She growled back and he knew she wanted to go with him. But he didn’t want her to get shot. Dylan and Roxie were in their wolf forms, and he wouldn’t blame Xander if, in this instance, he saw them and thought he had to defend himself and shot at them.

  Roxie looked ready for action, tense, her tail held still, her ears perked and listening to any sounds she might hear of anyone or anything in there. That was the other thing. Dylan didn’t want to disturb a bear if one should be hibernating or a cougar if one should be staying in there. He didn’t smell anything else, so he moved slowly into the cave. It was bigger than it appeared from the outside. Deeper in the recesses of the cave, he smelled Xander’s scent. And a bear’s. But the bear’s scent smelled like it was last season’s. Xander’s was recent. Then Dylan saw a body in a sleeping bag. Not stirring.

  Dylan moved closer and heard Xander’s slowed heartbeat and knew then the man was alive. Dylan also knew blood vessels and arteries would narrow in colder weather, reducing blood flow to the heart, which could mean Xander could suffer a heart attack. If he was hypothermic, he could be in serious trouble. Dylan was also worried about the hunter’s rifle and any other guns Xander might be armed with if he disturbed him to see if he was okay.

  Dylan found Xander’s rifle and picked it up in his teeth. Then he carried it out of the cave, dropped it in the snow, and shifted. “He’s in there,” Dylan whispered to Roxie. “He might be hypothermic, but I was afraid to get too close to check on him when his rifle was with him in the cave. He might have other weapons too.” He shifted back into his wolf coat to stay warm.

  She shifted. “Then we howl and if he comes out or stirs in there and makes any noise, we’ll know he’s all right. We’ll tear out of here and keep running until we’re far enough away and howl for help.” Then she shifted back into her wolf.

  Dylan woofed at her in agreement. He hoped Xander didn’t have any other guns packed away in the cave. He and she howled. He thought maybe someone might hear them. Some of their own kind would come to investigate, but it could take way too long, and he didn’t believe Xander had the time to wait it out.

  They watched the cave entrance but didn’t hear anyone rustling around inside. Either Xander was sleeping like the dead, or he was close to being dead.

  Dylan went back inside and discovered Xander hadn’t moved. That wasn’t a good sign. He wasn’t playing possum, Dylan didn’t think. He shifted and rushed over to check on Xander, hoping he didn’t have a gun tucked in his sleeping bag with him.

  A shadow moved in behind Dylan and he turned to see Roxie filling the entryway of the cave in her wolf form. He sighed deeply and hurried over to the man and turned him over. He found he was practically dead. Ah, hell. Dylan wanted him in jail or fined, not dead.

  Dylan said, “He’s barely alive.”

  Roxie shifted. “Okay, so we start a fire for him and one of us can lie with him and warm him.” Then she shifted back into her wolf. She moved into the cave to lie next to Xander like Rosco had done with Dylan after she’d pulled him from the swimming pool and he had been hypothermic.

  Dylan went through some of Xander’s bags and found some clothes, two handguns, an ax, a lighter, a canteen, and other camping items. As much as he didn’t want to wear Xander’s clothes that smelled of him, Dylan had to put them on if he was going to get a fire started and save the hunter’s life. After pulling on Xander’s spare camo pants and a sweatshirt, socks, and boots, Dylan slipped on Xander’s parka and was about to push his foot into one of the boots but felt something move inside it. Not an animal, but something else. He poured it out and found it was Xander’s cell phone. “Hot damn. I’ll call this in, then I’ll get some firewood.” He finished putting on Xander’s boots, then he left the cave to get a signal and called Peter, the phone nearly dead. “Hey, we found Xander. I’m calling from his cell phone.” He explained that he was in bad shape, suffering from severe hyperthermia. He gave Peter the coordinates for their location. “We’ll do the best we can to warm him up, but he needs medical attention right away.”

  “We’re on our way,” Peter said.

  The phone died. At least Peter knew the situation and where they were so he and others could come to help as soon as they could.

  As remote as it was out here, Dylan was glad the wolves knew the territory, unlike he did. He was certain Roxie would also be familiar with the area. Though she hadn’t been from here originally, so maybe not.

  “I’ll be right back with some firewood,” Dylan said to Roxie. He grabbed the hunting ax and hurried out of the cave to return to a fallen tree they’d passed in the woods nearby. The dead branches would be perfect for making a fire. He chopped away at it, glad Xander had an ax in his camping gear so Dylan could make short work of this.

  After Dylan had gathered what he thought would be a good start, he carried the armload of firewood to the cave. “I’m going to build the fire next to the entrance of the cave so we can ventilate the smoke,” he told Roxie. He used the lighter to start the fire, and it caught hold. He headed back into the cave so he could check on both Roxie and Xander.

  Xander appeared to be warming up some, thanks to Roxie’s wolf body heat. Dylan dug around in Xander’s things again and found a Beretta 92 pistol. “I’m going to chop up some more wood for the fire and put this somewhere for safekeeping. I’ll be right back.”

  Roxie nodded. Then he hurried off to get this done. He didn’t want Xander coming to and having a heart attack because a wolf was resting next to him. As Dylan headed outside and put the gun on a ledge next to the entrance of the cave, his next thought was about Fennel. What if Fennel had been caught out in these freezing temperatures, hadn’t found a cave like Xander had, and hadn’t survived? What if Jim had stranded the two men on purpose for just that reason? If his friends died, there would be no witnesses to testify against him to say he had killed Eddie. But Luke would still be a loose end. Well, and Dylan because Jim had tried to kill him, most likely because Jim thought he had also witnessed the murder. Maybe Jim thought that was why Dylan was tracking him in the first place. To arrest him for the murder, not for killing the elk.

  Dylan trudged through the snow again and finally reached the fallen tree and chopped away at it until he had some large chunks of wood to keep the fire going for a while.

  Then he returned to the cave and put the wood on the fire. He hoped Peter and the others wouldn’t take too long to get there.

  “I’m going to move Xander closer to the fire and pile everything he has got on top of him. It appears when he got hypothermia, he began peeling off some of his clothes.” Dylan dragged Xander in his sleeping bag over to the fire. Then Dylan pulled out every bit of clothing from Xander’s backpack and layered them on top of him. While Xander’s face and front of his body were facing the fire, Roxie instinctively stretched out to lie against his back to warm his backside as a wolf.

  Dylan warmed up some water from Xander’s canteen and tried to get Xander to drink some of it as he began to revive. “Who…hell,” Xander croaked out between parched lips when he saw it was Dylan.

  “Yeah, it’s me,” Dylan said, smiling a little. “I found the elk you and your friends killed. And your buddy Eddie.”

  Xander’s eyes widened.

  “I guess you thought you’d be gone well before his body was discovered. You almost joined him in death, by the way.”

  Xander must have felt the warmth at his back and tried to look over his shoulder to see what it was from.

  “That’s Roxie, my new search-and-rescue wolf dog. She has worked with police before and knows how to take suspects down. You’re lucky she was with me, or we wouldn’t have located you until it was too late. You were on death’s door,” Dylan said. He still could be. Dylan read him his rights, just in case Xander started to confess to what had happened.

  Xander drank some more of the water from the metal cup, then lay back down and closed his eyes. “What now?” He stuttered the raspy words because he was so cold and weary.

  “The sheriff, his men, and the EMTs are on their way, but it’s a bit of a trek out here. When we were tracking you, it looked like you got yourself turned around a few times.” Dylan was glad Xander hadn’t seemed to notice he was wearing some of his spare clothes. At least if Xander did, he didn’t say anything about it. How would Dylan have explained that?

  Xander grunted.

  “I don’t blame you really. You’re not from around here. If I hadn’t had an excellent scenting dog with me following the circles you made, I would never have found you.” Dylan also had the excellent scenting capabilities, but it truly was because of Roxie that he’d kept going with the search. “So what happened exactly when Eddie was shot?”

  Xander didn’t say a word. Not that Dylan expected him to confess. He had always lawyered up before, and this was an even more serious offense.

  An hour later, which seemed like forever, some of the men from the sheriff’s department and the EMTs arrived on snowmobiles. The EMTs checked Xander over and told him that Dylan and Roxie had saved his life. Then they put Xander on a sled and drove off. CJ Silver and Trevor Osgood followed the EMTs on snowmobiles as deputy sheriffs in charge of security.

  Dylan left the cave and returned with Xander’s rifle and pistol while Peter and Jake searched through Xander’s belongings. “We’re taking all his things with us as evidence,” Peter said.

  “I’m wearing some of his clothes,” Dylan said.

  “We gathered that you wouldn’t have been here as a human while Roxie was a wolf since you had been using Xander’s cell phone, not your own. Not to mention we smell his scent on the clothes and they look too small on you,” Jake said. “Roxie, we called your family to tell them that you and Dylan had been searching for one of the hunters and to let them know you and Dylan were both safe. Do you want to ride back with us?”

  “Yeah, we do.” Dylan wanted to search for Fennel’s scent, but he and Roxie had spent hours out here already, and his head was hurting again. He knew they both needed to get warm and take a break.

  Peter put out the fire and helped Jake gather the rest of the evidence, while Dylan pulled off Xander’s clothes and shifted. Jake took those clothes and put them on the sled.

  Together, Roxie and Dylan jumped on the sled tied to Jake’s snowmobile, and they headed back to the lodge. They took a logging road that led them to a bridge that crossed over the river, so no getting wet this time. Dylan curled up with Roxie and nuzzled her face. Two bad guys found—though the one was now a victim—one teen rescued, and two more bad guys to go. Well, three because they had to find the trapper too. Not too bad on this mission so far.

  When Jake parked the snowmobile at Roxie’s home, he cut the engine and said to them, “Our forensics specialists will be looking for blood on all of Xander’s clothes.”

  This worried Dylan because what if they discovered Eddie’s blood on the clothes Dylan had borrowed and found Dylan’s DNA on the clothes too? The hunters could make up a story that Dylan had stolen Xander’s clothes, pretending to be him, so angry that these men continued to break laws and get away with it that he killed Eddie in a fit of rage.

  Roxie leapt from the sled before anyone else could make a move and raced through the wolf door, opened the door, and peeked out. “Come inside. We all need to talk.” She closed the door, and they gave her a moment, figuring she was busy dressing.

  Then she opened the door and Dylan and Jake joined her inside and locked the door. She walked into the kitchen. “Hot cocoa for everyone?”

  “Yeah, thanks,” they both said while Dylan dressed in the living room.

  “So what do we do about this, Jake?” she asked as she made them mugs of double chocolate cocoa.

  Dylan noticed Roxie’s bra, panties, and socks near the coffee table and figured she’d dressed in a hurry to let them in. He tucked her undergarments under a couch cushion, hoping he wouldn’t forget he’d hidden them there.

  “Hopefully, there’s no blood spatter on the clothes Dylan was wearing, because if there was and Dylan’s DNA is now on his clothes, we couldn’t turn it over for evidence. In any event, you didn’t have a choice if you were to save Xander’s life. Once Xander is stabilized at the clinic, Peter will question him. You’re welcome to join him, Dylan, since technically this was your case in the beginning. Were you able to ask him anything at all?”

  “No, I just told him I found the elk they killed and then we found Eddie’s body. He looked surprised to hear it,” Dylan said. “And I read him his rights.”

  Roxie brought mugs of hot cocoa into the living room and then she turned on the mantel lights.

  Dylan started a fire in the fireplace, thinking how nice it was with Roxie like this after finding Xander alive and keeping him that way. Normally, Dylan would have gone home to an empty house, no decorations at all. Sure, he’d start a fire, but other than that, it was just…empty. He’d thought he liked it that way until he met Roxie. “I was afraid Xander was going to have a heart attack upon hearing the news. In retrospect, I shouldn’t have mentioned it, but I had hoped he would tell us what happened. At least his version, made-up or otherwise.”

  They took a seat on the couches.

  “A part of me wanted to see if we could find out where Fennel had gone and if we could learn anything about Jim or Eddie. Maybe because of his hypothermic condition, Xander wasn’t talking.” Dylan took a sip of the cocoa. “Wow, this is good.”

  “Everything’s better with double the chocolate,” Roxie said.

  “Boy, that’s for sure.” Then Dylan started talking about Xander again. “I suspect Xander will lawyer up once he has recovered more. They always do. Since this time Fennel and he are accessories to murder, the incentive to get off scot-free will be even greater. But yeah, as soon as Xander has recovered enough, I want to go with Peter while he speaks with him.”

  “Too bad he didn’t say if he knew where Fennel was. Well, I’ll let the two of you get washed and warmed up. Peter will let you know when he’s going to the clinic,” Jake said, then finished his cup. “Thanks for the cocoa.”

  “You’re welcome. Is anyone going to guard Xander’s room?” Roxie asked.

  “Yeah, we’re all pulling shifts for a couple of hours to make sure he doesn’t try to leave and no one tries to get to him,” Jake said. “Oh, and Doc said that when he put you on medical leave, that didn’t mean you were supposed to be taking long wolf runs in search of lawbreakers, Dylan.”

  “Uh, yeah, about that. Roxie and I were just going to stretch our legs as wolves, and we smelled Xander’s scent and had to follow it.” He figured that might come back to bite him.

  “Uh-huh, that was what I told Doc. He didn’t believe it for a minute. But by now he’s getting used to working with wolves. Dr. Summerfield and his pediatrician wife, Adelaide, had worked with humans before. So as wolf shifters, they’re thrilled to be here, but it’s been a new experience for them.”

  “Because of our enhanced healing abilities,” Dylan guessed.

  “Exactly. And our stubbornness to keep working when we should be resting.”

  “Well, I’ll try not to let it happen again,” Dylan said, though he really wanted to continue searching for Fennel, if he was still out in this weather.

  “I know what you’re thinking, but we’ve got more search parties out looking for Fennel.”

  “That’s good. I guess that means no helping out to guard Xander’s room then,” Dylan said, just throwing the notion out there.

  “Right. If someone attacked you and knocked you out, no telling what could happen to you the next time,” Jake said.

  Dylan reluctantly agreed.

  “Oh, we nearly forgot. We need to have someone pick up Luke’s stuff hanging in the trees where his tent was located before he decides to go back for them, worried someone might take them. One was a food bag and not sure what the other bag was for. He shouldn’t be out on his own until we catch these men,” Roxie said.

  “I agree. I’ll take care of it. Does Luke know they’re still out there?” Jake asked.

  “I don’t know… We’ll call him and tell him that you’re having someone pick the bags up so if he remembers them, he doesn’t try to go out by himself or with the other kids,” Roxie said.

  “Good idea. Darien texted everyone in the pack with Luke’s new phone number as a way for him and them to reach out to each other. I’m going to get on this then.”

  “All right, thanks,” Roxie said.

  Roxie and Dylan walked Jake to the door and said goodbye. Once they shut the door, she said to Dylan, “Do you want to call Luke now and tell him that Jake’s taking care of his camping bags?”

  “Yeah, I’ll get right on it.” Dylan called him then and explained everything while Roxie put their cocoa mugs in the dishwasher.

  Then she started to scrub the pans from breakfast.

  “Okay, good show. Jake’s on it,” Dylan said to Luke, and then they ended the call. He took over cleaning the pans, and she got a call from her brother Landon.

  She put the call on speakerphone. “Hey, Landon. I’m sorry I didn’t call you. We’d just planned a short wolf run, and then I would have been in to work, but we got sidetracked.”

  “It’s not about work. We were worried about you. You were gone for five hours out there. We couldn’t get hold of you, so Kayla dropped by your house—but you and Dylan had left your phones and your clothes behind so we knew you went for a wolf run. Since we expected you at work, naturally we were concerned when you didn’t show up. Peter sent some of his men with Blake, and they searched your scents for a couple of hours, reached the river, and lost your scents. They thought you had backtracked and gone home. But when you called Peter with the dying phone, he let us know where you were and that you were safe.”