She donned a red sweater, red boots, and a maxi red-and-green-plaid skirt and left the bedroom, surprised when she saw Maverick wasn’t there. Then she grabbed her phone and checked her messages. Maverick said he’d locked himself out of her apartment.

  Oh, God. She realized his parka was lying on her couch. The poor guy.

  She texted back: Coming!

  She grabbed her dressier coat, his parka, and her keys, stuffing them in her coat pocket, and then hurried to open her front door. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t even think about the door automatically closing on you when you left.”

  He pulled her into his arms and kissed her. “Are you all right?”

  Tears sprang into her eyes again. Here he was freezing, and all he could think about was how she was feeling. She hugged him. “I’m terrified. But let’s go so you can shower and dress.”

  “You’re terrified that you’ll shift?” he asked, getting the truck door for her, taking his parka from her, and then climbing into the cab.

  “Yes, of course. And meeting a ton of wolves.”

  “They’ll love you. That’s one thing about wolf packs. No one is a stranger. And people shift. No one thinks anything of it. I know it’s impossible for you to see that, but it’s true.”

  He was right. It was impossible for her to believe that.

  She glanced at his back seat. It was clean, so she supposed she could climb back there and remove her clothes if she had to. And turn into a wolf. If she turned at his house while he was showering, she’d just stay there, and he could go to the party without her if he wanted.

  “What about the reindeer?”

  “Josh made arrangements to take them down to the ranch. No problem. We all help out when wolves need it.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be. Everyone understands.”

  They finally reached his ranch house, and they hurried inside so he could get a shower and change. When he came out, he was wearing a red sweater and plaid scarf, jeans, and cowboy boots and all smiles. He looked so Christmassy. She hadn’t ever dated a guy who dressed up for anything, and she was glad she’d gone home and changed into dressier, warmer clothes for the fun, since he had too.

  “You look great,” she said, giving him a hug and kiss before they took off again.

  He kissed her back, tonguing her mouth, showing her he wanted more. But she didn’t want to come to the party super late and be the center of attention.

  Though when they arrived at Leidolf and Cassie’s ranch, everyone greeted them as if they were celebrities. So much for blending in with the crowd.

  Thankfully, she was fine all the way there. Now if she could just get through the party without shifting. She thought the whole place looked like a magical Christmas setting: reindeer, lights, everyone dressed up, Santa, and the kids waiting in line to sit on his lap. Even the llama and her companion were there. It was just wonderful, and she would have so missed out if she hadn’t come to it. If this was what her family had to look forward to, she thought they would really enjoy it. Most of all, everyone looked normal!

  Looking thrilled to be with her and finally relaxing—she couldn’t believe how she could smell emotions in people so much—Maverick pulled Gina into a hug and kissed her forehead. “I meant to tell you you’re beautiful and I’m so lucky to be dating you.”

  She smiled. “Can we go to that wolf club to have dinner and dance tomorrow night?”

  “The Forest Club? You bet. But for now, we can grab something to eat and dance if you’d like to—here.”

  “Oh, absolutely. You didn’t mention that part.”

  Kids were playing tag and other games while Maverick and Gina went to the long tables to fill their plates with goodies. “Did you make anything for the buffet?” she asked.

  “The French dip roast beef sandwiches. They were really quick to make, fifteen minutes and they were done.”

  “Okay, after having your delicious lobster sandwiches today, I have to try these first.”

  He smiled. “Thanks.”

  “Were you worried I wouldn’t return?”

  “I worried that you might be feeling anxious about everything.”

  “I won’t deny that it’s a lot to think about. But I’m not going to do this on my own.” She hadn’t had to think very hard about that. Even though she wasn’t able to turn into a wolf yet, she could just imagine the difficulties in dealing with the process all by herself.

  “Good.” Maverick sounded super relieved.

  She smiled at him, glad he was the person he was. She figured she could have ended up with a wolf who wasn’t that into her or who was even already mated, and he would have been her mentor instead. So she was glad Maverick was the one who had turned her.

  They took their plates to a table where several others were already sitting and enjoying the meal, including Josh and his mate, who made introductions.

  “So glad to meet you, only I hope you’re all right with what happened between you and Maverick,” Brooke said.

  “It was an accident and couldn’t be helped. Besides, I tend to look at the positive side of things.” Except for the minor meltdown she’d had when she was trying to figure out what clothes to wear. “I think as a zoologist, it will really help me to understand animals more as I study them.”

  “True,” Brooke said. “As you get used to smelling different scents, you’ll also smell the difference in their emotions.”

  “Oh, yes, I’ve already noticed that.” She was glad Maverick was much more relaxed. When she’d been trying to figure out what to wear, she’d heard him pacing across her living room floor.

  “You know, I could take you to the zoo, if you don’t think you’d experience sensory overload. But you could smell the various animals and catalogue their scents that way. You would catch up on what we learned when we were young,” Maverick said. “Maybe we can go after the new year, when the new moon is out.”

  “Oh, I’d like that. I’ve been there a number of times. But this would be so much different.” Then she bit into the sandwich Maverick had made first. “Ohmigod, this is delicious.”

  “Thanks.” He smiled.

  She glanced around at the other tables filled with people eating and having fun. A man sitting at a table in another row caught her eye and made her gasp. Everyone else looked up from eating their food and glanced at Gina.

  Gina felt chilled when she saw Sarge—the man who had supposedly seen the white wolf shifter in Maine—alive and most likely a wolf shifter like the rest of them here. She turned to look at Maverick. “You knew about the men in Maine. My brother’s friends. The ones who were looking for Bigfoot and saw an Arctic wolf shifter. Why didn’t you tell me you knew?”

  Maverick instantly looked sheepish. “You might know that the one went to prison for murdering two men and a wolf killed one of the werewolf hunters. I’m sorry. They caught some of our kind, caged them, and planned to murder them after already killing the other two men. They wouldn’t give up their plan to expose our kind and eliminate us all. Sarge was the only one who was willing to become one of us and give up on the notion of being a werewolf killer. I should have told you, but you’ve had so much to deal with already. I was waiting for a better time to bring it up,” Maverick said.

  “Even so, you should have told me before.”

  “I’m sorry. I planned to. Then we were planning to come here, and I just didn’t think about it again.”

  “They were real people.”

  He sighed. “With a vendetta to kill us. And they had murdered two shifters too,” he reminded her.

  That worried her. That her brother and his friends might feel like the other men had. “Sarge was accepted into the pack?”

  “He had to earn that respect. He was a killer like the rest of them. A self-professed Dark Angel.”

  “Yeah, I learned what they were calling themselves after that. My brother and his friends didn’t ascribe to that. The other men even had Dark Angel tattoos.”

  “No longer for Sarge.”

  She raised a brow.

  “He had to remove it,” Maverick said. “We can’t wear tattoos. Can you imagine anyone finding us in our wolf coat wearing a tattoo?”

  “They wouldn’t think you were a wolf shifter.”

  “Not unless they were your brother and his friends.”

  “Okay, gotcha. Or they’d think someone owned the wolf and tattooed him.”

  “Right. We try to be all wolf when we’re a wolf.” He glanced at her pierced ears.

  She touched them. “No.”

  “Yeah, no jewelry.”

  She sighed.

  “You could lose your jewelry if you suddenly had to shift, but earrings? That could be problematic.”

  “I’ll still have piercings.” It was a good thing she didn’t get more than a piercing in each ear. Who would have ever thought she’d have to worry about being a wolf with pierced ears? “Anything else I should know?” Gina didn’t really want to hear anything else like that.

  “We can polish our nails, but in the shift, the polish is gone, at least,” Brooke said. “And hair dye? It vanishes with the shift.”

  “Oh, my mom has been a bleached blond for years. She won’t like turning white.” One con for turning her mom.

  “The increased longevity and faster healing abilities will most likely make up for it,” Brooke said.

  Then there was a commotion down below the ranch at the front gate, and Leidolf was on his phone, getting into a truck with a couple of other men and heading down there to speak to the visitors.

  “I wonder what that’s all about,” Josh said.

  “Probably someone attempting to trespass,” Maverick said.

  Gina got a call, pulled out her phone, and saw it was from her brother. “Yeah, Weston, what do you need?” He was probably just checking on her to make sure she was still okay.

  “You. We’re at the ranch where you’re supposed to be at a Christmas party, and the guys and I wanted to join you. But the men at the gate said we didn’t have an invitation to come to the party,” Weston said.

  She knew her brother had given up his search for Bigfoot to make sure she really was safe, and she appreciated him for it. She hoped he hadn’t ruined their Bigfoot hunting trip by coming here, but if they had known the truth—they had found the grand prize, a whole pack of werewolves—what would they think then? “It’s a by-invitation-only party.”

  “So invite me and Patterson and Bromley.” Weston wouldn’t let it go.

  “Okay, fine. I’m coming. I’ll meet you at the gate.” Gina ended the call. How could things get so messed up? She wasn’t going to ruin everyone’s party because of human gate-crashers, even if Weston was her family and the guys were her friends too.

  “I’ll take you down there,” Maverick said.

  “Thanks. And no, I’m not going to try to change Leidolf’s mind about letting them in,” she said to Maverick as they got into his truck and headed down to the gate. “If I even could. You have enough trouble keeping your secret. This is your place, free from humans. Besides, they’re only here because they want to make sure I’m safe after I took off with you.”

  “But they’re going to wonder why we don’t allow them in.”

  “I’ll go home with them.”

  Maverick sighed. “I don’t want that. And I hate to mention it again, but there’s the possibility you could shift in front of them. Further, it’s up to Leidolf and Cassie as to what they’ll allow.”

  When they reached the gate, Maverick and Gina got out of his truck.

  Leidolf was waiting to hear what was going to be said. And two other men—part of the pack, she suspected—were standing nearby, appearing to be serving as gate guards.

  “Okay, I guess you guys are here to take me home.” She made a move to get into her brother’s truck.

  “No, we were just going to join you. We didn’t want to spoil the party for you.” Her brother had the decency to look a little apologetic, shoving his hands in his pockets, his expression glum.

  “They can stay,” Leidolf said, surprising her.

  But then she worried. Did Leidolf intend to turn the men as soon as they joined the party? She could envision a bunch of wolves shifting and biting the men, forget doing the gentler approach. And what if she suddenly had to shift? Then they would really want to turn them.

  Leidolf headed back up to the party, and she figured he was warning everyone to be on their best behavior. She felt bad about that. She would have preferred leaving, though she had wanted to dance with Maverick, spend lots more time with him, and enjoy the festivities. She appreciated that her brother and his friends had been concerned enough to track her down, but she was also annoyed with them for barging in an all-wolf party that she had thoroughly been enjoying—up until now.

  Chapter 6

  On the drive back to the Christmas party, Maverick knew Leidolf had done what he’d done to try to mitigate the situation between Gina and her brother while not arousing too much suspicion of what was going on here. Before they ran into Sarge—which was Maverick’s own mistake for not telling her already about him—he called Leidolf to warn him.

  “You might want Sarge to return home before Weston and his friends see him and give him the third degree.”

  “Already done.”

  “Okay, good.” Then they ended the call.

  Leidolf was a good pack leader, and Maverick figured he’d thought about it, but better safe than sorry.

  “I’m sorry they came here and messed up everyone’s fun,” Gina said to Maverick, sounding truly regretful.

  “No one’s running as wolves until later tonight. And since you haven’t been able to shift yet, though I’m really surprised you haven’t, I’ll take you home before that, and your brother and his friends will have to leave.”

  “Actually, it would be better if I made him take me home so that he has to leave. I’m afraid there’s no getting rid of them otherwise. Are you ready to dance?”

  Yeah, he certainly was. “Absolutely.”

  After they parked back at the ranch house, Maverick took Gina’s hand and led her to the dance floor while Gina’s brother and their friends went to eat. A couple of men talked and joked with them, making them feel welcome, though they were also serving on guard duty.

  Maverick hoped it wouldn’t come to having to turn them tonight at the party. He didn’t want Gina to see wolves attack the men. It would be the only way to turn them though, he was thinking.

  But then Gina slipped her arms around Maverick’s neck and pressed her lips on his chin, capturing his attention. He bent his head, and their mouths connected in a long, lingering, smoldering kiss. For the moment, he forgot about everything else but her.

  She finally came up for air and looked into his eyes, her dark-brown ones glittering with sensuality. “Wow, is it just you, or is it because of my new wolf senses that your kisses are so hotly stimulating?”

  “It’s you and me—us. And being wolves. You are much more attuned to the subtleties of our actions and reactions, to changing scents, to even the pheromones that are telling you to go for it and not to hold back.” He certainly was all for pushing for more.

  “And making love?” she asked, sliding her hands up his body.

  “It would be much more intense because you can sense more. At least that’s what newly turned wolves tell me.”

  “But you can’t make love.”

  “Not all the way unless you want to mate a wolf. Most of the time when we meet the wolf we want to be with permanently, it’s decided fairly quickly, like wolves in the wild do.”

  “Hmm, that’s good. Like other animals do after a ritual courting.”

  “Right.”

  Suddenly, another man was at Maverick’s side. Ethan Masterson, a DEA agent, extended his hand to dance with Gina. Maverick really didn’t want a bunch of bachelor males to dance with her, but it was important for her to discover if someone else suited her even better than him. “This is Ethan Masterson, and Ethan, I’m sure you already have heard that this is Gina.” Maverick had dated other wolves, but none of them had fascinated him like she did. None had made him want to get to know them better.

  He allowed Ethan to dance with Gina and stepped off the wooden platform to watch. Josh joined Maverick on the sidelines and slapped him on the back. “I think that’s the hardest part—letting someone you’re really developing feelings for be with other wolves who are eager to convince her that they might suit her better.”

  “Yeah, I don’t want it to happen, but if she truly falls for another wolf, it’s important she ends up with the right mate for life. It’s not just about what I want. And being newly turned, she’s going to have a hard time deciding, most likely.” Maverick kept his eyes on her though.

  Then Gina’s brother came up to talk to Maverick, and Maverick introduced his brother. Josh shook his hand, a look of speculation in his hard gaze. He tended to be wary of people he didn’t know in general, courtesy of his wolf nature and the criminal cases he used to deal with.

  “I guess you know why we’re here,” Weston said, watching his sister dancing with Ethan.

  “To ensure your sister is safe with me,” Maverick said.

  “Yeah. So why are you letting some other yahoo dance with her?” Weston asked, sounding astonished.

  “He’s a friend, and he knows she’s with me.” There was no explaining the way of a wolf pack without becoming one of them.

  Weston folded his arms and shook his head. “I’ve never seen Gina so taken with a man right off the bat like that—to agree to go with you on a hike through the woods, then to go to your place and with you to a Christmas party afterward. She’s really cautious about being with men. Any man.”

  “She’s had trouble in the past?”