Establishing a fixed path for the message delivery through a wireless network is impossible due to the mobility. Among the number of routing protocols that have been proposed for wireless ad-hoc networks, the AODV(Ad-hoc On-demand Distance Vector) algorithm is suitable in the case of highly dynamic topology changes, along with ZigBee Routing(ZBR), with the exception of route maintenance. Accordingly, this paper introduces a routing scheme focusing on the energy efficiency and route discovery time for wireless alarm systems using IEEE 802.15.4-based ZigBee. Essentially, the proposed routing algorithm utilizes a cluster structure and applies ZBR within a cluster and DSR (Dynamic Source Routing) between clusters. The proposed algorithm does not require a routing table for the cluster heads, as the inter-cluster routing is performed using DSR. The performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated and compared with ZBR using an NS2 simulator. The results confirm that the proposed Cluster-based AODV (CAODV) algorithm is more efficient than ZBR in terms of the route discovery time and energy consumption.