“If you want to stay and have breakfast with us, Max—” Hanna said, giving Phoenix a look that said he was being way too wolfishly possessive.

  “I’m sure he’s got important PI business to conduct.” Phoenix lifted a brow at Max, signaling him to go and he would take care of matters.

  Max smiled at him. “I want to wish you well on your interview, Hanna. I do have some urgent business to take care of. Otherwise, I would stay and have breakfast with you.” He glanced at Phoenix as if to tell him the Green Beret wasn’t chasing off the SEAL.

  “Thanks so much, Max, for watching over me.”

  “My pleasure.” Max said goodbye to both of them and then left the restaurant.

  Hanna glanced at the menu. “You could have been nicer to him and let him stay to have breakfast with us.”

  “I was being nice. I didn’t want us to keep him from his urgent business and stress him out.”

  Hanna laughed.

  He smiled, glad she wasn’t annoyed with him for sending the SEAL away.

  They both ordered blueberry waffles and blueberry syrup.

  “So why don’t you like reporters?” She drank some of her coffee and then took a bite of her waffle.

  “Who said I don’t like reporters?”

  “Oh, I don’t know if you realize this about me or not”—she leaned across the table and spoke low for his ears only—“but I’m a wolf.”

  He laughed. “Okay, so you sensed it. Honestly, I want you to have every success in your field of endeavor.”

  “What happened to you that makes you not like reporters?” She was tenacious and not dropping the issue. She might just make a good investigative reporter.

  “On one of our missions, all the members of my team died except me. It was bad enough that I had to deal with inquiries from all over from military officials about how I managed to survive, but reporters had a field day with me. After it happened, I was numb. I couldn’t get over what had occurred. I couldn’t believe my buddies were all gone. I’d been injured, too, but once I had recovered, I kept wondering why I had lived when they had died. For months, reporters hounded me. You can see why I’m not that fond of them.”

  “Oh, I’m so sorry. That must have been horrible for you.”

  “It was. What about you and military guys?”

  “Not as devastating as your story. The first guy had a secret wife and was seeing me when he went to training in Colorado. His wife was in Florida.”

  “A wolf?” He didn’t think she would be shook up about a human she’d been seeing, but he was surprised the cheater had been a wolf.

  “Yeah. Unreal, right? We mate for life.”

  “Very few of us are like that. Most of us believe in the wolves’ ways.” He drank some of his coffee. “What about the other guy?” He cut into his waffle and took a bite. “What was his problem?”

  “Oh wow, well, he acted so into me whenever he returned from an overseas assignment, and we weren’t supposed to be seeing others while we were dating. We had an agreement. If we decided to move on, we would. I kept my part of the agreement. He didn’t.”

  “So you think all military men are cads.”

  She smiled. “I’m beginning to think I might give one more guy a chance, if I find one who—”

  “Wants to date you? Hell, put me on the list before any other military guy gets there.”

  She smiled brightly. “I don’t know any other military guys—”

  “Max.”

  “Oh. Him. Yeah, well, if you hadn’t saved me from the motorcycle gangs fighting at the pub, he might have been on my list.”

  “I knew I had done something right when I went back inside to drag you out, no matter how pissed off you were at me. So I’ll be waiting for you at the newspaper office, and my sister wants us to have lunch with her and Michael later. If you’re agreeable, I’ll let her know.”

  “Yeah, I would like that. I, um, need to tell you that I was fired from my last job for going against my boss’s instructions.”

  “I got lucky with my boss. If I hadn’t been so good at my job, I would have been fired any number of times.”

  She chuckled. “I doubt that.”

  “Oh hell yeah. I’m a bit of a rogue wolf.”

  “Like me.”

  “Yeah, that’s exactly what I was thinking.” He glanced at the clock. “Are you ready for your job interview?”

  She let out her breath. “Yeah.” She was going to pay for their breakfast, but he did. “Thanks.”

  “Is there anything you would like or don’t like to eat at my sister’s house?”

  “No, anything is fine.”

  “Are you nervous?” he asked.

  “Yeah. They always say to have a job to get a job, and being fired from a job isn’t the same as leaving it. I have to be honest with the editor, though.”

  “I agree. You wouldn’t want that to backfire on you.” He walked her out to his car. “I guess Max brought you here and didn’t follow you from the pack leaders’ home.”

  “Right.”

  Phoenix drove her over to the newspaper office, and she took a deep breath before they went inside. He sat in the lobby while she went to the receptionist, spoke with her, turned and gave Phoenix a small, worried smile, then headed to an office.

  Phoenix texted his sister: We’re on for lunch. Noon?

  Carmela texted: Sure. What would she like to eat?

  Phoenix: Anything is good with her.

  Carmela: Okay, see you then.

  Phoenix figured he would show Hanna around Silver Town and check with the newspaper office there if she didn’t get the job at the Green Valley newspaper. He watched the door to the office, hoping she did well with the interview, and he swore he felt as nervous for her as she had been.

  * * *

  Hanna shared her résumé with the editor, who frowned at her work. She didn’t have a good feeling about this, even though the mayor had spoken on her behalf with the editor.

  “I have to tell you that I was—”

  “Fired from your last position? We’re a newspaper office, Ms. Bridgeman. We are all about the news.” He didn’t smile, and she figured this wasn’t going anywhere.

  “Yeah, I saw where the police chief is under a lot of scrutiny now. Maybe they’ll make him pay for his crime,” she said, hoping the editor would realize she was right.

  “I have to be honest with you. I have three other candidates applying for the job,” he said.

  Oh, naturally. Why hadn’t she realized she wouldn’t be the only one?

  “Two have worked as investigative reporters for a few years with larger newspaper offices. They wanted a slower-paced town like this one to relocate to… Families, you know.” He flipped through her résumé, as if he was really seriously looking over all her journalistic awards and other credentials. “You don’t have any investigative experience.”

  “I’m a quick learner.”

  The editor smiled.

  Okay, just end the interview already. There wasn’t any sense in prolonging the inevitable.

  “I have another interviewee in just a few minutes.”

  “Of course. Thanks so much for your time.” She rose from her seat and shook his hand, smiling graciously.

  “If you don’t get this job…”

  As if she would—

  “Don’t give up on your dreams, Ms. Bridgeman.”

  “Thanks, I won’t.” When she left his office, she saw Phoenix seated in the reception area, but he immediately rose to his feet. She didn’t smile. She couldn’t help but be disappointed. A rejection was a rejection. Then she thought of Silver Town. There, she might get a fair shake because it was wolf-run.

  “Hey,” Phoenix said and drew her into his arms.

  “Sorry.” She wiped away a tear, damn it. She hadn’t wanted to fall apart in front of him just because she didn’t get the job.

  “Max told Ryan I’d brought you here, and Ryan knew you were in the interview, so he called me.”

  “Yeah, well, now I have to tell him I’ll have to try in Silver Town. Ryan and Carol really want me to stay in Green Valley.”

  “That’s what he called about. He said if the editor didn’t hire you, he would.”

  Hanna stared up at Phoenix. “Doing what?”

  “Communications staff. He learned the mayor in Knoxville was hiring newspaper veterans to be his communications staff, and Ryan thought it would be a great idea. He didn’t want to mention it to you unless you didn’t get the job because he knew how much your heart was set on being an investigative reporter. And the icing on the cake?”

  “Yeah?”

  “He wants you to help him with his PI agency—doing some investigative work. You’ll have to get some additional training for that, but what do you think? A communications officer for the mayor’s office and a PI so you can do some investigating to really help him out?”

  “Ohmigod, yes.” She threw her arms around Phoenix and kissed him as if he had hired her and put her out of her misery.

  He kissed her back, but it was much more of a heated and passionate kiss between wolves than a glad-you-feel-better kiss. And she was really beginning to warm up to the idea of dating the Green Beret and taking the chance that he wouldn’t be anything like the last two military wolves she’d dated.

  “We’re supposed to go to the mayor’s office next, if you liked the idea of working for him. I think he was afraid Silver Town would hire you in a heartbeat, when he’s trying to increase the wolf population in Green Valley.”

  Hanna smiled. “Let’s go see him, shall we?” She was thrilled. And she was glad Ryan had called Phoenix to have him give her the news so she wouldn’t feel bad if she didn’t get this job.

  When they arrived at the mayor’s office, Ryan ushered them right in, even though Phoenix didn’t need to be with Hanna to learn about the job. But Ryan said, “I can offer you a job too, Phoenix.”

  Phoenix raised his brows.

  “If you’re looking to join our pack. I know your sister is in Silver Town and you might want to get a job there, but we are really trying to expand our pack and our influence over the town. If you want to work here, we would be delighted.”

  “What’s the job I would be doing?” Phoenix asked.

  “Private investigator, communications, anything you could do that would help the pack.”

  “Okay, sure. I’m interested.” Phoenix glanced at Hanna as if telling her he was sticking around, so they could do some things together.

  “As for you, Hanna, if you want to be one of my communications officers and work on getting your PI license and do investigative work, I would be glad to help you out.”

  She smiled. “Yes, thanks so much. I would love it.”

  “You can stay with us until you can find a place to live. Phoenix, you too. We have plenty of room for guests.”

  Hanna thought Phoenix might want to stay with his sister and brother-in-law since they were family.

  But he just nodded. “That’ll be great. Then I won’t have to commute.”

  She couldn’t believe it.

  “We have a fall festival going on tonight, if the two of you would like to join us. Hayrides, cornfield maze, pumpkin patch, face painting, costumes, food, and fun,” Ryan said.

  Hanna smiled. “I would love to go.”

  “It has been set up on the acreage behind the house. And we have plenty of woods to run in as wolves, so you’re welcome to strip and shift and run at any time.”

  “All right.” Hanna thought this was just what she’d needed. A real change of pace. She hoped she would do a good job for Ryan.

  “Sounds good to me. I’m going to show Hanna around Silver Town, and we’re having lunch with my sister and her mate. After that, we’ll come back here,” Phoenix said.

  Ryan shook his head. “Don’t convince her to stay there.”

  Phoenix smiled. “No problem. I think she’s looking forward to her job here, and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do so this works for me. We’ll get out of your hair then.”

  “Thanks to both of you for joining our pack.” Ryan rose and shook their hands. “We’ll see you when you return. Feel free to pick any guest room to stay in at our house when you arrive, Phoenix.”

  “We’ll be there,” Phoenix said.

  “I’ll need to pack up my things and move them,” Hanna said, not wanting to delay getting moved. Her apartment lease was coming up for renewal, and she needed to clean out her place.

  “You can have all the time in the world to get moved. We can help you.”

  “I can help you too,” Phoenix said. “Being in the military, I have moving down to an art.”

  She smiled. “I don’t. So thanks.”

  Chapter 5

  “I can’t believe Ryan hired both of us at the same time,” Hanna said as Phoenix drove her around Silver Town to see the sights in the downtown area and then took her out to the ski resort.

  “I do. My sister, Carmela, had told me Ryan was checking out the Silver Town pack to see how he could make Green Valley more like it, more wolf-run. Silver Town had the advantage of being built by wolves from the ground up, and they didn’t let others settle in their town unless they were wolves. Ryan took over the pack in Green Valley and has been trying to change things ever since.”

  “That’s great. We need more wolf-run towns. I love Silver Town. I love all the wood carvings of wolves at the entrances to several of the establishments. And that old ghostly Victorian inn is pretty neat. Too bad somebody hasn’t renovated it.”

  “I agree. Do you ski?” Phoenix drove her to his sister’s house.

  “I do. So the resort will be close enough to Green Valley to go skiing. What about you?”

  “Yeah. That’s another reason I liked the idea of moving into the area. By the way, my sister’s going to think there is more going on between us than there is, so ignore her if she makes any mention of it.”

  Hanna sighed. “Here I thought you took the job in Green Valley and are staying with me at the pack leaders’ house because there is more between us.”

  He chuckled, but he didn’t agree or disagree with her. He needed a job. He got a job. What more could he ask for? Dating the she-wolf? Once he had met her, that was inevitable, despite all his denials to the contrary. He couldn’t imagine dating a shy, retiring wolf. If he had any say in it, Hanna was not dating Max, the Navy SEAL.

  She smiled as if she knew just what he was thinking.

  When they finally arrived at the house, Carmela welcomed Hanna as if she were her long-lost sister. “I’m so glad to meet you. I was worried about what happened to you and Phoenix last night at the pub. I’m relieved he was there for you.”

  Hanna sighed. “I had hoped to get a news story out of it.”

  “Oh, sure. If I was in your line of business, I would too. How did the job interview go? If you didn’t get the job, I was going to contact our own editor and see if he needs an investigative reporter,” Carmela said as she set plates of spaghetti on the table and Michael brought them glasses of water.

  “Thanks so much, Carmela. In truth, I didn’t get the job, but Ryan McKinley gave me one instead. I’m really looking forward to working for him. And he gave Phoenix a job too.”

  Her mouth agape, Carmela abruptly shifted her gaze to Phoenix. He smiled, knowing just what she was thinking. He’d taken the job to be with Hanna.

  “Ryan wants to expand his pack,” Phoenix said.

  “Well, I’m glad about it. We were going to ask the Silvers what kind of jobs they had that you could do, but that works too. You’ll be close by anyway.” Carmela set a platter of garlic toast on the table.

  “And we’re staying with the McKinleys while we find a place, um, places to live,” Hanna said.

  Carmela smiled brightly and brought over a bowl of salad while Phoenix poured them glasses of tea. Then they all sat down to eat.

  Michael finally said, “That sounds like a really good deal.”

  Phoenix knew they would have been happy to have him stay with them, but he was eager to start on a new job and get settled in, especially with his sister expecting twins.

  “So where are you from?” Carmela asked, and Phoenix knew poor Hanna would get the third degree.

  “Fresno, California, but my parents and my sister and I moved to Loveland, Colorado, when I was three. My dad is still in charge of the post office there. My twin sister, Susan, runs a day care. She loves it in Loveland and doesn’t plan to move. My parents are the same way. There are no wolf packs in Loveland, so I’m excited about joining the Green Valley pack.”

  “It would be a good pack to join,” Carmela said. “You must be a royal.”

  “Yeah. I take it you are too.”

  “Yeah, we were all in the military, no time to take off for shifting when we didn’t want it to happen,” Phoenix said.

  “Oh, I bet. Same with me as a reporter. The meal is delicious,” Hanna said.

  “Thanks. I figured I would make it because it’s both Michael and Phoenix’s favorite dish,” Carmela said. “I’m glad you like it too.”

  “Well, we’re really glad you both got jobs,” Michael said as they finished up their meal.

  “We are too,” Hanna said. “We’re going to the fall festival that the pack leaders, Ryan and Carol, are putting on for their wolves. Do you want to go with us?”

  “Oh, I would love to, but the cooler fall weather and nausea from the pregnancy are keeping me from doing a lot of extracurricular activities right now,” Carmela said.

  “How wonderful. Do you know how many? Their sex?”

  “Twins, but we don’t know the sex yet. I think Michael is sitting on pins and needles more about it than I am.”

  Michael and Phoenix chuckled.