North Carolina

"She's like one of the pack."

"Just how long are we to keep the mother and her pups and Big Red at the ranch?"

"Until they're ready to begin life all over in North Carolina. Won't the park rangers there be surprised to see the new additions all of a sudden?"

"You're not babysitting them tonight."

"They'll be fine left to their own devices. Do you have a secure place to keep them?"

Axel Ash snorted. "Now you ask."

"Yeah," Fergus said. "We have an enclosed building with an outdoor run that'll be perfect. Pierce and Quincy and I can make some straw beds for them for the night."

"Anything else you have in mind to do with what's left of the night?" Axel Ash asked Cassie.

"Just collapse in bed and sleep, unless my mate has something else in mind."

"Just what I'd hoped you would say, Cassie."

Once they were home, they didn't sleep at all except for a few catnaps. Cassie felt she was close to being in heaven.