Page 39 of What a Wolf Wants

“Thanks for warning us,” Ethan said. “Charlene and I are having breakfast together, by the way.”

Adam laughed. “Good. I hope that Renault knew it too.”

“He did.”

Adam laughed again, but then he got serious. “You know we’ve already talked to Leidolf and Cassie. The wolf will be in our territory when he arrives in Portland and so he has to play by our rules. If he wants to make trouble for a couple of wolves in our pack—the two of you—then he’ll have the whole wolf pack on his back.”

“Wow,” Charlene said. “I never knew the pack would come in handy for making my ex-boyfriend back off. Thanks to all of you for helping out.”

“Yeah, thanks.” Though Ethan was ready to fight the wolf on his own terms.

“Okay, well, I have to go. Tori and I need to investigate a homicide. We suspect Kroner had something to do with it.”

“Hell,” Ethan said. “I’m still pissed off that the clerical error set him free.”

“Yeah, the bureau is looking into it, making sure that no one coerced or bribed the person who is responsible for making the error.”

“I sure hope not,” Ethan said. Then he would really be angry. Not so much if the person was coerced, but if they received money for it? Yeah. “So who was murdered?”

“A known drug dealer who was in competition with Kroner. I’ve got to run. I’ll talk to you both later. Have a fun day,” Adam said.

“Thanks, we are off to pick wild blackberries and make jelly,” Charlene said.

“That’s the life. You both deserve it.”

They told Adam to be safe on the job and he said the same to them and then they ended the call.

“Well, I hadn’t thought someone might have actually released Kroner on purpose,” Charlene said, then finished her eggs.

“I know. It would be a criminal act for sure. Especially if Kroner’s release had resulted in someone else’s death.” Ethan carried their plates into the kitchen, and she grabbed the butter and jelly and put them in the fridge.

“Are you ready to go berry picking? It’s time for us to just enjoy ourselves.”

Ethan put the frying pans they had cooked breakfast in into the sink and added soap and water to let themsoak. “Yeah, I’m ready to go. When we return, I’ll clean these up.”

“Okay.” She grabbed a backpack and added a couple of bottles of cold water.

“I’ve got some energy bars for us if we need them too.”

“Oh good. I’ve got a couple of buckets to use to collect the berries.”

“Perfect. I didn’t have anything that would come in handy.”

She showed him her bear noisemaker too, then tucked it into her bag.

“Oh, great idea.”

“Yeah. They have around 25,000 to 30,000 black bears in Oregon. When I visited my grandfather, we were always aware that running around in the woods we could encounter a bear.”

“For sure. I’ve run with some wolves before and ran smack-dab into a black bear on about five different occasions over the years.”

“Were you ever in real danger?”

“We were in a pack of three to five wolves, so we managed to scare them off each time.”

“That’s good. And it’s scary.”

“I agree. We worked well together as a deterrent to bears for sure. Coyotes and mountain lions too.”