Joy to the Wolves (Red Wolf #1) - Terry Spear Page 0,83

how to do.”

“Adam already told you we can’t have our kind committing crimes.”

“Yeah.”

Josh smelled his scent. “You’re a gray wolf. A lupus garou.”

“A black wolf,” Lucas told him.

“That’s the color of your fur, but you’re a gray timber wolf,” Josh said. “All the rest of us are red wolves. Arctic wolves exist too.”

“Red is the color of your fur,” Lucas said.

“We’re red wolves, but the color of our fur has a lot of red. What do you know about your parents?” Josh asked.

“They died in a rockslide when I was seven. I didn’t have any other family to take me in. We didn’t belong to a wolf pack, and I didn’t think there was one here. I knew about our kind, but what could I do? I couldn’t tell anyone. I’ve had to run as a wolf in secret.”

“Not any longer.” Josh told him about the leaders of the red pack at the ranch south of there.

“Over thirty thousand acres?” The boy’s eyes brightened.

“Yep,” Adam said. “You can go there any time to run as a wolf.”

“Are there girls?”

Brooke smiled as she began to serve the spaghetti. Josh poured wine for the adults and then set the bowl of salad on the table. Adam served water for everyone and brought over the plate of garlic bread.

They all sat down at the dining table to eat.

“A few teen she-wolves. Males, too, that you can make friends with,” Adam said.

“See? I didn’t need Sandy after all. Can we go running?” Lucas asked. “I mean, close by. Forest Park? That’s where I sneaked off to when I could get away with it. I haven’t run with wolves since I did with my parents.”

Brooke felt bad for him. She would have really felt isolated if she hadn’t had a family to run with when she’d been younger.

“Can you control your shifting?” Josh asked.

Lucas nodded. “Yeah. I never have any trouble with it.”

“We can go running,” Adam said.

Lucas glanced at Brooke. “Sure, I’ll go. I haven’t shifted since the day I was shot,” she said.

“Hell, I hadn’t thought of that. Will you be all right?” Josh sounded like he was afraid that if she turned wolf, she might feel the terror all over again. “I’ve been there. I had three escaped convicts corralled, except they were all armed with semiautomatics.”

“Oh wow, Josh, why didn’t you tell me about that?” Brooke asked, reaching over to hold his hand.

Josh squeezed her hand. “Rookie mistake. Anyway, I was shot twice, and I was lucky Adam was on the scene first. He took a hit, but he saved my ass.”

Brooke’s eyes widened. “Adam, you too?”

“We’re like wolf brothers. If one gets shot, the other has to take a hit so we can commiserate. Anyway, after we were both operated on, Leidolf managed to get us out of there before our injuries healed up too quickly. We stayed at Leidolf’s ranch until we could be cleared for duty. We both got a medal for it. We captured the murdering bastards and kept the city safe.”

“So you still have issues with being shot,” Brooke said.

“The last time happened six months ago, but it gets better with time. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wanted to hit the floor when I’ve heard the sound of gunfire,” Josh said.

“Even when those men were shooting at me?” she asked.

“No. When you were in trouble, that’s all I thought about.”

“What about you, Adam?”

“Yeah, it doesn’t matter how many times you get shot, that memory can be triggered by all kinds of sounds,” Adam said.

“There’s only one way to know how I’ll feel, and that’s by shifting and running,” she said.

Josh said, “Do you think the house and shop will be all right while we’re gone?”

Brooke scoffed. “We’ve got the security videos, and we won’t be gone that long.” At this point, she wanted to run as a wolf. She needed to run, to get rid of the pent-up sense of frustration she was feeling. To deal with the frightening prospect that these men were going to continue to come after whatever it was, armed to the teeth.

Josh reached over and took her hand and squeezed, his expression one of understanding. “We run. You’re right.”

Brooke smiled at him, glad he understood how she was feeling. “It was a good thing that we discovered who you were, Lucas,” she said, changing the subject. “If you don’t have any trouble shifting and can do it during the new moon, you have to be a royal. We