Her parents had even sold their home this morning and were getting ready to move to the ranch. Two of her art students had won contests. Not once had she had to do dead-body sketches since the new sketch artist had come on the scene. Nothing could be better.
Then a hotel clerk ran into the restaurant, having recognized Adam from investigating the hotel theft before, and hurriedly said, “We’ve had a robbery in one of the guests’ rooms and the man just left the elevator.”
“Go,” Sierra said to Adam when he glanced her direction as if making sure it was all right with her.
Tori and Adam raced off, but Sierra paid for the meal and hurried after them and the clerk with sketch pad in hand, just in case the detectives didn’t catch the thief and the security video hadn’t either. “So what did he look like?” she asked the clerk.
Life would never be the same. But it still was all good.
Epilogue
Four months later
After having dinner and fancy ice cream sundaes, then leaving through the back-gate wolf door of their new home in Forest Park as wolves, Sierra and Adam were having a ball running with Josh, Brooke, Brad, Janice, Tori, and Ethan. But things had changed. Sierra, Janice, and Brooke were all pregnant with twins, and the guys were still fussing about them running as wolves. Which sure didn’t stop the ladies.
Sierra was still giving art classes a couple of days a week at the ranch, and Janice and her parents couldn’t wait for her and Brooke to give birth. Sierra was also still doing the part-time police sketches, mostly witness sketches, and the new guy was still totally grateful she gave up the full-time job to him. She’d even planted her Pacific Northwest wildflower seeds at their new home as soon as they’d moved.
And Sierra loved her art studio. She took all the pictures Phyllis had torn up and redid them for her clients. Sierra had even painted Mount Hood in the distance, including her whole family in the woods—all in wolf form—to hang over the fireplace mantel.
Tori, Cassie, and the moms helped Brooke, Sierra, and Janice decorate the twins’ rooms for their arrivals while the guys barbecued steaks and ribs and helped out with whatever the ladies needed.
Tomorrow, they were all going for a ride on the boat, just like Sierra and Adam had talked about before they were mated. Her parents and Adam’s and Brad and his mate enjoyed the boat when Sierra and Adam had to work, and she was glad the boat wasn’t sitting idle. They had even managed a couple of love fests on the water, and the captain’s bed was indeed soft and just perfect for what they had in mind.
They finally ran home, and once inside, Brooke and Josh shifted and dressed in one of the guest rooms, Brad and Janice in one, Tori in another, Ethan in the den, and Adam and Sierra in the master bedroom. Since it was eleven that night, everyone gave a round of hugs and told them they’d see them at the marina tomorrow. Maybe Tori wouldn’t get seasick this time.
“’Night all,” Adam and Sierra said, remembering the time four months ago when she and Adam were running as wolves and Dover’s men were shooting at them. With all the bad guys incarcerated, they had no more trouble and wolf runs were a joyous nightly occurrence. Though Sierra was really glad she could sleep in most mornings now.
“Are you too tired for what comes next?” Adam asked, lifting Sierra into his arms and hauling her to bed.
She laughed. “No. Never. We shouldn’t have put on so many clothes.”
“That’s the fun part, stripping them off each other again.” Then he howled in the bedroom and she howled back.
Best of all, they were finally taking their honeymoon—leaving in two days for South Padre Island, Texas, for two whole weeks—and this time, she knew she wouldn’t get bored!
She loved her adoring wolf.
* * *
Life couldn’t be any richer than with Sierra as his mate. Adam couldn’t believe that he was going to be a daddy at the same time as his best friend, Josh, and his brother-in-law too. He had a lot of learning to do, and Cassie had been giving the guys lessons on diapering and feeding infants. He was ready as he began stripping Sierra out of her clothes and leaned down to kiss her belly. Then they were making love, and he was so thankful that she had come into his life, decided to settle down, and took him as her mate.
“Love you, my beautiful she-wolf.”
“You were always the only one for me, wolf paws down.”
Read on for a sneak peek of Terry Spear’s exciting return to Arctic wolves in
While the Wolf’s Away
Coming soon from Sourcebooks Casablanca.
Chapter 1
Eager to get their clandestine meeting started, David Davis got ready for his weekly Skype session with Elizabeth Alpine. It was their only opportunity to visit face-to-face since she lived in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada, and he was located near Ely, Minnesota, the gateway to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
They had to do this in secret because her Arctic wolf-pack leader, Kintail, would have done something drastic had he known they were still in touch. To say Kintail had issues with his pack members trying to break free was an understatement.
Not that David would ever consider himself one of their pack, even if they did, technically, save his life. It was either be turned or die of a heart attack during a bear hunt gone terribly wrong in Maine. And he was glad he wasn’t dead, no complaints there. But once he was turned, Kintail and his pack thought they owned him.
David had other ideas. And so did Elizabeth, which was why she’d helped him to escape.
She’d meant to escape with him so they could make a home together in Seattle, Washington where he was a PI and be free of Kintail and the pack, but Elizabeth’s grandmother, Ada, had gotten sick. Elizabeth couldn’t abandon her only family; she would forever have regretted it. Ada had often told David that Elizabeth just needed to leave to be with him and get on with her life, and the pack would take care of Ada just fine.
But Elizabeth wouldn’t have been just fine if she had left her grandmother in other wolves’ care. Especially with the way Kintail treated his pack. The other wolves might really want to help Ada but be prevented from doing so by Kintail.
David drummed his fingers on the table as he placed the Skype call and waited for Ada to pick up. She was always trying to sneak in some “before time” with him. And sure enough:
“Oh, David, you’re looking more handsome every time I see you.” Ada smiled. “I want you to come and take Elizabeth away from here before I’m gone. Kintail and his men are bound to be watching her to ensure she doesn’t leave as soon as I’ve passed on to join my dearly beloved mate.”
They’d been over this a dozen times before. David smiled gently. “Elizabeth needs to be there for you for her own peace of mind and for yours. But as soon as—”