Seal Wolf Hunting (9781402293832) by Terry Spear

starting to unbutton them.
    A woman shouted, “Just the shirts, gentlemen.”
    And that had everyone laughing.
    Stripper music began to play, and Paul removed his shirt to the beat like the others did.
    Clapping hands, wolf whistles, and shouts indicated the women were just as excited to bid for the SEALs as they were for the cowboys.
    Paul tossed his shirt to Lori for safekeeping. When she grabbed the shirt and held it close, he smiled at her.
    Allan went for two hundred and fifty dollars to a lady wearing a pink cowboy hat—Martha Madison, the only woman in the area who owned and ran a horse ranch. Paul wondered exactly what Allan was going to be doing at Martha’s ranch. Mucking out stalls? Or something a little more glamorous?
    Catherine shook her head, disappointed she didn’t get to buy her son’s time, but she was eyeing Paul when the carpentry teacher went for three hundred dollars.
    â€œNew kitchen cabinets!” the woman who bought him shouted, in case anyone thought she was buying the teacher’s services for something other than his carpentry skills.
    A few of the audience’s comments—“Yeah, right!” “Sure thing, Eula Mae!” “You just redid the kitchen cabinets last week!”—brought tons of laughter.
    â€œAuction off the other SEAL!” Mike O’Keefe shouted from his wheelchair.
    Paul gave him the Navy greeting “Hooyah!” and a thumbs-up as Allan quickly echoed his response.
    Mike shouted the Army’s greeting back, “Hooah!”
    A female Marine in the audience called out, “Oorah!”
    Everyone was clapping and cheering.
    Emma was waving her paddle, featuring the silhouette of a man and her number in the center of it, as she continued to bid for Paul. Lori was shaking her head, trying to get her to stop. Paul was smiling at the two of them, hoping that Emma wouldn’t pay too much for him because he would drop by her place for free to do whatever tasks she needed.
    â€œThree hundred and fifty dollars going once.” The auctioneer paused as everyone became quiet. Emma looked eagerly at him, like she was just about to win the lottery and couldn’t wait to claim her winnings. “Going twice.” Another pause. The air sizzled with tension. “Sold to Emma Greypaw!” the auctioneer said, slamming the hammer down at the same time.
    Emma whistled and Paul winked at her, making her blush. She was so cute and he dearly loved her. From as early as he could remember, he’d always loved her homemade apple pies and tortillas. Emma swore as soon as she pulled an apple pie out of the cast-iron stove, he was standing on her porch, eager to do a chore for her so she’d offer him a piece. And she had always given him an extra couple of slices because he was a growing boy.
    Catherine began bidding for one of the high school seniors and missed getting him for seventy-five dollars. That seemed to be the going rate for the boys. The ranch hand, Jerome Huffman, started strutting his stuff and fetched a bid just fifty short of Paul’s highest bid.
    The bank loan officer came next, but though he was smiling, he wasn’t outgoing and waited while low bids came in. Then he finally said, “I do windows,” as if that might help raise the money a bit, and it did.
    Several women started bidding against each other to win the window-washing service for $150.
    The last cowboy, Dusty Cooper, received a winning bid seventy-five dollars lower than Paul’s and slanted a glance at him, smiling but not in an altogether friendly way. If Dusty gave any of his pack members grief, Paul was dealing with it in a shifter way.
    Michael’s Reflections was being auctioned off last. Paul hurried to get a paddle to bid for the oil painting that featured the lush, green woods and a beautiful gray wolf sitting and watching the river, just like he’d seen Lori do a million times. Lori was smiling at him. He