A Silver Wolf Christmas

“I’m sure it would be an imposition—”

  “No imposition at all,” Darien said.

  “All right. As long as it doesn’t take too long,” she said.

  “If it does, one of the men can take you back to your place.”

  “Okay, thanks.”

  When Darien left, CJ climbed out of the backseat of the truck and sat in the driver’s seat.

  Laurel moved up front too. “That was…awkward.” She fastened her seat belt. “I felt like a teenager caught kissing a guy in front of the pack leader. Not that we didn’t already kiss in front of a few people at the ski resort, but it’s…different.”

  CJ chuckled. “I’m sure Darien’s used to it.”

  “He’s used to you kissing she-wolves in your truck?”

  CJ laughed. “No. Other pack members getting caught at it. His brothers. My brothers.”

  “Tom and Elizabeth on the slopes?”

  “Yeah. That was the talk of the pack.”

  “So what do you think Darien will say to the men?”

  “He’ll tell them again not to use any more hunter’s spray. And no hassling you or your sisters about the hotel. He’ll probably ask about their connection to the previous owners.”

  “Maybe I should sit in on the meeting.” Laurel looked out the window as they drove to Darien’s home.

  “We can ask Darien when we get there.” Considering how much Darien and Lelandi wanted the women to remain in the pack, CJ knew Darien would agree to just about anything where they were concerned.

  Chapter 8

  When they arrived at Darien and Lelandi’s house, the two-story home was all lit up with Christmas lights and looking festive in its woodland setting. All it needed was a couple of wolves sitting on the front porch to make it perfect.

  Laurel took a deep breath. “It’s beautiful.”

  “It is. They have big celebrations on the back acreage every season of the year. Since the pack has grown, they have a building now for events, parties, and pack business if the weather is inclement. But for this, we’ll just meet in the conference room. If it was just four or five of us, we’d meet in Darien’s office. But there’ll be more than that.”

  “Who else will be there?”

  “Sheriff Peter Jorgenson, Deputy Trevor Osgood, and Darien’s brothers, Jake and Tom. Me, because I’m a deputy sheriff.”

  “And you’re watching over the situation at the hotel.” She leaned over and gave him another kiss on the lips.

  He was about to lean in for more, but she turned away when she saw Lelandi coming outside to greet them. Laurel smiled. “Almost got caught—again.”

  CJ just laughed. He was definitely kissing her good night when he dropped her off at her place later.

  Lelandi welcomed Laurel as they headed inside.

  Glad the two women seemed to get along, CJ said to Laurel, “I’ll ask about you sitting in on the meeting.”

  “No, that’s okay.” Laurel smiled. “I’d rather visit with Lelandi.”

  Right then and there, CJ felt something change between them. As if this meant she was considering staying for good and wanted to become friends with Lelandi. At least he was hopeful.

  Heading into the conference room, CJ felt lighthearted about the way things were going with Laurel. Normally he would have felt somewhat annoyed that the pack had to deal with lupus garous who were bound to give them trouble. Only Darien and Jake were in the room. Everyone else was still on their way.

  “How did they act when you met up with them?” CJ asked and took a seat at the long conference table.

  Darien poured himself a cup of coffee, then sat down at the head of the table. “They were growly. Belligerent. They didn’t like being taken to task. But if they’re going to stay here, they’ll have to get used to pack rules. Or they’ll have to leave the area. Since they never shifted, just nodded in agreement, I can’t say any more than that about their behavior.”

  Jake took a seat. “Do you want me involved in this?”

  “As sub-leader, you need to know what’s going on. Same with Tom. So just keep your eyes and ears open. If you learn anything about them, let me know.”

  Tom arrived then and smiled at CJ. “I hear Laurel’s with you. And that you had fun on the slopes today with her.”

  CJ figured that when Darien called the meeting, he’d told Tom about CJ and Laurel running together. And apparently Tom had already heard about their kiss. CJ said, “She wanted private ski lessons.”

  Tom’s smile broadened. “Hell, is that what they’re calling them these days?”

  Everyone chuckled.

  “Where is she?” Tom asked.

  “She’s visiting with Lelandi.”

  Tom’s lighthearted expression said he was glad CJ was making progress with Laurel. It was the first time that Laurel, or either of her sisters, had visited with Lelandi.

  Laurel was too unpredictable for him to believe he was really making progress with her. It would take a while before she changed her mind for certain about staying, if she was even interested. He still felt something other than the desire to join the pack had brought her and her sisters to Silver Town.

  Trevor and Peter arrived after that. Then they waited for the Wernicke brothers to show, but by the time an hour had passed, they still hadn’t.

  Darien never liked to be kept waiting when he’d summoned lupus garous—for good reason. It was a sign of disrespect, unless they had a good excuse. Of course, everyone had talked about other subjects, and at one point, Lelandi and Laurel had peeked in to see if the men had arrived yet and then gone back to visiting.

  Darien tapped his fingers on the table. He was a patient man, but this business with the Wernicke brothers was already wearing thin with him. CJ knew the feeling.

  * * *

  Laurel had wondered why CJ and the others were taking so long to speak with the Wernicke brothers. When Lelandi saw how much the delay was bothering Laurel, she had taken her to the conference room. Laurel loved that the pack leader was so attuned to watching out for a pack member. Maybe some of it had to do with Lelandi’s psychology training.

  Laurel could tell Darien wasn’t happy about the delay. He was tapping his fingers on the table, and the smile he offered her and Lelandi was strained. Laurel didn’t blame him one bit.

  She was somewhat apprehensive about visiting much with Lelandi because the pack leader was a psychologist. Laurel was afraid she was analyzing her every word and action. On the other hand, Laurel thought she might learn something important from Lelandi.

  “I hope you know how much you and your sisters being here means to us.” Lelandi took a sip of her Black Forest cocoa. It had chocolate sprinkled on top to form a Christmas tree in a reindeer-decorated mug. Laurel wanted to replicate the cocoa for her own guests when the hotel was open.

  “At one time, Sheriff Sheridan Silver suggested we tear down the hotel because it was an eyesore. As it continued to deteriorate, it would be a hazard to anyone sneaking inside, despite it being boarded up. You know how it is when places are put off-limits.”

  “Right. Some want to see what’s in the forbidden place.”

  “Exactly. And the word had spread that the place was haunted. Many wanted to see if it truly was. Including Darien and his brothers and cousins. But no one who has been in there has been injured. The consensus was that the building was part of our heritage—like the tavern and Bertha and John Hastings’s bed and breakfast. Those buildings were some of the first and are still standing proud.”

  “I so agree. I love old buildings. And I love restoring them to their former grandeur.”

  “Which you have done.”

  “Thanks.” Laurel smiled. Lelandi wasn’t just trying to convince her they wanted her to stay with the pack; she truly did love what they had done with the hotel.

  Though Laurel had asked CJ why no one had bought the hotel before this, she wondered if Lelandi knew of a different reason. “Do you know why it was abandoned for so long?”

&nb
sp; “Oh, it was a boardinghouse for years before it was a hotel. Miners, drifters, a couple of women with no family stayed there. Then the silver mine closed and the drifters moved along. Eventually, it was remodeled and opened as the Silver Town Inn.”

  “What about the Wernicke brother and sister who ran the hotel? Didn’t he vanish, and his sister disappeared after that?”

  “Darien’s having the sheriff and Trevor look into it. Since CJ is watching over the hotel and these men for now, he really can’t do it. Darien didn’t know anything about the disappearances. Or maybe he heard something in passing years ago, but his father would have been the pack leader back then so he would have dealt with it. I didn’t live here at the time. So I don’t have a clue.”

  That’s what Laurel had thought. She’d already crossed Lelandi’s name off the list of suspects.

  They heard a commotion in the other part of the house and then some conversation that she couldn’t quite make out, but it sounded like the Wernicke brothers had finally arrived. She really did want to sit in on the conversation, but Lelandi said, “So how did you hear about the hotel? And why did you decide to buy this particular one when there must be hundreds of listings of other hotel properties available all over the States? It’s not advertised as a wolf-run resort and town, so we know it wasn’t for that reason. We don’t recall that you passed through here before. So it wasn’t that you knew about us for that reason either.”

  Laurel never thought the conversation would end up going in this direction. And she really didn’t want to keep up the charade with the pack leaders. If they were involved in a crime, so be it. If they weren’t, she was certain now that they’d want to learn the truth and handle it.

  “Our aunt was staying at the hotel and then she…vanished.”

  * * *

  As soon as the Wernicke brothers took seats at the conference table, not explaining why they were so late, Darien came straight to the point. “Are you related to the previous hotel owners—Warren and Charity Wernicke?”

  “They were our aunt and uncle on our father’s side,” Stanton said. CJ assumed he was the one in charge of his brothers.

  Looking pack-leader stern, Darien sat up a little taller. “I see. So what is your purpose here? I don’t believe it’s to schedule a ghost-buster’s TV show. Even if you had planned to, Laurel MacTire has said no to giving you permission. So why stay?”

  “We’re here to learn who murdered Uncle Warren and Aunt Charity,” Stanton said, his eyes just as hard.

  “They disappeared without a trace. No one knows what happened to them,” Darien said. “My father was pack leader at the time. But now that the issue has been brought up again, I’m starting a fresh investigation. So again, I ask what your purpose is in coming here. To search for clues? Why do you suspect they met with foul play? And why come now, of all times?”

  CJ imagined that the men were here to either seek revenge or to lay claim to the property. But like Darien, he wondered why now, after all these years?

  “Someone made them disappear. Our father, Warren and Charity’s triplet brother, said that someone in your pack murdered them.”

  The Silver brothers and cousins all stared at Stanton as if he had accused each of them personally.

  Darien calmly said, “I see. And when did he tell you this?”

  “A couple of weeks ago. Right before he died.”

  Way too convenient, to CJ’s thinking. Darien’s brow arched, and Jake and Tom smiled a little.

  Stanton ignored their reactions and continued. “But our dear dad clasped my hand and begged me to learn the truth.”

  CJ considered the other brothers’ expressions. They were keeping straight faces, looking somber for the occasion.

  “Why did he wait so long in telling you this?” CJ asked before Darien had a chance. He knew it wasn’t the proper protocol. Darien was the pack leader and he was asking the questions. But the words just slipped out before CJ could stop them. Hell.

  Stanton switched his attention to CJ. “He and Warren had a falling-out some years ago. Dad wanted to make amends with him. They did, but then they were busy with their own lives and didn’t speak for a number of years. He didn’t know the man’s name, but Dad said Warren had trouble with one of the members of the pack.”

  Darien folded his arms. “So you don’t have anything to really back up your claim.”

  “Dad was dying and then we had to clear up his estate. But he mentioned that Warren had been seeing a woman, another man was involved, and both were with your pack. Then Warren ended up missing, presumed dead. Their sister disappeared shortly after that. Dad thought she probably learned the truth about what happened. We’ve been busy with a current TV production and couldn’t get away until now. Then we learned that someone had bought the hotel that rightfully belonged to our family and renovated it. When we heard it was the MacTires, we wanted to see what they knew about our aunt and uncle’s disappearances.”

  Darien opened his mouth to speak, but CJ frowned, irritated to hell with the lies Stanton was telling, since he couldn’t back any of it up, and asked, “Why would Laurel and her sisters know anything about your aunt and uncle when they only moved in six months ago?”

  “Their aunt was at the root of all the trouble.” Stanton folded his arms across his chest. “She was the woman who caused the disagreement between Warren and another male in your pack.”

  His brothers both nodded.

  “What aunt?” CJ asked, getting a sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach. This was why Laurel and her sisters had been so hesitant to socialize with the pack before now. They believed one of the pack members had also made their aunt disappear.

  Stanton snorted. “So they didn’t tell you that they’re looking into the disappearance of their aunt? Did you think they truly cared about the old hotel?”

  Yeah, CJ knew they did. “Like you do? They renovate old hotels and make them profitable. That’s their business.” He couldn’t help but defend the sisters. They’d proved that they knew what they were doing in that regard. Their aunt was another story, and he wanted to hear from Laurel herself what that was all about. If she and her sisters were looking into the disappearance of their aunt, he would do everything he could to learn the truth and help them find closure. The same as the rest of the pack would.

  “So I ask you again what you’re doing here,” Darien said, finally taking over the discussion again. “Are you seeking to learn what happened to your aunt and uncle, or were you hoping to take over the hotel?”

  Stanton sat back in his chair and smiled a little. His brothers were watching him, waiting for his response.

  CJ was certain they had discussed the matter among themselves and knew just what their brother had planned to say.

  “I hadn’t even considered that Silver Town Inn might rightfully be ours, at first.”

  CJ didn’t believe the man for a moment. “So you wait until the MacTire women renovate the hotel, then step in and claim it’s yours? You can’t. We had to pay the taxes on it. The pack owned it until they sold it to the MacTire women.”

  “I suppose we would have to pay them fair compensation for fixing up the place. But we never authorized their work on the hotel, so I’m not sure something like that would be legally binding. We might have just decided to tear it down and rebuild.”

  Darien shook his head. “You’re missing the point. The hotel isn’t yours to claim. If the MacTires hadn’t already bought it, you might have been able to buy it, but we have town ordinances against building anything new that doesn’t fit in with the look and feel of the historical district. The hotel is part of our heritage,” Darien said. Which meant he wouldn’t approve anything else they designed, and everyone in the pack would vote Darien’s way.

  “Your heritage? And that includes murder.” Stanton arched his brows.

  “Inconclusive. If you have some evidence, I’d love to see it.”

  “In good faith, we would be willing to pay for some material co
st—within reason,” Stanton said, referring to the hotel again.

  “You would have to prove you are indeed related to the brother and sister, and that the property had been left to your father,” Darien said. “And that you have a receipt for paying the taxes on the property for all those years.”

  CJ smiled a little.

  Stanton narrowed his eyes at Darien. “So you’re trying to say we’re not entitled? Hell.” Then he straightened a little under Darien’s scrutiny. “One or more of your pack members had to do with their disappearances. We’ll prove it, and that the property belongs to us. I’m sure we can find tax receipts for the property.”

  “As long as you don’t break any laws or create problems for our pack members, you’re welcome to try,” Darien said.

  But CJ was certain Stanton would attempt to cause trouble for them.

  “What I don’t understand is how your father, who was estranged from his brother, would know that Warren was seeing a woman in our pack and having trouble with a male pack member over it,” Darien said.

  “They talked right before he disappeared.”

  “Here? Your father came to see him here?”

  “I don’t know for sure.”

  “And your father’s name?” Darien asked.

  “John Wernicke.”

  “Okay, and you’re from…?”

  “Raleigh, North Carolina.”

  “And your dad died there two weeks ago?”

  Trevor was taking notes, CJ realized.

  “Correct.”

  “Now that we know why you’re here, more or less,” CJ said, “you don’t still want to stay at the hotel, do you? I’m certain the management will refund your money and you can go about your business.”

  “Of course we want to stay there,” Stanton said. “It’s a shame we have to pay for the rooms when we by rights should be the real owners of the hotel—but we’ll remedy that soon. If that’s all, gentlemen, we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow. Oh, and do we have your permission to run as wolves where your pack runs? We don’t want to be chased down again as if we were common criminals.” Stanton tilted his chin up a bit.