Her brother, Dale, shook his hand and smiled. “We wondered what made you so special when Becky fell so hard for you so quickly.”

  “We just hit it off,” Becky said. “We chased off a cougar together, like the same movies, enjoy playing with each other as wolves. I love helping him with his cases and he’s totally accommodating, which is refreshing. I love him with all my heart, and I couldn’t imagine not being with him.”

  “I never thought I would find a she-wolf who can help me solve mystery cases. I love puzzle-solving and I would never have believed my blind date would be helping me to find a missing dog—one of the cases I was working on. Or that she would be checking me out to see if I could handle a case for her boss, though she didn’t even realize that was what she was doing.”

  “No, I was too busy thinking about next dates and where this might lead,” Becky said.

  “To mated bliss,” Max said. “I couldn’t be happier that you chose me.”

  “I feel the same way about you for me.”

  “So this all came about in truth because Pamela knew Becky’s mother was a wolf and had rescued her, and then hired Becky and thought you were a wolf too?” Becky’s dad asked as they sat down to the meal.

  “Yeah. It was a mystery I had to keep unraveling. The only thing that wasn’t a mystery was my attraction to Becky. Once I’d met her, I just couldn’t think of anything else. Well, my job, sure, but I was fortunate that my job often entailed spending more time with Becky. I think Pamela planned it that way.”

  “We gave Becky such a hard time about going on a blind date, even if her boss was the one who had set it up,” her sister said.

  “Yeah, you should have seen the last blind date I went on. It was not good,” her brother said. “So we thought it would turn out the same for Becky.”

  “Well, you know I went out with your dad on a blind date. Not the kind like you went on. At least with him, I knew he would be a wolf. We had so much fun. We knew that it was fate,” Becky’s mother said.

  “I still don’t want to go on another,” her brother said. “The problem is that we need to have a dating service for wolves.”

  “Oh, yeah, now that’s something that you should set up,” her sister said.

  Becky laughed. “Mom, you never told us you went on a blind date with Dad.”

  “Yeah, it was just something we never thought we would do. After meeting your dad, I ended up rescuing Pamela as a young girl, and after that, your dad and I mated. He thought the world of me for saving the girl. He’d been at my house that day, planning to have lunch. We had the meal cooking in the slow cooker, and he was working on a cake for later when I heard a girl call out that she was ‘queen of the ice.’ I told your dad I had to go and check it out. He was about to pull the cake out of the oven, but it had to bake just a few more minutes, so he couldn’t go with me right away.

  “As a wolf, I had watched her before when she’d play on the ice, an only child, no supervision, worried she might fall through the pond during the spring thaw. Running as a wolf was the fastest way for me to get there. When I arrived, she saw me, the ice cracked with a deafening sound to our ears—and she went into the water. I didn’t have any time to think. I just reacted. In retrospect, I wouldn’t have done anything any differently. In the back of my mind, I knew the danger we were in when I did it, but I figured that she was young enough, and since she had suffered from hypothermia, we could convince her that she hadn’t seen what she thought she had. I was trying to run her back to the house, but she was soaking wet, chilled to the bone, and so was I. That’s when I howled as a human for your dad to come and help me. He met me three-quarters of the way home and took her from me so I could shift, stay out of sight, and head home and warm myself at the same time.”

  “Apparently, she knew just what had occurred all along,” Becky said, “and in the end, it was lucky for us. She joined our kind and found her mate. And I found mine.”

  The family agreed.

  Max squeezed Becky’s hand in agreement. “And I found mine.”

  She loved him and she was glad he loved her just as much in return.

  Epilogue

  When Becky and Max met with her parents and Pamela and Christopher for dinner at her parents’ home, it was a tearful but joyous reunion.

  Becky’s mom hugged Pamela. “I hadn’t mated yet when I rescued you in the pond. You don’t know how many times I watched you as a wolf from the woods, making sure you remained safe until you returned home. I could never understand how your parents would allow you to roam through the woods on your own and play on the frozen pond or even go swimming by yourself. So I observed you in case you needed rescuing. Then that one day, I heard you playing, calling out to your imaginary friends, declaring you were ‘queen of the ice,’ and I had to watch over you. I never expected you to fall through the ice!”

  “That was her maternal instinct,” her dad said, “before her own children were even conceived. I knew she’d make the perfect mate.”

  “And the perfect mom,” Becky said, her siblings agreeing.

  “Did you ever wish you hadn’t rescued me because of all the trouble I caused for you?” Pamela asked, giving Becky’s dad a hug too.

  “No, never. I would never have forgiven myself if I hadn’t at least tried to save you.” Robyn began serving up the chicken legs and baked potatoes while Becky and her sister and brother began pitching in.

  Pamela smiled. “I loved you both for it. Truly. All I could talk about was how much you had meant to me. My parents got sick of hearing of it. Even so, my dad wanted to reward you for saving me. They made sure my nanny wouldn’t allow me out on my own any further, which was a pain, but I still sneaked out when I could, all because I wanted to see the wolf again who had saved me.”

  “I was there. Watching. But you never went on the pond in winter again.”

  Pamela smiled. “Nope, I learned my lesson that time.”

  Everyone was overjoyed to welcome Pamela—and Christopher—to the family, because in Robyn saving her, Pamela had become part of it. Becky realized Pamela was like a big sister to her, and not just her employer any longer.

  In the weeks that followed, Becky and Max had set up house at her place, and he had sold his own home to another pack member looking to have a home on the boundary of the pack’s property. Pamela had replaced all her former staff with wolves. Her former staff was happy to receive all the money she had given them to start new jobs, and everyone had found new employment because of her praiseworthy accounts of their service—except for two who were happy to retire.

  Becky was thrilled that Pamela had found her husband, her mate, and had become part of a wolf family, finally living the dream that had haunted her for so many years. Even Becky’s parents and her sister and brother were glad to welcome her into the family after Robyn and William had saved her life so long ago.

  But more than anything, Becky was thrilled to have found her own mate—on a blind date, no less.

  Max was so thrilled to be working at the new job for Pamela, another fellow wolf, and so thrilled to be part of the bigger family.

  Ryan and Carol had wanted to grow their pack in Green Valley. Instead of losing some of their wolves to work on Pamela’s staff in Mountain View, they had effectively extended their pack territory to her city. All of them wanted to take part in celebrations with the rest of the pack. That wasn’t something Pamela had anticipated, and she was overjoyed to be included in all these new experiences. Best of all, she was planning her own wolf party to be held at her estate.

  * * *

  Max would always be grateful to Pamela for bringing him together with Becky, the love of his life, his mate forever, and the joy they shared. Not a minute went by that he didn’t thank his lucky stars for that first blind date that had changed so many lives. And all in a good way.

  He loved Becky and she adored him, and now when they went on runs through the woods, they often saw other wolves of her staff, and Pamela and Christopher themselves, running too. The cougar that had chased them that one day? He was out of there for good. The wolves ruled!

  About the Author

  Bestselling and award-winning author Terry Spear has written over sixty paranormal romance novels and four medieval Highland historical romances. Heart of the Wolf, her first werewolf romance, was named a 2008 Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year, and her subsequent titles have garnered high praise and hit the USA Today bestsellers list. A retired officer of the U.S. Army Reserves, Terry lives in Spring, Texas, where she is working on her next werewolf romance, continuing with her Highland medieval romances, and having fun with her young adult novels. When she’s not writing, she’s photographing everything that catches her eye, making teddy bears, and playing with her Havanese puppies.

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  Terry Spear, SEAL Wolf Pursuit

 

 

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