by Terry Spear
She drank her water and felt revived. Ready for the next mission. Bring it on.
“So you didn’t have any plans for the holidays?” Bjornolf said to her.
She looked at Bjornolf, whose gaze shifted behind her to Hunter. She suspected he was motioning to kill the subject. Christmas was not good for her.
“Me, neither,” Bjornolf said, shrugging. “I have a brother, but I haven’t seen him in years. After the bear incident, life at home was never the same.”
She was surprised to hear him speak about it again. Why had he confided in her? If she’d had such an experience, she wouldn’t have told anyone.
He was watching her, not looking away, waiting as before for her response. She took a deep breath. “Your brother didn’t go with you that day.”
“Nah. He was always the good kid. Never did anything wrong. Never wild or adventurous. Sometimes I wish I had been more like him.”
“A lot of people have depended on you, Bjornolf,” she said softly. “I don’t think anyone would have wanted you to be anything other than who you are.”
He gave her one of his elusive smiles.
Her hormone levels rose. The problem with a guy like Bjornolf was that he intrigued her. But she wasn’t going to tell him that.
“So… it happened at Christmastime?” she asked.
“Yeah. Shortly before then. You can’t imagine what it was like to see the pack members for Christmas and know that one family had lost their son before the big day. I couldn’t deal with it. Had nightmares about it forever.”
She looked away before her own bad memories swamped her. “I don’t do Christmas.”
“None of it?”
“Unless I’m desperate. I don’t mall shop if I can avoid it. I can’t even imagine going to one this time of year. I don’t need to see a rotund man with a fake snow-white beard and a bunch of squirmy kids waiting beside a faux candy-cane fence, with fluffy pretend snow all over the place. Or crowds of harried shoppers buying a bunch of junk that will be given away at white-elephant parties later. Even trying to find a parking place at such a time is a nightmare,” she said.
He laughed.
She smiled, glad he didn’t think she was a Scrooge. She wasn’t. She just didn’t have any need for Christmas.
“No Christmas trees, baking sugar cookies, viewing Christmas lights, watching sappy Christmas stories?”
She folded her arms, but she couldn’t help smile at him. “Nope.”
“No Christmas jingles?”
“Not a single one.”
“I have to admit that while we were in the jungle and I was shadowing you with jungle noises all around us, I couldn’t get the words to ‘Jingle Bells’ out of my head.”
She laughed, the notion so funny that she couldn’t help herself. “And when I saw you wearing all that camo paint, looking hot and tough, I thought you were so macho.”
“I was. I am.”
She heard Hunter chuckle beside her and smiled.
Bjornolf hadn’t felt so relaxed in a long time. He enjoyed talking with Anna. He’d never told anyone beyond his wolf pack what had happened to his friend that day. He wasn’t even sure why he had confided in her. To see if she looked at him with as much loathing as his own pack had done, maybe?
But she hadn’t. She’d looked like she wanted to give him a hug. Both times. Except he knew that if she had, he would have responded with a lot more interest.
He wasn’t into Christmas himself, but he kind of liked the idea of celebrating it with her as her pretend husband for the holidays, if only for Nathan’s sake. He couldn’t imagine what it would be like for the kid to have to face the holidays without his family. Maybe he and Anna could make a difference for Nathan this time.
He thought that if he could tough out the season, she should be able to. But she wouldn’t tell him what she’d experienced, and he didn’t know how to deal with it if he didn’t know what deep-rooted difficulty had turned her off Christmas.
When they arrived at their destination, Tessa met them, red hair windswept, green eyes sparkling, white coat parted to reveal her expanded belly, covered in a pretty, pale blue maternity sweater. She quickly greeted Anna and Bjornolf, then gave Hunter such a heartwarming embrace and prolonged kiss that Anna felt embarrassed. Maybe because Bjornolf was there grinning at the exchange.
After loading the field packs into the silver SUV, Hunter took the wheel as Tessa sat up front with him.
What a contrast over a few days: from the hot, muggy Amazon jungle to snowy Oregon. And neither Anna nor Bjornolf was dressed for the change in weather.
“Okay, now what’s the deal?” Anna asked as she and Bjornolf shared the middle bench seat in the SUV.
“Before we head home, we’ll stop at the mall so you can both pick up some clothes to tide you over. On the way over there, I’ll tell you about the mission. You heard Bjornolf brought home one of our teens who had run away, right?”
Thinking back to the last time she was on a mission on the Oregon coast, Anna chewed her bottom lip. “Yeah.” This couldn’t be about a runaway teen.
“Nathan is working at a Christmas tree farm and he smelled decaying bodies there.”
Dead bodies. That sounded more like her type of business. Anna perked up.
“Tessa texted to update me on what happened while we were in the jungle. We’ve had several of our pack members check out the area, with the cover that they’re looking for Christmas trees. The two dead men were lupus garous. But so far no one has identified their scent as anyone from our pack.”
“Your police officers could investigate this,” she said, sounding wary.
“They have as much as they can, unofficially as they picked up trees for their homes. There were no bodies. No one could prove anything. Not when all we have to go by is the faint odor of decomposing lupus garous.”
“No chance the deaths could have been due to natural causes?” she asked.
“No. They smelled blood. And there have been no reports of any injuries or deaths in any records. So it appears to be a murder case.”
“So you want me to work with Bjornolf to check it out and see if we can find some leads because we’re not from around here?” She glanced at Bjornolf. He was watching out the window. She swore he was avoiding looking at her. But then again, maybe that was just her suspicious nature.
“Yes, but we’ve got another issue to deal with here.” Hunter paused.
He never took this long to explain a mission to her.
Now Tessa was looking out the window. When Tessa did that, it meant she was hiding her expression. What the hell was going on?
“So what’s the other issue?” Anna asked, bracing herself.
“Nathan needs protection.”
Hunter’s comment was so out of line with what she was thinking that Anna blinked. Nathan? She cast a surreptitious look in Bjornolf’s direction. He was watching her now, waiting to see her reaction.
She frowned. “Okay, so Bjornolf is going to watch out for the kid,” she said, but she already knew where this was headed. Or at least she had a sneaking suspicion or she wouldn’t be needed for the mission.
“Nathan wants to continue working at the farm. I feel it’s not safe for him to stay with another family who don’t have your combat skills while the investigation is ongoing. You and Bjornolf will serve as newlyweds and will be an uncle and aunt to Nathan. He’ll live with you in the meantime. That’ll give you a cover while you’re doing your research.”
She closed her gaping mouth.
She could deal with investigating dead bodies. Taking out murderers, turning them over to the police if they were human—that she could handle. But babysitting a teenager?
When she didn’t say anything, Hunter said, “You’re perfectly suited to the job. You know how I select team members for a mission. That’s why we have such a high success rate.”
True, Hunter normally selected the right people to work on a mission. Most of their jobs were successes
.
This time he was wrong. She opened her mouth to ask where on earth he got the notion she had any mothering instincts when it came to a teen, but he quickly added, “Listen. You know what happens when a teen wolf runs away from a pack.”
Did she ever.
“You’ve had firsthand experience.”
“Yeah, well, I didn’t have much of a choice. My dad and mom were murdered. I had no pack to turn to, and I had to fend for myself.” As a teen, she’d dealt with life the only way she knew how. Wild and without any guidance from anyone.
“Which is just why I need you for this job. You know how badly that can turn out for one of our kind. Nathan’s parents died in a car accident last year. He’s run away twice, the second time nearly getting himself killed by hunters,” Hunter said.
She sympathized with the teen. Truly she did. And she wished she’d had some kind of training in that sort of thing, but she hadn’t.
“I’m not good with teens… I wouldn’t have a clue what to do with one,” she said in the gentlest manner she could manage.
Hunter shook his head. “You’re perfect, no matter what you think about your own abilities. Besides, you’ve been there, Anna. You understand what he’s going through.” Hunter cleared his throat, glanced in the rearview mirror, and speared her with his indomitable gaze. “Bjornolf has volunteered to work with you.”
This was such a bad idea. Working with Bjornolf in the field was one thing. Setting up housekeeping? The guy was totally hot, virile, and sexy, and pretending to be his mate had her thinking of just how far she’d be willing to pretend. And if she gave into her baser instincts? The teen could be scarred for life. Bjornolf, too.
What Bjornolf wasn’t was some highly trained teen sitter. He was a loner, not a pack man and not a family man.
“I can’t believe you talked Bjornolf into taking this mission,” Anna said.
“Bjornolf convinced Nathan to return to the pack. He likes the kid. Bjornolf was the first one who seemed to have any real positive impact on him,” Hunter said.
“I still don’t understand why you need me. Bjornolf can bond with the teen. The two will be perfect for each other. All that overabundant macho testosterone flowing—who can beat whom at whatever games the two choose to play. The situation should be perfect for the two of them,” she said.
Bjornolf chuckled under his breath.
She’d almost forgotten he was sitting near her. “I could work separately from him during the investigation.”
“The whole situation is part of your cover for the murder investigation you’re conducting. Besides, you’ve done this very thing before,” Hunter added.
“Just because I hooked up with one of your SEAL team members some years ago, pretending to be his mate… that was different.”
“How?” Hunter waved his hand, dismissing her concern. “It’s no different. Bjornolf is just as dedicated to the mission.”
She felt her face, her whole body, flush with annoying heat. Paul had been the other SEAL and had been completely professional with her. Nothing physical had ever come between them. Twin beds, even. Except for pretending to be together, everything had been… separate.
Working with Bjornolf would be an entirely different story.
“If you’re concerned that wolves like us have been murdered, Nathan shouldn’t be involved,” Anna said.
“He is involved. He’s the one who discovered the dead bodies’ scents. He’s got his foot in the door already.”
Hunter pulled into the crowded mall parking lot. He cut the engine and looked over his shoulder at her. “You can do it,” Hunter said. “You don’t give yourself enough credit.”
She realized what she was feeling was total panic. “All right.”
“You’re undercover, Anna. Just like always. You can fake being Bjornolf’s wife.”
She glanced at Bjornolf.
His teeth shown in a wolfish grin. “We can practice nearly lethal sparring whenever we’re not celebrating the holidays or investigating the trouble at the Christmas tree farm.”
He had the most devilish gleam in his eye, making her think he could be more dangerous than any other part of the mission.
Chapter 7
While Tessa helped Anna pick out clothes at one of the department stores, Hunter went with Bjornolf while he found what he needed.
Grabbing up briefs, three pair of jeans, some shirts, and sweaters, Bjornolf listened to Hunter telling him some of the details he needed to know about the cottage and other important information. But what Bjornolf really wanted to hear was why Anna was so against Christmas. As soon as he had started talking to Anna on the plane about it, Hunter had given him the universal kill order, slicing his hand across his throat.
“About Anna and Christmas…” Bjornolf needed to know because it could be important to the mission. Not only that, but he wanted to help her get through it in the worst way. If he knew what her basis was for not liking the holiday, he’d be better able to cope with her feelings.
Hunter shook his head.
“You know, though.”
“I know. I learned about her during the thorough investigation I do on anyone I want to recruit to work with us.”
Bjornolf seized several pair of socks. “Does Tessa know?”
“No,” Hunter said a little more vehemently than Bjornolf thought necessary. The message was clear: leave Tessa out of this.
“The rest of the team?”
Hunter folded his arms and said nothing.
“What if it impacts the mission? I should know the details.”
“It happened long ago. It’s never affected anything she’s done with the team.”
“With others, then? Has she ever worked an operation like this? During Christmas?”
“Drop it, Bjornolf. If she wants to tell you about it, she will. Otherwise, it’s a closed topic.”
It wasn’t closed for him.
Hunter paid for Bjornolf’s purchases, then they went to locate the ladies. He saw Tessa looking red-faced, as if she were on the verge of shifting so she could take care of a customer she was fighting with over a sweater.
“Does Tessa have issues with Christmas, too?” Bjornolf asked, smiling.
Anna wished she’d brought her own clothes with her. Anything to avoid the worst shopping experience ever.
The only thing that made it better was that poor Tessa, who had to be horribly uncomfortable with twins due soon, was such an angel in helping Anna to choose the right clothes. Anna couldn’t remember a time when she had ever shopped with another woman. She had certainly never been with one who was excited about helping her look her best.
Bjornolf had been carrying his own purchases, but he stepped in to carry several of Anna’s bags. Hunter ended up having to carry a few of Anna’s also. It was Tessa’s fault, really.
Anna wouldn’t have bought more than a couple of things, and she didn’t mind washing them out for the next day. But Hunter didn’t seem to mind the expense. In fact, he almost seemed in high spirits over the whole business.
Which made her suspicious.
When they arrived in the pack’s territory, they picked up a rental Land Rover. Anna insisted on getting a second vehicle, though she fully intended to pay for it herself, but Hunter shook his head and used his credit card on the second car, too.
“Nathan’s working at the farm until closing tonight,” Hunter said.
“Okay, we’ll leave our stuff at our new home. After we get settled in, we’ll drop by the farm and pick out a Christmas tree,” Bjornolf said.
“We don’t have to get a tree.” Anna grabbed the keys for her rental car and headed to the vehicle. No wonder Hunter had been so secretive about what she was to do on this mission.
“If you two need anything at all, just call me or Tessa,” Hunter said, smiling just a little.
“Will do.” Bjornolf followed after her. “We can use the Christmas tree for our cover. We’re not going to be the only couple without a tree
for the open-house tour of homes scheduled in a couple of days.”
“Open house? When did this happen?”
“While you and Tessa were shopping, and I was picking out a few things, Hunter filled me in on some of the details.”
“Fine,” Anna said, but her tone of voice said other-wise. “You pick out a tree, and I’ll search the farm for the odor of dead bodies and any other clues.” She glanced back at Bjornolf as she reached her car. “What do you know about it, anyway?”
“The men hadn’t been dead for long. Only a wolf could have smelled how long it had been.”
“What about the owners of the tree farm? Are they wolf?”
“Human—husband, wife, teenaged daughter.”
Anna rested her hand on the car door handle. “Teen… girl? Human? And Nathan is working there because?”
“He needed a job to occupy his thoughts after his parents died, to keep him from running away. He loves the forest, so the tree farm is the next best thing for now. He cuts the trees for customers, loads them up, and delivers them when they need him to. We’ll pick one out. He’ll bring it home tonight. It’s part of our cover.”
After getting directions to the beach home, Anna drove the fifteen miles up the road, then pulled into the driveway. Bjornolf parked beside her. Like the other cottages Hunter and Tessa owned, this one was nestled among pine trees, a long way from the next cottage, and sat overlooking a rocky beach below. The setting was perfect for a wolf. Plenty of woods to run in, the Pacific Ocean to swim in, and a private beach.
A wraparound porch furnished with a porch swing and four rocking chairs made the place appear homey. The house was a pretty pale blue with the shutters and trim all painted white, making it appear like a recreational retreat for a family reunion.
Right now, the cottage was dark, just like she liked it. No Christmas lights. No warm fire glowing in the fireplace. Perfect for someone undercover and not wanting to pretend to be newly married or to celebrate the holidays in any fashion. A single someone not raising a teen boy.
The wind whipped through the evergreen-needled tree branches with a whooshing noise, and the waves crashed along the rocky beach below the cliffs as sea birds squawked out at sea, the fragrance of salt, fish, and pine filling the air.
