“Uh, yes, no hair dye or nail polish will remain when you shift,” Brooke said.

  “At least I took my rings off before I shifted,” Faye said.

  “I love your hair color, Mom,” Gina said, coming back to the topic of her hair. “It’s really pretty. I thought you were hiding the gray.”

  “No, I just always thought blondes had more fun.”

  Everyone laughed.

  “These are delicious, by the way.” Faye took another sip of hers.

  “Thanks.” Brooke finished off her drink. “A nice way to end a wolf run on Christmas Day. Well, I think we’re about ready to head home. Right, Josh?”

  “Yeah. We’re so glad you all are family.” Josh rose from his seat, and everyone else did too.

  Then they began to hug each other, and Josh and Brooke left the house to walk home.

  Gina and Maverick cleaned up the glasses, and they hugged her parents and Weston, and then they said their good-nights, and everyone headed for their bedrooms.

  “It all turned out well after all,” Gina said after they stripped out of their clothes and climbed into bed, snuggling together in the master bedroom.

  “It sure did. Your mom needs a little more time to adjust, but I think they’re both happy with the change,” Maverick said.

  She chuckled. “I think my mom can even live with her hair color now.”

  He laughed. “I love you and your family.”

  “I love you too, and so do they.”

  And after making love and falling asleep in each other’s arms, they were startled awake when they heard a howl coming from her parents’ guest room—a new howl they hadn’t heard before.

  And they laughed. “Your mom is officially one of us now,” Maverick said.

  “We all are. Merry Christmas, honey.”

  “Merry Christmas, my beautiful she-wolf.”

  Epilogue

  It was New Year’s Eve, and Gina’s parents were the happiest she’d ever seen them, fireworks lighting the black sky in a display of brilliant colors, everyone snacking on treats, drinking wine, cocktails, or champagne and dressed to the nines.

  “I haven’t been to a New Year’s Eve party in years,” her mom told her. “This is so much fun.”

  They were all dressed up in shimmering silver sparkly dresses and feeling like a million bucks. And Gina’s dad was wearing a tux, the first time in forever and looking just as dapper.

  “We’d gotten sedentary in our lives. Now we have so many friends, lunches and dinners out with them when we can’t shift. And then movie nights, lunch and dinners in with friends when we have trouble shifting. If we shift, we all just go for a run as wolves. We have so much fun stuff to do that we’ve never been busier. But it’s all been great—horseback riding, running as wolves, even helping out with the reindeer. Your dad can’t wait to fish in the spring. I’m working with a group of quilters on projects for cancer patients even. Here we thought our retirement years would be totally boring. We couldn’t be happier. And do you know what?”

  “What, Mom?” Gina was so thrilled her mom and dad had taken to this way of life so easily.

  “Your dad and I decided that we were still meant to be together.”

  Gina frowned at her mom. That was supposed to have been a given.

  “Oh, Leidolf probably didn’t tell you, but sometimes when a human couple are turned, they realize they weren’t meant to be a mated pair of wolves. But we always knew we were meant for each other.”

  Gina looked around at all the couples dancing or visiting and saw Leidolf. He raised a glass of champagne to her and smiled. She growled under her breath. No way would she have wanted to see her parents split up once they were lupus garous. Though she guessed she had to see it from their viewpoint. Mated wolves lived long lives, and if they hadn’t been right for each other, that wouldn’t have been good either.

  Then she saw Maverick juggling three glasses of champagne and headed their way. She was glad she and Maverick had what it took to be mated wolves.

  “You didn’t tell me sometimes a couple who were turned might not be wolf mate compatible, Maverick.” Gina took hold of two of the glasses of champagne and gave one to her mother.

  “I’ve got to join your dad. See you in a bit,” her mother said and headed off to join her dad with her champagne glass in hand.

  “Who told you that?” Maverick was frowning, looking surprised.

  “Mom. She said Leidolf told her that. Did you know?”

  “No. Really, I didn’t. I’ve only known single people who have been turned. I’d never even considered the possibility that a married couple wouldn’t make compatible wolf mates, though I could see now how that might happen.”

  “Well, Leidolf’s just lucky they are.”

  “And I’m just lucky you and I are.”

  She kissed him on the lips and then drank some of her champagne. “I want to run as a wolf.”

  “It’s the new moon phase. You can’t.”

  “I know. I still want to run as a wolf.”

  He smiled. “I’m glad, but right now, it’s about time for the countdown. Have you made your New Year’s goals?”

  “Hmm, to take you on your first Bigfoot hunting excursion.”

  He laughed. “The last time you went on one of those—”

  “I met you, became a wolf, mated a wolf, and became a proud part owner of a magical, year-round, Christmas reindeer ranch, one beautiful, rare white reindeer calf, and a llama.”

  “How could you beat that experience?”

  “If we found Bigfoot?”

  He smiled.

  Then Weston and Dorinda joined them. “Are you going with us on a Bigfoot hunt?” Dorinda asked.

  “Not you too,” Maverick said.

  Bromley, Sarge, and Patterson headed their way.

  “Did Gina convince you to come on the hunt with us? The last time we did—” Patterson said.

  “We ended up finding half of what we were looking for,” Bromley said.

  ***

  A Bigfoot hunt. “Only if we do it strictly during the new moon,” Maverick said, not sure what he was getting himself into by agreeing to this. But there was no way he was going with a whole bunch of newly turned wolves during any time that they could shift. Even Dorinda could have trouble with it during the full moon phase.

  “Mom and Dad said they want to come too,” Gina said. “If we could find werewolves, Mom said there was no telling what other mythical creatures we might discover. She’s hoping to see a unicorn.”

  Maverick raised a brow.

  “Not really. They’ve heard us talking about our hiking adventures for years, and after we got ourselves into so much trouble this last time, they want to make sure we don’t do that again,” Gina said.

  Maverick and the others laughed. “All right. My New Year’s resolution is to go on a hunt for Bigfoot during the phase of the new moon with all of you.”

  And then the countdown started. “Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, happy New Year!” everyone shouted, and the last blast of spectacular fireworks was set off in one final, dizzying display.

  Now, Maverick’s New Year’s resolution was to take Gina home and show her just how much he wanted to start the new year right—with a big bang!

  They were kissing though, a prelude to bringing in the new year all the way.

  “Let’s finish this at home,” he said.

  “My very thought,” she said, and they slipped into his pickup and hurried on home, where they would be a pair of wolves living among a herd of reindeer and one llama, an expanded family of wolves, and with more fireworks to come.

  Acknowledgments

  Thanks so much to Darla Taylor and Donna Fournier, who are so much fun. I love that both garden like I do, and they are a great help in finding all my goofs in the books! Thanks, ladies! And thanks so much to Deb Werksman for continuing to believe in my wolf adventures and the cover artists who wow my readers with their artwork and make them just that much more real.

  About the Author

  USA Today bestselling author Terry Spear has written over eighty paranormal and medieval Highland romances. In 2008, Heart of the Wolf was named a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year. She has received a PNR Top Pick, a Best Book of the Month nomination by Long and Short Reviews, numerous Night Owl Romance Top Picks, and two Paranormal Excellence Awards for Romantic Literature (Finalist & Honorable Mention). In 2016, Billionaire in Wolf’s Clothing was an RT Book Reviews Top Pick. A retired officer of the U.S. Army Reserves, Terry also creates award-winning teddy bears that have found homes all over the world, helps out with her granddaughter and grandson, and is raising two Havanese puppies. She lives in Spring, Texas.

  Need more swoony Red Wolf action?

  Keep reading for a look at Terry Spear’s

  Now available from Sourcebooks Casablanca

  Chapter 1

  Everything had been looking up for Sierra Redding, a retired army finance officer, since she’d moved to the Portland, Oregon, area before Christmas. At least she thought that. After a day working in a mixed-media-collage intensive workshop for teachers, she was excited and looking forward to setting up “official” art assignments for wolf kids of all ages in the red wolf pack, starting on Monday. The job was just a part-time one, but she had her army retirement pay, and that was all she really needed.

  She wasn’t sure if she could do this since she’d never taught kids before, but she’d had so much fun at the workshops that she knew this was just what she wanted to do. Initially, she hadn’t really thought of what she wanted to do once she retired, but her pack leaders, Leidolf and Cassie Wildhaven, had hired her immediately to teach art classes to the pack-schooled kids. Cassie was eager to find someone trained in art already and who had a talent for it since a couple of the students showed real promise and needed someone who could teach them more skills.

  After the long day of art-teacher-training workshops, Sierra entered her Portland hotel room, ready to order some seafood from room service and chill while watching a movie on TV. As soon as she shut the door, she got a call from Cassie. She hurried to answer it while dumping her bag of notes and art supplies on the extra queen-size bed. “Hi, Cassie.”

  “Hey, how’s it going?” Cassie was a wolf biologist, the perfect occupation for a wolf who already knew all about wolf biology on a personal basis. She was often on tours educating people about wolves, when she wasn’t home helping her mate lead the pack.

  “It’s going great. I’m having a blast. I’ll be all set for starting classes on Monday, and I already have some adults lined up for art classes at night.” Sierra appreciated that Cassie had called to see how she was doing. She hadn’t expected to hear from anyone.

  “I’m so glad to hear it. I’m thrilled you’re all settled in. We couldn’t be more pleased that you’ve joined the pack.”

  Sierra knew part of the reason was that there were fewer females than males in the pack, and they were always on the lookout to entice new females to join them. It helped when the wolf had a skill the pack needed. They’d even paid for her workshops and her hotel, which was really nice of them.

  “I am too.” Though Sierra wasn’t really settled in—yet. She wouldn’t be until she began working and felt she had a mission and purpose in life. She’d loved creating sketches and paintings when she was a kid, and through the years while she was in the army, she’d won a few contests with her wolf portraits. She loved that she’d had such cooperative wolf models. She was always learning new things, and her next great adventure was creating digital paintings from photographs and sharing how to do that with the kids.

  “I’m so glad that you haven’t changed your mind.”

  Sierra laughed. She was sure Cassie and Leidolf worried she might still return to Texas to be with her boyfriend. “Yeah, we’re good.” For now. She had to see how teaching went, how she got along with the pack members, and decide about Lieutenant Colonel Richard Wentworth, the army officer she was still dating back at Fort Hood, Texas.

  “Okay, well, I’ll let you go now. Leidolf is fixing dinner, and I need to help him with the kids.”

  “Thanks for calling. I’ll talk to you later.” Afterward, Sierra called in an order for shrimp scampi at the hotel restaurant and was watching an espionage thriller on TV when her twin brother called. She paused her movie.

  “Hey, how are you doing at your workshop?” Brad asked.

  Loving her brother, she smiled. He had retired as a Navy SEAL and had mated one of the Portland pack members, which was one of the big reasons she had come here. When they had kids—and often wolves had more than one at a time—she wanted to be here to help out. While she and her brother had both been in the military, they hadn’t had a lot of time to see each other, though they’d always been close, so it was time to bond again.

  “Great. I love it. Why aren’t you busy making little Redding wolves?”

  He chuckled.

  She teased him about that all the time, though she knew he wasn’t waiting to have kids with Janice. She also knew he had called because he wanted her to love what she was doing and stay in the area. Her parents were waiting for her to say if she was going to remain in Portland before they made any move from Texas to join them.

  “Okay, well, I just wanted to check on you, and I’m glad you’re enjoying it. See you soon.”

  “Thanks, Brad. Sounds good.” They ended the call.

  She started the movie and then her phone jingled again. Now who was calling?

  She paused the movie and grabbed her phone. Her boyfriend. She sighed and answered the phone.

  “Hey, Sierra. I hope you’re getting tired of the rain there.”

  Not “Hey, honey, I missed you”? Something was seriously wrong with their relationship.

  She was starting to get used to the rain as she listened to it softly hitting the window. “I’m glad to be here.” She’d met so many wolves in the pack who were friendly and welcoming, something she had certainly been hoping for.

  “I miss you.”

  “I miss you too. I’ll be seeing you.” She’d told herself she had to give herself time to learn how much she liked it here before she made any decision to return to Texas. Sure, she felt somewhat conflicted about leaving him, but he was doing what he wanted to do, and this was what she wanted to do. Not only that, but she hadn’t missed him as much as she’d thought she would.

  “All right. I hope that means you’re coming back for good.”

  “We’ll see.” She was beginning to think that for him, absence made the heart grow fonder. Though she also suspected he was afraid she might find a new wolf to interest her and Richard would be history. He was doing a lot more checking up on her than when she lived in Killeen, Texas. She was really trying to be objective about this and not let any bachelor wolves sway her from her mission: settle in, work with the kids, and see if this was what she really wanted to do.

  But she had to admit there were some real bachelor male hotties in the Portland-area wolf pack that she was interested in seeing more of if things were going to work out for her here. Police Detective Adam Holmes with the Portland Police Bureau was on top of the list. He had been all smiles, welcoming her to the pack as if she were staying for good, and had made her feel really great about being here. She supposed another reason he was on her good list was he’d been the first one to sign up for her adult art class for Monday night, though—according to him—he couldn’t even draw a stick figure.

  Someone knocked at the door, and she figured her shrimp scampi dinner had arrived. “I have to go. My meal is here.”

  “Home delivery?”

  “I’m in Portland at the art workshops this weekend, staying at a hotel. I’ve got to go. ’Night, Richard.” She’d told him last week and reminded him again a few days ago where she was going to be for the weekend. He especially worried about where she was and what she was doing during the weekends, but he never remembered after she told him.

  “Later,” he said.

  He could be controlling, used to being in charge in his position as a commander. And she was tired of him never having time for her when she was actually living in Killeen. Now, he continued to call, email, and text her, hoping she would get her “visit” to Oregon out of her system and would move back to Texas.

  Yet she just couldn’t give up their relationship. As much as she hated to admit it, she loathed the idea of getting to know someone new as a potential mate.

  They ended the call and she answered the door to get her meal delivery. “Thanks,” she told the delivery guy, then shut her door.

  She knew Richard was miffed at her for not staying in Killeen. No matter how much she had told him she wanted to be with a pack, he just didn’t get it. He was more career-minded, wanted to make more rank, and joining a pack was definitely low on his list of priorities.

  She settled down to eat a meal that was the best shrimp scampi she’d ever had while finally finishing the movie. Then it was time to shower. She pulled off her clothes and laid them on the bed, then went into the bathroom and brushed her teeth.

  The problem was that Richard lived for promotions, which was fine and good—for him. But she was done with the military and wanted more. Once she’d retired, she knew she needed to do something important with her life again. Sure, she enjoyed being with him, when he made the time. But there wasn’t a wolf pack in Killeen, and now that she didn’t have to transfer to a new location all the time, she wanted and needed the socialization that went along with a pack. Once she had children of her own, she would really need that. Plus, she wanted her kids to live close to Brad’s so they could get to know their cousins.