Chapter 23

23

T hanksgiving was going to be super special, Kira thought as they drove to her parents' home in Loveland, hoping they wouldn't be too shocked about her mating Fisher. They had to know that she was serious about her relationship with him since she'd never brought any male wolf to see them for such a special occasion, well ever, really. Though she was sure they would be surprised that she'd actually mated him. They had met her bossy, former USF partner at a hamburger joint in Loveland once, so they knew just how superior he acted toward her. She hadn't planned for them to meet him. It was just by chance while they had been on a mission in the area.

She reached over and patted Fisher's hand. "Just be yourself. They'll love you."

"I sure hope so since we're family forever now."

"They will."

As soon as they reached her parents' split-level house, the siding recently painted a pretty gray and big windows were filled with light, welcoming them to their place, her mom and dad quickly opened the door to greet them. Kira swore she'd seen the curtains move in the living room window as one or both had peeked out to see what Fisher looked like before they hurried outside.

Once they joined them on the porch, the aroma of turkey roasting in the oven, brown gravy, pecan pie, baked bread, and all the other delicious scents of a Thanksgiving feast wafted out the door.

As her parents welcomed them into the house, pumpkin spice candles scented the air. Orange, brown, and beige flowers and pinecones filled ornate filigreed vases, which her mother would change out to Christmas flowers the day after Thanksgiving.

"Happy Thanksgiving!" Kira said to her parents and gave them hugs.

"Happy Thanksgiving," Fisher said.

"Yes, happy Thanksgiving, everyone," Gloria said, Kira's father echoing the sentiment.

"Oh, my, he has a great resemblance to Vaughn. Are you a Navy SEAL also?" her mother asked, hugging Fisher, as if she knew he was part of the family already.

"Army Ranger, ma'am," Fisher said, giving her a hug back and Kira saw the appreciation on her mother's face.

"And just as polite as his cousin," her mother said. "I'm Gloria and this is Russell."

Kira's father shook his hand with a hearty handshake.

"I'm Fisher Greystoke and I owe my life to Kira," he said.

"I owe mine to Fisher. We've had a wild few days of it," Kira said.

"Come on in and we'll get some drinks, and you can tell us all about it," Russell said.

He poured everyone glasses of champagne while Gloria and Kira started to serve up the turkey and sides.

Russell gave everyone their drinks and then took Fisher out back to the deck with a view of Longs Peak and Mt. Meeker.

"Kira has never shown any interest in a guy, and this is the first time she has brought one home to meet us. So you're dating her, right?"

"Uh, well, we're mated," Fisher said.

"Mated? Hell, that was fast, but Gloria said Kira wouldn't wait when she met the right wolf. And she warned me you both might have already mated. How did you meet?" her dad asked.

Kira hurried outside and ushered them inside to eat. "Oh, no, Dad, we'll tell you over the meal. Mom's dying to hear the story also."

They all took seats at the table.

"They're mated already." Russell began carving the turkey while Gloria sat on one side of the table while Kira and Fisher sat on the other, Kira opposite her dad.

Her mother smiled, all knowing like. "Good. I'm not surprised at all once she said she was bringing someone home for the holidays to meet us. I told your dad it would lead to that before long if you hadn't both gone ahead and done it. Which is understandable. Once we meet the wolf of our hearts, it's a done deal. We worried about her not meeting anyone that would suit her while she worked in the jaguar organization."

"Yes, I wasn't sure, but your mom knew just what was going to happen." Russell smiled.

Then Kira told her and Fisher's story of how they met.

"Oh, my," Gloria said. "I thought this job was going to be less dangerous for you than when you worked for the police department."

"It's about the same." Kira served up some mashed potatoes and brown gravy. "I might never have met Fisher if it hadn't been for that."

Both Gloria and Russell eyed Fisher. He smiled at them and told them how he'd just been hired by the USF, but he left out about the training he had to go through.

"Oh, that's just perfect then," Gloria said. "You'll be together on missions."

Then they told her parents how they had protected each other against Reggie. Her parents exchanged glances and she figured they thought they were good for each other.

"So tell us about your family," Russell said. "We know that Vaughn is your cousin and that he's mated to Jillian. What about your parents or siblings?"

"I have three brothers—Heath is the doctor in the family, and Tanner, the eldest is in charge of the tanning manufacturing facility. Shawn also helps to manage it. Tanner is the only one of my brothers who is mated. Devlyn is our pack leader, and he is my cousin. Vaughn has a brother Brock, so he's another cousin and a private investigator. We have another cousin, Aaron, who owns a horse ranch. They're all located in the town of Greystoke. None of our parents are living."

"I'm so sorry to hear that, but even so, you have quite an extended family. It's just the three of us," Gloria said.

"Yes, and"—Fisher glanced at Kira and she nodded—"Kira's joining the Greystoke pack and moving there."

"Yes!" Gloria said, clapping her hands together. "Oh, I'm so glad the two of you mated. No one else would have ever convinced Kira to move back to Colorado from Houston. We were afraid that if she did possibly meet someone there, they would never move here. We've so missed her. And Greystoke is nice and close. This is really a reason to celebrate."

"You could always move to Greystoke. Bella and Devlyn, our pack leaders, and the rest of our pack members would be thrilled," Fisher said. "They're always happy to expand the wolf pack as long as no one who wants to join intends to take over the pack."

Kira and her parents laughed.

"It's certainly something to think about," Gloria said. "Oh, this is the best Thanksgiving ever."

"Yeah, I agree," Russell said, raising his drink to theirs in a cheer.

Fisher smiled and said, "Yeah, the best ever."

Kira kissed Fisher and he kissed her back.

"Well, we didn't have that exciting of a way to meet up," Gloria said. "We just ran into each other at a diner. Russell accidentally got my steak order and when we realized the mix up, he brought my dinner to me, and I invited him to eat with me. We had an instant crush on each other."

"We did. Her dinner looked so good, I wish I'd ordered it, and since I kept eyeing it once I joined her, she ended up giving me some of it," Russell said.

"And Mom never shares the food from her plate, so for her to meet some unknown wolf and do that?" Kira said.

"Do they still share food?" Fisher asked.

"You bet," Gloria said. "It's not to say we haven't had some wild adventures over the years. I imagine all of us do, being wolves and dealing with hunters while in our wolf coats, and other life situations."

Russell was quiet for a moment and then finally said, "You have to be a damn brave wolf to fall off a cliff to save your life."

Fisher shook his head. "I'd looked before I did my freefall. I just prayed I wouldn't be injured too badly, but I knew if I had stayed where I was, Royce would have shot me until I was dead. I don't know whether it was brave of me or just I had no other choice."

"Oh, you were brave. I'm not sure I could have done that even with the threat of dying," Kira said.

"I know. Me either," Gloria said. "If you haven't given it any thought, do you have plans for Christmas?"

Kira took hold of Fisher's hand and squeezed. "We would love to be here for Christmas."

Her parents' faces brightened.

Gloria said, "I'm so glad you're going to be here then. Since we're having turkey for Thanksgiving, will prime rib be all right for Christmas?"

"Yeah, that would be great," Fisher said.

As soon as she had spoken, Kira realized she should have asked Fisher about having Christmas with her parents first! She was so used to making decisions about things for just herself, but she had a mate now and they needed to talk about these things. It would take some getting used to, but she was glad that Fisher had gone along with it in such a cheerful way. She loved him.

They finally finished dinner and they visited on the back deck until the sun set, the brilliant reds and golds reflecting off the choppy lake water.

Then Kira said, "We're going to Greystoke tonight and I'll be staying with Fisher at his home. We're going to Houston to pack my belongings and he has got to go through the training that I had done." She smiled. "I get to put him through it too, I think. But then we'll be settled in Greystoke."

"Though we can always get another place that we both love if she doesn't love my place," Fisher said.

"I love his place. You will too. You can visit us anytime," Kira said.

Her parents congratulated them again. "You can't know just how happy we are for both of you," Gloria said.

"Yeah. I always wanted to have a son," Russell said. "I know you'll do us proud."

"And grandkids too," Gloria said.

Fisher and Kira smiled. Then they said good night to her parents and got into her car and left.

"I guess they liked me," Fisher said.

"For my dad to tell anyone that he is brave? He totally admired you. The cherry on top was that you risked your life to protect me from Reggie."

Fisher smiled. "I'm so glad. I really like your parents. They're down-to-earth and fun to talk to. I felt comfortable with them from the beginning. They made me feel welcome to the family. Though I thought you might have been a little worried about your dad talking to me on the back deck before we sat down to eat. I wondered if you were rescuing me when I didn't realize I even needed to be rescued."

She laughed. "Believe me, this is a first for me so I didn't know what to expect, exactly. I was afraid my dad was going to lay down the rules regarding how you treated me. But after telling our stories, he knew you were the right one for me. Will anyone from your family miss you for Christmas? I should have asked you before I said we would see my parents. I felt badly that I hadn't consulted you first after I said we could go there."

"Don't be. My family enjoys having our holidays together, but we can do different things, like having your parents to the Greystoke celebration, or have two celebrations, one with my family and one with yours. But truthfully, my family is so big, they won't miss me as much as your family would miss you. I was fine with that."

She thought the world of Fisher for wanting to make sure her family wasn't left out of the holiday events.

"Now that your parents know we're mated, we need to tell the rest of the family that we are and of course that you're joining the pack," Fisher said.

"Oh, absolutely." She appreciated that he had wanted to tell her parents first.

Then he got on Bluetooth and made a conference call to his brothers and cousins. Since Devlyn was also a cousin, he would let the rest of the pack know the news.

"Congratulations," Devlyn and Bella said first, taking the lead as pack leaders.

His brothers and Tanner's mate, Serena, all congratulated them after that. Then his other cousins and their mates cheered them on.

Devlyn said, "I'm so glad we have a new pack member too."

"Yes," Bella said. "Now we just need to convince your parents to join us here in Greystoke."

"Absolutely," Fisher said.

Kira thought he was so cute to want to have her family living in the same place as they were.

"We'll let the rest of the pack know," Devlyn said. "Expect a celebration in a few days."

Then they all wished each other a Happy Thanksgiving and ended the call.

Fisher asked Kira, "Do you think your parents will want to move to Greystoke?"

"If we end up having little ones? I bet they would. They love that area also and I think if the Greystoke pack encourages it, they'll be interested."

"That would be great."

They finally arrived at his home, and Fisher said, "I want to get this training/testing over with so I'll know that I have a permanent position with the USF. And we need to get your things moved to Greystoke."

"Call Martin."

"It's Thanksgiving."

"We're always available for any mission. He will be glad you're doing well enough to take the test. You are, aren't you?" Kira asked.

"Yeah. I feel just fine. I want to get this over with so I'm a legitimate special agent. I just feel like it's hanging over my head." He got on his phone and called Martin, hoping Kira was right and he wasn't about to annoy his brand-new boss.

"Don't tell me Kira's got another case to take care of," Martin said.

"No, sir. I wanted to schedule my training for Monday and Kira is moving to Greystoke, so we're packing her things and moving them. We mated each other, if Kira didn't tell you yet."

"I'll have you scheduled. Congratulations on the mating," Martin said.

"Thanks, and happy Thanksgiving."

"To the both of you also. We'll see you on Monday."

Then they said goodbye to their boss and Kira hugged Fisher. "You will soon be a genuine special agent with a badge and gun even."

He just hoped he passed the test!

Three days later, Fisher and Kira arrived at the airport in Houston. Everett and Demetria picked them up and took them out to dinner.

"What will happen with the kidnappers?" Fisher asked at the Mexican restaurant where they all ordered beef fajitas.

"They've been charged with shooting you, shooting at both of you with the intent to kill, taking Kira hostage and then again, shooting at the both of you, and all the kidnappings," Everett said. "But they haven't received their sentencing yet."

"We'll do your training test in the morning and get that over with." Demetria smiled. "Everett and I volunteered to help put you through your paces."

"That means you'll go easy on me, right?" Fisher asked, chuckling.

"You wish," Kira said. "They were tough on me. They better not go easy on you."

Fisher laughed. "I know you'll be tough on me."

"You bet. I have to know you're the perfect partner for me."

He smiled at her, knowing she already felt he was the perfect partner for her in all things.

"We're taking you to Strom's club tonight after dinner. Wanting to welcome you to Houston, he said all our drinks are free tonight," Demetria said.

"It's a really fun club," Kira said. "You're going to love it."

Fisher finished his third fajita. "I love this restaurant too."

"Yeah, they have great food," Demetria said.

Then Demetria drove them over to the Clawed and Dangerous Kitty Cat Club for drinks and dancing. A man in a jaguar spotted shirt was blocking a parking space closest to the front door of the club while a driver of a pickup was trying to park in the spot.

"Is that the owner's parking space?" Fisher asked, amused that the pickup driver was trying to still park there. "Hold on. I'm getting out and I'll help the guy deal with this."

"The parking space is being held for us," Everett said, "courtesy of the owner."

"Oh, wow, how nice," Kira said.

"Come on, Fisher. We'll go dissuade the pickup driver to give it up since he isn't getting the message," Everett said.

Fisher was ready to defend their parking spot and help out the club employee who was standing in the parking spot, his arms folded across his broad chest. He looked like a bulldog of a shifter, though he was a jaguar, just challenging the pickup driver to run him over.

The driver was inching into the space, persisting on getting that prime spot. Then Fisher and Everett got involved, joining the club employee in the parking space. Once they did, the employee walked over to the pickup driver's door. "Do you want me to ban you for a week from the club?"

The driver rolled down his window. "You can't do that."

"Move it. The space is saved for a special guest tonight. Move along. Find another parking space or face the ban," the employee said.

The driver pulled forward like he was going to run over Fisher and Everett, but the employee reached in through the driver's window and grabbed the guy's keys. The employee pulled his phone out of his pocket. "I'm calling 911 to get the police out here for threatening us with the pickup."

The driver tried to get out of his truck, but Fisher and Everett made sure he couldn't open the door.

"The police are on their way," the club employee said.

All over a parking spot. Fisher smelled vodka on the guy's breath and figured he was already drunk and hadn't even made it into the club to drink yet.

A couple of patrol cars arrived, and two cops got out to question everyone. The one cop forced the driver out of his pickup and made him do a sobriety test. Then the passenger in the car, who hadn't been drinking, and was a good friend of the driver, was going to take his truck home for him.

In the meantime, the police got Fisher, Everett, and the employee's statements and arrested the drunk pickup driver who had threatened to run them over with the truck. Then the friend drove the truck off, and Demetria, who was waiting for the parking spot, pulled right in.

The employee thanked Fisher and Everett for coming to his aid, and Demetria and Kira joined the guys and were shaking their heads. Before they even went inside, they could hear the beautiful Latin music playing inside. The employee opened the door for them and then they all went inside. It was crowded with club patrons drinking at tables, dancing on the dance floor, colorful lights flashing through live ferns, rubber trees, vining plants, and banana trees. Some club dancers were wearing faux leopard or jaguar skins and dancing high above on platforms.

"This place is amazing," Fisher said.

"Yeah, isn't it?" Kira said. "I knew you would love it. You can smell mostly jaguars in here. Isn't that the coolest thing? A couple of wolves, beside us. And lots of humans."

The guy that had been protecting their parking space led them to a prime table close to the dance floor, which surprised both Fisher and Kira, but he was glad for it because all the tables with seats and the ones for people to stand at were all taken.

Animal sounds from parrots calling to each other, an occasional elephant trumpeting, and monkeys howling added to the ambience. Jaguar print covered the seats they were sitting on, and hibiscus flowers were in vases at each of the tables, giving the setting a South American feel. Jungle scenes had been painted on all the walls featuring every kind of jungle cat there was from jaguars, cougars, ocelots, margays, jaguarundis, and other wild cats of South America.

Everett ordered a drink called a Jaguar made of tequila, Amer Picon, and Chartreuse, but Demetria recommended against it. "Everett likes the slightly bitter drink. Not me. I'm all for nice and sweet."

"That's because you're so sweet," Everett said.

She leaned over and licked his lips. "You see how he says all the right words?" She ordered a peach margarita.

"Or he would be in trouble," Kira said, ordering a Big Bad Wolf made of Curacao, apricot brandy, cream, and grenadine. "I can't believe Strom changed the cocktail menu to include a wolf drink."

"Yeah, but you notice it's the big bad wolf," Demetria said.

They all laughed.

Fisher picked the strawberry margarita. Before they were delivered, he rose from the table and asked Kira if she wanted to dance.

Kira smiled and took hold of his hand. "Oh, absolutely. Here we are mated, and we haven't ever danced with each other."

"There are so many things we need to explore about each other." Then he led her to the dance floor and was so glad to be doing this with her. It was crowded, and normally he wouldn't like to dance on a floor this filled with partygoers, but with Kira, it worked just fine as he kept her close and rubbed his body against hers. She leaned against him with her hot little body and danced her heart out. Their hearts were beating like crazy, and he could smell her arousal as they danced nice and close to the sizzling, Latin tunes. He loved dancing with her like this, but he was so ready to take her back to her apartment and make love to her too.

"Now we know something else we can do when we want a night out," Kira said, kissing his cheek and licking his lips.

He nuzzled her behind her ear. "Oh, yeah, there isn't anything quite as wild, fun, and exotic as this in Greystoke. But they have a nice western-themed dance club that would be fun to go to."

His mouth caressed her skin, and she shivered. "That sounds great."

The heat of their bodies pressed together as they danced among the other couples moving on the dance floor. But they had eyes only for each other as they moved across the floor in each other's arms, her head against his shoulder. He kissed the top of her head, sliding his hand over her back in a subtle caress.

She moved her hands to his back and slipped her hands lower until she was enticingly touching his buttocks. At the same time, she began pressing her leg between his and giving a gentle rub. Man, his mate was going to send him over the edge soon, but he loved the way she danced so sexily. The club's atmosphere, the music, the other dancers, the scenery, not to mention just how enticing his mate was—all helped to encourage "misbehaving," he thought, loving this with her.

"Before the ice melts in our drinks, do you want to stop and enjoy them?" Kira asked once they had finished their fourth dance.

"Yeah, and Everett and Demetria are still sitting at the table so they may be waiting for us to return so they can dance. And I need to cool down before I embarrass myself."

Kira laughed. "I love you."

He smiled and kissed her mouth. "I love you too."

They returned to the table to enjoy their drinks topped with colorful parasols and cherries and took their seats.

"We're going to dance if you all are taking a break," Demetria said, snagging Everett's hand. "We didn't want to lose the table if we should all dance at the same time."

"They wouldn't dare," Kira said.

They all laughed, and the jaguars headed to the dance floor.

"This is so much fun," Fisher said.

"I'm glad you like it. It's frequented by jaguars, of course, but I was in here once when a couple of lions were here. That was an experience and a half. I kept thinking that I was mistaken."

"Lions. That's something I would never have imagined."

"Me either. They were just passing through Houston when they saw the club and were drawn to it. They were amazed to see it was a jaguar shifter club."

"I bet."

"So one of the things I want to do is go rock climbing sometime with you. Mountain climbing. You know, after I had to free climb when you were shot, I realized I need to get back into that."

"I would love to do that with you. They have a rock-climbing wall in a gym in Greystoke that we can get a subscription for, and we can go to the national park anytime to get in some climbing."

"That would be great."

They drank from their cocktails when a tall, blond-haired man—a jaguar—came over to the table and smiled at Kira, reaching out his hand. "Dance with me?"

"Uh, no, thanks. We're recently mated."

The jaguar glanced at Fisher as if he suddenly realized Kira had a mate. Fisher smiled, raising his brows, waiting for the guy to honor Kira's words.

"Alright. Your loss," the jaguar said, then headed straight to another table where a couple were sitting, enjoying a conversation and drinks. When he asked the accompanied jaguar woman to dance with him, the guy with her rose from his seat, he didn't speak a word, but pulled back his fist and socked the jaguar in the jaw. The jaguar fell back and raised his fists, ready for a full-on fight.

Neither Fisher nor Kira had seen it coming. The jaguar who had gotten punched, didn't either.

At the same time, the bouncer headed their way, and he hauled the jaguar, who was causing trouble with accompanied ladies, out of the club.

Fisher sighed. "Hell, I should have done that."

"What? Punched the guy?" Kira asked, taking hold of Fisher's hand and leaning over to kiss him.

"Yeah."

"No way. What if the bouncer had tossed out the guy that had thrown the punch instead? Besides, you showed confidence in your masculinity by letting me handle the situation, which I appreciated, by the way. Now if the jaguar hadn't taken no for an answer, we both could have shown him the error of his ways."

Fisher smiled. "Yeah, for sure." Knowing Kira was a USF agent, he felt more comfortable about her being able to deal with someone who was trouble, but even so, he would have gotten between them if the guy had made a move to force Kira to dance with him.

Then Everett and Demetria rejoined them, Everett smiling and shaking his head. "That dude found out the hard way that you don't try to pick up some other guy's date at the club."

Fisher immediately thought Everett might have believed he should have stood up and socked the guy like the jaguar had done.

Demetria and Everett sat down at the table and she said, "It's a good thing you didn't do that, unless you were defending Kira if the guy had put his hand on her, though she would have shown him that was the wrong thing to do. But our boss wouldn't have gone along with how the jaguar had protected his girlfriend or mate."

Then Fisher was relieved he had done the right thing.

"More dancing?" Fisher asked Kira.

"Absolutely. If we didn't have to go in early to have you go through your training, I would say we should stay here until the club closes for the night, but we all have to be at our best tomorrow."

"Besides," Fisher said, pulling her close and working up the heat again, "I want to finish the night off in the best way possible."

She chuckled and rubbed her body against his. "Yeah, me too."