Kieran placed his hand to his chest and staggered back, a look of mock shock spreading across his face. “What's this? You're asking for help from your elders? Will wonders never cease,” he finished, shaking his head in a grave fashion.
Tate pretended to tackle him, which turned into a playful rough and tumble as Caleb spotted them just as he came in the main front door to the den and sprinted toward them, whooping as he crashed into them both.
“Who's top dog now?” Tate's younger brother shouted as he tried to flip Kieran to the floor while fending off Tate's undercut.
Lily stood back with a critical eye before she, too, leapt into the fray with a blood-curdling howl that momentarily froze every wolf in the hall, if not the building. “Ha!” she yelped as she managed to snatch Caleb's arms into a clinch hold and land a soft but well-placed drop kick at Kieran's lower leg, felling him instantly. “Never underestimate the females in this pack!”
As Tate fought his way out from the bottom of the pile, laughing and wrestling simultaneously, he wondered for the millionth time in his life how any wolf lived without a pack.
***
The desert ground thwacked Claire's paws with a low thumping noise before her next bounding stride took her into the air, then back down to earth again. Thwack. Thwack Thwack. The rhythmic sound eased her as she loped through the cool night air, every sense alive under the star-dappled sky overhead.
Her ear cocked toward a slight sound in the distance. An owl sliced through the air, hurtling toward its tiny, hapless prey on the ground far below. Lolling her tongue just a bit, Claire picked up the pace, curving more northward. Deeper into the moonlit shadows of the canyons.
To the oldest ruins,
her human whispered.
My favorite.
Yes. The crumbling, tumbling down rock ruins of ancient homes for the people who used to live here. They scratched things into the rock, dug storage holes down into the earth, and left their bones behind to turn brittle under the weight of the dry sands. She enjoyed slipping into their sites, alone and lonesome but for the ghosts they'd maybe left behind. Not that she'd ever seen a ghost. Even so, she'd heard things some nights that didn't account for owls or coyotes or small animals like mice or squirrels. It was most likely her human's imagination—her human snorted at that—but the ruins were still very intriguing.
I wonder if Tate would like them as much?
Claire silently loped along, thinking of the male wolf who captured her interest so strongly she could hardly think of anything else the past few weeks. No matter how she tried to turn her mind to other things, such as working on her next book, or ignoring the phone calls of her ex, or mulching her sparse garden, his face would slowly drift into her mind. The perpetual laugh, the kindness in his chocolatey hazel eyes, the strength of his sinewy body, the expression on his face when he'd claimed her body as much as she'd claimed his—the images would form in her thoughts until she suddenly found herself panting.
She wondered what his wolf looked like.
Strong and lean and gentle.
Her human imagined a dark gray wolf with amber eyes like her own. Her white pelt would show brightly next to his.
Claire ran on, pulling the desert scents into her nose as the miles disappeared under her steady paws. Sharp sagebrush, a whiff of hackberry, the soft, lazy smell of the puffy bright yellow flowers, the ones that blanketed arroyos and lined the sides of the highway cutting through far to the east behind her.
Rubber rabbitbrush,
her human thought, picturing the yellow flowers.
Claire shrugged away the thought. Unless the plant hid real rabbits beneath it, she didn't need to know those details. All she needed to know was the sliding movement of her muscles under her coat, the strength of her legs as they carried her through this quiet landscape, and the certainty that the quiet, gentle, wildly sexy wolf she'd met the other day was part of her destiny. Even if she didn't understand why, she knew the truth of that down to the tip of her tail.
A coyote's mournful howl pierced the late night air. Claire abruptly pulled up and stood still, breathing hard but evenly. She listened for more voices. One by one, the other coyotes in their small pack joined in, yipping and barking until the full-fledged howls left their snouts and spiraled up into the air. She sat firmly on the sand. Here, she was so far off from any human habitation no one could hear her. Even if they did, none would believe their ears. Pointing her muzzle at the sky, she opened her mouth and loosed a long, singing howl of her own, crying deep into the dark night.
The coyotes immediately hushed. A silence even deeper then the one already holding the night fell over the desert as Claire's voice rang out, echoing off the cliffs of the nearby canyons. She could sense all living creatures within earshot of her keeping their own mouths shut, not moving a muscle as the cry of an arctic wolf howled across the desert lands. No one else would dare share their presence when they knew she was there.
No one, that is, except another wolf. A long, soft howl answered hers from far up the canyon opening ahead of her. Pricking up her ears, Claire howled back in answer before leaping forward again, racing toward the other wolf.
She hadn't seen her mother in nearly half a year.
***
“Your mate, really? Tate!” Lily jumped across a small sagebrush bush to grab up Tate in a hug. “Are you sure? I'm so thrilled for you. Oh, you have no idea,” she said, joy spilling over in her voice as she cast a quick glance at Kieran, who smiled back at her. She pulled back and critically regarded her brother for a moment. “I thought it might take longer for you to meet your mate, actually. You've just always seemed the most balanced of us all.”
Tate smiled. By “us all” she meant them and their siblings. The eldest, Rafe, was balanced enough, but he'd seemed too aloof for a mate. Until Sara finally tamed him, of course. Caleb—well, it had been a surprise that any woman could handle his graceless wild side, but sweet Rielle was actually the best thing that had ever happened to him. And Lily. For a few years, everyone had worried about her after a devastating tragedy had caused her to shy away from anything to do with men or much else. When Kieran had shown up, he'd been the perfect answer to helping Tate's sister find her smile again.
He shrugged. “I wasn't really sure what it would feel like. But the second I scented her, I just knew. I've never felt anything quite like that before, actually,” he added, hearing the wonder creep into his voice again.
He'd been out on patrol with Lily and Kieran for the past several hours. It was late at night now, and there was a definite bite to the wind in the mountains above the den. Fall was completely present at the higher elevations. Even with his human nose, he could smell the promise of the colder months already hovering at the heels of autumn. He wouldn't be surprised if snow began to dust the flanks of the mountains in the next few weeks. It wasn't uncommon here for snow to first appear at the higher elevations during October.
Despite being focused on his Guardian work now, after his mild chastisement from his Alpha earlier, images of Claire kept drifting in and out of his mind all day. He saw her laughing face, caught a whiff of her scent, clean and sharp and wild like the snow he predicted would soon appear. The reality of her existence teased him to distraction. There was something about her life she wasn't yet convinced she could share with him, unless he proved himself worthy of making the effort. That, and he sensed she'd been burned by whomever she'd dated last. She wanted to make sure Tate wouldn't do the same.
Never,
his wolf's low, certain voice rumbled deep inside.
She is mine.
Yes. As soon as he found her again, that is.
“So why do you think she wouldn't mention what pack she's from?” Kieran asked, echoing the question that most tugged at Tate. “From what you've told us so far, she's not from any of the nearby packs, but she lives somewhere around here. Or out more in the desert?”
“I got the sense she lives on her own, so probably not at any pack den.” Tate paused to reach down and grab for his clothes near the car. They'd just finished their patrol in wolf form and were about to head back to the den for the night. “But the only packs I can think of whose boundaries touch ours say they've never heard of her. Even knowing her last name has to be a pseudonym for her books, none of the wolves I've talked to know a wolf by her description. Wouldn't Dad tell us if there was a lone wolf living nearby?” he asked Lily.
His eyes, still keen from his wolf, could see his sister shrug in the darkness. “Not if he didn't think we needed to know,” she said. “Besides, I'm sure all the packs that have lone wolves have called them in anyway. Especially a female. There'd be too much danger in the rogues trying to take her.”
Lily's voice darkened with her last words. Tate sensed the protective growl coming from Kieran despite his human form. As a Guardian, Lily could take care of herself. But if she were faced up with a group of rogues looking for females, she wouldn't be able to put up a fight for long. A lone female wolf, one who wouldn't have the training a Guardian did, wouldn't stand a chance.
Lone wolves chose a life spent not directly in the melee of a pack. As such, they usually lived on the outskirts of pack boundaries. Although generally loyal to and protected by their packs, they held no significant pack roles, such as Guardian, or historian, or medic, and they had the choice of either joining another pack that would take them in, or remaining lone for the entirety of their lives. Often weaker than most pack members or pushed out due to hierarchy issues, lone wolves were extremely rare.
They also almost never found a mate.
Tate frowned as he carefully thought this out. Claire was definitely not a lone wolf. She was too confident, had too much of a sense of self. She definitely wasn't weak. And he knew with every fiber of his being she was his mate.
“Earth to Tate.” Lily playfully snapped her fingers in front of his nose. “This is why I made the bet with Kieran. I had a hunch even the most amazing horse in the world couldn't distract you as much as the most amazing woman in the world could.”
On that sly note, she opened the door to the car and slipped into the front passenger seat.
Kieran eyed Tate over the roof of the car before opening his door. “Truer words were never spoken, my friend. We've got to help you find her. Trust me when I say life won't be the same until you do.”
“I'm getting that,” Tate said ruefully. “Earlier today I forgot about a client appointment I have tomorrow morning. I would have been a no-show if they didn't call me to ask a question about what part of the training we'd be working on.”
“When it comes to the right woman, you might just forget your own name at times,” Kieran said softly before he slid into the car beside his own right woman.
As they drove down the curving road back toward the den, Lily continued to pepper Tate with questions. What were the names of Claire's books? Did she remind him of any neighboring pack members? Where exactly had he looked for her so far? Even though he'd asked himself those same questions over and over for the past two weeks, he eagerly answered, hoping she'd come up with a new insight he hadn't been able to see.
“Maybe she's a cousin from a pack that's farther away?” Lily's voice was thoughtful as she turned over the possibilities in her head. “Maybe she's visiting.”
“She said she could smell the desert of home on me,” Tate replied. “I'm positive she lives here somewhere.”
“She lives down in the desert, you mean,” Kieran interjected. “She's got to live near Cortez, where you first scented her.”
“Then why have none of us ever scented her before? It's not like none of us ever go over that way.” Tate blew out a slightly frustrated breath. “How is it that none of us knows about her existence if she lives so close to us? We know every wolf who lives within two hundred miles of here.”
He didn't think it was possible he could have lived here all his life and not met Claire yet. Unless maybe mates were only meant to meet when they were ready to meet. Kind of like how certain horses came into his life to be trained at just the right time. The ones that were fearful, or shy, or had been abused by heavy hands and needed a new, light start.
Not, of course, that he was comparing Claire to a horse. His wolf snorted, plainly disgusted with that line of thought. Claire was a sleek, dangerous predator like him.
“The part I really don't get,” Kieran said, sounding both puzzled and troubled, “is how she's able to be by herself in public. As far as I know, all the packs within five hundred miles and more are using the rule of three for their own wolves as well.”
Tate nodded, more to himself since they couldn't see him from the front seat. “That's been really bugging me, too. I can't imagine a pack whose alpha would let that rule slide. Even if the rogues haven't been spotted in months.”
“You didn't ask her?” Kieran questioned.
Tate shook his head, smiling a bit as images of him and Claire sweaty on the bed rocketed through his mind again. “Didn't get that far in our conversation.” Before his sister could make a teasing comment on that, he added, “And there's something she'd just hiding. I didn't want to ruin the moment, to be honest. Besides,” he hesitated for a moment, then confessed, “my wolf was close to out of control around her. Had to deal with one thing at a time.”
Over Lily's triumphant “A-ha! She is definitely your mate,” Kieran said with confidence of a man who knows, “There are definitely some things that need to be handled before any other situations can be addressed.”
Tate let a grin tug up his mouth. “Apparently. Though I wish to hell I could figure out why she's being a little cat-and-mouse about it all. I've never felt anything like that connection, and I know she felt it, too. But there's some kind of wariness there I don't think I've encountered from another shifter.”
Silence blanketed them for another several miles along the curving, dark road back to the den. Until, several miles later, Lily's thoughtful voice broke it. “Wait,” she said slowly. Tate could practically hear the gears turning in her head. “What if actually we
don't
know every wolf who lives near us?”