When they reached the sunroom, Lelandi was talking about the pack Christmas celebration and New Year’s party they were having and how much they wanted Clarinda to be there.
They grew quiet when Laurel and CJ entered the room. “Lelandi, Aunt Clarinda, Darien wants us to go to the hall to discuss the Wernicke brothers’ situation,” Laurel said. “Are they really your sons?” she asked her aunt, sounding as if she still didn’t believe it.
“I didn’t know they were here looking for me.”
CJ didn’t believe the brothers had been either. They were here to get what they thought was theirs: the title to the hotel. Instead, it had belonged to John’s mate until the pack took it over.
“Why didn’t you tell us who you really were?” Laurel asked.
“I didn’t know John was dead. He was a brutal man. I was certain he wouldn’t have changed how he acted toward me. I couldn’t risk involving you or your sisters, or your mate either. It was just safer that way. Had I known he was dead, I would have told you the truth.”
“I’m so sorry for all that you’ve suffered,” Laurel said.
“It’s in the past. Now I’m reunited with my sons and my nieces, and I don’t want that ever to end.”
“Agreed.”
But CJ didn’t think it would be an entirely happy family reunion.
As soon as Meghan and Ellie arrived, they walked into the hall, where everyone turned to watch them. Darien joined Lelandi and pulled her into a hug, and Laurel loved how affectionate he was with his pack leader mate in front of the pack.
Clarinda took a seat, but everyone else remained standing, tense and alert as Darien said, “Ladies first. Clarinda O’Brien?”
“Wernicke,” Clarinda said. “I was mated to John Wernicke. He beat me so badly the last time, I miscarried our next set of twins. I did the only thing I could do. I abandoned my three four-year-old sons, whom John adored. I knew he’d never hurt them. I found refuge with John’s brother, Warren, knowing they were estranged. I assumed John would never look for me there. Warren loved me and wanted me for his mate, but we couldn’t be, not while John was still alive. Warren had a heart of gold. Elroy Summers was new to the area, and he thought to woo me, believing I was Warren’s sister.
“She had died in another city before I arrived in Silver Town, so I took on the role of his sister, pretending to have just arrived to help Warren by taking care of the household and budget. We made up this far-fetched story about how Clarinda O’Brien had lived there and run off. No one had ever ‘seen’ her, so we figured if John learned someone was living with Warren, he wouldn’t suspect it was me. Just their sister. As long as he didn’t come and see Warren and me. I wanted so badly to get in touch with my sons, but I was afraid John would learn of it and kill me for it.”
“What about Elroy Summers?” Darien asked.
“He made me the furniture—free of charge, which upset Warren since he loved me. He hated to pretend I was his sister. And he hated that I couldn’t mate him. Then Sheridan…” She glanced in CJ’s direction. “He somehow learned I wasn’t who I said I was. He sent me a blackmail note. I showed it to Warren, but I didn’t want him to pay Sheridan. I was certain Sheridan would keep asking for more money to maintain my secret. Then everything fell apart at once. Warren disappeared, and though I went in search of him, I couldn’t find him. I tried to manage the hotel, but then Sheridan sent me another blackmail note. I tucked it into the secret compartment in the highboy and ran.”
“Why would Elroy’s son think something was hidden in your chest that would cause problems for his dad?” Laurel asked.
“I suspect one of the two men—Elroy or John—killed Warren,” Clarinda said.
“Our father didn’t do it,” Stanton said. “You ran off and it had nothing to do with Dad being abusive. He never was abusive.”
“Not with you. But with me, he was,” Clarinda said gently.
“You lie. Dad said—”
“Your father told you what he wanted you to hear. That I was a bad mother. That I abandoned you because I didn’t want children. All lies. I loved you. Leaving you was the hardest thing for me to do. I wanted to die. But I wanted to live too, hopeful that someday I could hold you again in my arms as a mother would. I knew if I had taken you with me, I wouldn’t have gotten far. He would have killed me for sure.
“He adored the three of you. I knew he would raise you well. He poisoned you against me. I never could return to see you. And now he’s dead, but you’ve decided to believe what he said about me. I had hoped it would be otherwise. Despite not wanting to have to let you go, I’ve come to terms with this.”
“By rights, the hotel is still ours,” Stanton said.
“It would go to John’s mate, since he’s deceased, if she had paid the taxes, although we would have made arrangements to resolve the situation to everyone’s satisfaction if the MacTire sisters hadn’t already bought and renovated it,” Darien said. “That means Clarinda Wernicke would have owned it.”
“If I had owned it, I would gladly have given you the hotel, if my nieces hadn’t bought it with their hard-earned money and renovated it so beautifully. Not only that, but they had every intention of learning what had happened to me and bringing my murderer to justice. And so, the hotel is theirs. I didn’t know John had died recently or I would have already revealed who I was to them.”
“Our mother didn’t know what had happened to you,” Laurel said.
“No, dear. I couldn’t even tell my beloved sister or hug my nieces one last time.”
“I don’t believe this. You’re a habitual liar,” Stanton said. “Father told us you’d say anything if we ever saw you again so that you’d look like the innocent in all this. I can’t believe you’d drag his name through the mud. For what? Just so you looked like the sweet, adoring mother who was fighting for her life?”
“Give it up, Stanton,” Vernon said, sounding so angry, Laurel knew it was going to get physical between the brothers. Stanton was their leader, and he wouldn’t take any guff from his brothers.
Stanton turned on his brother and growled. But Vernon’s fist shot out so fast and connected with Stanton’s jaw so hard that he knocked Stanton on his ass before he could react.
Everyone looked as shocked as Laurel felt, not expecting Vernon to win the confrontation. But she was damn glad he had.
Vernon swallowed hard, rubbing his hand that had to hurt like hell after hitting his brother’s iron jaw with so much force, and then he stalked toward Clarinda. Everyone was watching him closely, ensuring he didn’t attack her, but he got on his knees in front of her, laid his head in her lap, and hugged her. “Mom,” he said in a choked sob.
Laurel swore there wasn’t a dry eye among all the wolves gathered. Family meant everything to them. CJ offered his hand to Stanton to help him up, and the hardheaded wolf accepted it, stood, and then waited while Yolan gently pulled his mother to standing and gave her a hug.
Looking like a teen with attitude, Stanton stalked across the floor to join them. Everyone was still tense, just in case, as Yolan stepped back to allow Stanton time with their mother. “I’m sorry.” With tears in his eyes, he kissed his mother’s cheek and pulled her into his arms to give her a hug.
“The fault is not yours,” she said softly to him, but Laurel was close enough that she heard.
“The hotel is my nieces’, your cousins’, but when I die, the candy store, which is very profitable, will be yours.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Stanton said and hugged her again. “We’ll make it up to you—for what our father did to you and to us by forcing you to run.”
Laurel joined CJ. He immediately took her into his arms and held her tight, making her feel warm and well loved.
She whispered, “When we’re done here, I want to get a tree and decorate for Christmas. I want to have a Christmas celebration with your brothers, my sisters, the Silver cousins and their mates, my aunt, and the Wernicke cousins, if they want to join us.”
He smiled. “We’ve got our work cut out for us.”
“But it’s good work for a good cause.”
* * *
Three days later, Laurel and CJ were enjoying a grand celebration. The Christmas tree was clothed in Victorian style with burgundy velvet garland; gold, silver, green, and burgundy balls; and twinkly lights—and her sisters were helping to prepare the main meal of hickory-smoked ham and potatoes.
Aunt Clarinda had made all the heavenly chocolates that their mother fixed when she was alive, and Laurel realized it was a family tradition that she and her sisters had to carry on. Lelandi helped bake some special bread; Tom’s wife, Elizabeth, was fixing mistletoe margaritas; and Jake’s wife, Alicia, was preparing the greens for the meal.
Laurel hoped the men were getting along. At first, it was quiet, and then they began to talk about guy kinds of things—hunting, fishing, boating, camping.
The women talked about all kinds of things—babies, the hotel and the sisters’ plans for it, like renovating the basement and turning the maids’ quarters into more rooms.
Laurel paused while carving the ham and turned to face her aunt. “Aunt Clarinda, you never told Mom about your mate or that you had three sons.”
Her aunt shook her head. “It was a whirlwind romance and mating. But he was a brutal man. I tried to run away twice, and he caught me and beat me for it. At that point, I was pregnant and afraid I’d lose my babies. So I ‘behaved.’ When I gave him three adorable little boys, I thought he’d be happy with me.” She snorted.
“It didn’t work that way. I learned later, too late, that he’d had an abusive father. Not toward him, but toward his mother. He wouldn’t let me get in touch with your mother. I sent a letter, and then that postcard was the second time I’d been able to send her a note. I was so happy with Warren, but…”
Laurel set down the carving knife and fork and gave her aunt a hug. “We’re so glad you’re alive and well and part of the family again.”
“You don’t know how glad I am.”
Ellie asked, “Do you know anything about the stencil-type letter on the wall in the main lobby area of the hotel?”
“That’s Chrissy’s doing. She was a maid who died from a raging fever, and she still hangs around the place. She created a beautiful quilt with the letter C on it, and I thought her talents were wasted on working as a maid at the hotel.”
“We saw it in one of the pictures,” Meghan said.
“It was beautiful, wasn’t it? Chrissy’s harmless. But sometimes people can see her peering out the attic window after she’s cleaned the room, wishing for a mate and a different life,” Aunt Clarinda said.
“That’s so sad,” Ellie said.
“She seems content,” Aunt Clarinda said. “She just flips the light on and off every once in a while.”
Laurel exchanged glances with her sisters.
Ellie smiled. “So, it’s not an electrical short in the light switch.”
Laurel wondered if Chrissy was the woman that Carol, the psychic, had seen peering out the window during the grand opening, and not a premonition of someone else staying in the attic room.
“The painting was moved from the hotel to the house,” Laurel said.
“No ghost did that. My son Stanton said he moved it.”
“Why?” Laurel asked.
“Trying to scare you into believing the ghosts haunting the hotel had a lot of power. The same thing with painting the X on the ceiling and moving the paint and ladders. They had planned to do a ghost show that showed how terribly haunted the place was if they couldn’t find a way to get the hotel legally. But then you stopped them by denying permission.”
“How do you know all this?” Ellie asked.
“CJ told me all that had been going on, and I asked Stanton. He told me what they had been doing. But he said it was because he really believed the hotel belonged to his family—and at the time, he didn’t know that you were family. The boys never knew my maiden name. John hated my first name, so he called me Claire instead of Clarinda. So I could see why they wouldn’t make the connection. And they had no idea that I was alive.”
“What about Elroy, the cabinetmaker?” Laurel asked.
“I felt so bad about him. He was a good man, but I was already mated and I couldn’t tell him the truth. Elroy thought Warren didn’t think he was good enough for his sister. I just couldn’t let him know. His son was so upset with me, knowing his father loved me, and I really cared for the son, but everyone’s life that I touched would have been in danger if John Wernicke had learned the truth. It was heartbreaking for me, yet I could do nothing about it. After his father died, Jacob learned who I was, but he never said anything because what did it matter at that point? I was gone, and so was everyone else involved in the affair—John, Sheridan, Elroy, and Warren.”
“Who replaced the deadfall? You thought the murderer had done it to hide the body,” Laurel said.
“Whoever killed Warren at first. When another animal fell through, Jacob told me he did it. He was afraid his father had killed Warren, and he wanted to keep the pit covered up.”
“Who really killed Warren?” Laurel asked.
“I suspect John did. When I talked to my sons, we tried to piece together the sequence of events. Their father disappeared for a while, and they learned he had gone to see Warren and said he had reconciled with him. He didn’t. I saw John arrive in front of the hotel, and Warren told me to leave. So I did. When I returned, Warren was gone. Vanished. I took over the hotel, but the rest is as I said. Sheridan threatened to tell John I was running the hotel. I had to abandon the place and start over. But I never once stopped looking for Warren.”
“I wish you could have told the pack about your abusive mate,” Laurel said.
“I wish we could have had some resolution as well.” Clarinda came over and gave each of her nieces a hug. “But in the end, this is all that matters.”
Chapter 24
Everyone had such a wonderful time, Laurel vowed they’d do it again next year.
Once everyone had said good night and left, she was ready to slip into bed with her wolf. She wondered what he had gotten for her for Christmas. She had wrapped presents and placed them under the tree for him, but he hadn’t put one gift under the tree for her.
She hoped he hadn’t forgotten and ordered them too late. Despite knowing she should be in the Christmas spirit, she felt like withholding his gifts until hers arrived. “Tell Jake, if he’s agreeable, that we’d love to hang one of his beautiful photos of the Rocky Mountains on the wall where the letter C was. Ellie told me the letter is back.”
CJ shook his head as he turned out the downstairs lights and followed her up to bed. “I’ll tell Jake that you’d love to showcase one of his photos. He’ll be pleased. I have a question. You hired only men outside the pack to work on the place. Later, we learned it was because you were worried that one of the pack members might be guilty of your aunt’s disappearance. But why did you hire Jacob then?”
“He gave us such a great bargain on his electrical work, after we had gotten other estimates, that we just couldn’t hire anyone else.”
“Ah, okay.”
“And we still have to schedule our special dinner for winning the snowman competition.”
“A couple of days after Christmas?”
“Okay.”
“I saw Stanton slip a present to you. What was it?”
Laurel chuckled. “The first season of their ghost busters show.”
CJ laughed and pulled the covers back. “And your aunt?”
“A year’s subscription to a chocolates box-of-the-month club. She really is devious. She knows that will never be enough, so she’ll get me into the shop to see her more often. And buy. She also gifted the highboy and the blanket chest to my sisters to keep in the house where Clarinda had loved Warren.”
“I’m glad you have her in your life again.”
“Me too. She was so pleased to have her locket b
ack with the picture of her and my mother in it.”
“How had she lost it?”
“She said it had disappeared when she went to run as a wolf. When I told her that Sheridan had it, she said it figured. He probably planned to use it as evidence to prove to John she was there, if she didn’t pay up.” Laurel began stripping out of her clothes. “Hmm, talking about sweets and subscriptions, and not having enough…”
As soon as CJ was naked and had climbed onto the mattress, waiting for her, she tackled him. She wasn’t sure why she felt compelled to launch an assault. Maybe because of the lack of Christmas presents for her under the tree. Or maybe because he’d beat her to it the last two nights and tackled her first.
He laughed as she took charge, licking and nibbling on his taut nipples, rubbing her naked body against his, arousing him fully. She ran her hand over his cock and said, “This is the only thing I ever want to come between us.”
His grin couldn’t have stretched any further.
Her hair dangled about his head as she leaned down to kiss his mouth, his hands cupping her breasts, massaging. Her knees speared the mattress on either side of his waist as she deepened the kiss.
One of his hands pulled her closer. Not expecting what came next, she was startled a bit when he moved his hand between her knees and started to stroke at the apex of her thighs. Straddling him made her feel more exposed, the craving for completion greater. With a hand on her thigh, he continued to stroke her. She arched back and gave into his fondling, coming unglued, ready to howl at the moon. To her shock, she was so close, so hot and wet and ready, that when he plunged two fingers into her, she screamed with release.
He quickly re-situated her on his cock, pushing in, penetrating deep, then guided her as she rode him hard. He smelled like musky, male wolf: her wolf, her mate, powerful, hot, and lovable. She couldn’t have chosen a better mate for herself, and she loved him with all her heart.
“Beautiful,” he said on a groan, and she didn’t know if he meant she was or this was, but it didn’t matter.
He was beautiful to her.