A SEAL Wolf Christmas (9 page)

What was wrong with her? With him?

They didn’t need to pretend to anyone here.

Bjornolf didn’t say a word, just held her hand possessively and escorted her to the porch. Then he unlocked the door and closed and locked it behind them.

“Did you want some cocoa?” he asked, as if he didn’t want the night to end.

She shook her head. “You have to go with Nathan to buy Christmas ornaments tomorrow.”

She saw a flash of disappointment cross his face. She was surprised he hadn’t said a word about her investigating the crime scene on her own.

She remembered the dog tags in her pocket and pulled them out. “I found these right before Everton came across me.” She glanced down at them and read the inscription. “Thomas Cremer. The other dead man, maybe?”

Bjornolf wasn’t looking at the dog tags when his gaze met hers. He’d been observing her face with a mixture of respect and astonishment. “Now I know why Hunter recommended you for this job.”

She gave Bjornolf a slight smile, appreciating his comment more than a little.

He took the tags and examined them, sniffing them. “The second dead body we smelled.”

“Yes,” she said solemnly. “The man had also been in the service.”

“I’ll let Hunter know in the morning. Guess we ought to turn in.” He looked hopeful that she’d say he could join her in her bed.

She gave him a quick smile and headed down the hall before she changed her mind. “’Night, Bjorn.” As a humorous touch, she’d called him by the shortened version of his name that he’d given the man at the tree farm.

“Night, honey,” Bjornolf said as if they truly were newlyweds and he’d be joining her in bed shortly.

She looked back over her shoulder and saw the wicked gleam in his eye, a challenge that said he wasn’t leaving the situation as it was for long. She gave him a sassy smile back, daring him to make her change her mind.

She walked into the room and was about to close the master bedroom door when she heard Bjornolf curse as he stalked out of the guest room. He began yanking off his shirt as he headed for the back door.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, framed by the doorway into the master bedroom.

“Nathan’s gone.”

Nathan had left the house as a wolf and headed through the forest. For wolves like Bjornolf and Anna, Nathan’s trail wasn’t hard to find. He left paw prints in the half-frozen snow, and scruffs of his black fur snagged on tree branches. He wasn’t trying to hide his trail, which made Bjornolf suspect that the boy wanted to be followed.

He hoped that Nathan hadn’t gotten some clue concerning the murders and charged off to investigate on his own.

Bjornolf should have wanted Anna to stay back at the house so she would be safe from hunters and so he could work alone like he normally did. But he found he didn’t want to work alone and realized he was making up a hell of a lot more reasons why she should be with him. And that was a real change for him. He’d never needed anyone.

Having never seen Anna in her wolf form, Bjornolf took his fill of her as they paused to catch the trail again. Even as a wolf, she was petite, almost like a red wolf. Her face was more beige than gray, with a little white under her chin and a golden color framing her face. A small amount of gray dusted her cheeks, giving her a distinctive appearance.

Her ears were perked, listening for any sounds as the breeze stirred the pine branches. Peering into the woods, her amber eyes were soft with concern, but her tail was straight out behind her in alpha mode. Her slight body tense, she was ready to spring into action as soon as she caught Nathan’s scent again.

She suddenly lifted her chin and howled for Nathan. Bjornolf knew she was howling for the boy, but he envisioned her howling for him—calling him to her in the snowy woods.

Bjornolf also let loose a howl. His howl was deeper, not as musical as Anna’s, a command to come home. Their howls were a way to communicate with other wolves, to declare this was their territory, to gather the pack, or to locate a mate.

They waited for a moment, but when Nathan didn’t respond, Anna dashed off and Bjornolf raced after her. Glad to be running with Anna, panting, zigzagging across the snow-powdered earth, he tried to pick up Nathan’s scent as they moved farther away from the cottage.

Where was the kid off to? Bjornolf thought Nathan might have gone to the Christmas tree farm, but he hadn’t run in that direction.

Worse, it was one in the morning when they started out after him, and they’d been trailing him for two hours. It would be dark for several more hours, but if Nathan continued to run, eventually it would be too late for any of them to return home before it was light out. Anna and Bjornolf would end up having to hide in the surrounding woods or risk the long trek back home in daylight in their wolf skins.

They took a drink at an icy cold stream and then crossed it. The mossy rocks were topped with an inch of snow, and the bare-branch deciduous trees and evergreens were also coated with snow.

Bjornolf glanced at Anna. She was looking in the direction of Portland, her ears twitching back and forth.

A red wolf pack resided in Portland and the surrounding territory, led by a wolf named Leidolf. The city was still a long way off and Bjornolf was certain Hunter had never talked to Leidolf about SEAL business, the team, Anna, or himself. Leidolf would consider them encroaching on his pack’s territory and wouldn’t like it.

The day was gray, with clouds covering every square inch of sky. Dawn was creeping over the landscape, silent, exposing them to danger—hunter danger.

It had been light out for a couple of hours when they reached the relative safety of Forest Park, over five thousand acres of woods within Portland, stretching for more than eight miles over hilly terrain overlooking the Willamette River. Nathan’s scent was getting stronger. Bjornolf smelled the odors from the nearby zoo butted up against the park, heard a lion roar, and wondered if wolves that weren’t shifters were also penned up in there. Anna sniffed the air, her posture alert and eager as she knew they were getting close to their quarry.

The park was already open. Any number of people could be running, hiking, biking, or horseback riding through here so they weren’t without risk.

Anna turned her head, listened for a moment, and then took off running. She was determined to locate the teen before he came to harm, which meant a lot to Bjornolf. As much as she’d intimated that she wasn’t into kid stuff, she wasn’t letting this go.

He took off after her, not liking the path they were moving on… toward a group of stately homes backed up against the park, mostly hidden by huge evergreens. One of them in particular made him frown and sniff the ground.

The scent of wolves was heavy here along the entrance to the path. Male, female, young, old. Bjornolf suspected it was a safe house for wolves who belonged to the pack but lived in the outlying areas and were visiting Portland for the day.

Anna loped down the winding path through the woods, eagerly sniffing the ground. Nathan had been here.

When Bjornolf followed her, he found her standing at a beige stone wall topped with snow. She was studying the wolf door in the redwood gate, calculating the risk of entering another wolf’s backyard. He was going to nudge her face, to let her know that he wanted her to stay here while he investigated the backyard and she watched for Nathan.

But she had already made up her mind.

Nearly making his heart stop, she dashed for the gate, pushed the wolf door open with her nose, then barged in.

Bjornolf shoved his nose through the door, raced around a wall of evergreens, and found Anna stopped at a patio filled with ornate wrought-iron café tables and chairs. The backyard featured a copper statue of two wolves standing together and a fountain displaying a group of wolves frolicking at the base while playing with butterflies in flight. The scents in the yard further indicated that this was a wolf-owned house.

Icicle Christmas lights dangled from the gutters around the house, while a Douglas fir tree inside filled the picture window, showcasing mostly red, green, and white Christmas ornaments and colorful sparkling lights.

He smelled Nathan’s scent and a she-wolf’s scent—both had been here recently. But there was no sign of either of them, unless they were in the house…

Bjornolf spied an auburn-haired man standing at a window, his eyes growing large when he saw Bjornolf join Anna. The man looked angry and was speaking into a cell phone as he stared at them. He was tall and wearing a midnight blue T-shirt, his muscular arms showing that he’d have some power behind his moves. Bjornolf was sizing up his competition, not wanting to fight him, but if it meant protecting Nathan, he would.

The man’s amber eyes darkened. His gaze shifted from Anna, discounting her as a threat (a foolish thing to do in Bjornolf’s estimation), and focused again on Bjornolf.

A teenage girl joined him at the kitchen window, her long curly hair just as auburn, her eyes widening when she saw the two wolves. She quickly spoke to the man. Bjornolf didn’t think that Nathan was in the house, or the man would have greeted them already.

Was he calling Leidolf to warn him that gray wolves were invading their territory?

Leidolf kissed a sleeping Cassie on the shoulder, her copper curls spread out over her naked ivory skin. She’d just fallen asleep after having nursed their twin boys a few minutes ago, and he didn’t want to disturb her. His second-in-command, Elgin, was already gathering men from their ranch jobs. A gray teen wolf was spotted in Forest Park, having kidnapped a teen she-wolf from her house. There would be hell to pay for it if the girl’s father had any hand in it.

Leidolf only hoped he could get Carver to stand down until he got there and determined what was going on. He was grateful the father had sense enough to call him before he took action, which had to mean something else had happened that stopped Carver from going totally ballistic.

Leidolf glanced at his sons sleeping in the bassinet near the bed, the white eyelet ruffles reaching the carpeted floor. Up above, a white lace-trimmed canopy decorated in bows of red and green plaid etched with sparkling gold thread had been added for the holidays. His sons’ hands were curled into fists, their mouths making sucking motions while their backs were touching as if they were still in the womb, listening to each other’s heart beating, feeling the warmth of the other. He wondered how he could have ever gotten so lucky.

Leidolf had joined his men outside when he got the second warning call from Carver. A couple of adult gray wolves had showed up in Carver’s backyard, undoubtedly searching for their wayward teen.

“More bad news,” Leidolf alerted his men as they pulled on coats and hats. “Not only has a gray teen wolf taken Carver’s daughter, Sarah, from her home, but now it appears the parents have just arrived in their wolf forms, trying to track him down.”

Fergus and Elgin, Leidolf’s pack sub-leaders; and Quincy and Pierce, twin brothers; and four other reds had gathered to help with finding the teens. Ogden, a gray from Hunter’s pack who had mated one of Leidolf’s reds, also offered to locate the kids.

Rubbing sleep from his eyes, seventeen-year-old Evan walked out of the bunkhouse, his brown hair uncombed, strands dangling over his dark eyebrows. Despite the cold, his flannel shirt was unbuttoned and hanging open, revealing a well-muscled chest from all the work he did on the ranch—some of it extra duty for all the shenanigans he’d pulled. “What’s going on?”

“Trouble with a teen,” his father, Fergus, said, his amber eyes pinning his son with accusation. “You know how much difficulty they can be.” His father folded his arms across his broad chest, peeved with his own son for all the problems he’d caused this past year. “And you know how Carver is about his girls.”

The mention of Carver’s girls got the boy’s attention. Immediately, Evan’s eyes grew wide, and he hastily buttoned his shirt. “I’m going.”

“You’re staying,” his father countered, both of their gazes locked in confrontation. “Carver is angry enough about you and his daughter Alice. An uneasy truce exists between the two of you right now, and I want to keep it that way.”

“I’m going,” Evan said again, this time looking at Leidolf for his approval.

Despite not wanting to go against the father’s decision, Leidolf slapped Fergus on the back. “Your son could be a help this time.”

Fergus was a good sub-leader, but he had been thinking of his son’s welfare, not how the boy could aid the pack. He studied his son, then seemed to come to the same conclusion as Leidolf had and nodded. “Maybe you could talk some sense into the kid before Carver kills him, Evan.”

Evan headed for his father’s black pickup truck. “If the guy’s laid a hand on Alice,
I’ll
kill him.”

The boy took off with Alice’s twin sister, Sarah. He doesn’t seem to be interested in Alice. Leidolf shook his head, got into the Suburban with Elgin, who was driving, and called Hunter Greymere, the only gray-wolf pack leader he knew of in Oregon. If the teen didn’t belong to him, Leidolf wasn’t sure where he’d come from. He might have thought the teen was a runaway, but not once the female and male adult wolves had come looking for him.

“Yeah,” Hunter answered on the first ring, sounding grumpy.

Leidolf smiled. “This is Leidolf. Sorry to disturb you. I’d ask if your mate has had the babies yet, but it’s probably a little too early. Bad night?”

Hunter grunted. Leidolf heard the sound of a coffee mug being set on a surface with a ceramic
clunk
, and then liquid, probably coffee, pouring into it.

“I have a situation.”

Hunter grew quiet and listened to Leidolf.

Hating to bring it up when they’d made a friendship of sorts, Leidolf took a deep breath. “Three gray wolves are here stirring up trouble.”

“Three gray wolves,” Hunter murmured, as if he was trying to figure out which members of his pack would be traipsing through Leidolf’s territory.

Leidolf quickly added, “It’s a teen and his parents.”

“A teen and…” Hunter paused, then said, “Hell. I’ll call you right back. Wait… let me explain who I think they are. I have a teen who has run away a couple of times since his parents died last year. He’s been working at a Christmas tree farm near here and suspects a couple of wolves died there.”

“Gray or red?” Leidolf asked, frowning.

“Gray. Not from my pack, either. I’ve got a SEAL, Bjornolf Jorgenson, and Anna Johnson, one of my covert operatives, helping to uncover the mystery while taking care of the teen. If they’re the ones in your territory, they’ve tried to track Nathan down. He’s been having trouble coping with his parents’ recent deaths.”

“I’ll let my people know,” Leidolf said, sympathizing with the teen and with what Hunter had to deal with. “We’re headed to the safe house that borders Forest Park. No need to send any of your pack members here. I’ve got it under control.”

“I don’t understand why he’d venture into your territory,” Hunter said, sounding genuinely perplexed.

“Teen hormones,” Leidolf guessed. “I don’t know how they met, but apparently he knew one of our teen she-wolves from somewhere. I hope we get to him before her father does. If she’s compromised...”

Hunter swore.

Knowing Hunter was ready to go to Portland in protective alpha-leader mode, Leidolf assured him, “I’ll take care of it, Hunter. I’m sure between your SEAL, Anna, and me, we’ll get the boy where he needs to be—home with your pack. Stay with Tessa. She needs you close at hand for now. Believe me. I’ve been there. Got to go. Keep you updated.”

“Make sure your people know what they’re up against,” Hunter warned.

“Yeah, I sure will.”

***

Nathan running off with a girl was exactly what Anna
didn’t
want to be involved in. How many girls was he chasing after at the same time?

She’d
never run off with a boy… well, once, but that was different. No one knew or cared. Was Anna’s lecture the reason Nathan had run off to see the teen she-wolf?

She groaned. Why did Hunter believe she could be a good influence on the kid?

Nathan had to have met the girl before. She couldn’t blame the dad for the way he was reacting, but she didn’t want Carver to hurt Nathan. She felt sick to her stomach.

Anna didn’t shift from the wolf. Carver’s wife directed Bjornolf to a bedroom where he could get some clothes. When he returned, he was dressed and carefully explained the situation to Carver: Nathan’s background, his parents’ recent deaths, and his first holiday without them. Carver’s expression said he didn’t give a damn what Nathan’s situation was, only that he’d stolen his daughter and could be putting her in harm’s way.

Taking the situation in stride, Bjornolf mentioned that the girl had left willingly with Nathan, which hadn’t helped a whole lot. He was trying to say that it wasn’t a coerced situation. If Nathan had forced the girl from her home, the scenario would have been
much
worse.

“Nathan’s hurting,” Bjornolf said, and for a moment, Anna saw real pain in Carver’s dark eyes. She knew then that Bjornolf had touched some deep-seated chord of sympathy for the boy.

Nathan didn’t have anyone.

Carver had told them that Leidolf and several of his men were on their way to help search for the missing teen. Anna hoped that no one else would find the teens before she and Bjornolf could protect Nathan from his own folly.

***

Henry Thompson sipped a cup of coffee in his living room as his wife, Chrissie, hurried the kids out to their biological dad’s waiting car. Thompson was a self-made millionaire, one of the lucky ones who knew how to play the stock market and didn’t need to work a regular job. Instead, he spent his time with Chrissie and the kids while taking care of situations that arose concerning wild animals as a zoologist for the Oregon Zoo.

The phone rang, and he looked at the ID, noting it was a call from his hunting buddy. “Thompson here.”

“This is just up your alley,” Joe said, his voice eager with excitement. “We’ve got more sightings of wolves running through Forest Park.”

“You’re… kidding,” Thompson said. He knew his friend wouldn’t be, but he just couldn’t believe it. Last time he had to deal with wolves, he’d had an ordeal with a man named Leidolf. Were they the same wolves? Leidolf and his wife had sworn they were taking the wolves to a red-wolf reserve back east.

“There are three adults,” Joe said. “Two male, one female.”

“Red, right?”

“No, that’s the odd part. One male and female are gray. The other is a male red.”

Leaving the half-finished mug of java on the coffee table, Thompson crossed the living room to his den, grabbed his coat, and retrieved his hunting rifle from the locked gun cabinet.

“I’ll meet you at the park,” Joe said.

Tranquilizer darts at the ready, Thompson was headed out, determined to save the wolves, when he saw Chrissie returning. “Hold on a sec,” he said to Joe.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, as she joined him, her brow furrowed.

“Got to go. Wolves sighted in Forest Park.” He pulled Chrissie into a hot hug. “Keep the bed warm. I’ll be back before you know it.”

She shook her head and tugged on his coat button. “You’ll be running around the woods for hours looking for them.” Then she turned her face up and kissed him. “But I know you mean to protect them. I couldn’t love you more for it.”

He kissed her back, vowing that he’d return before the kids got home from school, then headed for his pickup. “Where exactly were they sighted, Joe?” he asked over the phone.

“They’re headed toward one of the exclusive residential areas.”

“Great.” He shook his head. “Whoever spotted them had to be wrong. Wolves no longer wander through Forest Park. Haven’t for years.”

Joe gave a short laugh of disbelief. “Yeah, that’s what we said the last time. And you know what happened then.”

Thompson paused, hand on his door handle, his eyes on the wolves painted on the side of his truck. Could they be werewolves?

Nah
…

***

Anna, Bjornolf, and Carver returned to his house when they were unable to track his daughter’s scent. That meant the teens must have shifted, dressed, and left the area.

As Carver headed for his bedroom, his mate, Aimée, directed Bjornolf and Anna to the guest bedroom and said to Anna, “We have several changes of clothes in the closet and dressers for wolves who need them on occasion. Feel free to borrow anything you’d like. Sarah must have given Nathan a change of clothes. I checked out front and her car is gone.” She shut the door for them.

Anna shifted into her human form and was completely naked. She was in too much of a hurry to worry about Bjornolf being in the same room as her. If he was as much of a professional as he was supposed to be, he would be shifting and putting on the same clothes that he’d thrown on earlier to have the talk with Carver.

He
wouldn’t
be eyeing her naked body.

She frowned as she pulled the first drawer open and discovered only men’s boxers. She went to the next drawer and found bras and panties.

Rifling through them, she looked for anything in black when Bjornolf leaned over to peer into the drawer, naked as they come, and pointed at one of the bras. “Get the red one and the matching panties.”

She turned slightly and saw him taking his fill—of
her
, not the underwear in the drawer, and the internal meter that measured her embarrassment went through the ceiling.