“Yeah.” She sounded reluctant but acquiescent, the fight knocked out of her.

He led her down the hall toward the living room.

“It’s okay, dear,” Bertha said, looking like a sympathetic momma wolf as Elizabeth wiped her eyes.

Tom called his brother back, his hand resting on Elizabeth’s shoulder, wanting the contact to reassure her. “I’m bringing her up to the house.”

“I called Trevor and Peter to investigate the B and B. They’re on their way.”

“All right, Darien. Anything else you want me to do before we leave?”

“No, just bring her over. Carol arrived with Ryan to have dinner with us. She’ll provide some nursing care until we eat dinner, if Elizabeth needs it.”

“Thanks, Darien.” Tom ended the call and said to Bertha, “Trevor and Peter will be here shortly to investigate the break-in. Did you hear anything at all?”

“All my guests were at the slopes. I ran to the grocery store for fresh eggs, fruit, and milk for tomorrow’s breakfast, so they must have done it when I was out.”

“Is that a regular routine for you?” Tom asked.

“No.”

“Then someone must have been watching the B and B,” Elizabeth said.

“Why would someone target you?” Tom asked.

Elizabeth looked away from him. “My ID was in that drawer. I can’t fly home without it.”

She had purposely avoided answering his question, but she was under enough stress already so he didn’t press her. For now.

“We can take care of that for you when the time comes. We’re headed to Darien’s house,” Tom said, but he wasn’t leaving until Trevor or Peter arrived to ensure Bertha wasn’t at risk if the burglar or burglars returned. He peered out the picture window. “Deputy Trevor Osgood is pulling up now.”

Trevor was dark-haired, his brown eyes nearly black, his khaki police uniform perfectly pressed with a jacket hanging open over it. His Stetson shaded his eyes, giving him an even darker-tempered appearance. “What the hell’s going on now?” he asked Tom as he and Elizabeth emerged from the B and B. Trevor nodded in Elizabeth’s direction in greeting.

After helping Elizabeth into his truck, Tom gave Trevor a sketchy explanation of the situation. Peter could fill him in on the ski accident; Tom wanted to get Elizabeth settled at Darien’s place pronto.

“All right,” Trevor said. “I’ll do some preliminary investigating until Peter arrives.”

“Let us know if you discover anything important,” Tom said.

“I will.” Trevor headed for the B and B.

Tom drove them out of Silver Town to Darien and Lelandi’s home in the country. Tom still lived there, but because of Darien and Lelandi’s babies growing into toddlers, he planned to buy a place of his own this spring. He enjoyed helping with the toddlers so he hadn’t bothered looking before this, but Darien and Lelandi would need the additional room as the toddlers grew bigger.

“Did you have anything really important on your laptop? Finances?” Tom asked.

“It’s locked with a password. But if they’re hackers, I suppose they can get into it. No financial documents on it. Just some photos and news articles I’ve written. All are backed up in emails.”

“Good.” Tom couldn’t quit thinking of a million different scenarios. “Were you followed at the ski resort? Did you feel the men had been stalking you before they attacked you?”

He was certain now that the man who had shoved her had something to do with this. And her fall had been no accident. All this trouble for one woman in one day couldn’t be a coincidence.

“No. I don’t believe so. It all seemed to start when I got on the ski lift with the man. He glowered at me, acting as though he wanted me to turn away like a beta would. I wouldn’t. So I said, ‘Hi’ and asked him if he was from around here. Then he turned away, and that was that.”

“Was he a wolf?”

“I couldn’t smell him. The way the wind was blowing, he could smell me.”

“You thought you got pictures of both men?”

“Yes.”

“Maybe that’s why they targeted you.”

Elizabeth was silent for a moment.

“I didn’t smell the men who entered my room at the B and B, either. Did you?” she asked.

“No. No human smell, no wolf smell.” And that concerned Tom. What if these were the same strangers who’d stalked the farmers’ livestock, and they were now targeting guests in town? Or just one special guest. But why?

Chapter 10

While Tom drove them to Darien’s home, Elizabeth pulled her phone out of her backpack to call North. She had to tell him she wouldn’t be at Bertha’s B and B tonight. She paused. What if somehow North’s knowing where she stayed was the reason the burglars had broken into her room? What if they had seen her leave the B and B with Tom and had followed her to the resort?

What if they were working for her uncle?

She chewed on her lip. She hated all this second-guessing.

She called North’s number, and he picked up.

“Call you back later,” North said abruptly, then hung up on her.

She stared at the phone. The break-in might not have anything to do with North, but she sure didn’t like him not taking her call. Was her Uncle Quinton visiting North? Questioning him about her?

“Anything wrong?” Tom asked.

“Um, no.” She had told the truth. There might be nothing wrong. She shoved her phone back into her pack. At least she hoped that was the truth. She didn’t want Tom and his pack involved in this business with her and the red pack.

When they arrived at Darien and Lelandi’s two-story log home, Elizabeth guessed it had to be about ten thousand square feet, large enough to accommodate pack gatherings. Smoke curled from two chimneys. Snow piled on the windowsills and icicles dripping off the roof made the house look like a warm place to spend the winter season.

An unwanted feeling of sadness slid through her as she thought about not having a pack to belong to or someone to watch her back as she watched his or hers. She quickly quashed that notion. She’d been perfectly happy and much safer since she’d hightailed it out of the southeastern part of Colorado and settled in Texas.

Tom escorted her into the house, stopping only to remove the parka draped over her shoulders, and then led her into the living room where he introduced Lelandi. All smiles, she greeted Elizabeth, her hand outstretched. She was gentle, as if she was afraid Elizabeth would break. Elizabeth smelled that Lelandi was a red wolf who didn’t seem to have any animosity for her, despite the fact that Elizabeth was part coyote. That open-mindedness was so foreign to Elizabeth that she couldn’t fathom it.




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