Chapter 12

Candice couldn’t believe she was stuck in the women’s room of a travel plaza, hoping Owen would finally realize she needed his help.

As soon as she’d gotten out of the car and stretched, she’d felt the urge coming, but she’d hoped it would wait until they’d eaten their cheeseburgers and were on their way again. Not that undressing in the car was all that easy, but it was a hell of a lot better than stripping in the ladies’ room.

She really had to tamp down the urge to howl her frustration. She hated that she was taking up the handicapped stall, but she knew it would be better for maneuverability when she was trying to undress and shift.

She waited, paced, waited, wondering how long Owen would take before he realized she was not coming out. He’d been talking to someone on the phone when she’d left him, but she’d had to go to the bathroom, so she didn’t wait to see who was calling. And he was filling his gas tank, so that would take a few minutes. Someone had used the men’s room, so that might have been Owen. Then he would have gotten their cheeseburgers, waited for her, then maybe checked the car to see if she’d gone back out to it.

Then what? Waited in the restaurant for her? Ugh. She wished he’d just call out to her in the restroom. No one was in here, other than one annoyed wolf.

She was so relieved when she heard the door open and Owen call out to see if she was in there.

Candice woofed at Owen from the bowels of the ladies’ restroom. His heart hitched. God, he loved her and he wanted to mate her, to take care of her in her time of need, and she could take care of him when he was in trouble too. It definitely was a two-way street.

“I’ve got our food.” He was sure she’d wonder why that was important right now, but he had to delay rescuing her for a moment while he took the food out to the car. “I need to drop it off at the car, and I’ll bring a bag back for your clothes. Return in a moment. Just wait for me.” As if she was going anywhere.

He wanted to sprint through the store, but settled on a brisk walk. As soon as he’d set the sack of food and drinks in the car, he dumped a small backpack’s contents on the backseat and grabbed a leash and collar—not that a lupus garou would need to be leashed, but to give the appearance that it was a dog or domesticated wolf dog in the event of an emergency like this. He locked the car and hurried back to the travel plaza.

The good thing was that most people wouldn’t believe someone would be traveling with a wolf. They would assume it had to be a dog. Especially as well behaved as Candice would be.

Owen finally reached the bathroom again and waited to learn if anyone was inside. The hand dryer began running. He assumed Candice wasn’t using it. Then he heard a mom and two little girls talking.

“I don’t want cheese on my burger.”

“I do.”

The mom bustled them out of the restroom, and he tried to look as though he was just waiting for his wife. As soon as the three of them left the short hallway, he opened the door a crack and said, “Candice? I’ve got a bag for you.”

She woofed softly. Great. Owen realized she had locked the stall door, and he would have to crawl underneath it to retrieve her clothes. The door was low, and he wasn’t small by any means, but at least he could crawl underneath it. He hurried into the restroom before anyone else came. He had to lie down on his back and wriggle underneath the door. He was still trying when Candice licked his face in greeting. He smiled up at her but continued to work his way into the stall. His boots were still sticking out when he heard a couple of women talking outside the room as they approached, and he’d just managed to pull himself the rest of the way under the stall door when the outer door opened.

With a modicum of relief, he began to gather up Candice’s clothes and quickly shoved them in the bag while she sat beside him, looking woeful. He ran his hand over her head, smiling to let her know everything would be fine. He prayed they weren’t caught. How would he explain being in a ladies’ room stall with a wolf? He’d done a lot of crazy things in his life, but crawling under a stall door in a woman’s restroom was totally new and something he hoped to never have to repeat.

They waited for the women to finish their business and then leave. But the trickle of women with kids kept coming in for another half hour.

When the last of them had left, Owen and Candice made a break for it. He unlocked the stall door and they ran across the floor, Candice bumping up against him as if to say he wasn’t leaving her behind. He’d forgotten to put the leash and collar on her, which would make her look more like a service dog.

He had to slip Candice out of the women’s room, hopefully without being seen. When they exited, a man and a woman and their son and daughter just stared at them.

“Wrong room,” Owen mumbled. “Service dog in training.” He quickly put the collar on Candice and attached the leash, then rushed out of the building with her. “You know, that’s something we could do in an emergency like this. We could buy service dog vests. Then we could go anywhere.”

Candice woofed at him as if in agreement, dragging him over to the pet area while he was trying to take her to the car. He guessed the shift had occurred before she could use the women’s facilities. She squatted on the grass, glanced at him as he watched, and barked as if to tell him to give her some privacy.

“Sorry.” He looked away. “That was a close call, though I guess you didn’t have much warning.”

She shook her head and pulled on the leash, yanking him to the car. “You’re a service dog. Well, in training,” he reminded her.

She nipped at his jeans.

“Okay, so just started training.” He smiled down at her, then opened the door so she could climb in the passenger’s seat. He unwrapped her cheeseburger so she could eat it on the wrapper on top of the console. Then he removed her collar and leash.

Owen ate his cheeseburger before they got back on the road again. He called Cameron with an update. “Okay, we had our first trouble with Candice shifting. Can anyone check and see if we can order service dog vests for the pack? Then we can use them on whichever of us is in trouble anywhere we need to. I’d check pet stores on the way to Houston, but I think it’s going to be too much trouble if Candice is a wolf or worried she might shift again while shopping.”

“That’s a brilliant idea. Why didn’t any of us think of it before?” Cameron said.

“Because for two years after we were turned, we never went anywhere we didn’t have to. Candice and I are good for now though. We’re in the car and on the road again.”

“At least you didn’t have any real trouble, did you?”

“No.”

“Okay, I’m looking up the requirements,” Faith said. “According to this site, misrepresenting a pet as a service dog is against federal and state law, and violators are subject to prosecution.”

“Well, we’ll obtain certification. Then we’ll be covered.”

“Sounds good, as long as no one believes we’re wolves. They say that you can procure Service Dog ADA information cards to let people know the rules and regulations in case someone doesn’t know the law and won’t let you go into a building with the dog,” Faith said.

“We’ll look into certification procedures. We might only need to certify a couple of us—a male and female. That way, we could just use the identity for outings like this. People buy fake registrations, and we could create our own official-looking ones, but it would be easy enough to legitimately go through the process,” Cameron added.

“Okay, well, we’re continuing our adventure and will let you know when we stop for the night. For now, I need to locate a pet hotel.”

Candice growled.

“A hotel that allows pets, I mean.” Owen smiled at her. Then he signed off with Cameron and Faith.

Four hours later, Owen pulled into a service station to fill up on gas and check for a hotel in the area that allowed pets. He found one, made reservations, and climbed back in the car. “Okay, I got a room, but they only had one king-size bed. We can order room service if you still haven’t changed back.”

Candice nodded.

“I’ll probably have to take you in the side door after I register for the room. Better than parading you through the lobby, since I don’t have the proper ID to show you’re a service dog, in case anyone believes you’re a wolf and won’t let you stay.” He pulled out of the service station and back onto the road. “Having a pet really narrows down the availability of a hotel we can stay at.”

She let out her breath.

“I know. It’s a pain, but at least we both didn’t shift. What a disaster that would be.” Twenty minutes later, he located the hotel and pulled into a parking area with trees and grass away from the front of the hotel. Three people were walking their dogs—a German shepherd, a schnauzer, and a poodle mix of some sort. Owen rolled down the window for Candice so she would have some fresh air while he was inside checking in. “Okay, I’ll be right back.”

He hurried off to obtain their room key, hoping she didn’t shift in the middle of moving from the car to the hotel room. As soon as he went inside, he saw a number of guests standing in line to check in and a couple of families with small dogs in carriers. When he finally made it out of the hotel with the key card in hand, he walked around to the side of the building and saw several guests taking pictures of Candice as she watched for him out the window. He wished now he’d told her to lie down, though he was sure that wouldn’t have gone over big with her.

“Will they let you take your wolf dog in the hotel?” a man asked, pausing with his cell phone in hand.

“She’s a Samoyed,” Owen said.

“She looks like an Arctic wolf. Or wolf dog, I should say.”

Owen had to grab Candice’s collar and leash, and he wished he’d thought about it before he had an audience. He put her collar on while she waited patiently, like a good service dog would. Then he attached the leash. He thought she’d just jump off the seat onto the asphalt, but she waited for him to give her a command. He smiled.

“Come, Candice.”

She leaped out of the car, and everyone took a quick couple of steps back, the cameras still snapping away. She ignored them, and Owen reached in to grab their laptops, locked the car, and proceeded to the side entrance.

“Can we pet her?” asked one of the older kids, who was about ten.

Now Owen was in a predicament. He wanted it to be Candice’s choice. After all, she wasn’t a pet. She stepped forward and licked the boy.

Owen smiled. Okay, good PR work. If it had been him, he probably would have been annoyed. The kids began petting her, and she was licking their cheeks, being a loving wolf.

“What percentage wolf is she?” the same man asked.

“She’s a Samoyed. I’m not sure what other breed she has mixed in, maybe a German shepherd that made her legs a little longer than a Samoyed? I don’t know. We didn’t have her tested, but the person that was trying to find a home for her said she was pure. You know, so they could charge a higher price. But I suspect she has a taller dog in her background. Maybe a white German shepherd? She’s mostly Samoyed.”

“Really.” The man sounded skeptical. “She looks closer to, hmm, maybe fifty percent wolf.”

Owen swore Candice smiled at the man.

Owen started to walk her toward the hotel. “I’ve got to get settled. Thanks for making her feel welcome.”

“Can we buy one like her?” one of the kids asked a woman as Owen headed for the side door.

Even though Candice was “safe” to be around people, he didn’t want to have to worry guests who might be using the elevator and thought she looked like a wolf, so he took her up the stairs. “Sorry, we’re six flights up.” He unhooked the leash so she could move at her own pace.

When he reached the sixth floor, she was standing there waiting for him. He took a chance not attaching the leash, opened the door, and saw the hall was clear. “I’ll grab our other bags as soon as you’re settled.” Thankfully, no one was around, and they made it to their room without any trouble.

When they reached the room, he unlocked the door and let her in.

Candice leaped onto the bed. Owen was thinking she’d leave white wolf hairs on the comforter, but he would just sweep them off. He knew she had to be aggravated about having to shift at such inconvenient times, and he didn’t want to make her feel any less comfortable. “I’ll order room service as soon as I return.”

Using the elevator, he went back down and headed out to the car where an employee was milling around outside. Owen wouldn’t have suspected anything was wrong if the guy hadn’t been eyeballing him so much. Owen had left his license plate number at the front desk, so they could easily look him up anyway, which meant no hiding who he was. But he suspected someone had mentioned to the staff at the front desk that he had a wolf dog.

The guy approached him and said, “Sir, one of our guests said you have a really tame wolf dog. Our policy for accepting pets is strictly dogs only. Nothing wild or partially wild.”

“She’s a Samoyed, extremely well behaved and obedience trained, and she has served as a service dog. But I need to recertify her. They wouldn’t allow a wolf dog to be a certified service dog, would they? I’m sure she’s a mix with something taller, but the breeder claimed she was full Samoyed.”

“My manager wants to see her.”

“Sure.” Hell, he had to warn Candice to leave the bed before the manager arrived, but he had no way of doing it. He grabbed their bags and locked the car door.

The employee held the door for him at the side entrance, and this time, Owen took the elevator while the employee called his manager.

As soon as Owen left the elevator, he sprinted for their room, which was around the bend and near the end of the hall. When he reached the door, he unlocked it and carried the bags in.

He shut the door and set their suitcases in the closet. Candice’s head lifted, her ears twitching back and forth.

“Got to stay off the bed for a little bit,” he said, coming over to rub her head. “Some yahoo told the staff you were a wolf dog, and the manager is coming to check you out. They won’t allow us to stay here if you don’t act enough like a dog. I said you were a service dog but that your certification had expired. You’re a Samoyed, maybe part white German shepherd.”

She jumped off the bed and sat on the floor.

“I said you were obedience trained and extremely lovable. If we have to do a show, are you okay with it?”

She nodded.

Owen was glad they could work together so well. He certainly would do anything she asked if the roles had been reversed and he had to suddenly shift.

Someone knocked on the door, and he said to Candice, “I’ll order room service for us as soon as the manager leaves.” Though he hoped she could eat her food in her human form soon.

She nodded. He was glad she wasn’t woofing. Best not to disturb any other guests.

He answered the door, and the manager identified herself, peering around Owen at the Samoyed.

Then she said, “Can I see her?”

“Absolutely.” He let the manager in and shut the door. “Down, Candice.”

She lay down on her belly.

“Over.”

She rolled over on her back and wagged her tail like a happy puppy. He hoped she didn’t pay him back for this later.

“Sit.”

She quickly sat.

“Come.”

She rose and trotted over, showing she wasn’t reluctant in the least to obey commands. She circled around him and sat down at his side.

“Shake hands.”

She lifted a paw, and Owen motioned for the manager to shake it.

“Wow,” she said and took Candice’s paw and shook it. “If only I could teach my dog to do half of what yours does.”

Good. No mention of a wolf. Wolves had a mind of their own. Even wolf dogs wouldn’t have done so many commands.

“High five!” He held out his hands, and Candice jumped up to give him a high five, slapping her paws on his hands. “Circle.”

She went around in a circle, then sat, looking up at him with eagerness for her next trick.

He figured he was pushing his luck to do much more and said, “Good dog. I love you.” And he meant it.

She was panting, but she closed her mouth to hear his declaration, her ears perked, maybe wondering if he meant it. He did. He just hadn’t meant to tell her that when she was a wolf.

“She’s beautiful. Thanks so much for letting me see her. Have a good night.”

“Thanks.” Owen let the manager leave on her own, then once the door was shut, he locked it and grabbed the menu. Showtime over, Candice jumped on the bed.

He started calling off the menu items, figuring she’d let him know what appealed. When she got to the steak, she nodded vigorously and wagged her tail.

“Okay, steak it is. Do you need to go to the bathroom? I should have asked when we were outside.”

She shook her head.

“I’ll take you out when it grows darker. Unless you have to go sooner. Maybe we’ll have fewer people to deal with. Sorry about the dog tricks. You’re a great sport.”

He wished she would shift back. He wanted to talk to her about staying with him, permanently, not just because they could help each other out, but he couldn’t imagine coming home from his job and not having her to talk with, to share meals with, to run and go boating with. To be a wolf with him. And he was having a blast writing his book and brainstorming on his book and hers. But he wanted more than that. He wanted to love her as a mate would.