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At the ranch, Leidolf gave Ethan hell in the recovery room once he learned Ethan had driven there himself.

Why in the hell did you drive down here to see the doctor? Cassie and I would have brought you here after we left Charlene s house. Or the doctor would have met up with you in Portland. Or we would have sent an ambulance to get you. Leidolf looked so sternly at Ethan that he wanted to smile.

Ethan only nodded, woozy. He didn t like imposing on anyone, and he really hadn t felt that bad at the time—probably because of the adrenaline pumping through his blood.

Doc wanted him to stay the rest of the morning at the clinic, but Ethan said, I ll be fine once I have more sleep.

Leidolf wasn t about to allow Ethan to drive himself home. He put out the call for help.

Brad Reddington and Josh Wilding arrived at the clinic then.

Brad was a good friend and also a subleader and had quickly volunteered to drive Ethan s car back to Portland.

Josh, one of Ethan s best friends, was part owner of the nearby reindeer ranch and a retired homicide detective who had worked with Ethan on several cases.

Josh took Ethan home in his car. When they arrived at his home, Ethan was exhausted, feeling the pain from the bullet wound and the wolf s bite.

Hell, man, I didn t figure you would be shot on your last Portland assignment, Josh said, getting Ethan settled in his bed like he was his big brother.

Yeah, I rushed him, but Kroner unjammed his gun at the last moment. Ethan didn t regret his decision. He felt he saved other members from his team getting shot, and as a wolf, Ethan would heal up much faster.

At least you got one of the people who was responsible for your parents murders, Brad said, bringing him a glass of water and setting it on the bedside table.

Yeah. It would have been nice to get the whole gang, but I m still going after them.

Well, if you need any of our help, just let us know, Josh said. Then he chuckled. We take it that the she-wolf whose house you raided bit you.

Brad smiled. I figured it must have been a love bite.

Ethan shook his head. I don t think making friends with me was on her mind at the time.

You re not going to let that stop you, are you? Josh asked.

Nope. I have every intention of making it up to her one way or another.

They both laughed.

I look forward to seeing you do it, Brad said.

Yeah, the same with me, Josh said.

Ethan hoped he could pull it off. Both Josh and Brad were happily mated.

Most of his friends were, and Ethan had done his fair share of giving them a hard time when they were courting their mates.

Not that he was courting Charlene, but any interest he might show in a female wolf was a chance for them to give him a hard time back.

Do you need anything else besides sleep? Brad asked.

No, guys, thanks so much for bringing me home.

Brad shook his head. Leidolf was sure pissed that you had driven to the ranch to see the doctor on your own like that.

Josh agreed. Yeah, we all agree. It would have been nothing for any of us to come get you to see the doctor.

Next time, I ll keep it in mind.

You d better, Brad said. We re all here for each other. Get some rest, Ethan.

Sleep well, Josh said. We ll check on you later.

Thanks, guys. See you later.

Then they left him to sleep for the rest of the morning.

Sleep wouldn t come though as Ethan kept thinking about the night s events—catching Charlene in the shower and taking Kroner and Benny down.

Then Ethan got a call. At this hour? It was Tori.

Yeah, Tori? You know that I have finally gone to bed after seeing Doc, don t you?

Yes, but I wanted to check on you. How are you doing? Tori asked.

Ethan did love that about his fellow red-wolf pack members. They were sincerely concerned about each other s well-being. I ve been better. But I ll heal up soon enough. At least I don t have to work when I wake up.

Yeah, but even if you hadn t retired, you would have been off from work, recuperating from your injuries. Tori was one of his close friends, being a fellow law-enforcement officer, but she, like many of his red wolf friends, also knew about his new undercover mission.

Ethan knew Tori was concerned about him because of his injury, but he suspected she had an ulterior motive for calling him this early when she could have checked on him later in the morning. He realized she had mentioned his injuries . Aww, hell, she must know about Charlene biting him.

Okay, so I wanted to give you a bit of news. When you move to Oyster Bay, you ll know someone there already, she said.

Who? Ethan was going to miss his friends in the Portland area, but hopefully this additional assignment wouldn t take too long.

Charlene Cheswick will be in Oyster Bay, Tori said.

Who? He couldn t believe he had heard Tori right. The she-wolf whose house he had just raided?

She didn t tell you her name? The she-wolf who bit you tonight after you invaded her home.

He groaned.

Tori laughed. She s moving there tomorrow. Maybe when you get moved in, you can apologize to her for breaking into her place and tearing it up, or maybe she ll even apologize to you for biting you.

He doubted that would ever happen! Though he was all for apologizing to her again.

Worse, he wasn t moving to Oyster Bay to retire, but moving there as part of a deep undercover operation.

If he did meet up with her, he would be lying to her about his reason for being there.

Not a great start to trying to make amends to her, but he had a job to do.

Well, I ll let you ponder that. Get better quick, and I ll see you at your retirement ceremony in the afternoon, Ethan.

See you there, Tori. He couldn t believe it when he learned that Charlene was going to be living in Oyster Bay too.

He hoped they could bury their differences because they were both red wolves and would be living in a small community…

together. He hoped his undercover job didn t impact her in any way, shape, or form.

Then he got a call from Adam. Hell, doesn t anyone sleep at this hour? Ethan asked Adam. It was only four thirty in the morning!

Adam laughed. I had to check in with you. I wasn t going to because I knew you needed to recuperate from your injuries, but Sierra wouldn t let me go back to sleep this morning until after I had called you.

I ll be fine. You know how we are. I ll be perfectly fit soon.

Good, we re both glad to hear it. Um, so the she-wolf bit you, eh? Adam laughed again.

Hell, that s why you really called me. Ethan couldn t help but be amused.

Yeah, Sierra had to know what had happened.

When Ethan explained about the shower and how Charlene had already been naked so she could easily shift, Adam chuckled. No wonder she bit you.

Yeah, I had it coming. She could smell I was a red wolf by then so she knew she couldn t turn me. And she didn t do as much damage as she could have if she d been defending herself against me.

Well, now we can go back to sleep knowing the whole story and that you re going to be all right. We ll see you at your retirement party. Oh, just a heads-up. Charlene is moving to Oyster Bay, if you didn t know it already.

Tori told me.

Adam laughed again. I knew she would beat us to tell you the news. Get some rest. We ll see you in the afternoon.

Ethan smiled, feeling a little better that his friends knew what had happened between him and Charlene and could have a good laugh.

He couldn t quit thinking of the beautiful redhead and her heated green eyes though.

Charlene. A pretty name for a pretty she-wolf.

He hoped if she gave him a chance to get to know her, he could put a smile on her face the next time he saw her because he had every intention of purposefully running into her when he moved to Oyster Bay.

Though he had no intention of breaking into her home like he did in Portland.

***

In the morning, Charlene was anxiously waiting for the manager to show up at the rental home to check out the new door. She had breakfast scheduled with the she-wolves of the wolf pack and she hated being late for anything.

It looks good, Charlene, the manager told her as soon as he arrived and inspected the door.

She was glad he liked the door, but the owners had the final say. She glanced at the clock on the living room wall. She was ten minutes late to the restaurant, and it would take her ten minutes to get there.

Then the rental manager sent pictures of the new door to the owners and got a text back. I told them it looked great to me. They said it looked fine and they were sorry you had to go through all that.

Boy, me too. Charlene thanked the manager. She d already packed her bags, and they were in her car. She gave him the keys to the new door. I had a pleasant stay here. Tell the owners that I thought their place was lovely. Thanks.

I will. You were a great tenant.

They said their goodbyes and she got in her car to drive over to the restaurant to meet up with the ladies.

She was looking forward to this as her last hurrah in Portland.

She just wished she had known there were other she-wolves in the area that she could have socialized with while she had been there for the month.

She parked at the restaurant and went inside. The three ladies were waiting for her and smiled brightly to see her. Sorry if I m a little late to the party. The manager had to inspect the replacement door and he got it okayed with the owners, so it s all good.

Oh, wonderful, Cassie said. Breakfast is my treat. You can order from the menu or serve up your own meal from the buffet. They have everything you could want, even special omelets made to order.

They all took their seats at one of the tables and the server brought them menus. What would you all like to drink?

Hmm, this maple espresso black tea sounds good, Charlene said.

Lavender Earl Grey tea for me. Cassie started looking over the menu.