Jingle Bell Wolf by Terry Spear

Chapter 14

After skiing the rest of the morning and having lunch, Landon gave Gabrielle a hug and kiss in the lobby. “I never tell anybody my dreams, but I just have to tell you mine, considering how I met you. I dreamed a beautiful she-wolf would swim into my life. Since I run a ski lodge, I figured it was just nonsense, like most dreams are.”

“Was this before or after you saw me swimming in the pool when I wasn’t supposed to be?” She arched a brow.

“Before. About a week before, actually. The she-wolf was diving off the swimming platform at Doc Mitchell’s lake. Like I said, I didn’t put much stock in it. Not even after I saw you swimming in the pool and learned you were a wolf and a vet. It just came back to me all at once when we saw the swimming platform at Doc’s lake. And immediately I thought of you swimming there.”

“What was I wearing? In your dream?”

He smiled.

“Not the string bikini.”

“Nope. It was summer and you weren’t wearing anything at all. But your hair was definitely blond.”

“A naked woman. Were you swimming with me?”

“I was just about to.”

She laughed. “In the raw or…?”

“In the raw. Of course.” He was already thinking about making his dream come true next summer.

She smiled and kissed him. “I’m going to run up to my room and get some paperwork for the licensing done, and I need to officially send off a letter that I’m giving notice. Do you have a computer I can use to type it up? I can email my resignation to the vet clinic. As to the Colorado board, I need to mail my paperwork to them, so if we can print it all out, I can send it in.”

“We sure do and then we’ll drive the car over to the house since I left it parked at the lodge. And we’ll make snowmen.”

“Sounds like a winning plan to me. I’ll let you know as soon as I’m headed down.”

“All right. I’ll help my brother and sisters out in the meantime.”

“I’m sure they will appreciate that.” Then she headed for the stairs to her floor.

Landon walked into the office and his sisters both smiled at him.

“So,” Roxie said, “Brother, it looks like your dreams might come true.”

“I’m hoping that some other wolf doesn’t convince her he’s the one for her instead once she moves here.”

“No way. Just keep doing what you’ve been doing. It’s been working so far,” Kayla said. “Snowman building next, right?”

“Yes.” He told his sisters what Gabrielle was doing.

“Oh, I hadn’t even thought of the issue of Gabrielle having to get a state license. Doc Mitchell is thrilled about her taking over,” Roxie said. “He sent a message to everyone in the pack.”

“I heard about the text message but didn’t have time to check it. I think Gabrielle will be really happy once she’s able to move and get settled in,” Landon said.

“You know Doc Mitchell will be celebrating tonight,” Kayla said.

“I think a lot of people will be,” Landon said.

Blake joined the siblings in the office. “You just have to make sure she doesn’t see all the other bachelor males.”

Landon laughed. “What do I need to do to earn my keep here?”

“Everything’s covered for now,” Blake said. “Let’s head out.”

“Go ahead,” Landon gestured. “I’ll wait for Gabrielle.”

* * *

Gabrielle felt lighthearted about this whole situation. Maybe in a few days, she would be more anxious, but right now, she was excited. She finished the application for the state license and then she texted Landon: I’m on my way down.

Landon replied: See you in a minute. My sisters and brother already headed over to the house with Rosco.

Gabrielle hurried down the stairs and across the lobby. When she reached the office, Landon set her up on the computer and she typed up her letter. She printed it off and then sent the email to her vet office, giving them official notice. After that was done, she printed off all her documents for the Colorado state board and one of the Wolffs’ staff said he would take it to the post office for her and mail it right away.

Then Landon and Gabrielle drove over to the house, saw Nicole with his sisters and brother all working on a snowman, and parked in the garage.

“This is going to be so much fun,” Gabrielle said.

“It is. We haven’t built a snowman as a family in forever. And Nicole said she hasn’t either.”

Ready for some serious snowman work, Gabrielle and Landon joined the others and she asked the family, “So what are we making, then?”

Using a snow shovel, Roxie was filling a bucket with snow. “We’re making a giant snowman. We were going to make a snowman family, but there are getting to be too many of us and so many of the pack family members do that already. So we decided on a giant snowman.”

“That sounds like fun,” Gabrielle said.

The others had started the base of the snowman and Gabrielle and Landon jumped in to help.

After building the smooth base, they took a hot chocolate and Christmas sugar cookie break.

“This has been so enjoyable.” Gabrielle eyed the growing snowman. “I imagined a small snowman, nothing like this.”

“We haven’t ever made one this big before, either,” Roxie said. “This has been great.”

They brought out a couple of ladders and began making the middle section of the snowman. But sometime during the work, they ended up in a snowball fight. Landon pelted Blake, who had to get him back. Nicole threw a snowball at Roxie, and Gabrielle threw one at Landon. Everyone ran to the deeper snow where they could gather their balls of snow.

Snowballs were flying fast after that, and Gabrielle laughed so hard her stomach hurt. Kayla threw them at everyone as fast as she could gather a snowball. Nicole made a pile of them first. Gabrielle got hit more than anyone since she was still laughing so much.

After a few more snowball tosses, they were back to building more of the middle section of the snowman.

“Will others try to copy you?” Gabrielle asked as they loaded another few buckets of snow on a wooden sled where the snow was still deep and pulled it to the cleared-out section where they were building the snowman.

“No. That’s one thing about a wolf pack: we’re family. No one tries to create the same kind of wolf snow sculptures like the Victorian Inn’s ones, and no one will copy us,” Landon said.

“That’s good. After all the work we’ve put into this, it would be awful to hear someone else did the same thing,” Gabrielle said.

All afternoon they worked on it until they had the base and middle part of the body done. The sun was beginning to set and colored the snow pink and yellow. It was beautiful. Gabrielle had never considered how pretty a sunset reflecting off the snow could be.

“Let’s have supper,” Landon said. “Then Gabrielle and I are going night skiing.”

“We can finish the snowman tomorrow afternoon,” Roxie said.

“Yes, I agree,” Blake said. “It’s supposed to be cloudy and snow all day, no sun, and the weather will continue to be freezing so that will help to preserve our snowman.”

Everyone headed inside, banging snow off their gloves and boots at the door.

“So we’re having steaks and mashed potatoes and broccoli,” Roxie said, “to celebrate Gabrielle’s becoming our vet. No spirits for you two, though, if you’re going skiing.”

They chuckled.

Rosco greeted them all, and even the kittens ran out to see them, getting as many pets and hugs as Rosco. Then everyone began getting ready to make dinner, set the table, and Nicole even set out candles and lit them. She was glad Ambrosia was now at home with Doc Mitchell.

Instead of the rest of the family having wine, Nicole and Gabrielle made wassail and the whole family toasted to their new pack member and future veterinarian.

“We are so thrilled you’re joining us,” Roxie said. “Once a month, Nicole and Kayla and I take a shopping trip to Denver. We would love to have you come with us.”

“If I can arrange it, I sure will.” Gabrielle was thrilled that not only had she found a pack to be with, but she had also found some real girlfriends. And girlfriends were always important.

After dinner, Landon and Gabrielle returned to the lodge. They grabbed their skis and headed out, the night sky filled with stars but no moon. Gabrielle was having a wonderful time, not caring if she could run as a wolf with her friends or not, the brisk wind blowing around them as she rode the chairlift with Landon. The clothes she had bought at the Silver Town Boutique felt nice and warm—much warmer than what she had been wearing—and Landon’s body pressed against hers helped too. She loved seeing the lights all along the slopes, lighting the skiers’ way.

One man took a bad spill on the slope below the chairlift and Gabrielle cringed, thinking that could have been her. Luckily, he got up fine. She and Landon reached the top, and she managed to get off the chair without mishap. They skied down the slope in the dark of night, and when they reached the bottom, she was eager to get on the chairlift again.

“You are doing great,” Landon said.

“Oh, to think I will be able to do this lots—after work, of course—and someday even make it to the expert slopes. This is so much fun skiing at night. But”—she paused dramatically—“we still have to swim at night.”

“Guaranteed.”

They went down the intermediate slope again and again. But when they were on their fourth run down, they saw someone had taken a spill down below them and hadn’t gotten up yet. A lone skier.

“Are you hurt?” Landon called out to the skier before he reached him.

“Yeah, and I’m fighting the shift.”

Gabrielle made her way down slowly so she wouldn’t race past the injured skier or run into him and Landon, who was already checking him out. She heard that the skier was a wolf and was fighting the change because of the injury. He had to be a royal if he could shift while the new moon was out.

Landon called the ski patrol. “We need a sled for an injured skier, one of ours. He appears to have—”

“Broken his left femur,” Gabrielle said, crouching down to check on the skier.

The man was trying to pull off his gloves. She held his hand. “Can you hold on? Just for a few minutes? We’ll get you down to the first aid hut as soon as we can.”

He smiled up at her while Landon was setting the injured skier’s skis up in an X to warn others to stay clear. A couple of people slowed down to offer help.

“We’ve got it. A sled is on its way,” Landon said, and as they skied on past, she smelled they were human.

Did Landon know the injured man? He was probably one of the pack members. Then again maybe not, just like she wasn’t. Then she smiled a little. That would soon change.

She held the man’s hand and smiled down at him. “The sled is coming. Do you hear it?”

“Yes,” the injured skier gritted out.

“Do you have a ski partner, someone with you at the resort we can notify?” Landon asked.

“My friend, but he was ahead of me. So he has to be down at the bottom by now.”

“All right. Give me his number, and I’ll let you talk to him.” Landon had his phone out.

The man gave Landon the number and he called it for him. “Hi, I’m Landon Wolff, and it appears your friend broke his leg up on the slope. We have a sled coming for him, but he wants to talk to you.” Landon handed his phone to the injured skier.

The skier said, “I’m trying to hold on.” He glanced at Landon. “Yeah, the man and woman with me are wolves.”

“You can do it,” Gabrielle assured him.

The skier nodded at Gabrielle and said to his friend, “Yeah, dude, I’m trying not to shift.” He handed the phone back to Landon. “He wants to keep you on the line, and you can keep him posted as to my progress.”

Then two members of the ski patrol tore up the hill on their snowmobiles. They soon lifted the injured man onto the sled while Landon loaded the man’s skis.

Landon was still talking on the phone to the skier’s friend. “He’s on his way down now.”

Then the ski patrol sped off with the injured man. Gabrielle and Landon headed down the slope. She didn’t ski to the ski lift, but to the first aid hut instead. No one but the ski patrol members were there, both wolves, and the injured skier and his friend who met up with him there. Everyone was a wolf.

Even though they had called for an ambulance, Gabrielle planned to check him out.

Instead of lying still, the injured skier was trying desperately to remove his clothes. No wolf liked to be wearing human clothes when they shifted.

Everyone was helping the injured man to strip out of his clothes but Gabrielle, who was trying to keep the skier from injuring himself further. As soon as he was naked, he shifted, howled in pain, and passed out.

She stabilized his leg. Even though she wasn’t licensed as a vet here, no one would fault her for taking care of an injured wolf. Besides, no one would dare tell anyone she’d practiced veterinary medicine on a wolf in a ski hut.

Once she was done, they took him to the vet clinic so Doc Mitchell could set his leg.

“Was he a pack member?” she asked Landon as they left the first aid hut.

“No. He must be a guest. Thanks for taking care of him. Being a wolf, he should be good in half the time it takes humans to heal.” He frowned at Gabrielle. “Do you want to ski some more?”

“Absolutely. Let’s go.” They hurried off to the chairlift. She just hoped she wouldn’t ever do that—fall and have to shift because she was injured.

Landon appeared glad she wasn’t afraid to ski further. “He’ll be okay.”

“I agree. I just didn’t think he would shift like that at the ski resort.” Having never dealt with an injured lupus garou, she really hadn’t expected to see anything like that. “Have you had trouble with anyone like that who has been injured before?”

“Every once in a while. We have to put up the privacy screen when that happens and hope if anyone else—an injured human—is in the hut at the time, our injured wolf doesn’t howl in pain.”

Gabrielle laughed. “At least no one else was in the hut this time.”

Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Brando and his friends starting to follow them again. Great. She’d thought he’d given up on her. But then two members of the ski patrol skied up to talk to Brando and his friends.

“Let us give you some advice. Gabrielle’s part of our pack. Landon is too. I don’t know how they work things where you’re from, but pack members stick up for each other, and if you didn’t realize it, the town is entirely run by the pack.”

“Gabrielle and I have a history,” Brando said as if that said it all.

“Yeah, well, apparently you are history,” one of the ski patrol members said. “So keep your distance from them or leave Silver Town.”

After that, Gabrielle couldn’t hear what was being said, but she loved the pack already.

Landon smiled down at her. “Do you see what I mean? You’ll have all the protection you can get anytime you need it.”

“Yeah, that’s really nice.”

She and Landon rode the chairlift up the mountain and headed down the intermediate slopes several more times. Brando and his friends steered clear of them the rest of the night too. Thankfully.

When the ski lifts closed for the night, they headed inside the lodge and she said, “Swimming, right?”

“Yeah, I’ll meet you—”

“Your swimsuit is in my room.”

The night manager waved to Landon that she had an issue with a customer. “I’ll be up in a few minutes, after I take care of the problem.”

“Okay, see you in a few minutes then,” she said.

* * *

That night, Zelda said to her sister, “Odette, listen, we’re not going to find the woman. We’ve lost her for good this time. We need to call the boss and have some other agents take care of it, or we’ll miss out on our whole vacation with Gabrielle.”

“Do you think Gabrielle’s had enough time with Landon and the others to convince her to move to Silver Town and take care of their vet clinic?” Odette asked, wishing they could have at least found the woman and arrested her so they had finished their mission, and the fact they hadn’t met up with Gabrielle at the beginning of their vacation would seem more legitimate. Besides, she hated not finishing a mission.

“That’s another reason for us going to Silver Town. If Landon and the others haven’t done enough to convince Gabrielle she needs to be with a wolf pack, we’ll have to help.”

Odette smiled at her sister. “As long as we don’t make a muddle of it. I mean, if we go there and Landon’s busy taking Gabrielle out all the time, and then here we are taking her away from him, that would be at cross-purposes to what we’re trying to accomplish.”

“Right. Though he probably has work to do. We will have to make sure they can still spend plenty of time together. Like, we can visit the diamond slopes, and since Gabrielle’s a new skier, she won’t be able to join us. You remember what she told us. She would sip hot toddies in the ski lodge so we could get in some expert-slope runs.”

In her heart, Odette knew they had to join Gabrielle, but she really hoped their she-wolf friend wouldn’t feel obligated to be with them all the time. Odette also wanted to meet the Wolff family that had taken Gabrielle in and see that they had her best interests at heart.

“I’ll call her,” Zelda said. “She’ll be expecting us to join her tomorrow.”

“All right.”

Zelda got on the phone, and when Gabrielle answered, Zelda put it on speakerphone. “Hey, good news. We’re flying in by late afternoon tomorrow. We will probably get to the resort about three or four.”

“Okay, great, and we can have dinner together and night ski, if you want to,” Gabrielle said.

“Wow, you’re getting adventurous,” Zelda said.

“I’m impressed,” Odette said. “What are you planning to do now?” She hoped Gabrielle wouldn’t be calling it a night at nine already.

“Landon and I just finished skiing and we’re going to swim next.”

“Oh, we don’t want to hold you up.” Zelda winked at Odette.

“Wait, I have to tell you something. I hope you are okay with it. I’m going to move to Silver Town to take over the vet practice here as soon as I can leave Daytona Beach. It might take a little while to get my state license before I can practice here, but… Well, what do you think?”

Zelda and Odette’s mouths gaped. “Ohmigod, yes!” Zelda said.

“Oh, yes!” Odette said. “We’d so hoped you would feel that way.”

“What?” Gabrielle asked.

“Well, you know. When we came out here before, we learned it was a wolf-run pack,” Zelda said.

“You knew all along and you didn’t tell me? You…you set me up? You’ve been trying so hard to get me to come skiing with you this year. Now it all fits.” Gabrielle laughed.

Odette smiled at Zelda. She was so glad Gabrielle wasn’t angry with them.

“Yeah, the other places were just regular ski resorts. But when we came here, we knew we had to get you here at all costs just so you would see it for yourself and maybe want to make this your home.”

“You…you didn’t make up this business about the person you were supposed to take into custody, did you?” Gabrielle asked.

“No,” Zelda said. “It was as we explained, but when we learned you were having a good time there, we sure didn’t want to give up our business and mess things up for you.”

“But how did you know Silver Town needed a vet?”

The sisters exchanged looks. “I’m sorry,” Odette said. “We looked into it when we were here the last time to see if they might have an opening at the vet clinic. We heard rumors their vet, Dr. Mitchell, wanted to retire.”

“Wait, you did not talk to Lelandi, the pack leader, about this, did you?”

Zelda chuckled. “I told you, Odette, it would come out before long. Gabrielle would make a good JAG agent.”

“So that’s why she offered me the job. You told her I was a vet,” Gabrielle said.

“Yeah,” Zelda said.

“And Landon?” Gabrielle sounded concerned.

“Oh, he was a mistake,” Zelda said.

Odette punched her sister lightly on the arm. “What she means to say is that Lelandi was supposed to ensure you had some nice bachelor ski instructors all lined up to teach you how to ski and to show you around town until we could get there. And maybe you would fall head over heels for one of them. Then everything would have worked out beautifully. But you took care of that on your own when you hooked up with Landon.”

Gabrielle laughed. “That’s why you were so surprised when I said the owner of the lodge was giving me ski lessons.”

“Yeah, no one thought of that.” Zelda held her hands over her heart. “It was fate.”

“With a big push from you two,” Gabrielle said.

“Well, it worked, didn’t it? If we hadn’t convinced you to come this year to the ski resort, you might not have ever learned about the wolf-run town, found a hot guy to hook up with, and decided to take the job offer.” Odette just couldn’t believe it had all worked out.

“I’m sure you would have finally come right out and told me about the town, if I hadn’t checked it out anyway.”

“Yeah, but you might have been even more reluctant to meet a whole pack of wolves if we’d told you that part. We’ve never seen you around other wolves much,” Odette said.

“That’s true. What about the two of you?” Gabrielle sounded worried that they would miss her.

“Are you kidding?” Odette asked. “You know we’re constantly out of town on missions, so we don’t get to see you all the time anyway. But now? Every vacation we get, we’re coming out there to see you, okay? Free room and board, right?”

Gabrielle chuckled. “Yeah, sure. And you can come in the summer too. Doc Mitchell has a lake you can go swimming in, no problem with humans seeing you. The property’s all surrounded by woods—125 acres of it.”

“Oh, wow, now you’re talking about a jaguar paradise.” Zelda smiled.

“Well, it’s two hours later here than there and we still need to pack. We’ll see you tomorrow,” Odette said. “Lelandi’s having someone pick us up at the airport—I love your pack already—and they’ll drop us off at the lodge.”

“All right. I can’t wait to see you!”

Odette just had to make sure that she and her sister didn’t stand in the way of a wolf romance when they arrived in Silver Town after all the work they had put into this. Convincing Gabrielle to go to Silver Town to ski had been a job and a half as it was, though they understood why.