Tangling with the Wolf Read online

  “No problem,” Phoenix said. “Are we free to go? I’m on my way to see my sister and brother-in-law in Silver Town.”

  “Yes, Mr. Wildhaven, you’re free to go.”

  The police officer left to help gather evidence from the crime scene. Phoenix asked Hanna, “Are you going to be okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m headed over to my hotel.”

  “Have you had dinner?”

  “Uh, no. My hamburger hadn’t arrived before all the trouble began.”

  “There’s a place here that has great burgers. You have your own car, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Okay, why don’t I follow you to your hotel and take you to the restaurant so I don’t lose you?”

  She hesitated, then nodded. “All right.”

  They got into their cars and he followed her to the hotel. Once she parked, she climbed into his Corvette. “Beautiful car.”

  “It was a retirement gift for myself.”

  “It sure is nice.”

  “Thanks.” He drove her to the hamburger place next. He hadn’t planned to eat there, but now it was getting so late that he didn’t want his twin sister and his brother-in-law to have to wait on him to eat. He called his sister on Bluetooth. “Hey, Carmela, don’t hold up dinner for me. I’ll explain when I get in, but it’ll be another couple of hours before I get there.”

  “I hope nothing’s wrong. No car trouble?”

  “No, I’m good. I ran into a situation here in Green Valley, so I’m close. I’m just grabbing a burger and then I’ll head out.” He wasn’t about to explain he was with a she-wolf, not while Hanna was in the car with him and listening in on the conversation.

  “Okay, then we’ll see you in a couple of hours.”

  They ended the call, and he pulled into the parking lot of the hamburger place.

  “They have every kind of topping you can imagine,” he said as they headed inside.

  “Hmm, sounds good.”

  “They have wine and beer, too, if you wanted to try again at having a glass.”

  “And you?”

  “I’m still headed to Silver Town after this, so I’ll have another soda.”

  She glanced at the deck with its huge wood carving of Sasquatch holding a rope in his hand, attached to a woodcarving of a fish, and the orange lights draped across it and the building. They had all kinds of clay jack-o’-lanterns set in the windows. Inside, small cauldrons sat on each of the tables holding lit orange candles, and black cats decorated the whole restaurant.

  The owner must have cats, he thought.

  Hanna smiled at all the decorations. He had thought she might get a kick out of the nine-foot-tall Sasquatch. Plus, the food was great. The restaurant was farther from the main road that would take him to Silver Town than the pub was, which was why he’d dropped in there for a soda and not here.

  “Were you going to have dinner with your family?” she asked.

  “It’s getting late. It would take me about forty-five minutes to drive to their place in Silver Town, and I don’t want them to have to wait on me to have dinner.” He opened the door to the hamburger place and stepped inside.

  “Besides, you wanted to have a date with me,” she quipped.

  He smiled darkly at her. A she-wolf who wouldn’t obey him when he was trying to be gallant and keep her safe wasn’t a wolf he would seriously date.

  So that begged the question—why was he having dinner with her?

  Chapter 2

  “This is the cutest place,” Hanna said to Phoenix as she looked at the photos of black bears, brown bears, moose, wolves, elk, cougar, lynx, red fox, bison, and beavers in their natural habitats in Colorado, hanging on the warm, golden-oak-paneled walls. There were also pictures of black cats everywhere. “I love Halloween, so this is fun to see all the decorations.”

  She and Phoenix sat in a booth that featured a table and seats in the same warm oak as the paneled walls and a picture of two gray wolves howling. They didn’t have anything like this in Loveland, and Hanna immediately felt her spirits lifted. Getting a good meal would help too.

  “And the food is great,” Phoenix said. “So are you dressing up for Halloween?”

  “Always. I hand out candy to the kids, wearing something fun. A steampunk outfit this year. What about you?”

  Smiling, he shook his head.

  “Aww, come on. Don’t tell me you don’t have fun with the paranormal.”

  He chuckled. “We are the paranormal. That’s good enough for me.”

  “What about when you were a kid?”

  “Yeah, sure, but—”

  “You’re all grown up.” And how.

  Wearing gray, furry wolf ears, furry wristbands, and a tail, the waitress brought them each a menu and a glass of water and smiled. “Oh wow, a couple of reds. You’re new to the area.”

  “Uh, yeah,” Phoenix said, looking at the menu, but then he smiled at the waitress.

  “Yes.” Hanna knew the woman said reds and not wolves because everyone else here appeared to be human. The waitress, Carla, was a gray wolf. Hanna was surprised.

  “Our leaders are a gray and a red,” Carla said.

  “Oh wow, really.” Hanna smiled. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad place to live after all. She wouldn’t mind being part of a wolf pack, since they didn’t have one in Loveland. “I’m going in for a job interview at the paper tomorrow.” She hadn’t meant for Phoenix to know anything about that or that she’d been fired from her other job. She shouldn’t care, but she suspected he’d ask her more about being an investigative reporter and wanting to cover the story at the pub.

  “Oh, great! I sure will be rooting for you. Maybe our leaders can put in a good word for you at the newspaper office.”

  “Wow, that would be super.” Hanna told Carla her name and gave her cell-phone number to her.

  “If the two of you have had a chance to look at the menu, what would you like to eat?” Carla asked.

  “A soda and the Sasquatch Burger for sure.” Phoenix handed his menu to her.

  “Ohmigod, four pounds of hamburger and one pound of cheese?” Hanna looked incredulously at Phoenix. “For real?” The guy was muscular, but he wasn’t bulky in the least. She couldn’t imagine where he could pack all that protein away.

  “Yeah, I worked up a healthy appetite tonight saving a red from out-of-control biker gangs.”

  Hanna rolled her eyes at him.

  “Oh no, I can’t believe they would come to Green Valley of all places,” Carla said. “It’s all over the news.”

  “Maybe that’s why they did. Because they thought they could get away with it and no one would be able to react quickly enough,” Hanna said, wishing she could have had the lead story.

  “Ryan McKinley is our mayor, and he takes a personal interest in keeping the city free of crime. He’s angry about it. He texted the pack members to ensure none of us had been there, and he’s starting an investigation into the pub owner to see if he had anything to do with the biker gangs all appearing there at one time. Not that the pub owner was necessarily involved, but if he was, McKinley will deal with it.”

  “Wow, your leader is the mayor?” Hanna asked.

  “Yeah, he also runs a private investigator business. So he really can check things out in a hurry,” Carla said.

  Hanna handed Carla her menu. “That’s great.”

  “What would you like to order?”

  “A glass of chardonnay and a blue cheese and mushroom burger.” Hanna was glad she had come here for dinner instead of just eating the protein bar she’d packed in her bag.

  “Okay, I’ll have those right up.” Carla gave them both a big smile and left.

  A guy dressed as a Wookiee walked by them, nodding.

  Hanna chuckled. “This is a much better place to have a glass of
wine. And it’s a lot of fun too. Thanks for recommending it and keeping me company for dinner.”

  Phoenix drank some of his water. “After what we experienced at the pub, I agree. When I hauled you out of there, you said you were an investigative reporter?”

  “Well, a reporter for the paper in Loveland.”

  “But you’re looking for a new job as an investigative reporter in Green Valley?” Phoenix asked.

  “Yes.”

  “And you wanted the gang story to hand in to the editor to help you get the position?”

  “That was the general idea.”

  “But then you were afraid you were going to be locked up by the police, and how would that look to a prospective employer?”

  “That’s the gist of it.”

  “Sorry about messing up your gig.”

  “No, you aren’t.”

  Phoenix shook his head. “Your life is more important than an article for a paper. Believe me.”

  Changing the subject, Hanna said, “You told me you had retired from the army. Now what are you planning to do?”

  “I’m checking out the pack in Silver Town, also run by a red wolf and a gray wolf. Lelandi Silver, the red wolf, is a cousin of mine, formerly with the last name Wildhaven. And, of course, my twin sister, Carmela, and her mate, Michael Hoffman, live there now. He is also special forces, retired. And so is Michael’s brother, Daniel. He intends to retire there too. We were friends in the army.”

  “So you plan on settling in Silver Town?”

  The waitress brought them their meals and a soda and glass of wine. “Silver Town is wolf-run, if you didn’t know,” Carla whispered to Hanna. “But we’re trying to build up our pack here in Green Valley too.”

  “As in, turn it into another Silver Town…or so I’ve heard,” Phoenix said.

  Carla smiled. “We’re working on it. We just need to get our people into all the key positions, running all the businesses, filling all the vacancies—as long as everyone who takes the jobs is fully qualified, of course.”

  “Sounds good.” Hanna got the impression Carla was trying to sell her on Green Valley.

  “I imagine you could get a job as a reporter in Silver Town, no problem, because of who runs the town,” Phoenix said, “if things don’t work out in Green Valley.”

  “Okay, so things could be looking up for me.” Hanna had never realized two packs were out in this area of Colorado and certainly not that they would be able to help her get a job. She was so relieved.

  “Without even having to report on biker shootings at a pub or anything that dangerous,” Phoenix said.

  “That was something,” Carla said. “Were you really there during the fight?”

  “Yeah, unfortunately,” Phoenix said. “But we got out before the shooting started.”

  “That’s good. I’m glad you weren’t hurt. You’re military, aren’t you?” Carla asked.

  Hanna frowned. It didn’t matter that she wasn’t with him on a date; she was still “with” the wolf, and she was ready to tell Carla to back off.

  Phoenix smiled at Hanna, probably because she looked annoyed. “Yeah, retired special forces.”

  “Wow, cool. Then you were in good hands, Hanna.”

  Hanna smiled lamely at the two of them.

  “Did you need anything else?”

  “No, I’m good. Thanks, Carla,” Hanna said.

  “I’m good too,” Phoenix said.

  Then they began to eat their hamburgers. They were divine. When she wanted a burger, this was going to be the place to go if she ended up living here.

  Once they finished their meals, Phoenix gave Hanna his cell number. “I’ve got to get on my way, but if I’m in the area and you ever need help or anything, give me a call.”

  “Like if I’m at another unscheduled motorcyclists’ convention?”

  “Hey, if you’re going to be an investigative reporter, no telling the trouble you could get yourself into.”

  She chuckled. “So what? You’re volunteering to be my bodyguard?”

  “Something like that.”

  “Thanks for saving me tonight at the pub.”

  He paid the bill and she opened her mouth to object. She hadn’t intended for him to pay for her meal.

  “My treat. I invited you. Think of it as a first date, of sorts.”

  She scoffed. “I don’t go out with military guys.”

  Her comment earned her a smile. “Bad experience?”

  “Two.”

  He smiled again. “Okay, not a date. Just a…way to make up for you not getting the story to sell to an editor.”

  “Thanks then.” She gave him her cell number as well. “Just in case you have a story you want to share with me that I can report on.”

  “I can guarantee you that won’t happen.”

  They said goodbye to Carla, who told them to come back anytime, and left the restaurant. “What are you doing tonight?” Phoenix asked Hanna.

  “I planned to see a movie about a woman with superpowers,” Hanna said.

  He pulled out his phone and scrolled through some pages. “That looks good. Do you want some company?”

  She frowned. “Okay. But what about your sister and brother-in-law?”

  “I’ll send my sister a text telling her I have to keep a friend company and will be there after the movie ends. I can’t think of anything worse than worrying about a job interview, staying in a hotel in a town you’re unfamiliar with, and watching movies on TV. And then not being able to sleep because of worrying about the job interview.”

  “So you going with me to the theater will take the pressure off?”

  “Yeah. It’s a movie I was interested in seeing anyway, if you want the company.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah. It’s great when others have superpowers too.”

  “Your sister won’t mind?”

  “Are you kidding? She knows I’ll be there after that, and I’m staying with them until I sort out what I’m going to do and where I’ll be living. They’ll be glad I’m not underfoot for too long.”

  He texted his sister and then drove Hanna to the theater.

  She wouldn’t call this a date per se, and she had the distinct impression that reporters weren’t on his most favored list of people to get to know. But he was taking her to the movie, and he’d even bought her dinner. Things were looking up.

  Chapter 3

  “That was interesting,” Phoenix said as he and Hanna left the movie theater.

  “You didn’t like it.” She didn’t have to be a mind reader to know that. Because of their ultrasensitive wolf sense of smell, she could tell he had been annoyed with the woman in the movie—a reporter like her, who was following the lead on a story out of her assignment zone and got canned for even mentioning it to her editor. The woman ended up saving the world after learning about the trouble the world was headed for. See? Getting fired from a job was the best thing that had ever happened to the superhero and the world.

  “It was all right,” he said.

  “But you didn’t like it. Why not? I thought it was great. Because the woman got fired from her job, she saved the world.”

  As they climbed into his car, Phoenix smiled a little at Hanna as if he thought she was being silly for getting so into the movie, which annoyed her.

  He drove her to the hotel, where she thanked him for taking her to the movie and buying her popcorn and a soda.

  “You’re welcome. I hope you have a good interview tomorrow and get the job.”

  “Yeah, me too. Thanks again.” Hanna got out of his car, waved, and headed inside the lobby. Well, she didn’t need to worry about getting interested in this guy who had been in the military. His obvious aversion to reporters was enough to make him so not her type.

  She glanced back
at the hotel’s covered driveway and noticed he was still there, making sure she got in okay. That was nice of him. Finally, he drove off. She noticed a biker gang member take off from the parking lot headed in the same direction as Phoenix, and she saw another biker watching her. Hadn’t the police arrested all of them?

  As she walked into the hotel lobby, Hanna thought again about the job interview and sighed. She knew she’d have to tell the editor that she had been fired from her last job. She hoped he didn’t hold it against her since she really wanted this job as an investigative reporter. She should have just found a different investigative-reporter job before she irked her former boss enough to fire her, though it was a little late for regrets. When she’d heard the police chief openly lying about money from the department that he had spent on home improvements—at his house—she couldn’t help but call him on the carpet about it.

  Hanna got on the hotel elevator and a man joined her—the gang member who had been sitting on his bike, watching her from the parking lot. He was dressed in a black leather jacket and pants and boots, his brown hair tied back in a tail and his beard well groomed. He eyed her with disdain, and she considered jumping off the elevator. His insignia indicated he was with the Hells Angels—a skull with wings on the helmet and Hells Angels written across the top of it.

  “You called the cops on us,” he said, his voice gruff and dark as the elevator door closed. She should have gotten off when she’d had a chance.

  Her wolf instincts were dead-on, and she could smell his aggression, even though he seemed to be keeping his cool.

  “If you’re talking about the incident at the pub, I didn’t call anyone.”

  “What about the guy you were with?”

  “No. And if you didn’t know, they stuck us in a squad car and questioned us too.”

  “But you aren’t in jail. My brother is.”

  She wasn’t the one who started the fight either. And she didn’t have any warrants out for her arrest. She suspected some of the bikers armed with guns weren’t supposed to be carrying them.

  “Anyone in the pub might have called the police. The waitstaff, someone else who was there having a drink. It certainly wasn’t me.” She arrived at her floor and was ready to jump out. The door opened, and she put her hand out to stop it from closing, afraid he would react violently if she tried to bolt because he thought she had lied to him. Now she could have used a military guy as her boyfriend!