“We just watched A Christmas Story and fell asleep on the couch.”

“Ohmigod,” Ellie said, poking Meghan, who was staring wide-eyed at Laurel.

“What did you think?” Laurel was afraid they thought she was mated.

Meghan smiled. “Wow. We thought he’d fallen asleep on the couch and you’d gone to sleep in your bed. You slept together on the couch? Together?”

As if she hadn’t said the word “together” enough! “You’ve fallen asleep on the couch while watching a movie any number of times,” Laurel said.

“Not. With. A. Wolf.” Meghan raised her brows.

“For heaven’s sake, that’s not what’s important.”

“It is too,” Meghan said.

Well, yes, it was. Wolves didn’t have sex unless they planned a mating, and it sure sounded like they could be headed in that direction. But now she wanted more than anything to join the search teams out looking for CJ. If something terrible had happened to him… She shook her head at herself. She couldn’t think of it. He was fine. They’d find him soon, and he’d be fine. But her gut instinct told her it wasn’t true.

“Okay, so what’s the bad news then?” Ellie ran her fingers over the bottom of the drawer, searching for a hidden compartment. “Ow.”

Laurel and Meghan looked up from examining two more drawers to see what the problem was.

“Sliver.”

Meghan rolled her eyes.

“The problem is that the Wernicke brothers claim they’re related to the hotel owners who vanished. And now they’re alleging that the hotel belongs to them.”

“Holy crap. No way,” Meghan said. “Are they still staying here at the hotel as guests?”

“Yes. But they thought they should have free rooms.”

Meghan put down the drawer and headed for the front door of the house.

Grabbing her arm, Laurel intercepted her. “Where are you going?”

“They can’t stay here if they think they’re going to take the hotel away from us.” Meghan’s eyes glistened with tears.

Feeling her distress, Laurel pulled her into a hug. “Darien and everyone else in the pack will help us to uncover the truth. And the unpaid taxes meant that the pack took over the property, so the brothers wouldn’t be able to claim it. But they could cause other trouble for us, trying to ruin our business and forcing us to lose money. We could face financial ruin.”

“And if that happened?” Ellie looked just as distraught.

“CJ suggested we build a new hotel. It can be Victorian, small, exactly how we like our hotels.”

“But we love this one. Meghan and I were talking about it while we were away. How much we loved this hotel and how beautiful it is.”

“Right, but we may not have a choice.”

“Wait,” Meghan said. “You want to build a new hotel here?” She wiped away the tears trailing down her cheeks. “You’d do that to stay here? To stay with the pack?”

“I don’t know. We still have to learn why our aunt disappeared and all the rest. The pack may not even want us here after we learn the truth. Would you even want to build a new place? CJ said they’d help us, but is it even something we’d want to do?”

“We love the old buildings,” Ellie admitted. “But to stay with a wolf pack? Especially as welcoming as this one is? I’d be willing.”

“I agree with Ellie. I like the charm of old buildings. But if it meant staying, I’d do whatever it takes,” Meghan said.

Then Ellie smiled deviously. “The pack would never allow the Wernicke brothers to buy the hotel, or if they did, they’d run them out of business.”

“I agree. So in the meantime, we fight them tooth and claw if they try to ruin our business. Even though they have a TV show, which could give them some clout, we have a pack to back us,” Laurel said. “But that’s only contingent on the pack still wanting us here if we discover one of their beloved pack members had anything to do with our aunt’s disappearance.”

“Are you kidding?” Meghan set her drawer aside and pulled out another. “Poor CJ would have no one’s nose to kiss on a cold, snowy day.”

“Or a she-wolf to snuggle with on our sofa while watching Christmas movies.” Ellie ran her fingers under the top edge of the highboy.

“If his father was involved in our aunt’s disappearance?” Laurel asked, trying to be pragmatic about it. “Family is family, after all.”

“He’s not going to stick up for his father if he was involved in murdering Clarinda or covering it up.” Meghan gave up on the highboy and started to search the blanket chest for a false bottom.

Laurel was hoping that would be the case. Her phone rang and she hurried to answer it, her sisters watching her.

She frowned when she saw it was Darien calling, not Lelandi. Her stomach clenching with dread, Laurel feared the worse. CJ had been found.

And he was dead.

Chapter 15

When CJ came to, he was still in his wolf form, thank God, or he would have frozen to death. He was lying on his side at the bottom of a twelve-foot-deep killing pit, with leaves, twigs, and pine needles cushioning his fall. A few wooden stakes pointed skyward at the black night, waiting to skewer their victims. The pit had been used to kill animals—and had been here for years, he suspected, as he considered the weathered age of the stakes. He couldn’t see all that well in the dark, as deep as he was, but he would have been able to smell new wood that had been carved into stakes.

His head throbbed where he was certain he’d cut it, and minor bruises, scratches, and a few ligament strains made him ache all over. An animal or two must have fallen into the pit earlier, and the unfortunate beasts had broken a few of the sharpened stakes. Thankfully, the broken ones hadn’t been replaced, and CJ hadn’t been gored.

Unsteadily, he sat up and tried to get his bearing in the darkness, some of the deadfall still covering the hole. He had to warn anyone else not to take a misstep and fall into the pit. The snow-covered trees looming above hid the sky from his view.

Nothing on the sides of the pit could help him climb if he shifted. There were a few exposed, gnarled roots, but they wouldn’t be strong enough to hold his weight. Remembering that Darien was coming and also sending men, CJ lifted his chin and howled. Maybe someone would hear him. His howl sounded strange and unreal to his ears. Maybe because he was surrounded by earth and sitting so deep in the pit. He hoped whoever had built this pit wasn’t still around to finish him off.

Off in the distance, howls rent the woods and he was cheered to hear his brothers and cousins calling. He howled again in greeting and in relief.

Everyone was everywhere, combing the woods for him, he realized. But they would be in their wolf forms. No one could get him out of here without shifting and using ropes. And for that they needed a phone. He was destined to stay down here for who knew how long.

Worse, he worried about Laurel being alone and hoped Trevor was keeping an eye on things. CJ wished he had her in his arms, snuggling with her on the couch again, breathing in her sweet she-wolf scent, listening to her steady heartbeat, feeling the heat and softness of her body.

Everyone had stopped howling. He knew they wanted to hear from him again, to pinpoint his direction. He suspected they wondered why he sounded like he was buried alive. He howled long and low, letting them know just where he was again. His head splintering in two, he collapsed on his side and waited for his rescuers to come for him.

Then a wolf woofed down at him. He wanted to warn the wolf to watch out for the deadfall covering the hole. That it could still be dangerous. When he looked up, he stared at a white face, ears as long as a gray wolf’s, and legs just as long. The white wolf. The ghost wolf. He or she was very real.

CJ didn’t remember anything after that, didn’t hear anything for a long time. When he opened his eyes later, he realized he must have passed out. He expected to see the white wolf peering down at him, but it was gone.