“Your friend Randall is headed this way.”

  Kate turned around and saw him smiling at her. “Ugh.” She turned back to eat more of her sandwich and chips.

  When Randall finally reached them, he offered his hand to Derek. “Congratulations are in order. You ended up with a beautiful she-wolf.”

  Before Derek could say anything, Kate asked Randall, “What are you doing here?” Her tone of voice was biting.

  Derek saw a paparazzo taking photos of them through the window. He figured they wouldn’t have bothered them here, since it wasn’t all that exciting for a news story, not when he and Kate were now engaged and there wasn’t any drama.

  “I came with a friend. She wants to make me her financial advisor. You might know her. Brenda Connors?” Randall asked.

  Either Randall was clueless, or he knew all about what was going on, and Derek suspected the latter was true.

  Derek was out of his seat in an instant. “Where is she?”

  “In the rose gardens. She said she’d meet me here for lunch.” Randall smiled, as if he had made the greatest deal in the world. If he couldn’t solicit Kate’s business, he was going to work with her enemy.

  Which made Derek wonder if Brenda knew Kate had been seeing Randall before. Sure. Brenda must have seen the tabloid showing Randall with Kate at her house.

  Out of his peripheral vision, Derek saw Lars move around the reporter near the butterfly bush, a gun in Lars’s hand. Kate must have seen him at the same time, and she and Derek grabbed each other and dropped to the floor of the restaurant as the gun went off and the window shattered.

  Randall fell to the floor nearby. Cliff and Will bolted out of their seats, upsetting their table, their chairs clattering to the floor, and Will raced out of the restaurant. Cliff hurried to join Derek and Kate when a guy as muscular and hefty as a football offensive lineman knocked him down, trying to get out of the building before he got shot.

  “Are you all right?” Derek asked Kate as Lars tore off across the gardens, people scattering in his wake at the sight of the gun in his hand.

  Kate was ashen. “Uh, yeah, I thought that criminal was supposed to be in jail! Sorry, I didn’t bring my gun with me too. I figured Will and Cliff were with us and I didn’t need to bring it.”

  Derek saw Cliff was lying on the floor cradling his arm, not jumping to his feet like he thought he would be after being shoved to the floor. “Are you okay, Cliff?”

  “Yeah.” Cliff sat up, his forehead sporting a red abrasion—rug burn, Derek thought. And he still wasn’t jumping to his feet. “I sprained my wrist badly, I think.”

  “Are you sure?” Derek asked.

  “No. I heard a crack.”

  Derek rubbed Kate’s shoulder. “Okay, not good.” Derek glanced at Randall, and he was holding a bloody shoulder. “Randall, hold on, I’ll get help for you.” He yanked out his phone, called for an ambulance, and mentioned Cliff’s possible injury.

  Kate grabbed some linen napkins off the table and pressed them against Randall’s wound while Derek called the police, but several other guests had already alerted them.

  Lars was running away. The reporter had dropped into the butterfly bushes when the shooting took place, but he was running after Lars, video recording the whole show. So much for going to a safe place, Lars being locked up, and nothing exciting going on for a news story.

  The restaurant manager hurried over to them with a first aid kit. “Is everyone else all right?”

  “Yeah, thanks.” Kate took the first aid kit and found elastic bandages and wrapped them around the napkins pressed against Randall’s wound.

  As much as Derek didn’t like the guy, he hoped he would be okay.

  Derek ran his hand over Kate’s back while she ministered to Randall, and he felt her tremble a little, but that was to be expected because of the adrenaline shooting through their bloodstreams from the concern about being shot and that Randall had been. That was when Derek remembered Randall had said he was supposed to meet Brenda here. Then again, it could have all been a ploy.

  “Did Brenda come with you?” Derek asked to confirm if she had actually been here or she’d just said she was going to meet him.

  “She met me here and said she wanted to see the rose gardens first. I was going to go with her, but… Oh, hell!”

  Derek turned to see Brenda running up to the shattered restaurant window, gun in hand. Derek took Kate to the floor again. The manager tore off. Being around Kate was a dangerous proposition. With the window frame in the way and Derek and Kate below the table, Brenda couldn’t get a shot that way. But it didn’t deter her. She shoved her way through the shrubs, the butterflies still fluttering about the flowers as if they hadn’t a care in the world.

  Derek knew rushing her could be deadly, but then Kate said, “Let’s do it.”

  “Rush her?” he asked, to clarify that was what Kate meant.

  “Yeah. We’re sitting ducks here. If we run away from her, she’ll shoot us in the backs. You go to the left of the tables, I’ll go to the right, and we’ll tackle her.”

  “I’ll slide my gun to you,” Cliff said, but he did it with his left hand without enough force, and it was too far away to reach without Derek exposing himself to Brenda.

  “I’ll stand up and get her attention in the center,” Randall said.

  “No,” Kate said. “You’re already wounded.”

  “We were meeting here. I’ll set it up, you two take her down. I know you can do it, Kate,” Randall said.

  Kate’s eyes were filled with tears. She quickly brushed them away.

  They really didn’t have much of a choice. Once Brenda was inside, she would have a clear shot at them. Derek gave the signal, and he and Kate moved around the tables, low, keeping out of Brenda’s sight. Randall stood up. “It’s just me.”

  Kate and Derek lunged for Brenda as her attention was on Randall. At least until she saw Kate and Derek rush her. They grabbed her arms. Both her hands had been holding the 9mm, and they shoved them up in the air. Bullets smacked into the ceiling, plaster raining down on them. Cliff moved in by that time too, slamming his body into Brenda.

  The restaurant was deathly quiet as Derek broke Brenda’s grip on the gun and Cliff and Kate took Brenda to the floor.

  “I should have had zip ties on me,” Kate said, pinning Brenda to the floor, Brenda’s hands behind her back. “Of all the people who have stalked me in the past over broken-up relationships, you are the worst. Here you have money and could have had most any guy you would ever want but Derek. He’s all mine. I play for keeps. Now you’ve thrown your life away for what?”

  Derek took over Kate’s role, handing her Brenda’s gun for safekeeping so she could minister to Randall, who appeared to be fading fast.

  “Not me,” Randall said, sounding as though he was afraid Kate was including him in her list of previous exes who had stalked her. “I wasn’t stalking you.” He had slumped down on the floor, looking pale. But he didn’t seem to be in pain yet. The adrenaline pumping through his bloodstream was probably keeping him from feeling it.

  As a wolf, he would heal faster, but he still needed medical attention right away. They needed to check out Cliff too.

  Then they heard all the sirens—police cars and an ambulance. Derek wanted to call Will to ensure he was safe. About that time, his phone rang. With one hand, he held both Brenda’s wrists, and then he fetched his phone.

  “Let me go,” Brenda said, growling. “If you had just continued to date me like you were supposed to, none of this would have happened.”

  He shook his head and saw the call was from Will. “Hey, are you okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m a little wet. We had to tackle Lars before he could get away and all ended up in one of the koi ponds. What about you guys?”

  “Kate’s ex-boyfriend, Randall Roberts, was shot, Cliff took a nasty fall, and Brenda came after us.”

  “I was after Kate, not you,” Brenda grumbled.

  But Derek wasn’t so sure about her claim. He figured if he and Kate hadn’t stopped her, Brenda might have shot both of them.

  Then the police were rushing into the restaurant, guns drawn. Kate had already set Brenda’s gun on the chair next to her while she continued to keep pressure on Randall’s wound.

  “Brenda Connors, one of the shooters,” Derek said, releasing her to them. “Lars Gnoffo was the one who shot Randall Roberts, but Lars was aiming to hit Kate Hanover.”

  Then the officers took Brenda into custody and the EMTs arrived to transport Randall out of the restaurant and to the waiting ambulance. Another was securing Cliff’s arm in a splint to protect it until he could get it x-rayed.

  The police had everyone’s statements and had taken Brenda’s weapon for evidence. The detective in charge of the investigation of Lars’s earlier stalking charges confirmed Lars was again in custody after he had slipped out of the hospital while under observation for the car accident. Brenda and Lars were hauled off to the police station. Randall was taken away by ambulance.

  Derek hugged Kate. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, I need to get washed up though.” She was wearing Randall’s blood on her hands. “I hope Randall will be okay. And you, Cliff.”

  “Both will be. They’re like us. I doubt Randall will go chasing after anyone who has any vendetta against you again,” Derek said.

  Smiling a little, she gave Derek a kiss but wouldn’t hug him because of her bloody hands. “I’m going to get washed up.”

  “And then I can take you home.”

  She frowned at him. “No. Way. We have a ton of gardens to see still, and I’m not letting Lars or Brenda ruin this for us.”

  That was what Derek loved about Kate. She didn’t crumble under pressure.

  “Sorry about being out of commission when Brenda was still an issue,” Cliff said, looking guilty about their mission.

  “We had it well in hand,” Derek said. Though things could have turned out a lot differently than they had. But he had felt confident in Kate’s ability to work with him to get Brenda under control. “We didn’t realize Brenda was here too when Lars took off, and we needed to apprehend him before he had a chance to shoot at Kate again. Besides, I saw that guy who knocked you down, Cliff. He was a mass of muscles.”

  Cliff and Derek escorted Kate to the ladies’ room, and Will arrived to make sure it was all clear, just in case. Though the restaurant itself was empty; everyone had cleared out as soon as the shooting began. Then Will, Derek, and Cliff, cradling his arm in a sling, stood outside the restroom while Kate cleaned up—all of them serving as her bodyguard for a change.

  When she finally came out of the restroom, she gave Derek a big hug and kiss. Then she hugged Cliff gently, careful of his arm, and Will. “Did you all get enough to eat?” Kate motioned to the spilled drinks and sandwiches knocked on the floor in the patrons’ haste to dodge bullets.

  “Yeah,” Cliff said. “We’re thinking of making burgers for tonight. Our treat.”

  Kate frowned at him. “You need to get your arm checked out.”

  “I’m going to get an x-ray and see if I just badly sprained it or actually broke it. But I’ll be there for helping with the dinner.”

  Smiling, Will shook his head. “Cliff will be directing me while I grill.”

  Kate laughed, and then she took hold of Derek’s hand. “Let’s finish our walk through the gardens.”

  He squeezed her hand and smiled down at her. “You are a treasure, and I love you.” He wrapped his arm around her, glad that she was so resilient and that despite what had happened, she was ready to enjoy the rest of the day with him. He would have taken her home in a heartbeat if she hadn’t been. Luckily, the gardens were huge, and only the actual crime scene areas—the pond where Lars was stopped, the secondary crime scene, and the restaurant, the primary crime scene—were closed to conduct a criminal investigation.

  “So are you, and I love you right back.” She smiled up at him. Then as they walked by one of the koi ponds, they saw all the footprints in the mud. “Is that where you went swimming?”

  Will sighed. “Yeah. I’ll need a shower when we return home.”

  Then they finally saw the police coming to tape off the area, and Derek and Kate, Will and Cliff headed off to explore more of the gardens.

  Derek and Kate needed to shower too. He wasn’t sure what she wanted to do after they returned home, but it was up to her. He realized with her in his life, that was how he wanted it to be, no longer a single male winging it on his own but having her for his companion and enjoying life with her as a wolf couple now.

  ***

  Kate loved Derek for believing in her when she went to tackle Brenda. She had prayed Brenda wouldn’t shoot Randall fatally when he stole Brenda’s attention to give them time to take her down. Kate would have to do something about Randall. To thank him for risking his life for them. Maybe he really had cared for Kate more than she’d thought he had. Or maybe it was because he was a wolf and wanted to protect his own kind from harm. In any event, she wanted to do something for him. She glanced back at Cliff and hoped his arm was just sprained. “You know, you can leave us and get that checked out.”

  “No way. What if you needed me to be the fall guy again?”

  Everyone chuckled, Will shaking his head.

  For now, she wanted to forget all that had just happened, take in the serenity of the gardens, and enjoy her time with Derek—her wolf—and no one was taking her from him.

  And then—they would return home and take it from there.

  Epilogue

  Derek was glad he hadn’t hired Kate to be his bodyguard because he wanted her just like this, his mate. Oh, sure, she was still a bodyguard because she wouldn’t give up protecting him for anything, but he wanted her for so much more. She was truly the light of his life.

  Holly and Aidan’s babies were a couple of months old now, and Lexi and Ryder’s babies were two months closer to being here. Derek couldn’t be more glad he had a mate and was no longer the odd man out. Though he and Kate were the only couple without kids or expecting kids.

  It would soon be Halloween, so no one was lying around on the beach tanning for would-be thieves to fleece. And the project of the Japanese gardens was nearly completed. Both he and Kate loved it, and even Maddie, Cliff, and Will did too. Derek and Kate’s friends all had come by to see it, and Lexi was ready to put in a water feature in front of her place with boulders and koi but a completely different setup.

  Derek and Kate had started a trend.

  Cliff’s broken arm had healed in three weeks, and Will was still giving him a hard time about tripping over his own feet even though he had been knocked down by a guy who could have been the Hulk during the shootout. Guys would be guys.

  ***

  Kate loved being with Derek, and she was glad she hadn’t skipped out on that first gala that had started them on a whirlwind of dating. In the end, they knew they couldn’t resist their wolfish instincts—to love and to hold each other forever more as a mated pair.

  To make it official, the whole pack was celebrating their wedding in Hawaii in a couple of weeks.

  As for Brenda Connors, she was going to trial soon, and it appeared she might even have to serve jail time! The horror of it. She was out on bail, but she had lost her social connections and was no longer invited to many of the social gatherings. She definitely wasn’t a match for a couple of wolves who had found true love.

  Next year, Derek and Kate might even have wolf cubs of their own, but for now, they were having a ball being a wolf couple in love.

  Acknowledgments

  Thanks so much to my dedicated beta readers, Darla Taylor and Donna Fournier! You ladies make it even more fun…and funny. Thanks also to Deb Werksman, who has stuck it out with me all these years and encouraged me in everything I do, and the cover artists who continue to create beautiful works of art—truly drool-worthy!

  About the Author

  USA Today bestselling author Terry Spear has written over a hundred paranormal and medieval Highland romances. One of her bestselling titles, Heart of the Wolf was named a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year. She is an award-winning author with 2 Paranormal Excellence Awards for Romantic Literature. 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 grandchildren, and enjoy her two Havanese dogs. She lives in Spring, Texas.

  Read on for a sneak peek at

  Coming June 2023 From Sourcebooks Casablanca

  Chapter 1

  Early that summer morning before heading into work, Kayla Wolff and her quadruplet sister, Roxie, were running as gray wolves on their wooded acreage, not expecting any trouble. Except for a cougar they had to chase off once and a black bear another time, they usually didn’t have any wildlife difficulties. They’d had to sic Sheriff Peter Jorgenson on hunters last fall though.

  Kayla was excited about getting together for dinner tonight with Nate Grayson, the only wolf she’d dated since moving to Silver Town, Colorado, a wolf-run town. Nate’s sister, Nicole, had actually mated their brother Blake.

  Kayla loved it here, and she was planning to mate Nate on the Fourth of July in a little over two weeks if he didn’t ask her beforehand.

  Along with their two brothers, she and Roxie owned and managed the Timberline Ski Lodge nearby. She had been busy serving as the catering manager for a wedding yesterday, so she was glad to get back to working on promotional stuff today.