“You couldn’t have picked a worse place for me to meet with you.” North finally let out his breath. “If I have any trouble getting there—the road conditions are bad due to the snowstorm—I’ll give you a ring.”
“All right. See you this afternoon otherwise.” She ended the call and left the room to join Bertha, the owner of the B and B, in the kitchen for breakfast.
She hadn’t realized the B and B was run by a gray wolf couple, but she’d been fortunate that the husband was off on a trip somewhere and his wife was really nice to her. She thought maybe Bertha was just an oddity, but then again, maybe because Elizabeth wasn’t a gray wolf, Bertha didn’t care what she was.
“Good morning, Elizabeth,” Bertha greeted her. The woman had springy silver curls and a round face and a cherub smile that reminded Elizabeth of Mrs. Claus. She wore a colorful burgundy and blue floral dress that matched the bouquets of flowers sitting on the dining-room table, kitchen bar, and tables in the common room. Ivies wound around wrought-iron plant stands, and small ficus trees were grouped next to the big windows that looked out on a tree-filled yard blanketed in snow.
“Good morning. The kitchen smells delightful.” Elizabeth sat down at the table covered in white lace to have a cup of steaming-hot chocolate and a freshly baked cinnamon roll. The frosting melted over the top and dripped down the sides.
The scent of cinnamon filled the kitchen, and Elizabeth took in another deep breath. Just breathing in the sweet, sugary smell was bound to pack on the pounds.
“Are you sure the ski patroller won’t be too put out about having to drop by and pick me up?” Elizabeth asked before she took a bite of the homemade cinnamon roll. If she didn’t ski enough to burn up the calories on the slopes, she would have to run in her wolf coat in the woods tonight.
“No, Tom has to drive right by here to get to the slopes. His brother Darien said Tom works until noon and would bring you home anytime you’re ready.”
“He doesn’t have to do that. I can take the shuttle.”
The front door opened, bells jingling, and though Elizabeth couldn’t see the new arrival, she assumed it was her ride. She didn’t rise from the table, not wanting to appear too anxious or foolish if it wasn’t Tom.
“Tom, is that you?” Bertha called out. “We’re in the kitchen.”
“Yeah, is the lady ready?” Tom sounded a little gruff, annoyed, put out.
Just like Elizabeth had assumed he’d be. She should have called a cab, if they even had cabs in Silver Town.
Tom strode into the kitchen as if he was on a mission and ready to get it over with.
He was tall, and his light-brown windswept hair and shadow of a beard gave him a rugged look. His cheeks were full of color from the cold. His eyes were the same rich shade of light brown as his hair, and they were instantly locked on hers.
He took in a deep breath, and she did, too, in a wolf’s way of determining how someone felt. Instantly, she knew he wasn’t all human.
She got a whole lot more of a perspective than just emotions.
He was one hot-looking gray wolf. And that could mean trouble for her.
Chapter 2
Tom Silver stared at the woman. She was too a wolf. He took another deep breath of the cinnamon-filled air, of the woman’s sweet scent of red wolf… and something else. Coyote.
She was petite like a red wolf, but more than unusual because she wasn’t all wolf. He’d never met a wolf-coyote mix before. Never heard of a coyote shifter. Now he wondered if the coyotes he’d seen that dared encroach on their territory were shifters, not just plain old coyotes.
He immediately thought of the Native American legends of Coyote, the trickster god, full of mischief, a thief, wily and sneaky. And a shape-shifter. Maybe that’s where the tales had come from, based in part on the truth, just as werewolf tales of old were.
The lady’s hair was a mass of shiny, dark red curls. Her eyes were a clear blue-green, her skin ivory except for a pale smattering of tiny red freckles barely visible across the bridge of her nose and cheeks. She was a busty little thing. The sweater was formfitting—the style that showed off a woman’s curves. And she had them in abundance.
He glanced at Bertha. She gave him one of her warmest matchmaking smiles.
Tom barely avoided shaking his head.
“This is Elizabeth Wildwood from Canyon, Texas. Elizabeth, meet Tom Silver.”
“Thank you for taking me to the resort,” Elizabeth said quickly, her expression wary, her heartbeat ratcheting up a couple of notches. She looked as astonished to learn he was a gray wolf as he was to learn what she was. She must not have known Silver Town was wolf-run.
He smelled a tangy scent on her that revealed her concern. If she worried that he intended to hit on her, she needn’t bother. A woman who lived much closer to home would have appealed more.
He let out his breath and said to Elizabeth, “Are you ready to go?”
“Yes, um, let me wash my hands real quick.” Elizabeth leaped to her feet. Without waiting for him to move out of her way, she brushed past him to get to the kitchen sink.
His gaze lingered on the formfitting black ski pants that revealed her shapely ass and legs. Fur-topped snow boots reached to her knees, and her aqua sweater zipped up to her chin.
The fact she was a shifter sure would be a wolf draw. At least he thought so, as pretty as she was. Bertha raised her brows at him, her smile fixed. Why hadn’t Darien filled him in? Tom had thought she might be a non-shifting human who had lupus garou roots, and that’s why Darien had said she was part wolf. From what Tom understood, wolves were just as attracted to those nonshifters as to full-blooded lupus garous. The eager males might not be put off by Elizabeth’s wolf-coyote heritage.
Elizabeth grabbed a parka off her chair, pulled it on, then snatched up a backpack. He led her to the front door.
“Have fun, you two,” Bertha called out in a much too cheerful manner.
“Thanks,” Elizabeth said back sweetly.
Having fun wasn’t what Tom intended. Ensuring the Woodcroft boys stayed out of trouble and that the she-wolf coyote didn’t get herself into a mess would be a job, not a fun excursion.
He glanced back at Bertha and tilted his chin down to give her a disapproving look.
Bertha’s smile only broadened. Tom shook his head.
He held the door open for Elizabeth and tried not to take in her appearance again, but it was difficult not to—being the wolf that he was. She avoided looking at him, which made him believe she was a beta.
That brought his alpha nature to the forefront, protective and in charge.
He shut the door of the B and B, escorted Elizabeth to his pickup truck, and opened the passenger-side door.
She eyed the interior of his truck. “Bertha… well, she said…”
“Yeah?” Tom wondered just what Bertha had said.
Elizabeth cleared her throat.
He waited.
She finally let out her warm cinnamon-scented breath, which misted when it mixed with the icy air, and turned to gaze up at him, her eyes so striking that it was as if he were looking into a crystal clear, blue-green lake. “Bertha said you could hang around to bring me back to the B and B later, but I’ll just take the shuttle.”
Without waiting for him to respond, she got into the vehicle and looked through the windshield as if that was the end of the matter.
“I’m fine with bringing you back here.” He shut the door, then hurried around to the driver’s side.
He didn’t know how he would manage to work ski patrol without thinking of this she-wolf up on the slopes by herself. He could imagine all the bachelor males in their pack hot-wolfing it down the slopes to get her attention, and all the injuries that could result.
Darien was right. Tom would have to become her ski buddy if she stayed on the slopes this afterno
on. He wouldn’t leave her on her own until he returned her to the B and B tonight.
She didn’t say anything as he took the road to the Silver Town Ski Resort. “Silver,” she finally said. “Tom Silver.”
“Yeah.”
She eyed him curiously. “Are you the pack leader? And this is a pack-run town?”
He wasn’t surprised she sounded so astonished. Wolf packs didn’t normally run their own towns. He didn’t even know of another like theirs. “Sub-leader. And yeah, our family founded the town. My eldest brother, Darien, runs it.”
“Darien,” Elizabeth said.
He glanced at her when she didn’t say anything more.
“Bertha told me Darien was the one who said you’d pick me up and take me back to the B and B.”
“Yeah.”
She relaxed a little against the seat.
Maybe she thought Tom had seen her when she first arrived and was interested in her in some other way, but now that she knew he was just there on his pack leader’s orders, she felt a little easier. She shouldn’t. Once any of the bachelor males got wind of her being in town, she’d have a whole bunch of interest. Available she-wolves were a rare commodity.
“So you’re doing a story on the ski resort?” he asked.
“Yeah, winter-sports kind of thing.”
He nodded, trying to figure out how he would convince her that he had to stick close to her until she left town. “How long will you be here?”
“Four days.”
An eternity. “I get off at noon if you want to get a bite of lunch.”
“I might still be working.”
So she wasn’t buying his need to take charge of her. “Okay, I’ll ski with you until you want to eat.” He swore she stared holes into him as he watched the recently plowed road.
“Um, I’ll be stopping a lot on the slopes to take pictures. You won’t have any fun.”
He glanced at her to see her expression, wondering if she was being honest with him, nervous that he would want to be with her. Which was a total beta trait. Except her voice wasn’t modulated like a beta’s. A beta would be nervous and hesitant, her voice soft and acquiescent. She had the soft, sweet beta part down, but she wasn’t nervous and she wasn’t hesitant.
She watched him with what looked like amusement—and a hint of challenge? He couldn’t quite figure her out. At times she acted like a beta, but when she matched his gaze and didn’t look away—that was alpha behavior. Wolves didn’t switch back and forth between the two. Not normally. Unless being a red wolf-coyote mix was the reason. She was conflicted?
He didn’t believe any such thing existed. Coyote packs had alphas and betas just like the wolves did. Was she pretending to be a beta? Or a beta trying to sound alpha? That thought intrigued him. He smiled a little at her. He would learn the truth one way or another, sooner or later.
“It’ll be interesting to see what catches your attention on the slopes.” He returned his gaze to the road. “My other brother, Jake, is a photographer also. He likes to take pictures of wildlife and flowers.”
She didn’t say anything.
“The two of you could probably compare notes,” he continued.
“I probably won’t meet him.”
She spoke so quickly that he thought she might be afraid to meet more of the gray wolves.
“We’ll have dinner at Darien’s place. Jake and his mate might come, depending on what they’re doing.”
She didn’t respond.
Tom tried not to smile. She wouldn’t win. She had to know that. She was in another pack’s territory, and they made the rules. Unless she was a loner and not used to pack rules.
“I’m sure your brother wouldn’t want me intruding at a family gathering,” she finally said.
“He will insist that you come.” Darien hadn’t, but Tom knew that he would require that she dined with him and Lelandi because she was a she-wolf. A male wolf just hitting the slopes, or a mated couple or family, no big deal. But since she was an unmated female who planned to hang around longer than a day, Darien would want to keep tabs on the situation.
If Tom was just giving Elizabeth a lift to the resort, he would have dropped her off at the ski rentals. But he didn’t want her out of his sight until he let the other wolves in the vicinity know she was under his protection. He thought he might enjoy his role as her protector.
As he drove past the ski-rental shop toward the parking lot, Elizabeth turned her head to look. “You could have dropped me off back there.”
“Being a sub-leader, I can expedite the rental process,” he was quick to say.
“Oh.”
“Is your pack very big?” he asked, fishing for more information.
She didn’t say anything for a moment, as if trying to come up with an answer. The coyote trickster myth instantly shot into Tom’s mind.
“Big enough,” she said evasively.
Which didn’t tell him anything. Maybe she belonged to a coyote pack instead, and she didn’t want to let on. He didn’t have any problem with that.
He pulled into a parking space, and she was out of the pickup in a hurry. She slipped her ski hat and gloves on and hurried back to the ski-rental hut. He quickly joined her.
Maybe she was a rogue wolf-coyote, shunned by the coyotes and the wolves. He hadn’t considered that before. If that was the case, he felt like a heel for bringing up her pack alliance when normally he thought of himself as the most diplomatic of the three brothers.
Not knowing what to say to rectify his faux pas, he walked alongside her in silence. She stared straight ahead at the ski-rental hut and avoided looking at anyone milling around and gawking at Tom and her.
Wolves, the lot of them. They smiled at him and several gave him the thumbs-up.
Damn it, he couldn’t help but smile back. She was his obligation, not his conquest, and he had to keep that in mind. Even though Darien had told him he was supposed to treat her as though they were together.
A couple of the ski patrollers saw him with Elizabeth and trudged through the snow to join them. Of course, they were giving the lady a good once-, well, twice-over. Wolves were that way. The ski patrollers were all alphas. Had to be. In charge of life-and-death decisions on a daily basis, they had to take over in an emergency and couldn’t wait for someone else to tell them what to do. Some were from other wolf packs and came to serve on the ski patrol during the season. They were all good friends.
Kemp and Radcliff Grey, twin brothers who were new to the pack, finally took their eyes off Elizabeth and greeted Tom with a nod.
Before either could introduce himself, Tom said, “I’ll take the lady to the ski-rental hut and get her started and talk to you about what Darien wants afterward.”
“Sure,” Kemp said.
Tom stalked after Elizabeth when he saw she didn’t remain meekly by his side. If she’d been a beta, she would have stayed with him until he escorted her to the rental hut. That had him rethinking what she was again.
One of the wolves working the ski rentals must have alerted the other three that Tom was approaching, or maybe they were more interested in who he escorted. “Tom,” the four said in greeting. They all looked at Elizabeth, waiting to hear who she was.
She cleared her throat, then told them her shoe size.
“Put it on Darien’s tab,” Tom said. “I’ll be back to check on you in a little while.”
“No need,” she said. “And thanks, but I can pay for it.”
The four wolves looked at Tom to see his response. They were betas with the pack. That’s the kind of reaction he expected. Eager to please, waiting to hear what the alpha decided. If Elizabeth had said he didn’t have to come back if he didn’t want to, or nodded in agreement, it would have been seen as a beta response. To say she would pay and that there was no need for him to return was an alpha resp
onse.
“No problem,” he said. “It’ll only take me a minute.” He looked at the guys with a silent command: Take care of her until I return.
They hurried to fit her in ski boots.
Chapter 3
Elizabeth hadn’t realized Silver Town was a gray wolf pack’s territory, and she definitely didn’t belong. That must be why North was reluctant to meet her here—because he was a red wolf. He should have said so, though it wouldn’t have changed her plans. If her uncle decided he wanted to try and kill her again, the gray pack here wouldn’t allow it. Most likely.
She’d dismissed the notion of going to either Telluride or Wolf Creek because both ski resorts were too well-known. She’d wanted an out-of-the-way place, far from any large cities but mostly far enough away from her father’s old wolf pack.
Skis and poles in hand, pack on her back, ski boots on, she thanked the guys who helped equip her. They even got a ski pass for her—on Darien’s account. She couldn’t help but appreciate Tom’s taking care of her like that, but she was still wary of other shifters. Granted, her past experience was mostly with red wolves and only a few grays. Coyote shifters avoided her as if she carried a genetic mutation that they might catch if they breathed in the same air as she did.
A couple of cute human girls frowned and folded their arms as they waited to be helped with ski boots while the wolves ignored them.
Elizabeth couldn’t believe all the interest she had garnered here, either. She wondered if this pack was just more tolerant of coyote and red wolf shifters. No shifters lived in Canyon, Texas, where even the human population was small. She didn’t think any shifters even lived in the nearby city of Amarillo. At least, she hadn’t run into any in the year and a half she’d lived in the area. Because of her past troubles with shifters, she preferred living strictly among humans. She was way out of her comfort zone here, unsure of how to handle all the interest.
She thanked the guys again and headed out of the hut.
“Wait,” one of the men said. “Tom is coming back for you.” He sounded a little worried that they’d all be in trouble if he didn’t remind her.