“We worked together on locating a kid one time. The boy was autistic and had gotten separated from his parents on a campout. I was doing a story on Palo Duro Canyon, and Bjornolf was there for some reason. He never told me why. He scented what I was right away, of course. He was practically the only male wolf I ever met who didn’t act like he wanted to kill me. Prior to coming here.”
Bjornolf shook his head and slipped his arm around his mate’s shoulders.
“That’s because he reserves those feelings for me.” Anna had silky auburn hair tied back in a tail. Her eyes were a lovely shade of green, her smile infectious. She wrapped her arm around Bjornolf’s waist.
He laughed, leaned down, and kissed her. “Anna, this is my tracking partner, Elizabeth Wildwood. Between the two of us, we found the kid. Only he wouldn’t come to me.”
“You were a much bigger, badass wolf,” Elizabeth said.
“You were just a pretty red dog,” Bjornolf said, smiling.
“You’d better smile about the dog reference,” Elizabeth said. “I didn’t know you were Peter’s brother.”
“I didn’t know you knew Peter.”
“I didn’t. I only just met him a few days ago.”
Bjornolf bowed his head a little to Tom. “Will you be on our team?”
Before Tom could say anything, Elizabeth said, “Yes. For old time’s sake.”
“Jake, Tom, Elizabeth, join me. I need to talk with you,” Darien said. “Sam, you want to fix Bjornolf and Anna some lunch? Make them welcome?”
“I’m on it. If… you’re discussing the teams,” Sam ran his hand through his hair. “Silva wants to go with us. With me. On… the same team. The… two of us.”
Darien smiled. “You got it.”
He waited for his brothers and Elizabeth to enter his office, then shut his door. “Lelandi wanted to sit this one out because she won’t be on the hunt tomorrow and is off to see to the kids. So, tell us what’s going on, Elizabeth. We’ve heard bits and pieces, but we need to know everything.” He took a seat in a chair in front of the coffee table where two love seats were situated.
Tom sat next to Elizabeth on one of the love seats as Jake sat on the other. Tom pressed his leg against her, unable to keep from showing his possessiveness, despite both brothers being mated wolves. It was just instinctual. He would have held her hand, but she was using her hands to explain her situation, family, what had happened to her up until now. So he just sat close, watching his brothers’ expressions, reading them as they listened to all that she had told him already.
Until she came to one minor point. North Redding.
Tom turned to look at her. She blushed.
“All right, so for once in my life, a red wolf was interested in me. But he couldn’t stand up to my uncle. He didn’t protect me from my brother or my uncle.”
Tom took Elizabeth’s hand and squeezed gently.
Elizabeth continued, “But he said he would give me evidence of my uncle and half brother’s involvement in my parents’ murders in exchange for me giving him my parents’ horse farm. I was willing to do it, since I didn’t ever want to go back there. All I want is to see my uncle brought to justice. Anyway, I called North the morning I left and there was no answer. I’m worried that Quinton might have learned North’s plan and gone after him. Or worst-case scenario, they deliberately let him find the evidence and are using him to lure me to them.”
Darien nodded grimly. “And we still have CJ’s brothers to find. Since you and Tom agreed to go with Bjornolf and Anna, that’ll make one team. Peter will head up another. He’s taking Randolph and Kemp and somebody else, whoever he decides on. Trevor will be in charge of a third. He’s taking Cantrell and Robert and someone else he chooses. Jake and I will have Sam and Silva on our team.”
“Will you be able to manage the two of them on the same team?” Tom asked. “They’ve been out of sorts with each other, even if there appears to be a truce between them for the moment.”
“Yeah,” Darien said, “just to ensure they don’t kill each other.” He took a deep breath. “So the two of you are really mated.”
Tom leaned over and kissed Elizabeth’s cheek. “Yeah. I had to beg her to mate with me.”
Elizabeth cocked a brow at Tom. “Don’t believe that. He told me we were mating sooner or later, so just plan for it.”
Darien and Jake smiled. “Welcome to the pack, Elizabeth,” they both said at the same time.
“Thank you. I have a home in Canyon, Texas, and a job there, though.” Not that she wanted to go back to it and abandon what she could have here, but she did have to settle things there.
“We’d love for you to start up our first newspaper here,” Darien said, jumping right in as if he was afraid he would lose both his brother and Elizabeth to Texas. “Lelandi said she’d love to do a weekly advice column on psychological issues. Silva wants to advertise her new Victorian tearoom. The new owners of the old Silver Town Inn want to, too. And Bertha said she’d pay to have her B and B included. Mason said he’d give tips on savings and financial investment tips. I could go on and on. Suffice it to say, everyone’s excited about it if you’d like to start up a paper.”
Elizabeth couldn’t believe it. Before she was even part of the pack, they’d been making plans to include her. “Thank you. I’d love to.”
“I was going to look for a house, come spring, but we’ll start right away,” Tom said, kissing her cheek. “I’ll return with you to Canyon to help you get your place ready to sell as soon as we can.” Tom asked Darien, “What are we eating tonight?”
Darien looked at Tom like he was crazy. Elizabeth also wondered why the interest in dinner. They’d just eaten lunch.
“I believe chicken is on the menu.”
“Chicken,” Tom said. “Do we have any steaks?”
Elizabeth smiled. “Chicken sounds great.”
“I promised you—” Tom said.
Elizabeth shook her head. She didn’t want them to hear the whole story of how she’d been taken hostage. “Chicken is fine.”
Darien and Jake still waited for an explanation.
Tom cleared his throat. “Elizabeth had bought some steaks at a butcher shop and—”
“It’s all right, really,” Elizabeth said, taking his hand and squeezing it. If she was going to be alone with Tom, sure, then she’d want steaks. But whatever his family had planned was fine with her.
“She lost them when they took her hostage,” Tom said, sounding angry now that they had kidnapped her. “I promised her when we reached your place, I’d fix her a steak.”
Darien and Jake grinned.
“Yeah, steaks. Yeah, that’s what really appeals to me,” Darien said. “You, Jake?”
“I’m always interested in a tender, juicy steak.”
Elizabeth felt her face flush with heat. “I was just a little angry that I’d paid for the steaks, good price, too, and…” She shrugged. “Lost them.”
“Whatever you’d like is fine with all of us. That’s about all I have to say about the tracking tomorrow. We’ll get together for dinner in a few hours, call it a night early, and leave before dawn,” Darien said.
Chapter 26
As soon as Darien ended the talk, Tom sequestered Elizabeth in his bedroom, and she knew they hadn’t come up here merely to take a wolfish nap.
She noted he didn’t have antique furniture like in her guest room. Everything was modern. A dark chocolate-brown padded headboard stretched halfway up the wall. A white duvet covered a king-sized bed, and a brown-satin padded bench sat at the foot of the bed. The covers were in disarray, half tossed over the bench and half on the floor.