.”

Sarandon looked surprised to hear it. “Yeah, well, he understands why you'd have a guard wolf protecting your backs and that the wolf was only doing his job. So Eric wanted to let him know there were no hard feelings. Most of all, he wanted to learn how the injured woman was faring.”

“Susan is all right. She was going to call him this morning and thank him, but she might have still been sleeping. Thankfully, it was just a hairline fracture. It should heal quickly. As to the guard wolf? We weren't sure that was Eric he attacked—at first. But the wolf doesn't belong to my pack. He's from another one.” She wasn't going to say anything more. She had no intention of getting tangled up with a new wolf pack when she was having trouble with another. And she didn't want the two alpha males to duke it out, thinking her pack and lands were the prize.

She studied the two spots of blood on Eric's shirt, indicating he'd been bitten twice, and had smelled fresh blood when he stood closer to her. That bothered her. She could see that Waldron could become a real danger to another male who was the least bit interested in her. But she was certain Eric had been wounded before the confrontation with Waldron. As to this business with Waldron, she couldn't allow him to intimidate other wolves. “Did Waldron hurt him badly?”

“Nah. Eric just had a couple of stitches.”

She thought it must have been worse if Eric was still bleeding from the wounds. And he probably wouldn't have gone to see a doctor if he'd only needed a couple of stitches. Worse, his face was flushed and she swore he was running a fever. Yet here he was, giving his lecture to the kids and looking like he really loved his job, despite how under the weather he must be feeling.

“He looks like he's running a fever.”

Sarandon didn't deny or confirm her comment.

She glanced at him. The brothers were similar in appearance: both had dark brown hair and eyes, but Eric was taller by at least an inch. Six-one, she guessed. Eric was dressed in a park ranger uniform, shirt and shorts, making him look dashing and official. He had the sexiest legs—well-defined calf muscles that said he was a runner, good-looking knees, and well-developed thighs. His brother was wearing jeans, a brown T-shirt, and hiking boots, looking casual and carefree.

Sarandon was studying Eric, a frown furrowing his brow.

“Shouldn't he be home in bed?” she asked.

Sarandon sighed. “I thought so, but he didn't want to disappoint the boys.”

She admired Eric for wanting to speak to the boys when he would have felt better resting up. If the roles were reversed, what would she have done? Probably stayed home. Mostly because she had a pack to run and couldn't afford to be sick long-term.

Eric concluded his talk and introduced his brother before the Scoutmaster could. Then he stalked toward Pepper as if he had a new mission in mind, while Sarandon smiled at him and took his place in front of the boys.

“Sorry if I concerned you and the others last night,” Eric said. “I only wanted to offer my assistance, as I would with anyone who needed help in the park.”

“How bad are your bite wounds?” Pepper asked, ignoring his comment. She wanted to get to the point of the matter. As far as she was concerned, he shouldn't be here. Sleeping and resting would help him heal faster.
Lupus garous
might have faster healing capabilities than humans, but they still could prolong the healing process if they didn't take care of themselves.

“It's no big deal.”

Typical macho alpha male. “How many stitches?” She didn't believe he'd had only a couple. She'd been worried last night about her cousin and concerned about another alpha wolf hassling her, and she realized she must have sounded a lot harsher than she had intended. Now that she knew Eric truly was with the park service and one of his jobs as a ranger was to ensure visitors to the park remained safe—so in reality, he belonged there—she wished she had schooled her emotions a little better.

She was still angry that Waldron had attacked him. Even if Eric had been a problem for her, he would have been
her
problem to deal with, not Waldron's. His actions were tantamount to proclaiming she was his. She wouldn't soon forget the anger in Waldron's expression either. He didn't like that she had bitten him, telling him to leave the other wolf alone. To leave her alone. She hadn't liked his response, and she worried it would escalate.

“How many stitches did I get? Now you're sounding like my brother.” Eric smiled at her, not answering her question.

She didn't smile back. She wasn't going to let him make light of it. “You're running a fever, and you have two spots of blood on your uniform.”

He glanced down at his uniform. “Ah, hell.”

“How many stitches?”

“The guy was just doing his job.”

She was impressed that Eric was protecting Waldron's reputation. “You're thinking he's one of my…people?”

“Sure.” Eric frowned at her. “Isn't he? Why else would a… Wait, he's a suitor? I thought maybe he was your mate.”

She saw the change in expression. She knew that look. He had to have considered that Waldron might have been a suitor, not a pack member. “No.”

“An unwelcome suitor?”

She gave Eric her pack leader look that said she didn't want to discuss suitors and to back off.

If Eric had been a beta, he would have done just that: looked a little chagrined and turned to watch his brother talking about identifying butterflies. Sarandon had pulled out pictures that their cousin, a professional photographer, had taken of butterflies and was explaining about the various kinds.

Instead of backing off, Eric smiled at her. Just a little. Like he was glad her potential wolf suitor—who was really just a stalker as far as she was concerned—wasn't the one for her. Like he was hoping he might have a chance with her if she wasn't interested in the other wolf.

“Well, that's good to know,” Eric said, ultraserious. “Then if he bites at me the next time, I won't hold back.”

She didn't want Eric to get the notion he could court her next. But she hadn't expected him to say what he did. It was understandable, but she hadn't expected that response. She certainly didn't want the wolves fighting over her.

She had been happily running her pack for seven years on her own. Real she-wolves were known to do that. And she'd never met a male wolf she'd been remotely interested in. Harold had been the perfect mate, coleading the pack in perfect harmony with her. Well, if she could call it coleading. He had looked rough and tough as male wolves go, although he had really been just a beta. But he had been perfect as far as being mostly agreeable.

The only thing she had regretted was that their mating had never produced offspring. But two of the women in her pack had twins, and another had one child—all males. She didn't have to have children of her own, because she played with and helped take care of all the kids so much that they were like her own.

On the other hand, she didn't want Eric to believe he had to take that kind of beating from another wolf, just so the other wolf wouldn't hassle her. Even so, she couldn't tell Eric what to do if Waldron was intent on fighting him. “With regard to Waldron, be my guest. Maybe another male wolf could knock some sense into him.”

She doubted it. When two males wanted the same thing, one could kill the other. That's the way it was in the wolves' world. Then she looked at Eric and asked, “Where did you get the other wound?” She wasn't sure why she hadn't considered it could be something other than a bite wound. What were the odds that he'd had an earlier wolf fight with some other wolf in the park or elsewhere?

“Nothing important,” he said.

She didn't believe him. Maybe he'd injured himself on the job, but she doubted it.

“One time, I had a group ask me to take them on a hike through the mountains in search of Bigfoot,” Sarandon said to the boys, drawing her attention away from Eric.

“Did you find him?” one of the boys asked.

“Nah. If he exists, he didn't want to be found.” Sarandon started talking about other guided tours he'd taken people on.

“Are you from this area?” Eric asked Pepper. “The Scoutmaster said you'd been presenting programs for five years.”

“Nope. Not from this area.” Which was true. They weren't originally from this area.

Again, he cast her an elusive smile.

She smiled back this time. Their conversation reminded her of a cat-and-mouse game between wolves. He wanted to know where she and her pack were located without asking overtly. As a wolf, he'd easily picked up on her reluctance to get to know him better—the scent she was giving off, her arms folded defensively, her focus on Sarandon and the boys. Though when she did turn her attention to Eric, her eye contact was direct—total alpha posturing. She suspected he had already checked her cabin reservations, since he could as a member of the staff. He could even use Susan's injury as the excuse to get in touch with her. Pepper was glad she'd only used their P.O. box.

“First time to actually camp in the park?” he asked.

“We've been here before. But it's been maybe five years since the last time.”

“To…the campsite or the park?”

She chuckled. “The campsite. We've been to the park, but not all together as a pack.”

“Lots of times?”

“Yes.” Which meant she lived nearby, and he would deduce that. Which made her wonder why she hadn't run into him before. “Have you come here a lot?”

“No. I've only worked here since Thanksgiving. Before that, I worked jobs in Silver Town—with the ski resort and elsewhere. We have our own lands to run on and I've visited most of the national parks at some time or another, but I wouldn't have come anywhere near campsites when I was running as a wolf. Now I'm regretting that I hadn't been up here more. I must have gotten extra lucky last night.”

“Right. And you have the wound to prove it.” She couldn't help but be annoyed with Waldron all over again. Where had he been when Susan needed help? He'd only been around to annoy Pepper and injure another wolf who had helped her out.

Eric shrugged it off. “No big deal. I wouldn't have bothered seeing Doc, but I felt it wouldn't hurt to get some antibiotics.”

“I can't believe you have a doctor in your pack.” That was the only thing she really wished. That they had a wolf doctor who could take care of injuries or sickness and delivering babies, instead of going to a human doctor for their care.

“Doc Weber takes any wolf patients. Humans too, but he transfers them out as soon as he can. We run Silver Town. As a pack.”

She closed her gaping mouth. She knew of Silver Town, but she really couldn't believe they ran the whole town. She'd never had any reason to visit. Then she wondered about Eric's name. Maybe he was the pack leader and didn't need to be a leader of anyone else's pack. Wouldn't that be a joke on her when she'd been worried about his intentions?

“Silver? Any relation to the town's name and founding fathers?”

“Yeah, my cousin Darien and his mate, Lelandi, are the pack leaders. He has two brothers and I have three. Our family started the town in the old days. It was first a silver mining town. Since then, we've done tours of the mountain in the mining cars, and we started a ski resort. We don't have a lot of accommodations for out-of-town skiers. Mainly we to try to keep the non-wolf ski population from visiting since we're rather remote from other Colorado cities.”

“Yeah, I know. That's probably why I've never been there. It's not on any of the main highways. I never even considered that it would be wolf-run. Or that any pack would run a town.”

“It's perfect for raising kids. If you and your pack ever need a home, I'm certain Darien and Lelandi would welcome you to the town.”

“No, thanks. We're fine.”

“I thought the male who attacked me ran the pack you were with.”

“He'd like to, I'm sure, but no.”

“Then you run it?”

“Yes.”

“Alone?” Eric had such a speculative gleam in his dark-brown eyes, his lips curving imperceptibly, that she figured he was putting all the puzzle pieces together.