Maggie thought for a minute. He was right. Her last dizzy spell had been back in Whitehorse. The last
couple of days while she’d been at her sister’s, getting ready for the Games, she’d felt fine. Felt the most
energized and healthy she’d been for years.
“I feel…” The expression in his eyes sucked the truth from her lips. “I feel great.”
He winked at her. “Wonder if it has something to do with being with other wolves. Like your sister
suggested?”
Oh shit, no way.
She looked around his bulk at the other teams standing in groups, waiting to begin
the first event. The teams from Whitehorse and Denmark were already underway. The Tombstone pack
stood at the line ready for their turn in the staggered start.
“I just don’t want to make trouble for the team. I’ve brought my pills along in case, but I’m not going
to be able to do this hike very quickly. I hope I don’t disappoint you.”
35
Vivian Arend
He crossed his arms for a moment, leaning his torso away from her. It was impossible to not admire
the bulk of his arms, his biceps bulging his T-shirt. “It’s not a race for speed. We have to solve puzzles as
we go along. I expect you will be able to keep up just fine, and you’re going to be a big help in contributing
to us winning this event.”
He spoke with such confidence her fears faded a little.
Erik motioned to the others. “Come on, team, let’s take another look at the instructions. We have
thirty minutes still until our start.”
They gathered around, backs to the trees at the edge of the clearing. Before them the Dyea flats
stretched to meet the ocean. The early-afternoon air was warm with the promise of heating up nicely. Erik
spread out the map at their feet and traced the route they would follow. She was happy to see that once they
started hiking, they’d be in the trees for the first third of the hike.
“Three days is the maximum time allotted to complete the thirty-three miles to Bennett Lake. That’s a
good solid hike, but it’s not a race pace. We’ll be going faster than the original Gold Rushers, but we don’t
have to carry as much gear. However, we not only have to reach the checkpoint in time, we have a series of
clues to find. Some of them will be used later in the Games challenges.”
“What if we can’t find them all?” TJ asked.
“Missing one or two, we have a chance. Missing more will make the final challenge tough to win. So
this isn’t a sprint. We’ll camp out for two nights and I really don’t care if we see other teams passing us.”
He winked at Maggie. “It’s not a race, although some of the other teams will try to convince you it is. This
is a setup for later events. All we have to do is finish.”
He pulled out the puzzle instructions, spreading them on the ground next to the map. Jared leaned a
little too close and Maggie drew away, backing into the safety of Erik’s side. He casually shifted his
position, tucking her against his body and she relaxed. Why did he have to feel so good?
She looked down at the strange maps. Contour lines, altitude markers, not much else. “They’re not
giving GPS waypoints, are they?”
He shook his head. “We have to do this the old-fashioned way with only compasses and our noses.
For this challenge, one of the team travels in wolf. They can shift back at night, but while on the trail and
searching for clues, they have to be in their animal form.”
Maggie’s throat closed tight and she found it hard to breath. One of them was going to turn into a
wolf. She had to be around a wolf.
She was going to die.
Without saying a word, Erik rubbed her back, a slow soothing motion. She closed her eyes and
concentrated on the feel of his hand instead of thinking about the gnawing fear in her belly.
TJ cursed as his foot caught the edge of the paper and it ripped. “Damn it, sorry. Look, I’d like to
volunteer to be the one who stays in wolf.” He wrapped his long arms around his legs like he was trying to
36
Wolf Games
stop from touching anything near him. “I know I’ve got a bad reputation, but I am capable of pulling my
own weight, especially if you keep me in my wolf form for most of the Games. It’s just my human form
that sucks rocks when it comes to coordination.”
For the first time Maggie examined him more closely. He was as dark as his brother, the Alpha, but
nowhere near as bulky. Long limbs, square jaw. TJ wasn’t a bad-looking fellow, he just never seemed to be
in the right place at the right time. There was a dark-coloured stain on his shirt where she’d seen someone
bump into him and dump their ketchup-covered fries all over him.
Erik nodded. “I hoped you’d volunteer for the position, but not because I plan to keep you in wolf the
whole time. You have an awesome sense of smell, and we need it for this challenge.” TJ grinned, his limbs
jerking in enthusiasm. Erik pulled the map out of range in the nick of time and laughed. “You’re getting
better. You’ve still got a little growing up to do, that’s all.”
The pleased expression in TJ’s eyes made Maggie forget some of her own fears. Over the past couple
of days every other time someone mentioned TJ’s name, he had been called a klutz, whether he was
standing there or not. Suddenly she felt indignant for him. What kind of crap was that?
“You just don’t want to carry a pack.” Jared poked TJ in the side and the two of them fell to the
ground to wrestle like puppies for a minute. A tug on her sleeve caught her attention and she followed Erik
off to the side a few steps.
“I’m going to get TJ to change now. You okay?”
How did he know?
“I…have to be, don’t I?”
He stepped closer and spoke softly, for her ears only. “You think I haven’t noticed you’ve tensed
every time one of the other teams had a member shift? I didn’t think it was because you were embarrassed
by their nudity.”
“Well, there was that one guy…”
“Hush.” He kissed her nose, and she went all soft and melty inside. Three days on the trail with him.
It was going to be heaven and hell. Oh no, they would be camping out. How was she supposed to avoid him
in the evening? Avoid giving in to the attraction between them that grew by the minute? It was one thing to
say she wanted to hold off on becoming mates, it was another to stick to her guns.
TJ stripped off his clothes and folded them neatly, slipping everything into one of the three packs
waiting nearby. Maggie admired his muscular body. He might have two left feet in human form, but it was
a pretty nice package of clumsy altogether. A low grumble from her left distracted her and she turned to see
Erik staring, one brow raised. “You seen enough? Or do you want him to pirouette for you?”
No way.
“Are you jealous?”
“Yes.” The warmth he’d started earlier grew into raging heat. “I want you to be looking at me like
that, not at TJ. I want to see admiration in your eyes for me—for your mate. It doesn’t mean I’m going to
go Rambo on his ass, but I’d appreciate if you’d stop drooling in front of me.”
37
Vivian Arend
Maggie stepped into his body space and wrapped her arms around his torso, hugging him as close as
she could.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.” Her instant need to comfort him puzzled her. Being in his arms
satisfied something deep inside. Made her wolf rumble, low and needy. He stroked one hand down her
back, the fingers of his other hand running though her hair. He held her for a minute, their heartbeats
slowly synchronizing, and it felt so damn good she almost forgot where they were.
“It’s okay. Apology accepted. He’s a good-looking kid and an even better-looking wolf. You ready to
meet him?”
She froze. TJ had shifted. Had Erik deliberately distracted her? Knotting her fingers in his shirt, she
glanced over her shoulder. TJ sat on his haunches, his tongue lolling to the side as he panted in the heat of
the noontime sun. His silver-grey fur shone, his eyes were bright and his nose twitched as he sniffed the air.
She reminded herself again—it was TJ. They were in public. Erik was nearby. “He is a
goo…good…looking wolf…isn’t he?”
She could do this. Only she wasn’t doing it alone. She grabbed Erik, tugging him with her as she
approached. She held out her hand, palm open like a person would with a strange dog.
“What the hell?” Jared muttered.
“Let her be,” Erik ordered. He squatted to the side and ran his free hand over TJ’s flank. She was
squeezing the blood out of his other hand. TJ tilted his head to the side, confused, before sniffing her palm.
His wet nose brushed her skin and goose bumps rose all over her body. He licked her fingers, then plopped
on his belly at her feet.
And rolled over.
Her wolf howled with delight, fighting to take control, fighting to break free. A wave of dizziness
rushed her. Erik’s grip tightened and he moved to support her. “Okay?”
Wilderness. Starlit skies. Cool mountain water. The wind in her fur. Maggie ached for all the things
she’d missed for so long. Again her wolf bumped the surface, making her blood sing, making the knot in
her belly loosen a little more. She shook off Erik’s supporting arms and reached for TJ, touching his chest,
running her fingers along the stiffer fur of his muzzle. She took a deep breath and soaked in the scent of a
wolf giving her obeisance. It felt good. Oh so very good.
“Granite Lake. You’re up in ten minutes. You can take your place at the starting line.” The Games
Marshal passed them quietly, headed back to the officials’ area.
TJ scrambled to his paws. Erik smiled at her as he helped her up. He kept hold of her hands. “Are we
ready?”
He wasn’t talking about the event. Maggie squared her shoulders and let the joy inside her shine out a
little as she nodded. For the first time in years she felt like there really was hope.
38
Maggie drew another deep breath of crisp mountain air into her lungs before quick-stepping to catch
up. Erik walked ahead of them with TJ. She found herself surprised to be enjoying the chance to get to
know Jared better.
“You’ve lived in the North long?”
Jared scrambled over a fallen log blocking the trail and turned back to give her a hand. The trail was
in good shape, except for people with short legs.
“All my life. I’ve always been in the Granite Lake pack too. I can tell you, things have really changed
in the past couple of years. Since Keil and Erik took over running things, conditions have improved so
much.”
He lowered her to the ground then motioned for her to walk ahead of him.
“What do you mean improved?”
“The old Alpha and his crew, they never took part in anything like the Games. Too far beneath them.
It’s not just special events like this one. Man, at times it’s tough getting a job in Haines, but Erik and Keil
have things arranged so there is never a chance for any of the pack to be unemployed.” He laughed. “That
doesn’t mean you won’t be working your ass off. They seem to be able to find the dirtiest, rottenest jobs
around for the pack members who are slow to get their acts together. No, it’s been good to see the younger
kids find a way to stay in the North instead of having to head south where their wolves aren’t as happy.
Plus the old timers? You see them regularly around the pack house now, where before they used to hide out
since no one wanted to listen to them talk. Especially the real old geezers who forget they’ve told the same
tale a million times.”
She stopped to take a drink from her water bottle, thinking for a moment. It didn’t sound like huge
changes to her. Well, jobs were good, but she’d been thinking in the line of murder and other crimes being
the issues, not laziness and neglect. “Did you know Erik spoke Russian?”
“Of course. He knows seven languages.”
She jerked the bottle from her lips, the water sloshing down the front of her shirt. “Seven?”
Jared leaned back on a nearby tree, looking at her with a curious expression on his face.
“What?”
“You’re very pretty.”
Vivian Arend
She felt heat race over her skin. The admiration in his eyes embarrassed her and inside her wolf
sniffed with disdain. “Thank you.”
“Is there something between you and Erik? TJ swears you two are scented like mates, but…” He
shrugged. “You’re not acting like it. Just in case you’re interested in a—”
“I don’t want to get involved with you.” Maggie’s tongue tripped over itself in her hurry to turn him
down. An icky sensation covered her at the thought of touching anyone but Erik.
Jared laughed out loud, his face split with an ear-to-ear grin. When he finally got himself under
control he wiped the tears from his eyes and sucked in air. “I was going to ask if you were interested in a
little advice. Sweetie, if you’re scented to the Beta, I’m not going anywhere near you in a sexual way, even
if you beg. I’d like to keep the family jewels intact and usable for a few more years.”
She didn’t think she could be any more embarrassed. All she’d done lately had been jump to
conclusions. “Sorry.” When she lifted her gaze, he was still grinning. “So, what’s your advice?”
Jared shrugged. “You don’t seem to know much about him. The mate thing is supposed to be cool, as