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“I’ll pull around,” Rusty said, as Roark slid behind the wheel while Logan buckled himself into the passenger’s seat.

“Alright, we’re going to need to make a few stops, including the furniture store,” Roark said, peering at Rusty. “I didn’t think to grab the supply list, so if you can remember what’s on it, that would be great.”

“Wrote it all down so I wouldn’t have to remember,” Rusty replied. “Right now, my brain is so rattled I can barely remember my name, so no promises.”

“Understood.”

Roark watched him walk away without his usual swagger, but then who could blame him? Discovering they now had a third mate, and third pup, was enough to knock the poise out of any wolf.

“How long have you known one another?” Logan asked while they waited.

Wren told Quackers all about the new room they were going to have, asking if their stuffed duck would help them pick out which one they wanted when they got to the house.

“All of our lives,” Roark explained. “We grew up together, in the borderlands, before there was much out there but hunting cabins and grumpy wolves who had no interest in living anywhere near the rest of the pack. We joined the Howling Devils together and rode side by side for almost a decade until the Devils were recalled to pack lands to fulfill the role as enforcers. We’ve still got a road crew, but a much smaller one now, and we only send ‘em out when there’s a need.”

“So, wait, if you haven’t always been enforcers, what were you guys doing?”

“Taking the information folks like you provided and making sure something was done about the situations that were uncovered,” Roark explained. “We can talk more about it when there aren’t little ears around.”

“Yeah, I get the feeling our stories line up in more ways than one,” Logan replied.

The rumble of souped up 4-Wheeler engine caught Logan’s attention, while Wren tried to turn around and wasn’t able to with how tightly Rusty had buckled them in.

“Papa, what is that?” Wren asked.

“A giant 4-Wheeler.”

“I want to see. I want to see.”

“You’ll get to see plenty of it,” Roark promised. “That’s Rusty’s.”

“Do I call him Papa too? Won’t it get confusing?”

“You can call us whatever you’re comfortable with,” Roark explained. “If you’d like to wait and decide what you want to call us once you know us better, we’d be perfectly fine with Rusty and Roark.”

“What about Papa Rusty and Papa Roark?”

“That will absolutely work too,” Roark assured them.

“Do you hear that, Quackers? We get to call them Papa too,” Wren said as Roark guided the SUV out of the parking lot and down the hill leading into town.

“Whoa, look at all the houses,” Wren said the moment the first glimpse of town came into view.

“There’s way more to Comet Lake than I thought,” Logan muttered.

“This is just the south side.”

“Please tell me there is a map or something, or I’m going to get lost every time I leave the house,” Logan said.

“We can pick one up for you at the visitor’s center,” Roark replied. “Since we’re about to pass it.”

He pulled in, parked, and hurried inside, leaving the window down so Rusty could talk to Logan and Wren while they waited. He grabbed a whole welcome packet while he was in there, since there was probably something among the pages his mate would need, and hurried back out to find Rusty and Logan laughing about something.

“What did I miss?” Roark asked.

“Us adding three more stops to the list,” Rusty replied.

“Actually, um, can we make it four? I really need to find a bank and get my funds transferred here. I had to leave where we were staying in a bigger hurry than planned and didn’t have the chance to withdraw anything more than what the ATM would give me.”