A SEAL Wolf Christmas (13 page)

Nathan’s ears tinged red, but he smiled, and Bjornolf was glad that Nathan heard him praise him. Especially after what had occurred yesterday over the running-to-Portland situation.

“What about the two of you? Can you handle it?”

“He might have to stay at your house at night if he wants to get some sleep,” Bjornolf said.

Nathan quickly shook his head, frowning.

“Forget it. He says no. We’ll get him some earplugs.”

Hunter laughed. Then he got serious again. “Finn discovered that both of the dead men had been working with the DEA. I’m wondering if these agents were investigating someone at the tree farm. What if they learned that the guy was dealing, but before they could report it, the agents were murdered?”

“Or,” Bjornolf said, not liking a different scenario, “what if they couldn’t report it?”

“Meaning the drug dealers were wolves?”

“Yeah. Only they didn’t know you had a pack here and could have helped them out.”

“Sounds like a possibility. It’s not like there’s a map of where
lupus
garou
settlements exist in the States and beyond.”

“What about the Wentworths? Any lead on them?”

“They’ve returned home. Rourke’s headed to their one-and-a-half-million-dollar estate located next to Forest Park in Portland to do an interview on their harrowing adventure. We’re hoping he might learn something.”

“Wentworth?” Nathan asked, climbing down the ladder to move it again.

Bjornolf looked up at him as he climbed back up the ladder. “You know a Wentworth?”

“Everton, the guy who owns the tree farm, has a half brother named William Wentworth.”

“He wouldn’t happen to be ‘the Third,’ would he?” Bjornolf asked.

“Uh, yeah. Everton says it in a sarcastic way as if the dude thinks he’s really cool cuz he’s the Third. I don’t think he likes his half brother at all. Not that I’m really surprised. When Everton was off delivering some trees to customers a couple of days ago, William dropped by to see Jessica’s mom, Dottie. He acted really friendly. Gave her a big hug and kissed her.

“They didn’t realize I was in the back of the shop hanging some fresh Christmas wreaths. When he saw me, he quickly moved away from her and gave me a look that could kill. I just figured the guy was being nice to her because they were related—by marriage. But after the look he gave me, I wondered if something more was going on.”

Bjornolf relayed the message to Hunter.

“We’ll check into it,” Hunter said. “Anything else?”

“Yeah, one other thing struck me as odd. When Anna and I were out investigating the tree farm the night before last, a man named Everton caught us and asked for our ID. I just thought it strange that anyone would be on guard duty watching over a tree farm late at night.”

“Everton?” Nathan asked, pausing to hook up the next section of lights.

Bjornolf was getting a bad feeling about this as he studied Nathan’s frown.

Nathan said, “He never guards the place. At night, he’s always watching sports on TV in the basement. I know because I’ve sneaked in to see Jessica and her dad never knew it.”

What was Everton doing wandering around the tree farm at night if he didn’t normally do so?

“So what happened at the tree farm, exactly?” Nathan asked, sounding alarmed.

Bjornolf told him about the man who had caught Anna trespassing and how she’d used Nathan and his faux watch as an alibi.

“Where were
you
when Jessica’s father was hassling Anna?” Nathan sounded like he was about to take Bjornolf on for not protecting her.

Bjornolf fought smiling. The kid was cute. “I was there.” Not that Bjornolf had to explain himself to Nathan, but he wanted to. “He asked for an ID and Anna said she wasn’t changing her name to mine.”

Nathan’s eyes widened. “Will she now?”

Bjornolf snorted. “We don’t actually get married on paper.”

“Oh. Yeah.” Nathan hung up another section of lights, then climbed down the ladder to move it again. He climbed back up and then turned to Bjornolf. “When was the first time you had sex with a human girl?”

Hell.
Bjornolf stopped unraveling strands of lights and looked up at Nathan. “This isn’t about that Jessica Everton girl, is it?”

Nathan frowned, turned, and continued to hang lights off the house.

Not
good.
“How old is she?” Bjornolf asked. He hadn’t expected to have
these
kinds of talks with the kid.

“She’s seventeen. Like me. But we can do it with human girls because as wolves we can’t get them pregnant.”

Bjornolf frowned at him. “Most of the time, no.”

Nathan’s jaw dropped.

“It happens occasionally. Haven’t you ever heard Tessa’s story?”

“She was mated to Hunter before she got pregnant.”

“Her mother was the byproduct of her human grandmother and her werewolf grandfather’s union.”

Nathan stared at Bjornolf for a moment. “Oh.” Then he began hanging the lights again.

“It’s rare, but still risky.”

Nathan turned. “But Tessa wasn’t one of us. Hunter had to bite her.”

“Yes, but that’s not the point, is it? Her mother’s mother became pregnant.
That’s
the point. Further, we usually have multiple births so all of a sudden you wouldn’t have one child but possibly several.”

Nathan was quiet for a long time. Then he said meekly, as if he was afraid that Bjornolf would tell him that his thoughts on that subject were also urban legend, “We can’t get STDs from humans.”

“You’re right. Still, Jessica’s underage and jailbait.”

Nathan sighed. “You’re not going to tell me about the first time you had sex with a human?”

“You know how long we live, Nathan.” Bjornolf was sure Nathan’s father hadn’t talked to him about his own sex life before he mated Nathan’s mother. He wasn’t sure what the protocol was here. Bjornolf’s father certainly never talked to him about the birds and the bees.

“Yeah, I know once you reach puberty, you age only one in thirty years.”

“So it’s been a very long time.”

Nathan’s eyes widened. “You don’t remember?”

Bjornolf frowned at him. “Of course I remember.”

“Well?”

“She was sixteen.”

“Sixteen? That’s worse than me.”

“You’ve already done it with Jessica?” Bjornolf shouldn’t have sounded so astounded, but he had guessed the kid was trying to sound him out, to see if Bjornolf thought it was acceptable.
Before
he did it.

Nathan turned and hung another strand of the lights. “I shouldn’t have. I guess. Do you think Anna knows?”

Bjornolf was surprised Nathan would worry about what Anna thought. Then he recalled how she’d lectured him about not getting involved with a human girl. Which made him wonder when Anna had been involved with a human boy for the first time. That thought made his gut clench. It shouldn’t matter what she’d done so long ago, now that she was his.

Bjornolf shook his head. “I don’t know if Anna guessed or not.”

“She didn’t like it that I was seeing Jessica,” Nathan said morosely.

“If we have sex with a wolf-shifter, it’s for life,” Bjornolf warned, thinking that’s maybe why Nathan tore off to see Sarah. “So for years we seek… companionship with humans until we find a worthwhile mate. Don’t go having sex with Sarah unless she’s truly the one you want to be with forever, or you’ll both be stuck with each other for a very long time. No divorce for mated wolves.”

“Which means it’s okay to be with Jessica for now.”

“No,” Anna said, shoving the door open with her hip. She walked across the snow-covered grass, carrying a tray of hot, buttery crescent rolls and mugs of cocoa topped with mounds of whipped cream.

Nathan turned a little red as he eyed her.

“I brought you some breakfast. Not much, just something quick to snack on while you work.”

“You cook?” Nathan said, sounding surprised and at the same time glad as he climbed down the ladder to snatch a roll and a mug of cocoa.

“Don’t
ever
let Hunter and the SEAL team know. They think a woman should do all the cooking on missions. They tease me about it, but it’s not all bantering. I let them know otherwise.”

“Your secret’s safe with me.” Nathan scarfed down two more rolls.

“Thanks, Anna.” Bjornolf grabbed a couple before Nathan ate them all and helped himself to the other mug of cocoa. He’d fixed cocoa and rolls tons of times for himself before, but something about Anna preparing them made the food and drink taste even better.

“Yeah, thanks,” Nathan managed to say before he took another bite of his roll, concentrating on devouring them.

“Don’t worry,” she said to Nathan in a teasing tone. “I’ll feed you again.” She glanced up at the house, and her expression softened as she spied the lights hanging near the roof. “The lights are nearly done. They look
great
. I can’t wait to see them tonight when it’s dark.”

“Yeah, it’ll look great,” Nathan said. “We’ll be going inside to work on the tree next. Okay?”

“Sounds good.” Anna smiled at them warmly, then headed back inside. She shut the door.

Nathan stared at the door and calculated when she might be well out of earshot. “I think she heard us talking. I mean, about most of it. Don’t you?”

“Yeah, I think she did.” Bjornolf could just imagine her questioning
him
about his encounter with the sixteen-year-old human girl next time they were alone. Or maybe not. She might not want to touch the subject because he was liable to ask her about
her
past misadventures.

“Jessica’s adopted,” Nathan finally said.

“She’s still human.” Bjornolf was finally getting that Nathan was
really
hung up on the human girl.

“She…” Nathan paused. “She smells like a wolf.”

Bjornolf didn’t say anything for a moment, trying to process that bit of information, then asked, “What do you mean exactly?”

Nathan shrugged. “She smells like a wolf. Like all of us do—part wolf, part human. I asked if she owned a pet wolf. She laughed at me. Of course she smells more human because her parents hug on her all of the time. Probably because she’s adopted.”

Bjornolf stared hard at the boy, not believing this.

Nathan sighed. “Tessa was the granddaughter of a wolf. Maybe Jessica is also.”

“She can’t shift then. If this is true.”

“She told me she believes in the paranormal. I thought she was hinting that she was a
lupus
garou
but that she was afraid to come out and say so.”

“You didn’t tell her about us, did you?” Bjornolf growled. Not that a human would believe Nathan, but still, they didn’t tell humans what they were.
Period.
Not unless they had to turn them.

“No. Of course not. Sure, I was hoping she was one of us. But why would humans have adopted and raised her? Why wouldn’t a wolf pack have taken her in?”

Maybe because her parents didn’t belong to a wolf pack. Bjornolf still couldn’t believe it. “Is she from here?”

Nathan shook his head. “She’s from Santa Fe, New Mexico, but she doesn’t know who her parents were. She’s searched, too.”

“So when she said she believed in the paranormal, what did she mean?”

Nathan sighed. “She meant ghosts. I wasn’t going to talk about
lupus
garous
until she did first. When she spoke of ghosts, I couldn’t hide my disappointment. Of course she thought I believed she was crazy for thinking they were real.”

“What did you say?” Bjornolf asked carefully.

Nathan frowned at him. “I didn’t say, ‘Hey, I’m a werewolf. Imagine that.’ I just said, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if other paranormal beings existed? Like werewolves.’”

“And?” Bjornolf prompted, not believing Nathan would risk saying anything.

“She told me that werewolves do exist. She said it so cheerily I thought she meant for real.” Nathan frowned. “‘In books,’ she said. Then I wondered if she was seeing some guy who was a wolf.” His hands tightened into fists. “Maybe he’d had his hands all over her. Maybe that’s why she smelled like a wolf.”

“You would have smelled the male wolf, Nathan,” Bjornolf said, seeing just how upset he was becoming. “You would have recognized his scent and known him. You didn’t, did you? Only smelled wolf on her? Like she was a wolf?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay. When was she adopted? What age?” Bjornolf still couldn’t believe it without checking the situation out himself.

“When she was a baby, she said. Before she even knew her birth parents.”

“You don’t know her birth name?”

“No. She doesn’t know it. Her parents don’t know it, either, or are keeping what it was from her, afraid she might try to find her birth parents.”

Bjornolf let out his breath. “Anna and I are going to need to meet this friend of yours as soon as we can.”

Hell, if Nathan had sex with her and she turned out to be one of them, he was essentially mated to her for life.

***

Anna had been stunned to hear Nathan speaking to Bjornolf about sex and human girls. But Nathan obviously needed a parental sounding board, so she didn’t want to stifle him. She cleaned up the kitchen, unable to quit thinking about the trouble Nathan could be in.

She went out back and cut some lower branches off a few fir trees to use on the mantel, taking in great breaths of the chilly air, thinking about how Tessa and Hunter had met each other in these very same cabins.

Bjornolf was right about Tessa. It was really rare that a
lupus
garou
could get a human pregnant, but all it took was one mistake like that. From what she’d seen of Nathan, he was responsible at working a job and had been great about decorating for Christmas, but raising multiple babies at once? She was sure he wasn’t ready for
that
.

Why hadn’t the boy’s father discussed the subject with him?

Not that her parents had ever done so with her. Which had gotten her into a lot of trouble.

After a short while, Nathan and Bjornolf came inside where the cabin was fragrant and warm. Anna loved the piney smell of the greenery she’d used to trim the mantel.

Nathan touched Anna’s arm, breaking into her thoughts as he delighted in showing her all the decorations he’d bought. He demonstrated how to put them on the tree to make sure that the silver, gold, blue, and purple balls were placed evenly around it. “You can get the branches lower on the tree while Bjornolf and I can get the ones higher.”

She shook her head. “I’m not
that
short. Besides, the bottom of the tree needs more ornaments than the top.”

Nathan took the hint. “Uh, yeah, right. I’ll help you with the lower branches.”

“I’m impressed with your selection of decorations,” she said, genuinely feeling so, though she was having a really difficult time not worrying about Jessica now that they suspected she might be a wolf. Jessica needed to be with their wolf kind, if she was one of them. She needed to learn how to live like they did. The problem was that they couldn’t just take her away from her adoptive parents.

Then a new worry plagued her. How long ago and how many times had Nathan had sex with Jessica? Was she pregnant? As a human, that was one thing. But as a werewolf?

What a nightmare.

“I’m impressed, too,” Bjornolf said, kissing Anna on the cheek, but being careful not to be overly affectionate with her in front of Nathan. Bjornolf hooked a silver ball near the top.

“Nathan said that the man who owns the tree farm, Everton, is a half brother of William Wentworth III.”

Her jaw dropping, Anna stared at Bjornolf. “That’s too much of a coincidence.”

“I agree. Hunter said the two murdered men were DEA.”

“DEA.” She thought about that for a moment, pausing to place a purple ball midway up the tree. “Remember, Wentworth has a big pharmaceutical company. Twenty-five percent of drugs come from tropical plants and trees in the Amazon. When we were given the assignment to extract him and his family, I wondered if there was a connection. I did a little research. His company discovered one of the anti-cancer drugs that was extracted from periwinkle and other rainforest plants. One of the drugs has greatly increased the survival rate for acute leukemia patients. So his company is doing a good job.

“But what if legal drugs are only part of his business?” she continued. “The legit side. What if he hooked up with one of the Colombian cartels to access the illegal kind, too? Or to distribute them here, using his cover of making legitimate drugs? Making lots more money at it. No expensive research. Just grow the stuff and distribute it and collect the dough, tax-free. Because of his other connection, no one would even suspect he’d have other kinds of dealings down there.”

Bjornolf nodded. “Very possible. No one would ever know, except for maybe two wolf agents with the DEA who suspected the truth.”

“Why would they have been at the Christmas tree farm, then?”

She knew Nathan was listening to them. Normally, she wouldn’t have talked shop in front of someone who wasn’t on the investigative team. In Nathan’s case, he seemed to have inside knowledge. The only drawback was if Everton was involved, Nathan might feel a need to warn Jessica.