Chapter 29

After they returned home, Roxie and Dylan stayed up so late that night that they slept in the next morning. She knew she had to start putting up the decorations for Mardi Gras next, but she and Dylan just couldn’t seem to get up that morning. Finally, they did, dressed, had a quick bite to eat, and she was off to the lodge while he was off with his regular team of deputized sheriffs to look for the trapper.

That night, Dylan arrived home before Roxie got there and pulled cheese-filled ravioli, tomato sauce, herbs, shredded mozzarella cheese, and Parmesan cheese out of the freezer to prepare one of his favorite easy dishes from when he had lived in Denver. He thought Roxie might like it when she got home. He finished baking it and was just pulling it out of the oven when he heard Roxie at the door.

“We have the dog and cat tonight,” she said, bringing them into the house and setting Buttercup on the floor. “Ooh, what are we having for… Ravioli? Oh, yum.”

He smiled. “I should have asked you if it appealed to you for tonight.”

“Oh yeah. Are you excited about your new job as a deputy sheriff?”

“I am.” Dylan wrapped his arms around Roxie and kissed her soundly as Rosco and Buttercup tried to get him to pay attention to them. “Oh, all right,” he said and leaned down to pet them. “Peter wants me to start off with training, rules, that sort of thing, tomorrow morning.”

“But you’ll be off looking for the trapper.”

“Nope, not tomorrow. It’s a training day. I’m sure if someone spies our trapper, I’ll be on the mission, but he said not for now. Are you ready to eat?”

“I’m starving. I didn’t think you’d get home before I did today. This smells delightful. Thanks for fixing dinner. An added perk to being mated to you for sure.”

“I’m glad I could do it.”

They sat down to eat dinner and talked about their days, cleaned up after dinner, and then they got bundled up to take Rosco for his walk that night. As usual, the dog was super eager to head out.

They walked the same path where Dylan and Roxie always took Rosco. The snow was trampled down here more, making it easier to walk. A light flutter of snowflakes was falling. The moon was waning. A few stars were sprinkled across the partially cloudy sky.

“We’re supposed to get a snowstorm tonight, so I’m glad you came home and didn’t stay out with the guys. Not to mention that you made it in time to fix a delicious dinner.”

“Yeah, we all agreed it was time to stay home for a couple of days until the weather straightened out. And I really wanted to show you I could cook a meal on my own too.”

“Well, you did that. It was delightful.”

They had walked a couple of miles when Roxie stopped. Dylan saw the wolf then too. He was mostly black except for his underbelly and legs that were mostly white. “Do you know him?” Dylan asked. “Wait, doesn’t he look like the wolf that Kemp and Radcliff described to Darien at the Silver Town Tavern when we celebrated my taking the deputy sheriff’s job?”

“I don’t know him. But I saw him before when I was walking Rosco. He wasn’t menacing or anything, but he seems to be hanging around the area. I agree with you about the description of the wolf Kemp and Radcliff saw.”

Dylan handed her the leash. There was one way to determine if the wolf was a shifter and that was to shift. He started to pull off his clothes. Roxie watched the wolf, not saying a word to Dylan. He was glad because he didn’t want her to ask him what he was going to do. If it was a lupus garou, he’d know just what Dylan had in mind. He had to get closer, to be downwind of him so he could smell his scent, to see if he recognized it from anywhere. But Dylan was afraid if he just tried to walk toward the wolf in his human form, the mystery wolf would run off. As a wolf, Dylan could chase him down.

Or at least try to.

Dylan pulled off the remainder of his clothes, shifted, and then walked slowly toward the wolf while Roxie and Rosco stayed where they were. He was trying not to spook him, but he had to know what the wolf’s intentions were and he suspected he was a lupus garou. Truth be told, Dylan was hoping it was the newly turned trapper that they needed to take in for questioning. It could be that the wolf was unsure how to make the connection with others of their kind, but he was drawn to them, wanting to know what he had become, what they were.

As soon as Dylan got close enough, the wolf turned and raced off. Dylan wasn’t letting him get away, and even Roxie howled in her human-produced wolf howl. If Blake and Nate heard her, the two of them would be out here to help him. Dylan was running too fast to stop to howl.

He outmaneuvered the wolf, smelling that he was indeed Rusty McInerny, thanked the heavens for that, and pounced on him, taking him down into the snow. Dylan heard other wolves howling—Blake and Nate, Kayla even. They were coming from their homes. Nicole would be watching the babies so he knew she couldn’t come to help.

Dylan had the wolf by the throat, not hurting him but letting him know he was pinned down and not going anywhere, applying pressure every time Rusty tried to move. They had to bring him into the fold, make him part of the pack, and learn everything he knew about the murder.

Then Rosco was barking, Blake and Nate running full out to reach Dylan and Rusty. Kayla wasn’t with them, but he heard her howl near where Rosco was barking and Roxie was still standing. So he assumed Kayla was protecting them in case she needed to.

It sure was great having family close by like this.

Blake and Nate reached Dylan, and Blake shifted. “That’s Rusty, isn’t it?” Blake asked.

Dylan released Rusty and the wolf just lay in the snow panting, looking like he was afraid Dylan would go for his throat again if he moved a muscle. Dylan shifted into his human form while Blake returned to his wolf. “Yeah. Rusty, we’re not going to hurt you. You were a witness to one hunter killing another and we need your testimony.” He wasn’t going to mention the part about his traps and injuring Aaron so badly right now. They just had to get Rusty back to one of their homes and then have the sheriff pick him up for questioning as a witness to the murder.

“If you run, we can kill you. If you come with us, you can be part of the pack. Cooperate and you’ll find a family of wolves here to watch your back and to welcome you.” Dylan shifted back into his wolf. He wasn’t planning on killing Rusty. He just had to let him know he could.

If they couldn’t get him to return with them willingly, they’d call it in to the sheriff—well, Roxie most likely had already—and then he could take the wolf back in a crate.

The wolf hesitated, then got up. Blake, Nate, and Dylan surrounded him, Nate at the back ready to nip Rusty in the butt, Blake to the right of Rusty, making sure he didn’t run off, and Dylan on the left side of the wolf with the same intention.

When the wolves finally reached Roxie, Kayla, and Rosco, Roxie was holding on to Dylan’s clothes and said, “The sheriff’s meeting up with us at our house.”

Dylan woofed at her.

They would have to loan Rusty some clothes, and Dylan assumed the guys would stay with Dylan, Roxie, and Rusty until the sheriff arrived.

Once they were at the house, Blake and Nate stayed in their wolf forms, acting as guards. Roxie set Dylan’s clothes on the couch, and he shifted and began to get dressed. Once he was finished, he headed upstairs to get Rusty some clothes. After a few minutes, he brought down some sweats and socks, then put them in the guest room for Rusty. “If you can shift back, you can take a shower, dress, and come out and join us. The sheriff will be here soon.”

Dylan joined the others in the living room and started a fire since it appeared they’d be up for a while longer. Catching the trapper was a good thing.

Kayla left the house and returned with Nate’s and Blake’s clothes. Then they dressed and Roxie and Kayla made everyone hot cocoa.

Rusty finally joined them as Peter and CJ arrived. Introductions were made all around.

They all sat down in the living room, Rusty taking a seat on one of the recliners. Peter—and CJ—could be intimidating when they wanted to be, but they sat down on a sofa, not standing and towering over Rusty as if they were his inquisitors.

But it was Dylan who asked what Rusty had seen firsthand when the hunters were having the disagreement.

Rusty drank all his cocoa, then set the mug down on the coffee table. “It all started a few days before I saw the fight. I mean, I saw the boy before.” Rusty took a deep breath and let it out. “I was setting traps, hunting.”

“Illegally,” Dylan said. “You weren’t just trapping animals. You were using poison and illegal leg traps.”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, go on,” Dylan said.

“The boy had been watching me, unbeknownst to me. But when I returned to check on my traps, I discovered they were missing. I finally watched to see who was stealing them. I thought for certain it was a fellow trapper. Someone who had a grudge against me for trapping in his territory, though I didn’t know who it was. That’s when I saw the boy.”

“Luke,” Dylan said.

Rusty shrugged. “I didn’t know his name.”

Roxie got the trapper some water, and then she and Kayla ended up getting everyone else some.

“I chased after him, wanting to question him about my traps, to make him tell me where he’d hidden them or even set them up. To scare him so he wouldn’t mess with my traps anymore. Hell, here I was the trapper, but what if he had set them up somewhere else and—”

“You stepped in one,” Dylan said, wanting to tack on that it would have served him right.

“I chased after the boy and cornered him in a cave. At first, I was reluctant to go in there. What if he had set the traps in the cave? What if he had a hunting rifle? What was he even doing out there on his own? Anyway, I turned on my flashlight and went inside. Everything happened so fast after that. I saw a wolf, not the boy. The thought flashed across my mind that the wolf had killed the boy, but before I could shoot it, the wolf bit my hand. I dropped my rifle and raced out of the cave. I ran from there, trying to get away from the wolf.”

“Did he follow you?”

“For a while, yeah, then he turned and ran off. His wickedly sharp teeth had torn through my glove and had cut the skin on my hand and some of the tendons, but I figured I’d got off lucky because he could have torn my whole hand off, crushed the bones even. I had to go back for my rifle, and after wrapping some cloth around my injured hand, I returned to the cave, scared shitless. I had never been scared before of anything in my life. Well, maybe once when I ran into a grizzly up north in Montana.

“I went back for my rifle, and it was gone. I cautiously walked into the cave where I’d dropped my flashlight and searched the place. There was no sign of my traps, no rifle, no sign of the boy’s body or of the wolf. That night, I returned to my campsite, and I began feeling strange. I was afraid I’d contracted rabies. I was burning up with fever, and I stripped off my clothes and then… Well, hell, I didn’t know what happened to me.”

“You were one of us,” Peter said.

“A werewolf? I don’t believe in such a thing. Or at least I didn’t. I was able to smell scents like I could never before. Heard things that kept me on edge. But when I was at my camp, I heard a shot fired off in the distance. I’d served in the army in Afghanistan. I have PTSD. When I heard gunfire, I hit the ground and couldn’t move from there for what seemed like forever. Then I heard some men fighting with each other. I finally got up the nerve to check it out. I recognized the men’s voices: Fennel, Jim, Xander, and Eddie. I’d had breakfast with them two mornings before I’d been bitten. I saw the boy who stole my traps hiding in the trees, watching the hunters fighting. I circled around out of sight of the boy and the hunters to get a better look for myself, to see what was going on. When Fennel shot Eddie, I was shell-shocked. When I ate with them before, I’d felt some tension between Fennel and Eddie, but they’d all seemed cordial enough.”

“But you’re sure Fennel was the one who shot Eddie?” Peter asked.

“Yeah. Unless they’d given me false names, which I doubt. But the one guy was Fennel. I know the one named Xander called out to Jim not to do it, but it didn’t make any sense. Xander was looking right at Fennel when he said the words. I switched my attention to Jim to see what he was going to do. I thought maybe Jim planned to jump in front of Eddie to protect him. But he just looked at Xander like he didn’t know why he said that.

“Then Fennel shot Eddie and the sound of that gunfire hit me like a sonic blast. I was on the ground, my paws over my nose, hiding from the enemy. Fennel was yelling at the others, telling them they were accessories to murder and to help him hide the body. That’s when the boy began to leave, afraid they’d learn he’d witnessed the whole thing. He tripped and fell over a branch, snapping it. The men all paused in what they were doing, and I knew they were going to go after him.”

“You did nothing to try and help him?”

Rusty rubbed his forehead. “I was going to. And then all of a sudden, bam! I was feeling hot and turning into my human form in the snow, no clothes, no rifle. What could I have done? I ran back through the snow to my camp and got dressed. They had taken off after the boy. I waited until they were well out of sight. Then I took off north of where Fennel killed Eddie.”

“One of your traps caught a forest ranger named Aaron,” Dylan said. “If we hadn’t found him, he would have died.”

“Hell, man, I’m sorry. You probably don’t believe me, but I went to every location where I’d set traps before that the boy hadn’t found and triggered them, then buried them deep where no one will ever find them. Being one of you has changed my way of thinking. I’m sorry about Aaron and I’m willing to do whatever it takes to make amends to him,” Rusty said. “I heard him cry out, but I was a wolf, and I couldn’t help him. I knew if I had approached him, he would have thought I’d come to eat him. When I finally was able to return to free him, he was gone.”

“And Luke? The boy who was stealing your traps to protect wildlife and our kind?” Peter asked.

Rusty sat back in the chair.

“He believed you were going to kill him,” Dylan said.

“I was going to get him to tell me where he put the traps. I wasn’t going to kill him. But I didn’t find him in the cave. I found a wolf. I thought the wolf was going to kill me!”

“He didn’t have any other way of defending himself. Normally, we don’t bite anyone as a wolf,” Dylan said. “As you can see, there are consequences for doing so. You’ll have urges to shift during the full moon and sometimes during other moon phases. You won’t be able to shift during the new moon no matter what.”

“Wait. The boy is a wolf? The one that bit me?”

“Yep. We’ll show you the ropes,” CJ said.

“Why were you out here?” Roxie asked. “On our land?”

“I smelled the boy’s scent in this area, that he had come to this house even. I wanted to catch him, to ask him about the wolf, then Dylan goes shifting in front of me. I knew I was in trouble and ran.”

Then they heard a knock at the door and Blake answered it. “Darien, Lelandi, Luke, come in.”

Now their pack leaders would talk to their newest pack member. And Luke had come for closure.

Luke looked apprehensive, like he thought Rusty would want to kill him for what he had done to him. Rusty rubbed his red beard and stood up from the chair. Dylan thought when Rusty was standing, he looked more like a big grizzly bear.

Rusty sighed. “Hey, thanks for stopping me from trapping animals like I had done. I don’t think anything would have changed my mind like your method of reforming me.”

“I–I didn’t mean to. We’re not supposed to,” Luke said.

“Yeah, that’s what they said. I–I didn’t know you and the wolf were one and the same. No hard feelings.” Rusty shook Luke’s hand and slapped him on the back.

“We’re the pack leaders of the Silver Town wolf pack,” Darien said. “Darien and Lelandi Silver. Since Luke is a gray wolf shifter, that’s what you are. Lelandi is a red wolf. I’m a gray. We’ve adopted Luke, and we want you to stay with us until we find you another solution to your living situation.”

“I’m not going to be a prisoner?” Rusty sounded surprised.

Darien smiled, albeit a little evilly. “You have a job to do. Testify along with Luke against Fennel who killed Eddie. Fennel also attempted to murder Dylan. So the hunter needs to be sent to prison. I’m sure Luke will feel better about having bitten you if he can get to know you. We’ll also find you work to do in the pack that will help you to feel like you’re one of us.”

Though Darien didn’t mention it, Lelandi was sure to be important as their psychologist in helping Rusty to deal with everything he’d gone through since being bitten. And even help him to cope with his PTSD.

Roxie and Dylan gave Luke hugs. He looked so relieved that Rusty had forgiven him. The pack leaders and their new charges left. Peter smiled at Dylan. “Forget training tomorrow morning. You’re ready for work. With the snowstorm coming in, I’m sure we’ll be in rescue mode.”

Dylan nodded and wrapped his arm around Roxie’s shoulders.

“See you at work tomorrow,” CJ said, and he and Peter left the house.

Kayla, Blake, and Nate gave Roxie and Dylan hugs. Kayla said, “Do you want us to take Rosco and Buttercup for the rest of the night?”

“Nah,” Dylan said. “If it wasn’t for taking Rosco for his nighttime walk, who knows how long it would have taken us to catch Rusty.”

“Oh, we’ll have dinner tomorrow night at seven at the Silver Town Tavern—the whole family,” Kayla said.

Roxie smiled. “We’ll be there.”

Then they all said their good nights and Rosco and Buttercup settled down in his bed. Dylan put out the fire and raced Roxie up to their bedroom.

“You got closure tonight,” Roxie said, pulling off Dylan’s plaid flannel shirt.

“So did Luke.” Dylan helped her out of her sweater.

“Yeah, he looked really relieved. Wait. Before the snowstorm hits, we need to go to the pool,” she said, hurrying to remove her pants and opening a drawer. “You have your swimsuit now too.”

“Are you sure that’s what you want to do right this minute?”

Roxie knew Dylan wanted to make love to her, but she really thought this was important. For both of them. “It’s just like the night we first met. I haven’t been swimming since I found you sinking in our pool. Don’t you want to experience your dip in the pool in a good way?”

“Sure.” He finished stripping off his clothes and grabbed his swimsuit out of a drawer. Then he pulled it on and dressed in sweats like she was doing. “Just for a little while.”

“We’ll have a good time.” She hurried to get beach towels for them, her beach bag, bottled waters, and then they bundled up.

Rosco looked up at them from his bed as they headed for the door.

“You stay here tonight,” Roxie said. Then she and Dylan left the house and walked the short distance to the lodge. It was snowing, but not real hard yet.

Inside, they both said hi to the night manager, Eliza, and went inside the pool room. After stripping off their outer clothes, they both dove into the pool.

“Now this is more like it,” Dylan said, pulling Roxie into his arms.

“Yeah. I came over here that night because I was lonely. Then I met you and all that changed for me.”

They kissed each other, then finally swam to the pool divider to the outside of the pool. She hesitated and had a flashback of seeing Dylan sinking in the water, fully clothed, facedown. Then he took her hand, and they swam under the divider.

When they surfaced, they saw Rusty running as a wolf, headed straight for the pool, Luke and the Silver triplets chasing after him in their wolf coats.

He wasn’t going to be able to stop in time. She just knew it. Rusty tried to stop, but he wasn’t used to running as a wolf and being able to turn on a dime. Unable to keep his footing, he fell right into the pool. The teens slipped on the wet patio and ended up falling in too.

Roxie and Dylan just treaded water, staring at the five wolves swimming in the pool. Darien and Lelandi would have a fit when they learned of it.

The wolves swam under the divider and made their way up the stairs. When Dylan and Roxie reached the indoor pool, the wolves were headed for the registration desk. Thank God the lobby was empty at this time of night.

Eliza called out to Dylan and Roxie, phone in hand, “I’ve got this!” She let the wolves into the office and shut the door. Then she said, “Um, Lelandi, this is Eliza at the Timberline Lodge…”

Dylan smiled at Roxie. She smiled at him.

“I think I’ve had enough swimming for the night. What about you?” Roxie asked him, climbing out of the pool.

Dylan joined her and started to dry her off. “I’m all for what comes next.”

They might not have had a long swimming session, just like the night she’d found Dylan in the pool, but now she knew she could swim to the outdoor pool without feeling too much stress—especially when he was with her. By the time they were dressed, the snow was really coming down.

“Is Darien coming to pick them up?” Roxie asked Eliza at the front desk.

“Yeah. The kids were running with Rusty, playing tag, showing him how much fun it could be running and playing as wolves. They didn’t expect him to fall into the pool, nor for them to follow him. Luke wanted to know if they could stay with you tonight.” Eliza winked.

“Another time,” Roxie said. Tonight was her and Dylan’s night. The kids—and Rusty—would have to deal with Darien and Lelandi on their own. “Night, Eliza.”

“I don’t blame you two. Night, Roxie, Dylan,” Eliza said.

“I was afraid you would say yes to allowing Luke, Rusty, and the triplets to stay with us,” Dylan said to Roxie as they headed out into the snow.

“Nope. If we get snowed in, I want it to be with just you, well and Rosco and Buttercup. I love you with all my heart, Dylan.”

He smiled. “Just the way I want it. I love you to the moon and back, Roxie.”