by Terry Spear
He would never be able to get enough of her, and he was glad he had an extended lifetime to pleasure her. When she grazed her nails gently down his back, he couldn’t last any longer.
He came, thrusting a few more times before grinding out, “You make my world complete.”
“As you do mine. I can’t imagine not having you in my life since we met.”
He pulled off her and lay on his back. She snuggled up to Sarandon. “You’re easy to love, you know.”
“I feel the same about you.”
“I feel totally boneless and wish we could just stay here the rest of the day, just like this.”
Hating to mention it, he said, “We have to find Herman.”
She sighed. “Yeah, time to put another one behind bars so we can do more of this. Come on, mate of mine. Help me up.”
He got out of the bed and pulled her up and into his arms. He snuggled her close, his cock twitching. She smiled, then kissed him slowly on the lips and finally separated from him. “I’m getting something to drink before we run, and then let’s go.”
“Sounds good to me. Making love to you works up a bit of an appetite too. We can eat when we get home.”
He swore he heard something push the wolf door open, and she quickly whispered “Wolf company” to Sarandon before shifting.
No one would come into her house without forewarning unless that someone was trouble.
Sarandon had shifted just as quickly and brushed past her, ready to tear into the wolf. There was only one wolf he believed would come in uninvited.
When he saw the brown wolf this time and smelled his scent, he recognized him from the meeting with him at the Antlers Hotel. Burt.
The wolf’s brows lifted, his tail stiff, his ears down a little as he saw Sarandon. What did the bastard think? That because Jenna had been trying to locate him on her own, she would be alone right now? Badly injured? Barely able to fight him, if he showed up unannounced?
Burt tried to make it back to the wolf door, but Sarandon pounced on his back and bit him hard.
The wolf let out a yelp. Sarandon wasn’t letting the bastard live. When their kind tried to kill humans or wolves, it was a death sentence. Unless there were extenuating circumstances, like self-defense or protecting an innocent. But going after people who were trying to do their job and keep their kind safe?
The wolf was as big as Sarandon, and he twisted and turned to get loose of Sarandon’s grip, finally breaking free. He was hurting. Even so, he snapped and snarled, trying to keep Sarandon from attacking again. Thankfully, Jenna waited in the wings, and Sarandon was glad she didn’t try to attack. This was his job, unless the wolf managed to get the best of him. Sarandon wasn’t about to let him. He lunged in, and the two wolves growled and snapped at each other, trying to grab the other’s throat but only managing to clash teeth.
Sarandon tasted his blood, and Burt’s. Burt tried to back out the wolf door and Sarandon tried to stop him, but Burt managed to get outside, whipped around, and ran.
For his mate and CJ and Alex, Sarandon couldn’t let the bastard go free. He ran like the wind after the retreating wolf, and he heard Jenna running to catch up. He saw her run beside Burt, and Sarandon didn’t want her to get anywhere near him until he realized what she was doing. She was running him toward the box canyon. Like Alex, Burt wouldn’t know the area that well. He’d only been here the one time.
Sarandon loved his clever mate, though he still didn’t want her near the bastard.
As soon as they reached the canyon, Burt looked up and realized his mistake. He had no time to rectify it. He turned, and Sarandon was on him again. Only this time, he tore into Burt before the wolf could fight back. He cut off his windpipe and held on until Burt sank to the ground and shifted.
He was dead.
Before Jenna could race back to her house to tell her mom what had happened, Sarandon saw five male wolves running toward them. What the hell?
No way could Sarandon fight off that many wolves, and with only Jenna’s mom at her own home next door—even if she could come help out—two females and one male against five hefty males wouldn’t be a match they could win.
Then one of the wolves barked at the others, and they all stopped. The black wolf ran forward then, the alpha male of the group. Sarandon could win this battle, even though he was bleeding some. He would do anything to protect Jenna.
The wolf barked at him, and Sarandon smelled his scent as he ran to join them. Join them. Not fight them. Relieved beyond measure, Sarandon realized the wolf was Monty.
How had he and the others known Burt was here? He wondered if they’d caught wind of where he was headed. Sarandon hoped the pack would understand why he’d had to take such drastic measures.
Monty shifted. “We have other men standing by. Some of my men will return with you and Jenna to let them know where we are. We’ll take Burt back with us. I’m sorry it had to come to this.”
Sarandon shifted. “How did you know he’d be here?”
“The whole pack has been on the lookout for him. We learned he was meeting some waitress at a bar tonight, but we discovered he’s been staying at her house. After what happened to Jenna, we were afraid he might come after her. After he tried to kill her and didn’t succeed and it turned the whole pack against him, we were worried he’d want revenge.”
“Sorry it had to come to this.”
“We smelled his scent at the house. We know you couldn’t let him go. We’ll take care of him. Thanks for all your help,” Monty said.
Sarandon nodded, and the two men shifted. Then he went with Jenna and two of the men. He smelled that one of the men who stayed with Monty was Anton. He was sorry for him most of all.
Jenna kept pressing against Sarandon, showing him her love and support. He licked her muzzle, and they kept loping toward the house. Only now did he feel some pain from the bites Burt had managed to inflict. Nothing really serious that wouldn’t heal up in a few days. More irritating than anything.
When they arrived at the house, they found five cars sitting in Jenna’s driveway and more men, still in their human form, appearing anxious to learn what had happened. One of the wolves shifted and said, “Burt’s dead. He entered Jenna’s home to kill her, and Sarandon had to fight him. He didn’t have a choice.”
“Hell,” said the man who had taught the boys to ride motorcycles. He glanced at Sarandon. “I don’t blame you one damn bit. As much as I hate to say it, Burt dug his own grave.”
“We’ll show you where his body is.” The man shifted back into his wolf form, and he and the other wolf led the men to the box canyon.
Sarandon followed Jenna into the house through the wolf door, and as soon as they shifted, she was looking him over, tears in her eyes. “God, Sarandon.”
“I’m all right. We’re all right. The pack is with us on this. They’ll take care of him.”
“And Alex? What will he think when he learns you killed his brother?” Jenna pulled Sarandon into the bathroom to tend to his wounds.
“If he can’t understand that protecting my mate is more important than life itself, it doesn’t matter what he thinks.”
“True.” Once she tenderly cleaned his wounds and bandaged them, kissing each of them, Sarandon pulled her into his arms and kissed her mouth with tenderness.
Jenna’s phone rang in the bedroom, and she nearly leaped out of his arms. “Wolf howl. Mom.” She rushed into the room, got her phone, and put it on speaker. “We’re all right.” She glanced at Sarandon as he pulled her into his arms again. He kissed her cheek.
“Monty and some of his pack members are here. Sarandon had to kill Burt.”
“Anton called to say they had just arrived at your house but not to come over until they knew it was safe.”
“Yes, Burt had come into the house to kill me, but he didn’t expect me to have a mate
. He wasn’t planning on having to face a wolf like Sarandon.”
“How is he?”
“Dead. Burt, I mean. Sarandon? A few bite marks. I’ll take care of him.”
“We don’t have to try to locate Herman right away. Let Sarandon rest up.”
Sarandon was shaking his head. When he had a mission to do, he did it. A few bites weren’t going to stop him.
“Did you tell him what the guy is charged with?” her mother asked.
Jenna looked up at Sarandon, and he frowned down at her.
“Aggravated assault and battery.” She smiled a little at Sarandon.
“We’ll take him down together,” Sarandon said. “We’re going to get something to eat, and we’ll be on our way.”
“Are you sure you’re all right?” Victoria asked.
Sarandon smiled. He hadn’t had a mother in so long; he was going to love this.
“Yes,” Jenna said. “We’re a team, and I don’t want to do this without him.”
When they ended the call, they got dressed and found Monty and his group taking Burt home in a tarp in the back of one of the trucks that had a cover for the bed.
Everyone had shifted back and mostly dressed. They all looked pretty grim about the whole situation. Sarandon wondered if the man who had told Jenna where to find Burt at his grandfather’s farmhouse was here.
He didn’t have long to wonder. The older man came over with Monty to speak with them. “I’m so sorry,” he said to Jenna. “After Burt shot you and you finally came to enough to call Monty for help, I realized what a mistake I’d made, believing Burt wasn’t capable of injuring anyone like that. I just figured CJ had riled him. To try to kill a woman? You were still lying on the ground and barely able to move when we arrived, and you hadn’t even drawn your gun. So he wasn’t acting out of fear for his life. I can’t tell you how much I regret forcing you to go alone and not calling for any backup. I’ll do whatever you want to make it up to you.”
“Thanks. You don’t need to. Your apology is enough,” Jenna said graciously.
Monty shook Sarandon’s hand. “Don’t be a stranger. You’re as much family as Alex is.”
“Despite what happened here today?” Sarandon asked.
“Hell yeah,” said two of the men who were getting ready to leave.
The one said, “You took care of a bad situation none of us wanted to handle.”
The other nodded.
“And, Jenna,” Monty said, “you’re just as much family.”
“Thanks, Monty. We’ll be headed into your territory looking for another fugitive soon, and when we have the chance, we’ll drop by and say hi.”
“That would be good.” Monty gave her a hug, and then he and the rest of his men left.
“I feel bad for Anton,” Jenna said.
Sarandon noticed he’d already left with the man driving the truck carrying Burt’s body and hadn’t said goodbye. “He’ll take time to grieve. I just hope that Alex will understand.” He didn’t want to lose his brother before he’d even had a chance to know him.
“You know,” Jenna said, taking Sarandon’s hand and leading him into the house, “you have a sister and her family to get to know better too.”
“Right. That we do.”
“Let’s have lunch and go find Herman.”
* * *
Jenna still felt bad about the situation with Burt, knowing that’s how it had to end, glad his pack was willing to forgive. It was still a hard thing to do.
Trying to focus on the task at hand, they drove back to Cañon City to try to track down Herman, letting Monty know they were again chasing down a fugitive in his neck of the woods.
“We want to help.”
“Herman Schofield is human.”
“And he’s wanted for aggravated assault and battery, and your wolf partner has been injured. We want to help. We need to help.”
“We don’t want to get a bunch of your people arrested if anything goes wrong.”
“We’ll just be your backup, and you lead.”
“All right. We’ll be there in an hour. Whoever wants to go with us can, and we’ll revisit the garage where two of the guy’s brothers work. I have a sneaking suspicion they know where he is, but they weren’t about to tell me where.”
“Just come here, and you can take your backup with you.”
When they finished the call, Jenna couldn’t believe the pack was going to help them in this.
“Monty’s taken control of his pack, given them a mission, his territory, and they’re willing to make amends to you. Sounds like a good deal.”
She wiped away tears. “Right. And they want to make amends to you.” She glanced at him. “You were injured.”
“Not hardly a scratch.”
She snorted.
Sarandon got a call from Eric and put it on speaker. “Yeah, Brother?”
“Brett’s coordinating this business of finding people to take over your guided tours. Somehow I got roped into taking on the hiking tour.”
“Roped in?” Sarandon asked, smiling.
Jenna still didn’t get the dynamics between the brothers. Was he kidding? Or not?
“Uh, yeah. My mate said we were doing it. Together. As a team.”
Sarandon laughed. “Thanks, Eric. And give Pepper a hug for me. And for Jenna.”
“Especially for me,” Jenna said.
“I will. Hey, Monty called CJ and said you took Burt down. So, what I want to know is why I’m hearing this from CJ.”
Jenna smiled at Sarandon. His older brother would always want to be the first to know what was going on in Sarandon’s life. She’d make a mental note of it. Contact Eric first when they learned they were going to have their children.
Sarandon told him about Burt trying to kill Jenna. Twice. That he’d taken him out and that was the end of the matter. “The best news is, not only do we not have to deal with him any longer, but a couple of people from Monty’s pack are coming to help us out with our next case. We’re on our way there now.”
“Just how badly injured are you?” Eric asked, sounding concerned.
“Just a few bite marks. They’ll heal quickly.”
“They wanted to help out because they’re afraid you’re not at the top of your game,” Eric said.
“They want to help out because they feel badly about what happened to us.”
“All right.”
Jenna swore Eric was waiting for her to chime in and say Sarandon was fit for duty, but this was between him and Eric.
“Let me know, first, if you have any more life-or-death situations,” Eric said, commanding.
Sarandon smiled. “Will do.”
“Better.”
She chuckled. She loved his brothers.
After they ended the call, Sarandon got a call from Darien.
“Uh-oh,” she said.
Sarandon laughed. “Yeah, I should have told him too.”
The rest of the way to Cañon City, Jenna listened to Sarandon telling the story over and over: to his other brothers, Brett, and even CJ. Monty’s version wasn’t detailed enough. Sarandon talked to his cousins Jake and Tom after he explained to Darien what had happened. Jenna wondered if it would always be this way, even now that he lived away from the pack. She suspected it would. He was a Silver wolf and would always be a Silver wolf, no matter where he lived. She thought it was wonderful to have a family and a pack like that.
When they reached Monty’s house, she’d expected to find a couple of men who had volunteered to help. Instead, ten men were standing in the curved driveway, cars parked all along it, and in the center, two of the men had hold of Herman Schofield.
Her jaw dropped, her mind racing as she tried to figure out how that had happened.
“We figured we’d find him for you,” Mont
y said. “That way, Sarandon would have more time to recuperate, and you’d have a break. And if you’ve got room for a couple more fugitive recovery agents working for your mom, I’ve got a couple of men who would love to join your force and cover this area.”
“They’ll have to apply for the positions with my mom and complete the training. If it were me, I’d say you’ve done a wonderful job. We’ll pay the reward money—”
“This one is on us,” Monty said, the men agreeing.
One of the men there was Anton. Even he had come through for them.
“Thank you. All of you,” Jenna said.
“Thank you,” Monty said.
Epilogue
A week later, instead of the Spring Fling just being a gathering of wolf packs, with Sarandon and Jenna’s blessing, Pepper and Eric went all out to make it a combined spring celebration and a wedding.
Jenna couldn’t believe that not only was she gaining the Silver Town wolf pack as family, but also Eric and Pepper’s Grayling wolf pack. And Alex; his mate; his sister, Faye; and her family came, as well as Monty, who was still the leader of their pack and eager to see some good in the world. And Alex’s parents. Jenna was glad to see them all.
Faye was smiling this time and seemed to want to get to know her half brothers and their extended families. Her kids ran to play with kids from the other two packs.
Jenna’s mother had hired three of Monty’s pack members, and they’d already caught four of the suspects on the run.
And they had all wanted to meet the Silver pack too.
Everyone in the Silver pack treated her family, her parents and sisters, as part of their families too. And they were thrilled.
“Brett told me he found guides for all your tours and was worried you’d be upset no one minded you weren’t going to be guiding them any longer,” Jenna said.
Sarandon laughed. “He was kidding you. He knows I wouldn’t be upset about giving it all up for you.”
Jenna’s sisters, Suzanne and Crystal, were having a great time dancing with a lot of bachelor wolves, and Jenna worried they might mate a couple of the wolves and end up with one of the other packs.
Sarandon took hold of Jenna and waltzed across the grass to the music. “I thought I wouldn’t be able to do this with you until the Victorian Days celebration in Silver Town.”