“I have to admit that kissing you last night was nice. Really nice. So was snuggling, and if we wouldn’t have made a mess of things in the sleeping bag, we could have done more.” She took a deep breath and let it out. “I guess no one’s going to leave the camp until after breakfast.”

  “I would have been all for doing more… And about the others leaving the campfire, I doubt it.”

  They could smell coffee, cocoa, eggs, bacon, and potatoes cooking over the campfire.

  She sighed again. “All right, do you have anything for me to wear so I can try to get something out of my sopping-wet tent?”

  “Yeah, the pair of sweats I mentioned to you last night, and I’ll get your backpack out of your tent and bring it to mine to see if anything stayed dry.”

  “Thanks, Derek. I had packed clothes in plastic bags inside my backpack, but I was rummaging around in them during the day and might not have resealed them properly.”

  “If you had, that would be good.” He left the warmth of his sleeping bag, but Kate didn’t begin to get dressed. She had closed her eyes, and she looked perfectly happy to stay away from everyone else for the moment. He smiled, thinking he would love to keep her in his sleeping bag with him the rest of the day. “I’ll be right back.”

  He unzipped his tent, and everyone looked in his direction and saluted him with mugs of coffee or hot cocoa. “Morning,” he said. Then he walked the short distance to Kate’s tent, saw the stream of water still coming down under her tent, and unzipped it. All conversation had stopped behind him. He ducked inside her tent, found her backpack sitting in water, and brought it out of the tent. He shook the water off it.

  Lexi hurried over. “Kate’s tent flooded last night?”

  “Yeah. We need to dry out her tent and sleeping bag. I’m hoping she has something dry to wear in her backpack. She was going to wear a pair of my sweats for now.”

  “I have an extra pair of hiking shoes she can wear if she needs them. I always bring a couple of pairs in case one pair gets wet,” Lexi said.

  “I’ve got extra clothes too,” Jade said.

  “Me too,” Holly said. “Well, maternity clothes.”

  Everyone laughed. But in a pinch, they were better than nothing, unless Kate wanted to be a wolf this morning.

  Rafe and Ryder began pulling all Kate’s things out of her tent to dry them. Aidan and Mike started to take down the tent.

  Except for Jade, who was cooking the breakfast, Derek, who was delivering Kate’s backpack to her, and Toby, who was still sleeping in his parents’ tent, everyone pitched in to start laying out Kate’s things to dry in the sun. It was still early morning, but hopefully everything would dry out before they left.

  When Derek slipped back inside his tent carrying Kate’s wet backpack, she was still naked in his sleeping bag.

  “Are you okay?” He worried she might have gotten sick from being so chilled last night.

  She gave him a warm smile. “Yeah, just feeling relaxed and lazy. Can you pull out the plastic bags of clothes in my backpack and see if any of my clothes are dry?”

  Relieved she was okay, he unzipped her backpack and reached inside. “Your backpack is all wet inside, but the plastic bags that you packed your clothes in seem to have kept everything dry. I’ll empty your plastic bags in here and take your backpack and everything that got wet out to dry.”

  “Thanks, Derek.”

  “You’re welcome. If you didn’t hear them already, everyone’s offered you clothes, so if you need anything else, they’ve got you covered. Everyone’s taking care of your wet tent and other items.”

  “Oh, good. I figured that was my next chore this morning.”

  “Nope, we’re taking care of it.” Then Derek left to help the others either cook breakfast or dry out Kate’s things while she got dressed.

  “Does she have shoes?” Lexi asked.

  “Yes! She does,” Kate said from inside Derek’s tent. “Thank you!”

  Lexi laughed.

  Before long, Kate was leaving Derek’s tent as everyone was just settling down to have breakfast and Toby had finally wiped the sleep out of his eyes, having smelled breakfast and joined them. He was cuddling against Jade.

  “What a night,” Kate said. “I didn’t realize I would have a river running through my tent. It would have been better if I’d at least been sleeping on a cot. That’ll teach me not to bring one next time. Poor Derek, since he’d pitched his tent so close to mine, I shifted into a wolf and bugged him. I didn’t want to wake everyone else while I was trying to get his attention.”

  “I thought I heard a light scratching at my tent door. All I heard after that was the sound of the rain, and I figured I’d just imagined it.” Derek ate a slice of bacon.

  “I was afraid a low growl might have worried you, but I wasn’t about to whimper or whine. Then you finally let this big wet wolf into your tent. Believe me, I had to really quash the urge to shake the water clinging to my fur off all over your tent,” Kate said.

  Everyone chuckled. They all knew how difficult that inborn habit was to break.

  “I’m glad you didn’t,” Derek said.

  “At least your tent was out of the path of the stream of water. I was afraid the stream would expand and fill your tent with water too, and we would have to join someone else in their tent,” Kate said.

  “I could have doubled up with someone else,” Mike said, as if Derek and Kate were a couple and hadn’t wanted to be split up.

  “Everything will be dried out well before you know it,” Lexi said. “But if you need anything, just let one of us know.”

  “I guess we missed our wolf run this morning.” Kate sounded disappointed.

  “It was still raining at dawn this morning. No one was feeling like leaving their tents, or we would have run anyway,” Rafe said, assuring Kate she and Derek’s getting up late hadn’t had anything to do with them not running.

  Aidan was smiling. “We were being a bunch of lazy wolves.”

  Holly said, “I needed the rest, truly.”

  “I’m glad you got it,” Kate said.

  They had done so much hiking and fishing and then running as wolves yesterday, Derek was glad they’d just chilled out this morning. Particularly since he got to stay with Kate longer in the sleeping bag.

  Derek got a text message and pulled his phone out of his pocket. Brenda.

  Brenda texted: I hope you stayed dry enough on your campout.

  He felt she was rubbing it in that he’d gone camping, it had poured rain, and he probably was having a miserable time. But she didn’t know anything about wolves.

  He texted: I’m seeing someone else. I enjoyed our time together, but it’s time for us to both move on.

  He waited a moment, but Brenda didn’t respond. Good. Maybe now she had gotten the message. He was about to pocket his phone when she texted again.

  Brenda: Kate Hanover?

  Derek turned off his phone and tucked it in his pocket.

  “Brenda?” Kate asked and then ate some more of her eggs.

  “Yeah. I told her I was seeing someone.”

  Kate raised a brow. He smiled.

  “Okay, Derek asked me if he could court me, and I said yes. But he has to ditch the human first,” Kate said.

  Everyone chuckled.

  Derek sighed. “Okay, I didn’t want to tell Brenda I was going with you for sure until you were ready for us to tell our friends first.”

  “Good. You’re free to tell her anytime.”

  Derek smiled. “Good.” He was thrilled. Everyone else smiled and looked happy to hear the news too. “So are we still going on a hike this morning?” Derek asked.

  “Yep, sounds good to me,” Lexi said. “I need to get all the exercise I can in before I can’t exercise because of carrying twins.”

  “Ha!” Holly said. “You can continue to exercise as you have done before. You do lots as a wolf already.”

  “What did your parents say about your babies, Lexi?” Kate asked.

  “They’ll both be here when the babies come, but they won’t deliver them. Holly will. I’m having the babies as a wolf, so it really shouldn’t be an issue,” Lexi said.

  Since Lexi’s parents lived in Silver Town, Colorado, both doctors, but so far away, it was a good thing that Holly and Aidan were doctors too, who lived where they all did. If she had the babies as a wolf, even the new wolf vet could be there to ensure everything worked out for her.

  Rafe said, “I’ll send my private jet for your parents when you need them to come see you.”

  That was one thing Derek loved about his wolf friends. He didn’t have his own jet, but if he ever needed to use one, Rafe would let him.

  Derek was glad no one made a big deal about him dating Kate. Now that he’d shared with everyone, he would tell Brenda that he was indeed dating Kate and hopefully that would be the end of her pestering him about it. He was glad Kate had wanted to officially court him too.

  He hoped Brenda didn’t find someone to take her to the roaring twenties party. She had enough money to attend these functions on her own, but she preferred showing up on her date’s dollar. He just didn’t want to have to deal with her if she turned up there too.

  “So is everyone up for a hike now?” Rafe asked.

  “Yeah, we sure are,” Holly said. “I’m sorry about your business with the flooded tent, Kate. Are you okay?”

  “Oh, yeah, I’m fine,” Kate said. “It’s an adventure. That has never happened to me before, but it all worked out.” She smiled at Derek. “He saved me from the cold and wet.”

  “I was glad to do my part.” Derek smiled back at her.

  Then they cleaned up the cooking ware and put the rest of the food away, packed their backpacks, and started their hike.

  A couple of bodyguards led the group on the trail, while Holly and Aidan followed behind them to set the pace. Rafe, Jade, and Toby followed them; they would end up walking as slowly as Holly, especially since Toby kept checking out things on the trail—rocks, a banana slug, twigs, a snail—which they knew about because he was calling out all his finds.

  Lexi and Ryder stayed back at the camp with Mike because she was tired and feeling nauseous.

  Kate and Derek brought up the rear. She decided there was no way she was going camping if she were pregnant until she was through her first trimester and she would just stay in a cabin instead of the whole tent routine, especially after hers had flooded.

  Holly suddenly stopped on the trail, and everyone behind her stopped. She was holding her belly, and Kate worried the babies were coming.

  “Are you okay, honey?” Aidan’s hand was on her back, rubbing gently.

  “Um, I think it’s time for me to return to the campsite.”

  “Can you walk okay?” he asked.

  At least they had only just begun the hike and hadn’t gone very far.

  “Yeah, just—more slowly.”

  All of them turned around and headed back to camp because they wanted to be there to help out if the babies were coming.

  “Do you want to shift into your wolf?” Aidan asked Holly.

  She glanced up at him and frowned.

  “I mean when we get back to camp.”

  “Yes. That would probably be the best idea.”

  “Are you having labor pains?”

  “Yes, but they’re far apart and not regular.” Holly didn’t sound concerned in the least.

  “I think we should head home.” Aidan sounded worried.

  Kate suspected everyone felt the same way as Aidan did about Holly. Kate sure did.

  “It’s a four-hour trip,” Holly reminded her mate.

  “Right, but the babies might not come for hours.” Aidan had his arm around Holly because she looked like she was afraid she was going to have the babies right on the path if she moved too quickly.

  Toby raced ahead with Mike to reach the camp.

  After that, they saw Ryder running to meet up with them. He looked as worried as everyone else did. “Toby said the babies are coming.”

  “Not yet,” Holly said. “I’ll shift into my wolf and hang around camp until we’re ready to leave.”

  Kate thought Holly didn’t want to ruin the campout for the others if she should go home now and everyone else felt they had to as well. They would want to make sure Holly was all right, and they would want to see the babies soonest. They’d had enough fun at the campout already.

  “Do we need to carry you?” Ryder asked.

  “No, I’m fine, truly.” Holly’s cheeks were a little flushed, and she appeared embarrassed that she had caused such a ruckus. “How’s Lexi doing?”

  “She’s sleeping. I didn’t want to wake her. Mike and Toby stayed back in the camp.”

  “Toby’s excited about having some cousins,” Rafe said. “We keep telling him that the babies will be little and he can’t really play with them for quite a while.”

  That was a hard concept for little ones to learn. Especially when his cousins would be wolf pups first.

  Then they finally reached camp and Lexi came out of her tent to hug Holly. “I heard all the excitement. Are you okay?”

  “Oh, uh, my water just broke.”

  That seemed to put everyone into a panic as some of the guys asked if they could pack up the camp.

  “I’m shifting into my wolf. You know that it helps to walk when you’re in labor, so I was perfectly all right walking,” Holly said.

  Then she went inside her tent, and everyone was just watching it as if they were expecting her to have the babies any second. Aidan joined her inside the tent.

  “Should we prepare lunch then before we go, like we had planned?” Rafe asked.

  “Sure. Do we catch fish for the meal or cook what we brought with us?” Derek asked.

  “It’s not raining right now,” Kate said. “We can eat the other food at any time later.”

  “Well, I guess we could go fishing.” Running his hands through his hair, Rafe looked the part of an anxious brother-in-law.

  “Let’s go fishing,” Jade agreed. “This could take hours, and Holly would probably be more comfortable knowing we’re all not just sitting around waiting for the babies to come. Though that’s just what wolves would do. We’ll have a couple of bodyguards watching her, and someone can let us know if she’s having them.”

  Toby already had his fishing pole in hand. Kate smiled at him.

  “All right, let’s do that.” Ryder glanced at Lexi to see if she was feeling well enough to join them.

  “I’m fine. I had a really nice nap,” Lexi said. “Let’s go.”

  Inside the tent, Holly told Aidan, “You join them to go fishing.”

  “No way. I’m staying right here with you. If our bodyguards had to help with a delivery instead of me, they would both expire on the spot.”

  Mike and Ryder laughed because they had been Aidan’s bodyguards before they started to work for Lexi.

  Holly sighed. “Okay, but you know what, I’m going to sit with you all on the riverbank for a while. I don’t want to be cooped up in the tent for hours as a wolf. I’ll be out in a minute.”

  They all headed to the river, and Holly joined them as a wolf. Kate was glad she was not going to be left behind in the tent like that, though she knew Aidan would stay with her the whole time.

  This would be the wildest camping trip Kate had ever been on.

  She cast out her line, and Derek smiled at her. They were actually officially dating, and she was thrilled.

  Then Toby snagged a twig and was laughing. Rafe told him it was a special kind of fish but they couldn’t eat it.

  Everyone glanced at Holly as she rested on the bank watching them fish. No one was catching anything. Which was fine. They still had plenty of food to eat in the event they couldn’t catch anything.

  Aidan left after a while, returned with a water dish, and set it next to Holly. She didn’t even get up, just poked her head into the water dish and lapped up the water. She was panting. Aidan started timing Holly’s contractions.

  Except for Toby, everyone was watching Aidan to see what he had to say. They could carry Holly back to their tent if they needed to. They didn’t want her to have the wolf pups out here.

  “I’ve already prepared your nest in the tent,” Aidan said.

  Kate realized then that he hadn’t just left the riverbank to get Holly some water. Of course wolves made dens, but when they were lupus garous? Nests worked.

  Holly sighed.

  Kate guessed the contractions were far enough apart that Holly didn’t feel the need to return to the campsite right away.

  Rafe caught a bass, and Ryder finally did too. Everyone else was still trying to catch something, but Kate figured if they didn’t, they could have the two fish they caught as a side dish.

  Holly suddenly woofed at Aidan, and he checked her contractions again. “Let’s get you back to the tent.”

  He helped her up, and then they headed back along the path to the campsite. Rafe and Jade went with them because they were family.

  The others fished a while longer, keeping an eye on Toby.

  Then Kate couldn’t put off the inevitable any longer and wanted to offer help if Holly or Aidan needed it. “I’m going back to camp.”

  “Me too,” Lexi said.

  “Are you okay?” Kate asked, worried about her too.

  Lexi laughed. “Yes. I’m just getting started on this journey. I just want to check on things and offer my assistance if it’s needed, just like you do.”

  Chapter 20

  Derek felt impotent to help with anything as far as Holly was concerned. He wanted to do whatever anyone needed him to do, but waiting on the outcome of Holly’s babies? He didn’t think he’d ever been this stressed out. If he were mated to a wolf and she insisted she wanted to go on a camping trip, he and she would stay in a cabin, if he had any say in the matter! Though he supposed if his mate was adamant about it and they had a doctor along, he could be fine with it.