She laughed. “This has been so much fun.” And they’d just started the day.

  Adam set his coffee and doughnut down on the table and wrapped his arms around her waist while everyone else grabbed their treats and drinks and headed to the stern cockpit to lounge and enjoy their breakfast. She noticed her dad was going to the helm to talk to Josh instead, taking a coffee for both Josh and himself and a couple of doughnuts each. She knew before long, her father would be piloting the boat.

  She would have loved to be with Adam and no one else, but it was special to be with her whole family too, bringing back all the happy memories of boating of her youth.

  Sierra’s mom was talking to Adam’s mom about moving to the ranch and the location they had picked out. But then Josh handed over the helm to Janice and began talking to Adam about the case involving Sierra, and the conversation quickly switched to that. Adam’s parents were both retired civilian police officers; Sierra’s mother, a retired air police officer; and Sierra’s dad, an army military police officer before moving up in rank. With them, plus Josh, a retired police detective, and Adam currently working as a police detective, Sierra felt they had their own private investigative force onboard.

  “Okay, so what is going on with this investigation?” Josh asked.

  “We’re still trying to track down the rest of the people involved in this business with Sierra. At least we have enough evidence that we have a good chance of convicting them of several crimes. We just have to arrest them,” Adam said.

  Sierra wanted to be part of the conversation, but she didn’t want Brooke and Janice to feel left out, and she was enjoying the day too much to want to talk about the ongoing police cases. But she was glad the others were trying to come up with solutions to take care of them.

  She and Brooke joined Janice at the helm.

  Brooke waved her cup of peppermint mocha at Sierra. “I hear the chocolate hazelnut coffee is your favorite, and Adam is always getting it for you.”

  “Yeah, he’s the sweetest.”

  Janice smiled at Brooke. “I need to train Brad to get my favorite coffee for me.”

  “Josh ended up loving my peppermint mocha so much, I have to make him some whenever I get myself some,” Brooke said. “Josh was a real keeper. Just like your brother was for Janice. Adam’s a keeper too.”

  “Yeah, I hear you.” Sierra took another sip of her coffee.

  “So?” Janice asked, raising a brow at Sierra.

  Sierra chuckled. But what could she say? She and Adam would mate if or when they mated. For now, she was just having fun.

  High overhead, a chirping sound caught their attention and everyone looked up to see an osprey calling out as it spied a fish in the river, dove headfirst for its prey, and skimmed the water with its talons, catching the fish near the surface and shooting back up into the sky.

  Sierra had never seen anything like that before, and she was thrilled.

  “We’ll have to go fishing,” Sierra’s father said to Adam as if the osprey fishing suddenly made him think of that. Her father loved to fish.

  “Yeah, we will have the best time. The ladies are welcome,” Adam’s dad said.

  “Or shopping, movies, happy hour,” Adam’s mother said.

  Sierra raised her hand. “I’m with you…”

  The ladies all laughed. “That sounds like fun,” Brooke said.

  Everyone took turns at the helm, and while Sierra was captaining the ship, Adam was with her, the first real time they had been alone together while on the yacht since breakfast.

  He rested his arm over her shoulder and leaned down and kissed her cheek. “You know, I could really get used to you being the captain of the ship and I’ll be your first mate.”

  “Hmm, I could take you up on it.”

  “Good. That’s exactly what I wanted to hear.”

  “This is a beautiful yacht, Adam. We will have to take it out every weekend we’re off now.”

  He laughed. “First, I couldn’t get you to take me up on it, and now?”

  “Yeah, it’s all your fault, you know.”

  “Oh, how’s that?”

  “When we went to see the River Patrol Unit about the stolen boat, just breathing in the air, listening to the sound of the water lapping at the boats, the seagulls crying overhead…” She sighed. “It just brought back so many good memories with my family. Of course there have been disasters too.”

  “Oh?”

  “Yeah. I got seasick when we ran into a storm on one trip on our sailboat. Man, was I miserable. And another time a drunk driver hit our boat, put a hole in it, and was thrown from his boat.”

  “And?”

  “Amazingly, he survived, but my dad wanted to rescue him in the worst way.”

  “Not your mom?”

  “Um, no. She was staying with me and Brad, ready to rescue my dad if he needed to be after going after the guy. But the boat patrol told Dad they couldn’t do anything until the boat ran out of gas. It was going in circles around the guy, hitting its own wake and changing course. The guy was lucky the water was warm—Texas, you know, not like this water—and that the boat didn’t hit him, or he didn’t just plain drown from being drunk.”

  “And?”

  “When the boat ran out of gas, the boat patrol pulled the guy out of the water, charged him with driving a boat while intoxicated and the damage to our boat, towed his boat, and pulled his license. It could have been a lot worse for all of us. We were able to reach the boat ramp under our own power, but Dad had to put the boat in the shop for repairs and there was no boating for weeks. He was not a happy camper. Well, none of us were.”

  “I don’t blame him. I’m just glad none of your family was injured. You’re not afraid to boat then?”

  “No. I love it out here. This is just wonderful. I have to ask… Just how soft is the captain’s bed?”

  Adam chuckled darkly. “Perfect while sharing it with the first mate.”

  She lifted her head to kiss him. “One of these days, we will have to try it out.”

  To their surprise, Josh was steaming up lobsters in the galley for lunch as a special treat, something they’d brought to celebrate Sierra’s parents joining the pack and just the get-together, so the sandwich fixings were for anyone who didn’t like lobster. Everyone opted for the lobster.

  “They’re fresh from this morning,” Josh was explaining to the rest of the guys. “I bought the live lobsters, blanched them in salted, boiling water for two minutes, put them in an ice bath for twenty minutes, placed them in freezer bags and squeezed the air out of them, then put them in the ice chest. You can double-bag them and freeze them for up to a year. After that, it’s time to boil them and eat them with a little lemon and butter.”

  “I was afraid we were going to be late getting here,” Brooke said, rubbing Josh’s back. “We were still putting them in the ice chest when we noticed the time.”

  “I’d say it was perfect timing,” Sierra’s dad said.

  This was a slice of heaven, Sierra thought as she gave up the helm to her mom and Dad joined her mom up there. Sierra sat with Adam and the rest of the crew on the deck seating in the stern to have lunch, and she was thinking about her dad’s comment about not letting Adam get away. She had no intention of it.

  Chapter 24

  While Sierra had been talking to Brooke and Janice at the helm, Brad had told Adam how glad he was that he finally got Sierra to go for a boat ride.

  “You knew how much she would love it,” Adam said to Brad.

  “Yeah. She has always loved being near water. And boating… She was the first one to pack everything to go on a trip. If anyone was waffling about it—sometimes my mother, who wanted to garden or do something else—Sierra was always there to encourage her to go with us. She would tell Mom that it wouldn’t be the same without her. If you’re looking for a mate who loves boating like you do, Sierra’s the one for you.”

  She had so much more to offer Adam as a mate, beyond that she loved boating. He was thinking they could run after dinner tonight at Brad’s home since it was on the pack leaders’ ranch. He really enjoyed running and playing with her. And she already had him hooked on ice cream dates. He would offer to take her to her favorite ice cream parlor after they ran as wolves tonight.

  They finally reached the Willamette Falls in the Willamette River, a horseshoe-shaped, block waterfall, forty-two feet high and fifteen hundred feet wide. They felt the spray on their faces as some of them stood on the bow deck.

  “Oh, this is beautiful,” Sierra said, her parents agreeing.

  Everyone else had seen the falls before, but Brooke said, “I always love seeing them.”

  “Me too,” Josh said.

  They were all taking cell phone pictures of the falls.

  Then they headed back to the marina again, everyone vying for a time to captain the boat. Everyone got a couple of turns on the five-hour trip.

  When they finally reached the marina, it was time to unload the boat. Brooke and Josh went home after that, everyone thanking them for the lobster lunch. The rest of them were driving in their separate vehicles to the pack’s ranch.

  Adam drove Sierra’s car, hoping his Hummer would be repaired by Monday like the body shop had promised. “So what did you think about the boat ride and the family get-together?”

  “It was wonderful. My folks and yours really hit it off. And everyone had a great time boating down the river. Did you and your new crime team solve any of the crimes you’ve been working on while I was talking to Brooke and Janice?”

  He chuckled. “No. Though your dad believes the coroner is correct that the drowned men died accidentally, since he’s a wolf like us. Your dad gave some scenarios he knew of where boats were found, and the boat captain or others had drowned. Of course then my dad was looking up cases for the local area, and our moms were trying to outdo them. Josh and I were getting the biggest kick out of them. They might all be retired from their original jobs, but they’re all great detectives. How are you feeling about going for a wolf run and returning to Portland for our favorite ice cream spot after dinner with our families?”

  “Boy, are you saying all the right things.”

  “Good, we have a date.”

  Adam got a call on Bluetooth from Tori and hoped he didn’t need to go in about anything. She was on call today, and if she needed his backup, he would go in. “Yeah, Tori, what’s up?”

  “I was looking into Mr. Kinney’s background after going over the statement he gave concerning the carjacker, and something didn’t add up.”

  “We wondered about that too,” Adam said. “So what did you learn?”

  “Mr. Kinney has a record. He has spent time in jail for theft.”

  That didn’t sound good. “And…?”

  “Guess who he served time with.”

  “The carjacker,” Adam guessed. “The description he gave didn’t match the carjacker in the least, and then when we told him he was dead, Kinney was highly irritated we hadn’t told him already. If he hadn’t been so angry with us over it, I would have just figured he hadn’t remembered the carjacker’s description because of the head injury.”

  “Yep. And he’d been in jail with the guy we just picked up for taking part in the kidnapping of Melissa, Burt Barnes.”

  “Aww, hell, they’re all in this together?” Adam couldn’t be any more furious about it than he was. Here he was feeling sorry about Kinney being injured and that he could have been fatally killed, and all along he was one of the gang?

  “It sounds like they could be.”

  “So that means they had a falling-out?” Why else would the carjacker have hit Kinney so hard as if he intended to kill him and then stolen his car?

  “I figure that’s what it is all about. The carjacker was trying to kill him, steal the car, and get rid of it.”

  “Are you arresting Kinney?” Adam wasn’t planning on going in, despite how much he wanted to deal with this personally. He glanced over at Sierra and smiled.

  “I want to gather more evidence against him, but I’m going home for now. I’ll run in again if we have any more developments.”

  “Okay, sounds good. Keep me posted.”

  “I will. I didn’t want to disrupt anything. You two have a fun day.”

  “We’re going to have dinner with both of our families. We’re almost there.”

  “Oooh, sounds serious. Enjoy your dinner!”

  “We will, thanks,” Adam said.

  Then they said goodbye and Sierra said to Adam, “You could have gone in if you needed to.”

  “No way. Unless Tori needs emergency backup, I’m here to do this with you.”

  “I just wanted you to know that it’s okay with me if you have to go in, even if we have plans,” Sierra said.

  “Only if it’s a matter of life or death.” Adam reached out and took Sierra’s hand and kissed it. “Otherwise, this is more important.”

  She sighed. “Good. Though I’m serious about if you need to go in about work when we have something planned. I don’t want you to think I’m clingy or anything.”

  “I would never think that, honey. I’m just glad we’re together. And the same thing goes for you. If you get called up for anything, don’t worry about any plans we might have. We’ll make up for it.”

  “Okay.”

  They finally arrived at Brad’s home on the ranch, and he and Sierra’s and Adam’s parents greeted them. Janice was in the kitchen pouring glasses of wine for the ladies. The guys were having beers.

  The dads and Brad went out to grill the steaks, while the ladies talked about Sierra’s parents relocating.

  “When are you going to propose a mating to Sierra?” Kirk asked, getting right to the point as he was drinking a beer with Brad and Adam on the back patio.

  Adam smiled at his dad while Brad put the steaks on the grill.

  Sierra’s dad frowned. “We tried to stay out of Sierra’s love life, but both of us agreed that we didn’t think Richard was right for her. His work always came before her, even when there wasn’t a good reason for it. We all know how important promotions are in the military, but the family is important too. She deserves more. Better.”

  “I agree, sir. I definitely thought the same when she was going out to see him. And then he had the gall of coming out to see her here without telling her he was going to,” Adam said.

  “I heard about that.” Kirk chuckled. “And there you were. That must have killed him, but it served him right. I’m glad you were there for her.”

  “I was glad to be there for her. Though neither of us could have anticipated his showing up like he did,” Adam said.

  “Once she called it quits with him, we knew she would eventually find a mate and settle down. When all the grandkids start showing up, we want to be here for them,” Kirk said.

  Adam laughed.

  Kirk slapped Adam on the back. “Boating as a family again would be great too.”

  “I agree,” Adam said.

  “And anytime Adam’s tied up at work, he’s fine with me taking the boat out. We can all go out together,” Adam’s dad said.

  Adam was glad his dad was making Sierra’s parents feel welcome.

  Sierra suddenly joined them on the back porch and slipped her arm around Adam’s waist. He immediately settled his arm around her shoulders, leaned down, and kissed her uplifted lips. She was smiling at him, and he thought she had come out to rescue him.

  “We’re just talking about boating as a family again,” Kirk said as Brad served up the steaks and they headed inside to eat.

  “Oh, really,” Sierra said to her dad.

  Adam laughed.

  She kissed him again. “We sure had a great time.”

  “We did,” Adam said, remembering a day long ago when his father would take his family boating on the Willamette River. “We’ll do it again when you all get settled in.”

  “Sounds good to me. We’re all running as wolves on the ranch after dinner, right?” Kirk asked as they joined the others inside the house.

  “Yeah,” Brad said. “We’ll probably have some other wolves join us too. But we’ll go as a family.”

  “That’s what we’ve missed while living in San Antonio.” Rhonda, Sierra’s mom, set out the plates and silverware. “A safe place like this to run wild. We’ve been running every night with Adam’s parents since we arrived here, and we’re thoroughly enjoying it. Leidolf showed us the stream and the waterfall, the forested land, all of it.”

  “Well, I couldn’t be any gladder,” Sierra said.

  “Me either,” Brad said, Janice agreeing.

  “Where will you be living?” Sierra asked.

  Adam was wondering that too.

  “We’re going to build a home on the ranch. Leidolf hired us to provide security for around the property. Adam’s parents are already providing some of the security, so we’ll swap off days. We’ll be chasing down hunters, watching the security videos. With our military police backgrounds, they were eager to hire us,” Kirk said.

  Adam was glad they would be working with his parents in security.

  “The best thing about it is that we can run as wolves sometimes while we’re doing it.” Rhonda took Kirk’s hand and squeezed, looking up at him, and he smiled back at her. “We’ve missed running as wolves so this will be an enjoyable change of pace for us. We’ll also be able to monitor things from the house, once it’s built. We’ll be watching things from Leidolf and Cassie’s house until then. We have to return to put the house up for sale and move our household goods here. The whole pack has offered to help us get things sorted out once the house is built. Because of military personnel coming and going all the time in San Antonio, the market is good, and we should be able to sell the house quickly.”

  “We already picked a location and have agreed on the house plans. The building will begin soon,” Kirk said.