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She turned her head and kissed him. “Yeah, I did. And you’re the best catch of all.”
After a half hour, he didn’t think she’d catch anything, but then her bobber moved, and she startled. “Oh, oh, I’ve got one.”
Then she began reeling in the trout. “Oh, my, it’s bigger than yours.”
He chuckled. Size-wise it was in between the two he’d caught, and it was a good size. “You did it. The perfect number of fish for dinner. You got lucky.”
“Ha! It was strictly skill. You were fishing upriver from me, and you kept catching the fish before they could see my bait,” she said.
“You are precious.”
“So are you. Let’s take these back to the cabin and cook them. My favorite recipe is lemon-butter herb-baked trout. In less than twenty minutes it’s done. Succulent, melts in your mouth. We can add asparagus, chopped cauliflower, or broccoli to the same pan and just cook it all together.”
“Broccoli sounds good.” He carried the ice chest while she carried their fishing poles back. He knew she was thrilled she’d managed to catch a fish for dinner. He was glad too.
They made a good team.
Once they returned, they both cleaned the fish. He had planned to clean them all himself, but she wanted to clean her own, which had amused him. He suspected she wanted to eat her own too.
The meal was delicious, and they cleaned up, then sat on the back patio watching the sun set over the lake, having glasses of wine.
“This is so wonderful,” Kayla said, clinking her glass with his.
“I so agree.” He took a sip of his wine and leaned over and kissed her.
Once the sun went down, they went inside the house, set their glasses on the kitchen counter and stripped out of their clothes, then shifted into wolves and ran for the wolf door. She went out first, and then he followed her.
They raced each other through the woods, not on any path used by humans or wolves in human form. But as wild animals would make their own trails. The deer had made several trails through the woods, and the wolves would use them too.
Nate and Kayla were chasing each other—it just was part of being wolves—and for now, he was glad she had control over when she could shift or not. That meant they could run as far as they wanted, and she wouldn’t suddenly have the urge to shift and have to walk back through the woods naked as a human.
She nipped at him as he came up toward her, and he nipped her back. He adored her. He bumped her, and she bit at his neck in playful fun. He was glad they could just play after all that had gone on today. Tomorrow, they were sleeping in, as long as she wanted to. She’d always made herself scarce when it was the week of the full moon, and he knew she had felt insecure about him seeing her when she had less control over her shifting. Now, she was his and he was hers, and he would prove to her that he loved her just the way she was.
Then she tackled him, and he wasn’t expecting it. He loved it. He tackled her back, both of them growling at each other in playful fun, though to humans, they probably sounded rather vicious.
Then they ran off again. He hadn’t expected her to run this long or this far after all the other exercise they’d had, but she kept running and running. He stayed with her, letting her decide how far she wanted to go until she finally made her way to the river and took a drink from the water.
He drank from the river next to her, and for a moment, they just stayed there, panting in the cool, sixty-degree temperature, their fur keeping them warm.
And then she licked his muzzle, and he licked hers. She nuzzled his face and appeared not to want to leave this spot. Was she all worn out? He didn’t think so. He thought she was just enjoying the wilderness as a wolf, like he was. With him. And he was happy to do anything that she wanted.
Then she stood, turned to leave, and he was right next to her the whole way back. He figured she was ready to finally get back to the cabin and call it a night. He was glad, though he didn’t want to admithewas worn out. But he wanted to climb into bed with his mate and love on her the rest of the night.
Chapter 19
In the middle of the night, Nate was dreaming he was chasing Kayla as a wolf. She was keeping out of his reach for a while, but then he caught up to her, pounced on her, and she rounded on him. He was having so much fun with her, growling and nipping at her, and she was doing the same with him. He licked her face, and she licked his, play sneezing as a sign of happiness. But then something pulled him out from his dream, and he listened. What had disturbed his sleep? The wind blowing a shutter and banging or scraping it against the log cabin?
Still asleep, Kayla had her head and hand resting against his chest, but then she moved, opened her eyes, and looked up at him and saw that he was awake. Frowning, she whispered, “Did you hear something too?”
“Yeah, something woke me from a dream, but since I began listening, I haven’t heard anything more.”
They both were quiet, listening for anything further, their hearts beating hard, their soft breaths exhaled, and that’s when he heard the same metallicsound again—a clicking sound as if someone was using a lockpick.
“Someone’s trying to break into the cabin. Our phones are charging in the living room,” Nate whispered to her, hurrying to get out of bed and wishing they were charging their phones in the bedroom now.
“I guess you don’t want to chase them off as wolves.” She carefully climbed off the bed, though if the housebreaker was human, he wouldn’t be able to hear them. Not while he was still outside the cabin.
“Not if he is armed with a gun. We’ll run off through the woods as wolves though.” He rushed across the floor and shut and locked the bedroom door just as he heard the front door open.
