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Both Kayla and Roxie were just as fast as each other, but they weren’t about to give leeway to the other. They got stuck in the wolf door trying to get out and barked happily at each other as they finally squeezed the rest of the way out. They would have been laughing their heads off if they’d been in their human form. Kayla just hoped they’d never get stuck in the wolf door like that again. She could just imagine she and her sister having to howl for their brother Blake to come and rescue them since he lived right next door.
They ran past Blake and Nicole’s house, but it was still dark, so they knew the two weren’t up and about yet and wouldn’t go for a run with them. Since Nicole had gotten pregnant, she hadn’t managed to run with them most mornings. Blake stayed home with her because of it, but she would run at night with them because she was always feeling better by then.
Kayla and Roxie scared a couple of rabbits, not meaning to, and the bunnies ducked into a burrowunderneath a fallen tree. Now if Rosco had been with them, he would have chased the bunnies.
This land was all private property owned by the Wolff siblings, and whoever needed a home next would build on the property on the other side of Blake and Nicole’s place. It was all wooded, perfect for running as wolves and safe from visitors to the area. Even other wolves in the pack didn’t normally come out here since their pack leaders, Darien and Lelandi Silver, had so much land available for the pack members to run on that normally was safe. Kayla’s family had signs posted here and there that said the land was private property, but some didn’t pay attention to that.
Still, Kayla couldn’t imagine building a house here or even what she wanted. She was afraid that when she mated, she would be absolutely overwhelmed by it all. But for now, she was having a blast. She realized if she was living here with Nate, she’d be able to do this with him early in the morning before work and with Roxie too. And when Nicole had her babies, how much fun would it be to supervise the little ones while running with Kayla’s very own mate? She took a deep breath of the fresh air. She’d love it.
That’s what she had to think of more. About all the good things she could do with Nate around their work schedules. She just hoped Roxie wouldn’t feel like a third wheel when Nate and Kayla went with her for runs in the morning and at night.
Though there was another situation she hadn’t discussed with Nate—and that was the business of her not being a royal. His sister was fine with Blake not being one, but that didn’t mean Nate was totally comfortable with it. They had to be on the same page concerning that for sure.
After a couple of miles through the woods, Kayla and Roxie turned around and raced each other back. The two of them were so equal in speed that she knew they’d end up at the wolf door at the very same time and be struggling to get inside like they’d done trying to get outside. Did they care? It was part of the fun.
Kayla nipped at her sister’s ear, and Roxie turned to get her back, which gave Kayla the time to get a little bit ahead of her.
Roxie barked in a playful way and immediately caught up to her. When they reached the door, they dove through it at the same time. Once they finally wriggled through it, they raced through the house and up the stairs. In their own bedrooms, they shifted and began getting dressed.
“You know one of these times we’re going to get stuck,” Roxie said.
“That’s why you need to eat more veggies, not so much chocolate.”
Roxie laughed. “Says you. I saw you eat that extra chocolate bar after lunch yesterday.”
“That was stress food.”
“Yeah, that catering venue you had for the birthday party was annoying. What was it? Three people changed their minds about their meal orders and then complained that you had messed them up and were mad they were not eating at the same time as everyone else?”
Kayla buttoned her blouse. “Exactly. Blake said he was glad he hadn’t had to deal with it. For once, it would be nice if someone like that admitted they had made the mistake. We don’t mind changing out the meal, but I do mind being blamed for them changing their minds. At least as far as our wolf run, I had a blast as usual. I always think that it’s going to take too much time, but running helps me to focus and work out any stress I might be feeling before we tackle the day’s work.”
Roxie poked her head into Kayla’s bedroom while she was pulling on her shoes. “Yeah. Every time I feel lazy about it, especially at night, I just need to push myself out the door.”
“So we’re running tonight,” Kayla said.
“Naturally.”
At the PI office that morning, Nate had actually remembered Nicole had her doctor’s appointment and asked her about it right away to learn how it went.
Nicole smiled at him. “You remembered.”
“I had it on my calendar.”
She laughed. “Everything’s good.” Then she got a call and took it. When she got off the phone, she said, “Hey, we have a case to look into in Green Valley. A twenty-four-year-old man who lives in a farmhouse on his parents’ property has gone missing.”
“They have a couple of PI agencies in Green Valley.” Not that he and Nicole would turn down cases from there, but Nate was just curious why the parents would hire someone from out of town to search for the missing son when they had local PIs who could do it.
“Yeah, but his parents wanted someone who wasn’t from there because they’re afraid that someone who might be responsible could be in league with the police in Green Valley. Anyway, we need to begin working on it.”
“Oh?” He was surprised about that because the Green Valley wolf pack leader was also the mayor and had developed good relations with the police force, so he wondered what that was all about.
He was trying to concentrate on his work, but he sure couldn’t quit thinking about Kayla—about her sweet smiles and the teasing light in her pretty brown eyes. The way she always slid her tongue over her lips after she’d eaten, making him want to lick them for her. The way she laughed at his jokeslike he really tickled her. Even the manner in which she swept her hair off her cheek in such a sexy way when the wind blew the strands over her eyes.
He really wanted to run with her as a wolf too. He knew she and her sister ran early in the morning before work, but he never could get up early enough to catch them before they left. He needed her to stay the night with him so they could run on the pack leaders’ territory, morning and night.
For the entire week, Nate had been working on numerous cases, and he was having dinner with his sister tonight to do some follow-up stuff about the missing guy from Green Valley. While Nicole was fixing dinner, she said, “Why don’t you call up Ryan and see if he’s learned anything about the jewelry-store robbery case?”
Ryan McKinley was the pack leader and mayor of Green Valley and had his own private investigation agency there. Nate called him, put it on speakerphone so Nicole could learn what was going on too, and told him about having been there when the robbery went down.
