The phone rang and rang. No answer. Finn would have to keep trying to reach him. For now, Finn needed to stake the territory as his own until Hunter returned. Finn extended his arms and summoned the quick and painless transformation into his wolf form, welcoming the stretching of muscles and tissue. The softer fur covered his skin close to his body, while the coarser outer coat added a protective layer. He dropped to stand on all four paws before loping down the hall to the kitchen where a wolf door was his ticket to the outside.
Once outside, he raced across the slate-gray patio, then dove into the woods surrounding the oceanfront cottage and ran along a trail already marked by Hunter and a female, probably his mate. By the time the two of them returned from Hawaii, their scent markings would be two weeks old, and another werewolf coming into the area might think it was unoccupied, allowing him to stake a claim to the territory.
Finn loped through the northern pine and Douglas fir forests, scent-marking the area surrounding each of the five rental cabins. Waves crashed below the cliffs, and the Pacific Ocean breeze shook the pine branches as the clean air filled his lungs. He paused briefly at the cliffside to take another heady breath and watch the foaming waves crest and fall against the beach. He could never get enough of the sea.
But instead of striking from the direction of the sea and returning there after accomplishing his clandestine mission, as he would have done while serving as one of the elite U.S. Navy SEALs, Finn was sticking to the land this time. Nothing about this operation would be clandestine. Finn wanted the assassin to know he was here protecting his own, if whoever it was decided to make a hit on anyone else who had been with the team.
Hunter had been like a brother to Finn while they’d served as SEALs, and Finn owed it to Hunter to keep him safe—and Hunter’s sister also, knowing that she could be a target and Hunter wasn’t here to protect her. Not that Meara would see it that way once she learned why Finn was here, he suspected.
Finn leaped over a fallen tree on a pine-needle path farther away from the ocean, breathing in the scents of pine and fresh water trickling by in an ice-cold stream. Neither could mask the distinct smell of another predator. A cougar. And farther in the distance, its potential prey, an elk.
Finn paused, twisting his ears this way and that, listening to the sounds of the ocean, the water in the stream, and the birds twittering and singing to one another, but he could detect no other sound of animals, human or otherwise, traversing the land.
Despite this not being Finn’s territory, he was leaving fresh markings and making it his territory until Hunter returned home. Finn scratched the ground again with his paws to help ensure that any newcomer would know Meara had not been left alone without protection.
Finn loped back toward the house, satisfied he’d left enough of his scent to warn anyone who intended to get close to the territory to back off. He glanced at the drive in front of the wood-frame cabin. No vehicle there yet. From what Chris Tarleton had reluctantly told him, Meara should be returning from the airport in about an hour.
Chris definitely didn’t sound happy to hear that Finn was back, nor that he was looking out for Meara’s welfare. Finn wondered what interest Chris had in Meara. A pack sub-leader’s interest—as in she was the leader’s sister, and if she was in trouble and Chris didn’t watch out for her, he would be in trouble? Or something of a more personal nature?
Baby-sitting Meara wasn’t what Finn had in mind, either. But the assassin had already attempted to kill one of their SEAL team members and was suspected of going after another. Finn had the sneaking suspicion that the assassin intended to go after each of them. Fortunately for them, the assassin was batting zero, and with the SEALs aware of the menace, whoever this was would have a devil of a time succeeding now.
Finn ran around the pine trees surrounding the house to the back patio of Meara’s cabin. He’d checked out the cabin farther down the coast and found it was Hunter’s and Tessa’s. Meara’s sweet scent permeated this cabin. And here’s where he’d stay until he could reach Hunter and apprise him of the situation.
Butting through the wolf door with his nose, Finn entered the kitchen and headed for the master bedroom to dress. If he had judged the time right, Meara would be arriving soon. He’d have a fight on his hands from the outset. Guaranteed.
Although thrilled for her brother and his mate and their new beginning, Meara was trying not to show how excited and anxious she was to see Hunter and Tessa off quickly on their flight. Meara impatiently waved as they headed to the waiting area past the security check station, and once they were out of sight, she booked it out of there.
Now was her chance to throw out the red carpet for the prospective bachelor alpha males who had leased the cabins. If none of the men this week appealed to her, she had a new batch of bachelor males coming the next week.
They were her cabins for now. The guests were all hers, too. When Hunter and Tessa returned, Meara intended to convince them to let her be in charge of renting the cabins permanently while they ran the pack. She would insist that would keep her well-occupied and happy, since she’d been none too happy to move here from the redwoods of California in the first place. Damned arsonists. If she could get away with it, she’d locate them and… well, they wouldn’t be setting any more fires. Not unless they did so in hell.
Thankfully, Hunter had two sub-leaders, Chris and Dave, to watch over the pack while she was given the job of maintaining the cabins. That meant the sub-leaders would be occupied as she actively looked over her mate prospects. Two weeks. That’s all the time she had without her brother interfering and saying no to anyone she might be interested in. Not that she’d totally listen to him. But she hated how he always made her doubt herself about the men she’d been intrigued with. And once she’d hooked up with them?
Yeah, as much as she hated to admit it, Hunter had always been right. In every case, they’d been the wrong sort for her. But she was determined to get it right this time. Without his brotherly advice!
Of course, if none of these men were suitable, she’d keep looking. But she didn’t believe she’d ever have a more perfect opportunity to be out from under Hunter’s watchful eye than now.
In her excitement, she rushed home to ready herself for her first guest’s arrival, exceeding the speed limit just a little on the winding road. But she had to be prepared.
Let’s see. Snacks, drinks. Maybe dinner, even though it wasn’t part of the paid “meal plan.” But a light meal—she’d made the perfect homemade German potato salad, just in case—and conversation might go a long way toward quickly finding out as much as she could about each of her prospective guests.
What would be the best way to entertain the male arriving tonight? A midnight, moonlit swim? The Pacific Ocean in these parts was cold any time of the year, but she was up for anything a potential mate might enjoy trying. A moonlit stroll in the woods? A run in their wolf coats? Dinner on the patio with glasses of red or white wine, the moon and a sprinkling of stars glowing overhead?
Getting too cozy too early would be a mistake. She loved to run and she loved adventure, so curling up on the couch to watch a movie wasn’t what she had in mind. Later, sure. But she had to know he’d want to do fun, adventurous activities. Not just lie around watching TV while she cooked meals for him. If he also cooked, so much the better. And if he didn’t mind vacuuming? Even better.