Chapter 20

Candice had mixed feelings about Rowdy being here. She wanted to show she appreciated him helping them to such a degree, and she didn’t want to send him off with just a thank-you, but this was nerve-racking. Strom and his household staff pretending they didn’t know what Owen, Everett, and Candice were. Rowdy knowing, but trying to keep their secret. Candice feeling guilty about the whole charade.

She kept glancing at the clock on the wall, hoping Rowdy wasn’t catching her looking, but she swore every time she did, she caught his eye. He’d finished his cheesecake—all of them had—and still Owen had not returned. She wanted to go to him, but not because he needed her assistance or moral support. She just wanted to be with him as his wolf mate.

An hour had passed, and she needed to encourage Rowdy to take his leave so he could head home to Montana. She didn’t want him to feel he had to stay and protect them. She opened her mouth to say something about him getting on his way when Jim returned from an errand. “Mr. Hart, your lawyer needs to talk to you about some business matter.”

“Thank you, Jim. I need to take care of this. I want to thank you, Rowdy, for your assistance to my niece. I won’t forget all you’ve done to help her out.” To Candice, her uncle said, “This might take a while. Feel free to make yourself comfortable before you leave. But I want to say goodbye first, so don’t leave without me sending you off properly.” He shook Rowdy’s hand and then left the room.

Everett shook Rowdy’s hand too. They were trying to be polite in sending Rowdy on his way, but Candice wanted to reassure him everything would be fine. “I’ll see you off, Rowdy.” She walked him out to his car.

She didn’t know what to say, and she had felt the tension in the air when she even suggested going outside with him alone. Did they worry she would tell him that her uncle and his staff were jaguars? She had no intention of giving up their secrets.

“Are you sure you’re going to be okay? What if Strom or his staff discover what Owen is really up to?” Rowdy asked her, standing next to his car and acting like he didn’t believe leaving the wolves alone was a safe idea.

She wondered what he thought he could do if her uncle or anyone on his staff learned what they were, but she appreciated the detective’s concern. “Owen is taking care of a business call. That’s all.” She smiled. “We’ll be fine. We’re leaving right after he comes down. I’m going to check on him after I say goodbye to you. Have a safe trip, and if you ever need our help—”

“During the new moon, right?” Rowdy smiled. “Take care of yourself, young lady.”

“You too, Rowdy. And…you might want to be careful about who you let know you…well, know about things you shouldn’t.”

“I will. Allan raised hell with me for tracking you down, but…I just couldn’t help myself. I was worried you and Owen would get yourselves into deep water, and I wanted to aid you in any way that I could.”

“Why, Rowdy? Why would you risk your life over us?”

“The truth is, I raised a wolf from a pup. She’d lost her family, and I found her. I was a hunter before that. Finding her profoundly changed my way of thinking about animals in the wild. Then I ended up working in a job where I hunted real animals. The human kind. One day, I took on a new job as a homicide detective and was reviewing some old cases. Some people were involved in bizarre situations, when they appeared to be the good guys. The bad guys were dead, naked, bitten.”

“By wolves?”

“Yeah. And I knew wolves don’t kill people like that.”

“And you automatically thought werewolves were involved?” Candice couldn’t believe anyone who had a good head on his shoulders and relied on scientific facts to solve a case would come to that conclusion.

“Too many things didn’t add up. In the end, I knew. I’m a big fan of the paranormal. I have an open mind. I didn’t have any doubt as to what I’d discovered. And I wanted to help any of you that I could.”

“What happened to your wolf pup?”

“I had her for sixteen years. She got sick, and putting her down was the hardest thing for me to do.”

“I know what you mean. I had a golden retriever when I was a kid, and it was the same for me. You don’t think raising a wolf is the same as being a wolf, do you?”

Rowdy smiled. “Hardly. The wolf gets the girl. Talk to you later.”

What did he mean that the wolf gets the girl? Which girl? Candice had a sneaking suspicion he didn’t mean her. “Wait. I want to give you something. Use it for whatever you think you can: donate it to a wolf reserve, use it to pay for your trip out here and have some to spare. Whatever you want.” She pulled a check out of her pocket that she’d already made out to him.

When she offered it to him, he frowned and didn’t take the check right away. “A bribe? I didn’t look to get money out of the deal.”

“We know that. I know that. It’s something I want to do to say thank you. I’m serious when I say I couldn’t have done this without you. So please, let me at least do this.”

He took the check and thanked her. “Keep yourself out of trouble.” He got into his car, waved, and drove off.

Candice sighed, relieved he was gone, and went into the house to see Owen.

Strom and Jim were waiting for her just inside the house. “Your business is done?” she asked her uncle.

“I didn’t have any. I signaled to Jim to let me know I had business to take care of, hoping Rowdy would get the message it was time for him to leave so your mate could come and join us.”

“Rowdy was afraid you’d learn what we were, and he wants to protect us. At least your ploy worked. I’ll run up and check on Owen. I know Everett’s ready to go home.”

She hurried up the stairs, and when she reached the door, she knocked. “Just me. Rowdy’s gone, if you want to come down and join us.” She opened the door and smiled because Owen was sitting tall on the floor, looking handsome. She loved her white wolf.

* * *

Owen was so glad to see Candice. He hadn’t expected her to join him and was just biding his time until he could shift back, but as soon as he saw her smiling face, she instantly cheered him. Instead of wishing he could shift now, he enjoyed being with her even like this, alone, having this private time with his mate.

“I had to tell everyone I was checking on you. I’m feeling fine, no urge to shift, but I wanted to keep you company. Maggie saved some of the cheesecake for you.” Candice closed the door, crossed the floor, and lay on the bed. Owen jumped onto the bed and curled up with her.

“Everett wants to leave, because it’s such a long drive home. Rowdy was eager to get started on his long journey to Montana too. I slipped him a check for ten thousand to thank him for all his help. He said he didn’t do it for the money, but I told him if it hadn’t been for him, I might have lost the opportunity to claim my inheritance. I know now that’s not so because Uncle Strom knew me by scent, but we certainly didn’t know it at the time.”

She stayed with Owen for an hour, both of them taking a nap until he felt the urge to shift. He licked her cheek, and she smiled at him.

He leaped off the bed and shifted back.

Before he dressed, he pulled her close for a lingering kiss. “Thanks for joining me. It was a nice way to wait out the shift.” He released her. “Be there in just a few minutes. I can’t wait to arrive home and enjoy the holidays together.”

“The feeling is completely mutual. Did you want to have that cheesecake now?”

“Sure, that would be great. And then we can get on our way.”

“Okay, I’ll let them know.” When Candice went downstairs, everyone was in the living room having coffee. “Owen will be right down. He’ll have some of that cheesecake before we take off, if that’s all right with you.”

Jim said, “I’ll have Maggie cut him a slice.”

“Thanks.”

As soon as Owen joined them, her uncle asked, “Are you sure you don’t want to stay a while longer? Overnight? Through Christmas?”

“I need to get home tonight,” Everett said.

Owen left it up to Candice. He wanted to be home with the pack, enjoying the time alone with Candice as a newly mated couple. But if she wanted to stay with her uncle for a while longer to get to know him better, Owen was fine with that too. Maggie brought him a fork and a plate of cheesecake, and he thanked her.

“Thanks, Uncle Strom, but I’d rather come as soon as I can after Christmas. Then we can really visit and have fun. We can even check out your Clawed and Dangerous Kitty Cat Club. While Owen’s eating his cheesecake, tell me how you came up with the idea of the club.”

Owen had wondered about that too.

“I don’t know if your dad ever told you, but when we turned sixteen, we inherited fifty million each from our granddad. He’d made it in oil, like Dad did, and then your dad and me. We were wealthy early on.”

“Wait, Dad always said you did this all on your own.”

“He probably wanted you to be your own person, make your own way in the world, and then leave you an inheritance when they passed. John was serious-minded, family-oriented. Me? I wanted to have fun. Had a Corvette and visited the pubs, and as tall as I was, no one ever thought I was just a kid. I met Cynthia, and she was one hot cat. When I turned eighteen, I bought my first bar. Overwhelmed with the urge to be a jaguar, I’d been taking trips to the Amazon to experience the jungle. I loved the exotic feel. The wildness. The heat and steam and green-and-vivid colors of the jungle. I started out with just one bar with a small dance floor…with a jungle theme.

“It was so successful, and because I was a cat, other jaguars began to fill it to capacity, so I ended up opening a much bigger place with floating stage shows featuring dancers and eventually replaced the fake plants with real. But then with some good managers and an assistant who oversees the whole operation, I ended up with a chain of clubs. I get requests from humans to buy a franchise, but the clubs are strictly jaguar operated, and I won’t sell it as a franchise to humans. With all the money you have, you ought to open a wolf bar.”

Candice smiled and shook her head. “But your club sounds like a fun and special place we’d love to visit.”

Owen was thinking of what a headache starting a wolf bar would be. What if they ended up with a ton of trouble at the bar? Wolves who didn’t get along. Humans that caused fights. They loved their peaceful coexistence.

“You’ll get royal treatment. Don’t be surprised if next month, a limousine picks you up at your front doorstep and takes you to a field where my private jet will be waiting to bring you home.”

“We’d still love for you to come for Christmas,” she said.

“Maybe next year.” Strom didn’t sound like he was interested in visiting a pack of wolves next year either. “For now, I’ll have my pilot take you to Dallas, only about an hour-and-a-half trip that way. My driver will follow with Everett’s car, drop it off, pick up yours, and drive it home for you. My pilot will fly you home tomorrow, and that way you’ll be there for the holidays. He has family in Dallas, so he’ll stay overnight with them.”

Candice smiled. “Thanks. We’d love that, and Everett will be home with his wife sooner.”

Owen finished the cheesecake and thanked them for it. He was thinking how much fun it would be to make some with Candice when they got home as their special contribution for Christmas dinner at Cameron and Faith’s home.

After hugs and handshakes, Owen swore Candice’s uncle was a little misty-eyed, and she was too. Strom’s driver, Denny, drove them to the airport, while another driver took Everett’s car back to Dallas. It was eleven that night when they arrived, and when they were getting ready for bed, they heard the two jaguars splashing in the pool again.

“I love them. They’re so cute,” Candice said, peering out the window.

“They’ve become family.”

“We should do something special for them and for Howard, for driving us all the way here. I think a little nest egg for both,” Candice said. “You don’t think they’ll see it as just paying for their services, do you?”

“I think they’d appreciate it, especially for when they have kids.”

“Good. And for Howard, maybe to court a jaguar if he can find one he likes. I was thinking about selling my parents’ estate. Uncle Strom offered to contact a jaguar Realtor he uses to auction off the furniture and such and put the house on the market. I told him that would be fine. He asked what I wanted from the estate, and I told him to just keep all the photos that they have in the house. Everything else can be sold off.”

“Okay, sounds like a good deal. So tomorrow, we go home for Christmas, and then...”

“I need to return to South Dakota to pack and put that house on the market.”

They climbed into bed and cuddled. “We need to do that. To think I married a very wealthy heiress.”

She smiled and kissed his chest. “I’d like to donate some of the funds to the USF since they are supposed to help both shifter kinds to get along.”

“I think that would be a great gesture.”

“My uncle said he’d match whatever I donated to the cause.”

Owen smiled. “He couldn’t be shown up by a wolf.”

She laughed. “I want to put the rest in pack funds. Faith was telling me about it over lunch one of the days you were gone, though she quickly said you all did it to keep the pack afloat when you couldn’t work because you had so much trouble with shifting. Though she did say the pack was financially set. She didn’t want me to feel in any way obligated to add my money to the pack funds.”

“It’s completely up to you. All anyone cares about is that you’re with the pack now, money or no. Whatever you want to do.”

She kissed his chest and snuggled against him. “I want to make love.”

“Now that I can get on board with.” He rolled her over on her back and began to kiss her.

* * *

After breakfast the next morning, Denny took them to Strom’s private jet for their flight to Minnesota. When they got into the airport near home, Cameron picked them up. They told him all about what had happened, and he told them David wanted to make dinner for everyone on Christmas Eve. Tomorrow, Christmas Day, Cameron and Faith would prepare dinner.

Candice was ready to do the honors for Christmas Eve next year.

When they arrived home, they thanked Cameron and went inside with their bags. Owen immediately flipped on the Christmas lights, then built a fire. Candice turned on Christmas music and made a late lunch. After they ate, they wrapped presents for the rest of the pack and sat by the fire to write in their notebooks until it was time to go to dinner at David’s place.

“Will David need any help?” Candice asked, thinking he shouldn’t have to make the meal by himself.

“Nah, Gavin will be over there. And probably Cameron too.”

“Not you?”

“I’m just where I need to be.” Owen wrote further in his notebook.

They were sharing a big blanket, sipping peppermint schnapps cocoa, and writing away when Candice paused to think about her next scene.

He glanced over at her. “Need to brainstorm?”

“They just agreed to a mating.”

Owen smiled.

She smiled back at him. “Okay?”

“Well, you know what comes after that.”

“The mating, right. But do they do it in the bedroom or—”

“It’s winter, right?”

“Yes.”

“And they’ve got a toasty-warm, crackling fire going as they sit on the sofa drinking peppermint schnapps cocoa.”

“They’re not writing books.”

“No, but wouldn’t this be the perfect place to make love to the woman, or man, you just agreed to mate?” Owen set his notebook and pen on the coffee table, and she smiled broadly at him, suspecting what he was up to. He leaned over and kissed her cheek. “What could be more perfect than a place just like this? Christmas lights sparkling on the tree and mantel. Soft music playing in the background. Fire crackling at the hearth.”

“It’s not Christmas.” She took his face in her hands and kissed his mouth.

He settled into the kiss, but then paused to rearrange the blanket so it was beneath them and covering the couch. They quickly stripped out of their clothes, tossing them everywhere.

Owen’s kisses went from loving to hot and passionate, fiercely demanding. Candice matched him kiss for kiss, caught up in the heat of the moment. She savored every bit of his toned, hard body pressed against her, the feel of his cock fully aroused. Though they were mated and it was a done deal, she knew with every fiber of her being that this was right, that he was the one for her. That the overwhelming measure of attraction between them proved they were meant for each other. Raw desire filled her with need, and she wanted him inside her now.

She grasped his shoulders, pulling him even closer, wanting all that muscle and heat rubbing against her. He was eager to stroke her breasts, kissing them, suckling them, making her nipples bud and tingle. Then he began to stroke her between her legs, rubbing his erection against her thigh. It was the perfect place to make love—her cushioned on top of the blanket on the couch, the warmth of the fire and logs crackling, the heat of their bodies, the friction between them igniting her own fire and making her burn for him.

His name slipped from her lips, her breathing ragged, their heartbeats pounding as he carried her up…higher until she couldn’t go any further. And shattered into a million splinters of ecstasy. He was irresistible, as she pulled him close again and kissed him as if she were a desperate woman. She was so thankful she hadn’t answered her emails the day he sent her his contact form so he had to come see her in person. If he had never actually physically been near her, able to smell her scent, to know she was one of them, neither of them would have ever made the connection.

And he was ready to make that deeper connection as he maneuvered between her legs and pushed inside her, fulfilling her need to have him the closest he could be.

* * *

Owen penetrated her silky, slick heat, thanking his lucky stars Candice had agreed to be his mate. He pumped into her, deepening his thrusts. His body sizzled everywhere her soft, bare skin met his.

He held on until he couldn’t any longer. He came inside her and felt her inner muscles climaxing around his cock.

Candice was a dream come true. She completed him in a way no one else could, made him feel alive, and needed, and loved. He was glad they’d resolved the situation with her inheritance, and he could be with her like this, making love to her by the toasty fire, the lights sparkling on the Christmas tree, a joyous time.

“Ohmigod, you are so amazing,” she whispered against his cheek.

“You are unbelievably good for me, and I’d love to take you right to bed so we could get in some naptime and more of this.” He kissed her mouth and smiled. “Do you think the pack would notice if we didn’t show up tonight for the Christmas Eve dinner?”

“Yes. Though I imagine they wouldn’t be too surprised. On the other hand, if David has gone to all this work, he might be disappointed. The kids too. I’m not sure they would understand why we didn’t show up.”

Owen chuckled. “Okay. But just so you expect it, we’re going to be doing a whole lot more of this now that we’re home.”

She laughed. “I would sure hope so.”

He groaned. “I guess we need to get dressed and head on over there then.”

As soon as they were ready, they took a walk in the woods to David’s place. But halfway there, they smelled a cougar. They stopped dead in their tracks on the trail. The cougar was lying on the snow, his golden coat blending in with the tans and browns of the dead foliage on the dormant trees, the red pines towering to the sky, his gaze fully focused on them.

“What do we do?” Candice asked.

“Get on your phone and alert David we’ve got a cougar between his home and us. We don’t run, and we can’t climb a tree because they can too. Just keep your eyes on him. Usually when there are a couple of hikers, rather than someone walking alone, you’re better off. We should have been making noise, just like you would to alert a bear, to let him know we were in the vicinity. Of course the old saying goes that if you’ve just noticed a cougar, he’s been tracking you for half an hour already.”

“Great.”

“I don’t think so with this one.”

The cat stood, staring at them.

“He’s got plenty of room to leave and if it’s a she, no kits that I can see, we should be okay. While you’re calling for backup, I’m going to lean over to get that stout stick off the trail. We want to appear big, so you never want to crouch down, and you always want to look menacing. Hold his gaze. With one of us standing erect, hopefully we’ll be okay.”