“Courtesy of our wolf genetics, but hopefully the more you can connect the animals with their scents, the easier it will get for you.” Maverick was pulling the animals to come with him.

  The reindeer and llama balked a little at the pull of the rope.

  “Come on,” Maverick said, slipping another carrot out of his pocket, breaking it in half, and giving one piece to the llama and one to the reindeer.

  She was surprised Maverick had carrots with him. She knew reindeer ate reindeer moss up north in alpine tundra areas, though she hadn’t studied a whole lot about them. She thought studying them at the ranch would be a great experience, especially fun at Christmastime.

  The reindeer and llama munched on their carrot halves. Maverick calmly talked to them like they were the best of friends and ran his hand over their muzzles with a caress. “Okay, now it’s time to walk some more and hope we can make better progress.”

  Maverick was amazingly gifted at working with the animals, gently pulling at them to come with him, talking to them.

  She really hoped this worked. “Good boy and girl,” she said to the reindeer and the llama. “You’re so beautiful.” She noticed Maverick was smiling at her.

  Then they continued their trek to where his truck had been parked at the trailhead.

  Both the reindeer and llama balked again and Maverick fed them another carrot half each.

  “Those came in handy,” she said.

  “They did. We had some for our reindeer during the show, so we brought them with us in case we spotted the reindeer in the woods. The hikers never said anything about a llama.”

  “But you were running as wolves.”

  “To cover more territory, sure, but we had the carrots at the camp, and I took them with me when I went to look for you, just in case I ran into a reindeer.”

  That was a surprise to her. “You were looking for me, not the reindeer?”

  “I had to make sure you hadn’t been turned. When I was in your tent, I thought you had been cut by the ice, not that I’d bitten you. I smelled your blood, and I smelled the liquid skin bandage you put on. I had so much lake water in my mouth, and I was so frantic to get out of the water before I expended all my energy, I didn’t actually taste your blood. But then the more I thought about it, the more I worried what if I had accidentally bitten you? I couldn’t stop thinking about it, not knowing if you were one of us, and if you were, what I would say to you and not say to you because I didn’t want to scare you.”

  “Especially in front of the others.”

  “Right. Knowing what we are and what you are now too, maybe we can…date? If you’re not seeing someone else right now.”

  “I’m not.” She thought he was cute, and she sighed. “So what does dating you entail?”

  He glanced at her and smiled, looking pleased she was taking him up on his offer. “Dining out, movies, dinner and dancing at a wolf-run club—”

  “A wolf-run club? Ohmigod, this is just so unreal.” And fun too. At least she hoped she would have a good reception from other wolves. What if they didn’t like that he’d accidentally turned her? She didn’t go out very much, but if she enjoyed his company, she was really looking forward to the dating bit.

  “You can have an in-depth study of reindeer at the ranch and observe all kinds of wildlife that make their home on our acreage and on Leidolf and Cassie’s property. You can go on wolf runs with us when you can shift, and that will give you a whole new perspective on wildlife, believe me. We have a lot of celebrations at the pack leaders’ ranch that you can enjoy.”

  “That sounds like fun. What are you going to do about my brother and my parents?” Everything else sounded like a boon, but the part about her family was still a real concern.

  “We need to talk to our pack leaders about it. My take on it is we turn them. But turning people has consequences, as you probably already realize. They’ll have to leave their jobs, unless they’re doing remote work. They can choose to join us and make new friends with our wolf kind, and we can help them through the changes. It’s one thing to accidentally turn someone, but another to purposefully do so. How would your parents feel about it? How would Weston come to terms with it?”

  She didn’t say anything for a long time. How could any of this truly be real? “I’m not sure about my parents. They are pretty open-minded, but this is pretty far out there. My brother?” She laughed. “He would think it was great. He would no longer be looking for werewolves, and I’m sure he would love knowing they are for real and he was one of them. But still searching for Bigfoot? He probably wouldn’t give that up. In fact, he might believe he’d have a better chance of tracking one down with a wolf’s enhanced senses.”

  “He could no longer go on hunts with his human friends, except for during the new moon phase. Wouldn’t they wonder why?”

  She sighed. “Yeah.”

  It seemed to take them forever to reach the trailhead where a truck and trailer were waiting for them. A man smiled and waved when he saw them.

  Maverick introduced Gina. “This is Jim Salsa.”

  “You’re a wolf,” she said, surprised, already recognizing his wolf scent, but not exactly the same as Maverick’s or her own, she realized. Just how many were there? She couldn’t believe she could now identify a wolf by scent, as if she had a magic ability all of a sudden—a werewolf detector. If her brother knew that, he’d take her with him on all their hunts!

  “Yeah, like you are.” Jim gave Maverick a questioning glance.

  “Uh, she’s newly turned.” Maverick sounded a little guilty for it.

  She didn’t want him to feel guilty about it. Maybe she should have felt upset that her world was topsy-turvy, but she really didn’t. Maybe because she’d only experienced some of the good things, not the bad. She felt new avenues of exploration had been opened up to her with her enhanced senses. Belonging to a secret society of wolves was uniquely appealing to her.

  Jim helped Maverick load the reindeer and the llama into the trailer. “So you know you’re a red wolf and so is Maverick. I’m a Mexican gray wolf, a subspecies of the gray wolf. My parents and I were born and raised in the States, but we’re all from Mexican gray wolf stock.”

  “That is so cool.” She knew Mexican gray wolves and the Arctic wolves were a subspecies of the gray wolf, but not that wolf shifters could be every subspecies as well.

  “How in the world did a reindeer and llama get out here?” Jim asked.

  Maverick shook his head. “We have no idea, but they’re both tame, so I need to learn where they belong. But, hey, thanks for helping us out.”

  “No problem. Wolves aid other wolves whenever we can.”

  “Well, we owe you one.”

  Maverick took Gina’s backpack and put it in the back seat of the pickup truck. She climbed in next to it, and he put his gear beside her and then climbed into the front seat of the cab.

  “So how are your twins doing?” Maverick asked Jim as they got on the road.

  “They’re a handful. I thought they’d just eat and sleep and poop, but now they’re running around and getting into everything.”

  She and Maverick chuckled, but then she realized that Maverick had a twin, and now this man had twins too? Which made her think of wolves and how they had multiple births of anywhere from four to six in a litter. Some had fewer, but some even had more.

  “You have multiple births?” she blurted out.

  Jim laughed. “How newly turned is she?”

  Maverick let out his breath. “Since last night.”

  “Oh, damn. Newly newly turned. Okay, yeah, we do, just like wolves, but our human genes seem to have something to say about it, so we generally have one to four kids, but rarely more than that.”

  She wasn’t ever having kids.

  The guys talked about ranching for a long time, and she finally fell asleep in the truck, probably because of all the getting up in the night over raccoons and such. And then getting up earlier than she normally did on a hike.

  She dreamed of running as a dog or a wolf that looked like Maverick and then falling into an icy lake before she heard a new voice that woke her fully from her slumber.

  Maverick’s lookalike twin—Josh?—opened the back door of the cab and smiled at her, but it was a worried kind of smile. Was Maverick in trouble for turning her? It was an accident, and he hadn’t meant to.

  “I’m Josh, Maverick’s older twin brother.” He pulled Maverick’s backpack out of the truck, handed it to him, and then offered his hand to help Gina out of the truck. She got out, and he pulled out her backpack.

  “My mate, Brooke, and I have the house over there.” Josh motioned to one of the ranch houses. “You can stay with us or with Maverick at the main house.”

  Josh and Brooke’s home was a beautiful, one-story brick house with a large wraparound porch to enjoy the views and featured large windows too. Gina looked at the breathtaking, panoramic vista of the Cascade Mountain range and the cheery ranch houses, three of them, a bunkhouse, pastureland, forest, corrals, and barns, and even a Christmas tree farm.

  The reindeer stables and ranch houses were decked out in Christmas lights, the corrals covered in garland, red bows, and pre-lit Christmas wreaths too. A large irrigation pond was off to the south, and way off in the distance a river snaked across the property.

  “That’s Randall Anders’s home. He’s the ranch manager. And then we have the bunkhouse for the ranch hands,” Maverick said, motioning to another lovely home made of brick with a big porch and windows to show off the view.

  One of the ranch hands greeted them and took the reindeer and the llama into a separate barn.

  “We have a vet room in that barn,” Maverick explained, “where the reindeer and llama will be checked out.”

  “Oh, that’s good. This is lovely. I never imagined it would be so Christmassy. It’s just magical and beautifully decorated.” She couldn’t wait to see all the Christmas lights at night. She’d expected just a regular working ranch where they took the reindeer to special events, but nothing like this.

  “Thanks. The reindeer are magical, and we wanted to have a special showcase for them throughout the year. We have special Valentine’s couples’ events as well. Groups come here to see the reindeer frequently,” Maverick said.

  “Our vet will come out to check on the animals,” Josh said.

  “That’s good,” Maverick said.

  “After lunch, Leidolf and Cassie want to meet with you,” Josh said to Gina. “You’re welcome to go with her, Maverick.”

  Now that meant they were going to get down to business. She would learn what the pack leaders wanted to do about her parents and brother. She wished her family could choose for themselves, but she suspected that wasn’t an option.

  “Did you want to have lunch with us?” Maverick asked Josh and Jim.

  Jim declined. “I’ve got lunch plans with my mate and the kids.” They thanked him again, he got into his truck, and then he drove off the reindeer ranch.

  Josh bowed out too. “I have lunch plans with Brooke at the antiques shop. See you all later for the Christmas party.”

  “See you, Josh,” Maverick said, and then he escorted Gina into his house.

  The first thing she noticed was the open living arrangement in the house, and she loved it. Against one wall was a floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace and a beautifully decorated mantel with garland and brass reindeer, red bows, and red berries. The ceilings were pine vaulted, the Christmas tree seven feet tall, covered in all kinds of reindeer, from plaid fabric to crocheted, porcelain, and crystal, and red-and-green-plaid bows and multicolored Christmas tree lights. Really cute.

  They set their backpacks on the floor. He helped her out of her parka and hung it on a coat rack and then did the same with his.

  “I love your reindeer décor.”

  “Thanks. We’ve been getting them from fans, friends, and family for years. Would you like lobster rolls for lunch?” he asked as he headed to the spacious, open kitchen.

  “That sounds delicious.” She figured he had premade lobster rolls, not as good as fresh ones, but when he pulled out lobster meat, mayonnaise, lettuce, celery, lemon juice, and parsley, she realized he was making them from scratch.

  She admired the custom cabinetry in distressed maple wood, the granite countertops and marble backsplash, and the granite-covered island that separated the kitchen from the dining and living areas. He had double ovens and double fridges that looked like he was used to entertaining. It was so nice compared to her little apartment in Portland.

  She watched him combine all the ingredients, minus the lettuce, in a bowl, coating the lobster with mayonnaise and then placing it in the fridge to chill.

  He pulled out split-top potato-bread rolls, buttered the tops, and sprinkled some salt on top. Then he toasted them butter side down for four minutes in a pan, removed them, and set them on reindeer-decorated plates. How adorable.

  He placed a lettuce leaf on top of each and then spooned out lobster salad on each of the sandwiches.

  She found glasses for water, filled them up, and brought them to the table, appreciating the centerpiece—a big red candle surrounded by holly and red berries and trimmed in a ribbon of green. Once they were seated and she’d taken a bite of her lobster roll, she was in heaven.

  “Okay, so I’m really going to like having you for a boyfriend as long as you make meals this good.”

  He laughed. “I guess fixing lobster rolls was the right move.”

  “It sure was.” She licked some mayonnaise off her lips. “You know you’re going to have to turn into Shep again just so I can believe this is real.”

  He chuckled. “I can do that. Right after we eat.”

  Once they finished eating and putting the dishes away, Maverick said, “Normally, we strip off our clothes and shift, no big deal. Everyone has been doing this since they were born.”

  She took a deep breath, rubbed her arms, and exhaled, feeling anxious about this. “Unless they are newly turned. I just kind of figured that all werewolves began as humans and then were bitten, but I’m not sure how the first one came about.”

  “Exactly. We’re not sure either. So I can go in another room and shift and come out, if it’s all a little too much for you to handle, but—”

  “I need to see you do it.” She couldn’t envision it no matter how much she tried, and she was still afraid of what might happen.

  “I figured that. You won’t have bones breaking or any kind of painful experience to deal with when you shift. Heat fills our muscles, our bones, and we shift in the blink of an eye, like magic. If you’re not watching closely, you’d miss it,” he reassured her.

  “Oh, no pain, I like the sound of that. I could imagine all the cracking of bones and howling in pain. And shifting quickly? That’s great news.”

  “Yeah, we seem to be engineered that way to help us exist as only a myth in a human world.”

  Then she frowned. “You really were born this way?” She’d never heard of that in any mythologies she’d read. Then again, what she’d read was all fiction.

  “Yeah.”

  She kept thinking he’d turn into a mindless beast, so she had to remember what Shep had been like, sweet and gentle. He had left her alone and hadn’t harmed her in the middle of the night. Then Gina frowned. “You didn’t hang around for long in my tent, right?”

  “No, as soon as everyone was sound asleep, I was out of there.” Then, before she could ask him any further questions and delay what he was about to do, he stripped off his clothes.

  Oh, God, he was a veritable hunk, and she eyed him with intrigue.

  She couldn’t help it. He was exquisitely sculpted, hot, beautiful. She’d wanted to see the transformation of man to wolf, but she wanted him to take his time at it so she could enjoy seeing more of his beautiful body.

  He gave her another moment to see him like this. Was he showing off? She was totally impressed, and she appreciated that he was giving her another eyeful. And then he shifted—a blur of forms, exquisite, magical.

  Wow, that’s how he looked turning into a wolf? She loved it. Nothing horrifying or scary about it. She swore the transformation was like art in motion.

  As a wolf, he approached her and licked her hand. She petted him, thinking just how beautiful he was as a wolf. “Shep, not a German shepherd at all. A beautiful red wolf. Okay, shift again. I barely could see you shifting the first time. It happened in the blink of an eye.”

  He shifted again. “I told you so.”

  She admired his human form a little too much, felt her cheeks heat, but she just had to see if it happened as fast the second time. “Okay, shift again.”

  He smiled, and without another moment’s hesitation, he shifted into his wolf.

  Oh, wow, that was beautiful. She had worried that if she had to turn wolf, she would be struggling with it and would quickly be seen and outed. “Okay, shift again.” She loved how he humored her. He was a good sport.

  He shifted again. But this time once he was back in his human form, he took her into his arms and hugged her. “I’m sorry I turned you, and I’ll do everything to help make up for it.”