Maverick was waiting with her, watching to see what she wanted to do, maybe worried she felt the urge to shift and was thinking of running back to the house. But she wanted to run all night long, explore as much as she could as a wolf, leave her scent trail to say she belonged here. She wanted to see everything she could with her night vision, smell all the smells, hear all the sounds, and taste the snow falling from the clouds, all as a wolf.

  She trotted off again, not in as much of a hurry now, and saw a rabbit dart into a hole. She heard an owl hooting off in the distance, another responding. She sat then and lifted her chin and howled again. Hearing her own howl sounded so hauntingly beautiful and strange, but outside where it could carry farther, it was even more wondrous. Maverick stood beside her and lifted his chin and howled with her, as if singing his love for her. It was such a beautifully romantic moment.

  Then from the direction of the bunkhouse and Josh and Brooke’s house, she heard more howls, the wolves telling them they heard, they were united, they were pack mates.

  She loved hearing the camaraderie of the wolves. Of course, it made her think of documenting wolf behavior—tame, not wild, because they weren’t all wild. And they weren’t all wolf.

  She and Maverick continued on until she reached the end of her scent trail and she smelled something else. She wasn’t sure what it was.

  To her surprise, Maverick shifted. “Coyote. We can chase him off or head home. How do you feel?” He shifted back into his wolf.

  She’d had a ball. She felt that when she had turned into her wolf, she might not be able to do it again, though she also had the worry that she might not be able to change back to her human form after she was a wolf. All newly turned wolves probably felt the same way.

  She wanted to make love to Maverick, but she might not shift back right away. She sighed. She would rather run all the way back home with him as a wolf than have to shift and get a lift back home while hurrying to dress in the Jeep, freezing her butt off.

  She licked Maverick’s face, and he kissed her back in his wolf way. Her sensitive whiskers felt his whiskers, which heightened the experience, making them tingle with pleasure. Determined to get back on her own as a wolf, she loped toward the ranch house. He quickly joined her.

  Randall waited for them to pass his Jeep, and he turned around to follow them home.

  But suddenly, there was a commotion at the stables, then reindeer grunts, the pounding of hooves, the jingling of sleigh bells on their collars as they raced in their direction. The reindeer and llama had been released from the stables and spooked.

  Gina didn’t know what to do. She wanted to round them up, but she was afraid they’d run over her while they were stampeding from some unknown threat. And she wasn’t sure she had the wolf roundup ability in her repertoire yet.

  Maverick started to turn the reindeer back to their stable, and she watched him for a moment and then figured it had to be a natural wolf-hunting ability and she had to have been gifted with it as well. She began to steer the reindeer back to the ranch, and the next thing she knew, ranch hands on horseback were riding out to help them.

  Though she noted Randall was staying nearby her in his Jeep, just in case she suddenly shifted, and she sure hoped she wouldn’t! It would be bad enough if he saw her do that, but the other ranch hands too?

  As the ranch hands got the herd under control, Maverick dashed for her and urged her back to the house.

  She guessed he was worried about her shifting, but then Josh pulled a truck up next to them and opened the door. Maverick jumped in and shifted. “I’ll meet you at home, Gina.”

  She wasn’t staying behind, and she jumped into the back of the cab with him. Randall roared up next to them in his Jeep and threw his door open, and with the bag of her clothes, he raced out of it. He tossed the bag into the back seat. “Be right behind you guys.”

  Then he slammed the door shut and ran back to his Jeep. He jumped in, yanked his door closed, and tore after Josh’s truck as he drove through the gate.

  She realized then that someone hadn’t left the stable doors open and somehow all the reindeer got out on their own. They had to have had help.

  Maverick had shifted, pulled clothes out of a bag in the backseat, and was yanking them on. “We have clothes in the vehicles for ourselves, just in case of an emergency,” he told her. “We’ll have to do the same for you.”

  “They were Calypso’s men,” Josh said. “When everyone else was herding the reindeer back to safety, Brooke and I checked the scents in the stable, and it was the same men we saw at the setup earlier.”

  “We saw a coyote on our run. I was worried about the reindeer coming upon a pack of coyotes, especially the little ones. Though reindeer calves can outrun bears and wolves even.” Maverick pulled his shirt over his head and gave Gina a hug.

  She hoped he wasn’t annoyed with her for coming with them, maybe worried she would shift at the wrong time. But if she stayed in the truck, she should be all right. And no way had she wanted to wait at home for him. She was one of the pack members now, and she wanted to do what she could to help out.

  She wished she could turn back into her human form and ask them what they planned to do. With only three men here, they wouldn’t be able to do a whole lot if the Calypso staff outnumbered them or were armed.

  She glanced out the window and realized Josh was driving in the direction of Leidolf and Cassie’s ranch.

  “They’re not headed in the direction of the Calypso Ranch,” Maverick said.

  “They want to throw us off. They wouldn’t want to lead us straight back to their ranch. But the men were driving a pickup with the Calypso Reindeer Ranch logo on it. I called Leidolf. He’s got men headed this way. They’ll intercept them,” Josh said.

  Oh, good, more men. She had worried about that. She loved how the pack worked together.

  “If they don’t slow down when we get to that curve up ahead, they won’t make it,” Maverick said.

  “That will serve them right.” Josh got a call on Bluetooth from one of their ranch hands. “Yeah, go ahead.”

  “All the reindeer are accounted for, no injuries, and everyone’s back to bed. Did you catch the bastards yet?”

  Just then, they saw a truck overturned down the hill, the headlights sending light into a snowy fog bank, right where Maverick said they’d have trouble if they didn’t slow down.

  “Yeah, we found them in an upside-down truck,” Josh said.

  “At Deadman’s Curve,” the ranch hand said.

  “Yep.”

  “It isn’t really named that,” Maverick said to Gina. “No one’s died there that we know of, but the pack members all know about it because there have been tons of vehicular accidents at that point in the road. We’ve warned our people to heed the posted speed limit signs.”

  Josh pulled off the road and parked, Randall parking right behind him next in line on the shoulder, both of them leaving their headlights and flashers on to warn of an accident.

  Josh quickly called the others who were joining them from Leidolf’s ranch. “Hey, we’re at Deadman’s Curve. The Calypso truck is overturned here. Checking on them now.”

  “Do you want to stay in the truck?” Maverick asked Gina, giving her the choice this time.

  She shook her head, and when he got out, she bounded after him and was down the incline before any of the men were.

  “Holy shit, it’s one of their wolves,” one of the Calypso men said.

  She didn’t need to growl at them, they were terrified enough. Good. See? She knew she had a part to play.

  Maverick and Josh quickly joined her; Randall arrived right after that.

  “Do you have any broken bones or internal injuries?” Josh asked.

  The two men were still seat-belted in their truck and were upside-down.

  “Just get us out of here,” the blond snarled.

  Maverick checked the truck’s engine. “I smell gas. Let’s get them out of there in case the engine blows.”

  The men’s eyes widened, and they tried frantically to unbuckle their seat belts.

  “If we move you and you have internal injuries, it could make them graver,” Maverick said.

  “Yeah, but a fireball would make their injuries even worse,” Josh said as he and Maverick cut the seat belt for one man and hurried to move him away from the truck.

  Gina paced, wanting to help but unable to do anything for the moment. Randall was cutting at the other man’s strap, and then another truck arrived. Maverick helped Randall move the driver from his truck. The driver cried out, and Gina suspected he might have a broken limb. Leidolf and some of his men piled out of their vehicle and ran down the hillside. Leidolf raised his brows to see Gina in her wolf coat, though he’d never actually seen her as a wolf, but she suspected he smelled her.

  She wagged her tail at him, hoping he wasn’t irritated with her for being there. Leidolf smiled, and that little smile made her feel good.

  Then he said to everyone there, “An ambulance and tow truck are on the way. Also the police are coming. How are the injured men doing?”

  “They seem to be okay, except this guy might have a dislocated shoulder and a broken arm, the other might need some stitches for the cut on his forehead and a nose job to straighten out the crooked nose,” Maverick said. “So why were you at the Wilding Reindeer Ranch releasing our reindeer and causing a stampede?” He practically growled the words at the injured men.

  Neither of the men would say anything. Then one said, “We want a lawyer.”

  “I can’t imagine why in the world you would release the reindeer unless you thought they’d be injured and we couldn’t do our shows for the rest of the season,” Maverick said. “You couldn’t believe this would stop us.”

  They heard the ambulance and two police car sirens en route.

  She thought Maverick would put her in the truck so that no one would be afraid of the wolf, but he didn’t. He just took pictures of the upside-down truck and of the men. They were wearing gloves so she knew the Calypso men wouldn’t have left any fingerprints behind at the Wilding Ranch.

  Another ambulance sounded in the distance, and the first one and the two police cars arrived. She kept looking back up the hill at Josh’s truck, and finally Maverick said, “Do you want to get in the truck?”

  He probably worried then that she was feeling like she was going to shift.

  He trudged up the hill while she ran up it as the police officers—who blessedly smelled like wolves and she wanted to laugh, she was so thankful—glanced at her, smiled, nodded in greeting, and hurried down the slope to document the accident. The EMTs were on their way down right behind them. They weren’t wolves, but she suspected the police officers were part of Leidolf’s pack so they would find everything in favor of the Wilding brothers no matter what the circumstances had been.

  It paid to have wolves working in various occupations, she realized. Maverick opened the truck door for her. “Do you have to shift?” he asked for her ears only.

  She shook her head. She’d been more worried about the emergency crews and the police arriving and seeing a wolf on the scene.

  “Okay, good. We’re just going to give our version of the story, and then we can leave. If it takes too long, I can drive you home. The police won’t keep me.”

  She nodded, though she wanted to tell him to stay as long as he needed. They had to stop Calypso from doing anything further to the Wildings’ business. That’s when she heard another vehicle coming, and she peered out of the window to see a news van pull up behind Randall’s Jeep. She smiled. That’s just what they needed—a news report putting the Calypso Ranch in a bad light—and she was glad she’d returned to the truck, not wanting a wolf to garner any attention. All of the heat should be on the bad guys.

  ***

  Maverick had worried that Gina had suddenly needed to shift, but it appeared that the only trouble was she was anxious about the arrival of the emergency crews and them seeing her as a wolf. He couldn’t wait to get this business taken care of and go home to make love to her. If she was even in the mood now.

  After seeing how much she loved the reindeer and loved to be part of the shows with the calves and the kids, he had been searching for just the right reindeer calf to give her for Christmas. It would be hers to raise and love. But he was buying her a special one—a leucistic calf so she would have something even more special to study. He would do everything to make her happy to be staying with them. With him. Some leucistic reindeer calves were often deaf. Her eyesight wouldn’t be as good as the reindeer without leucism, but in a setting like they had, she would always be safe, as long as they didn’t have problems with thugs like the Calypso Ranch hands trying to run off the reindeer into the wilderness.

  Because of Gina’s propensity to study wildlife, he assumed she’d love the opportunity, though he even thought having a rare white reindeer would add to their exhibits’ uniqueness.

  He left Gina in the truck and returned to the accident site to see if anyone needed his help. Josh, Randall, and Maverick gave their statements to the police. The EMTs finally got the men into the ambulances, and when they left, the media vans took off.

  Leidolf said, “Okay, good job, men. They’ll be charged with a number of crimes on your property and off.”

  “They should be,” Maverick said, furious that anyone could have so little disregard for the animals when they cared for reindeer of their own.

  “And the news is reporting on it, so Calypso is getting a black eye over all this,” Josh said.

  “Their new management deserves it,” Maverick said. “Maybe something good will come of this.”

  “Why don’t you two take Gina home?” Leidolf asked.

  “Yeah, we sure will,” Josh said.

  Maverick agreed that they should go. Then he and Josh climbed back up the hill to the truck.

  “Are you okay?” Maverick asked Gina, settling into the back seat with her, and then Josh drove them back to the ranch.

  She licked his cheek and laid her head on his lap. He took that as a yes. He wondered if she would shift soon. And then she raised her head quickly, and he had his answer. She shifted in a beautiful blur of forms and was instantly in her human body. He helped her dress, and Josh turned up the heat so she wouldn’t get chilled.

  “Oh, I hope the news media rakes Calypso’s management over the coals,” she said.

  “Yeah, how much do you want to bet that the management refutes that they had any part in any of this?” Maverick said.

  “They would, to avoid repercussions,” Josh said.

  But with some of the radio show host flak they’d been getting and now this, really endangering the reindeer? Maverick suspected they would be in trouble.

  Gina finished dressing and gave Maverick a hug. He kissed her mouth, deepening the kiss, promising her much more when they got home.

  Chapter 16

  As soon as they reached the reindeer ranch and Maverick’s home, Josh dropped Maverick and Gina off. She was so eager to take this all the way with Maverick. She just hoped he would feel the same way as her.

  “See you tomorrow,” Josh said.

  “Yeah, ’night, Josh,” Maverick said.

  “’Night,” Gina added.

  Then Maverick and Gina went inside, and she locked the wolf door, just in case she had to sleepwalk as a wolf tonight, though she figured she should be okay for some hours now.

  She kissed Maverick, and they dumped their parkas on the back of the couch. He picked her up and set her on the couch and then pulled off her boots. She pulled him down onto the couch and then got up to pull his boots off, removing each of his socks and tossing them. He smiled and got up from the couch and took her hand and headed back to the bedroom. If she could have, she would have stayed in her wolf form before they arrived home. Then she could have just shifted, been naked, and not had to remove her clothes again. Not that she’d had any choice.

  But once they were in the bedroom and Maverick started removing her shirt and she pulled off his, she realized this was nice too, working up the heat, their hearts thumping harder, their breaths quickening. Then they began unfastening belts, their mouths fused together in a never-ending kiss.

  “How long do we need to date before we can mate?” she whispered against his mouth.

  He pulled his face away from hers and smiled down at her, raising his dark brows expectantly. “It’s for life, and we live long lives.”

  “Yeah, so is that a problem?” Tension knotted her stomach as she stroked his muscular arms. She had decided she wanted this, and she didn’t want him to talk her out of it unless he really wasn’t ready for it.

  He chuckled.

  “You turned me.” She ran her hands up his glorious abs. “I wasn’t going to say you were stuck with me because of it. I don’t want you to feel that way.” She sighed. “I don’t know if it’s the wolf instincts or what, but I want you all for myself. I don’t want to dance with other wolves at dances. I don’t want anyone else to think they have a chance at dating me if you feel the same way about me as I do about you. I’ve fallen hopelessly in love with you. Is that possible?”

  She really was hooked on him, and she kept thinking she was nuts, that she couldn’t possibly know him well enough to feel he was the only wolf for her. But she felt the pull so strongly that she couldn’t think of anything else. She wondered if she really understood the way it was with the wolf kind or she was wrong about all this. Maybe if she gave other wolves the chance to date her, she wouldn’t feel so strongly about Maverick, but she didn’t think so.