“Yeah, she has, which was why I was worried about you with her. She acts as though the two of you have a history. Do you have a history?”

  “No, but she’s really excited about studying the reindeer at the ranch.”

  “It appears to me there’s a hell of a lot more to it than that.”

  Maverick thought Weston had good wolf instincts for being human. Josh slapped Maverick on the shoulder as if to say this problem was all his to deal with tonight. “I’m going to dance with my…uh, wife.”

  “Sure thing, Josh.”

  Josh shook Weston’s hand again. “Good to meet you.”

  “Likewise,” Weston said.

  Then Josh walked off to take Brooke’s hand and pulled her close, kissed her, and then hauled her off to dance.

  “Where is Gina staying tonight?” Weston asked.

  “At her home. We haven’t talked about the logistics of her studying the reindeer at the ranch yet, but she’s welcome to stay at the ranch. Josh and I both have a house, and both of us have offered for her to stay at either of them. Josh and Brooke also have a home in town, so she could stay at their ranch house on her own, if she’d like, and then she wouldn’t have to commute.”

  Weston nodded, appearing satisfied Maverick wasn’t keeping Gina at his place tonight, though Maverick wished she would stay with him.

  “Excuse me, before someone else tries to fill up Gina’s dance card, I need to take charge of the situation.” Maverick shook Weston’s hand again and then strode through the dancing couples to take over from the other wolf. Maverick smiled down at Gina and pulled her tight against his body as they danced together again.

  “I saw my brother talking to you. I wondered if you might need rescuing.” She tilted her head up to face Maverick, inviting a kiss. “What did he say?”

  Maverick kissed her, licking her lips and deepening the kiss. She seemed to enjoy the intimacy and met him move for move.

  Then he finally answered her question. “He was worried about you. Does he always worry about you when you see some guy?”

  “I rarely go out. Work consumes my time. And when I do date, it’s a lot more conventional. Not running off with a man I don’t know into the woods to find a reindeer and then go home with him.”

  “Hmm,” Maverick said, adjusting his body against hers for a better fit, a more intimate contact. “Wolves aren’t very conventional. So until he’s turned, he could see a lot of changes in the way you do things—aside from the shifting.”

  “I suspect so. I was afraid you had abandoned me,” she said, their bodies rubbing together in a sensuous dance.

  “Hell, no.”

  She smiled. “Good.” Then she glanced at her brother and his friends, all of whom were still eating and drinking. “You know if you turn my brother or someone in the pack does, he and his friends might be really angry that shifters killed their other friend.”

  “I didn’t have anything to do with it. I was here the whole time. It was an Arctic wolf pack that did it.”

  “And Leidolf?”

  “He was there, yes.”

  She glanced back at her brother. “Knowing my brother, he wants to dance, but it seems the females are all taken.”

  Maverick kissed her cheek, his hands sliding down her arms in a gentle caress. “We have some single women in the pack, but just like with you, the wolves want to make their interest known, and they certainly don’t want some human interloper to monopolize the she-wolf’s time.”

  “They don’t have to worry about Patterson and Bromley. They don’t like to dance.”

  “So what’s the situation with them as far as family goes?” They needed to know if turning the men was even a viable option. If they had lots of close family, it wouldn’t be.

  “Both the other men have nothing to do with their families. That’s why they hook up with Weston to go on these long Bigfoot hunts.”

  “Your brother said you’ve had issues with men in the past so he was surprised you seemed so eager to be with me.”

  She laughed. “He did, did he? Yeah, I have. For me, picking up the wrong kind of guys happens on occasion. But then I met you.”

  “And I bit you.”

  “It was to be expected when you were so frantically trying to save yourself from the frigid water.”

  Another wolf came up to dance with Gina, and Maverick bit back a growl. He was having a wonderful time with Gina, and he didn’t want to give up another minute with her. But to look like a nice guy, he conceded and noticed then that Weston had managed to dance with a she-wolf. The other wolves were really watching the situation though. They probably realized that Leidolf wanted Gina’s brother and parents turned, so they had to play nice for now.

  When the dance ended, Maverick got back in with Gina—a lovely slow dance, waltzing to “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year”—and he was making the most of it. She was making him hot for her, and he really wished she’d stay the night with him. Then the last dance to “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” ended, and he really didn’t want to end it there.

  Finally, Cassie said, “Thanks to everyone for coming tonight and for helping to set up the party. We had a grand time.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to take you home tonight?” Maverick asked Gina, holding her hand and caressing it lightly. “I still worry about you shifting.”

  “Yeah. I’m sure the other wolves will hang around to do their night thing, and my brother and his friends will stick around then too. This way they’ll have to leave to take me home. And if I shift, I’ll just have to bite them all.”

  He smiled, imagining the chaos, but losing the smile when he thought of them crashing the vehicle.

  “I’ll come by in the morning to see the reindeer, but tomorrow night, I want you to take me to the wolf dinner-dance club,” she said.

  He smiled down at her. “You have a date.” He kissed her and then led her to the table where her brother and his friends were drinking punch.

  Maverick shook the men’s hands.

  “See you around,” Weston said.

  Probably a hell of a lot more than Weston planned, if they ended up turning him.

  ***

  “I know you’re annoyed with me for coming to the party. But I was just worried about you,” Weston said as he drove her home.

  “You could have called.” And then she wouldn’t have to worry about shifting. “Can you turn the heater down?”

  “The truck is cold still.” Weston glanced at her. “You could have been coerced. I had to see for myself.”

  “You watch too many thrillers. I’m fine. I was fine. And you’ve met Josh, his brother. Everyone’s nice, okay? Are you going to return to the park to search for Bigfoot?” She wanted to turn the conversation off the wolves, Maverick, everyone.

  “Tell her. She needs to know,” Bromley said.

  “Tell me what?” She didn’t like the anxious tone of Bromley’s voice and glanced back at him in the back seat.

  “We saw lots of wolf tracks at the ranch,” Weston said.

  “What?” Her heartbeat was pounding hard. She was glad they couldn’t hear it. And she felt a flush of warmth running through her veins. Concern, not shifting, she told herself.

  “When we got out of the truck to speak to the guards, we saw wolf prints all over the place. And then they were up at the ranch house. There were so many boot prints that had obliterated some of them, but we saw enough of them to know something was going on,” Patterson said, agreeing with Weston.

  She had to tell Maverick right away. Not that her brother and his friends could tell the world that werewolves existed at the ranch if that’s where they were going with this. Maybe she was only thinking that because she was so aware of the truth.

  “Okay, so the wolf dogs Maverick and his brother own probably were at the ranch.” She hoped they would concede that was all there was to it.

  “Maybe. Or the wolf dog we rescued from the lake wasn’t a wolf dog but a werewolf. Though I hadn’t figured one would look like a real wolf. But maybe that’s how they keep their secret so well,” Weston said. “Besides the fact we had seen the wolf prints at the campsite and they vanished and then two men walking in hiking boots were the only visible prints after that.”

  “Don’t let on to Maverick or any of the others that we have our suspicions about the ranch, that they’re werewolves,” Patterson said. “Weston said you were going to the reindeer ranch to study the reindeer.”

  “I don’t believe werewolves are real for one second. Maverick and Josh have a couple of wolf dogs. Maybe others have more of the litter at Leidolf’s ranch. That’s a lot more viable reason than a couple of ranches run by werewolves.” She’d never thought she’d be having a conversation like this with her brother and their friends when they were right about all of it.

  “All right, but just don’t breathe a word of our suspicions to them,” Weston said. “We don’t want to get you into trouble. I know I can’t convince you to not go there. Not when you love studying animals as much as you do.”

  She sighed in an exaggerated manner. “They’re human, just like us.”

  None of them said anything after that, and she figured they had made up their minds already.

  Then Weston drove her up to her apartment door, and she got out, trying not to look like she was in a rush. She thanked him for the ride and said goodnight.

  “Call me tomorrow. Look for those wolf dogs at the reindeer ranch and send me photos,” Weston said, as if he was going to prove they were real wolves and not just wolf dogs.

  He would need DNA evidence to prove that. She knew he wasn’t going to give up on the notion he’d found a pack of werewolves. That decided it. If she’d been able to shift, she would have bitten her brother right then and there! Maybe if he were turned, he could convince his friends there was nothing to it or they’d have to turn the whole lot of them.

  She waved goodbye, unlocked her apartment door, and went inside. She’d missed seeing the lights at the reindeer ranch, to her disappointment. And being with Maverick further too. Then again, she could see the ranch all lit up tomorrow night.

  She tossed her coat on a barstool and called Maverick. “Hey, I’m home. But I have some worrisome news. My brother and our friends think all of you are werewolves.”

  Chapter 7

  “Are you okay, Gina?” Maverick asked as she told him about the conversation she’d had with her brother and his friends. That was what he was most worried about—how she was dealing with all this. He felt like she was a new wolf out on a limb, all by herself, even though everyone in the pack would help her. But still, she was alone right now.

  “I was ready to bite my brother.” She sounded serious and annoyed.

  He laughed. He really hadn’t expected her to say that. He thought she was going to fit right in with being a wolf if she could deal with the shifting issues satisfactorily. “I’ll tell Leidolf and Cassie what you learned, though they may still be enjoying a wolf run.”

  “I’m afraid my brother and his friends aren’t going to let this go. And if they truly believe you’re a werewolf, I’m sure he’s going to be watching me—us closely. Don’t be surprised if they all end up at the reindeer ranch to see your ‘wolf dogs’ next. And then everything’s going to be just as he said it was. You and Shep are one and the same. You both can’t exist at the same time.”

  “He’d do that too, wouldn’t he?” Maverick could see where Gina was coming from.

  “Yeah, he’s serious about this.”

  “If they do a surprise visit, that will work out better for us.”

  “How?”

  “We’ll turn them then. If we invite them to anything else, the reindeer ranch, Leidolf and Cassie’s ranch, what do you think would happen?” Maverick asked.

  “Weston and his friends might believe it was a setup.” She sighed. “So what are we going to do?”

  “It’s on me to take care of this. I believe we’ll have to turn them at the reindeer ranch if they show up unannounced and insist on seeing the wolf dogs. But we’ll have to do it when we don’t have any visitors. They may only come when they feel it’s safe and filled with visitors though. Let me call the pack leaders and I’ll get right back to you.”

  “Okay, thanks, and I’m sorry for my brother and his friends getting involved in this.”

  “I’m the one who should be sorry since I turned you in the first place.”

  “You couldn’t help it.”

  “You…don’t have any urge to shift yet, do you?”

  “I thought the truck’s heater was on too high, but other than that, no.”

  “All right. Well, I’ll call you back in a few minutes.” When Maverick called Leidolf, he got ahold of him right away, and Maverick was glad he was back from the wolf run.

  “Okay, then we’ll turn the men if they show up at your ranch. You’ve got your ranch hands, but I’m going to send a couple more men over there to work at your ranch in case her brother and the others show up. I’ve spoken with Sarge. He said he knows these guys. Sarge said they were more interested in discovering a new species and getting credit for it by proving that we exist, not in killing us. They were even against calling themselves Dark Angels like the others had. So Sarge vouches for them, and he wants to help in any way that he can.”

  “We don’t know for certain if they’ll show up at the reindeer ranch, but we’ll let you know if it happens.” Maverick was glad Sarge wanted to assist them in this. Once they were turned, it could help that he had been a former friend of theirs.

  “Sure thing.”

  Maverick called Gina back. The decision was out of his hands. They would take the necessary action if Weston and his friends dropped by for a visit and indicated in any way that they suspected he and his friends were wolves.

  “Okay,” Gina said, sounding like she knew they had no other choice.

  “I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “See you after I have breakfast.”

  “’Night, Gina.” Then Maverick called his brother.

  “I’ll tell Brooke I’ll be at the ranch all day to help out if you need to turn the men.”

  “Thanks, Josh. See you tomorrow.” Maverick finally went to bed, his hands on his chest, looking up at the ceiling, not believing how one little trip into the woods looking for a reindeer could get him into so much trouble and potentially turn so many lives upside down.

  ***

  Gina was so happy to have met Maverick. He was the first guy she’d really taken to and could imagine being with for the long term. She showered, went to bed, and thought about the way he had kissed her, full of intrigue and lustful need, just like she had felt about him. And dancing hot and heavy with him? She was ready for more of that tomorrow night at the Forest Club. She was excited about going to the reindeer ranch tomorrow and spending the day with him. Just working with the reindeer and him was enough to make her feel like she was living a magical year-round Christmas dream.

  She turned off her bedside lamp and closed her eyes.

  In the time between sleep and dreams, she felt herself getting hot, yanking her comforter and plaid flannel sheet aside, and sitting up in bed. But the heat wouldn’t subside, and she had to reduce the fever rushing through her muscles and bones. She jerked her pajama top over her head, and then she pulled off her pajama bottoms. The heat pervaded and then suddenly…vanished.

  She felt comfortably warm, leapt off the bed, and paced, not sure why she was doing so or what was bothering her. She walked around the apartment a few times. Maybe she’d heard a sound, something waking her.

  After walking for what seemed like forever and unable to settle back down, she finally jumped into her bed, hoping that would help. She was determined to sleep and curled up against her pillow, still too warm for her flannel sheet and comforter, leaving them off for the moment.

  When the day dawned that morning, Gina felt on top of the world, stretching, and realized that under her flannel sheet and comforter, she was naked. What the…?

  She tossed her covers aside and found her pajama bottoms shoved deep under the covers near the foot of the bed, probably from when she was tossing and turning in the night, and her pajama top on the floor. She frowned, not having any kind of recollection of having removed her pajamas last night.

  Despite the late hour that her brother and their friends had dropped her off after the Christmas party, she had awakened early again like she had on the campout, as if this was her new morning clock—a wolf’s internal wake-up time since they loved the dawn and dusk so much. She thought about the day she’d spend at the ranch again, eager to help with the chores so that the reindeer would see her as one of the ranch hands, like when she worked and studied tame animal behaviors.

  She quickly dressed in jeans, a warm wool sweater, and hiking boots, and hastily made an over-easy egg, two sausage links, some cantaloupe, and a slice of toast smothered in the blackberry jam she’d made after gathering wild blackberries on a previous hike through the woods in August, when the berries were ripe. After eating wild blackberry jam, nothing tasted like it. Every bit of it she breathed in, enjoying its delicious bouquet. It was just amazing and so much wilder than she’d ever remembered. She smiled. Hopefully, her parents would appreciate some of the enhanced abilities they would have. After a good night’s sleep—well, maybe not really all that good—she was feeling better about them becoming wolves like her.

  She made some lavender honey tea, and when she sipped some from her Santa gnome mug, it had a delightful effect on her palate. She bit into her toast and practically hummed her pleasure. Ohmigod, it was bursting with flavor. She swore she could taste the wildness of the woods imprinted on the blackberries! Ordinary food and liquids she’d eaten and drunk in the past were embodied with so much more flavor now that she was a wolf.