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Chapter 1
Early that summer morning before heading into work, Kayla Wolff and her quadruplet sister, Roxie, were running as gray wolves on their wooded acreage, not expecting any trouble. Except for a cougar they had to chase off once and a black bear another time, they usually didn’t have any wildlife difficulties. They’d had to sic Sheriff Peter Jorgenson on hunters last fall though.
Kayla was excited about getting together for dinner tonight with Nate Grayson, the only wolf she’d dated since moving to Silver Town, Colorado, a wolf-run town. Nate’s sister, Nicole, had actually mated their brother Blake.
Kayla loved it here, and she was planning to mate Nate on the Fourth of July in a little over two weeks if he didn’t ask her beforehand.
Along with their two brothers, she and Roxie owned and managed the Timberline Ski Lodge nearby. She had been busy serving as the catering manager for a wedding yesterday, so she was glad to get back to working on promotional stuff today.
As wolves, she and Roxie had been playing with each other when they heard the sound of twomen speaking on their property. Other wolves in the pack were welcome to run here anytime, but the others usually ran in the pack territory. And their brother Landon had property with his mate, Gabrielle, around her veterinary clinic, so they often ran as wolves there rather than at the lodge.
Kayla didn’t recognize the men’s voices. She and Roxie drew nearer, circling around and keeping low so the men wouldn’t see them, trying to get a whiff of the men’s scents before they alerted the sheriff that they had human trespassers. They could be just wolf guests from somewhere else, and Kayla and Roxie certainly didn’t want to alienate wolf visitors to the area. Unless they were causing trouble.
The hot summer breeze kept shifting, and they had to keep circling when they normally would avoid humans at all costs. Though Kayla did have the notion of just chasing them off as wolves. That was definitely her wilder wolf side coming to play.
She listened to the men’s conversation in the meantime, and finally, a black-haired man with a curly beard and reddish sideburns came into view. He was a stocky figure wearing a T-shirt that stretched tautly over muscled arms and chest, jeans tight on bulky thighs, a black cap shadowing his features, mirrored glasses, and hiking boots. It was early morning and there was no need to wear sunglasses at this time. The woods were shaded and dark and the sun still just dawning. The other manwas tall, not as muscled, with short blond hair; he looked about the same age as the bulky guy—mid-to-late twenties—and was wearing a blue-jean ball cap, a gray T-shirt, jeans, sneakers, and polarized aviator sunglasses.
“I told you. With your experience, it’s a piece of cake. He’ll pay us good money to do it,” the blond guy said. “His uncle is good for his word.”
“You’re sure you can trust the others?” The muscled guy sounded dubious.
“Hell, yeah. We grew up together. We’re all friends. They’re eager to do it and to follow your lead since you’re experienced at this kind of thing. It’s copacetic.”
“It better be. You know what happened the last time.”
“Yeah, and you didn’t know those guys. This time it’ll be different.”
“I’ll talk it over with his nephew first.”
The blond guy didn’t say anything more, but he looked annoyed, his mouth pursed, as if he expected the bulky guy to go along with the program based on his words. “Yeah, sounds like a good idea,” he finally said, as if he had no choice in the matter.
Roxie was on the move again, trying to get closer. Kayla wanted to woof at her sister to stay with her. She didn’t want them to move any closer to the men, afraid that if the two of them did, the men might spy them more easily. Sure, she andRoxie hadn’t been able to smell them to see if they were human, but she was all for circling them further. If they were wolves, no problem, unless they were up to mischief. But humans? They could be unpredictable.
“All right, but it better work out.” The muscled guy turned around and saw Roxie.
For a moment, everyone froze. Kayla ran at the men to give Roxie time to move, then turned quickly and bolted out of there, hoping her sister was gaining on her and the men were running in the opposite direction and not planning to shoot them if they were armed with guns. Kayla heard movement in the woods behind her and glanced over her shoulder to see Roxie catching up to her, her eyes filled with excitement.
Relieved it was just her sister and there was no sign of the men, Kayla thought she could use less excitement in her life. When she had to serve as a wedding caterer and deal with a bridezilla like she’d had to a couple of weeks ago, that was enough of a “thrill” for her. She and Roxie both managed the brides, but Roxie could get growly with an unreasonable one, so Kayla often just took care of them to avoid problems.
Roxie nipped at her in fun. Kayla nipped back at her, glad everything had turned out fine. Though she was going to lecture her when they returned to their home next to the lodge. She was glad theirsister-in-law Nicole hadn’t been with them because she was pregnant. She and their brother Blake would run with Roxie and Kayla most mornings, but Nicole had been under the weather with morning sickness of late.
After Kayla and Roxie reached the house and ran in through the wolf door, squeezing in at the same time—their usual routine—they raced up the stairs to their respective bedrooms to shift and dress for work.
Once Kayla had shifted, she called out to her sister, “You shouldn’t have gotten so close to the men!”
“You shouldn’t have tried to grab their attention so I could get away.”
“What if they’d been armed?” Kayla pulled on her panties.
“They weren’t. They didn’t have anywhere to hide a gun, holster, nothing.”
Kayla sighed, glad to learn that. She had really worried about it. She fastened her bra. “All right, but you shouldn’t have gotten so close. I was going to circle around them further to catch the breeze headed in a different direction. So did you smell their scents?”
“Human. But since they seemed to be there having a private meeting and then saw a couple of wolves, I figure they won’t be hanging around, so no sense in calling Peter to try to locate them and fine them for trespassing.”
“Okay.” Kayla buttoned up her blouse.
“Hey, you’ve got to admit that was an interesting aside to our normal morning jaunt through the woods.”
