A SEAL in Wolf’s Clothing (22 page)

***

When Finn finally decided he’d had enough of a rest and it was time to face Hunter, he left Meara to sleep longer in the bedroom or to hide away from Hunter while he had to deal with him. Finn took a shower, dressed casually in jeans and a plain blue T-shirt and a pair of sandals, and then walked down the hall to the living room to see a brooding Hunter.

He was the only one of the SEAL team who had let his hair grow long, and the windswept coffee-colored strands hanging to his collar softened his stern look. But his eyes, normally dark brown, were nearly black as he waited for Finn to make an appearance. His gaze had been focused on the front picture window but quickly shifted to Finn as he approached.

Finn noted that Anna must have gone to bed, and Paul was nowhere to be seen.

“We’ve got a bigger problem than dealing with my being with Meara,” Finn said, broaching the subject first, hoping to get the attention off him and Meara.

Hunter scowled at him. “My sister needs a mate. You’re leading her astray.”

Finn shrugged and remained standing, wanting to get a cup of coffee before he had any weighty, lengthy discussions about Meara or anything else. “Call it the courtship phase. If we decide we don’t get along well enough, no harm’s done.”

For a brief moment, Hunter seemed taken aback, as if he couldn’t see Finn courting any woman. Maybe because Finn never had.

“You aren’t right for her. She needs someone who’ll stay with her and keep her in line, not someone who is gallivanting around the continents, saving the whole wide world.”

“What about you and Tessa?”

“That’s different.”

“Really? I suppose time will tell since we haven’t been contacted for a mission since you got hitched. Then we’ll see if you’ll go or not. Then again, maybe it’s time for me to settle down.”

Hunter eyed him suspiciously. “Are you?”

Finn shrugged. “Maybe. I don’t know. She sure makes a man lose his sense of what’s important and what’s not.”

For the first time, Hunter gave him a sinister smile. Then it faded. “You haven’t met my mate. You might think I’ll run roughshod over you if you upset Meara, but you haven’t seen Tessa. She’s like a wolf with a mission when she’s got it in mind to right a wrong.”

“Anna said she wasn’t all wolf.”

“Believe me, she is.” Hunter took a deep breath and didn’t say anything for a moment as if he was coming to some conclusions of his own. Then he said, “All right, so what do we have concerning this case?”

“Two assassins who were human—run-of-the-mill guns for hire. Two others that were wolves.”

“I got a look at them. I didn’t recognize any of them, but Bjornolf’s running some prints on them.” Hunter frowned. “Because of the bruised eye and jaw that Bjornolf was sporting, I asked if he’d gotten injured when he took down one of the assassins, but he said he hadn’t. Some madly jealous wolf caught him unaware. Want to elaborate?”

“No.” Finn headed for the kitchen. “I’m getting a cup of coffee. Want one?”

Hunter followed him into the kitchen. “Sure. So what did Bjornolf do to Meara that you popped him twice for it?”

Finn knew Hunter wouldn’t take no for an answer about Bjornolf’s black eye. “He kissed her without her permission. Then he said he’d do it again with her permission.”

“Hell, Finn,” Hunter said, rubbing his hand over his jaw. “His regular job is killing assassins. And you socked him over Meara?” He shook his head, but he looked half amused and half pleased.

“Somebody had to do it.”

Hunter chuckled, and Finn figured he’d gotten into Hunter’s good graces to some extent. Hunter’s phone jingled, and he lifted it off his belt. “Hey, honey. Yeah, I got here just fine.” He looked at Finn. “No, I haven’t killed him yet. I need him still. And Meara likes him. What can I say?” He listened for some time, smiled a whole hell of a lot, looked up at Finn, and then said, “I’ll tell him. Call you later. Get some sleep. I’ll return as soon as I can. Love you, too. Bye.”

Finn handed Hunter a cup of black coffee. “Was it Tessa?”

Hunter took a swig from his mug. “Yep.”

“Did she have a word for me?”

Hunter looked sternly at him. “Yep.”

“And it was?”

“If you’re sleeping with Meara, you’re mated to her. No going back on the deal. Tessa’s words.”

“Ah.”

“Tessa’s serious.” Hunter finished his coffee, walked over to the coffeemaker, and poured himself another cup. “Her words have merit. In the old days, Meara would be a ruined woman, and to be honorable, you would have to mate her.”

“If we both wanted the same thing, yeah. In this day and age? No. That’s saying Meara even wants me. She has issues, you know.”

Looking damned surprised, Hunter stared at Finn. “Oh?”

“Yeah. Nothing that she’d talk about, but deep down she’s afraid of an alpha male who might exercise too much control over her. She would never do well with a beta who would roll over and play dead at her feet, but…” Finn shrugged.

Hunter sat down on the bar stool. “Is that what her problem has been all these years? I always thought she needed a beta to boss around.”

Finn straightened and looked Hunter in the eye. “Bjornolf said he was interested in her.” Finn studied Hunter’s expression, glad to see his eyes darkening with irritation.

“Over my dead body,” Hunter growled. “He’d be ten times worse than you.”

Amused at the comparison, Finn smiled.

“I mean, as far as his work goes.”

“I knew what you meant.” Finn refilled his coffee mug. “Bjornolf said he’d try to track down Cyn and see where he’s been these past six months. If he was in the SEALs, we should be able to come up with something.”

They heard someone walking through the living room. Hunter turned at the bar and looked to see Meara approach. Her chin was tilted up in defiance, but she still looked a bit unsure.

If Hunter took her to task for what had happened between Finn and her, Finn would give him hell right back.

To Finn’s consternation, Meara looked snappish, probably waiting for Hunter to give her hell. And she’d give it right back to him—forget about Finn getting the chance. But she looked a little worried, too, as she shot a glance Finn’s way, most likely looking to see if he was wearing bruises now like Bjornolf was.

“Hey, Hunter,” Meara said, trying for a casual greeting, but Finn noted the tension in her voice as she walked into the kitchen, twisting her hair into a knot that looked damned sexy, and then leaned over to give her brother a light, sisterly hug.

Hunter looked just as tense but gave her a perfunctory hug back. She tried to shrug off his mechanical reaction to her, but Finn noted she was bothered by it.

Finn filled the teakettle with water and started heating it for her tea, knowing she’d want some first thing and that it might make her feel more at ease. Hunter gave her a disgruntled look but then watched Finn in amusement as if he thought that a lot more was going on between Meara and Finn than his teammate had revealed.

“You didn’t have to come here and protect me, Hunter.” Meara inserted a finger though Finn’s belt loop and gave a tiny tug that made him want to haul her right back to the damned bed. But he got the distinct impression she wanted him close by to stand up for her if she needed him. Or maybe she was trying to protect him from Hunter if her brother showed hostility toward him. It would be like her to do so.

He slipped his hand into her back pocket and smiled down at her. She looked up in surprise at him, her face warming like soft sunlight on a sunny day.

“Finn’s doing a great job. Except…” She pulled his phone out of her front pocket and waved it at him. “…he keeps forgetting to take his phone with him.” She tried to hide it, but she bit her lip slightly with anxiousness. “Bjornolf wanted to talk to you.”

“
Bjornolf?
” Finn said, astonished. He figured Hunter was again running the show, and Bjornolf would have called him with any news.

“Yeah, he wanted to know if Hunter had killed you yet.”

Hunter chuckled darkly in amusement.

Smiling, Finn took the phone, kissed her cheek, and set a tea bag in a floral cup for her. He redialed Bjornolf’s number, and when he answered, Finn said, “Meara told me you called.”

“Yeah, did she tell you what about? I thought maybe I had a chance with her if you were gone now.” Bjornolf sounded like he was only half joking.

Finn chuckled. “Yeah. Hunter said he’d let you near her only over his dead body.”

Meara glanced at Hunter who gave her a small shrug. “It’s true.”

Bjornolf laughed over the phone. “Okay, well, although I told Hunter I’d get back to him, since you’re still around, you can give him the news.”

In that instant, if Finn wasn’t reading too much into the situation, Bjornolf was acknowledging that Finn was still in charge of Meara’s safety? He wondered if the way to impress Bjornolf was to catch him unaware and sock him. Or if it had to do with Finn getting the woman. Maybe a little of both.

He looked down at Meara. Hell, she’d sure hooked him. And he wasn’t letting her go. But as far as a mating, this wasn’t the time to propose it. No matter how much Hunter might think he should have a say, this was strictly between Meara and Finn.

“Cyn formed a team of four men, who, from what I could learn, were from his own home pack in Georgia. The one you killed when he attacked Meara in his wolf form was one of them. I assumed Cyn was hiring any old assassins off the street, in addition to using his wolf team, to see if he could eliminate anyone protecting Meara without jeopardizing his own people too much.

“He and the other three men had been SEALs. They quit the Navy right before you attempted your mission but
after
Hunter told him no about joining his team. Apparently, Cyn had the notion that Hunter was the top wolf and that working for him would be the pinnacle of Cyn’s career. But Cyn knew Hunter handpicked his own men and figured he might need an in, so he went after Meara first. Which was probably his first big mistake.”

“So he thought Meara had kept him from his chance at being on Hunter’s team?” Finn asked, running his hand over her arm in a soft caress as she watched him, still possessively holding onto his belt loop. “But what about his sister? Didn’t he want on the team to rescue her?”

“Not sure. I doubt we’ll know the truth until we catch up to Cyn. From the looks of it, he and his men sabotaged Hunter’s mission, hoping to destroy the team in the process. Not sure if they’d planned for all of the team members to die or just to curtail the mission to give Hunter and all of you a black eye, but the situation got out of hand.”

“But his sister… how does she fit into the equation, if Cyn had anything to do with the sabotage and had hoped everyone on the team would die? His sister could have been killed that way.”

Meara broke in and said, “What if he was involved in the hostage taking?”

Not having considered that, Finn stared at her with awakening pride, glad she had come up with a new angle. “Bjornolf, did you hear what Meara asked?”

“Yeah. Hell, if he was involved, he probably wanted a share of the ransom money and maybe even intended to be the sole survivor of the team, had Hunter agreed to allow him to be on it. Then he would have sent the women safely home, having earned all the glory and the money.”

Finn shook his head at the idea that anyone could have sold out the team and risked his own sister’s life. But then another thought nagged at him, one that Bjornolf had set him to thinking about in the inn’s lounge. “How did Meara save us?”

“Ask her about the coded message she intercepted that was meant for Hunter. That she consequently destroyed. She probably thought it was about another dangerous mission and wanted to save him from going on it. Instead, it was a message changing the location of the meet. If Hunter and his team had gone there, all of you would have been dead.”

Finn frowned at Meara. He wondered if Hunter knew about the coded message she’d gotten ahold of. Thinking back to the way she had been pondering his question on the beach about how she had saved their lives, he assumed she’d recalled something about deleting the message.

“One other thing, your formerly wounded team member, Allan, is on the move, headed in your direction. Paul told him where you all are.”

“
Shit
.”

“Yeah, I told you the whole team would be in one spot and then they’d come for you.”

“Fine with me.” Except that Finn didn’t want Meara here when the fighting went down. But sending her to some other location where he couldn’t protect her wasn’t a viable option, either.

Finn wrapped his arm around Meara and held her close.

“A little birdie told him Meara was interested in mating him,” Bjornolf said. “So apparently, he wants to stake his claim before he’s too late. He was in a real rush to join all of you.”

Finn frowned down at Meara. She raised her brows in question. “He’s too late,” Finn said but wouldn’t elaborate.

The moment he’d seen her in her cabin making small talk with Bjornolf, Finn had known the only real choice he had was to send her packing to Hunter in Hawaii. So what did he do? Pretended to be her lover so he could protect her instead. And now? He didn’t want to give her up. But he was certain she wouldn’t go along with him going on dangerous missions any more than she wanted Hunter to do so.

“Hmm, I figured Allan was too late where Meara is concerned. Does Hunter know about the two of you?” Bjornolf asked, a hint of dark amusement in his voice.

“He will.” But only after Finn discussed the conditions with Meara.

Bjornolf didn’t say anything for a moment, then added, “With the team all coming together again, I think you can handle this. I’ve got a job elsewhere that’s of national importance. If I’m not there to avert this new crisis, God knows what a mess it’ll be.”

Finn was surprised to hear that Bjornolf planned to leave them behind to take on another mission when this one wasn’t quite resolved. Although he suspected the other paid and this one didn’t. He wondered if Bjornolf’s leaving had anything to do with Finn’s declaration that Meara would be his mate. But he appreciated all that Bjornolf had done for them up until now.

“Thanks for helping us out, Bjornolf.” He stopped short of saying they couldn’t have done it without him, as he still felt testy about Bjornolf’s kissing Meara and feeling her up before that. “Do you want to talk to Hunter?”

“No. That’s all, except, hell, if you decide not to mate Meara, let me know, all right?” Then there was a click, and Finn realized the phone line had been disconnected.

Finn stared at the phone for a minute, then slipped it into his pocket. He didn’t know if Bjornolf had really meant want he’d said about Meara or if he’d only wanted to push Finn into making a decision concerning her. On the other hand, Bjornolf had kissed her, and the way he’d slid his hand in her pocket, yeah, the bastard was damned interested. But he must have known he’d have a real fight on his hands if he went after Meara when Finn wanted her.

Turning his attention to Hunter, Finn said, “We’re on our own. Bjornolf’s got another assignment, and Allan’s on his way here. Cyn’s got at least two other wolves left on his team.”

Hunter swore under his breath. “Okay, I want Meara safely away from here. Tessa’s home. You take her and you watch over her.”

“There’s Anna and me,” Meara said, objecting to Hunter’s wanting her out of the way. “We can help. And you’ll need Finn.”

Finn could tell from Hunter’s expression how much he didn’t want her here or involved.

“Tessa’s home, south of Meara’s. An hour and a half away. That’ll work,” Finn said, agreeing with Hunter. He handed the cup of tea to Meara. Trying to lighten the mood, he said to her, “Somehow Allan must have gotten word you want him for a mate, Meara.”

Meara’s eyes widened. “Who would have said such a thing to him?”

Finn shrugged. “You told everyone that. Maybe Paul joked with him about it. Who knows?”

Hunter shook his head at Meara. “I knew I shouldn’t have left you alone. As soon as I was gone, you led my whole former team astray.”

“That’ll teach you to tell them to stay away from me.” She smiled mischievously in the way only she could, looking halfway innocent and a whole lot devilish, and then she took a sip of her tea.

***

So that Hunter and the others could discuss among themselves what they intended to do about the impending threat—and knowing they didn’t want her in on the discussion since she wasn’t a highly trained operative like them, only she wished they’d let her help if she could—Meara retired to the master bath to take another long soak, without the bubbles this time.

After turning into a near prune, she dried off, wrapped her soft terry cloth robe around her, and rested in bed while reading a Highland werewolf tale to relax. Her favorite author, Julia Wildthorn, had switched from writing contemporary stories to historical tales of Highland werewolves and had even picked up a castle in Scotland, a wolf pack—at least Meara assumed—and a handsome Highland laird of her own to sweeten the deal. Meara sighed, wishing she could have such a romance.

Then she thought back to what was inevitable about her situation here. She hated that her brother and the others would be risking their necks while she hid at Tessa’s house. At the very least, she could resort to using her rifle or revert to her wolf form and use her wickedly lethal teeth.

She was still thinking along those lines when she heard the door to the master bedroom suite open. She looked up from her book and saw Finn enter the room. He closed the door behind him with finality. His predatory gaze took in her robed figure with the comforter covering her lap. If he’d thought they’d make sweet love while her brother was in the house and they weren’t mated—

“Meara, we’ve got to talk.”

He looked deadly serious. She guessed this wasn’t about making love then. She figured he was going to tell her that she had to leave the safe house without further delay. Had they gotten some more news?

She set her book beside her on the mattress and folded her arms, attempting not to look cross, except she didn’t feel anything but. “I could help the cause, you know. You don’t all have to treat me like some innocent bystander.” Hunter knew damn well how capable she was in dealing wolf-to-wolf when the circumstances warranted. Just because one gray wolf had tackled her in the woods near here and then Finn had wrestled him on top of her didn’t mean she was always that disadvantaged. She had been unaware of the menace. That was all.

This
time
she would be prepared for any eventuality.

He shook his head. “That’s not what I want to talk about.”

That surprised her even more. Before she could come up with another reason for his dark mood, he moved in close to the bed and towered over her.

As much as she hated to admit it, the effect was intimidating. He stood taller than her anyway, but while she sat on the bed, the difference was astronomical. She patted the mattress and scooted over so he could sit down. He’d still be taller but not quite so daunting. Not that she wouldn’t stand her ground; it was just the principle of the thing. How would he feel if he sat on the floor beside the bed and she talked down to him? That brought a smile to her lips.

He frowned at her and the smile quickly faded. No, this was to be a serious discussion, nothing amusing about it.

He remained standing.
Damn
him.

Fine.
She glowered up at him. “What?” she snapped, whatever thread of patience she had breaking.

“Bjornolf said you intercepted a coded message for Hunter and deleted it. How did you access it, and whatever possessed you to do such a thing?”

Her lips parted without her express permission as she gaped at Finn in surprise. “What… what coded message?”

His expression took on a darker cast. “Don’t try to hide the truth from me, Meara. It’s up to you to tell Hunter what you had done. But in the meantime, you’ll tell me how you did it and why.”

She cleared her throat, frowned furiously at him, and said, “If I had done something so dastardly and wished to own up to it, I would speak with Hunter about it,
not
you. If the message had been for Hunter, he’s the only one I’d feel obligated to apologize to for my actions. Bjornolf is wrong. I wouldn’t have done anything so despicable. What do you take me for anyway?”