Chapter 17

When Dylan and the others finally arrived at the lodge, he hurried to grab his camping gear off the snowmobile, shook everyone’s hands—except Fennel’s, of course—and strode into the lodge. CJ was taking Fennel to the sheriff’s office, and Peter was waiting for him there. But Dylan only had thoughts about seeing Roxie and offering his help if she needed it. He couldn’t wait to see her and just hug and kiss her.

Rosco rushed to greet him, which always delighted Dylan. The Saint Bernard treated him like he was one of the family. Dylan petted Rosco and put his camping gear on the floor by the dog’s bed so no one would trip over it in the lobby.

Then Blake joined him, carrying Buttercup cradled in his arms. “I’m late for dinner with Nicole so I can’t talk, but I’m glad to see you back. I’ll see you later. I want to hear everything about your trip and finding Fennel when we have time to talk.”

“Yeah, sure,” Dylan said. “Uh—” Before he could ask about the trouble they’d had, Blake was out the door with Rosco and Buttercup. Dylan headed to the registration desk to speak to Kayla. He didn’t see any problems at the lodge, but it had been hours since he’d called Roxie, so in that time, they probably had already dealt with it.

Kayla looked frazzled, her hair damp and in straggles around her face. She smiled at him. “Crisis averted. We had frozen pipes burst in one of the lobby restrooms. We had water everywhere. Then Roxie discovered a fire sprinkler on the roof had broken. That was really serious business. I was in the middle of a wedding gig, and Blake and Landon were busy with other issues. Roxie was trying to get the plumber out pronto, the water stopped, and the place cleaned up when you called. Everyone had to stop whatever they were doing and race to help her deal with all the issues. It was a real mess.”

“Damn. I wish I could have been here to help you out.” Though capturing Fennel had been really important, not to mention Dylan was glad Fennel was alive and hadn’t died of hypothermia or from any other cause.

“How did things go with you, Dylan?” Kayla asked.

“We caught Fennel, and luckily he was healthy and is willing to testify against Jim.” Dylan couldn’t have asked for more from him.

Kayla’s jaw dropped. “Wow. That’s really great.”

“It is. We got lucky. They could have all held their tongues and then it would have been their word against Luke’s. We have other evidence, but it really helps for Fennel and maybe Xander to turn on Jim. So where’s—”

“Roxie? I’m right here,” Roxie said, heading toward him, and he wheeled around to give her a hug. “Whoa.”

He smiled. “I so missed you.” Her hair was just as damp as Kayla’s and she looked just as tired, but she was beautiful. “What are you and Kayla still doing here? I was going to go to the house, but it was dark there so I figured you were here.”

“It was a really long day. But I’m through. I’m so ready to go home.” Roxie hugged him tightly and shivered. “You are so cold. Let’s get you to the house and warmed up, and you can tell me all about it.”

“You can tell me about your disaster today too.”

“Ha! I figured Kayla had filled you in.” She smiled at Kayla. “Night, Sis!”

“Night, Roxie!”

Then Nate arrived at the lodge. “Hey, guys. I finally made it back from my stakeout and thought you’d be at home by now, Kayla. I heard you had some trouble.”

Kayla laughed. “Yeah, let’s go.” She and Nate followed Roxie and Dylan out of the lodge, then waved goodbye as Roxie and Dylan made it to Roxie’s home and Kayla and Nate walked past Blake and Nicole’s home to their own.

Roxie unlocked the door. “Blake took Rosco and Buttercup to their place for the night because you were returning home and they wanted to give me a break.”

“I saw him doing that, but I wondered if that had been the plan all along.”

“I had them last night while you were gone. When you said you were returning, I told Blake and he said he’d take them. I’m so sorry that I couldn’t talk to you when you called. I texted and called you later, but you had to have been on your way home by then.”

“No problem, though I have to admit I was damned worried about you.”

She smiled. “I was really overwhelmed at the time. Did you eat any dinner?” She almost sounded hopeful he hadn’t.

“No, we had lunch on the trail, but we wanted to get home before it was too late. I can just make a tuna-fish sandwich or something.” But he really wanted to have dinner with her—fix it for her—after her hard day if she hadn’t eaten already. He checked his phone and saw all her text messages and he smiled.

“No way. You need a nice hot meal. Besides, I’m starving. I had lunch too, but with the mess we had at the lodge, I never ate dinner and figured I’d just have it with you when you got in.” Roxie ran her hand over his arm.

He smiled and kissed her mouth. “Okay, good. So what do you want me to make?”

“We can have spaghetti if that works for you. I defrosted hamburger for the meat sauce, and I have all the rest of the ingredients we’ll need. Tomatoes, tomato sauce, mushrooms, onions, garlic cloves, bell peppers. How does that sound to you?”

“I love everything you fix. I can make it, and you can put your feet up and tell me what happened at the lodge today.”

“We both had a wild and adventurous day. We’ll make it together.”

“Okay. Do you want me to cut up all the veggies?” he asked.

“Yeah, sure.” She pulled the container of mushrooms, an onion, garlic, and bell peppers out of the fridge. “I’ll start the hamburger.” She brought out a pan and began cooking the meat. “I was thinking we could go out to dinner tomorrow night if you aren’t busy trying to capture Jim.”

“Tomorrow night works for me. We didn’t find any sign of Jim at the cabin, so we’re kind of stuck on where to go next unless I stake out his place. But I suspect he’s not returning there. He might have even thought if the other guys arrived, they’d get arrested. Though I had considered he might have believed they’d never make it there alive. A warrant is out now for his arrest at least.” He told Roxie about how they captured Fennel. “It was anticlimactic. I expected him to go down fighting, but I don’t think he would kill another man just to get him out of the bind he’s now in. He’s just too beta. The same with Xander. Jim had to have orchestrated the whole thing, and I believe what Fennel told us.”

“Okay, good. Then you’ll have the bastard. You just need to catch him. Or the police do.”

They mixed the ingredients together and cooked them some more, adding tomato sauce and spices. She tossed a spinach salad with tomatoes, black olives, and mushrooms while he made garlic toast.

Roxie told him all the details of the frozen pipes in the lobby restroom and the sprinkler on the roof of the lodge and what a mess that had been. “We all went home to clean up and change clothes, but Kayla and I didn’t have time enough to fully dry our hair.”

“Well, I still wish I’d been there for you.”

“Thanks. Would you like some wine?” She brought out a couple of wineglasses. “Merlot?”

“Yeah. We deserve it.”

“We do. We had a rough day.” They finally served up the spaghetti, salad, and garlic toast and sat down to eat, clinking their glasses together.

“So you don’t have any ideas about where Jim could be?” Roxie took a drink of her wine.

“No. But tomorrow, I want to speak with Fennel and Xander again and learn if there’s anywhere else Jim might have gone if he hasn’t already fled the country.”

“Oh, that would not be good.”

“I know. Damn, this spaghetti is good,” Dylan said, getting ready to take another bite.

“Yeah, and it’s great for leftovers too. I love your garlic toast.”

“Thanks.”

“By the way, Carmela asked where you were staying, and I told her here. I had dinner with her and Kayla last night, so the word will likely get back to my brothers,” Roxie said.

Dylan reached over and squeezed her hand, worried she was changing her mind about having him stay there with her. He would do whatever she needed him to for her peace of mind. “Will it be a problem?”

She laughed. “No, or I wouldn’t have said you could stay. But if you’re going to be at my house, you might as well…stay. Permanently.”

“I don’t want to be presumptuous, but you don’t mean you want to mate me, do you?” God, he hoped so.

She smiled. “You may be presumptuous all you want. Yeah, I sure do want to mate you. I love you.”

Absolutely thrilled, he rose from his chair and pulled her from hers and wrapped his arms around her, kissing her, tasting the wine on her lips. “You have made me the luckiest wolf alive, and I love you right back.”

“You don’t mind that you’ll gain a whole family, parents even, since Nicole and Nate’s parents will adopt you too?” She sounded worried that he would be.

“I would be thrilled. I’ve been alone for way too long. I thought I was fine with it until I met you. I could never go back to living on my own and be happy like I’ve been with you—no social life, no one to enjoy meals and movies and share such an intimate connection with.”

“I’ve been lonely now that my sister and brothers have found mates and moved out. I knew they were important in my life, but I didn’t realize how hard it would be for me when everyone was mated, some of them having kids, and for me being the odd man out. But that’s not why I want to mate you. I absolutely adore you. When I couldn’t shift back and you let me out of my bedroom, raced up the stairs to get my phone, and acted like none of it was any big deal? That meant the world to me. We have been having a great time living together. I thought of waiting until after you finished working for the FSW, but I’m not going to change my mind. What about you?”

“Not me. I sure don’t want to wait.” He couldn’t be happier that she didn’t want to wait.

“Do you want to finish dinner and then—”

“Yeah. Let’s do it.” He kissed her again, and then they sat down and started eating the rest of their salads, then ate more of their spaghetti. “When I saw you in that haze after you revived me on the pool deck, I thought you had the most beautiful brown eyes. I swore you were an angel.”

“You needed one.”

He chuckled. “I sure did. I was surprised to learn you were a wolf. I should have known you were the perfect one just for me.”

“I was glad to learn you were a wolf too. I knew you would heal up faster because of it. I liked that you were working for the Fish & Wildlife Service, searching for bad guys who were harming wildlife and arresting them when you could.”

“Yeah, it was a great job, long days, but because I didn’t have a family, it worked out fine for me. At the time. I will be glad to be here in a deputy sheriff role, close to home and loving on you.”

“That’s what I want to hear. Now I know I’ll have a date for the Valentine’s Day celebration.”

“A mate. For every special couple occasion and otherwise.”

“Even better.”

Roxie and Dylan finally finished the rest of their food and wine, cleaned up, put the remaining spaghetti in the fridge, and raced each other up the stairs to the bedroom. She was laughing as he was so close to her, teasing her, but unlike her sister who would try to pass her, he was a gentleman and just having fun with her. She loved playing with him.

She figured her brothers might have told her to wait and date Dylan longer, for them to even get to know him better—as in drilling him about his whole life—but they hadn’t waited when they met their mates. Wolves often didn’t. So she wasn’t delaying this. Kayla and Nate had waited way too long—to Roxie’s way of thinking—but Roxie wasn’t anything like her sister. Roxie knew in her heart what was right. And that meant being with Dylan as his wolf mate in perpetuity.

As soon as they reached the bedroom, she sat on the bed to pull off her boots, but he crouched before her and pulled them off for her. She loved his tenderness and helpfulness. He yanked off his boots next. She stood up from the bed and began stripping off her clothes, her sweater going first, his after that.

Then he wrapped his arms around her in a wondrous, loving embrace. “You saved me not only from death in the swimming pool but a lonely existence that I hadn’t even realized I’d had,” he said, looking down into her eyes with his beautiful blue-eyed gaze.

She smiled up at him, hugging him back. “Being with you has been the best thing ever for me. I was just as lonely, only I wasn’t fully aware of it because I’d had my family around me so much of the time. All my life, actually. But I needed to find my own mate.”

“I’m glad you chose me to be the one.” He cupped her face and kissed her. “I couldn’t be luckier than that.”

She kissed him back, their tongues teasing, tangling, tasting each other’s, their hearts already beating harder, the heat filling her blood. She knew it wasn’t that she had to shift, though for a moment she had worried about it. But no, it was all due to Dylan, the wolf and man who could make her heart sing with a whispered word, a sigh, a smoldering smile, a lingering gaze.

“I haven’t been into hugging people much,” he said quite honestly, as if that was a shortcoming of his.

But she’d found him totally huggable, and he’d sincerely returned the affection when her family or others in the pack had embraced him. She realized it was probably because he hadn’t been around other wolves that much, no family, friends who were wolves. It was understandable that he hadn’t been hugged all that much or felt the need to hug anyone else. Not until he arrived in the wolf pack of Silver Town, all well meaning and welcoming.

“Does it bother you?” she asked, determined to let him know just how much his hugs meant to her.

He smiled. “No. Truly, it’s been amazing. But I love hugging you the most. I just wanted to tell you it’s something I haven’t experienced in a long time. Since my parents died actually.”

She hated that he hadn’t had them in his life, and she was all for making it up to him. “Well, as long as you’re all right with it, you’ll have a ton of wolves who will give you hugs. Me most of all.”

“I’m counting on it.”

“Good.” She was glad he liked the affection because she was certainly the one to show it. Then she began kissing him again while she tried to unbuckle his belt. She unzipped his zipper, and he removed his pants and worked on her skirt button.

But then, as if he changed his mind, he moved her to the bed and laid her down, lifted her skirt up, and pulled off her tights. He removed her panties and tackled her bra, slipping it off her and tossing it aside.

Then he hurried to tug off his boxer briefs, but she was still wearing her skirt! He slid his hand up her naked thigh, teasing her. She wanted his fingers stroking her in the center between her legs now. But she had to admit this was erotic, and she felt a hint of naughtiness while not being able to see where his fingers were traveling as his mouth latched onto a nipple and sucked.

She loved when he did that. It made her nether region tingle with need even more than it had been. But his fingers were moving too slowly for her, and she wanted to guide them just where she wanted them to work their magic.

But then he was caressing her short, curly hairs, searching for the right spot, and she was barely breathing in anticipation. He moved his mouth to her other breast, and she was concentrating on the sensory nerves in her nipple that were jumping with excitement at his touch when he began to stroke her between the legs. Oh, she was in heaven.

He was totally a keeper. She had no doubt in her mind about that. She arched against his fingers, wanting faster strokes, harder, yes, there, perfect. She clutched at his arms, not realizing she was doing it until he moved his mouth to kiss hers and his movement clued her in. She moved her hands over his back, sweeping down his muscles, realizing just where they were taking this. It wasn’t just making love to another person. This time, they were taking it all the way. This time, they would be one for life.

But his strokes were stealing her thoughts and all she could feel was the core of her rising up to respond to his intimate touch, their pheromones swirling around each other in a mating dance of their own, the overwhelming love that enveloped her until she cried out with orgasmic delight. She truly was glad she was alone with him in the house now!

Then his heated, passionate, ravishing kiss gentled. He pulled his mouth away from hers, her hands gently grasping his neck, wanting to pull him close for another kiss, but she waited to hear what he had to say. To see if he was going to kill her with the announcement that they should wait a bit longer.

“You’re—” he started to say.

“Ready, yes, go, do it.”

“Before you change your mind?” he asked, arching a brow.

She gave him a slow, predatory smile. “Before you change yours.”

He laughed and the sound of his fun-loving laughter tickled her.

“All right.” He pulled off her skirt and centered himself on top of her and pushed in gently at first until he filled her all the way to the hilt. He held himself there. “All good?”

“Keep going.” It was done. He had penetrated her with his sex, and they were mated wolves. But he had to find his pleasure in her too.

He began to thrust, his beautiful body working over her, his muscles bunching up and fascinating her, the smell of their muskiness filling her with fresh need.

Her own body was thrumming with her recent climax, and he was so hard and huge that she loved the way he filled her up. She rocked against him, but then he paused again. Was he coming too soon? But then he moved beside her so that he could come in from behind, drawing her leg over his, and he began thrusting again, only now he could reach her clit and he began to stroke her again. She didn’t think she could come again so soon. But he was so hard and this was so erotic, especially with the way he nibbled her ear, licking her neck and kissing her shoulder, stroking her to encourage her to come, that she felt the climax rising in her again.

She placed her hand over his, moving his fingers faster, harder, slower, slower, hard, but slow, and then she was crying out again, not believing he could make her come in such a position. Then he was groaning out her name, sounding satisfied as his warm seed spilled inside her.

For a moment, they lay there joined, perspiring, happy, tired, feeling great. He kissed her, then smiled. “Shower time?”

She smiled. “Anytime.”

Without another moment’s hesitation, he scooped her up and carried her into the shower. She couldn’t believe it when he began to wash her that he was hardening up at the same time. “That’s what you do to me.”

She smiled, wrapped her arms around his neck, rubbed her body against him, and felt his erection brush up against her. “I knew you were the only one for me.”

She realized now her house would be his house. He would be part owner of the lodge too. Their family was expanding by one. Kids would probably follow. They would have a pack within the pack of their very own.