by Terry Spear
Also by Terry Spear
Wolff Brothers
You Had Me at Wolf
SEAL Wolf
A SEAL in Wolf’s Clothing
A SEAL Wolf Christmas
SEAL Wolf Hunting
SEAL Wolf in Too Deep
SEAL Wolf Undercover
SEAL Wolf Surrender
Heart of the Shifter
You Had Me at Jaguar
Billionaire Wolf
Billionaire in Wolf’s Clothing
A Billionaire Wolf for Christmas
Silver Town Wolf
Destiny of the Wolf
Wolf Fever
Dreaming of the Wolf
Silence of the Wolf
A Silver Wolf Christmas
Alpha Wolf Need Not Apply
Between a Wolf and a Hard Place
All’s Fair in Love and Wolf
Silver Town Wolf: Home for the Holidays
Heart of the Jaguar
Savage Hunter
Jaguar Fever
Jaguar Hunt
Jaguar Pride
A Very Jaguar Christmas
Highland Wolf
Heart of the Highland Wolf
A Howl for a Highlander
A Highland Werewolf Wedding
Hero of a Highland Wolf
A Highland Wolf Christmas
White Wolf
Dreaming of a White Wolf Christmas
Flight of the White Wolf
Heart of the Wolf
Heart of the Wolf
To Tempt the Wolf
Legend of the White Wolf
Seduced by the Wolf
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Books. Change. Lives.
Copyright © 2020 by Terry Spear
Cover and internal design © 2020 by Sourcebooks
Cover art by Craig White
Sourcebooks and the colophon are registered trademarks of Sourcebooks.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing from its publisher, Sourcebooks.
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
All brand names and product names used in this book are trademarks, registered trademarks, or trade names of their respective holders. Sourcebooks is not associated with any product or vendor in this book.
Published by Sourcebooks Casablanca, an imprint of Sourcebooks
P.O. Box 4410, Naperville, Illinois 60567-4410
(630) 961-3900
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Contents
Front Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Excerpt from Billionaire in Wolf’s Clothing
Chapter 1
About the Author
Back Cover
Thanks to Bonnie Harrington Hauser for helping my friend Kelley Granzow send soldier boxes filled with books for troops overseas for Christmas! And thanks, Bonnie, for enjoying the series and then collecting all of the books for your mother, Phyllis Harrington, to read as well. I’m glad you’re both enjoying them!
Chapter 1
“According to my weather app, the deluge of rain starts again in two hours,” Lexi Summerfield warned her personal assistant, Kate Hanover, while looking at the app on her cell phone. They only had three days to locate the message, or it would no longer be relevant. The text she had received made it clear she had only one shot at this, and then it could be too late. They had to locate the message before the men who were hired to kill her father got wind of it.
As a gray wolf, Lexi hated that she couldn’t be close to her father like she’d always been. Not now that he was in the Witness Protection Program with a different identity, location, and job. None of which she knew. In fact, she didn’t want to know about any of it, or she could put his life in jeopardy, should the reason he was in witness protection—Joe Tremaine—send more of his thugs to try to learn from her where her father was. She didn’t know what her father had to tell her, but it was important enough he’d contacted her surreptitiously, putting both their lives at risk.
As she and Kate packed their backpacks for the hike, tension and stress filled Lexi with dread that she might not be able to find the message in time. She paused to take another drink of water, her mouth dry and her darn hands sweaty. She was fighting the urge to clench her teeth.
It wasn’t just that she missed her dad and wanted to keep him safe. A year ago, she’d lost her mother when a ferry crashed into a bridge in Brazil, sending her mother’s car and another plunging into the water, and none of the bodies had ever been found. Her mom had helped Lexi with her business, encouraging her all the way. She was the reason Lexi had stuck with it during the highs and lows of starting her cosmetics company.
So many things reminded Lexi of her mother, whose hobby was growing flowers from seeds and cross-pollinating them to create new varieties. She’d even named one, a purple daylily, Lexi Love because purple flowers were Lexi’s favorite. The fragrance of her mother’s roses, gardenia, jasmine, and honeysuckle scenting the air was one of Lexi’s fondest memories, and when she had a chance, she was re-creating her mother’s garden in her own yard as a memorial. Her mother had been a pediatrician and loved taking care of sick kids and making them feel better, which was why she’d been in Brazil—taking care of Mexican wolf shifter kids in a pack for two months before she died. Lexi missed her, and so did her patients.
Lexi packed away her camera, determined to take pictures as good as her mother’s and to use all the tips her mother had taught her—how to make the lights and shadows and colors pop. How to compose the pictures for the most appealing result. Photography had been another of her mother’s hobbies, and she had taken the pictures of Lexi’s cosmetics to use for her website and product promotions. Lexi could hire someone else to do them now, but she felt connected to her mother when she took the photos herself, now that she was gone.
/> She regretted every day her mother wasn’t here. Just as Lexi missed seeing her dad whenever he wasn’t busy working in his family practice clinic doctoring patients. She wondered what her father was even working at, now that he couldn’t work as a doctor. She hoped he was doing well and that he was happy. But she suspected he missed her and her mom as much as she missed them both.
“Do you have your noisemaker in case we run into any black bears?” Lexi asked Kate, getting her mind back on the business at hand.
“The horn is in my backpack. Relaxing and communing with nature as wolves is just what you need, even if this is a high-priority mission.” Kate brought out their protein bars and filled her own travel mug with water. “You have a full schedule of appearances next week, and the tea and dinner engagement with the Denalis. You really have to take a break every once in a while.”
Not that this was a real break. Well, sure, Lexi was enjoying Redwood National Park as a wolf, trying to relax when she wasn’t looking for the message. As far as she knew, she was the only one of her kind who had made over a billion dollars in the cosmetic industry. Work would always be waiting for her, and sometimes a body just needed to have some fun for a change. Not that her work was all work. She enjoyed what she did, but always being on a schedule could be exhausting.
She still had to locate the message her dad had sent her, buried like treasure in the redwoods. He’d Facebook-messaged her with a cryptic note that only she’d know how to decipher—Wolf at Red Fish Falls—and included a simple, hand-drawn map that indicated where he’d buried the message. They’d vacationed here some years ago, she and her family, and her father had fondly referred to the area where they’d seen several fish in the creek below one of the waterfalls as Red Fish Falls.
Kate slipped her 9mm into her holster and pulled her lightweight backpack over her shoulders. “Ready to go?”
“Yep.” Even though Lexi didn’t feel she really needed a bodyguard all the time, she felt having Kate serve as both her personal assistant and her bodyguard worked well. She hadn’t thought she could get used to living with someone she didn’t know, but she was thoroughly enjoying Kate’s company, as if she’d found a sister.
With a double black belt in a couple of different martial arts forms, all her combat arms training, and a degree in marketing, not to mention being a she-wolf, Kate was perfect for the job. Several male wolves had applied for the position, but Lexi felt it was easier not having to fend off a potential suitor’s advances, if one became attached to the idea that he might mate her and enjoy her wealth too. The money could be a real draw for roguish types.
“It’s fun being with you because your presence is so sought after,” Kate said, her short black hair in a bob, her blue eyes sparkling. “Sure, all the attention is on you, but it’s exciting to bask in your limelight. I know you like your solitude, so I’m glad you enjoy my company when we’re on our own.”
“You’re great at coming up with fun activities. I always feel comfortable around you, not needing to have a public face for show all the time.”
“Not at first though,” Kate said, smiling. “We had to have ice cream cones dripping all over us in the heat last summer, and we laughed so hard that we lost the rest on the sandy beach. That was my second day on the job, and our relationship was totally transformed.”
Lexi smiled. “I had never considered eating ice cream on the beach. Now I know why. The heat and ocean breeze were too much for the soft, top-heavy swirl of ice cream to manage. We couldn’t lick it fast enough.”
“Yeah. I don’t think I’ve ever been that much of a sticky mess before at the ocean, even when I was a kid. That was definitely an icebreaker.”
“I agree.” Lexi sighed. She had never been popular around males or females, mostly because she’d been shy. Some attributed her “aloofness” to being a snob because she was the daughter of physicians, but it wasn’t like that. She just wasn’t all that outgoing, and when she finished her public appearances to promote her business, she loved retreating to the solitude of her ocean-view estate.
The tabloids often mentioned that Lexi was one of the most sought-after, eligible bachelorettes, and that didn’t help either. Numerous human males had tried to meet her and told her she was beautiful, intelligent, sweet, desirable, and anything else they could come up with to try to convince her they were really interested in her and not her wealth. If they only knew she had a real growly side to her personality and no human mate would do!
After several disastrous dates with wolves who had an agenda, she’d made a new rule for herself: Three dates was all she’d allow herself with a wolf. If he didn’t have what it took to be in a relationship with her for longer than that, she was calling it quits. Kate thought it might take longer than that, but Lexi was afraid if she dated a guy more than three times and wasn’t serious about mating him, it wouldn’t be fair to him.
She looked over the hand-drawn map of where they were supposed to search for the message again. Waterfall. North of the cabins. Rocks.
No matter what, she couldn’t have reporters learning her dad was very much alive. As far as everyone knew, he was dead. Her mom had died before her father witnessed the district attorney’s murder in San Antonio and testified against the drug lord. He hadn’t had any choice. Joe Tremaine had seen her father witness the murder. If the drug lord had been a wolf, her father could have just killed him himself, if he’d had the chance. As it was, her father had to be taken into the Witness Protection Program and then officially declared dead. Lexi wasn’t supposed to ever have any contact with him. She loved him for having asked her first whether he should testify against Joe Tremaine.
Despite having to cut ties with her father, Lexi knew it was the only thing he could do. He was a marked man anyway. She knew in her heart that he had to put the drug lord behind bars and pretend he was dead while Tremaine was locked away. Hopefully, her father would remain alive.
The U.S. Marshals would kick her father out of the Witness Protection Program if they learned he’d met with her though. Her father’s mention of Wolf at Red Fish Falls had to mean he wanted to meet her as a wolf, if she could locate the message he’d buried out here for her to find and learn where the meeting would take place.
“We need to do some more martial arts training,” Kate told her, bringing Lexi’s attention back to her friend.
Kate had taught Lexi some of her black-belt jujitsu moves, which Lexi hadn’t expected when she hired Kate. But she loved it.
“I thought we were on a break,” Lexi cheerfully reminded her. Except for trying to find her father’s message.
“Right, but think of how much fun it would be to get a workout at the cabin. Fresh air—”
“Rain’s coming.”
“Well, we can practice inside the cabin then. We can move some furniture out of the way.”
“Okay, sure.”
Dressed in jean shorts, hiking boots, and T-shirts, and both wearing lightweight backpacks carrying their water, bug spray, protein bars, satellite phones, cameras, ponchos, a couple of garden trowels, and first aid kits, they headed down the trail from the cabin. Lexi also had a Glock tucked into her backpack, figuring she really wouldn’t need to use it. But she was aware Joe Tremaine’s men could still be searching for her father if they weren’t convinced he had died in the car crash. And they could be watching her, too, to see if she and her father met up with each other.
While Lexi and Kate hiked along the rugged stretch of northern California’s coastline, they talked about different marketing options for Lexi’s Clair de Lune Cosmetics, the French name meaning “light of the moon.” Their voices would help scare off any bears that might be in the area. Lexi loved taking pictures of the redwoods in all their glory, battling the winds and the salty sea air as she and Kate hiked toward the location where they believed the message was buried. She was soaking up the scents of the redwoods, and the squirr
els and rabbits that lived here.
“You know you have your pet rehoming party coming up. When are you going to bring home your own little cutie pie?” Kate asked. “I know you lost your Misty some years ago, but don’t you think it’s time to give another needy pet a home?”
“My problem is I want to take all of them home: fluffy and shorthaired, large and small, any breed, any mix. If I can’t give them all a home, I feel it’s not fair to the others. They look at me with their sad eyes and just beg me to love them. All of them. Not only that, but the last two parties I sponsored, the dogs I fell in love with went to families who will give them tons of loving and attention. Maybe the next pet party.” Lexi glanced at Kate. “Don’t tell me you want a dog.”
“Me? No, I’d just take care of him or her when you didn’t have time. I mean, just call it an additional duty.”
Lexi smiled at her. “You do want a dog.”
“I love dogs. I haven’t had one since I was a kid, but in my line of work, I can’t possibly have one of my own.”
“Okay, now you can.”
“But what about you?”
“We’ll need two, you know. So they can play with each other. The problem is that not all dogs like us if we haven’t raised them from puppies, so we need to find two that are not afraid of our wolf scent and who are okay when we shift. I’d hate to have to rehome my own rehomed pet.”
“Agreed.” Kate was smiling.
“You know you could have asked me.”
“I just kept thinking you’d get one, and with this party coming up, I thought I’d mention it.”
“They’ll have venders at the party, so we can pick up whatever we need for the dogs right there. Plus, a percentage of the proceeds goes to the Fur Babies Rescue Center.”
“Oh, that’s good,” Kate said.
They’d walked for about an hour at a good brisk pace in the heavily damp air, except when they’d paused to take pictures of the towering redwoods and more birds—Steller’s jays, a golden-crowned kinglet, and a pileated woodpecker. The ancient and majestic trees gathered moisture from the dense coastal fog, making Lexi feel as though she was in a magical fairy garden. The redwoods were so tall and wide that they seemed part of a mythical, primeval landscape.
