by Terry Spear
“I’ll take care of the dishes,” Mike said.
* * *
After he made love to his beautiful mate, snuggling, and napping, Ryder’s phone rang, waking him and Lexi. He glanced at the caller ID. “Don.” He answered the call and put it on speakerphone so Lexi could listen in on the conversation. “Yeah, Don?”
“I wanted to tell you I got my camera and equipment back.”
“How did that happen?” Ryder feigned surprise.
“Tremaine’s men had them in their cabin when the police went to arrest them for possession of illegal handguns and shooting at other people in the campground. Your bodyguards turned the guys in. Anyway, the rangers thought the camera equipment looked the same as what I’d reported stolen by the wolves. The rangers assumed the thugs found the equipment in the woods when they were after you. Or me. One of my daughters had drawn a bird, and she wanted me to find it in the wild and take a picture, so I had taken it with me. The rangers found that drawing in the camera bag.”
“Did you find the bird?”
“No. Not yet. It’s a blue jay, but I haven’t seen one since my daughter asked me to get a picture of one.”
“I took a picture of one on one of our hikes. If you think that would work, I can send it to you,” Lexi said.
“Okay, great. Thanks. Anyway, they said the memory cards from my camera were missing. Tremaine’s men said that the camera and equipment have been planted on them, and they hadn’t found them. Obviously, they found them wherever the wolves had dropped them.”
“I’m glad you got your camera and equipment back. Were they in good shape?” Ryder asked, glancing at Lexi, rubbing her arm, smiling a little.
“Yeah, luckily the wolves didn’t chew on them.”
Ryder asked, “Did the rangers believe you then? About the wolves?”
“No. Not at all. They still say I was making up that part about the stolen camera and bag. They said I probably fell asleep and Tremaine’s men stole them. Or maybe I dreamed wolves took the equipment. But it wasn’t a dream.”
“I believe you,” Ryder said.
“No, you don’t. Thanks, just got the picture, Lexi. I’ll tell my daughter a famous celebrity took it. She will want to thank you in person at the wedding. Got to run. Thanks again!”
* * *
Lexi snuggled some more with Ryder, glad she had gotten the camera equipment back to Don. She was thinking about making love to Ryder one last time before they rejoined Holly and Aidan when Lexi’s phone rang, and she glanced at the caller ID and groaned. “Time to get up. It’s the pet rescue center.” She figured it was about the rehoming pet party. She answered, putting the call on speakerphone since Ryder would be helping with the event, and said, “Yes, this is Lexi.”
“Oh, Lexi, we’ve got a real problem. I know you’re so good at helping us find homes for our pets, but this is an emergency,” Mrs. Baluster, owner of the rescue service, said. “Four six-month-old German shepherds were dropped off at a wolf reserve, the owner saying the dogs were part wolf and he can’t afford to keep them. The wolf reserve said they aren’t part wolf and refused to take them in. Then the dog owner brought them to our facility. We can’t take wolf dogs. We’re supposed to euthanize them as soon as they’re brought in. But with your contacts, I thought you might be able to find them a home when no one else will take them.”
“We’ll take them,” Lexi said without hesitation.
“All of them?” Mrs. Baluster asked, sounding surprised, yet hopeful.
“Yes. Whether they’re part wolf or not, we can handle them,” Lexi said.
Ryder was smiling at her.
“We’ll bring them to your place within the hour.”
“We’ll be there. Thanks.” At least they didn’t have the issue with Tremaine and his henchmen any longer. She wouldn’t have wanted the dogs to get injured in the fracas.
“Oh, no, thank you.”
They ended the call, and Lexi and Ryder hurried to get dressed.
“Did you want to leave Kate here while we take the dogs in?” Ryder asked.
“Yeah. Until Holly and Aidan say she can come home. We’ll have to put a fence up along the bluff. Something low enough so you can see the view, but high enough to keep the dogs safe.”
“Already on it.”
She smiled at him.
“It was going to be a surprise, but this is as good a time as any to do it.”
“Aww, you’re such a sweetheart.”
Then they headed out of the bedroom to see everyone and told them what they were doing.
“Wait, what about the crime-scene situation?” Ryder asked Lexi.
“I’ll call them to tell them we’re taking in some dogs before they’re destroyed,” Lexi said. “And see what they have to say.”
“We’re doing it now?” Mike asked. “We’re not waiting for the rehoming party?”
“No. We have to take them in now. The shelter will have to euthanize them. Who can better take care of them than a bunch of alpha wolves?” Lexi asked.
Kate joined them, wiping the sleep from her eyes. “I want to see them.”
“We’ll send you pictures until you’re well enough to come home.”
“She’ll be good in a couple of days,” Holly said. “I’d say she could go home with you today, but you’re going to have your hands full, and I’m sure she’s going to want to help, which she can’t do for about a week or two. She needs to give her arm a chance to heal.”
Lexi called the detective in charge of the investigation and explained the situation.
“You’re going to have to take them somewhere else. We’ll need to be there gathering evidence at least through tomorrow night at the latest,” the detective said. “I’ll let you know.”
“All right. Thanks.” Lexi let out her breath. “We can’t take them to the house until tomorrow night.”
“Bring them here then. We have a fenced-in yard. We were planning to go to your pet rehoming party and pick up a pooch,” Aidan said.
Lexi gave him a hug. “Thanks.” She called Mrs. Baluster and gave her the new address for where to drop the dogs off.
“Okay, I’m sending them now.”
Then Lexi gave Holly a hug. “Thanks so much for letting us bring them here until we can take them home.”
“You’re so welcome. You’re going to be here anyway. We’ll all have fun with them.”
Kate was smiling. “I get to see them, too, then.”
“But no using your arm,” Holly said, frowning at her.
Kate sighed. “My arm is in a sling. I can’t do anything with it.”
“As long as you remember that,” Aidan said, agreeing with Holly.
Mike and Ryder ran out to purchase toys, beds, dog dishes, and crates for the dogs, while Lexi and the others waited for the puppies to arrive. The guys arrived home with the bounty they had purchased. The German shepherd pups, all of them a bit shy like wolves would be, were dropped off shortly after that. Lexi and the others set out the balls and chew toys, then sat down with the dogs and let them smell them. By their scent, the dogs were definitely part wolf.
“I wonder why the owner had them and didn’t want them then.” Holly scratched one between his ears.
“We’ll give them a good home,” Lexi said.
Kate joined them and sat on a chair so the pups wouldn’t bump her arm. But she was grinning like the rest of them, talking to the pups as if they were their babies.
Lexi couldn’t be happier. “See, I didn’t want to take the bear cubs we rescued home, but these little fellows? That’s a different story.”
Kate chuckled. “And we took two male wolves home with us.”
Lexi hugged Ryder. “Yeah, definitely keepers too.”
“Finding a mate was the farthest thing from my thoughts when I went to the cabin i
n the redwoods,” Ryder told Lexi.
“Mine too. I never thought I’d find love.” Lexi kissed him again, loving him for who he was. If it hadn’t been for his protective nature and loving her so thoroughly, she wasn’t sure Tremaine would be out of the picture now. If it had been just Kate and her up against all those men? Lexi shuddered to think how that would have gone down. Then one of the pups curled up on her lap to sleep.
Ryder petted her lapdog. “One of these days he’ll be too big for your lap.”
“But I’m sure he’ll always believe he is a lapdog.” Lexi noticed Kate had slipped to the floor to pet one of the dogs with her good hand.
When Holly and Aidan glanced her way, Kate quickly said, “Petting animals is good therapy in hospitals.”
Everyone laughed. But it was true. Even Lexi was feeling much better about the fight they’d had in her home, now that they had all the puppies to love on. She called the rescue center and said to the owner, “The pups are happy here. If they are part wolf, how did they get that way, and why did the man want to get rid of them?”
“He learned that to be healthy, they’d need some raw meat. It was too expensive, and he was afraid the dogs would be abused if he just gave them to regular homes. He said he’d bred his dog with another German shepherd that he learned after the fact was part wolf.”
“Okay, I just needed to know. Thanks.” Lexi shared the information about the dogs, and then said, “It’s time to celebrate, don’t you think?”
“Rescuing wolf dog pups, a new mating, and getting rid of Tremaine? I’ll say,” Holly said.
Aidan smiled. “I think this afternoon it would be great to have some hand-tossed pizzas.”
Ryder and Mike groaned. “Sure, we’ll give it our best shot,” Ryder said.
Mike agreed.
Lexi loved Ryder for being just as determined to accomplish something as she was.
Yeah, it was time to celebrate, and Lexi couldn’t wait to be home with Ryder to do some more celebrating there too.
Epilogue
Lexi knew they had a whirlwind of activities to plan for, once they could return to the house after the scene-crime tape had been removed and cleaners had cleaned everything up. What Lexi hadn’t expected was for Mike to take over some of the promotional activities and wedding planning. And they all helped with the pet rehoming party. Ryder contacted a fence company right away to put in the fence and a landscaping company to build the stairs and a gate to the beach. Lexi loved that Ryder had done that for her and for their future kids and all the dogs.
They learned the Coast Guard had caught the boat involved in dropping off the escaped convicts, another of whom had still been in the boat. Kate had shared some marketing tips with Silky, and Don was the first one to receive his wedding invitation. He’d been thrilled.
They’d been wrapped up in all the work that was going on, but Lexi and Ryder still made time for each other, including wolf runs at sunrise and sunset, only now the four pups had to play too.
She realized taking care of the dogs really was like taking care of their own wolf pups when they had some.
Before another day of wild happenings, Lexi and Ryder sat by the pool, watching the sun rise in the morning sky after running as wolves, the pups exhausted from their play earlier and now sleeping on the grass. Mike was preparing wedding invitations, and Kate was on her laptop inside the house, saying if she didn’t get back to work, she might get fired. Which wasn’t going to happen.
“I love you,” Lexi said, moving to Ryder’s lap, and he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her. “Sunrises were never this spectacular before.”
“I love you back, honey. I can’t believe that we’re mated, and we have a whole pack of our own. Not lupus garous exactly, but…”
She chuckled. “Yeah, I didn’t care what breed, mixed or otherwise. Just that they needed a home and would be well loved. So many people who have wolf dogs don’t understand how different they are from totally domesticated dogs. And they end up giving them up to wolf reserves because they can’t handle them.”
“We can. When we go to see your folks—”
“They want us to bring them with us. Everyone in Silver Town has offered to love on them.” She sighed. She couldn’t believe how much her life had changed—for the good—with Ryder in it. “You know, if you hadn’t told me I was holding the map upside down, I might never have met up with my father in time to help my mother out too. You are my life and my love.” She kissed him.
* * *
Ryder smiled. Here he’d worried Lexi would believe he’d only been there for her money. But she was a wary wolf and had known better. “Did you ever tell your father about the red herring on the map that had thrown you off?”
She laughed. “No, but I’ll have to say something when we visit for the wedding. And about burying the message where it ended up underwater.”
“God, I’m glad I was there for you. I actually heard you and Kate earlier, laughing, and I tried to meet up with you just to say hi. You sounded like you were having fun, and it lifted my spirits.”
She wrapped his arms tighter around her. “You’re not a lone wolf kind of guy. I know because when I invited you to eat with us, you wagged your tail so hard, I figured you needed the company.”
He laughed. “I couldn’t help it. But I wouldn’t have wagged it that hard for anyone else. Thanks for letting me have more than three dates.”
“We haven’t even begun. Breakfast can wait. Mike can watch the pups. Show me again why I love you so much.” Lexi got off Ryder’s lap and hurried him into the house. “Pups are yours to watch for a while, Mike.”
Mike laughed. “Will do. Dog nanny it is. You know, already Holly and Aidan want one of them. And when they convince you they need him or her, Rafe and Jade will want one.”
“We could do that. When we have babies on the way, it will be chaos and all the dogs would get more personal attention that way,” Lexi said.
Ryder scooped Lexi up in his arms and smiled at Kate as they passed her by. “We’ll be out in a bit.”
“No hurry on my account. Lexi will make me get more rest.”
Lexi laughed. “Yes!”
“No problem. Lexi is going to do that too.” But after Ryder made love to her again. In his wildest dreams, he never thought he’d be mated to Lexi Summerfield, a friend of the Denalis, a high-profile celebrity, and the she-wolf of his dreams.
Acknowledgments
Thanks so much to Donna Fournier for her hours of brainstorming. After her beta reads, she helps me with ensuring that some of the details that need to be added are not overlooked. And thanks to my beta readers Darla Taylor and Jay Takane who caught stuff I can’t ever seem to catch! Thanks to Deb Werksman for always believing in me and to the cover artists who make the wolf world so real that everyone wants to keep them close to their hearts.
Read on for a taste of the story RT Book Reviews called “Magnificently entertaining.” Where the billionaire wolves began:
Available now from Sourcebooks Casablanca
Chapter 1
Jade Ashton had made a lot of mistakes in her life, but returning to her brother’s pack topped the list. She should have known the pack members wouldn’t accept her son, the product of a love affair with a human, despite pretending they were fine with it. She glanced at her three-year-old son, napping on the daybed in her office in her brother’s home where she alternated between sketching new designs for intimate apparel and for a new baby and toddler wear line she had developed when her son was born.
Toby had just fallen asleep, looking angelic with his blond curls resting on his cheek, his dark brown eyes closed as he licked his lips. No way would she ever give him up, despite how everyone in her pack viewed him as a grievous error in judgment.
She felt a little dizzy, probably because she’d been so busy that she hadn’t had anything to
drink in hours. She got up from her chair and headed out the door, practically running into her twin brother moving silently down the hall like a wolf. She fell back and gasped softly when he grabbed her arm to steady her.
“We need to talk.” Kenneth started to guide her to the den, his blond hair much darker than hers, his amber eyes focused on her in a way that said he had serious business to discuss.
Did he know she intended to leave the pack, again? Or did he want to tell her he didn’t think her being here was working out? “I need to get some water. And we can’t talk long because Toby will be waking in a half hour or so.”
“This will just take a minute.”
It had better, because she wasn’t going to be drawn into any long-winded discussions with her brother. She hadn’t told him she was leaving first thing in the morning. She wasn’t sure how he’d take it. She had to admit she was afraid he’d try to talk her out of it. But she was determined.
Every time he and the others had looked at her son in judgment, she’d been annoyed. Not only that, but she’d caught Kenneth and the others having secret conversations and then abruptly stopping whenever they saw her approaching. The pack members pretended to tolerate her son, but she saw through the facade. They didn’t like her having a human son who couldn’t shift. They believed he could be a danger to the pack.
Which was one of the reasons she had left just after her son was born. She had also wanted to save his human father from her brother’s wrath. But raising Toby on her own had been tough. When her brother had promised that the pack members wanted her to live with them and have the backup they could provide, she had agreed. She and her son had left southern Texas far behind, so she figured she’d never run into Toby’s father again. And Kenneth had sounded sincere in wanting to ensure her protection—just like a pack leader should. She wanted to be part of a family again. She didn’t have a lone wolf personality.
She didn’t believe Toby would be welcome in any other pack either.
Clearly, the members had changed their minds about having her and her son there. Unless they had never wanted her back and it was all her brother’s idea. He was the pack leader, so ultimately, it was his decision—one he was apparently coming to regret. He was just being stubborn, didn’t want to admit he’d made a mistake, and didn’t want to have to tell her to leave.
