SEAL Wolf Pursuit Read online

  Copyright © 2021 by Terry Spear

  Cover and internal design © 2021 by Sourcebooks

  Cover design by Stephanie Gafron/Sourcebooks

  Cover images © Aaron Foster/Getty Images, Clicked by Avik Chakraborty/Getty Images, Michael Cummings/Getty Images, FXQuadro/Shutterstock

  Sourcebooks and the colophon are registered trademarks of Sourcebooks.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing from its publisher, Sourcebooks.

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

  All brand names and product names used in this book are trademarks, registered trademarks, or trade names of their respective holders. Sourcebooks is not associated with any product or vendor in this book.

  Published by Sourcebooks Casablanca, an imprint of Sourcebooks

  P.O. Box 4410, Naperville, Illinois 60567-4410

  (630) 961-3900

  sourcebooks.com

  Contents

  Front Cover

  Copyright

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  Becky Woolworth was busy scheduling a dinner engagement for her employer, liquor heiress Pamela Tynan, so she was surprised when Pamela barged into her office with a proposition that had nothing to do with her own life or commitments but instead Becky’s! She couldn’t believe it when Pamela said, “Becky, dear, how long have you worked for me?”

  Pamela was wearing one of her royal-blue business pantsuits. She always looked so together, and the pantsuit’s color complemented her warm blue eyes and short blond hair in a chin-grazing bob. Becky often went shopping with her, and her boss was always telling her to grab anything she liked at the most expensive dress shop. Becky never felt she needed to dress as smartly as her boss, but Pamela insisted with a wave of her hand, saying Becky needed to look her best in her employ. Which was a way of saying Pamela wanted her to have expensive clothes too, not that she was embarrassed with her hired help’s couture. Pamela was just nice that way.

  “Over three years, ma’am,” Becky said, putting the restaurant owner on hold. The owner or manager of restaurants where Pamela was a guest often wanted to be the one called to ensure they reserved the best seating for the heiress.

  “Yes, over three years, three months, and so many days. Yet in all that time, you haven’t once dated anyone,” Pamela said.

  Which had all to do with Becky’s wolfishness. She was a gray wolf shifter, and finding a wolf like herself to date was a problem, especially in Mountain View. But also, she really didn’t have a lot of free time off from work to just enjoy herself. Every time Pamela told her to take some time off, she called Becky in a fluster, wondering about this problem or that. Becky was always there to help sort out her life. And she loved working for Pamela.

  The perks were great. A lovely guesthouse on the estate, very private in the woods. All paid health and dental insurance, and a lovely forest to run in as a wolf. Becky even had her own garden she loved to cultivate. Great pay. A great boss. She couldn’t have asked for more. Pamela might be an heiress with money to burn, but she was also very down-to-earth, and when it came to charities, she had a big heart.

  “I haven’t really found anyone I want to date,” Becky said, hoping to get back to the owner of the restaurant to finish the reservation. She imagined he had plenty of work to do and couldn’t sit on hold forever.

  “Right. And it’s all my fault,” Pamela said.

  Becky had to smile. It was no one’s fault that there weren’t any wolves around here to date, but she quickly lost the smile and cleared her throat. “I’ve got Rizzo’s owner on the line—”

  Pamela waved her hand in dismissal. It wasn’t that she didn’t appreciate that people had other things they needed to do with their time, but when she decided something, she wanted it done now. “I will take care of it.”

  “The reservation?” That would be a first.

  “No, no, you deal with that. Dating. I’ll make sure you have a date and time off for it.” Then Pamela smiled as if she were making the best charitable plan of the year and headed out of Becky’s office.

  Becky’s jaw dropped. Not only did she not want to go out with any old human, but she didn’t want to disappoint Pamela when she had to tell her it wasn’t working out between her and said human. No one knew she was a wolf shifter, and she had to keep it that way. And there was no turning a human, even if she really, really liked one, because then he would have trouble shifting during the full moon, and if he had a family, well, the repercussions would have a rippling effect. “Hello, Mr. Binghamton, I’m so sorry to keep you waiting. Yes, six tonight, and Pamela said she will decide on her meal when she gets there. Yes, one guest.”

  “The guest’s name?” the owner asked, which was par for the course because they wished to greet their VIPs by name when they could.

  “Uh, no name.” Pamela rarely said who she was taking with her or who was taking her to a restaurant or some social engagement. It lent a bit of mystery to her and that made it fun. But the owner or manager always asked, and when Pamela told her to do so, Becky would let the person know too.

  Sometimes, Pamela even took Becky as her guest, which made it extra special for her.

  * * *

  Max Browning couldn’t believe it when his boss at the PI agency, Ryan McKinley, also his wolf pack leader and the mayor of Green Valley, Colorado, called him into his office, told him to shut the door, and said he had a job for him—a blind date with a woman. No particulars at all. Not what she did for a living, her name, who she worked for. Nada. The thing was that if he had a name, it wouldn’t be a blind date. Max could learn almost anything about a person if he knew his or her real name. Aliases took a bit more work to run down the real person’s identity, but he was good at doing that too.

  “For real? Okay, so is this an agency job?” Max asked.

  “Yes. The client asked for one of you to take a woman out on a blind date. You, in particular.”

  Max opened his mouth to object, but Ryan waved his hand in dismissal. “Don’t ask Asher. She specifically checked you out apparently, liked what she saw, and wanted you to take out the woman.”

  Asher Wells was one of Max’s coworkers and a friend. Max let out his breath in exasperation. He would do anything for his pack leaders—Ryan and his mate, Carol—but this wasn’t something he’d ever thought he’d have to do, or he might just have to set some limits next time on the terms of his employment. “When and where?”

  “Tonight, at six at a restaurant in Mountain View, so it’ll take you about twenty-five minutes to get there. The client is paying for both of your meals. Take a raincoat. It’s supposed to pour tonight. Take an umbrella for the lady, just in case she’s unprepared. The woman’s name is Becky, and the client said that was all you needed to know.”

  Max shook his head. “How many years have I known you now?”

  “Plenty. There’s a first time for everything. Have fun, enjoy yourself, make the most of it. Remember, it’s a free dinner out.”

  “Where?”

  “Rizzo’s Italian Restaurant. They’re high class, so don’t dress down too much.”

  Max saluted him. “I’ve got a case I’m looking into. A missing German shepherd, but I’ll be ready when I need to be with raincoat and umbrella—for the lady, just in case.”

  Max took off to do another neighborhood search for the dog, posting more flyers, checking with animal clinics to see if anyone had contacted them. At least the dog was chipped, so if someone took him in to have the vet check it, they would locate the owners. The dog had been wearing a collar with his name and address and vet clinic name on it, but the owner had found the collar hung up on a low-hanging branch and realized the dog wasn’t wearing it when he got out. If the yardman hadn’t opened the gate at the wrong time, just when Bear was out doing his business, none of this would have happened.

  Max loved animals, and he was always taking the cases of missing pets. Not that Asher or Phoenix, their newest PI agent, didn’t like animals, but Max jumped on the cases. Everyone he talked to was sympathetic to his cause when he went looking for the missing pets. Well, except for the occasional pet thief but that was a different story.

  When Max arrived at the restaurant that night, he didn’t know what to expect. A woman who was so shy she couldn’t meet anyone on her own. Or one who worked with mostly women and there were no work-related romances to be had. He wondered who had set up the woman for a blind date through a PI agency. A friend? A relative? How bizarre was that?

  All these thoughts were running through his mind when he saw a woman who looked a little uncomfortable standing all alone. She was pretty, with short dark hair and green eyes that widened a bit when she saw him studying her. She was wearing a silky green dr
ess, presenting an image of softness and curves, and the neckline dipped a little, showing a tiny bit of cleavage, enough to be enticing but not too much to be suggestive. The white sandals that completed the outfit were high-heeled and sexy, emphasizing her shapely legs. Was she the woman?

  He just hoped they enjoyed the dinner and the night wouldn’t drag on. The good thing was that she was here even before he arrived, and he’d come early. He hated late dates, as if the woman had to make a big entrance if he hadn’t picked her up and brought her there in the first place.

  He cleared his suddenly gravelly throat and realized he was feeling a bit awkward, when he rarely felt that way. He was a Navy SEAL after all. He headed over to her side of the entryway to see if she was his date since she wasn’t making a move in his direction. And as soon as he did, he smelled she was a gray wolf like him. He was shocked, thrilled, and he smiled broadly at her, hoping she was his date. He’d never met her before, probably due to her living in a different city that he didn’t come to very often, and they probably didn’t travel in the same circles.

  She looked shocked to smell that he was a wolf. She didn’t smile, just quickly clamped her lips closed, took another deep breath of him as if to reassure herself he truly was a wolf, and then gave him an almost imperceptible smile—of relief, he thought.

  “Well, this is a pleasant surprise,” he said, trying not to sound totally gobsmacked that he had a much more appealing dinner guest than he thought possible. And then he wondered if his pack leader Carol had set this up. She was much more likely to try her hand at matchmaking than her mate, Ryan.

  “I, uh, agree,” his date said and stuck her hand out to shake his with a formality he hadn’t expected. “I’m Becky Woolworth.”

  “Max Browning.” He shook her hand with a gentle firmness.

  He wondered if she’d ever gone on blind dates before. He’d gone on one a time or two, nothing that had ever worked out, but those had been with wolves. He had never expected her to be a wolf. At least they had a chance to make something of it if they liked each other.

  Max was beginning to wonder if this had been a job at all.

  “So who set you up on a date?” he asked Becky as the hostess seated them at a booth.

  “My boss.”

  He laughed. “My boss did the same to me. He’s like us, but he didn’t say you were too. I just assumed you weren’t.”

  “Oh, me too about you. My boss isn’t one of us, so I really figured you weren’t—” She quit talking when the server brought them menus.

  “Thanks,” they both told the server, then opened their menus to check out the selections.

  “So why did he think you needed to go on a blind date? And what does your boss do?” Max wanted to learn more about Becky in a social way, but he couldn’t help also using his PI training to learn all there was about her and her boss.

  “Um, Pamela Tynan is my boss’s name and I’m her personal assistant. I thought I was scheduling an appointment for her for dinner with a guest tonight, but it turned out I was the one she wanted the table saved for, and you are my guest.”

  Max smiled. “She has good taste in restaurants.”

  “She can afford them.” Becky set her menu aside. “So what do you do?”

  “I work for Ryan McKinley as a PI in his investigative agency, and he’s the one who set me up. Now, if I’d known you were a… well, one like us, I would have believed my boss’s wife, Carol, was behind it.”

  “She’s kind of a matchmaker, I take it.”

  “Yeah. So why did your boss think you needed to have a date for tonight?”

  “I’ve been working for her for over three years and not been on a date for all that time. I mean, it’s not easy finding one of our kind just anywhere, and I do have a job that keeps me busy. I don’t understand why she would have contacted your boss to arrange this through a PI agency though.”

  “I don’t know. And the thing of it is, she chose me, no one else. We have four other guys who work at the agency. One is recently married, but truthfully, I had thought of passing this off to another single guy.”

  Becky smiled. “I’m glad you didn’t. Not that I know anything about the other guy, but this is fun. Now that I know you’re a wolf too,” she said, when no one else was around to overhear them.

  The server came back and Becky ordered veal scallopini. Max decided to order the same thing. And glasses of red wine.

  “If you have the time, maybe we could go to Green Valley tonight and run, and then I’ll return you here after that,” he said.

  “Or I could follow you there so you wouldn’t have to drive me back here. Sure, I would love that. I’ll have to make sure my boss doesn’t need me. She’s pretty good about letting me have my nights off, but there are times when she’s got all kinds of things she wants me to do, so I never know. Then too, sometimes she’ll give me the time off and then need me to take care of business that just came up or look for things she can’t find.”

  “Okay, so we’ll ask her first.”

  “Right.”

  “I hope your drive to her place isn’t too out of the way if you have to be at her beck and call all the time,” he said.

  “No. She has a veritable mansion, and I live in one of the guesthouses on the property. It’s really nice and I love it. She has a lot of acreage so I can run as a wolf when it gets dark.”

  “I don’t blame you. Ryan and Carol have a lot of acreage, so we’ll be safe there.”

  Their wine, glasses of water, bread, and salads were served.

  “Have you ever been here before?” Becky asked Max when their server left.

  “No. It’s expensive. Not that I can’t afford it, but I generally stick to—”

  “Fast-food places?” she asked.

  He chuckled. “Not on a date. But this wouldn’t have been my first choice. It’s great though.” He clinked his wineglass with hers. “To your first blind date, right?”

  “Yeah. Is this yours?”

  “I’ve gone on a couple that friends set up. Always wolves though. Nothing panned out.”

  “So what do you do as a PI?”

  “Serve as a bodyguard when I need to. Search backgrounds. Look for missing pets, children, wives, and husbands. Investigate to see if someone’s cheating a company out of money or cheating on a spouse. Determine the truth in paternity suits. Just a whole lot of different stuff. And I can add blind dates to the list.”

  Becky smiled.

  “And you? What does your boss have you doing?”

  “Oh, everything from keeping up with her financial advisors and lawyers to maintaining her social and business engagements. The list goes on, kind of like yours, but in a different way.”

  “Did she make the dinner reservation for us?”

  Becky chuckled. “No. I always set them up. Talk about a surprise when she said she was sending me to the restaurant to meet my blind date. The owner was here to greet her and her important guest. Imagine his shock when he saw me and no boss. I was afraid he would think I had played a trick on him to get the best seating in the house for a date of my own.”

  “I hope he greeted you with as much respect.”

  “He did. Because he knows it would get back to my employer if he hadn’t and she would not be happy about it.”

  “Well, at least that’s good. I would have a word with him otherwise.”

  “And that would have been reported back to my boss. No thanks! I really like working with her and want to keep it that way. What about your boss?”

  “Yeah, I like him and the other guys I work with.” But Max couldn’t quit thinking about why Becky’s boss had singled him out to go out with her. Why not someone else? Someone who lived in Mountain View? Puzzles always made him want to unravel them. Why, if Ms. Tynan thought a PI would be a good guy or match for Becky, not one who was located closer to home? Maybe Ms. Tynan thought Becky needed to meet someone somewhere else since the pool of eligible bachelors was not as acceptable? Who knew? He had to just enjoy dinner with the she-wolf and then he would run with her.

  Their meal was served to their table then.

  He carved off a bite of veal and ate it. “This sure is good.”