Joy to the Wolves (Red Wolf #1) - Terry Spear Page 0,85

to move to,” Lucas offered.

“You still need to do some community work for the reindeer ranch,” Josh said.

“You can’t prove I stole the reindeer. Not based on your sense of smell,” Lucas said, cocky. He sprinkled more parmesan cheese on his spaghetti.

“You don’t even want to go there.” Adam set his fork on his empty plate and folded his arms across his chest.

Lucas laughed. “You’re playing the bad cop, right?”

Adam only smiled.

Once they finished dinner, they cleaned the kitchen, and then they visited for a while longer. When it was time to go to the park, they took Adam’s Hummer.

“Are you sure your folks will be all right with you being gone this long?” Brooke asked, thinking she should have mentioned it earlier.

“They went to a Christmas party. They won’t be in until after midnight.”

Brooke looked forward to a run, though she couldn’t help but think of what might happen while they were gone. Sure, she had security cameras up now, but her phone would be in the shed behind Carver’s house if she was alerted to a break-in.

Chapter 20

Josh was glad Lucas could run with them as a wolf, but he was concerned Brooke would be upset if either her house or her shop were broken into and she hadn’t been near the phone to call it in. He called to have a couple of patrolmen park in front of the house and shop for an hour, just in case. No sense in tempting fate.

He was glad she wanted to run with the boy. Josh should have been more sensitive to the way she must be feeling after all the trouble she’d been having. He was trained to deal with armed assailants. She was not. He got the distinct impression she really needed this run, and he was glad to do anything to make her feel better.

Adam and Lucas had waited for Josh and Brooke to undress and shift first in the shed at Carver’s house, while Lucas told Adam, “I’m not shy. I don’t mind if we all strip off our clothes at the same time.”

Josh smiled at Brooke, thinking if he’d been Lucas, he would have been saying the same thing.

“They’re courting. We need to give them their privacy,” Adam said.

They all had to remember that Lucas had lived for so long among humans that he probably had no idea what the protocols were for this sort of thing. It wasn’t that they couldn’t all strip and shift at the same time in front of each other. Often that was the easiest. That was something the wolves in the pack would need to talk to Lucas about, since he hadn’t learned all the nuances of being with other wolves all these years.

At first, they all stuck together, running through the woods. Then Lucas ran off like a racehorse, as if he needed to run as fast and as far as he could. Adam stuck with him, his companion on this new adventure and to keep him out of trouble, while Brooke played with Josh. He’d expected a quiet run with her, exploring the woods, enjoying the time together as courting wolves, though they hadn’t exactly said that was what they were. As far as he was concerned, they were.

So when she started to play with him, he was all for it. He had the passing thought that Lucas would benefit from seeing a male and female wolf playing together. Josh quickly dismissed the notion when she nipped at his ear. Before he could retaliate with a lick to her cheek, she swung around and nipped at his tail. He growled in a fun way, and she tore off. The chase was on. Forget showing Lucas all about wolf courtship. Josh was too busy trying to catch up to his she-wolf to give any more thought to teaching a teen wolf what it was all about.

Josh had lost sight of Brooke, but he was smelling her scent. He hadn’t played hide-and-seek as a wolf since he and his brother were younger. Playing the game with a wolf he was courting? It couldn’t get any more fun than this.

He barely heard something moving behind him, whipped around, and saw Brooke sneaking up on him before she attacked. He wanted to laugh out loud, and he would have if he’d been in his human form.

She growled and plowed into him, snarling, biting, all in fun, and he attacked back, only much gentler, not wanting to injure her. Wouldn’t that be