Joy to the Wolves

by Terry Spear

  “No, thanks, I’m good.”

  “How long have you been doing this?” Brooke asked Sierra.

  “For about a year now. I was a finance officer and retired from the army, then joined my brother and the pack about two years ago. I was working in the pack as a preschool teacher, but my true love is art, and I was sketching a lot of pictures for people—kids, families, wolves and humans—while also teaching art to the little ones. Then Josh and Adam asked if I might be interested in being a police sketch artist. As the bureau’s sketch artist, I love helping to catch the bad guys, but I still teach art to the kids, and adults who want lessons, in the pack.”

  “Oh, how wonderful.”

  “I love it.” Pencil raised, Sierra said, “Start by telling me everything you can remember.”

  Josh hovered over Sierra’s shoulder to give his input.

  “You know, Josh, you could give me your own descriptions. Separately. So the two of you don’t influence each other. That’s how we’re supposed to do this.” Sierra tilted her chin down as she looked up at him, giving him the look.

  Josh thought she’d be perfect as a mate for his brother. She seemed more like a sisterly type to him. “Brooke’s got most of it right. She saw a lot more than I did. I saw mostly the backs of their heads except for a couple of times when they looked back to see if I was still following them. She was much closer to them than I ever got. I saw the one man leaning over a bunch of boxes Brooke had out for trash earlier though.”

  Sierra nodded. “Is there anything else you can think of?” she asked Brooke after she’d given Sierra all the details she could remember.

  “Thanks, no. That’s it.”

  “What about you, Josh?”

  Arms folded across his chest, he shook his head.

  “We’ll get the composites out right away. By the way, did you ever learn who stole your reindeer calf?” Sierra asked Josh.

  “No, but I’m hoping we can wrap that case up fairly quickly while looking into the other situation.”

  “What’s the world coming to when someone will steal a reindeer calf so close to Christmas? Nice to meet you, Brooke. We’ll have to get together for lunch or dinner and shopping, whenever we’re both free,” Sierra said.

  “I’d love that.”

  “You take care. You look like you’re fading. Adam told me you were shot.”

  “I was, but luckily they didn’t hit anything vital. The bullets just grazed me.”

  “That’s good.” Sierra said her goodbyes and eyed Maverick’s brownie crumbs on his plate. “You didn’t save any for me?” Then she laughed and was out of there.

  “She seems really nice,” Brooke said as Maverick locked the door after Sierra.

  “She is. But none of us have had a chance at dating her yet,” Maverick said.

  “Why not?” Brooke got up from the recliner, and Josh was right there helping her.

  “She’s been dating some wolf from out of state.”

  “Is she going to mate him?” Brooke held onto Josh’s arm, her eyes half-lidded, looking exhausted.

  “Most of the bachelors figure if the guy doesn’t live here and she didn’t stay where he was, she’s not that interested in him. But she hasn’t gone on any dates either. So it’s a toss-up,” Maverick said.

  Brooke managed a smile. “I’m exhausted. If you don’t mind, I’m going to bed.”

  “Go ahead. We’re going to talk until Adam returns to pick up Maverick. We’ll try to keep our voices low so you can sleep.”

  “Thanks, guys, for everything.” She yawned. “Good night.” She padded down the hallway to the master bedroom. Then she padded back to the living room with some sheets, a blanket, and a towel. “Sorry. Tell Josh what the cost of the window and the labor were, and I’ll pay him in the morning. He can give the money to you and Adam and George, Maverick. These are for Adam to use on the Napoleon bed at the shop tonight. There’s no sense in him staying up all night when he can probably just sleep. The store was once a house, so there’s a bathroom with a shower on the second floor he can use. The kitchen has lots of stuff he can snack on if he gets hungry.”

  “I’ll tell him,” Maverick said.

  “Thanks.” She headed back down the hall to the master bedroom.

  “Was the door locked to the shop?” Maverick asked Josh.

  “She doesn’t remember. I looked at the lock, but it didn’t look like anyone had tampered with it.”

  “Adam and I swept up all the glass and porcelain and dumped it in the dumpster. We put stuff on the shelves, though we didn’t know where everything went,” Maverick said.

  “Thanks. I’m sure she’ll really appreciate returning to the store in the morning and not seeing the wreckage all over again.”

  Maverick frowned. “Did you need me to stay the night, too, or do you think the two of you will be fine? I can stay until I need to return early in the morning to feed the reindeer. Or I can reschedule one of our ranch hands to be in charge.”

  “We should be good. She said the thieves didn’t intend to come here until she was at the shop. I’m going to ask Adam if he could stay at the house tomorrow while I’m at the shop with her since it’s his day off.”

  His brother smiled. “You know what Adam’s going to say.”

  “That I could stay here while he watches over her.” Josh smiled.

  “Let me know if you learn anything, and if you want to bring her out to the ranch to have a meal together, just call. I figure she’ll want to stick close to home until this is resolved now though.” Maverick pulled his phone out and texted someone.

  “Thanks, Maverick. I will.”

  “Adam is coming to pick me up. I texted him on the way to the sandwich shop.” Maverick got another text message and responded to it. “If you haven’t mentioned to him about staying in her house when she’s at the shop tomorrow, I’ll ask him.”

  “Go ahead.”

  Maverick texted Adam. He received another text. “Tell Brooke not to worry about the window. The pack takes care of its own, even if she’s not officially one of us yet,” Maverick told Josh.

  “I will. I wasn’t going to make her pay for it. I would have paid for it myself,” Josh said.

  Maverick smiled.

  “It doesn’t mean anything.”

  Adam called Josh on Bluetooth. “Hey, I thought you were not planning to date another wolf for at least six months.”

  “I’m not. It’s all about trust. Brooke trusts me. What can I say?” Josh said.

  Adam laughed. “You sure have her bamboozled. I just pulled into her driveway.”

  “Adam’s here,” Josh told Maverick.

  “Gotta go,” Maverick said.

  “Thanks for everything, Maverick.” Josh walked with his brother out to Adam’s Hummer.

  Adam was shaking his head. “If you were being honest with yourself, I’d be staying with the she-wolf.”

  “Actually, I was thinking about that. I’ll need to be back at work in a couple of days, and we’ll need to have someone watching out for her.” They would until they caught these bastards.

  “I’ll see if I can take off some time from work.”

  “If not, I’ll check with Leidolf and Cassie and see if they have anyone else who can be here for her.”

  Adam laughed. “You’ll have all the bachelor males breaking down her door.”

  “Hey, I’ll get someone to take over at the ranch, and I’ll do it,” Maverick said.

  “We can figure it out in a couple of days.” So why did Josh want to insist only mated wolves watch over her? “Thanks for planning to return tomorrow to watch her house until we close the shop for the night.”

  “No problem,” Adam said. “I’m off anyway. I’m glad I could help.”

  “Did you find blood on the broken window? I smelled blood while I
was trying to chase down those guys,” Josh said.

  “Yeah. Someone must have cut himself good on the glass. We’re testing it for DNA to see if the injured guy is in the system.”

  “I sure hope he is. See you tomorrow then.” Josh waved goodbye, then pulled his bag out of his car, headed back into the house, and locked up. He turned off the Christmas tree lights, put out the fire, then took the bag of items Maverick had picked up for him and his own and headed for the guest bedroom closest to the master bedroom.

  He had planned to volunteer to work at the White Wolf Sanctuary on one of his days off during the month, but Brooke took priority. He certainly hadn’t thought he’d be trying to track down one of their reindeer calves, then aiding a she-wolf in need.

  Josh finally settled down to sleep, though he’d be on alert if anyone tried to break into Brooke’s place tonight. He closed his eyes, but he couldn’t sleep. All he could think of was seeing the men running through the town, the one dribbling blood along the way. Josh had wanted to kill the bastards for hurting Brooke. And making her feel unsafe. Not to mention he was afraid they’d return for whatever they were after.

  He kept envisioning her coming out from behind a crate as a red wolf, her front leg and hind leg bleeding, her tail wagging slightly to show she’d been glad to see them.

  He turned on his side and stared into the dark room, finally seeing a little red wolf sitting on her rump in the guest bedroom, watching him.

  Surprised to see her but glad she’d come to him, he smiled at her and patted the mattress. “Do you want to join me?” He suspected she was feeling anxious, safer in her fur coat, and like him, unable to sleep. Before she could jump onto the bed, he said, “Wait, I’ll help you.” He suspected jumping on the bed might aggravate her injuries. Though he was afraid he might do the same when he lifted her onto the bed. He normally would have slept in the raw, but he was wearing boxer briefs in case he had to grab his gun and protect Brooke. He pulled aside the covers and got out of bed.

  He gently lifted her onto the mattress and climbed back under the covers, and she curled up next to him. If he wasn’t planning to protect her using his gun, he would have snuggled with her as a wolf. He was glad she’d come to him and not tried to brave it out by herself if she was feeling anxious.

  He checked her wounds to make sure she wasn’t still bleeding. She wasn’t, which was a good thing since she wasn’t wearing bandages any longer.

  He wrapped his arm around her, and she laid her head on his chest. He had no intention of courting her, but this sure felt nice.

  Chapter 12

  Before fully waking that morning, Josh felt a warm human body snuggling with him under the covers, and he quickly opened his eyes to see Brooke in his arms. When the hell had that happened? And how had he slept through it? Not that this was unwelcome, just that he was supposed to be protecting her, damn it. Not sleeping through everything.

  He hoped Brooke knew she’d shifted and wouldn’t be shocked when she woke. He wrapped his arms around her and closed his eyes, trying not to think of having the beautiful she-wolf in his embrace, but it wasn’t working. With her hot little body resting naked against his, her sweet cinnamon scent and her warm breath against his naked chest were waking parts of his body that needed to go back to sleep.

  She was warm and soft and cuddly. Trying to put the feel of her out of his thoughts, Josh somehow managed to fall asleep for another hour, waking to an alarm going off in the master bedroom. For the first time in a long time, he wanted to just stay in bed and sleep the morning away…with the she-wolf in his arms.

  Brooke lifted her head and groaned. He sighed. He was afraid she was going to regret having joined him in bed. He was glad she’d slept through the night and they hadn’t had any disturbances.

  “Uh, sorry about that.” She quickly kissed his cheek and just as quickly climbed off the bed and hurried out of the room.

  He smiled. “It was all good. You kept me warm when I was getting a little chilly,” he called after her, wishing he had caught her before she ran away and had given her a more…meaningful kiss. It was probably just as well because she might not be ready for that when she was naked in bed with him.

  “Ha!” she called out from the other bedroom.

  “You did.”

  “You stole the covers last night, and I was trying to get them back.”

  He chuckled. “I just wanted you to stay close.”

  She laughed.

  Josh got out of bed, took a shower in the guest bathroom, and dressed in the change of clothes he had in his emergency pack. His brother had bought him a red sweater? Hell. He guessed his brother thought he should be dressed for Christmas if he was going to work in Brooke’s antique shop for the holidays. Josh never wore red or Christmas sweaters. Thankfully, Maverick had picked up a couple of pairs of regular jeans for him. Josh put on the boots he’d been wearing, glad they hid the red socks Maverick had bought him. The turkey. Josh had used his socks from his emergency kit and had forgotten to put a fresh pair in his bag.

  He was glad his brother had bought him a couple extra pairs of black boxer briefs—not red underwear, which he probably couldn’t find—in case Brooke caught sight of them. Josh headed to the kitchen on a quest for coffee.

  Brooke walked into the kitchen while Josh was making the coffee. “Hope you don’t mind.”

  “No, go right ahead.” She was wearing a red sweater dress that caressed all her curves, reminding him just how curvy she was when he woke to find her naked, sleeping against him like she belonged there with him.

  Not that he should go there. He couldn’t help thinking about it though. She was a she-wolf in need, unattached, the right age, and totally appealing.

  “Adam’s meeting us here to house-sit in case the intruders show up while we’re at the shop,” Josh said.

  “Oh good. I worried about that. I’d hate to come home to find my house was ransacked next.”

  “Right. What did you want me to do?” he asked.

  “Could you make the lavender tea for me for my thermos?” She set it on the counter. “And if you’d like”—she brought out another thermos—“you can make yourself some coffee to go. We can get more at the shop since I have a kitchen there, but I get so busy, I often don’t have time to make it. When I do have time for the kitchen, it’s to make cocoa and wassail for customers. So it’s easier to take a thermos.”

  “Sure. Though while I’m at the shop, I can help you out with anything you need.”

  “Thanks. Does French toast and bacon for breakfast sound good?” she asked.

  “That sounds great.”

  They sat down to eat at the kitchen table in the little nook where her bow windows looked onto a garden. Evergreen shrubs bordered her property, and she had a couple of fir trees so her front yard didn’t look barren like it might otherwise in winter.

  “I don’t remember ending up in the wrong bed last night.” She lifted a piece of bacon in her fingers and took a bite.

  “You came in as a wolf. I figured you were cold.” Not really. He assumed she was worried about an intruder showing up.

  “I guess I was having a nightmare and I instinctively knew you would be hero material and protect me. I don’t usually shift into my wolf in the middle of the night without knowing I’m doing it. I’m a royal, so I can shift anytime I want.”

  “Me too. I was glad you joined me, and I hoped I could make you feel better and you could sleep.”

  “You really didn’t mind? Here you’re taking care of me and I offer you a guest bed, and the next thing you know, I’m making you share it with a virtual stranger.”

  “We’re not exactly strangers any longer. Besides, I couldn’t sleep until you joined me. I was worried about someone breaking in and you being by yourself in the other room. It really worked out for the best when you came in to share the bed with me. If you don
’t remember, you very politely waited until I saw you and told you to join me.”

  “Vaguely. It was like I had been dreaming. Including the part about snuggling up to you as a human. I never do that with my guests. Ever. I just wanted you to know that.”

  He laughed and finished up his breakfast. “I’m glad to hear it. You were a welcome companion. You were tired though. I checked the house about four times during the night, looking to see if anyone was observing it and making sure everything was fine, and you never once stirred.”

  “I was having trouble sleeping well at first because I was still hurting. Then I must have finally fallen asleep. Thanks for being so understanding.”

  “You’re welcome. It’s what we do for each other.”

  Josh suspected the word hadn’t gotten out to the rest of the pack about her yet, or some of the other bachelor males would have been here already, offering to help.

  She finished the rest of her French toast, carried the dishes to the kitchen, and placed them in the dishwasher. “As soon as Adam comes over from the shop, we need to hurry over there to get it ready so we have some time before I need to open it.”

  Just then, Adam arrived, a tall cup of coffee and a sack of doughnuts in hand. Perfect timing. Brooke thanked him for everything, including coming to stay there today to watch over things.

  “Tomorrow, if you stay the night, you can have breakfast with us. I should have offered last night.”

  “Thanks. Uh, you didn’t tell me the Napoleon bed was barely bigger than a child’s bed.”

  She smiled. “You could have turned wolf and curled up on it.”

  “I did. It was nice and comfortable otherwise.”

  She laughed. “Well, some people were smaller back then.”

  “We picked up security equipment, the best we could get,” Adam said. “A couple of the guys are coming here to install it first thing this morning, both on your house and the shop, inside and out, if that’s acceptable.”

  “Oh, thanks so much. With all the trouble I seem to be having, I need the cameras. How much do I owe for the security equipment and the labor?” she asked.