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Renault knows Kroner threatened to kill me when I took him down this last time. But I m sure Kroner will want to stay as far away from me as he can.

You re retired and if he reads the news at all, he could know that you are. You wouldn t have a badge, a gun, or the backing of the department. At least as far as he knows, Charlene said. So he might… Wait, your boss didn t set you up to be the prey, did he?

No. Kroner s escaping jail time wasn t planned. Though Ethan thought about it for a moment, then discounted the idea. His boss, Grainger, would have had Ethan agree to the plan if he had thought that was the best way to catch these guys.

Charlene sighed and sipped some of her coffee.

I absolutely can t believe that Noah is coming to Oregon.

He was Florida-born and he swore he would never leave there.

He liked to surf on his off time. He s going to be so pissed off when he learns I m not even in Portland any longer and seriously dating you here in Oyster Bay.

I m sure Renault will tell him just where we are so maybe he can get back in Noah s good graces.

Ethan leaned back in his chair. The water-stained note was genius.

She laughed. Yeah, I just wanted to see what he would say. I swear if we could have seen his face, he would have been blushing when I asked him if he sent the flowers to me.

I m sure you embarrassed him. He shouldn t have sent them anonymously. That would make him a beta wolf, if he had been a wolf.

Right. That s exactly what he is. And the fact he wants to clean his hands of trying to date me and he ll want to sic Noah on you? Totally beta behavior.

Then Ethan got another call and pulled out his phone, thinking Noah might already have gotten the word and Ethan was going to get hell for it from him, but it was Adam. Ethan put the call on speakerphone.

Hey, we played out our little drama in front of Renault so he overheard us talking about you dating Charlene. He was all ears, Adam said.

I just got a call from him. Ethan ate another bite of his sausage before his breakfast got cold.

No way. Adam sounded incredulous.

Yeah.

Did he tell you the other news? Adam asked.

About Noah taking my old job?

Yep. That s what Renault said, pretending to innocently overhear us talking about you dating Charlene.

He told us right away that you might be bound for trouble because Noah still thinks he and Charlene are together.

That s when I asked him if Noah knew you both were living in Oyster Bay, Adam said.

He said he didn t tell him, but the word would probably get out that both of you were living there now.

Of course we know Renault is going to tell Noah right away.

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 them soak. 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.

Charlene and Ethan headed out of the house and began walking along a path in the woods, talking to each other and making noise so that if they came upon any black bears, they would scare them off. Did you see the weather report? We re supposed to have fog tonight, she said.

Yeah, I figure it will be perfect for running as wolves.

Oh sure, that would be great, she said.

Right now, the sky was clear and sunny, and the temperature was sixty-five degrees. Perfect for hiking and berry picking. In the fall and through the winter and spring, it could be really rainy, so summer was ideal for doing this.

They found some purple Oregon grapes, but they weren t ripe yet. These are really tart, but add some sugar, and it makes it perfect for jelly. I used to pick them with my grandfather. We can do that when they ripen in the fall.

Yeah. I would like to do that. Why was your grandfather living out here when your parents were in Florida? Ethan asked.

Mom and her family were from the Oregon coast. She was on spring break in Florida when she met my dad.

He had taken over his parents rental properties and she wanted to stay with him there.

My grandfather didn t want to leave his native Oregon.

So my sister and I visited him every summer and he came out to Florida for Christmases.

We had a feast with him in Oregon during the weeks of Thanksgiving and Easter.

We loved going to both areas, though I wished that Granddad could have been with us all the time while my sister and I were growing up.

My grandmother died when we were six months old so we never knew her.

What about you? Were your parents from Oregon?

Yes, from the Portland area. They both wanted to be in law enforcement from the time they were young and actually met at the police academy.

And that was all she wrote. They fell in love, the only wolves in law enforcement at the time.

Like us, they were good at what they did.

They both eventually became DEA special agents.

My grandparents were from there too. I ve traveled all over, but I always came home.

Is that going to be a problem for you in the future? I mean, being away from Portland? Your friends? she asked.

They found some blackberries and began picking them before they moved on. No. Not when I have someone in my life who makes my days and nights so special, he said.

Hmm, I feel the same way about you.

I…hope you re not having nightmares about me raiding your house. He d thought about it earlier and meant to ask her if she d had any issues from his terrorizing her.

Ooh, more blackberries, she said and hurried over to get some.

Yes, on the nightmares. I was listening to the music too loudly with the shower water running on high and I thought I heard a bang, but I figured it was a car that had gone by the house and had backfired or something.

And then everything was quiet after that so I didn t think anything further about it.

You guys didn t holler out that you were DEA or anything.

No, as dangerous as these guys often are, we go in without announcing ourselves. You would have heard us for sure and figured out that we were in your home if we had been yelling.

I would have. Boy, I would have been mad.

He laughed. I figured when you bit me, you had been angry.

Yeah, well, if I d been really mad, I would have bitten you a lot harder. That was more like a love bite.

He smiled while they continued to pick blackberries.

Anyway, so yeah, I ve been having nightmares about you pointing a rifle at me. What about you having nightmares about me?

He chuckled. I did actually have one about being attacked by a wild red wolf—female type.

She chuckled. Then she glanced in the direction where she heard a noise. Oh, oh, a bear is coming. Charlene yelled, Go, ha! and fumbled to pull her bear noisemaker out of her backpack. She backed away and was too close to the edge of the cliff. It crumbled and she screamed out as she fell.