He put away all the groceries and then he started heating the lasagna in the microwave. At the branch in Houston, he worked extra-long hours on the job, well, mainly because he didn't have anything else to do. No hobbies. His lifelong pursuit, besides catching killers and putting them behind bars, had been to prove to himself that shifters existed. Now?

  He needed a mate. And nobody needed him. For a whole six months, they wouldn't let him go on actual missions with the other special agents in the branch. He had been a desk jockey, and he had wished they had trusted him earlier to get the missions done. Though he understood that it was hard to imagine he could get the right bad guy when he couldn’t smell that they were even shifters. But he still liked working with the agents. It had given him a whole new meaning to his life. He hoped Justine didn’t stick him with desk duty here.

  He didn't even want to date humans now. He had to wait for the right shifter to come along who would fall in love with him and want to turn him.

  The microwaved dinged and he pulled out his lasagna just as he got a call from Justine.

  "What's up?" Rowdy asked, getting ready to move his lasagna from the microwave box to a plate. Everyone back at the office always gave him a hard time when he made a microwave meal at work because he had to clean a dish then. To his way of thinking, a meal was something to be enjoyed, even if he didn't cook it from scratch. Eating it on a real plate made it seem more home-cooked, not so rushed.

  “I need your help immediately. Come to my place.” Justine gave him the address, sounding like she was breathless, running. “Go to the rear of the house. Two teens have fallen through the ice on the lake. They’re bear shifters, two I’ve dealt with before.”

  He shoved his lasagna into the fridge and was in the Land Rover in a jiffy. “Have you called emergency services?”

  “One’s in his bear suit. I’ve called both the bear sleuth leader and the teen’s father, but they’re located a lot farther out than you are.”

  “I’m already halfway there.” The adrenaline was pumping through his blood at an accelerated rate, readying him to do whatever was necessary to save the teens. He was glad she still had the phone line open to him. “Did both boys go into the water?”

  “Yes! I’m almost to them.”

  “Be careful. Do you have ropes? Blankets?”

  “Yes!”

  “I’ll be there in another few minutes.”

  Kenny and Andrew Brixworth were a handful. Justine couldn’t believe they’d be in trouble again. This was nothing like the beehive incident though. This was a much more deadly venture. Still, if a beehive farmer had shot at the teens while raiding his beehives, that could have been another story.

  At a run, she dropped the two blankets and her phone on the snow some distance from where the ice was cracking, and the white pickup truck was sinking. With a rope in hand, she inched out the rest of the way toward the boys and the expanding cracks in the ice. The teens had driven the medium-sized truck across the frozen lake. Fishing poles were sitting on the ice nearby to fish, it appeared. The trouble wasn’t so much from driving on the ice—they’d made it a long way out—but that they’d parked it in place—and the constant load had caused the ice to give. They’d needed twelve to fifteen inches of blue ice to drive that heavy of a vehicle out there. Obviously, it wasn’t thick enough.

  When she’d heard their yells while she was getting ready to have lunch, she’d peered out the window and seen them, the truck sinking into the lake, the boy and the bear trying to get out of the water. At least they’d been outside of the truck.

  She was getting closer to them when she heard a Land Rover’s car door slam in front of her house, and she hoped help was on its way.

  “Justine!” Rowdy called out.

  “Here!” She looked back to see Rowdy wearing a parka and boots, cargo pants, no hat, and he was racing across the ice until he could reach where she was trying to get to the boys. “It’s cracking all over the place. Be careful.”

  “I’ve rescued ice fishermen before,” he said, taking the rope from her and moving faster than she thought was safe.

  If they all ended up in the water, they’d be doomed.

  Rowdy pulled off his parka, and she envisioned him stripping down to his waist like he’d been in his photos. Instead, he tied the rope to himself and tossed the end to Kenny, who was in his human form. Andrew was trying to push him up from where he was beside him in the water using his bear’s strength, but he couldn’t manage.

  “Grab hold and I’ll pull you out,” Rowdy said to Kenny.

  The truck was nearly out of sight now, and despite worrying about the boys, she had the fleeting thought that their dad was not going to be happy that they’d lost the truck to an icy grave.

  But Kenny’s hands were too cold, and he couldn’t keep a grip on the rope as Rowdy tried to ease him out.

  “Okay, just hold on. I’m coming to you.” When Rowdy reached Kenny, he wrapped the rope underneath his arms and knotted it, then he pulled him slowly out of the water, the ice cracking more, the ominous sound making Justine cringe as she drew closer.

  “Can you take him to the shore and wrap him in a blanket?” Rowdy asked.

  “I’m not sure he can make it on his own power.” She figured he’d have to be carried.

  Rowdy went to help Andrew, but he climbed out of the water as a bear, having more strength and his fur coat had helped to keep him warm. But as soon as he got out of the lake water, the ice cracked even more, and they were all scrambling to get away from the threat before they all ended up in the frigid water. She realized then that Andrew had stayed in the water as a bear to try and save his brother.

  Rowdy grabbed Kenny up in his arms and hollered, “Come on!”

  Justine seized Rowdy’s coat and this time they all ran, though she wanted to tell Andrew to spread out further from them as his heavier, lumbering gait was causing the ice to crack even more. And they needed to move away from each other to disperse the weight. But he wanted to stick close to them as if he knew that his salvation was in staying with them. She ran as fast she could to safety so that at least she wasn’t adding to the weight on the ice.

  She heard a vehicle park out front of her house and saw two men, the boys’ father, Simon, and their uncle, Benton, running to help them. Then she heard another two vehicles park at her place and more men ran to assist them. She reached the blankets on the shore and Rowdy came in right behind her and they wrapped Kenny in the blankets.

  “We can take him in the house and warm him up,” Justine said.

  “He can shift once he gets out of his wet clothes in your house.” Simon glanced at Andrew, who hung his bear head low.

  Then the uncle untied the rope attached to Kenny and the dad lifted him in his arms and carried him to the house. Rowdy’s own shirt was sopping wet, and he had to be freezing too.

  Rowdy untied the rope to himself, and she hurried everyone inside her house to warm up the boys and Rowdy.

  “Do you have extra clothes for the boys?” she asked the dad.

  “Yeah, I do.” Simon headed outside to his truck.

  She wrapped Kenny in more warm blankets and brought Andrew and Kenny some towels for when they changed into dry clothes.

  When the dad came back in, he helped his son strip and dress because he was still so cold, his fingers were numb, and he was shivering hard. “You change too, Andrew.”

  Justine went to get Rowdy a spare shirt—an oversized one that she slept in, just a blue and red, flannel plaid shirt, nothing girly. She hoped he wouldn’t mind that she’d worn it last night. But it was the biggest shirt she had, and it was nice and warm.

  He smiled at her and thanked her.

  Everyone else was getting Kenny warmed up and Andrew had shifted and changed into the spare clothes.

  She couldn’t help but watch Rowdy remove his sopping wet shirt, baring his in-the-flesh, wet abs—realizing she should have brought him a towel and shouldn’t be eyeing him as her next meal. She finally said, “Let me get you a towel too.” She was ready to dry him off personally, as if he needed her help. She returned with a towel for Rowdy.

  “Is Kenny going to be all right?” she asked, tearing her gaze from Rowdy wiping down his beautiful chest.

  “Yeah. We’ll take it from here. You might have to hire another agent just for—” The dad stopped speaking and frowned at Rowdy.

  “He’s a special agent working with me.” Working for me, she meant to say. She didn’t bother explaining why a human would be working for the USF branch.

  “We’ll get out of your hair so you can take care of real business.” The dad looked like he was glad the boys were safe but irritated to the max that they could have lost their lives, put others in danger, and lost the truck.

  “Sorry, Dad,” Andrew said.

  “Yeah, sorry.” Kenny and his brother looked like they were in really hot water.

  Then they all left along with the other men, whom she hadn’t met, all bear shifters. She caught Rowdy taking a whiff of her shirt. Yeah, it smelled like peaches and cream—the bodywash she’d used last night before she put the shirt on, but she didn’t expect him to smell it.

  He smiled a little in that sexy, too charming way she’d seen in his photos, and then he pulled on the shirt.

  She sighed as he buttoned a few of the buttons and left the top few undone.

  “Thanks for saving Kenny. I would never have been able to get him out of the water in time,” she said.

  “He had no strength in his upper arms after being in the water for so long. I’m just glad they survived. I thought maybe the other boy in his bear coat had been injured when he didn’t get out of the water, then realized he was trying to push his brother out of the lake, but he just couldn’t manage. At least his bear fur had kept him warm enough.”

  “Right. The boys seem really close to each other and it’s heartwarming to see them stick together like that.” She glanced at the slow cooker. “Did…did you manage to eat anything for lunch?”

  “Uh, no. I heated up a microwave container of lasagna, got your distress call, and put it back in the fridge.”

  “Would you like some hot chili and something hot to drink for lunch then? I made the chili this morning to have this afternoon.” She figured he needed something hot after being doused with so much of that icy water, carrying a soaking wet Kenny, and wearing no coat.

  “Yeah, sure, it smells great, if it won’t put you out too much.”

  “Are you kidding? After you earned your pay and then some today?”

  “I’m glad I could be there for you and for them. What can I do to help?”

  “You can set the table, if you don’t mind.” She pointed to the silverware drawer and then dished up the hot chili from the slow cooker.

  “I was just lucky that Andrew could make it out of the lake on his own power. I wasn’t sure I could lift the bear.”

  “Yeah, I don’t think either of us could have managed that feat, though he’s not a full-grown bear. He’s still hefty as a bear. Did you want a sprinkle of cheddar cheese on your chili?”

  “That would be great.”

  She sprinkled shredded cheese on both their bowls of hot chili. “Coffee?”

  “Sure, thanks.” Then he took the bowls to the table.

  She brought over a tray of coffee cups, a bowl of sugar, and the creamer, placed them on the table, and sat across from him, the dining room open to the living room.

  She was glad the Christmas tree was all lit up, sitting next to the big picture window, presents under the tree all wrapped in gold and decorated with gold ribbons. Warm honey-oak wood bookcases were built into one wall, brown velour wrap-around seating took center stage, and a big screen TV was prominently featured on another wall. Everything felt warm and welcoming while outside it was snowy and cold.

  “So tell me how you came to know about us and began working for the USF.” Justine had thought about it for the two days it took Rowdy to drive up to Ely. She never believed he would hotfoot it up here that quickly, just so he could be there if she needed him, and boy, did she now. She really appreciated him for it. No way was she giving him desk duty.

  She just couldn’t imagine how he would have learned about shifters, though, and no one had done anything about it—except hired him to work with a shifter force!

  “Martin probably told you I was a homicide detective working out of Bigfork, Montana. A gray wolf shifter pack lives on the lake if you didn’t know that. They were having trouble with another shifter pack, and I was called in to investigate some wolf-chewed up, naked dead guys.”

  “Easy to arouse some suspicion if you already were thinking of a paranormal twist to the homicides.”

  “Exactly. Then later I began checking out a situation with Arctic wolves that had purportedly saved some sledders who had caused an avalanche and been buried alive in Minnesota. I was in the area at the time seeing a friend and naturally I had to check it out.”

  “Naturally. Martin said you knew about jaguars too.”

  “Well, the Arctic wolves ended up going to Houston and started investigating a case I was looking into. Long story short, I learned jaguars were shifters also. And when they were having trouble with wolves and jaguars, the United Shifter Force was formed. Since I had helped them with the case involving both jaguars and wolves, they went ahead and hired me to work full time. I mean, the shifters had a choice once they knew what I knew—turn me or eliminate me. But I’m really good at my job and have a high success rate of finding and putting away murderers, so they agreed to take me into the organization that was created and funded by jaguars. Just in case you’re interested in knowing, I want to be a wolf, not a jaguar shifter, if I have a choice. My friends in the USF tell me often enough that it might not be my choice. Except for those who know me, I have to keep mum with shifters outside of the office about me knowing anything concerning the shifter kind. Not everyone is completely understanding about it. I wasn’t even sure how you would feel.”

  “Shocked.” She wasn’t going to lie about it. She finished her bowl of chili and was considering having a little more when she got a call from David Davis, an Arctic wolf, private investigator with a group here, all more newly turned.

  “We need your USF help,” David said, and from the sounds of it, he was out in the woods somewhere hiking.

  Now what?

  3

  "We’re on our way.” Justine ended the call and said to Rowdy, “I got a message from a local Arctic wolf shifter, David Davis, who got an anonymous call from a man who said two wolves were injured in the woods near here. In case it was just a hoax, he and his partner, Cameron, went out to investigate and found two injured males, in their thirties, gray wolf shifters, and get this—the telltale bite marks were that of a jaguar. Which is why we have picked up the case.”

  Rowdy thought Justine sounded like she was accepting him on the team, and he was relieved. "Had the men been wearing their wolf coats?"

  He studied Justine, a beautiful brunette with pretty green eyes, and she seemed to see everything. She was wearing a soft fuzzy red sweater and white parka and looked perfectly huggable. Black slacks and black boots finished the ensemble.

  "Yeah. There are patches of gray wolf fur all over, indicating they had put up a real fight. They were still in their wolf forms when David found them, so at least their wolf coats were protecting them from the elements."

  "So no ID."

  "No, not that David or Cameron found. The men are private investigators, so this has become a USF investigation.”

  “Cameron? David Davis? I know of them. I haven’t met them personally, but I know their partner, Owen Nottingham and his mate, Candice. They’re the ones that saved the sledders involved in the avalanche. What did the wolves say?”

  “They’re badly injured and not talking. David and Cameron picked them up and took them to a doctor who’s a lupus garou. You and I need to check out the crime scene. The PIs didn’t want to mess it up any more than they might have by coming across the men and moving them. But they’re former police officers out of Seattle, Washington so they know how to preserve a crime scene. Though in this case—now that they’re all shifters—things have to be done differently.”

  Like hiding bodies from the local police if they were killed by a shifter in their fur coat.

  “We need to search for the men’s clothes. And then see if we can run across any scent trails to pinpoint where the jaguar took off to. Most of us don't leave any ID in our clothes when we shift to run in our wilder forms. We don't want anyone to know who we are if someone runs across them and believes something bad has happened to the person wearing them," she said.

  "Gotcha.” Though Rowdy already knew this, he figured she might not realize how much he did know about their shifter world.

  She put the remaining chili in the fridge, and Rowdy hurried to put the dishes in the dishwasher.

  Then they grabbed up their parkas and headed out to her car.

  “The Arctic wolves didn’t recognize either of the gray wolves," she said.

  If it hadn't been so close to Christmas, Rowdy would have thought this was Halloween as they drove to the crime scene. They had more crazy cases like this than at any other time of year.

  She parked off the road where the crime had been committed and they both got out to begin to search for any clues.

  He did notice jaguar paw prints leading to and from the area. "We need to cast the prints."

  "Yes, I’m photographing them. The plaster is in my car. We want to clear the scene as soon as possible," Justine said. "We sure don't want anyone other than our kind learning of it."

  He suspected she realized her mistake in saying “our” kind, since he wasn’t one of their kind. "Yeah, I agree." He was so used to working normal dead body scenes, until he began working for USF, that it took some getting used to how the protocols were so different.