Tom said, “The tow truck is coming to confiscate Randy’s pickup. We’ll have to impound it.”

  “If I hadn’t been worried about getting Kayla to safety, I would have hung around to try to learn what they had to say,” Nate said. “Though I needed reinforcements to apprehend all of them.”

  “I believe some of us need to turn into our wolves anyway. Easier for us to run and locate them now that we’ve gotten their scents,” Darien said. “We’ll howl if we see any of them to pinpoint their locations for those who are in uniform or others searching in human form.”

  “I’ll run as a wolf.” Maybe Nate could sneak up on them as a wolf and hear some of them talking, revealing just what they had been up to.

  “I will too,” Tom and Jake said.

  Peter raised his brows at Darien. The pack leader smiled. “You know me. I’m up for the hunt in my wolf coat—always.”

  Peter told the other searchers what they were going to do, and in the meantime, Darien, his brothers, and Nate stripped off their clothes and shifted.

  Then the wolves raced out the door and the other men followed them and began to systematically search for scents in the woods, no need for flashlights as lupus garous. They all moved quietly, not noisily like the humans they were hunting would, especially traveling through unfamiliar woods at night. No one in the search party spoke a word.

  They were also all listening for sounds—talking, stepping on underbrush, or snapping branches and twigs. And they were watching for any sign of movement—flashlights or cell phone lights or the lighting of a cigarette. They especially smelled for scents. From what Nate had smelled of them already, the housebreakers were sweaty, aggravated, and frustrated that their prey had given them the slip.

  Nate and the other wolves didn’t plan to show themselves to the people when they found them. They didn’t want to get shot, and Nate was certain the men would carry guns. When they found the people had split up, Nate split off from the other wolves. After walking about a quarter of a mile, he heard someone say, “Shit!” A snap and a thud followed, sounding like someone had tripped over something and fallen—the hazard of traveling in the dark woods at night.

  He saw a faint light off in the distance and headed for it, still hidden in the darkness himself, safe unless he ran into someone else closer to him who he had missed. Then he saw Randy and Ann together, both holding cell phone lights up to search the darkness.

  “This is so stupid. They could be hiding anywhere, and we wouldn’t find them. None of us have high-beam flashlights that could really penetrate the darkness,” Ann said.

  “Shut up, Ann,” Randy said.

  “You know we’re bound to get lost, and then what? We’ve been walking around forever, and we’re not going to find anyone—”

  “You’re in on this as much as everyone else. If they get away and call the law on us, we’re all going to get caught.”

  She shut up then, but at least now Nate knew Ann was as much involved in whatever had gone down. He just wished they’d say what. The murder of Durham Manning? Most likely because they had seen the news report where he and Kayla found the body. Why would they care about the murdered victim and who found him otherwise? Committing the heists? Maybe. If Manning was responsible for the thefts and that tied them into why he had to die. Making Phil disappear? Probably. Since they were the last ones to see him and there were such mixed messages among the friends. Gerald’s inference that he might be implicated in a crime still stuck in Nate’s thoughts. Ann denying seeing the fight in the bar. Everest’s disinterest in speaking about Phil’s disappearance and not being worried about his friend vanishing. But neither Ann nor Randy was discussing anything.

  “Ow, damn it.” Ann paused. Randy kept going. “Wait for me!”

  “What’s wrong now?” Randy sounded like he could kill her because he was so angry about Nate and Kayla getting away.

  “My hair is tangled on a branch.”

  Randy came back and broke the branch off, and Ann cried out. “That hurt!”

  “Keep moving or walk back to the cabin by yourself.”

  “What if they returned there?” she asked.

  “We got their phones. They slashed my damn truck tires and their own, so they can’t leave except by foot any more than we can until Gerald gets his ass out here with some replacement tires. If they’re back at the cabin, just hide in the woods until we return. The PI and his girlfriend can’t notify anyone they’re in trouble. That’s why we have to find them before they reach anyone to call for help.”

  “What if I don’t find my way back by myself? Not that you will be able to either.” Then Ann mumbled, “Nobody was supposed to get hurt.”

  “Shut up, Ann.”

  Chapter 20

  Nate howled to let the rest of the team know he’d found a couple of the people they were searching for, since Randy and Ann weren’t revealing any secrets that they needed to know.

  “Wolves,” Ann squeaked. Then she ran away from where Nate had howled. But she wasn’t headed in the direction of the cabin. She was running toward the river.

  Randy tore after her. “Hey, wait up! Are you sure this is the way back to the cabin?”

  “Who cares? If the wolf is in the other direction, we have to get away from it. If the cabin is that way, we can’t go that way anyway!” she bit out, her breath short while running. “Ah!” She fell and lost her cell phone. “Damn it!”

  Randy was there, and then he reached her and helped her up. “Come on, damn it!”

  “Wait, I lost my cell phone.”

  Nate was following them, hunting them, keeping them in sight.

  Randy and Ann were searching for her phone and finally saw it half-buried in leaves where she’d dropped it, the light partially hidden. Randy grabbed it from the ground and handed it to her. “Put it in your damn pocket or something. And don’t drop it again.”

  She put it in her jeans pocket and didn’t move. “I don’t know which way to go now. I don’t know which way the wolves are.”

  Nate was amused she called them wolves when he was the only one who had howled. Then he heard a couple of people moving in his direction. Bad guys or Nate’s friends?

  If they were his wolf friends, they could smell that he and Randy and Ann had gone this way. So he didn’t need to howl. Unless the ones headed in his direction weren’t any of his friends. He figured for good measure he’d howl. If any of them were Nate’s friends, they’d let him know. He lifted his chin and howled.

  That sent Randy and Ann into a panic. “Shit, he’s almost on top of us. He’s chasing us,” Ann said as she began to run and stumble and cry.

  “Keep calm. Wait! Stop! Let’s climb a tree until it goes away,” Randy said.

  “Do you see any trees we can climb? Wait, oh, we’re in a clearing. The river. Can wolves swim across the river?” Ann asked.

  “Hell, we can’t swim across the river! Not in the dark. Can you even swim?”

  “Of course I can swim.”

  “I mean, can you swim across a river? It’s not the same as swimming in your rich daddy’s heated swimming pool.”

  Nate didn’t want them to drown in the river, damn it. Then he heard someone running behind him, and he saw that it was Peter and CJ.

  “Hold up! I’m Sheriff Jorgenson. The two of you stop! You’re both under arrest for breaking and entering a cabin near here.” Peter had his gun out because he knew the two of them could be armed.

  Though Nate didn’t believe that Ann was armed, he was certain Randy would be. If Randy had found them, he wouldn’t have been able to force Nate and Kayla to go with them if he didn’t have a gun on him.

  That’s when Ann did the unthinkable. She raced into the water to escape but got caught up in the river’s current. Nate couldn’t believe it! He bolted out of the woods and ran into the water after her. He was quickly caught up in the current. He began paddling for her, desperately trying to reach her.

  “Holy shit! Shoot the wolf! Shoot the wolf before it kills her,” Randy shouted at Peter, though he didn’t make any move to go after her to protect her himself.

  Then Peter and CJ were cuffing him, and Peter read him his rights.

  “I’ll sue you for not protecting her from the wolf! I’ll have you all up on charges!”

  “Yeah, yeah, save it for the judge,” Peter said.

  Nate was busy trying to catch up to Ann, who was sputtering and coughing in the river. Her head went under, and he feared the worst, but then she came up for air again. He heard Tom howl to let his friends know where he was. Good. He had found another one of the housebreakers. And then some distance from there, he heard Darien and Jake howling. Hopefully, they would have the rest of them rounded up soon. Nate had to pull Ann from the water before she drowned herself.

  Then he thankfully caught up to the woman, bit into her shirtsleeve, and pulled her into shore. She was screaming and trying to attack him. Luckily, the shirtsleeve hadn’t torn off in his mouth while he pulled her to safety. Immediately, he backed off so she would know he wasn’t going to hurt her and howled to let someone know she was here and needed to be picked up.

  She sat on the beach shivering, and he stayed near the water, hoping to stop her if she decided to go swimming again. But the thing was she probably believed he was calling for other wolves to come and get her. He couldn’t help it. He had to alert the others he had found her. It seemed to take forever before Peter and CJ discovered them, wrapped her in an emergency blanket, took her into custody, and walked her back to the cabin.

  “Some of the guys took the man in who had been with her,” Peter said to Nate, though the woman would believe he was talking to CJ.

  Nate had moved into the woods so she wouldn’t see him.

  “That was a wolf. Why didn’t you shoot it?” Ann asked, irate.

  “Did he save you?”

  “He was dragging me to shore to eat me. He was howling for his pack mates to get here.”

  The howling part was true.

  “He saved your scrawny ass,” CJ said. “And for your information, he wasn’t a wolf. He was a dog that looked like a wolf.”

  “He howled! Wolves howl.”

  “Some dogs do too,” CJ said.

  Then they heard the other wolves howling to say they’d caught everyone and to head back in. That was one nice thing about being wolves and part of a wolf pack; they could all call out to each other that way. It meant Nate’s job was almost done and he could return to the cabin too.

  He raced ahead out of Ann’s sight and hurried to reach the cabin. He was ready to return for Kayla. So much for getting a good night’s sleep with his mate!

  Once he reached the cabin, he saw Everest and Sarah being loaded into one of the police cars. Nate slipped in through the wolf door without anyone seeing him. As soon as he shifted and began getting dressed in his own clothes, Jake barged in through the door, shifted, and started pulling on his clothes.

  Darien and Tom came into the house afterward, turned into their human forms, and began dressing.

  “We got everyone, I take it.” Nate wanted to close this chapter of their vacation. “I got Randy and his girlfriend Ann.”

  “I called out that I’d found one of the men,” Tom said.

  “That was Everest,” Nate said.

  “Jake and I found the woman,” Darien said. “Did you take a swim, Nate?”

  “Uh, yeah. I scared Ann, and she jumped into the river to escape me, and then I had to rescue her.”

  Smiling, Darien shook his head. “She’ll never want to return to these woods again. Not when wolves are all over the place out here.”

  “Yeah, I was just glad I didn’t accidentally bite her when I grabbed her shirtsleeve with my teeth to pull her to shore.”

  “I’ll say. We certainly don’t need a lawbreaker to be one of us. Who knows what crimes she has already committed,” Darien said.

  “We have another issue. Their friend Gerald was supposed to be bringing replacement tires for Randy’s truck,” Nate said.

  “We’ll leave a couple of men here, though if this Gerald sees Randy’s truck is gone, he might just hightail it out of here, believing Randy had made other arrangements,” Peter said. “He wasn’t involved in the break-in, so we won’t have him up on charges for that. However, if we see him, we’ll bring him in for questioning. The men we leave here can return as soon as we learn Gerald is in custody.”

  Then they left the cabin, and Nate was glad to see that his van tires had all been replaced. His pack was the greatest. Peter handed Nate his and Kayla’s phones, and Nate was glad to have them back.

  Randy’s truck was gone too. Everyone but the two men who were going to sit tight if Gerald showed up got into their vehicles, then headed back to town. It wasn’t Nate’s place to question the people they’d arrested, though he sure would love to know if they had anything to do with Durham Manning’s death and Phil’s disappearance. He knew Peter would tell him when they knew something, but maybe not right away because Nate was supposed to be enjoying this time with Kayla.

  When Nate arrived at Darien’s house, he found Kayla and Lelandi talking to each other, and then they said good night for what was left of the evening.

  “We’ll let you know what we learn,” Darien said. “We’ll let Nicole know if we find out what happened to Phil through any of these people too.”

  “Okay, thanks,” Nate said. He gathered Kayla in his arms, and she practically purred to be with him again. “Let’s go home.”

  “To the cabin,” she said, making sure they were on the same page.

  “Yes. Absolutely.” Then he drove her back there. He hoped she would be able to relax and not worry about the housebreakers and being chased in the woods.

  On the way to the cabin, they got a call from Peter. “Hey, when you reach your cabin, you won’t find anyone there. We caught up with Gerald and have him at the station for questioning. These people should never have come to Silver Town to cause trouble.”

  “Hit them hard with charges and break them to learn what’s going on with all this business,” Nate said.

  “We’re sure trying our damnedest. And just for your information, the men were both armed with 45-caliber pistols,” Peter said. “Gerald had a 9mm on him. You were right to run as wolves and come to us to stop them.”

  “Yeah, that’s what we figured.”

  “Okay, well, we’ll leave the two of you to get on with your own business, but if you sense anything’s not right, let us know right away.”

  “We sure will, Peter. Thanks.” Nate ended the call and glanced at Kayla in his van. She looked like she was half-asleep, her head pressed against the window. He smiled at her. They were sleeping in late.

  They finally reached the cabin, and he parked. “Do you want me to carry you into the cabin?”

  She smiled, yawned, stretching her arms over her head. “Nope. But I’m sure ready to go back to sleep. We have a lot of fun stuff to do after we wake.”

  “That’s for sure. Only fun stuff.”

  They got out of the van, and he locked it up, then took her to the front door, unlocked it, and they headed inside, then locked up.

  This time she didn’t race him to the bedroom. She was moving way too slowly.

  He scooped her up in his arms, and she wrapped her arms around his neck as he carried her into the bedroom.

  She kissed his chest. “Was I moving too slowly?”

  He chuckled. “I wanted to get you into bed as quickly as I could.”

  “That sounds awfully good to me.”

  He set her down on the bed and began to undress her, except she kicked off her borrowed flip-flops first. He removed her shirt. No bra? He ran his hands over her breasts. She began pulling his shirt off. “Sleep first,” she said, sounding so sleepy, like she could just fall back on the bed, close her eyes, and pass out.

  He smiled and kissed her lips and pulled off her shorts. No undies.

  “I didn’t want to borrow a bra and panties, knowing this is where we’d be headed when we returned to the cabin. Taking off our clothes. Sliding naked under the covers. Snuggling together.”

  He yanked off his shorts and boxer briefs. “Yeah, for sure.”

  Then they were both under the covers cuddling each other—just like they’d been before they’d been so rudely awakened and fled for their lives. “I love you, Kayla.”

  “Hmm,” she said. “Love you too.”

  The next thing he knew, it was midmorning, pouring rain, thunderstorms right overhead. He couldn’t believe they had slept through some of it, but they’d been exhausted.

  “Hmm,” Kayla said when they woke, running her hand over Nate’s bare stomach. “We slept in a bit. I never can sleep in no matter how late I go to bed. Unless I’m sick.”

  “I must be a good influence.”

  She laughed. “Are you ready for breakfast?”

  “Yeah, I sure am. All that exercise we had gave me an appetite.”

  “Me too. Do ham, hash browns, and eggs sound good?”

  “Yeah, they sure do. I’ll prepare the potatoes if you want to make the eggs.”

  “I got the easy part of the deal.” Then she pulled on her underwear and he did the same, and they left the bedroom to make breakfast.

  He began peeling the potatoes. “I guess you slept all right.”

  “Yeah, I was bushed. I’m sure I dreamed about something, but no telling what.”

  “I was dreaming about chasing and playing with you as a wolf before we were so rudely awakened by the guys breaking into the cabin.” He washed off the peeled potatoes and then started shredding them.

  “Aww.” She started the eggs and ham.

  “Yeah, it was a really great dream. Like you, I was so tired that I have no idea if I dreamed the next time we went to sleep or not.” He began putting the shredded potatoes in a pan and cooking them, adding some lemon and pepper seasoning.

  “Well, hopefully we’ll have a good night tonight and you can dream about us having fun again.” She served up the eggs and ham.

  “I want to do it for real, but only if the weather lets up. It’s supposed to stop raining in a couple of hours.” He dished out the hash browns.