“Uh, yeah, I sure am.” She gave her brother a hug again. “We’ll see you all tonight at seven then.” And then she said goodbye. They left and she said to Maverick as they got into his truck, “I hadn’t expected them to want to be turned.”

  “They probably figured they wouldn’t ever get to see werewolves shifting unless they became one like us.” Maverick was just glad it had all worked out.

  “True. Are we going to the reindeer exhibit that Randall was handling?”

  “I texted him, and he said he’s got enough help. And the ranch tours are covered. So if you want, we could just go home and—”

  “Yes! I’m ready.”

  He smiled. “I have a proposal to make. We have 4,000 acres of land, and I’d like to give a parcel to your parents so they can build a home on it. They would be close to us and my ranch hands, brother, sister-in-law, and we can all keep an eye on them, giving them assistance anytime they need it. I want to make the same offer to your brother so he could have a home of his own, and when he finds a mate, they’ll be all set. It would be their Christmas presents from us.”

  “Ohmigod, yes, that’s a splendid idea. You are such a wonderful mate.”

  “We have plenty of land, and we’re all family now. I’m glad to do it.”

  “I’m sure they will be thrilled. Weston can’t stay with Sarge forever. And now with Bromley and Patterson staying there, I know Weston will be grateful.”

  “Family takes care of family. Josh and Brooke and I haven’t had any in so long, we are all in agreement.”

  “Oh, of course, yes.”

  “That means when we have little ones—”

  Gina smiled. “My parents will be glad to help out and love on the grandkids. And when Weston settles down, the same thing. Oh, and when Josh and Brooke have some, they’ll dote on them too, believe me. I can’t believe how much my life has changed with you in it and all for the good.”

  “I feel the same way about you.”

  When they got home, they made love, Maverick not wanting to wait just in case Gina had to shift all of a sudden again.

  Chapter 18

  When the guys arrived for dinner that night, both Bromley and Patterson were wolves, amusing Gina and Maverick. She really hadn’t expected that. But in the world of wolf shifters, she realized nothing would ever be the same as far as expectations went. Weston carried a bag she suspected contained their clothes.

  Bromley and Patterson were bouncing around in the snow like two wolf pups who couldn’t have been happier.

  “Well, one good thing about being wolves, they can still enjoy the brisket.” Brooke motioned for them all to come inside.

  “And we can go running with them,” Josh added. “If anyone else can and wants to, we’ll go as a pack.”

  The guys woofed, and Brooke gave Bromley and Patterson dinner plates of food on the floor so they could eat, while everyone else sat up at the dining room table and enjoyed the meal and the conversation.

  “So the guys are fine with Maverick and Leidolf turning them?” Gina asked.

  “Man, are they,” Weston said. “They’ve been itching to shift into their wolves ever since they were turned. Just as though it was Christmas. Of course, then I wanted to shift too but couldn’t. Sarge could, but we needed someone to drive us here.”

  “Well, I’m glad it all worked out for you,” Maverick said. “And you have the war wounds to prove it.”

  “All gone. They were amazed how fast the bite marks healed,” Sarge said.

  “Oh, but not everyone is enthusiastic that we joined the pack, by the way,” Weston said, though he didn’t seem bothered by it.

  “Oh?” Gina asked, surprised.

  “Female wolves are at a premium,” Maverick said.

  “Now I know why you turned me,” Gina said, chuckling.

  Everyone laughed.

  “Yeah, you found me out.” Maverick leaned over and kissed her cheek.

  “So they’re annoyed with you for asking Dorinda to the New Year’s Eve party?” Gina forked up some of her mashed potatoes and gravy.

  “Yeah, a couple of bachelor males are not really happy about it.”

  Maverick nodded. “That’s the way it is when you’re a wolf like us.”

  “I for one am glad you all were turned,” Sarge said. “I hated not being able to tell you what had happened to me, afraid I might run into you someday. I worried no one would believe any story I tried to come up with and I’d get tripped up.”

  Maverick got a call on his phone. “It’s Leidolf. Putting you on speakerphone. Go ahead.”

  “The management of the Calypso Reindeer Ranch denied any involvement of their ranch hands in releasing your reindeer, endangering the animals, breaking and entering, and more. It’s on the news. The owners have been contacted in the South of France where they’ve been living. They’re horrified at all the news they’ve been receiving about the management. The owners fired them and hired new management. Hopefully, that will be the end of all the business with them trying to usurp your sales and pulling any other shenanigans.”

  “That’s good news. What about the men who actually came to the ranch and freed the reindeer and chased them off?” Maverick asked.

  “They’re spilling their guts to law enforcement, but they’re still being charged with endangerment to the animals and more.”

  Maverick and Brooke smiled. “Good,” Brooke said. “We’ll have to see what happens at the activities tomorrow.”

  “Yeah, hopefully their new management will have been told to not cause any trouble for us so the Calypso Ranch doesn’t get any more bad publicity after this,” Maverick said. “Thanks, Leidolf, for updating us on the news.”

  “You’re welcome. I knew you’d want to know soonest.”

  They said goodnight, and then Weston was jumping off his chair and yanking his shirt over his head. Everyone sat in stunned silence. Then they realized he was shifting!

  Everyone else continued to eat. Brooke set out some more brisket for Bromley and Patterson. They wolfed it all up.

  “Did you want to go for a run then?” Josh asked as everyone was finishing their dinner.

  “I do.” Sarge quickly finished his last bite of brisket. And then he rose from the table and began clearing dishes.

  “Don’t worry about the dishes.” Brooke packed up the leftover food and put it in the fridge while Josh helped her.

  Gina, Maverick, and Sarge cleaned up the dishes and pots and pans anyway.

  “That’s a really good way to get out of cleaning up after dinner,” Gina told her brother, teasing him.

  He woofed at her.

  “I guess we’ll take the Jeep and follow them with their clothes, just in case,” Maverick said.

  “You can run with them. I’ll drive the Jeep.” Gina didn’t want Maverick to feel he couldn’t run just because she couldn’t.

  He took the reindeer-decorated dish towel from her and wrapped his arms around her and kissed her soundly on the mouth.

  “Unless you want Randall to follow them, and we can return home and occupy ourselves in our own way.” She smiled up at him.

  “Afterward for sure. We’ll do the driving this time.”

  She was actually glad they could help out too and give Randall a break.

  Not long after that, everyone but Maverick and Gina took off to run as wolves, all their clothes gathered in Josh’s truck as Maverick and Gina followed behind the wolves.

  Josh had to keep Bromley and Patterson from straying in the direction of the woods. Gina guessed they should have given them some rules—no getting so far from the beaten path where they couldn’t follow in a vehicle if either of them shifted.

  But the guys were having just too much fun running as wolves, nipping, biting, tackling each other, and she was dying to run with them.

  “That was such great news about the management at the Calypso Ranch,” Gina said.

  “I agree. But we’re still taking the llama with us to give us additional interest just in case. Randall said when he took her this afternoon, crowds were delighted. Oh, and people who had heard about the men’s arrest for hassling our reindeer boycotted their reindeer exhibit.”

  She stretched out her arms. “Oh, good. So then that should be the end of their tyranny.”

  “Hopefully.”

  She sighed. “Okay, exactly when are we going to turn my parents? They’re coming for Christmas Eve tomorrow night and then Christmas Day, and I’m delighted, but I’m still not sure about turning them then.”

  “They won’t feel the same way about being turned as Bromley, Patterson, and your brother?” Maverick asked.

  “I doubt it.”

  “We could have trouble with them shifting in the middle of all the festivities. Why don’t we do it after the Christmas Day meal? That way they can enjoy all the festivities, opening presents, eating the meal, and if they shift later, we’ll run together as wolves, as much as any of us can,” Maverick said.

  “Their final Christmas present,” she said.

  “Well, we can tell them about the gift of the land then too, and hopefully they’ll be able to live with it.”

  “True.” She got an email saying she’d had a package delivered at Josh and Brooke’s house. She loved ordering online, especially since she’d had to order Maverick’s presents that way so he didn’t see them.

  She’d seen packages coming in that Maverick had been storing in a back bedroom too. When he wasn’t around, she was hiding her packages for him in another guest room with a sign tacked on: DO NOT OPEN UNTIL CHRISTMAS DAY.

  She still needed to wrap them, which she planned to do tomorrow in the morning when they had their last show. Maverick was going to help with a tour group to give some of his men some time off to do some last-minute Christmas shopping.

  She couldn’t believe she was mated to a wolf for Christmas.

  “Do you want to get married, and if so, when?” Maverick asked her. “Not all wolf couples do it, because mating is for life and we don’t need to prove to anyone we’ve made a commitment to each other. But some do it for tax purposes and for other reasons.”

  “Let’s do it when we have a lighter season for reindeer tours and such.”

  “That’s in the summer normally. In January, we still have a lot of groups visit. In February, we have a Valentine’s Day special. We could do it in March.”

  “Let’s do it in the summer, if that’s your quiet time. We could have it at the ranch, right?”

  “Absolutely. And that will give us time to make all the arrangements.”

  She pulled up the moon phases calendar on her phone. “Okay, let’s make it June 28. That’s when the new moon will be out. All the wolves, the reindeer, and the llama will be in attendance. Tomorrow, I’ll let my parents know we’re engaged. They’ll expect to see a ring though.”

  “I can get you one, but you’ll only be able to wear it during the new moon.”

  “Well, it’s not going to be too long before they’re turned anyway, and we can tell them about the jewelry issues as far as wearing jewelry and shifting after we’ve turned them.”

  “That’s really the best idea,” Maverick said.

  Gina frowned. “You have the heater turned up way too high in the truck.”

  Maverick glanced at her. “I haven’t changed it.”

  “Oh, no. Okay.” Gina started yanking off her clothes in a hurry.

  Maverick called Randall on Bluetooth. “Hey, I’m going to need your help. Gina’s shifting. Uh, shifted.” He gave him their location.

  “Okay, I’m on my way,” Randall said over the Bluetooth.

  “Thanks.” Then Maverick parked the truck and opened the doors. “I’m coming with you. If anyone shifts back before Randall gets here, they can return to my truck.”

  She had shifted before she could even respond. She couldn’t believe it happened so quickly, but she was thrilled she could run with all the other wolves.

  She licked Maverick’s naked chest. He smiled and kissed the top of her nose; then he shifted, and they left the truck, bounding off into the night after the other wolves, barking and howling. The other wolves stopped and howled for them to join them. New howls filled the air, some that she hadn’t heard before. She recognized Josh’s and Brooke’s.

  She and Maverick howled back, and they headed for the others and finally joined them. In the distance, they heard Randall driving his Jeep to follow them. She’d never even considered they’d need to call poor Randall to help them out. Not that she could help it. She had to shift, and she was glad that Maverick had come with her. They were meant to run as wolves together.

  They finally reached the others, and all greeted each other as if they had always been wolves and understood the way it was. She loved that her brother was a wolf and that their friends were too.

  Weston and his friends were playing and growling, biting each other, rolling in the snow, having a ball. Maverick stayed with Gina, showing he’d rather run with her. Likewise, Josh and Brooke hung out together, and Gina suspected the friends needed to work out their aggressions by playfighting and would learn from their mistakes and maneuvers on their own without the royals showing them how it was done.

  But then Josh and Brooke were corralling them again, ensuring they didn’t chase each other through the river or into the woods where they couldn’t easily reach them with a vehicle and their clothes if they suddenly shifted.

  Gina was so happy to be out here with everyone as a wolf, breathing in the scents of snow and pines and fir trees and a rabbit somewhere nearby. When her brother and friends finally wound down from fighting and playing, they headed back to Brooke and Josh’s home. At first, they were loping, and then both Bromley and Patterson were racing each other as if their lives depended on it. Suddenly, Bromley stopped and shifted.

  Randall drove to where he was located, and Bromley climbed into the Jeep and began to get dressed. Gina didn’t think she’d ever get used to seeing people shift and be naked in front of her. She thought of that happening to her parents. Oh, no way did she want to see them like that, nor did she want them to experience the embarrassment to do that in front of other people. It would take them time to ever get used to it.

  Randall must have gotten the clothes out of Maverick’s truck for everyone.

  Then Patterson reached the Jeep, and half-dressed Bromley threw the door open for him. Before Patterson could jump in as a wolf, he was standing naked in the snow, then hurrying to climb aboard.

  Since tomorrow was Christmas Eve, Gina couldn’t help worrying how her parents would fare once they were turned.

  Chapter 19

  The next day, Gina planned to wrap presents in the morning, and Maverick told her he had to go out and work with the final tour group that morning until they left. Some of the items Gina had ordered were wrapped, and she’d already wrapped her parents’ and Weston’s presents. But she still needed to wrap Maverick’s, Brooke’s, and Josh’s presents. Plus, she’d gotten some gifts for the ranch hands.

  She’d wanted to give Weston a special water wolf dish for when he turned wolf, just for kicks, but her parents wouldn’t understand it and would probably think he’d gotten a dog and want to see it.

  Playing Christmas music while she wrapped presents, she also had started the fire and then carried all the presents into the living room and set them under the tree. Maverick had placed all his gifts under there sometime last night, she guessed. And she smiled.

  Weston wasn’t coming to the house until later, just before their parents arrived. She suspected he wanted to give her and Maverick, the newly mated couple, more privacy before he and their parents landed in on them and stayed for the night, knowing that they’d actually be staying longer than they planned once they were turned.

  Which also meant Maverick and some others who didn’t have trouble with shifting would have to move her parents’ things that they needed for longer term to the reindeer ranch too. Josh and Brooke had offered for them and Weston to stay at their place after Christmas since they had the house in town and that would give Gina and Maverick more time alone together.

  Gina figured she’d make a light lunch for her and Maverick, and then saw him headed for the house. Perfect timing.

  He came inside and pulled off his parka and gloves, kissed her, then washed up, and gave her a hug. His body was cold, so were his lips, and he was chilling her. “You are so frosty.”

  “That’s why I’m warming myself up.”

  She laughed. “I was going to make something light to eat for lunch since we’re having prime rib at Brooke and Josh’s place tonight.”

  “How about grilled cheese sandwiches? After Cassie mentioned having them yesterday, they really appeal.”

  Gina smiled. “Grilled cheese sandwiches it is.”

  “I’m making hot cocoa to go with them.”

  She loved how he was always making them special drinks. This time, he added peppermint candy canes and bits of peppermint candy sprinkled on top of the cocoa.

  “Randall texted me with good news. The Calypso Reindeer Ranch staff was a no-show at the event this morning.”

  “Oh, that’s wonderful. Hopefully it will continue to be like that next year.”

  “And Andy, the radio talk show host, said they talked about the issue with them running off our reindeer. That might have pushed the Calypso management into not taking the reindeer to compete with us this morning. I think we have a good chance at them doing their own schedule away from us next year. Getting all that bad publicity in the news couldn’t help but hurt their ranch’s efforts to push their agenda.” Maverick glanced at the Christmas tree and smiled at the presents. “Looks like Santa’s elves were busy.”