Paul and Allan had needed two months to locate the hostages and then get them to safety during the job in Ecuador. That didn’t leave them with time to run even once as wolves. On their South American missions, the team members rarely turned into wolves, though occasionally they did while on guard duty, hoping no one would see them and wonder when gray wolves had been introduced into the jungle. Only a few endangered maned wolves lived there now.
“Good choice.” She stalked down the hall to her bedroom.
He wondered how long it had been since she last ran as a wolf. He vowed he would run with her every day he was here if she’d like. Allan and Rose could join them. There was safety in numbers if they ran into some of the wild predators that lived in the forest.
He didn’t bother going to the guest room, instead shucking his clothes in the living room. Then he called on the shift that warmed his body as his muscles and bones painlessly stretched to accommodate the change. The change happened so fast that if a human saw it, he would doubt if what he saw had truly occurred.
Standing in his wolf coat, Paul panted, watching for Lori and eager to explore the woods with her. A human who went for a walk in the forest wouldn’t notice much more than the changing seasons, unless something major had happened—a storm blustering through the area and taking down trees, or some such thing. But as wolves, lupus garous could smell everything around them and see movement that humans couldn’t. Because of that, the environment was constantly changing—the animals moving through the area, the insects buzzing among the trees, the flowers hidden beneath the underbrush. So to the wolves, or lupus garous, the forest was always interesting.
As soon as Lori ran out of her bedroom as a wolf, he studied her coloration: silver with black tips on her head and back, beige around the face, and a wagging tail indicating how much she wanted to run with him. Feeling just as enthusiastic, he wagged his tail back and gave a little joyful bark. He realized he hadn’t had the pleasure of seeing her as a wolf for two long years. Michael’s painting of her didn’t count.
Paul wouldn’t allow her to avoid him again in the future.
He let her go first, then followed her outside through the wolf door. He wanted to raise his head and howl with exuberance, but he curbed the inclination because other wolves, not of the shape-shifting variety, would hear him. He certainly didn’t want to attract the attention of another wolf pack.
He ran with Lori through the woods that led into the Flathead National Forest and headed into the higher elevations in the direction of Glacier National Park, where they saw a snow-white, bighorn mountain goat, its shaggy long coat blowing in the breeze. Spying the wolves, the goat quickly left.
Paul and Lori constantly checked for signs that other wolves had claimed the area, smelling the air and the ground, not wanting to cross into any pack territories. Several packs lived in the forest, but they were strictly wolf and most likely would attempt to kill Paul and Lori if they found them encroaching. Not to mention that Glacier had one of the largest grizzly bear populations in the United States, so Paul and Lori were on the lookout for them too.
It still was in the lupus garous’ nature to run as wolves from time to time—to feel one with their wolf half and explore nature, and to carry the scents home with them—as if they were an all-wolf pack. It was an instinctive behavior they couldn’t break, nor would they want to.
After a good jaunt, they headed back through Flathead National Forest. They had to watch out for both grizzlies and wolf packs there too. On the trip back from his mission, Paul had checked the local news to update himself and learned that some hunter or hunters had been illegally killing endangered gray wolves in the area, so now he and Lori also had to be extra careful because of hunters. Yet this was his pack’s home and he wouldn’t want to be anywhere else in the world when he needed time to recuperate.
Running with Allan was different. Male camaraderie. A brother wolf. A SEAL wolf. They watched each other’s backs. Checked out the sights and sounds, as wolves in a pack did. But with Lori…he truly enjoyed watching her—the way she paused to sniff at a smell, or lift her head and sniff the air, or sit on her butt and watch the stream trickling by. Just like in Michael’s rendition of her.
Paul loved seeing her enjoying nature in her wolf coat and just being wild. He’d missed that about her. It was amazing to see how different she was from his SEAL team members.
He’d caught her watching him too, and he wondered what she was thinking. If she was enjoying the run as much as he was.
Other than catching sight of a rare lynx, they arrived back at the cabin without seeing any other animals. And after stretching his wolf legs, Paul felt right with the world. He loved collecting the scents of the wilderness on his fur. Seeing the untouched beauty. Listening to the sound of the winds blowing through the leaves, the water trickling over mossy stones in a streambed, the hooting of an owl. But most of all, he enjoyed running with Lori as a wolf. He hadn’t done that in many years.
They paused to watch the sun begin to rise, turning the sky pink and orange before the darkness faded to light, and then they continued the short distance to the cabin.
As soon as they entered through the wolf door, Lori raced for the bedroom, and Paul shifted and began getting dressed in the living room. She was faster than him; he hadn’t pulled on his shirt yet when she joined him.
“That was fun. I ran with Rose about a month ago, but…” She shrugged. “I think I felt, well, safer with you. But don’t read anything into that. You’re a male wolf, and you’re bigger and scarier looking—to wild beasts of prey, that is. Hunters with guns? None of us stand a chance against them.”
“I had fun, Lori. Somehow running with Allan isn’t the same.” Wolves were social animals, so they did brush up against each other, touch noses in greeting, and lick each other, male to male, female to female, male to female. It was just a way of showing the pack bonds. But with Lori? Hell, rubbing his fur-covered body against hers while they ran or licking her cheek or nuzzling her meant a whole different thing to him.
“You’re so used to running with him that you probably know just how he’s going to react. Me, I’m an unknown quantity,” Lori said.
“Somewhat, but you still have some of the same wolf moves from when we were younger.”
“Oh?”
“You used to sit by a stream or river and watch to see if you could catch sight of a fish, and your tail would start wagging vigorously, sweeping the ground.”
She laughed. “I’m surprised you remembered.”
He couldn’t forget how she had behaved as a wolf in their youth. Each of the wolves in the pack had different behaviors, just like humans. But he’d always been fascinated with Lori’s antics.
Lori hadn’t expected him to kiss her again so soon. Or to…continually get into her space on the run. Not in a protective way, but more like…courting.
She’d like that. If he intended to stay. She made eggs, toast, and bacon for them while he began to tape next to the brick fireplace. After eating, Paul pulled the plastic over the top of the mantel and taped it in place. Lori moved more plastic sheeting over to the base of the wall they were going to paint.
“On the flight home from Ecuador, Allan and I were talking about how you, Emma, Catherine, and Rose need to join a pack. You need to be around more of our kind,” Paul said. “I really hadn’t thought about it until this Cooper business, and now with a grizzly claiming this as its territory, it’s not all that safe to run as wolves by yourselves, or for just you and Rose to run together.”
Lori dropped to her knees and began taping around the rest of the fireplace at the base next to the wooden floor. “The two of you were talking about us? Deciding what we should do?” She snorted. “Figure out what you want to do about yourselves.” She shouldn’t have, but she tacked on, “When you grow up.” That earned her a little smile.
Her grandma only
shifted on her acreage at night now because of her more advanced age, and Catherine, Rose, and Lori sometimes ran together as wolves because of the safety in numbers. But she didn’t need Paul telling her that she and the rest of them needed to join another lupus garou pack just so they could run as wolves.
Paul cleared his throat. “We worry—”
She cut him off. “First off, you know it won’t happen. Our pack settled this land. We have history here. When that rabid wolf pack killed so many of our kind, we vowed to stay here and to continue on. We promised to be here for each other.”
Her face felt tight with annoyance. She hadn’t expected him or Allan to stay in the area forever because they’d always been adventurers who loved to right wrongs. Staying here wouldn’t have been a viable option for them. But the rest of them were happy where they were.
She shrugged. “This is our home. Besides, do you think my grandma or Allan’s mother would leave? They lost their mates here—they’d never consider it. Rose and I certainly wouldn’t abandon them. Of course, we’ve thought about you and the fun you’re having in exotic locations…” She paused to glance up at him.
He was smiling a little at her comment.
“Oh, the occasional lone wolf comes through here and thinks he’ll settle down, but then he learns that two SEAL wolves visit here on and off through the year, that one is Rose’s brother and the other nearly her brother, and off the lone wolf goes.”
Paul smiled, then sobered. “If that’s the case, he wouldn’t be the one for you.”
“I’m talking about Rose. Not me. With me, they’ve been afraid of my grandma.”
“Emma? How could anyone be afraid of her?” Paul began taping the opposite wall.
“Oh, she starts chanting and pretending she’s casting a tribal curse on him, and the next thing I know, the wolf is out of here.”
“Emma does that?” He laughed.
“Quit laughing,” Lori said, though it was funny. She hadn’t really been interested in mating the guys. Especially if they were afraid of her grandma. Lori could imagine someone pretending to cast a curse on Paul or Allan. Neither would have tucked tail and run off. “I really liked a couple of the guys.” Not enough to mate either of them. If they hadn’t been brave enough to stand up to her grandma, how would they react if they ran into a grizzly in the woods? “But Emma’s always had her heart set on me marrying one of the two of you. Of course, I told her that neither of you would ever settle down, so she should quit scaring off my prospective mates.”
Paul quirked his lips a little at that, then frowned again. “So you started dating Dusty?”
“No, I didn’t start dating Dusty.” She stood and gave Paul an aggravated look. She knew he’d keep asking until she gave him the whole story. If she didn’t, Allan and Paul would interrogate Rose next, so she might as well give her version.
“He and his brother asked if they could come by and go swimming with Rose and me. We thought that we could learn why they had moved into the area. See if they had planned any trouble for the pack. They brought steaks to cook on the grill, and we made the vegetables. We thought it was important that we check them out. Just like the leaders of a pack would if we had any.”
He didn’t like that she could have put herself at risk, but he admired her for stepping up to take charge. And her jab at him for not taking over? He couldn’t fault her resolve.
Then he frowned. “But things got out of hand.”
“Yeah. We ate, then went for a walk in the woods. It was hot, and when we came back, we went for a swim. Rose and I were wearing bathing suits. The guys didn’t mention that they had none and stripped naked. About that time, we were getting a little wary.”
“Hell, I’d say so.”
“Right, well, we figured they could have worn their briefs at least. As soon as they didn’t and we didn’t object, they apparently thought we were easy and got way too frisky. Here we are out in the lake in broad daylight. Not that it’s that easy to see us because of the size of the lake and how far we are from other houses and the trees surrounding the place, but still, we weren’t willing to take the relationships any further.
“Just figured on a nice swim, the walk, lunch, and that was it. We know not to get involved with wolves to any real degree unless we’re thinking of a permanent mating. Too risky. They got mad that we didn’t want to go any further than just swimming in the lake with them, called us teases. Dusty yanked off my necklace—pulled it over my head, so I don’t think he broke it—and just tossed it in the lake. He said that we thought we were too good for them because both our families owned second homes—our cabin on the lake and the Rappaports’ place in the mountains. Plus, Rose and I have our own businesses.”
“While they’re just ranch hands and don’t possess anything of their own, I take it.”
“Right. Though we thought they were fine before that. It doesn’t matter that they’re wolves. We weren’t interested in anything permanent with them. But it is nice to go out with a male wolf sometimes as opposed to a human. Let our hair down, so to speak. Talk about wolf stuff. When Dusty grabbed my arm, I seized his balls and squeezed hard.”
She swore Paul looked a little pained just thinking about that happening to another guy.
“Then he and his brother took off, and we hadn’t seen either of them again until last night at the auction. Anyway, Rose and I tried to locate the necklace, but we couldn’t find it, despite how clear the water is. It’s just too deep.”
“I’ll look for it, but I need to get my scuba gear. I still think there are possible packs you could enjoy being around. Like Hunter’s. They’re good people. When Allan and I are gone on missions, you’d have someone in a wolf pack to call on if you needed help.”
She let out her breath in exasperation. “I won’t tell the two of you that you need to settle down here so we can be a viable wolf pack, and you shouldn’t tell me that we should leave and find a pack to live with. Besides, maybe some lone wolf will be the right one for me, and he would help us make this more of a cohesive mate-run pack.”
Paul shook his head. “Lone wolves don’t like to start packs.”
“Some do.” Not that she knew of any personally, but she was certain there would be cases somewhere. With real wolves there were.
“Emma would surely scare them off anyway.” Paul sounded glad her grandma was watching out for Rose and Lori’s welfare.
Lori tried not to be annoyed again that he was suggesting they leave their home here and join another wolf pack.
Chapter 8
Paul and Lori spent all day painting, cleaning, and putting everything back in place. They shared lunch and dinner, watched the sunset again, and took a shorter wolf run into the woods just to stretch their legs. He could really get used to this routine—working with Lori, sharing meals, running with her, and watching the sunset.
When it was time to retire for the night, Lori made a beeline for her bedroom as if she was afraid he’d want something more and she couldn’t handle it.
He sighed and went to bed, thinking about how much he’d like to have her in his bed or be sleeping with her. He’d thought about it a lot lately. More so than usual. He guessed she wasn’t thinking along the same lines as he was.
No matter how much he tried to sleep, he couldn’t help thinking of her in the next bedroom and how much he’d love to be cuddling with her.
The next morning, Paul assumed he was up before Lori because he didn’t hear her in the kitchen making coffee. Naked, he left the bedroom, shifted, and noted she wasn’t around. Her bedroom door was still closed, and everything was quiet in there. He headed for the wolf door. Not only was it natural for a wolf or lupus garou to scent-mark their territory, but it also was essential to ensure that other wolves didn’t encroach—in this case, on Lori and Emma’s cabin and the surrounding area.
If the women had lived in town? Or
like Emma and Catherine, with homes surrounded by a lot of land, some for grazing and some for cultivating fields, they wouldn’t need to scent-mark. Even though Emma and Catherine were near the national parks, they still should have no trouble. But here, out in the woods, he wanted to keep other wolves at bay.
When he had run with Lori the last two nights, he hadn’t left scent markings that declared the boundaries of her property. So that was his first priority this morning.
Of course, it was tantamount to saying he claimed it, not that Lori had, but it couldn’t be helped. Neither she nor her grandma had scent-marked the area in a very long time.
Every hundred yards or so, he scratched or pawed at the ground or trees, and he urinated in a few places, leaving an invisible fence that told other wolves to stay out. Not that a rival pack would honor it. But some wolves would, while others might actually mark right over the area to claim it as their own. He smiled a little as he thought of wolves having their own kind of pissing contest, literally.
When he was done, other wolves could smell his new scent marking for nearly two miles. Hopefully it wouldn’t draw them here like some sort of challenge. He trotted back to the cabin and smelled pancakes and sausages cooking. His stomach rumbled with appreciation. When he barged through the wolf door, he startled Lori, who jumped a little. She shook her head at him. Wearing a peach tank top, black short shorts, no sandals, and lots of bare skin, she looked hot. He looked again at her tank top to see if she was wearing a bra this time. To his disappointment, she was.
“Don’t tell me you were claiming my cabin for your own,” Lori said.
Hell, yeah. The cabin and the she-wolf. He gave her a wickedly toothy grin back, loving that she knew him well enough to realize what he’d been up to, then returned to his guest bedroom. Once he’d shifted and thrown on a pair of shorts, he joined her in the kitchen and poured a cup of coffee. He wasn’t much of a chef because he tended to get impatient and either burned his meal or didn’t cook it long enough, so he was glad Lori loved to fix meals and was good at it.