by Terry Spear
Brock raised a brow. He knew Jillian was not-so-subtly challenging him to get to know Natalie better.
“Why would you think I have a specific type of woman in mind?”
Jillian just smiled. Brock wondered what his brother had been telling her about him and his dating ventures. And why she thought Ms. Natalie Silverton wouldn’t suit.
* * *
Natalie finally made it to Denver International Airport. She rushed to get her bag and pick up a rental car, hoping she’d only be about a half hour late, no later.
She still couldn’t believe Angie had met her mate at the Denver airport when she was flying there to go skiing. She had ended up skiing with him at Breckenridge for the whole two weeks when he hadn’t planned to be there at all. Three months later, Angie was tying the knot and moving to his gray wolf pack’s territory near Granby, Colorado. Aaron Greystoke was the pack leader’s cousin, but he also owned a horse ranch. Angie Pullman loved horses, and Natalie wondered if that wasn’t the deciding factor in her friend falling in love with the wolf.
Natalie immediately texted her friend: I’m in Denver, just got a car.
Angie texted her back: There are a ton of guys in the pack who were willing to pick you up.
Yeah, but you know me. I like to have my own car.
Natalie didn’t like to have to rely on anyone but herself. Besides, she wasn’t here to date any wolves, and she knew that was what Angie was up to. She enjoyed being an independent wolf, just like Angie. Though it appeared her friend had changed her mind about that. Natalie would miss all the fun she’d had with her back home.
Thanks for coming. I can’t wait to see you.
Me too, Angie. See you soon.
Wolves mated for life, and they lived so long—aging so much slower than humans once they reached puberty—that it was important to find the wolf they couldn’t live without. Natalie just hoped Angie wasn’t making a mistake with her whirlwind romance.
Using her GPS, Natalie drove from the airport toward Granby, but somewhere along the way, she took a wrong turn, then another. After fifteen minutes of rerouting directions on her GPS, she called Angie. “Hey, my GPS is going crazy. Can you guide me there?”
“I’m sending a SEAL to the rescue. I’m in the middle of toasts. Here, talk to Brock.”
“No, that’s okay, I’ll just—”
“Tell me where you are,” a sexy, deep-baritone male voice said. “I’ll meet you there, and you can follow me here.”
Ugh, if it didn’t mean so much to both of them for Natalie to be there, she would have just skipped it. She wondered if the SEAL was as sexy-looking as he sounded though.
She blew out her breath in an annoyed way. “I’m at—” She looked around. “I don’t know where. I parked at a garden nursery called the Denver Garden Center.”
“There are four of them.”
Of course there were.
His voice calm, as if he was used to helping women in distress, Brock asked, “What are the intersecting roads?”
Oh, just great. “Wait just a minute.” She couldn’t see any intersecting roads! She looked at her GPS. “Um, I think I’m off North Boulevard.”
“Okay, that’s the nearest one to the restaurant. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”
“You can just give me directions.” Otherwise, she would be thirty minutes late instead of fifteen.
“It’s your call, Natalie. I’m one of Aaron’s cousins, Brock Greystoke, by the way.”
“Nice to meet you, Brock. Yeah, it will save us both time, so just give me the directions.” And hopefully, she could make it there without having to be escorted the rest of the way. She could hear all the noisy lunch guests having fun without her. She preferred working with plants more than partying with people. And she had a total love-hate relationship with the GPS. She loved it when it worked. She hated it when it got her lost.
“All right, I’ll stay on the line and get you here that way,” Brock said.
She could listen to his calm, soothing, masculine voice all day. She imagined hers sounded frazzled and annoyed. “Okay.”
“Turn right onto North Boulevard. Stay in the right-hand lane. You’ll turn on the first exit to the right.”
“Okay, leaving the nursery. I’m on North Boulevard, coming up to the first exit on the right.”
“Good,” Brock said, and she was glad he didn’t sound as if he thought she was an idiot.
“Okay, exited North Boulevard.”
“Go down to the third signal and turn left on Elm Street.”
“Oak Street. Ash Street. Elm Street.”
Brock chuckled. Okay, she knew she sounded silly, but she really, really hated getting lost in a strange city, especially when she was already late! She was really nervous about meeting all these strange wolves. Despite working in her parents’ garden shop and being used to meeting customers—human customers—or presenting educational programs to humans, she wasn’t used to meeting a lot of wolves.
“Keep going. You’re nearly there. Stay in the right lane, and at the third signal, you’ll turn right. Dallas’s Steak House is three buildings down on your right.”
“Thank you. I so appreciate it. I’m nearly there.” She should have just thanked him and signed off, but he wasn’t ending the call either, and she felt more at ease knowing if she missed the steak house somehow, Brock would redirect her and make sure she got there all right. “Okay, I see the steak house, and I’m pulling into the parking lot.”
“You’re driving a blue Toyota?”
“Uh, yeah.” She turned to look at the deck leading to the front door of the restaurant, where a large fountain was flowing into a basin.
Wearing blue jeans, a dress shirt, cowboy boots, and a Stetson, Brock was standing next to the fountain, appearing bigger than life, but he looked as though he was into roping steers rather than scuba diving as a SEAL wolf. Dark hair, dark eyes, and a sensuous mouth, curved up in a slight smile, greeted her. His gaze was intense, all-consuming. She parked her car and joined him.
“You must be Natalie, Angie’s best friend. Brock Greystoke, Aaron’s cousin.” Brock offered his hand to her and she shook it, but then worried hers was a little clammy from sweating out the drive there. She should have wiped her hand off on her skirt before she shook his hand.
“All Angie’s talked about was one of us running to the airport and picking you up so you wouldn’t get lost. You know, instead of staying at the hotel, you could stay with any of the families in the town of Greystoke out in Wolf Valley. That way, you won’t have to make the long drive there in the morning for the wedding. I know how it is when you want to have your own getaway vehicle though. Oh, and welcome to Colorado. Angie said you’ve never been here before.”
“Thanks, and no, I haven’t.” How could she tell the darkly handsome wolf she preferred staying at her own hotel because she didn’t want to put anyone out? They’d insist she wasn’t, but she just needed…her own space. She wondered how much Angie had told her new pack members about her.
She sighed, and Brock opened the door to the restaurant for her. The noisy conversation inside was nearly deafening, partly because of their enhanced wolf hearing. That was why she preferred her garden nursery to this.
The aroma of hickory-cooked steaks did appeal though.
“Are you ready for a good-sized steak after all the flying and rushing to get here?” Brock asked.
“Yes. I hate being so late.”
“Don’t worry about it. We just started at noon, and it’s only a quarter of one. Everyone is enjoying cocktails and appetizers first.”
Natalie figured no one would realize she hadn’t been there earlier since no one even knew her and Angie would have been too busy enjoying herself. But Natalie hated arriving late to anything, as if she were the star of the occasion and needed a big entrance. Yet she was v
itally aware of the man walking beside her, his arm brushing hers as they moved closer together so that customers could get by them. When a waiter nearly ran into her, Brock adroitly slipped in behind her, pulling her out of the waiter’s way.
Heat spread through her whole body, and Natalie tried to think of anything other than the way his body was pressed against hers in the sudden crush of customers as a large party was leaving the restaurant. “Angie told me you and your brother, Vaughn, are Navy SEALs. Are you just here on a visit?” she asked Brock.
“No, we’re both out of the navy now, retired. You know how it is. We didn’t look like we were aging, so as soon as we could, we retired. Both of us had been private investigators. Vaughn hooked up with a jaguar policing force that’s called the United Shifter Force, and he has a mate now. They live out here, but their headquarters is in the Houston area. They travel there whenever they need to for a mission. I’m doing the PI business on my own now.”
“You look like you wrangle steers too.”
He smiled at her.
She felt her face flush with heat. Maybe that was the wrong thing to say to him. She saw men wearing western wear in Amarillo too, so she was used to seeing it.
“I help out on Aaron’s ranch when I can. I just like getting out and riding a bit. Do you ride?”
“Uh, no, actually. A bicycle, yes. A horse, no. Angie’s the big horse nut. I guess that’s some of why she and Aaron hit it off.”
“Yeah, it is. And the skiing. Do you ski?”
“No. We don’t have any mountains around Amarillo. I guess the closest is New Mexico. To think Angie switched her plans to go to Colorado instead of New Mexico and met Aaron because of it! I guess it was meant to be.” Natalie was much more of a warm-weather person, though they did get snow in Amarillo. She really couldn’t imagine falling down a mountain on two skinny skis for fun. She figured once Brock learned she didn’t ride horses and she didn’t ski, he wouldn’t find her very interesting. Which was fine with her. She wasn’t looking to hook up with a wolf, even as sexy as he appeared to be.
“Well, sometime when you come back to visit, you can ski with Angie and Aaron.”
She noted Brock didn’t offer. He probably didn’t want to have to deal with a total newbie skier.
They wound their way through the large building until they arrived at a banquet room where the private rehearsal lunch was being held. There were about thirty people in the room, and everyone looked in their direction as they entered.
Angie quickly left her chair and gave Natalie a hug. All of a sudden, the pack members surrounded Natalie, giving her handshakes to welcome her. As stiff as she was around them, they must have realized she needed her space—so no one but Angie and Aaron gave her a hug in greeting.
“I’m so glad you made it. I told you that you should have let someone pick you up at the airport. And you can’t stay at the hotel in Denver. You’re too far away from the fun.” Angie glanced down at Natalie’s hands and tsked. “You have green fingers. Not just a green thumb.”
“I was working in the garden when we first opened, helping a customer with an order, when I realized it was time to catch the flight. Spring and early summer are such busy times for plant sales at the nursery.”
“No problem at all. We’re going straight to the ranch after the lunch. The ranch house has eight bedrooms, and since most everyone lives here in the area, most of the rooms are empty. You know we’ll be having margaritas, and you don’t want to be driving all the way back into Denver. What if you got lost?”
Natalie could never win an argument with her friend. Besides, if she was going to drink, she agreed about not driving back into Denver. “I’ll have to cancel my hotel reservation for tonight, but after the wedding, I can stay the night in Denver to catch my flight the next day.”
“Why don’t you just stay at the ranch house, and then you can have breakfast with some of the pack members before you leave? For now, you can just follow Aaron and me to the ranch after the meal.” Angie sat Natalie next to her chair, while Aaron was sitting on the other side of Angie.
“All right. But only because I know you. We’ll be partying all afternoon. I still can’t believe you’re getting married.”
“You can come and visit us any time you want.” Angie smiled. “Now, let me tell you about all the bachelors in the pack.”
Natalie chuckled. “You know I’m not interested. Period. I love Amarillo and the garden center. What would my parents do without me? I can’t plan on them wanting to relocate again either. So no. I’m just here to help you have fun.”
“Well, I’ll tell you one person who really, really isn’t interested in finding a mate. That’s Brock. Which is why I asked him to help you out with the directions.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. He broke up with a girlfriend a while back, and he hasn’t been interested in one since. She’s not with the pack. He met her under some rather unusual circumstances. Suffice it to say, he’s not looking for a special someone right now. I figured if I sent any of the other bachelor males to help you, their tongues would have been hanging to the floor and their tails wagging behind them, way too eager to win you over.”
Natalie laughed. “Thanks.” Now she was curious about the experience that had made a man like Brock swear off women.
Chapter 2
After lunch, a caravan of cars headed for Aaron’s ranch house to continue the party, but not before Angie arranged it so Brock would drive Natalie’s rental car for her so she wouldn’t get lost.
Brock had been up to the task; it wasn’t any imposition. He’d ridden to Denver with some of his other cousins, and even if they lost the caravan, he knew the way and wouldn’t have to give Natalie directions.
Natalie settled back against the seat. “It wasn’t really necessary,” she said as they followed Vaughn and Jillian’s car to the town of Greystoke while the wedding couple was in the pickup ahead of them. “I couldn’t have gotten lost, not with all the cars to follow.”
Brock chuckled. “No problem. I rode with my brother and his mate, so I didn’t have my Humvee here. I would have worried about you if we’d somehow lost you.”
They lost sight of the first two cars in the caravan at a signal.
“I don’t think my GPS works in Denver,” Natalie said.
He laughed. “Mine’s gone haywire a time or two. So what does a master gardener do?” He envisioned her with bright-orange garden gloves, dirt smudges on her cheeks, her dark hair pulled back in a ponytail, and a trowel in hand as she dug around in the garden.
“I teach about gardening, plants, and wildlife to a lot of groups. What does a SEAL wolf do?”
“Rescues, retrievals, and removals.”
“They all sound the same.”
He smiled. “They’re not. Rescues of people and equipment from hostile situations. Retrieving data and other important items. Removing bad guys from the scene.”
“Sounds dangerous.”
“It could be. Sometimes it was just tedious. It depends on how hostile the situation is.”
“Are you guys going to be at Aaron’s ranch too?”
“Yeah, we’re using the guesthouse to party. You ladies will be in the main ranch house.”
“He’s got a lot of room for visitors.”
“Yeah, he’s one of the most welcoming wolves of our pack. He wanted a place for visiting wolves to stay who weren’t with our pack.”
“Does he have them stay often?”
“They come through and check out our pack, and most move on. But sometimes we have visitors who end up staying.”
“It’s a beautiful area. I love the mountains as a backdrop.”
“It is beautiful. I don’t think I could live anywhere that’s flat.” He’d traveled all over, but he still loved the view of mountains.
“It would be fun to run through t
hem as a wolf.”
“If we had time, we could go there together.”
She smiled at him. “‘Time’ is the keyword.”
“Yeah.” He knew she wasn’t interested in staying any longer than she had to. “If you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask anyone while you’re here.”
“Thanks, and thanks for offering to drive.”
“No problem.”
They finally reached the ranch, where Natalie joined the other ladies and entered the ranch house while the guys gathered in the guesthouse out back.
“You are so slick,” Vaughn said to Brock as they walked inside the guesthouse. “I never thought of doing that.”
“What’s that?” Brock grabbed a beer out of an ice chest and joined the guys as they were telling war stories.
“Suggesting you aren’t interested in a woman, but you’re always there for her.”
Brock smiled and tapped his frosty beer bottle against his brother’s.
Their cousin Shawn joined them. “Yeah, he’s slick all right. He moved in to protect the lady in SEAL-wolf mode right away.”
“Hell, you’re an Army Ranger. I would have thought you’d figure out how to snag her attention,” Vaughn said to Shawn.
“I would have, but Angie wasn’t buying it. She bought Brock’s story—no more she-wolves for him.”
“Natalie is so not interested in being here long-term,” Brock said. “She will probably visit Aaron and Angie in the future, but you know how that goes. Everyone’s busy with their own lives, so that could be rarely.” Brock got a call on his cell and saw it was Angie on the caller ID. “Hey, Angie, what’s up?”
“Hey, Brock, I swear I won’t ask another thing of you this afternoon while you party with the boys, but we need a man to light our fire.”
He laughed.
“We’re all dressed up and don’t want to get sooty or anything,” Angie further explained.
“I’m on my way.”