A SEAL in Wolf’s Clothing (2 page)

In her excitement, she rushed home to ready herself for her first guest’s arrival, exceeding the speed limit just a little on the winding road. But she had to be prepared.

Let’s see.
Snacks, drinks. Maybe dinner, even though it wasn’t part of the paid “meal plan.” But a light meal—she’d made the perfect homemade German potato salad, just in case—and conversation might go a long way toward quickly finding out as much as she could about each of her prospective guests.

What would be the best way to entertain the male arriving tonight? A midnight, moonlit swim? The Pacific Ocean in these parts was cold any time of the year, but she was up for anything a potential mate might enjoy trying. A moonlit stroll in the woods? A run in their wolf coats? Dinner on the patio with glasses of red or white wine, the moon and a sprinkling of stars glowing overhead?

Getting too cozy too early would be a mistake. She loved to run and she loved adventure, so curling up on the couch to watch a movie wasn’t what she had in mind. Later, sure. But she had to know he’d want to do fun, adventurous activities. Not just lie around watching TV while she cooked meals for him. If he also cooked, so much the better. And if he didn’t mind vacuuming? Even better.

Okay, that was getting a little too domesticated right off the bat. But she did hate vacuuming. And if he liked to vacuum, that would definitely work for her.

As soon as she reached the coast and her rustic redwood cabin, she parked and got out of the car. But something didn’t feel right. The blinds were still closed in the four windows facing the road, and the front door was shut like it should be. Everything seemed in order, but… she could have sworn one of the blinds in her bedroom had moved just a hair.

As wolves, well, part-time wolves anyway, she and her kind could see like wolves could. And catching a glimpse of movement that a human might not notice was one of the perks of being one of the wolf kind. Still, had it been her imagination? Maybe a trick of the pine branches dipping and rising in a graceful dance to the coastal wind’s tune and casting shadows across her bedroom window? As she watched the interplay of light and shadows, she thought that might be the case.

She sniffed the air and smelled the scent of pine trees; the salty, fishy ocean breeze; a hint of sour seaweed; and even the smell of an elk.
And
, she narrowed her eyes as she shifted her gaze to the north, a
cougar
. He wasn’t anywhere in sight, but she could smell him a few miles through the woods just the same. It was
their
territory. Not his.

But then she took another breath and frowned more deeply. Hell, a wolf had left his scent markings in the area. She sampled the air some more.
Male.
Had to be an alpha, or he wouldn’t have been so bold. Had to be a
lupus
garou
for the same reason. If it was the guy renting the cabin who was due to arrive soon and he’d gotten here early, she’d give him an earful. He was just a visitor unless she decided otherwise. And he had no business marking the territory with his own scent. Talk about having balls.

She looked quickly around. Where was he? There was no sign of a vehicle. No one sitting on the wicker settee on the front porch. No sign of a soul.

The scent markings warned her, though, that an alpha male was claiming this territory. She thought then he must still be running around in the woods in his wolf form.
Fine.
As soon as he showed up, she’d let him know in no uncertain terms what a mistake he was making.

Meara entered the main cabin that their uncle had given to her and Hunter. Now that her brother had moved into Tessa’s home further down the coast, this place was all Meara’s. But immediately she got a whiff of a male werewolf who had been
inside
her place. She stood stock still, lifted her nose, and sniffed the air with deeper purpose. A male wolf she didn’t recognize had been in her home.
No…
the scent seemed vaguely familiar, but… she frowned.
Finn
Emerson?

No, he wouldn’t be here when Hunter wasn’t.

She glanced around the room, listening more than anything, although she scanned the living area, neat as usual, magazines on the table all about fishing and hunting—the kind of stuff she thought guys might be interested in, although she liked the subjects, too. As a young girl, she had been much more interested in wilderness camping and hiking, playing tug-of-war with the guys, and wrestling with them, than in playing with dolls or shopping with the other females when she grew older.

The bookcase against the wall was filled with knickknacks, photos of the giant sequoia trees that reminded her of home, nature books, and her treasured werewolf romance books by Julia Wildthorn, but nothing appeared out of place. She could hear her heart beating spastically.

She wasn’t easily scared, but her innate wolf sense warned her to be wary. A wolf of a man had invited himself in when she was gone, and the door had been locked.

She swung around to look at the wolf door. He’d marked the territory and then let himself into her house in his wolf form?

Then she reconsidered. Sure, he would have left and returned as a wolf, but if he’d first arrived as a man, he most likely would have used a lockpick.

She thought she heard a couple of footfalls in her bedroom. Her eyes widened and her heartbeat quickened.
Great
. Her rifle was under the bed, easily retrieved if someone broke into her place when she was sleeping. But right now, it did her no good.

She backed toward the patio door that led to a small stone patio, the cliffside walk to a small beach below, and another walk that wrapped around to the front where her car was parked. Her plan was to make a quick getaway and call the pack for help.

But she backed right into someone solid who hadn’t been there seconds earlier. She screeched and jumped several feet away, whipping around in terror to see one hunk of a male specimen. He was definitely a wolf type, a virile, dark-haired man with almost-amber eyes tinged with green. From the way his casual clothes hugged his chest and biceps, he had a body worth taking a second and third look at. His hair was cut military short, and because of his rugged appearance and the way he had moved so stealthily, he reminded Meara of Hunter’s SEAL team members.

But he wasn’t anyone she knew. And he didn’t have the same scent as the other male wolf she’d smelled.

The stranger’s lips curved up slightly, capturing her attention.

“Hey,” he said in a deeply persuasive voice, putting his hands up to show he was unarmed. His wolfish gaze raked over her in an admiring manner that told her he was already interested in her. “Didn’t mean to startle you, but the sign outside said this was the office, and I’ve got a cabin reserved for a week. Unless I’ve got the wrong place. I’m Joe Matheson.” He lowered his hands slowly, as if to prove he wasn’t going to harm her, and stretched his right hand out to shake hers.

Even though she’d heard him say the words she’d wanted to hear and the notion was finally sinking in that he was supposed to be here and was the first of the male guests scheduled to arrive, she couldn’t shake the sudden chill she felt in her bones. Because?

She glanced back in the direction of her bedroom down the hall. She’d thought she heard footfalls in her bedroom. But now she imagined that had just been the sound of the ocean and the wind in the trees. After moving here from the redwoods in California, she didn’t think she’d ever get used to how the Oregon coast sounded.

Except…

She lifted her nose and smelled. The faint scent of another male wolf still lingered in the air. She didn’t think Finn Emerson would come here while Hunter was away and then
stay
, but she wondered: had he, and if so, why?

Meara couldn’t help feeling annoyed whenever Finn showed up, knowing he meant to convince Hunter to go on another dangerous mission with him. She wasn’t convinced that
he
was the wolf who had entered her home without permission earlier, but that didn’t matter. Any thought of Finn instantly made her hackles rise.

She looked down at Joe Matheson’s outstretched hand and then, not entirely free of her concern about the presence of another wolf, she offered her own. “Meara Greymere” she said, smiling. “I was expecting you. I was going to fix a drink and something to eat. Would you care to join me, Mr. Matheson? And then I can show you to your cabin.”

She wanted to ask her guest to accompany her down the hall to see who the intruder was, if he was still here and hadn’t climbed out her window, but she had to do it covertly without alerting him.

“Call me Joe, if you don’t mind. I’m on vacation. I don’t want to be a bother, but I flew in from North Carolina, and you know how they don’t feed you on many flights these days. Pretzels, if you’re lucky. And they don’t sustain a body for long.”

He gave her a sexy grin, and she thought about just how little the pretzels would do for a body like his.

“I’ll need to find a place to pick up some groceries for the rest of the week so, yeah, a meal would be nice. Thanks.”

She motioned to a seat at the bar but glanced around for a piece of paper and a pen to scribble a warning note about the possible intruder. “Any preference?”

“Anything you want to fix is fine with me.”

She pulled out a can of tuna to make a salad so that whoever might be hiding in her home would think she didn’t realize it. But as she stared at the can, she thought better of fixing a salad. Her brother hated them. This guy probably wouldn’t want to eat rabbit food, either.

“Steak? Chicken? Fish?” she asked, again looking around for something to write a note she could pass to Joe.

“Chicken,” he said.

She spied her notebook on the bar near the phone, but she remembered having taken notes on her prospective guests. She didn’t want to flip it open and worry Joe might catch sight of it. She couldn’t recall what she’d written about him, but she thought she’d said something about him sounding sexy. And he did. Even more so in person. But she didn’t want him knowing that.

Her groceries notepad was sitting on the coffee table, though. Before she could skirt the counter to get it, she saw Joe staring in the direction of the bedrooms. Had he heard someone also? She planned to make it sound as though she didn’t believe anyone was down the hall. Then when the intruder least expected it, she’d take Joe with her to investigate. But she didn’t want Joe to alert the man that they were on to his game, if he was there.

“Homemade potato salad to go with the baked chicken?” she asked, hoping he’d go for the potato salad since it was one of her favorite dishes that she made from an old family recipe.

He shifted his attention back to her. “Potato salad sounds pretty good.”

“So what do you do when you’re not on vacation?” She hoped she sounded subtle enough—she still was doing her mate investigation, despite whatever was going on down the hall—as she grabbed the notepaper and pen, shoved them in her jeans pocket, and returned to the kitchen.

“I’m a business consultant,” he said.

She seasoned the chicken thighs with lemon and pepper spice, set them in a baking dish, and started cooking them. Once the chicken was cooked, all she’d have to do was take out the glass bowl of potato salad, and the meal would be done. She’d sprinkled the potato salad with paprika to make it more visually appealing and because she loved the subtle, spicy taste.

Afterward, she pulled the pen and notepaper out of her pocket and scribbled a really quick note as she said, “Business consultant.”

That didn’t say a whole lot about him, but that’s all he had told her when he’d called to reserve the cabin.

He smiled and waved a hand at her notepad and pen. “Taking notes?”

She glanced up from her note writing and could have kicked him. How was she going to secretly slip him a note if he was going to tell the world what she was doing? “I just noticed I’m nearly out of baking potatoes so I’m adding them to my grocery list.” She hoped he hadn’t seen the bin full of potatoes and would say something about it, too.

She had tried not to sound peeved, but his lifted brow indicated he was amused by the terseness in her voice, and she wondered if he thought he’d guessed that what she was doing had nothing to do with writing a grocery list. Just a list of what she found appealing in him. She gave him an annoyed look. “Did you want something to drink? Wine? Beer?”

He shook his head. “Don’t drink anything hard.”

“Oh. Water? Tea? Soda?”

“I’ll have water.”

Before she could slide the note to Joe, he asked, “Is Hunter around?”

Her fingers stilled on top of the note on the counter, and she stared up at him. “You know Hunter?”

This was so not good. If he had been friends with Hunter, he’d surely tell her brother what she was up to. And Joe wouldn’t be a viable candidate for a mate. But she didn’t remember meeting him before. Why hadn’t she met him if he was a friend of Hunter’s?

“Sure. So… is he around?” Joe raised his dark brows in question. He had a hard, angular face, made more severe by his short-cropped hair. But his eyes and mouth gave her the impression that he was smiling covertly.

She felt uneasy. As if she suddenly had a spy in her midst. Someone who would reveal what she was up to before she could get away with it. On the other hand, if he didn’t know that Hunter was off on his honeymoon, maybe he hadn’t been in contact with her brother for a while. She’d forget making any moves on this guy, no matter how delicious he looked, send him to his cabin, and work on guest number two instead when he arrived the next day. She really didn’t want to get involved with one of Hunter’s friends. Who knew what Hunter had said to them about her behind her back?

“He’s off on his honeymoon with his mate, Tessa,” she said, nonchalantly.

“Oh. I didn’t realize he’d finally found a mate. So where’d they go?”

“Hawaii.”

“Hmm.”

Their kind normally didn’t bother with honeymoons. Joe had to think it odd, but she’d leave her brother to explain to his “friend” what made Hunter’s relationship with Tessa so different.

“And he left you alone? To manage the cabin resort?” Joe asked, his tone a little dark.

At first, she thought he was questioning her ability to manage the cabin resort by herself. And her hackles rose at that. But then she suddenly felt somewhat vulnerable, thinking that he’d meant she was here alone with no one to protect her from someone who might wish to do her harm.

“We have a pack,” she said firmly. “As I’m sure you know. Since you’re a friend.” The pack didn’t live that close by. What if this guy was bad news and another was in the bedroom or guest room right this very instant, or what if the two of them were in cahoots? “How do you know Hunter?”

“When your parents were pack leaders, Hunter and I went down to Mexico for about a month.”

“Oh.” She remembered that Hunter had left to get away from Dad, who had been quite authoritarian when he ruled the pack. But she didn’t remember Hunter saying anything about going with a friend. And her brother had never revealed exactly where he’d ended up, either. About that time, she’d moved in with a girlfriend in another pack to get away from her dad, too. She guessed that’s when it had been.
If
what this guy claimed was on the up and up.

But then she wondered why Joe hadn’t kept up with her brother. Why didn’t he know about her brother’s mate?

She filled a glass with ice and water, and handed it to Joe. “So what mischief did the two of you get into?” If he said something she didn’t believe, she’d recognize he was lying about knowing Hunter.

“If Hunter didn’t tell you, I’m
sure
not going to.” He winked at her with a silly smirk on his face, as if he hid a wealth of misdeeds that Hunter and he had gotten into when they were younger.

She believed that Hunter would have, too, but was that all just made up? Joe certainly hadn’t said anything that would alleviate her concerns. “You must have been out of touch with him for some time.”

“Years,” he admitted. “I had just planned to get away from work and go anywhere that a wolf could run for a bit, but when I saw your ad and…” He spread his hands as if expressing the sentiment:
What
else
is
there
to
say?
He was game to spend time with a female who was free. Maybe he was hoping Hunter was out of the picture so he could see her without her brother’s interference.

Her face warmed. Had she been so obvious about wanting to check out some alpha male prospects?

She’d have to ask Hunter about a friend named Joe as soon as she was able to reach him—about six hours from now—to see if Joe’s story checked out.

“What do you do out here for fun?” Joe asked, then took a swallow of water.

“Hike. A river is located in the area where you can go white-water rafting. Fishing. All kinds of outdoor stuff. Hunt, when it suits you.” She wasn’t about to mention a moonlight swim or a run through the woods with him now.

“And indoors?”

She couldn’t help smiling just a hint, seeing where this conversation was headed. He seemed interested in her, although if he was a friend of Hunter’s, that made her really wary. She motioned to her bookcase in the living area. “I’ve got a library of books, if you like to read.”

“Books,” he said under his breath, not looking all that interested.

“Books,” she repeated, serious now that he was supposed to be a friend of Hunter’s. Then figuring it was time to do something about the guy down the hall, she pushed the warning note to Joe about the possible intruder.

Watching carefully to see his reaction as he read the note, her hand shifted to the knife drawer in case this guy was also bad news.

***

Finn Emerson didn’t recognize the voice of the man Meara was entertaining in the kitchen, nor did he know the guy he was remotely viewing on his cell phone. He’d sent the image of the man in an email to his friends to see if any of them could identify him.

Hell, Finn couldn’t believe Hunter had left Meara alone to manage the cabin resort.

Just seeing Hunter’s sister set Finn’s heart racing. He wanted to say that was because he was concerned about her welfare, but he knew better. She was too damned enticing.

The sexy spitfire was bound to get herself into a hell of a lot of trouble if someone as capable as Hunter wasn’t here to watch over her—or at the very least, one of his sub-leaders, as long as neither of them had designs on her that Hunter didn’t approve of. But with a maniac on the loose, she was in even greater danger.

The guy talked about fishing and other mundane topics while Finn watched the two of them on the hidden camera, making sure the renter wasn’t about to try anything. But when she passed the note to Joe Matheson, Finn suspected she must have smelled his scent, recalling the way she’d tilted her chin up and taken a deep breath earlier.

Matheson had also sampled the air, and Finn didn’t think that was because of Meara’s fragrance, but because of the other male wolf in the cabin. When Joe read the note that she’d passed to him, the guy didn’t do anything but give a stiff nod and a small smile.

Matheson was definitely an alpha. Despite smelling another male wolf on the premises, he didn’t make his excuses and leave for his own cabin. Instead, he was standing his ground. Finn assumed Matheson would come for him soon. Ready for the confrontation, Finn smiled sardonically.

He hadn’t thought Meara would get home this soon, considering the distance her place was from the airport. She must have driven like the proverbial bat out of hell to get here in time to meet with Joe Matheson. And here Finn was, in the middle of bugging her room and home phone when she had arrived. Why the hell had she disclosed to the renter, whom she didn’t know, where Hunter was and that she was alone?

Even though she’d mentioned the pack, none of them were hanging around her place, visible enough to show anyone who might threaten her that she had backup. Finn wondered if Matheson truly had been a friend of Hunter’s. Finn’s instincts told him Joe Matheson wasn’t one of the bad guys, though. Except for making not-so-subtle moves on Meara.

Meara’s voice sounded smooth as satin and silky with seduction as she talked to Joe.
Hell.
Finn had planned on waiting until this Joe character went to his cabin, but at this rate, the rental guest wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. And when Matheson asked what they could do inside? Finn didn’t like it that the guy was making a play for her already—although Finn certainly couldn’t blame him. If the roles were reversed and he hadn’t had such close ties with Hunter and knew what trouble she could be, Finn would have been making the moves on Meara himself.

She tossed her hair back over her shoulders and spoke animatedly, while damn if Matheson wasn’t eating her actions up.

It was time to take charge of the situation—and Meara.

Finn closed the bedroom door without making a sound, then yanked off his clothes again, littering them all over the floor. Afterward, he mussed up the sheets and comforter, inhaling Meara’s appealing feminine scent. God, she was sexy, but under no circumstances did he want to tangle with her in that respect.

He figured the best way to get rid of the guy in the kitchen and protect her from the possible threat to her well-being was to lay claim to her—in a pretend way, of course. She and he had butted heads enough in the past when he and Hunter had returned from missions that he wasn’t going down that vine-twisted path. She was under the mistaken impression that
he
had always talked Hunter into another mission after they had left the Navy. But half the time, Hunter had sought
him
out to conduct another privately contracted undercover operation.

Finn headed into the bathroom, started the shower, and entered the glassed-in stall. He figured any scenario would work to his advantage as he quickly soaped up, using her vanilla-scented bath soap—wondering just how enticing it would smell on
her
skin—rinsed off, and grabbed a towel. The two of them had to have heard him taking a shower. Either she would send Joe in to investigate, or they’d both check him out. In any event, they’d find her lover waiting for her—in the bedroom, for better effect. If they didn’t investigate, he’d quickly remedy that.