Seal Wolf Hunting (9781402293832) (6 page)

“We could paint a couple of pink palm trees on the accent wall. The green flamingos probably would disappear in that color of paint.”

“I couldn't draw a straight line if I tried. What about you?”

“That and singing, no can do.”

He looked over Emma's to-do list while the paint manager was mixing the paint. “Emma wants a new sofa and chairs?”

“Yeah, the old ones were recycled castoffs from forty years ago, so it looks like she really wants to spruce up the place.”

“The furniture store is closed by now,” he said. He hadn't expected to be picking out furniture too.

“Which is fine. Tomorrow, we can paint, then return to town after lunch and find something that might work nicely for the living room.”

“Okay, sounds good.”

When they finished picking out the paint supplies, she asked, “Would beef ribs, parmesan noodles, and turnip greens be all right tomorrow for lunch? Chicken wings for dinner?”

“I'd love it.”

She eyed the list. “I don't know. It looks like it might take longer to do all this. Well, I can finish up whatever she wants done that we don't complete by tomorrow.”

“I'll stay however long it takes.”

Lori glanced up at him. “She didn't pay for that much time.”

It sounded like he was a bought man. “I'm willing to stay longer and help Emma with whatever she needs done. So we'll need lunch for Sunday. How about salmon steaks? We probably won't need dinner.”

Her mouth parted and he was reminded of just how kissable it was. “Um, okay. Breakfast? Forget it. I know what you like. I'll meet you up at the cabin in a little while.” She gave him a spare key to the place.

He was going to ask if she needed any help, but he didn't want to make her feel crowded. “Okay, good show. Meet you there. I've got to drop by the Rappaports' place to get my bag.” Then he carried the paint out to his SUV and headed to the cabin. He'd decided that this wasn't going to be a bad deal at all. He tended to be a workaholic, totally mission-oriented, so he'd work until everything was done. But what he wouldn't give to have some playtime with Lori—swimming, maybe running as wolves. He'd just have to play it by ear.

When he arrived at the cabin, Allan wasn't there. Paul carried the painting of Lori into his bedroom. When he had a chance, he'd hang it where he could enjoy it most.

He called Allan to let him know his schedule. “Hey, are you doing the job you were auctioned to do tonight?”

“No, I'll be going to Martha's ranch tomorrow. I'm out with one of the ladies who bid on me but didn't win. So I'm buying her dinner. Consolation prize.”

Paul laughed. “I'm going to be staying the weekend. Emma has a list as long as Santa Claus's. The jobs will take a couple of days, at the very least.” He grabbed his bag, got into his car, and headed over to the lakeside cabin.

“Do you need me to help with anything after I've done my work at Martha's place?”

“Nah. I've got it.”

Silence followed, but before Paul could ask if he was still there, Allan said, “Is Lori going to be staying with you for the weekend?”

The tone of Allan's voice said he believed more than work would be going on at the cabin.

“Yeah, to make sure I get everything done right.”

“Uh-huh.”

Paul chuckled. “What about you? Will you be okay by yourself?”

“With you not around, yeah. I've got another date tomorrow night. I sure like these bachelor auctions.”

Paul laughed. “Okay, see you later then.”

“Out here.”

Paul took the long road around the blue-green lake, noticing that the warm breeze had made the water choppy. The lake was thirty miles long and sixteen miles wide, so getting around it was a bit of a drive. When he reached Lori and Emma's log cabin, he got out of his car and paused to enjoy the hilly woods and the view of the lake and mountains off in the distance. He took in a deep breath and first noticed the smell of pine trees, followed by Lori and Rose's scents, though they had been left awhile ago. None of Emma's, though; she must not have been there for quite some time. He also smelled Dusty and Howard Cooper's scents, which irked him right away. What had
they
been doing here?

Had Catherine suspected something about it? Paul hoped that neither of the ranch hands thought they had a chance with Lori or Rose. He reminded himself that what the women did with their time was up to them, but the thought of the ranch hands still bothered him. Particularly after he'd seen the way Dusty behaved toward the woman at the grocery store that morning. Paul didn't like the idea that any other wolf had his paws on Lori or that these men had designs on Rose.

He hauled the paint supplies and his bag of clothes up the wooden steps of the deck to the main entrance and set them down. The sun would set over the lake in another hour and a half, and he was going to enjoy it. He hoped Lori would make it to the cabin in time to watch the sunset with him.

He unlocked the door and grabbed the can of paint, the bag of supplies, and his clothes bag. As soon as he stepped inside, he immediately took a deep breath and smelled the scents in the living room. Both of the Cooper brothers had been in the cabin. He growled a little under his breath. Then again, if the men had given the ladies any trouble, they would have said something to him. Wouldn't they have?

Before Lori arrived, Paul dumped his bag in the green bedroom closest to hers. Then he moved the sagging sofa and matching sagging chairs away from the one wall they would paint. The rest of the walls were paneled in dark, reddish wood. Though the color was beautiful, he could see why Lori wanted something brighter on the accent wall that surrounded the white stone fireplace. He began taping the edges of the wood so they wouldn't get paint on it. When Lori drove up, he went outside to help her carry the groceries up the steps.

“The Cooper brothers were here,” he said, as if she didn't know it, and as soon as he said it, he realized he sounded accusatory.

He couldn't help it. She and Rose didn't have a pack to watch out for them. Packs served a purpose—in the wild, as protection for their members, and for
lupus
garous
, to keep them safe from humans
and
from other wolves.

Still, the annoyed look Lori gave him made him think that if she'd had that broom in her hand, she would have bashed him with it again.

“Don't look at me like that, Paul,” Lori growled, setting the groceries on the counter. “Like Rose and I committed the crime of the century. The brothers wanted to visit us and go swimming in the lake. And
why
am I explaining myself to you? I don't owe you any explanation!” It was her decision, her mistake, but hers to deal with. And she'd dealt with it. Not fully to her satisfaction, but the best she could have at the moment.

Paul eyed her warily. “You asked
them
to go swimming with you? And you smack
me
in the head with a broom?”

It did sound kind of funny. Lucky for him, he said it with a teasing light in his eyes, or she would have been totally pissed off.

“
They
were invited to the cabin.
You
weren't expected at Catherine's house. What would you do if you were talking to the guys, just having a normal conversation, and I snuck into the house wearing all black clothes and black face paint, carrying a gun, and suddenly appeared out of the dark in a totally alarming way?”

He smiled, albeit a little evilly. “I wouldn't have hesitated to tackle you, take you down to the floor, disarm you, and…well, no telling what else.”

Kissed her, she was certain after what happened the last time. She still couldn't believe she'd caught him so off guard and taken him down instead. Then again, he probably hadn't even considered she might do that to him. Now she was thinking of how it would have been if the roles were reversed, and yeah, she could see him doing it too.

“I know martial arts.” As if that would have prevented him from getting the upper hand. Though at that point, she'd had no plan to spar with him, instead deciding to just enjoy the sensual moment.

“Yeah, you do a good job at it. So I might have had a bit of a struggle when I tackled you, but in the end…” He shrugged and grinned so roguishly that she fought smiling back.

She was still irritated with his attitude about the Cooper brothers having been there. Rose and she had their reason. She would have told him why, if he hadn't badgered her so about it.

“Did Emma know you allowed the ranch hands to come here?”

Lori's jaw dropped. She couldn't believe Paul's gall. “I can bring anyone here that I like. My grandma hasn't visited the place in over a year. She doesn't care what I do as long as I take care of things.”

Paul snorted. “I can guarantee she wouldn't like you and Rose having those wolves up here. And neither would Catherine or Allan.”

“Or
you
, apparently.” She hastily put the groceries away. “They just came up here to swim and visit for a while.”

“Right. The way they were strutting onstage, they would have wanted more than that from two pretty wolves.”

She paused, appreciating the compliment, even though he was annoying her with the conversation. She didn't remember ever hearing him call her or Rose pretty. “Maybe they did, but we didn't have anything else in mind. Besides, if we had wanted to do something else with them, that would have been
our
business. Not
yours
. And if you go sniffing around the place looking for their scents in the bedrooms, you can walk right out the door. I'll paint and do whatever needs to be done on Grandma's list without you.”

She was right and he knew it.

Paul leaned against the wall, folded his arms, and watched her put the rest of the food away. “You can't tell me that they didn't want more. And that not getting anything more, they weren't ticked off. I saw the way they acted when Dusty was in the grocery store this morning trying to sweet-talk a woman into going out with him. She said no, and he didn't like it.”

“
Noth…thing happened. All right? Give it a rest
.”

At least nothing life-threatening, though the Coopers were lucky Paul and Allan hadn't witnessed it. They would have been in serious trouble with a couple of hotheaded SEAL wolves. It all had to do with their wolf nature. Even a really loose-knit pack would treat this as a pack matter. Just as his parents would have done when he and Allan were young.

Lori closed the fridge door and turned to frown at Paul, letting him know that she wasn't going to put up with anything related to the business with the brothers.

Paul couldn't help feeling wired and aggressive about this. He swore Lori was trying to hide her feelings from him, but he could smell that she was upset. He was certain the men had given the ladies a hard time about not getting more than just a swimming excursion at the lake.

If nothing had happened, why would she be so ticked off at him?

When she was done putting away the groceries, she changed the subject. “I know it's getting late, but before the sun sets, do you want to pick huckleberries? This is the perfect time to harvest them, and I bought the ingredients we can use to make jam. I'd normally gather the berries earlier in the day, but I want to have the jam ready for breakfast.”

“Hell, yeah. Now would be the perfect time. I haven't had fresh huckleberry jam in years. We can make it tonight so we have all day tomorrow to work on the projects.” He remembered countless times as a boy when he'd picked the berries for his mother to make into jam, or just ate the berries straight off the bushes when running around in the woods with Allan.

“We only get you for a few hours,” she reminded him.

“About that…” He took two of the pails she had retrieved from a closet. “I'm willing to stay here long enough to get everything done that Emma wants taken care of. I'm fine with it.” More than fine with it. He realized that this was the first occasion he'd had to spend any real time with Lori without other pack members' involvement. “Allan and I will get together after I put in some work here. He's got dates tonight and tomorrow night anyway, so he might even need the extra time to have the place to himself.”

She raised a brow at Paul as they headed outside and began to walk through the woods.

Paul shrugged. “The auction was good for him. He got lots of attention.”

“Too bad you didn't luck out with some dates too.” She sounded serious and even a tad concerned that he might have that in mind for the rest of the time they were here.

“Hell, why would I want to date anyone when I'm having so much fun here?”

She rolled her eyes at Paul. He laughed. He never dated humans here. He wouldn't when he was
way
more interested in a wolf named Lori.

“I imagine he won't mind helping me finish up when we're here scuba diving at the end of our vacation,” Paul said, “if we don't get everything done before that.”

“Scuba diving,” she said as they sauntered down the path through the woods.

He wondered if Emma hadn't mentioned it to her. “Yeah. It's not going to be a problem, is it? We don't have to stay here if you have other plans.” That immediately made him think of Lori and Rose having other guys up there.

“No, no, uh, I was wondering…” She shook her head as she led him into a clearing and pointed to a group of huckleberry bushes with clusters of black berries that looked like blueberries hanging off the branches among the bright green leaves.

He started picking the berries but paused when she didn't say anything further. He glanced at her. “What?”

She shrugged. “I…lost something in the lake. Way out past the dock in the deeper water. Without scuba gear, I couldn't reach it even if I could see where it went.”

“What was it?”

“A gold necklace.”

He glanced at her bare neck. He hadn't realized she wasn't wearing the gold chain that held a hand-carved turquoise hawk. Except for when she ran as a wolf, she never removed it. “The one with your animal guide?” he asked, verifying it was the same one he was thinking about, since he hadn't seen her in the last two years.

“Yes.”

The hawk was her spirit guide. She was the intuitive one, victorious, which he attributed to her having saved her grandma's life when the wolves attacked and decimated their pack. Lori was the messenger, the healer of the group, the guardian. He swore she could remember anything that had happened over the years much better than he could, so the hawk suited her. She was usually the one to convey messages from Emma and Catherine to Allan and Paul when they were off with the SEAL team. He suspected that was why Catherine had wanted Lori to tell him and Allan about the auction.

He continued to pick berries while she also was filling her bucket.

As to Paul's animal guide? Lori swore his was the cougar, which meant Paul was a born leader—loyal, courageous, willing to take responsibility when things went bad, and always had the foresight to get them out of messes before they got into them. The notion that a big cat served as his animal guide, one that normally would love to kill him if they met in the woods, didn't seem quite right. Though he'd had a couple of encounters with cougars that could have killed him and didn't. Paul had to admit he had led the others of his pack out of several troubling situations over the years, even when he was still young. He just seemed to have the natural instinct to perceive danger and steer the remaining pack members in the right direction.

Though he still thought Lori had said his guide was the cougar because she wanted him to take charge of the pack, even when they were small. He thought she'd used that as a way to try to heal him when he had lost his parents. But how could he have taken charge of the pack when he'd been so young? Certainly the grown women hadn't needed him to provide leadership. And not even Lori or Rose had needed it for many years.

Lori moved to a bush farther away, picking huckleberries and dropping them into her bucket as he pondered how she could have lost the necklace, as much as she treasured it.

“So the chain broke?”

“No.” She moved even farther away from him although there were still plenty of berries on that bush. Wolves were wary creatures. And actions like that got their notice.

He started to pull off berries from the bush she'd just left and smelled the anxious scent she'd left behind. That didn't bode well. “You were swimming when it happened?” He couldn't fathom how the necklace could have floated off her head if the chain hadn't broken.

Wolves normally didn't wear jewelry of any kind because it was problematic if they had to shift outside rather than at home, where their valuables would remain more secure. But the necklace was special to her.

She cast him an annoyed look. “Yes. If you can find it, I'd be grateful. But I'll understand if you can't.”

She picked more berries, but he was studying her now, noticing her irritated expression and the way she was no longer pulling the berries off leisurely but yanking them off a little harder than necessary.

“The clasp came undone?”

“No.” She acted irritated that he'd asked her so many questions about it, but since she wasn't forthcoming, he suspected something bad had happened.

He wondered just how far the jewelry might be buried underneath the sediment. They hadn't come home since March, and she hadn't said anything to him about it then. Then again, she had conveniently been gone when he came home the last time. But it had to have happened more recently, when the water was warm enough to swim in. “When did you lose it?”

At first, she hesitated to say. Then she finally let out her breath and said, “Last week.”

Good. He was glad it hadn't been long ago. He would have a better chance of finding it. If she'd been roughhousing in the water with Rose, that was one thing. Basing his assumption on the strength of their scents, last week would be about when the Cooper brothers were at the cabin. And then swimming in the lake with the women? Had one of them yanked off her necklace? Had she been struggling to get away from him?

Paul ground his teeth and quit picking berries again, eyeing her. He really shouldn't ask, but it bothered him that she was so reluctant to tell him the details. He couldn't see how she could have just…lost it. He suspected that whoever Lori had been with hadn't liked that she put the brakes on with him.

Lori stopped picking berries and gave him the evil eye. “
Quit
analyzing everything I'm saying. I just need my necklace back, if you can find it. That's all.”

He scowled right back at her. “If I learn that Dusty or Howard yanked your necklace off in a fit of rage—”

“What? You're going to kick his ass?”

“Hell, yeah.” He meant it too. He wasn't about to let any man think he could treat Lori or Rose in an aggressive manner and get away with it. What might he do when Paul and Allan left again?

She took a deep breath, shook her head, and swung her attention back to the bush.

“So what happened?”

“Nothing that I couldn't handle. Don't keep asking because I'm not saying. It's over and done with.”

“Except that your necklace is at the bottom of the lake.” That pissed Paul off. Even if the necklace hadn't meant much to her, it would matter. How it got there was what bothered him most. But the necklace
was
important to her.

She again turned away from Paul and continued to look for huckleberries on a new bush farther away.

He let his breath out in exasperation. “It was Dusty, wasn't it?”

She glanced over her shoulder at Paul. He was ready to wring the guy's thick neck. Or take a good bite out of him.

“He immediately regretted what he did. All right? The way he limped out of here, I'm sure he was on some heavy-duty painkiller for a couple of days. We came to an understanding. He's not about to hassle me any further.”

Damn it! Paul knew it. But he had forgotten about her martial-arts training. Even so, he didn't want the guy to think he could get away with what he had done. Or that Lori didn't have someone who'd take him to task for it.