Landon understood, though he wondered how their nonroyal status would really affect Gabrielle’s feelings about his family. Sure, it wouldn’t matter if he didn’t mate her, but if he did? “Nicole’s parents don’t get out that much to run, and her brother is often working.”

  “Right,” Roxie said. “And Gabrielle said she liked seeing you, so that’s good news.”

  He should have known his sisters would be trying to learn how Gabrielle felt about him—just in case there was a mating in the future. “I’m glad to hear it.” Really glad. “I’d better go out into the lobby and wait for her.” He didn’t want to get caught talking to his sister about Gabrielle.

  When he left the office, Gabrielle was coming down the stairs into the lobby looking like a sexy, huggable she-wolf that he truly wanted to court in an official way. She was all smiles, and that made him feel good.

  “Are you warmer now?”

  “Yeah. Thanks. I feel great. This is so much better. Even walking through the lobby with people coming and going from outside, bringing the cold air inside, I could get chilled.”

  “I’m glad the new clothes are keeping you warm. Let’s go.” He led her into their storage room, eager to spend the rest of the afternoon skiing with her.

  Wearing their ski parkas, hats, and sunglasses, and with the rest of their ski gear in hand, they left the lodge, put on their skis, and headed for the ski lift. “What do you think of Silver Town now that you’ve had a chance to see the downtown area a bit?”

  “It’s a beautiful town. No beaches, though.”

  So they hadn’t won her over yet. “But we have mountains, rivers, lakes, woods, and fall colors. You have to be here in the autumn. The spring, too. We do a lot of hiking when the snow is gone.”

  “That could be fun. It’s so hot and humid in Florida, unless I’m walking along the beach, that I don’t really want to do a lot of hiking.”

  “See there? Here, you can hike all year round. What about running as a wolf in your area?”

  “It can be problematic. I will say that it’s beautiful here. So many woods, so much land that you own that makes it feel safer to run as a wolf. Plus with the town being wolf-run, it’s nice to have others to meet with and enjoy their company and share stuff about being shifters. I guess it would be really great to work with shifter families who bring in their pets to the animal clinic too.”

  “I agree. Doc Mitchell delivers wolf pups even, if you know what I mean.”

  Gabrielle’s mouth gaped, right before they got on the ski lift. Maybe Landon shouldn’t have mentioned that part of the vet’s duties just yet.

  Chapter 10

  Still pondering what Landon had told her about delivering wolf pups, Gabrielle got on the chairlift with him and began the ride up the mountain. “You mean women shift and have their babies as wolf pups?”

  “Yeah.”

  “At the vet clinic?”

  “Sometimes at the regular clinic. We have them isolated, and most humans are shipped out of there after they’re diagnosed with whatever ails them, if they even come into the clinic, so we never have any trouble with humans being there if that happens.”

  “Okay. Wow. I would never have considered being a vet and delivering lupus garou pups.”

  “Yeah, a lot of the Silvers were delivered by Doc Mitchell. It’s just how things are done here because we can do it that way.” Then Landon switched topics. “Have you ever worked with horses, cows? Big animals?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Okay, good. We weren’t sure if you’d only worked at a small-animal clinic. Doc Mitchell works with both.”

  “I’ve done both.” Gabrielle smiled. He was acting as though she’d taken the job already. Her thoughts switched to Rosco and the kitten. Where in the world had he found her? She just couldn’t stop thinking about it. “Can Rosco get into the lodge on his own? Or would he?”

  “Yeah, he can. The doors open and close enough, and with the treat barrel around his neck, everyone knows he belongs at the lodge. So even if the door wasn’t open, someone would let him in. Why do you ask?”

  “I can’t imagine him finding the kitten in the snow. So that makes me think he returned to the lodge and found her there somewhere, then brought her home to take care of her.”

  “We don’t allow guests to have pets in their rooms. We did at one point at the lodge we owned in Vermont, but we had too much of a mess with it, and sometimes guests complained a prior guest had a pet that had left fleas behind. Some guests were allergic to dogs and cats. Sometimes a dog would bark in the room while the owners were out skiing. And we had trouble with some guests with pets not cleaning up after their dogs, so we had to change the status on allowing pets in the rooms to no pets at the lodge. When we came here, we decided not to allow pets at this lodge from the beginning.”

  “Does anyone mind that Rosco is in the lodge?”

  “He’s an avalanche rescue dog, besides being our beloved pet. Sure, we’ve had some guests ask why they can’t bring a pet when they see Rosco there, but when we explain what he does and how he has saved lives, they drop the subject. I’m sure they understand that if they ever needed a rescue, he might be the one to save their lives.”

  “Good. The lodge wouldn’t be the same without his friendly face greeting everyone.”

  They were coming to the top of the run and the end of their ski-lift ride and Gabrielle prepared to get off, needing all her concentration for this. Every time she did it, she worried she would fall and be in everyone’s paths, causing a major pileup of skis, poles, and bodies. But she’d only had one fall in all the times she’d come up on the chairlift, though she’d had a couple of near spills last night when she was getting tired.

  They had gone down the intermediate slopes a couple of times when suddenly Brando and his friends—she had never known their names—came up behind them on the slope as if they wanted to ski with them. She’d had no idea they had even skied before seeing Brando in the lodge. And she didn’t like it when anyone crowded her on the slope. She was trying to concentrate hard on her form and not take a spill because they were making her nervous. They had to realize she was a newbie. What was Brando’s problem, anyway? He only acted interested in her when he was on vacation? And only if he somehow ran into her?

  That would make for a great relationship. Not.

  When they reached the bottom of the slope, Brando skied up close to her and she didn’t like it. His whole wolf posture said he was interested in her and he wasn’t giving up. Why? Because she was with another wolf this time, and Brando had to prove to her that she should be more interested in him because she’d been out with him before? He had no idea if she and Landon had been an item for years.

  “Hey, I’d like to get together with you. Dinner tonight? We could go for a wolf run. It’s up to you,” Brando said, as if he thought he really had a chance to see her further.

  “I’m afraid my dance card is totally full. With my friends coming in, and Landon being so nice to teach me to ski and take me out for meals, swimming, and wolf runs and more, I just don’t have any time for anything else.” She smiled sweetly at Brando and hoped she didn’t fall down in the middle of the brush-off. That would not have the right effect for what she was going for. Cool and collected.

  Brando glanced at Landon and then gave him a conceited smile. “Gabrielle makes for a fun date.”

  Landon shook his head. “She’s the kind of woman you don’t ever let go of once you meet her. And you do everything in your power to show her a good time.”

  Gabrielle smiled brightly at Landon. He was being her hero. She’d never had two wolves act interested in her before. She hoped that wouldn’t happen with other wolves here. But she realized none had really approached her, as if they had an unwritten rule that once a she-wolf was seeing a male wolf, the others waited to see if they’d have a chance later, if things didn’t work out between the wolves.

  Brando smiled. “Hey, so I’ll see you around, Gabrielle. You’ve got my phone number, if you change your mind.”

  She wouldn’t. But he skied off before she could say so, and his buddies hurried off after him.

  “One good thing about a wolf pack that runs its own town is that we can tell wolves that don’t behave to leave,” Landon said.

  Gabrielle smiled. “Brando is just being Brando. I swear he has shown more interest in me this time because I’m with a wolf than he did the first time I met him.”

  “Too much competition for him this time. He didn’t have any when he saw you in Daytona Beach. Are you ready to go up on the slope again?”

  “Yeah. I’m having a great time. And the clothes your sisters helped me pick out are just perfect for this weather. I’m feeling much better.”

  “I’m glad Maxine had just what you needed for skiing and braving the snowy cold.”

  All afternoon they skied, and Gabrielle was really enjoying herself, except for seeing Brando and his friends hitting the intermediate slopes right behind them several times during the late afternoon, annoying her.

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to say anything to them?” Landon asked her again before they made their way to the chairlift.

  “No, they’ll get tired of following us eventually.” She didn’t want to make an issue of it. Not because there were three of them against Landon and her and she worried Landon would get hurt. She knew the whole pack would be behind her and Landon, and the ski patrol would kick the men out of the resort completely. That was the thing about Brando and his friends being wolves. They had to realize that a pack would dictate their behavior. She just wasn’t into confrontation. “I will probably make a complete fool of myself and fall down and ruin the moment, but can you kiss me?”

  “Hell yeah, kissing you anytime makes my day.” Landon skied beside her so that his skis were on the outside of her left ski, and he wrapped his arm around her and kissed her. She hoped that they were out of the way of anyone skiing. She should have thought of that beforehand. But he warmed her right up, and she realized Landon was the reason she was enjoying skiing so much. And…kissing. He was the perfect kissing partner whether they were in the pool or standing in the snow.

  Brando and his friends skied past them. She wondered how often they skied and if they were new like her and that’s why they were sticking to the blue slopes, but she suspected they weren’t. Especially when she heard one of Brando’s friends say, “Hey, we’re hitting a diamond slope. You stay on the blues until closing if that floats your boat.”

  His friends didn’t wait for him to say anything. They just skied off in the direction of the chairlift that would take them to the hardest diamond runs. Finally, Brando relented and went with his friends, glancing back at Gabrielle.

  She said to Landon, “Come on. We have a couple more runs to go before they close.”

  “Blue or green?” he asked, skiing with her to the chairlift.

  “Blue for this one.” She was thrilled to be able to ski down with Landon without Brando and his friends tailing them.

  But by the time they took the chairlift up for the last ride, she opted for the green slope. “I’m getting tired.”

  “No problem. It’s better to take it easy on the way down and keep your confidence.”

  “That’s what I figure.” Plus she didn’t want to injure herself.

  She couldn’t wait to go to the tavern tonight, and how would that work out if she sprained an ankle or broke a leg? She concentrated on her form all the way down the mountain, her legs really getting weary. When they reached the bottom—no spills, yay!—she and Landon headed for the lodge. They hadn’t taken that many breaks from the cold this time, and she was delighted that her clothes were keeping her warm enough.

  “What does everyone wear to the tavern?” She didn’t want to be overdressed or underdressed.

  “Anything from casual to dressy. No suits for the guys, normally, but anything is fine, really. We have Victorian Days in the fall and we dress up for that, though.”

  “Oh, that sounds like fun. Okay, so I’ll meet you down in the lobby?” Gabrielle asked.

  Landon hesitated to say as they put their skis and ski boots and poles in the storage room.

  “Landon?” She thought he seemed to be a million miles away, and she hoped he wasn’t still irritated about Brando and his friends stalking them on the slopes.

  Landon was frowning. “Do you think someone has a cat and kittens in one of the rooms?”

  Oh, that was what had stolen his attention. “Uh, yeah, possibly. When I was a kid, we had a trip planned and that’s when our toy poodle suddenly had her puppies. My parents wouldn’t leave her at their vet clinic’s kennel. They were both vets and wanted to look after her and the puppies.

  “My parents never made reservations for hotels in advance when we traveled, never knowing how long they would drive, and when we finally reached a town, they were having a big car convention and nearly everything was booked. The one place that wasn’t didn’t say one way or another if they allowed pets, at least I don’t think so. But I was a kid. What did I know? Anyway, they sneaked her and the pups in, put them in the bathroom, and then my dad learned we had no bath towels. So he called to the front desk, and when a guy brought them to the door, he did it so quickly that we didn’t have time to prepare. In a panic, we all scrambled to keep Taffy quiet, while Dad went to answer the door.

  “She had jumped out of the bathtub carrying two pups with her that were still nursing and she woofed, but not loudly, thankfully. I don’t know if her actions were her natural instinct to guard the room and her human family or to let an intruder know she was protecting her puppies.”

  Landon smiled.

  “Anyway, I put the pups back on the blanket we had in the bathtub for Taffy, and Mom grabbed Taffy and hurried her back into the bathroom, while my dad was trying to keep the door only partially open so he could grab the towels and not let the clerk see the wild happenings in the room. We don’t know if the clerk saw or heard anything. He probably did and was amused.”

  Landon laughed.

  “It made me think that maybe someone sneaked a cat and her kittens into one of the rooms here, and one got loose somehow. And Roscoe heard her meowing. The guest didn’t want to say anything about the missing kitten because he wasn’t supposed to have them in the ski lodge in the first place.”

  “Well, it’s easy enough for us to learn the truth since our wolf sense of smell is so good,” Landon said. “We’ll have to check for the scent of the cats in the lodge after dinner.”

  “Right. Okay, I’m heading up to my room and I’ll be down as soon as I’m changed.”

  * * *

  That night when Gabrielle came down to the lobby before Landon took her to the tavern, she was wearing a red sweater, a red-and-black-plaid vest, black snow boots and black leggings, a red scarf wrapped around her neck, and a black knit hat on her head, her blond hair loose about her shoulders. She had a black fleece jacket hanging over her arm and black gloves in her hand. She looked like the perfect present for Christmas—just for him.

  He smiled, glad she was with him, and then took her out to the car he’d parked in the lodge’s lot, rather than walk through the snow to the house. Once they were in the car, he drove her around to see all the Christmas lights on the homes and the shops in town.

  “Oh, they are all beautiful. I bet you still will win the lighting competition though. Your place just lights up the dark mountains at night when the ski slopes are shut down. It’s spectacular.” Then she saw the snow wolf sculptures in front of the Silver Town Inn and began taking pictures with her phone. “Those are just beautiful. They must have made them while we were on the slopes. I don’t remember seeing them at lunchtime. They’ve got to win.”

  “I’m sure they will. Others won’t give up the competition, even if they’re sure they’re going to lose.”

  “That’s the spirit.”

  After he showed her the snowmen others had made for the competition, he drove Gabrielle to the tavern, where everything was decorated in lights and evergreen garlands. Inside, they met up with Blake, Nicole, and his sisters who had already gotten a table. He was glad Roxie had made a reservation when they normally didn’t when they went as a family. Silva had ensured a table was set aside just for Gabrielle and Landon’s family, with a little card sitting in the center: Wolff.

  Landon helped Gabrielle out of her jacket, then pulled his own off.

  “See?” Roxie said. “Silva is doing her part to keep you here, Gabrielle.”

  Gabrielle smiled and she and Landon sat down next to each other. Everyone ordered a roast beef sandwich, and an appetizer of balsamic mushrooms. The ladies all wanted brandy Alexanders, the guys, beers.

  Landon noticed right away that Doc Mitchell was sitting with Doc Weber at one of the tables. When the veterinarian saw Gabrielle with the Wolff family, he waved at them and came over to say hello. Landon was glad he did, but hoped he wouldn’t scare Gabrielle off.

  “Hi. I’m Doc Mitchell. Everyone calls me that. And you must be the young lady that everyone says needs to take over my clinic.” He smiled at her. “My clinic and ranch will be at a bargain basement price, but only for you. The market value for the land, ranch, and clinic is quite high.”

  She smiled back. “Gabrielle Lowell.” She shook his hand. “But I work in a vet practice in Daytona Beach.”

  “A co-op, Lelandi says. They’ve got enough people to handle the patient load. They’re not wolves, are they?” Doc asked.

  “No, they aren’t.”