“But then I mated her.”

Eric smiled. “Good move.”

“Hell, Eric, now she doesn’t want to see me again.”

“Learn what happened to her aunt. Then maybe she’ll realize why she wanted you to be her mate in the first place.”

“And if I learn her aunt was murdered?” CJ shook his head. “Somehow I don’t see how that’s going to get me out of hot water with Laurel anytime soon.”

Chapter 18

“Ohmigod, I can’t believe you mated with CJ and didn’t tell us! You can’t seriously be thinking of breaking up with him. You can’t as a wolf. He didn’t tell you about the skeleton because he didn’t know anything about it and didn’t want to unnecessarily upset you,” Ellie said. “He was devastated. I wanted to give him a hug and tell him everything would be all right between you, since you have such a forgiving nature, but I was afraid you’d turn all wolf on me and bite me.”

Laurel fought smiling at her sister. Ellie could always brighten her outlook, even during the darkest moments of their lives.

“Jeesh,” Ellie continued, “he burned the breakfast he was fixing—and just the fact he was cooking breakfast should clue you in that he’s a keeper. It was killing him that he had to run to take care of the dangerous mess before he had a fire on his hands and couldn’t stop you from leaving. You know when he heard us shut the door, he had to have been really shook up. He probably would have carried you off to bed and made it up to you right after that if I hadn’t been there.”

“He didn’t tell me about the skeleton, Ellie! Don’t you get it? He didn’t want me delaying a mating with him last night! He might not have wanted to upset me, sure, but it was the business of the mating that makes the difference.” Laurel’s cell rang and she saw that it was CJ. Her heart skipped a couple of beats. She couldn’t help it. She really did love the wolf.

Ellie glanced at her. “If it’s CJ, answer it.”

Laurel gave her sister a dark look. She wasn’t going to ignore him. She was far too alpha for that. “What?” she snapped at CJ.

Ellie smiled.

“I’m sending the official police report to you, but I’ll give you a brief synopsis.” He told her about the skeleton found in the pit. The skeleton was a male. Instantly, she felt her eyes fill with tears.

She was relieved that it hadn’t been their aunt, but she still felt bad that someone else had come to such a gruesome end. She thought again about CJ and how it could have been him. She quickly wiped away tears. Before her sister got the wrong idea, Laurel held her hand over the mouthpiece of the phone. “The skeleton didn’t belong to our aunt.”

“Thank God for that.” Ellie sounded as relieved as Laurel was.

“This is what we’re looking for now. A man who was wearing this diamond stickpin,” CJ said, sending her a photo of the jewelry.

“Mr. Wernicke,” Laurel said, barely getting his name out. “There’s a picture of him standing in front of the hotel with a lot of other folks. It appeared to have been his grand opening.”

“Are you sure?”

“They had a close-up photo of him.”

“Hell, if the pin is his and he was wearing it at the time of his death, then that was him in the pit. I’m on my way over to your place. I spoke with Jacob, and he said he’d meet me there so we could look over your aunt’s furniture.”

Laurel should have suspected that CJ wouldn’t take her at her word. “All right. We’re just pulling up at the house now. Ellie’s going to go to the hotel. Trevor and Meghan are taking care of it for now. I’ll see you in a few—” She raised her brows to see CJ’s truck pull in beside Ellie’s car. “Now.”

Ellie shook her head. “He’s your mate, and you’re his. Looks to me like he’s not letting you go. That’s a good sign. I’ll see you later. Oh, and you’re not planning on keeping your mating secret, are you?”

“I doubt it’s a secret any longer.”

“Good. I’m telling Meghan before she gets pissed off because she’s the last to know. You think you have it rough with CJ. You don’t want to offend Meghan over this.” Ellie hopped out of the car. “Later.” She gave CJ a small smile.

He looked like he was in the doghouse, which was infinitely worse than anything a wolf could imagine. Wolves were not dogs.

Laurel almost took pity on him, but she wanted him to realize how underhanded she felt he’d been last night.

Ellie hurried off, crunching through the snow when CJ shifted his attention to something in the drifts. Laurel glanced down to see what he saw. Wolf prints.

“Who was running around your property as a wolf last night?” he asked, sounding accusatory.

“I was with you last night. How would I know?”

“Someone was. And you have human guests.”

He crouched down and looked closer. “Definitely a wolf’s from the size and shape.” He followed the tracks, while Laurel hurried after him, until they reached the street that had been recently plowed. “Looks like the wolf ran along the road after that. Then the snowplow scraped the rest of the paw prints away.”

“Or the wolf got into a vehicle and drove off.”

“Right.”

Jacob drove up in his electrician’s van and greeted them both. “You needed me to look at some furniture for hidden compartments? Every carpenter has his own method. That’s what makes them truly secret.”

“Thanks, Jacob, for coming over on such short notice,” CJ said.

“No trouble at all for the Silvers and their mates.” Jacob smiled at Laurel.

Great. She so hoped that Meghan hadn’t heard from Trevor that she was mated to CJ.

Before they reached the house, she heard the sunroom door slam and saw Meghan headed her way, red-faced.

“Why don’t the two of you go in and take a look at the furniture? They’re the highboy without any drawers and the blanket chest sitting in the middle of the living room. I’ll be inside in a moment.”

The two men headed inside as Laurel steeled herself for Meghan next.

Meghan frowned at Laurel and stalked right past her!

Laurel hurried after her. “What’s wrong?” She was afraid her sister intended to slug CJ, when Laurel and CJ had to work out their own differences. She didn’t want her sisters’ or anyone else’s interference.

“One of the Wernicke brothers and Trevor are having a disagreement. I thought your mate could help out.”

Just great. All Laurel needed was trouble with the Wernicke brothers right now.

“All right. I’ll tell him. Wait, you tell him and I’ll head over there. You stay here with Jacob and see what he learns about the secret compartments in the furniture.”

Laurel hurried off to the hotel, and when she reached it, she heard the door to the house slam. “Hold up!” CJ called out to her. As if he was going to be her knight when she was perfectly fine on her own. And she had to let him know that right away. She wasn’t some little beta wolf he had gone and mated.

She headed inside but before she shut the door, she heard him racing across the snow to catch up to her. She smiled a little, shut the door, and hurried to reach the main room where Stanton and Trevor were arguing.

Ellie was on the phone, standing behind the check-in counter taking a reservation and typing away at the computer.

“All I said was we wanted our reservations extended because we know there’s more time available and…” Stanton stopped speaking when he saw Laurel enter the room.

“I already told you it was booked,” Laurel said.

“And I already told you that the hotel belongs to us.”

She folded her arms. “Do you have proof?”

“We do. We’ve sent for it.”

She didn’t believe him. She felt CJ draw close to her, smelled his sexy scent, felt the heat of his body, and in that instant, no matter how crazy the thought was, she wanted him to pull her into his arms and give her a hug.

“We heard a body—or skeleton, I should say—was found in the woods. Was it our aunt or uncle? Her aunt? When do we get to ID the body?” Stanton asked.