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Ethan s heart practically leapt out of his throat as he dove to catch Charlene, but she d already fallen and caught herself on some rocks below the edge of the cliff before slipping all the way to the beach s rocky bottom sixty feet below.

Around two-hundred-and-fifty pounds of muscle, and six feet in length, the male black bear was still coming, and Ethan didn t have a choice.

He scrambled over the cliff, though he was more prepared for it than Charlene had been.

At least there were lots of foot and fingerholds on the rocks.

The bear could climb the cliff and trees too, but he just peered over the edge and watched them down below. Then he ambled off.

Are you okay, Charlene? Ethan asked, hoping to hell she hadn t been hurt when she slipped off the cliff.

Yeah. What about you?

I m good. I made more of a calculated climb. Are you able to climb back up here?

I can. Is the bear still up there?

Yeah, I hear him sniffing around.

Well, he better not be eating all our blackberries.

Ethan smiled, thinking the berries weren t half as important as climbing back up into the woods away from the cliff and the bear.

The tide was coming in, the waves crashing against the rocks below them.

The rocks they were clinging to were slippery and about fifty feet above the water.

They couldn t hold on forever where they were either.

He was listening to the bear snuffing around, waiting for it to go away. But Ethan s injured arm was really aching. He hadn t planned to climb cliffs anytime soon! He would have left that activity for a later time when he was completely healed.

How are you doing? Charlene called out to Ethan.

Good. How are you doing?

I need to make it up the cliff soon or I m not going to have the strength.

I m listening to the bear. Ethan didn t want to tell her he was eating their berries, which was the reason the bear was sticking around.

He is eating our berries, isn t he!

I m afraid he is. Then he glanced down at her, and damn, she was climbing up to reach him. Be careful, honey. He hadn t called her a term of endearment yet, but it sounded so natural to call her that.

She smiled. I am, thanks. How is your injured arm doing?

He had to be honest with her. It s killing me.

Ohmigod, Ethan. We ve got to get you out of here.

And you. I think the bear might have moved on. Then Ethan s phone started to ring in his backpack. They ll have to leave a voicemail.

If it is one of your friends, they wouldn t be able to come rescue us anyway. It would take too long.

No. We ll be out of here before you know it.

He began to move up the cliff, and when he reached the edge, he looked to see if the bear was there to make sure it was safe for Charlene to join him.

The bear had knocked over their buckets and the berries all were gone.

Ethan could smell the bear s scent where it had headed off into the woods and disappeared. It s all clear.

Good. I need to get on solid ground and give my arms a rest.

Yeah, I hear you.

I m sorry. You have to be way worse off than me, she said.

Nah. I have more muscle mass than you and it had to be tough to hold on as long as you have. He climbed onto the ridge and reached down to help her up if she needed it.

She was nearly there, and he grabbed her arm and hauled her all the rest of the way up and into his arms.

God, you scared the life out of me when you slipped off the cliff, he said.

Yeah, me too. She hugged him tight. Thanks for coming to my rescue.

He chuckled. I wanted to come for you, but I was trying to get out of the way of the bear too.

She smiled and kissed him, then glanced at the berry buckets. He ate every one of our blackberries.

Yeah, I know. So are we done for now or—

Let s get some more. I want to do this.

He gave her another kiss and hug. He was so proud of her for not giving up. Though if the bear came back, they would probably call it a day. But he was ready to collect the blackberries and make jelly with her after that.

They had to go in another direction where they hadn t already cleaned out the wild fruit though. They finally found some more patches of blackberries and picked them all, filling their buckets.

Woo-hoo! We got them before the bear did.

But we better head back to the house before he decides to see if we picked some more blackberries for him.

All the blackberries we collected should be enough to make a good batch of jelly out of them.

She took Ethan s hand and headed for home. Oh, who called you on your phone?

Let me check. Ethan let go of her hand and pulled his phone out of his backpack. When he saw the caller ID, he shook his head. Oh, you won t believe this. Noah was the one who had called.

Ohmigod, no way!

Yeah, I take it he s an alpha wolf.

He is. So are you going to call him back? She sounded amused.

No. We re busy on our berry-picking date. When we get back to your house, we ll be in the business of making jelly. He got a call before he put his phone back in his backpack and he glanced at the caller ID. He s persistent.

She laughed. Yeah, I could have told you that. He doesn t know that you re an alpha like he is. He probably thinks he can intimidate you and you ll leave me alone.

It s not happening.

That s what I like about you. Someone who will stand up to him. Even if Renault was a wolf, he wouldn t have stood up to Noah.

You re worth it. Ethan tucked his phone into his backpack.

Thanks. Besides, Noah would never have gone out to pick blackberries with me and then make them into jam or jelly. This was really fun.

That s part of life, experiencing stuff like that. And the blackberries are so much wilder and tastier than the store-bought brands, he said.

Exactly. Plus, having the encounter with the bear made it all the more…exciting.

He laughed.

They finally reached her home, dropped off their backpacks near the door, and he began cleaning the frying pans from breakfast. Charlene brought out lemon juice, pectin, and sugar, and then washed the berries. Then she soaked the berries in salt water. She dried them after that.

These are perfect. Some are perfectly ripe, others a little underripe, which makes a great combination. Overripe blackberries lose their pectin and sharpness. So we did great, she said.

That s good to know. Do you want me to mash the blackberries in the pan? he asked.

Sure. She added some lemon juice to it.

He simmered them over the stovetop for a few minutes to break the berries down, and then she strained them through a jelly bag. She added some of the seeds back in so it was more of a jam than just all jelly.

He began mashing the berries with a potato masher. Boy, they smell good.

They do. It makes me think of still being out there picking them.

Then they cooked the mixture with sugar and pectin, and he began stirring it constantly to dissolve the sugar. They boiled it for five minutes and then after they finished cooking it, they sterilized the jars for the jelly.

Should we have lunch now? she asked.

Yeah, that was fun. He was cleaning everything up so they could make lunch. Unless you want to order pizza instead of making lunch.

That sounds fabulous. She sighed. Oh, you shouldn t have been doing all that work with your arm. I keep forgetting that you re injured because you keep acting like there s nothing wrong with it. But after cliff hanging, it has to be sore.

I was mixing and mashing with my good arm. My injured arm only hurt when I was hanging onto the cliff.

She shook her head. And when you were running as a wolf? Why don t we just grill steaks tonight and enjoy the sunset instead of running as wolves? Especially after the trauma I m sure your injured arm has experienced today.

Sure, that would be fine. Ethan wouldn t have let on it was bothering him, but it was probably a good idea to give his arm a rest.

They ordered a supreme pizza with all the toppings that would be there in half an hour. Then they settled on the back deck with glasses of water.

Now this is the life, she said, watching the seagulls flying over the ocean.

Yeah. I couldn t have found a better place to retire, even if I hadn t thought that s what I would be doing here. Then he got a call on his phone and looked at the caller ID. It s Noah again.

You might as well get it over with.

That s just what I was thinking. Ethan answered his phone. Hello? He put it on speakerphone so Charlene could listen in or jump into the conversation if she wanted to.

This is Noah Westmoreland and I m—

Charlene s ex-boyfriend from Destin, Florida. Ethan wanted Noah to understand that he knew the situation between Charlene and Noah perfectly well.

Current boyfriend. There has been a slight misunderstanding between us.

Ethan wondered why Noah didn t talk to Charlene about it and called him instead.

Well, from what she tells me, the misunderstanding is on your part.

We re dating, if you didn t know that for certain.

I understand that you took over my old job.

Congratulations are in order. Grainger is one of the best bosses you could ask to work for.

I want to wish you luck with that. And I need to tell you to watch your back.

If Grainger didn t warn you, someone in the department might be dirty. Just be careful who you confide in.

Noah didn t say anything for a moment and Ethan thought he might realize that Ethan was trying to help him out, but not where Charlene and his relationship were concerned.

Charlene and I aren t through with each other, and you had better watch your back where I m concerned.

That s good to know. Good talking to you. But our pizza just arrived —not that it had, but it was a good excuse to show they were dating whether the wolf liked it or not— so I have to let you go. Enjoy Portland. It has a lot of nice things to offer.

Listen, here, you—

Ethan ended the call.

You know he s not going to give up that easily. Charlene sipped some more of her water.

Yeah, but I don t have any trouble seeing him wolf to wolf.

You have been injured! And he s a gray wolf. He s bigger than you. Though if it comes to that, I ll be there to fight him too.

I don t want you in a fight with him. I mean, if he decides to come here to see me eye to eye, I ll deal with him.

Does anyone know where you re actually living? Charlene asked.

No. Except for you. I gave you my address. Well, and our pack leaders, and Adam, Sierra, and Tori. But no one in the department except for my boss knows.

Okay, so if Noah comes here, he isn t going to find you.

Correct. So he ll come and see you most likely instead. Which Ethan didn t want.

Which means you ll need to stay here with me. You know, to protect me from the big bad wolf.

Ethan smiled.

I m serious.

It will be my honor and my pleasure. Ethan hadn t expected that to happen! Noah had really screwed that up with Charlene.

Then their pizza arrived, and they ate it on the deck. This was great. At his home in Portland, he had a deck that overlooked a backyard. It was pretty, but with an ocean view like this? Perfect. No traffic noises, dogs barking, just the sound of the ocean waves pummeling the rocky beach below.

Once they finished their lunch, he said, I ve got to go out and buy some steaks and pack an overnight bag for tonight. Do you need anything at the grocery store?

What else do you want with the steaks?

Corn on the cob? I can grill them and maybe we could have baked potatoes or french fries.

I have the potatoes.

Okay, I ll get some corn on the cob. What about fixings for breakfast?

I can make us pancakes or waffles if you would like. I have everything we need for that.

Milk? Bread?

Rolls to go with our steaks?

I ll get some of those too. I ll be back in a little bit.

Have a safe trip.

Thanks. If Noah calls you, just let me know.

I sure will. He ll probably move to Portland and will take a little time to get settled in before he begins working at the job, which means he might end up taking a drive out here to see me.

I hope to be here when it happens.

Yeah, me too. Then she gave Ethan a hug and kiss before he left.

Now she was his kind of she-wolf girlfriend.

He gave her a generous kiss and hug back, and then he left to grocery shop and pack his bag.

He was thrilled it had come to this so quickly in their relationship.

Noah really hadn t played the game right, especially if he thought Ethan would ever let him ruin what he had with Charlene.