She knew not to have food in the tent because of the bears. She had to be careful not to have scented stuff, like toothpaste, deodorant, or even scented toilet paper or tissue papers that could attract them. The raccoons could open trash cans, bags, and even ice chests!

  All the wolves had left their ice chests in the vehicles just for safekeeping. Their food was in the bear lockers that the raccoons couldn’t get into either.

  She shined her flashlight at the critter and saw its eyes glowing fluorescent. She could have seen the raccoon anyway with her wolf night vision, but the light was supposed to make them go away. For a minute, it did. But then the raccoon came back as soon as she turned off her light. She couldn’t keep this up all night long. She’d read where a camper could growl like a cougar or howl like a coyote, but she didn’t want to start howling like a wolf and wake everyone—wait—wouldn’t being a wolf deter him?

  Yep! She pulled off her sweats, shifted into a wolf, but realized she had forgotten to unzip the tent. She shifted back, unzipped the tent, and swore the raccoon was going to come right in as if she were inviting it in. She shifted, bared her teeth, and growled. She’d heard that sometimes humans doing that wouldn’t be a deterrent though. But as a wolf, even better! As soon as she growled, the raccoon jumped straight in the air and took off running.

  Satisfied that her little maneuver seemed to work, she smiled and figured she would sleep as a wolf the rest of the night, just in case the raccoon returned.

  Then she heard rustling in the tent next to hers—Derek’s—and he came out of it as a wolf and nosed her. He could smell that the raccoon had been there too.

  She was glad she wasn’t the only one to have heard the raccoon. Or maybe Derek had just heard her growling as a wolf and come to investigate. She nuzzled him, and then she returned to her tent, wanting to get some sleep.

  Derek curled up outside her tent, and she wanted to laugh. Tonight, he was going to be her wolf bodyguard. That worked for her. Though she was again thinking she should just invite him in. But if he needed reinforcements, she would be out there with him in a flash.

  ***

  Derek had heard a raccoon outside Kate’s tent trying to get in, and he’d heard her unzip her tent after that. He hadn’t expected to her to turn all wolf. But he didn’t want her to have to deal with the raccoon the rest of the night. Let the raccoon return to face him the next time.

  In his warm wolf coat, he was fine sleeping outside her tent. A few times, he heard something moving around in the trees surrounding their tents. One time he saw Rafe leave his tent and smiled when he saw Derek sleeping as a wolf in front of Kate’s tent.

  Rafe saluted him, went off into the woods toward the toilets, and then returned a few minutes later and waved good night.

  Then Derek finally fell asleep. He woke a few times and finally must have fallen asleep for the last time when Kate emerged from her tent and smiled at him. “Thanks so much for protecting me from the raccoon last night.”

  He gave her a little woof, saying she was welcome, and then he returned to his tent so he could shift, dress, and join the others for the day’s activities, glad he had been the one to protect her last night.

  Chapter 17

  That morning, the ladies were planning the breakfast while the guys were building the fire. “We’re going to make breakfast burritos, if that’s what everybody wants,” Kate said. “Maddie was so sweet and sent all the ingredients along.” She smiled at Derek.

  “Yeah, that would be great,” Derek said. “What can we do to help?”

  “We’ve got breakfast if you guys can catch fish for lunch,” Lexi said.

  “We’ll sure do that,” Aidan said.

  In a large cast-iron pan, Lexi cooked sausage until crisp. Then Lexi and Kate whisked together eggs, salt, and pepper; cooked and then spooned the sausage-and-egg mixture onto the center of each tortilla; and sprinkled cheese on top. Holly and Jade began rolling them up tight and wrapped them in some heavy-duty foil. Twenty minutes later, they were eating the breakfast burritos.

  “This is so good,” Ryder said.

  “Yeah, I agree,” Derek said. “We’ll have to catch lots of fish for lunch.”

  Everyone agreed to that.

  After they finished breakfast, cleaned up the dishes and cookware, and banked the campfire, some of them had planned to hike two hours out, which would make a four-hour round trip. They would be climbing around two hundred feet on the hike. Holly and Aidan would only take a short hike for as far as she felt comfortable walking, and Mike and Ryder carried any supplies she needed on the trail. Likewise, Rafe and Jade would hike only as far as Toby could make it.

  Once everyone had their backpacks and was ready, they headed out together.

  The forest was the largest old-growth redwood forest in the entire world—the forest primeval. Fog created a lush carpet of greenery under the lofty, fairy-tale redwoods, sunshine peeking through the treetops. On this hot, sunny day, it was great for a hike for miles with natural shade. Ferns covered the forest floor, and everything was so lush and green. And on the path, a dense carpet of pine needles cushioned and silenced their footfalls.

  This was just beautiful, and it was a completely different area than Kate and Lexi had been in before. She would love to go on hikes throughout the redwoods like this.

  While they were hiking, they ran into some humans, and Kate recognized two of the men as the ones they had encountered while they were running as wolves. Two more men were with them, but as soon as the one who had observed them as wolves the last time saw them, he said, “Hey, have you been out here for a while?”

  “Since yesterday,” Kate said.

  “Have you seen any sign of wolves out here? We saw a whole pack of them—six or seven at least.”

  The number of wolves he’d seen was increasing by the day.

  “Not me. He did.” The friend who had been with him sounded like he didn’t want anyone to think he was nuts too.

  “I’m a wolf biologist,” Kate said, making up a story. “We haven’t seen any signs of wolves out here. And they wouldn’t have been running along a human trail. They would have avoided it and been far off the beaten path.”

  The one who had seen them glanced at the other men with him. They shrugged.

  “All right. Well, if you see any, I saw them first,” he said.

  “You had too many beers,” his friend said under his breath, looking irritated with his friend that he wouldn’t drop the subject of the wolves.

  “I’m sure the chance of that would be pretty slim, though I always keep my eye out for them,” Kate said. “Now, bears have been spotted in the redwoods, so that’s another story.”

  “Let’s go find us some bears,” the guy said.

  The humans headed down the path in the direction Kate and her friends had come.

  Kate and the other wolves were just talking about different topics for a while, but when they were far enough away from the other hikers, Lexi said, “Wolf biologist. Good to know.”

  “I’m using that line the next time I need to educate someone about the habits of wolves,” Rafe said.

  Everyone laughed.

  When they returned from the hike, Rafe said, “Let’s go fishing so we have enough time to catch something for lunch.” Toby was so excited to go fishing with his daddy that he was standing there with a pint-sized fishing pole in hand before Rafe had managed to get his gear ready. Toby had long, blond curls. His mother, Jade, hadn’t wanted to cut them, though they were going for his first haircut next week, Jade had said. His brown eyes were alight with excitement, and he was ready to dash off to the river as soon as anyone else was ready to go.

  “You guys go ahead,” Ryder said. “Mike and I will help the ladies get set up for their video.”

  “I’ll also help to make things go more quickly. Are you going to fish with us afterward?” Derek asked Kate, setting up the seating.

  “We’ll see.” Kate loved doing things with the ladies, so this was as much their time to play with each other as it was doing things together as a group.

  Before the guys who were going fishing left, they gave their mates kisses, and Toby hurried to give his mom a hug and kiss, nearly hooking her with his fishhook. Then Toby and the others were off to the river.

  Once Derek, Mike, and Ryder finished helping the ladies set things up for the video session, Ryder kissed Lexi before he joined the others to fish. Kate gave Derek a look that said she wasn’t his mate and don’t even think about it after he helped her set things up.

  He winked at her, casting her a sexy smirk, pulled off his T-shirt, slung it over his bare, bronzed, and muscled shoulder, and waved at the ladies on his way out.

  As soon as the guys were out of earshot, Lexi fanned herself. “Hot.”

  “I thought it was comfortable out,” Kate said.

  Holly and Jade laughed.

  “Oh, you mean…” Kate didn’t finish what she was going to say, her face flushing with heat instantly as everyone got into position and Lexi readied herself to start talking about the new line.

  “Yeah, that’s who I mean,” Lexi said. “Don’t worry about what everyone’s thinking concerning the two of you. You just enjoy yourself. If it doesn’t work out between you two, no big deal. You’ll have dates galore.”

  Kate didn’t want dates galore. She liked some normalcy in her life.

  Then they got to the business of filming the video. It was fun hearing the birds chirping and singing to each other in the foliage in the background for the video as Lexi cleaned Jade’s face and then Holly’s with one of her gentle skin cleansers.

  In the middle of the video while Lexi was applying makeup to Jade’s face, they heard Rafe shout, “Holy hell!”

  Kate stopped the video. She figured Rafe wouldn’t have shouted out like that unless it was something bad, knowing it could affect their video.

  “Ha! Go away! Get!” Derek said, and the others were yelling too.

  Okay, so the situation was serious. The ladies waited. Some of the bodyguards were there with them, but two of them rushed off to check out the problem and let them know what was going on. Then Lexi got a call. She put it on speaker.

  “Hey, sorry if we interrupted your video. We have a little bit of a bear issue right now,” Ryder said.

  “No, no, it’s no problem at all. Is everyone all right there?” Lexi asked.

  Kate immediately headed for the tent. She couldn’t do a very good job as a bodyguard against a bear unless she was a wolf.

  ***

  For years, Derek had gone fishing with Rafe and Aidan. In all that time, they’d only encountered bears on maybe five separate occasions. They hadn’t worried about bears too much because the fish were plentiful and the bears would just go fishing. Even though they were fuzzy and round and cuddly looking, they spent their days climbing steep hillsides and moving about the redwoods, which made them incredibly muscled and strong. He’d even seen one clinging to a dead tree about five feet off the ground while he pulled off tree bark and ate a meal of insects. But this bear had come down to fish where they were fishing, and they had to let him know he was in their territory right now to scare him off upriver or downriver from where they were located.

  But first, Derek was trying to get Toby’s fishhook out of Rafe’s shirt where he’d caught it as soon as they saw the bear. Rafe was more worried about Toby, who was wide-eyed as he watched the bear.

  Derek was trying not to tear Rafe’s shirt. “Hold still, will you? You’re worse than a little kid.”

  “Not me, Uncle Derek,” Toby said.

  Smiling at Toby, Derek was glad Cliff and Will had stayed back with the women to make sure they stayed safe. What he hadn’t expected was for Kate to join them as a wolf to protect them. He could see she wasn’t giving up her bodyguard role no matter what the situation entailed. Her fur was standing on end, bristling, her tail out straight. He admired her protectiveness and dedication.

  He finally freed the hook from Rafe’s shirt and didn’t leave too big a hole. He should have just cut the hook.

  Acting as though he didn’t have a care in the world, the bear sauntered off.

  It was a good thing they had food storage lockers at all the individual sites because of the bear problem the park was having.

  Right now, Derek was ready to protect Kate if she decided to go after the bear! He was only wearing a pair of shorts and hiking shoes and socks, having dropped his T-shirt on top of the ice chest to fish. He was glad he’d been fishing far enough away from Toby that he hadn’t snagged Derek in the shoulder! So it wouldn’t take much for Derek to strip off the rest of his clothes and shift into his wolf. The bear gave them a couple of backward glances, but he looked like he was sufficiently deterred from fishing in their spot.

  Derek reached down and petted Kate’s head, stealing her attention that had been totally focused on the bear. He smiled down at her, her eyes having a hint of blue, amber, and green, her coat shiny and gray on top, a darker saddle on her back, a tan underbelly coat and a tan-and-white face. Really striking.

  She peered around at this side of the riverbank, and he wondered what she was looking for. Then she smiled. Yeah, they hadn’t caught any fish yet. They had gotten distracted by one big, old black bear that probably weighed around 250 to 300 pounds.

  Kate woofed at them to let them know she was returning to the campsite and then headed back through the woods.

  Derek was thinking that he should stay in Kate’s tent with her tonight, since she was the only woman who was alone, just in case a bear came into the camp. Two people made a better deterrent than one. Though he didn’t want to suggest it while everyone was around in case it embarrassed her. He suspected, from the way she nonverbally had told him she wasn’t interesting in having a goodbye kiss when he was about ready to go fishing with the other guys, that she wasn’t ready to actually court him. Staying with him in the tent, for her protection as well as his own, probably wasn’t going to happen.

  He watched her until she disappeared into the woods. When he glanced at the other guys, they quickly switched their attention to the river and fishing.

  “She noticed we hadn’t caught any fish,” Derek said.

  “Yeah. I saw that right away,” Rafe said. “Kate will tell the other ladies they’ll have to help us catch lunch or we won’t have any. Not that we don’t have plenty of other food. You should offer to stay with her tonight. For protection against the bear if he should return.”

  “For me or for her?” Derek asked.

  The guys all smiled.

  “I would but—”

  “Hey, Lexi kept turning me down,” Ryder said, “until she realized I wasn’t trouble. You just have to keep trying. Kate will let you know in no uncertain terms that you need to back off if she’s truly not interested.”

  “Yeah, but I don’t want to create a situation between us. We all get along, and I don’t want her to feel uncomfortable around me when I’m doing things with you guys and she’s also around.” Derek cast his fishing line.

  “Don’t overthink it,” Rafe said. “If it’s meant to happen, it will.”

  Chapter 18

  When Kate returned to the campsite as a wolf, all eyes were upon her. She smiled and ducked into her tent. Then she shifted, dressed, and left the tent to continue with their video session. “Sorry. I had to help out if I could.”

  Lexi sighed. “As long as you and the others weren’t hurt. I take it the bear moved off?”

  “It did. Which is why we’re back to this. The guys haven’t caught one fish yet between the four of them. Though Toby caught his dad’s shirt.” Kate chuckled.

  The ladies laughed.

  Kate began to get ready to video record the session again.

  “It’s a good thing we brought ice chests full of food then,” Lexi said, “just in case.”

  “Maybe we’ll have to go as wolves and show them how it’s done,” Holly said.

  “I’m all for it,” Jade said, “as long as no one catches us at it. We don’t want anyone to think someone brought a bunch of dogs to the campsite when they’re not supposed to be here.”

  “Nah, if we got caught at it, that wouldn’t be good,” Kate said. “If it was dark out, that would be different.”

  The ladies reluctantly agreed.

  “I have some bad news,” Holly said, looking at her phone. “It appears we’re getting some rain in tonight instead of late tomorrow night like we thought. We’ll have to eat dinner and go to bed early.”

  “Or we could run as wolves. Everyone at the campsites will be tucked inside their tents weathering the storm. But we can run as wolves as long as it’s not too bad out—no lightning and thunder,” Kate said.

  “Yeah, sure, that would be fun,” Jade said. “I’m all for it.”

  “Okay, so the bad weather can be a boon for us as far as running as wolves goes,” Lexi said. “Is everyone ready to get back to work on the video?”

  Everyone said, “Yes.”

  Once they had finished recording, Kate asked, “Do you want to compete with the guys at fishing now?”

  “And upset the boat if we catch more fish than them?” Lexi asked.

  The women all smiled at each other.

  “Let’s go fishing. At least if we all catch enough fish, we can cook them before the rain comes,” Kate said.

  “That works for me,” Lexi said, and the ladies all gathered their fishing gear and headed off for the river.

  When the guys saw them coming, they smiled.

  “Kate said you hadn’t caught anything when she came to chase off the bear.” Lexi gave Ryder a hug.

  “I caught one,” Rafe said, hugging Jade.

  “Mine’s bigger,” his brother, Aidan, said.