Darien nodded grimly. “And we still have CJ’s brothers to find. Since you and Tom agreed to go with Bjornolf and Anna, that’ll make one team. Peter will head up another. He’s taking Randolph and Kemp and somebody else, whoever he decides on. Trevor will be in charge of a third. He’s taking Cantrell and Robert and someone else he chooses. Jake and I will have Sam and Silva on our team.”
“Will you be able to manage the two of them on the same team?” Tom asked. “They’ve been out of sorts with each other, even if there appears to be a truce between them for the moment.”
“Yeah,” Darien said, “just to ensure they don’t kill each other.” He took a deep breath. “So the two of you are really mated.”
Tom leaned over and kissed Elizabeth’s cheek. “Yeah. I had to beg her to mate with me.”
Elizabeth cocked a brow at Tom. “Don’t believe that. He told me we were mating sooner or later, so just plan for it.”
Darien and Jake smiled. “Welcome to the pack, Elizabeth,” they both said at the same time.
“Thank you. I have a home in Canyon, Texas, and a job there, though.” Not that she wanted to go back to it and abandon what she could have here, but she did have to settle things there.
“We’d love for you to start up our first newspaper here,” Darien said, jumping right in as if he was afraid he would lose both his brother and Elizabeth to Texas. “Lelandi said she’d love to do a weekly advice column on psychological issues. Silva wants to advertise her new Victorian tearoom. The new owners of the old Silver Town Inn want to, too. And Bertha said she’d pay to have her B and B included. Mason said he’d give tips on savings and financial investment tips. I could go on and on. Suffice it to say, everyone’s excited about it if you’d like to start up a paper.”
Elizabeth couldn’t believe it. Before she was even part of the pack, they’d been making plans to include her. “Thank you. I’d love to.”
“I was going to look for a house, come spring, but we’ll start right away,” Tom said, kissing her cheek. “I’ll return with you to Canyon to help you get your place ready to sell as soon as we can.” Tom asked Darien, “What are we eating tonight?”
Darien looked at Tom like he was crazy. Elizabeth also wondered why the interest in dinner. They’d just eaten lunch.
“I believe chicken is on the menu.”
“Chicken,” Tom said. “Do we have any steaks?”
Elizabeth smiled. “Chicken sounds great.”
“I promised you—” Tom said.
Elizabeth shook her head. She didn’t want them to hear the whole story of how she’d been taken hostage. “Chicken is fine.”
Darien and Jake still waited for an explanation.
Tom cleared his throat. “Elizabeth had bought some steaks at a butcher shop and—”
“It’s all right, really,” Elizabeth said, taking his hand and squeezing it. If she was going to be alone with Tom, sure, then she’d want steaks. But whatever his family had planned was fine with her.
“She lost them when they took her hostage,” Tom said, sounding angry now that they had kidnapped her. “I promised her when we reached your place, I’d fix her a steak.”
Darien and Jake grinned.
“Yeah, steaks. Yeah, that’s what really appeals to me,” Darien said. “You, Jake?”
“I’m always interested in a tender, juicy steak.”
Elizabeth felt her face flush with heat. “I was just a little angry that I’d paid for the steaks, good price, too, and…” She shrugged. “Lost them.”
“Whatever you’d like is fine with all of us. That’s about all I have to say about the tracking tomorrow. We’ll get together for dinner in a few hours, call it a night early, and leave before dawn,” Darien said.
Chapter 26
As soon as Darien ended the talk, Tom sequestered Elizabeth in his bedroom, and she knew they hadn’t come up here merely to take a wolfish nap.
She noted he didn’t have antique furniture like in her guest room. Everything was modern. A dark chocolate-brown padded headboard stretched halfway up the wall. A white duvet covered a king-sized bed, and a brown-satin padded bench sat at the foot of the bed. The covers were in disarray, half tossed over the bench and half on the floor.
“Restless night?” she asked.
“Woke really late and worried about you, then found you were MIA the next morning.”
“Ah.” She didn’t want to get into that again. She’d disappeared on him, and she guessed he’d left to look for the rogue wolves after that and didn’t have time to clean up.
Two large, matching armless chairs were situated one on either side of an entertainment center—wide-screen TV, computer, and stereo. A thick, plush brown carpet made her want to kick off her shoes and roll around on the floor because it looked so cushiony soft.
She toed off the slipper boots.
“Are you sure you trust Bjornolf?” Tom asked, closing the door behind them as she looked at the rest of his bedroom and saw one of the pictures she’d taken at the ski slopes framed and sitting on his dresser.
He cleared his throat. “Jake must have had the picture turned into a print. To remind me to chase you down.”
She chuckled. “I doubt you needed the reminder.”
“I didn’t.”
“As for Bjornolf, yeah, I’d trust him with my life. He’s a retired SEAL, you know. Anna works on ‘projects’ with him. I suspect both of them know lethal moves without even turning into a wolf.”
Tom laughed, turned on some soft instrumental music, then raised the volume.
“What’s so funny?”
Tom pulled off his snow boots, then joined Elizabeth and wrapped his arms around her back. He slowly danced to the music with her. “Peter thought his brother had been involved in illegal operations all this time. He said he caught the two of them sparring in the guest bedroom of his home. We all thought it was a case of mate abuse.”
She laughed. “I guess they were keeping in shape.”
“Speaking of keeping in shape…”
Elizabeth had never danced with a wolf before, and she loved Tom’s moves as he held her close, rubbing his body against hers and claiming her, just as she was claiming him back. “Great dancer.”