Ellie’s jaw dropped. “You’re mated?”

Ignoring her sister’s comment, Laurel stormed off in the direction of the front door. “I’ll ask Darien to keep Trevor at the hotel to watch our guests. You don’t need to be there.”

CJ stalked after her to stop her. “Wait, Laurel, damn it. There wasn’t any reason for me to mention—”

She gave him a dagger of a look. “Can you tell me honestly that you didn’t consider that it might have upset me so much I wouldn’t have mated you? At least not last night?”

He couldn’t lie about it. “Of course, I considered it. But—”

“Fine. If we can’t share important issues with each other…” She again headed for the door.

He reached out and grasped her arm. “Laurel, wait. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to withhold anything from you so that you’d mate me last night. I swear it.”

She nodded, but he could tell she didn’t believe him. Then she pulled away. “If you need to see us in an official capacity, have Peter send Trevor to talk to me.”

There was no way in hell Laurel was cutting him out of her life. CJ smelled the crepes burning, and smoke started to curl into the air. “Shit. Wait, let me get the pan off the burner before I burn down the house.” He bolted for the kitchen but heard the door slam on the sisters’ way out. “Damn it to hell.”

He turned off the heat on the burner, then moved the pan to the back of the stove top. He yanked out his phone and called Doc Weber. “What did you learn?”

“Good morning to you too. Feeling any better after your fall?” Typical Doc. Current medical issues had to be addressed first and foremost. Dead bodies were of secondary concern. Especially when the case was so old.

“Yes, sorry, Doc Weber. Good morning. So what did you learn about the remains?”

“White, male, approximately forty years old, can’t tell if he was one of our kind since we don’t leave any traces of the wolf in us. The stake he fell on gouged at one of the ribs, had to have penetrated the heart and broken another rib. The fabric left behind appears to be of the kind worn around the time that Mr. Wernicke disappeared. I’m sending out what’s left of some of the fabric to a forensics lab to have them date it. It’s deteriorated so much that I’d say the gentleman has been down there for years.”

“Can you prove it was Warren Wernicke?”

“The dead man was wearing a diamond stickpin. It was found attached to a remnant of the clothing. If we go over the photos we have of him, we might see that stickpin. Then we’d be more assured it was him. Unless someone stole it from him and was wearing it. Or he gave it away. Or there was another like it.”

Too many other scenarios. “Can you tell if he was murdered or just came across the pit by accident like I did?”

“If he had been struck, it wasn’t anything that would have killed him or caused severe injury. No sign of blunt force trauma. It looks more like he just fell and the stake piercing his heart killed him.”

“Someone had to have covered the pit over with deadfall. Two other animals had fallen through.”

“A wild boar and an elk. Yes. And someone had to have covered up the hole three times. The boar was off to the side, but one hind leg was beneath the human’s left fibula—shinbone. The elk had landed on the other side, but the hindquarters were resting on top of the human’s pelvic girdle. It’s impossible to tell whether the man just fell in or was lured there on purpose.”

“Who could have dug anything that deep?”

“The movement of groundwater created the natural pothole in the limestone. It’s been there forever, but someone set it up as a natural trap for animals.”

“Or humans. Was the meat carved off the boar? Was someone actually using the pit for hunting purposes at one point?”

“Yes, on the boar. No, on the elk.”

“Then we need to know if someone actually set it up to kill a particular person, or if the one who died met his death there accidentally.”

“Agreed.”

CJ’s cell beeped at the same time that someone began knocking on his door. “Gotta go, Doc. Call you later.”

“I’ll let you and Peter know if I learn anything more.”

“Thanks. Out here.” CJ answered the other call and headed for the front door. “Yeah, Peter? I was just talking to Doc Weber.”

“I have a copy of his initial medical findings and a picture of the stickpin. Are you feeling all right enough to return to the hotel and watch what’s going on over there?”

CJ answered the door, found Eric standing there, and motioned for him to come in.

“There’s been a slight change of plans,” CJ said to Peter as Eric walked into the house and shut the door. “Laurel wants Trevor to stay there instead, if it’s all right with you.”

“Anything…wrong?”

“Hell, yeah. I didn’t tell her about the skeleton we found in the pit last night, and now she’s pissed off at me.”

“We didn’t even know who it was, and it didn’t turn out to be her aunt.” Peter sounded annoyed with her.

“Right, but…well there’s more.” Hell, CJ hated to admit any of this, but he’d rather his boss and his brothers know what happened than for them to think Laurel was being completely unreasonable. “We’re mated.”

Dead silence.

Eric shook his head, but he was smiling. And heading for the kitchen.

“So she’s pissed because… Okay, got it. I’ll have Trevor stay there, and you can try to run down who our dead man is.”

“Thanks. I’ll get right on it.” CJ ended the call and followed his brother into the kitchen.

Eric stared at the blackened pan. “Looks like breakfast didn’t go over too well either.”

“I’ve screwed up everything this time.” CJ poured hot water and dish soap into the plugged sink and shoved the cooled pan into the soapy water to let it soak.

“Hey, it wouldn’t be the first time and it won’t be the last.”

CJ frowned at him. “Thanks. I know that. But how do I fix it?”

“If it were me? I probably would have done the same thing. And been in the same bind the next morning. Have you told Darien that you’re mated to Laurel yet?”

CJ let out his breath. He really didn’t want to do this now. But he made the call to Darien and said, “Okay, Laurel and I are mated wolves. Just needed to let you know.”

“Hot damn, CJ. That’s good to hear. I’ll tell Lelandi, and we’ll let the pack know.”

CJ wanted to groan out loud. “Okay, I’ve got to talk to Eric about the case.”

“Good show. Talk to you later.” Darien ended the call with CJ.

“Darien’s glad, I take it,” Eric said.

“Yeah, he is. I just didn’t want to let him in on the latest development.”

“Understand. The two of you will work it out. So what was Doc’s finding?”

CJ showed him the findings Peter sent him over the phone, including the picture of the stickpin.

“Send the picture to my email, will you? I’ll forward it to Brett since he’s digging into all the photos of that period. Maybe he’ll see a man wearing that pin.” Eric frowned as he studied the picture. “Why would a man be wearing something so dressy when he’s running around in the woods?”

“That was one of my thoughts too. Was he chasing after someone? Lured there? I’m guessing he wasn’t just out for a Sunday stroll in the woods when he fell into the pit. It’s too far from any road.”

Eric read through the report. “And since his clothes were there, that meant he hadn’t been in wolf form. Okay, what else did you need me to do? Don’t ask me to fix things between you and Laurel though. You’re on your own there. Oh, and by the way, congratulations.”

CJ snorted. “I think that was the shortest mated relationship in history.”

“You’re mated for life.”

“I know. But I don’t think she’ll have anything further to do with me.”

“She’ll come around. Give her time. First, the skeleton wasn’t her aunt. And second, you didn’t mention it because you didn’t want to worry her unnecessarily. Which was heroic.”