Chapter 4

Later that evening, Candice and Owen had dinner, and she talked about what growing up in the Houston area was like, compared to living near the mountains now.

“It’s a lot different. I think the hardest part was getting used to snow and ice—preparing for power outages and the like. Then again, we had power outages in Houston sometimes from storms. It’s quiet out here. No traffic to speak of. Town’s about half an hour away, but driving ten miles to somewhere in Houston could take me that long with traffic. No dating. No seeing family, unless they’re wolves too. No socializing unless it’s online. And then everyone thinks you’re perfectly normal. Hopefully, no one in town realizes the only time they see lots of me is during the new moon.”

“Probably not, unless they’re hunting werewolves.”

“That would be just great. Good thing no one knows about us, right?”

“No, really. We had trouble with werewolf hunters shortly after we were turned. Talk about shocking. They had been searching for Bigfoot, not that it’s real, but they saw the woman shifting who had bitten Cameron. Then they were after us.”

Candice closed her gaping mouth.

“Yeah. I mean, how many werewolf hunters would really be out there? Probably a slim chance there would be any more. We just got lucky.”

“What happened?”

“In our world, we change them or…well, eliminate them. We can’t allow anyone to expose us for what we are.”

“Wow.” Candice couldn’t believe it. She had never considered what would happen if anyone actually caught her shifting. She always did it at home. Which brought to mind her encounter with Corey. “What if the little boy, Corey, had shifted in front of me at the campfire?”

“He couldn’t have. The kids can’t shift unless the mom does, not until they’re older and can be reliable about it. Corey couldn’t have unless his mother had.”

In her stories, werewolves shifted at thirteen, to give them time to mature a little bit. She frowned. “How did she have her kids? As wolf pups or kids?”

“Kids. Though because of the trouble with shifting that we were having, she very well could have had them as wolf pups. It might have been easier on her too. It was during the new moon though, and she had them in a hospital. The other good thing is that our blood indicates we are what we appear to be. If someone took a sample of our blood when we’re wolf, they’d find all wolf DNA. When we’re humans, all human DNA.”

“Wow. Okay. Good to know.”

“Also, since humans take so long to develop, our wolf half-growth is slowed down. Normally, a yearling wolf, one that’s a year old, is a little smaller than a full-grown wolf and hasn’t filled out. Yet they’re much more adapted to the wild. Our kids are still young at five years old in their human form, and their wolf half is still a pup.”

“Corey was how old in his human form when he bit me then?”

“Four. He’s six now, but in his wolf form, he’s still a pup. We hadn’t really thought of what it would be like with the kids in their wolf forms since we were turned and didn’t go through that process. We also homeschool our kids.”

“All right, so back to the case of the werewolf hunters. What happened?”

“Two tried to kill us, and we managed to save the third hunter. A red wolf by the name of Leidolf, the leader of a Portland, Oregon, red wolf pack, who was born a lupus garou, joined us, turned the other hunter, and made him one of his pack. The other two hunters tried to kill us and we had no choice but to take them down instead. Leidolf helped us to learn about ourselves. We were totally clueless.”

“Like I’ve been.”

“Exactly. Which is why, even if you don’t want to join our pack, if you come visit us, you could learn more about what it’s like to be a lupus garou.”

“A…what?”

“Werewolf. That’s the fancy name for us.”

Candice tried to think of anything else she could ask him about being werewolves, but after making dinner, cleaning the dishes, and drinking a hot, caramelized café mocha with him, she was ready for a whirlpool bath to soak her muscles and then retire to bed. She wished she could offer him a bath like that too, as hard as he’d worked to free the snowmobilers, but she didn’t want to give him ideas.

Then again, she could offer. She’d just read a book or watch something on TV for a while in the living room while he used her tub.

She had to admit she’d been feeling like she was the last werewolf on earth—although she knew there had to be a family of them because one of them had bitten her. She hadn’t thought bachelor male wolves were out there—Arctic wolves like her—who had the same problem as her. No possibility for an Arctic wolf mate. Unless they socialized with the pack that had turned Cameron, Owen, and David in the first place.

She got the impression from Owen that they would rather not deal with that wolf pack again. He had to understand she had some of the same reservations about meeting the wolf pack that had turned her, even though it was an accident. Turning somebody to have a mate wasn’t a good idea either. She could just imagine turning a guy and then him hating her for having done so. There would be no going back either.

“Cameron won’t be too upset with his son about turning me, will he?”

“It’s been two years, so unless Corey has turned others since then, probably not real mad, but he would be even less angry if you saw Corey and let him know how you felt that he had turned you and upset your whole life. The kids were born lupus garous, so they don’t know any other way of life. It’s hard for them to understand what it means to be human first and then have to live with the change.”

Candice let out her breath. “I’ll think about it.” She didn’t want the boy to be in trouble for an accident that happened so long ago, but he needed to know how real changing someone was. Just telling him he’d done it wouldn’t be the same as seeing her in person. “Would you like to use my whirlpool bath to soak your muscles?”

He raised his brows a little.

“I’ll just watch a show in here while you take a bath.”

He smiled then and shook his head. “A quick shower will be fine.”

“All right. If you need anything, feel free to knock on my door. You can snack on anything you’d like in the kitchen if you become hungry. Towels are in the linen closet near the guest room. Otherwise, I’ll see you in the morning.”

“’Night, Candice. Thanks for everything—dinner, the cookies, helping me rescue the men. Thanks for running with me too. If not for the snowmobilers, it would have been a perfect wolf run.”

“It was good we were out there, or they wouldn’t have made it. Not both men, anyway. We worked well together, I thought. Now I just hope the guy’s video doesn’t cause trouble for us.”

“As long as no one tracks us back here and the snow fills up the tracks tonight, no worries.”

“Except if others begin to watch for me when I go running later.” That was a real concern for her.

“You can always join us.” Owen looked hopeful she’d still change her mind.

“That’s more wolves. More of a chance to get caught.”

“It hasn’t been a problem for us. Well, I’ll let you go to bed and see you in the morning.”

“I have another ice pack chilled in the freezer if you need it later.”

“Thanks. My ankle should be as good as new tomorrow.”

She did love that about wolf genetics. They healed so much faster. She had to be careful about seeing the doctor with problems because of it. “’Night, Owen.”

“’Night, Candice.”

And then she headed to her bedroom.

She’d taken a lovely, hot bath, enjoying the feel of the silky, peach bubbles against her skin until the water began to cool and she turned off the jets. Then she heard crunching footsteps in the snow outside near her bedroom window. She couldn’t imagine it would be her wolf guest, not when he had a sprained ankle. She hurried out of the bath, dried off, and threw on some sweats, socks, boots, and her jacket.

She yanked on a white wool cap, glad her hair was dry, then grabbed her can of mace and headed for the back door to see what had made the crunching noise in the crisp snow. But what she saw made her pause—a flashlight briefly shining against her closed blinds. She hesitated.

Then she turned on the patio lights, opened the blinds on the upper part of the back door, and peered out. She didn’t see anyone, but she knew what she’d heard and seen. It had sounded like a two-footed creature. Human. Considering he’d flashed a light in her windows, she knew it had to be.

She readied her can of mace, unlocked the door, and pulled it open. She stared out into the dark, but couldn’t see anything in the woods. Glancing down to see if there were any human footprints, she found only the wolves’. Had the man tracked their wolf prints here?

Candice hadn’t even considered doing it after they got home, but she should have shoveled the snow off her back patio. Yet, she couldn’t have gotten rid of the tracks leading to the wolf door.

She shut and locked the back door, and though she hadn’t wanted to bother Owen, she thought he should know that they might have trouble. Who would have made the effort to follow them all the way here? Across a river and back through it again even?

All she could think of was a news-hungry reporter. That’s all she needed. Maybe it would be good to leave for a time. Just so that if she needed to run as a wolf, she could do it where others like her felt it was safe. She didn’t imagine the pesky news reporter would follow her all the way to Minnesota.

And eventually, everyone would stop looking for the white wolves.

* * *

Owen was surprised to hear a soft tapping at his door. “Yeah?” He hurried to throw on a pair of boxer briefs before answering. Candice stood in the doorway with a can of mace in her hand, dressed for the snowy outdoors. “This reminds me of earlier, when you answered the door with that can of mace. I didn’t do anything wrong, did I?”

“Someone followed our wolf tracks.” She whipped around and headed down the hall.

He hurried after her, but she turned and glanced at his black boxer briefs. “You might need a few more clothes than that if you plan to explore outside. If you think your ankle can handle it.”

Turning back toward his room, Owen replied, “I’ll be right there, though it would serve the trespasser right if I ran outside as a wolf and greeted him.”

“Why hadn’t I thought of that?” She’d been thinking about hiding their secret rather than exposing them more.

Owen headed back to the guest room and dressed. He’d never expected this turn of events. Candice seemed spooked, and he hated that anyone would bother her, but he was glad he was here to help alleviate her worry. He soon joined her in the still-dark living room as she went to the back door and peered out the window.

He moved in beside her but didn’t see anything. “Think he’s still out there?”

“Maybe. Watching the house? Seeing what we might do? He should be afraid we’d let loose the wolves.”

“They only rescue people, remember?”

“They’re wild animals. Unpredictable,” she said.

“True.”

“How’s your ankle? I really don’t want you traipsing around out there. I just wanted you to know we might have company.”

He pulled his Glock from his jacket.

She stared at it.

“PI with a license to carry a concealed weapon. I’ll take a look around.”

“What if he’s got a gun?”

“Do you think he intends to break into a place he thinks might house a couple of wolves?”

“Probably not. He was just trying to see where they lived.”

Which was what Owen was thinking. He wanted to be prepared, just in case. “You stay here. I’ll take a quick look around.”

“Your ankle?”

“It’s fine.”

“If we do have a snoopy reporter hanging around out there, maybe it wouldn’t hurt for me to go with you to see your pack for a few days.”

He smiled at her, then grew serious, knowing she didn’t feel she had any alternative. “Okay, sounds like a plan. Lock the door after me.”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to come out too?”

“Nah. I’ll be fine. And if I don’t have someone walking in the snow next to me, I’ll be able to pick up the sound of someone else’s footfalls better.”

“All right. If you’re not back in half an hour, I’m calling the police.”

“Wait about an hour, just in case. If we don’t have to involve them, so much the better. At least until the snow covers the wolf tracks overnight.” When Owen went out into the snow, he didn’t need long to discover where a man with size 10½ shoes had stood in the forest. The man’s flashlight would have followed the wolf prints to the patio, and then he could have shined it on the back door and seen the wolf door. He hadn’t actually come up on the patio. He probably didn’t want to leave his footprints there.

Owen walked around a bit and found that the guy had followed his own tracks back out of there. Though Owen couldn’t imagine that the man had crossed the river in the night and risked drowning. He had to be freezing as it was. Owen would check it out tomorrow. The guy might even be an icicle by then. Couldn’t be helped.

He returned to the house where Candice was fretfully waiting at the door, watching him walk up onto the patio. “He’s gone,” Owen said as she let him into the house.

“A man?”

“Size 10½ snow boots, and probably about frozen if he crossed the river where we did.”

She opened her mouth to speak, and Owen quickly said, “I’m not chasing him down to rescue him.”

She smiled. “Thanks. I promise I won’t get you up again.”

“No worries. If you need me, just holler.”

“Thanks. Good night.” And then she returned to her bedroom.

That worked out well. Not that Owen was glad someone was snooping around her house, looking for wolves—and he couldn’t imagine it would be for any other reason. But he hadn’t been sure how he was going to convince her to come home with him, and now she was agreeable.

Despite not intending to go out in the middle of the night to look for the man who had been trespassing, Owen couldn’t stop worrying about whether someone was out there freezing to death. He finally said to hell with it, stripped out of his clothes, shifted, and headed for the back door.

As soon as he was outside, he began to smell for the man’s scent. Owen didn’t find just the man’s. He found Candice’s too. Her recent scent. Like now, not earlier. Owen was really glad he’d decided to go out and look for the man. Surprised she’d do so, he realized she really had a heart of gold. He wanted to keep Candice safe too.

The snow was already falling, collecting on his top coat of fur. It wouldn’t reach his skin where the second coat provided great insulation from the cold. All wolves did well in the snow. But Arctic wolves’ legs and ears were shorter, so they did even better in the frigid weather.

He couldn’t believe Candice would go after the man without asking him to come too. Then again, he could. She was certain he practically had a broken leg, and he had said he wouldn’t go out to rescue the man. Owen had to admit his ankle was bothering him, but he wouldn’t stop until he found her.

He must have trudged through the misty snow for more than half an hour when he saw her standing near a road. Then she turned and saw him. She gave a little woof and dashed through the snow to greet him, nipping his neck as if in scolding, or maybe a love bite. He wasn’t sure which. He licked her face, choosing to believe she’d given him a love bite. Then they headed home, but he didn’t race back because he was trying to protect his ankle. He would be fine by tomorrow, if he could just rest it the remainder of the night. When she realized he wasn’t keeping up with her, she ran back to him and stayed next to him as if she were his wolf mate, giving him solace. He could sure get used to this.

When they reached the house, Candice ran into her bedroom. Owen headed for his. But she called out to him, “You were supposed to be resting your ankle.”

He shifted in the hallway. “You were supposed to be sleeping,” he called back. He entered the guest room, threw on a pair of boxer briefs, and walked back into the living room, turning on the light and wanting to know what she’d discovered.

She came out wearing blue fleece pajamas covered in white fluffy sheep. She looked so huggable that he nearly forgot why he’d come out to see her. “He got in a red pickup truck and headed for town. He was wearing an old olive-green winter army parka with a fur-trimmed hood, ski pants, and snow boots. He never knew I followed him, because he used his flashlight to stick to the tracks he’d made in the snow and was looking forward the whole time. He didn’t look like he was suffering from hypothermia or anything.”

“Good. We’ll leave in the morning and be gone until we can settle this business with your uncle and the lawyer. By the time you return, the news of the wolves will be old news, and you can get on with your life.” Or hopefully decide to stay with his pack.

“Thanks for going out to look for him. I couldn’t sleep, knowing he could freeze to death out there.”

“Me either.”

Candice didn’t look like she believed Owen had heard her leave and run to catch up to her.

He smiled. “No, I wouldn’t have woken you either. I wasn’t surprised to see you’d gone out though. Well, not too surprised.”

Owen was surprised when she closed the gap between them and pulled him in for a hug. “Thanks.”

He wanted more than the soft, cuddly wolf in a hugging embrace. He bent his head to kiss her, and she lifted her head. He thought that meant she was agreeable, and he wasn’t waiting to find out.

At first, he pressed his mouth gently against hers, but when she didn’t seem to want to stop at just that, he pushed for more, his hand at her back, keeping her close against his body, his other caressing her soft, fleece-covered back. He was already turned on, and he knew she could feel how much so. He could smell her pheromones responding in eagerness and felt his jump-starting too. His hand moved up to her neck, and he caressed her soft skin as he deepened the kiss.

Candice kissed him back with abandon as if she’d missed this part of her life as a wolf, and yet, she’d never felt anything like it—a wolf-to-wolf encounter of the most pleasurable kind. He realized the only interaction she’d had with wolves had been a bad one—Corey biting her. Owen was glad to give her a new experience. A good one. To demonstrate what could happen when two wolves showed any affection for each other, how their pheromones would drive the need.

He was damned intrigued. She seemed to be too.

His heart was racing wildly, her pulse just as fast. He hadn’t expected a firestorm of need to hit him all at once, but then he realized he was in the same predicament as she was. He’d never kissed a wolf before.

She opened her mouth to caress his tongue with her own before moaning softly. This had to stop. Before they went too far. She probably didn’t know that their kind mated for life, just like real wolves did.

Candice pulled her mouth away from his, her beautiful eyes darkened with lust, and Owen was certain his were just as dark. She didn’t pull her body away from his, as if enjoying the intimacy just a little while longer. He caressed her shoulders, waiting for her to make a decision. She let out her breath on a heavy sigh. “We’d better go to sleep. And you’d better rest that ankle.”

When she pulled away from him, he missed the heat and softness of her body snuggling against his. “Tomorrow then.” At least tonight he wouldn’t have nightmares about a human frozen in the snow near their wolf-blazed trail. He hoped he’d only think of kissing the white wolf he’d seen so long ago.

Which had him wondering if he was doing the right thing. Taking her to see his bachelor friends. Wolves, the lot of them. How could they resist a female wolf as lovely and smart as Candice? They wouldn’t be able to, he was certain.

This could be a real test of their friendship. He hoped bringing her to their new home wouldn’t break up their cohesive pack. They needed each other. But he needed a female wolf in his life too, and so did they.

* * *

Candice couldn’t believe she’d kissed Owen. And ohmigod, she couldn’t have imagined anything sexier than the way he kissed. It wasn’t just that he was one hell of a kisser. Her senses were so attuned to him. She smelled his delectably aroused body scent that triggered her own. She enjoyed feeling his heated, hard body pressed against hers, showing exactly how much she intrigued him. She’d read how pheromones would intensify the interest for other animal species that could actually smell them, but she hadn’t really been able to envision how that worked. Not until she’d experienced it herself. Would she feel that way about other wolves? About Owen’s other bachelor wolf friends?

Philosophically speaking, she wondered if they all had the same interesting pheromones, or if they were unique for each of them. If one would faithfully sing out to her and keep her from being interested in the others. Then she realized that if they’d never had wolf girlfriends, she might cause all kinds of trouble for the pack. She sure hoped not. She had enough trouble of her own.