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Malia smiled up at him with all the love she felt for her mate. “It just so happens I have the day off. Let’s stop and look at it on the way back to the ranch.”
Epilogue
Wednesday, August 18
“I’ve got some good news,” Lucas said the next day, as he steered the big rental SUV down the Jacobsen Ranch driveway, away from the rental cabins. “Our real estate agent texted me while you were packing. The seller accepted our offer on the house!”
Malia, who was sitting in the passenger seat, beamed and turned to face him. “Oh, that’s wonderful! When can we move in?”
“By Halloween, if your dad is still willing to help us paint and renovate.”
Their new home, situated on two acres of land adjoining the Jacobsen Ranch, was an older house. It was in fairly good shape overall, but had a small, dark, sadly-dated kitchen and three bathrooms in sore need of a facelift.
As an extremely generous mating gift, his new father-in-law Tyler had offered to help them renovate their new home.
On the way back from arresting Bickham and Silvers for the second time yesterday, he and Malia had met up with his parents and the girls, and they’d all toured the place together.
After the nightmarish sight of Travis Bickham aiming a rifle at Malia, Lucas had needed the normalcy of house-hunting to vanquish the stress of nearly losing her for the second time in less than a week.
Lucas was warmed by how quickly his mate and his daughters took to each other. Taylor was shy at first, but warmed up quickly.
In no time flat, she was holding Auntie Malia’s hand as they walked through the rooms, and chattering away about she wanted her new room to be all purple.
Malia suggested pale lavender walls with dark purple curtains, a purple rug, and purple bedclothes, and the little girl’s heart was completely won over. Taylor loved the idea of sleeping in a bed with a purple comforter and purple pillows.
Everyone else liked the two-story, five-bedroom Victorian home, too. Mom and Dad thought it would work well for the girls and any children that Malia and Lucas had together.
After picking out their future bedrooms, Taylor and Savannah went nuts over the spacious yard and the elaborate wooden castle and swing set that the sellers had installed for their grandchildren.
Most importantly of all, Malia fell in love head-over-heels in with the house.
By the time they finished their tour, she was already planning to host Thanksgiving in the formal dining room, and rhapsodizing about how perfect the antique fireplace mantel would be for hanging Christmas stockings.
Today, they were finally headed on the camping trip that he had promised the girls.
Lucas’s Mom and Dad had declined to join them. Mom said that she preferred the rental cabin, with its comfortable bed and hot water, to sleeping on the ground in a tent, which led to some good-natured teasing from Dad, the retired ranger.
Besides, Mary and Tyler had invited Lucas’s parents to dinner tonight, where they’d be meeting some of the Bearpaw Ridge Pack members. Lucas was glad that the pack seemed to have forgiven the bad impression he made on them earlier.
As he drove towards the riverside campground that Malia had recommended, Taylor and Savannah could barely contain themselves. They pointed at the sights, and squealed with excitement when they spotted bighorn sheep, sandhill cranes, and bald eagles.
Then they began peppering Malia with questions.
“When we live here, will we be able to turn into cats whenever we want?” asked Savannah.
“You’ll still have to hide a bit from Ordinaries,” she replied. “But you’ll be going to school with other kids who are shifters like you. I think you’ll make a lot of nice friends.”
“Can we roast marshmallows and make s’mores tonight?” Taylor wanted to know.
“I’m planning on it,” Malia said. “Did you see the big bag of marshmallows I bought?”
Both girls shrieked and clapped at the news.
They reached the small campground an hour later. As promised, it was situated right next to the North Fork of the Salmon River, with lots of shade and access to hiking trails. And best of all, it was secluded. The only other campers here were a family of coyote shifters from Colorado.
Once the tent had been set up, the camp stove, coolers, lanterns, and firewood unpacked, and the sleeping bags unrolled, they all shifted into their beast shapes, and went for a long walk through the forested hills that rose on either side of the narrow river valley.
Lucas’s cat paced side by side with Malia’s lovely gray and white wolf, while the two half-grown cougar kittens dashed around them, sometimes leading the way, sometimes trailing behind to investigate an interesting smell or to chase one of the plump Chukar partridges who used the trail as a dust bath.
