Chapter 7

Dylan realized as soon as he said he’d stay with the boy and Roxie that he was in for a negative reaction. Roxie looked surprised he’d say he’d stay with her when she hadn’t invited him, and it was true he was a target, should Jim still be out to silence him. Or maybe even one of Jim’s friends would make the attempt this time.

“That’s true, Blake. Sorry, I should haven’t invited myself to stay at Roxie’s house anyway without her invitation,” Dylan said.

“You’re welcome to stay with me,” Roxie quickly said, throwing him a lifeline when he felt he was quickly sinking in quicksand. “I can also take care of trouble if we should have any at the house, since I was in the army.”

Dylan figured she’d mentioned it for Luke’s benefit, and he guessed that was how she was able to take down one of the big men in the lodge’s lobby who’d had too much to drink.

“The army, cool.” Luke asked for seconds of everything but looked at Roxie’s blackened eye.

“I received that in the line of duty, but the woman and guy who started it are sitting in jail right now.” Roxie smiled at the teen.

“I…I’ll stay with Roxie and Dylan, if it’s okay with you,” Luke said, addressing Blake as if he was the authority here.

Dylan would rather stay on Blake’s good side. When he worked around wolves, he preferred to work with them, certainly not against them.

“Or you could stay with us,” Kayla said, offering her and Nate’s house for lodging again.

“I’d like to stay with Dylan and Roxie if it’s all right with everyone,” Luke said.

Blake let out his breath. “Yeah, sure, if Roxie’s fine with it. If you have any trouble at all—”

“We’ll call you and everyone else in Silver Town, guaranteed,” Roxie said.

At least here, the wolves would all help each other out as a pack. In Denver, Dylan had to rely on the police for assistance. After Luke finished eating supper, Nicole served him double portions of pie topped with whipped cream. He scarfed up both pieces in record time too.

“How long have you been living in the woods?” Roxie asked.

“For a week.”

Dylan assumed Luke hadn’t been getting enough to eat and running off whatever he managed to eat, as thin as he looked.

It was getting to be midnight, and they needed to get to bed. Everyone said good night, and then Roxie, Dylan, and Luke put on their parkas and headed out into the snow to walk over to her place.

“You don’t have your bag at my place,” Roxie reminded Dylan.

“Uh, yeah. I can run over and get it in the morning.”

“I don’t have my stuff,” Luke said.

“Oh, the sheriff had it all packed up and took it in for safekeeping.” Roxie got on her phone and called the sheriff. “Luke’s staying with me. Can someone drop off his clothes at my place, Peter?” She pulled out her keys and unlocked her front door.

They all headed inside.

Dylan locked the door after them. He was surprised the sheriff hadn’t already come to talk to Luke.

“Uh, yeah.” She glanced at Dylan. “Dylan’s staying with me too. All right. Thanks.” She ended the call. “Sheriff Peter Jorgenson will bring your things to the house, Luke.”

“Oh, great. So you said that you were a mountain man?” Luke asked Dylan, sounding really interested in his story.

Dylan was amused. Maybe that was why Luke wanted to stay with him for the night. “It was a way for me to have some freedom as a wolf and not have human foster parents take me in who wouldn’t understand a wolf shifter’s needs.”

“Yeah, that’s what I was afraid of. So where did you live?” Luke asked.

“I lived in a tent but turned into my wolf when it was too cold. As a wolf, I could eat what I caught, which meant I did lots of fishing and could drink water wherever I could, unlike humans who would have to filter it or boil it. I ran in the San Isabel National Forest near here so that I couldn’t be hunted—legally, anyway. I hid my tent and backpack in a cave and moved it sometimes, just so I wouldn’t lose my belongings to somebody who might run across them. You know how much of a disaster that could be. Sometimes, I’d bury my things.

“Living like that wasn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. I had to keep out of sight of hunters. I ran into a sow and her cubs once, and she chased me off before I ended up getting killed over it. I ran into a pack of wild wolves another time, and they weren’t really receptive to my being in their territory. I never ran into wolf shifters. No one who could help me like the people of Silver Town can assist you. By the time I was eighteen and could live on my own in Denver again, I had grown a lot. My clothes were a little too small for me.”

Luke laughed. “I think that is so cool. Can you take me in?” Luke sounded hopeful.

“Uh, I’m from Denver. After this job, I’ll be taking on another assignment, so I’m not sure where I’ll be exactly.”

Then there was a knock on the door and Roxie went to answer it. “Peter is here.” She opened the door for him, and he came in, carrying Luke’s tent and all his gear.

“Hey, good to see you,” Peter said to Luke. “I got held up on a case, or I would have been here earlier. Okay, can you tell me what you saw exactly, Luke?”

Then they all sat in the living room so they could talk.

Luke told the sheriff all the details he had given Dylan and the others at Blake and Nicole’s house. Then he described the men as much as he could to the sheriff.

“Jim was the shooter then,” Dylan said, listening carefully to Luke’s description. Tall, dark-haired, with a beard. Luke hadn’t seen his eyes, but he was wearing the gray knit hat that he always did. Fennel was dark-haired and bearded like Jim. Xander was red-bearded and red-haired. And Eddie was the blond-haired, bearded man—the one in the shallow grave.

Luke explained how he had left home after learning his parents had died in a car crash and he hadn’t wanted to be taken into foster care. So he might be listed as a missing teen out of Denver.

“We’ll take care of that. We have ways of updating records and, guess what, you found relatives that you didn’t know about until then and they’re taking you in. We’ll have you adopted so you’re legit, but we can let you live with different families until you find one that you truly enjoy being with,” Peter said.

“Dylan. That’s who I want to be with. He’s like me. He has the same background as me. He knows what I’m going through,” Luke said.

“He’s not from here,” Peter said, casting a look in Dylan’s direction as if he was assuring himself that Dylan hadn’t decided to stay here and he didn’t know about it.

Dylan said, “He’s right.”

“But you could move here, couldn’t you? And live with her?” Luke motioned to Roxie. “I could live with the two of you then.” He looked so hopeful that Dylan would agree.

Roxie chuckled. “Hey, it’s late. Peter, if you don’t have any other questions for Luke at this point, he needs to get to bed. So do Dylan and I. Dylan, you can sleep in any of my siblings’ bedrooms. It’s your choice. Luke, you can sleep in the guest room in there.” She motioned to the room on the first floor.

“Thanks, Roxie.” Luke sounded a little unsettled as if he had hoped they’d go along with his idea that they would adopt him right away and things weren’t working out as he’d planned.

“Okay, I’ll see you all later. Oh, if you could, I need your phone number so I can call you if something happens or I need any more information from you,” Peter said to Luke. “You too, Dylan.”

They both shared their phone numbers with Peter and then he frowned at Roxie. “The guy who punched you is up on assault and battery charges. The same with the girl who tried to kick you and the other man who tried to hit you. The other woman also, for striking your brothers for trying to get her drunken friends under control until law enforcement arrived.”

“Good. So they’re getting some jail time?” Dylan asked.

“Yep. That’s the thing with our justice system here—defense attorneys, the prosecutor, the judge, they’re all wolves. Humans who create issues in our town don’t stand a chance. These four are also banned from the lodge. Their stuff has been cleared out and they’ll be escorted out of town in three days,” Peter said.

“Oh, I love it here already,” Luke said.

“Yeah, we’ll link you up with some other teens so you’ll have some friends here too,” Peter said.

“That would be great. Maybe someone can go skiing with me? If someone can pay my ski pass and for the ski rentals,” Luke said, suddenly sounding really cheered about being here.

“Maybe Roxie can help. She’s part owner of a ski lodge.” Dylan was glad Luke wasn’t thinking the life of a mountain man would be even better than staying with a family here in Silver Town. He needed a stable environment, family to take care of him, friends to socialize with, not like Dylan who had missed out on all that when he was on his own for two years.

“Be talking with you.” Peter left.

“I’m really tired. I’m going to bed. Thanks for letting me stay here.” Luke picked up his bags.

“You’re welcome,” Roxie said.

Luke went into the guest room with his bags. They soon heard him showering while Roxie led Dylan upstairs.

“My room is the master bedroom at the end of the hall. If you need anything, feel free to help yourself. If you start to feel poorly—the doctor said head injuries could cause trouble days after the injury occurred even—let me know and I’ll get you to the clinic.”

“Thanks, and, uh, sorry about inviting myself over to your place.”

She chuckled. “I know you did it because you wanted Luke to feel comfortable and he wanted to stay with you. And you wanted to stay with me, you know, because I can keep an eye on you if you have any medical issues and because I saved your life before.”

Dylan smiled.

Before he could entertain the thought of kissing her good night, he got a call and glanced at it. “Work.”

“Night.” She smiled.

He sighed, then answered the phone and headed down the hall to the bedroom closest to hers. “Yeah, I’m still on the case,” she heard him tell someone.

Here Dylan thought he was going to finally get to kiss Roxie, but then his boss had to call him this late at night and ruin the moment.

“I learned you were hospitalized—that one of the hunters nearly killed you.”

“Uh, yeah.” Dylan hadn’t been about to call that in. Not when he knew his boss might take him off the case because it was damned personal now. “But I’m fine.”

“I have another case for you. Some trapper is setting illegal leg traps out for wildlife near the San Isabel National Forest. Since you’re out in that area, see if you can catch anyone setting the traps. In the meantime, grab those traps.”

“Yeah, sure, I will. I want to check out the cabin where Jim stays sometimes.”

“The police are on this. It’s no longer a FWS mission.”

“Yeah, it is. They killed an elk.” Dylan knew his boss would be shaking his head. Murder and attempted murder of human beings trumped the illegal killing of wildlife any day. “And he tried to kill me, and I’m a special agent for the FWS.”

“Exactly, which is why I want you on the trapper case. Since you’re one of our special agents who is closest to the location, I want you on it. But only if you’re really all right. Otherwise, you’re off this case and on medical leave.”

“Who told you that I had been injured?”

“You should have! I had to learn it from the sheriff of Silver Town.”

Hell.

“He called me to verify who you were, since you had your badge on you when you nearly drowned in Timberline Ski Lodge’s swimming pool! Not to mention you work for me, and the sheriff wanted me to know that you’d been injured, and I might not hear from you for a bit. He needed to know if you’d been down there on a job to learn if it had anything to do with you being attacked. Also, if you had any family he could get in touch with. You know the drill. You get injured on the job, you go on medical leave until the doctor confirms you can return to work. I don’t want you driving back here to get the paperwork done. You can find the necessary forms online. Get the doctor who has already seen you to fill out the paperwork.”

“Right. Thanks.”

“Where are you staying now?”

“At one of the lodge owners’ homes, along with the boy who witnessed the shooting.”

“Okay, well, keep me posted on what’s happening—medical-wise—and with your case. Otherwise, take it easy. You don’t know how peeved I get when we have to fill out all the paperwork if one of our agents dies on the job.”

Dylan smiled. “Right.” He knew his boss was more worried about keeping his agents alive.

They said good night and Dylan took a shower, but he didn’t have a change of clothes here. He usually slept naked, so he just wrapped a towel around his waist and grabbed his dirty clothes, then carried them to the bedroom he was using.

He set his dirty clothes on one chair and the damp towel on the back of another. Then he slipped under the covers, not closing the door so he could protect Luke and Roxie better if someone tried breaking into the house.

He stretched out on the bed, hands locked behind his head. He hadn’t caught the hunters, but some good had come of the whole matter. They had found Luke, and he would have a good home to live in. He would have a family that would raise him. Any number of Silver Town pack members would drive him to Denver to be a witness to the murder at a trial—when they caught Jim and could put him on trial. But at least Luke wouldn’t be on his own or worried that a judge would put him in foster care.

Dylan sighed. He needed to get with the doctor as soon as possible and fill out that paperwork to take medical leave. He was looking forward to spending more time here with Roxie, but he still planned to check out Jim’s grandfather’s cabin as soon as he could.

The next morning, Roxie was so annoyed with herself for waking up as a wolf. Usually once she had run as a wolf at night, she wouldn’t have issues with shifting right away. But it was the height of the full moon, and that was when she had the least control over it.

She heard Luke talking with Dylan downstairs in the kitchen, and she was glad that the two of them were getting along so well. They were laughing and talking about their adventures in the woods, while she was frustrated and stuck in her bedroom. Normally, she left her bedroom door ajar, but with Luke and Dylan staying here with her, she had shut it for more privacy.

She paced, not wanting them to know she was having trouble with the shifting issue. But she didn’t want them to think she was sleeping in all day. She smelled bacon and eggs. She raised her brows, but she had told Dylan he could get anything he wanted. Since she couldn’t leave her bedroom, he was welcome to fix himself and Luke breakfast.

She wondered what his boss had said about the case. Had he taken Dylan off it? Was Dylan leaving soon?

She knew he would. Yet she hoped he wouldn’t.

Aww, damn it. She couldn’t stay in her bedroom until she shifted back. She woofed.

Luke and Dylan quit talking. She hesitated to woof again, but she figured they were waiting to see if she would woof to let them know she was stuck in her bedroom and wasn’t a royal wolf. That was one way to tell Dylan and the boy that she had shifting issues. She woofed again.

Then she heard Dylan running up the stairs. She knew it wasn’t Luke, whose footfalls would be lighter.

She waited, then sat on her rump. The doorknob twisted and the door opened. Dylan smiled at her. “You’re beautiful, you know.”

She growled.

He smiled. “Come on down and you can sit with us while we make breakfast.”

She growled again but followed him down the hall.

Then they went down the stairs to the kitchen. She was surprised to see Luke turning the bacon in the frying pan.

“Dylan was showing me how to do this. You’re not a royal?” Luke asked.

Wasn’t it obvious? She growled and sat down on the floor in the dining room and waited, trying to make herself shift. Then she realized if she did, she didn’t have any clothes down here!

Someone called her phone, but it was upstairs.

“I’ll get it.” Dylan raced off, running up the stairs and down the hall to her bedroom.

“I’m a royal, but my mom had recently told me about wolf shifters who had more human genetics,” Luke said. “We were both really surprised when we heard a woof coming from your bedroom.” Luke served up the bacon and eggs on a couple of plates. “Do you want me to serve yours up on a plate and I can put it on the floor for you?”

She growled and shook her head. Normally only her family might be around when she had trouble shifting or when they had the same trouble with it. So she wasn’t happy about having virtual strangers in the house who probably wouldn’t understand what it was like to have to cope with this.

She heard Dylan on the phone as he hurried to descend the stairs.

“Yeah, Roxie’s a wolf. Okay, I’ll tell her.” He set the phone down on the dining room table. “That was Gabrielle. She said Landon shifted too and Kayla and Blake are staying home in case they shift. Gabrielle told me Nate, Nicole, and she are all royals. She was headed to the vet clinic, and she said if you need anything, Nicole or Nate would take care of it.”

Roxie loved her in-laws. They had all been so understanding about the siblings having shifting issues from time to time. She lay down on the floor next to the fire crackling in the fireplace, trying to chill. She was not going to eat off a plate on the floor. This never lasted that long anyway, and she’d shift back and eat then. Dylan or Luke had turned on the fireplace mantel lights, which lifted her spirits a bit.

“I called the doctor this morning,” Dylan said. “I was going to run over to the lodge to get my bag for a change of clothes, but Nate did it so I could watch over Luke.”

“And you too,” Luke said, waving a slice of crispy bacon in Roxie’s direction, then crunching on it.

The bacon smelled so good, and she was starving.

“Anyway,” Dylan said, “my boss told me I was on medical leave until the doctor says I am able to return to duty.”

Roxie lifted her head and looked at him.

“The sheriff told my boss I had almost drowned in the lodge’s pool. I don’t know if he told him I’d suffered a mild concussion, but I didn’t want to mention it. But you know how we are. We heal up faster than humans. Still, if the doc says so, I’m thinking I’ll need the whole week to recuperate. I’ll be able to go to the Valentine’s Day party then. If you don’t have a date, I would love to take you,” Dylan said.

“Yes,” Luke said, sounding as though he thought this might mean he could stay with them if things worked out between Dylan and Roxie. “I want to go too. Can I go?”

She grunted and nodded.

“I can stay at the lodge if you’d prefer me to. Or I can stay here and help you out while you’re having shifting issues this week,” Dylan said.

“Me too,” Luke said.

She appreciated both of them saying so, though she was still feeling growly about it because she couldn’t shift back.

“I’ve got another job to do here, near the national forest. I need to discover who’s setting leg traps for animals. The boss doesn’t really want me to go after Jim because it’s a murder case now and because Jim attempted to murder me, so my boss feels it will be more personal. But I can do both while I’m searching for the trapper,” Dylan said. “And it’s not personal.”

Roxie shook her head. She knew Dylan wasn’t going to give up searching for Jim so she was glad his boss gave him another job. She couldn’t believe someone would be setting up illegal wildlife traps. She hoped Peter and the other law-enforcement guys would help Dylan with both cases.

Luke and Dylan finished breakfast and both of them cleaned up the dishes. Then they moved into the living room to join her. Dylan carried in a cup of coffee, while Luke had made himself a cup of hot cocoa.

They were just watching the flames flicker in the fireplace when she finally felt the urge to shift, her muscles warming and stretching. Yes! Thrilled, she jumped up from the floor and tore up the stairs to her bedroom. Now she was ready to eat breakfast if the guys hadn’t eaten all the bacon!

She was glad Dylan’s boss was putting him on leave until the doctor approved him going back to work. She did like the idea that Dylan could stay here with her to help her out. At least he was able to answer Gabrielle’s phone call. Luke was cute about it too, but she felt he should stay with a family who had some teens around his age so he could make some more friends, though he seemed to be really attached to Dylan. She knew how important that was too.

Then again, Dylan wouldn’t be here for that long before he returned to work. So why did she want to make sure he stayed here in Silver Town with the rest of the pack?