Nathan said, “I’ll make her glad she agreed to the mission.”

Bjornolf had no idea what Nathan had in mind, but he was pleased the boy seemed in such high spirits. “We might need to work at it. Got to get back to her. See you in a bit.”

Before he left the beach to join Anna, he called a friend. “I need you to check into something for me. An Anna Johnson. I need you to dig deep and see what you can learn about any traumatic experience she might have had around Christmastime.”

“She’s a wolf?” Reid asked.

“Yeah.”

“How far back?”

“No clue.”

“You always give me the hard cases.”

“That’s because I know you’ll always come through for me.”

“Okay, I’ll look into it and see what I can find.”

“Thanks, I owe you several.” Bjornolf headed up the steps to the cottage, hoping his friend wouldn’t find something concerning Anna that would be better left buried.

Once Bjornolf and Anna were settled in the Land Rover and on their way to the tree farm, he cast another glance her way, loving the charcoal-gray pants she wore, along with sexy, heeled, dark gray boots, a white fleece jacket, and a pale gray turtleneck. She looked so soft and cuddly in the fleece that he wanted to wrap her in his arms. He reminded himself she was also packing a weapon somewhere beneath that jacket.

To get his mind off how huggable she looked, he asked, “Have you ever been to a Christmas tree farm?”

“No.” She folded her arms across her chest.

“Never?” He was unable to hide the surprise in his voice. What was it with her and Christmas?

“No.”

“Then you bought them in a parking lot?”

“No.” This time she sounded annoyed.

He sighed. “Artificial tree, then.” He was surprised. Most wolves he knew bought a real tree. It was the one time during the year when they could bring the outdoors inside.

“No. You?” she finally asked, as if she was tired of the conversation and didn’t want to speak of it any further.

He couldn’t believe she’d never had a tree. “Trees in the woods to begin with. Much later… tree farms. One year we bought one from a parking lot, but it wasn’t half as fun seeing the trees lying there, dying. That was the year before my parents… died.”

“I’m sorry about your parents,” she murmured.

“I’m sorry that yours are gone, too. That’s probably why neither of us has bothered with the holidays for some time. No family to share them with.”

She glanced at him. He gave her a small smile. He was attempting to dig for information. She gave him just as small a smile back. She wasn’t taking the bait.

“Hunter told Nathan he wanted him off the job. Immediately. Nathan insisted that he stay because it was the only way he’d consider staying with the pack. He wants to feel useful. I suspect the owner’s daughter has something to do with his wanting to work there as well,” Bjornolf said.

Anna shook her head. “She’s human. I can just imagine the mess he could get into with a human girl if he thought he was falling in love.”

“Right. Hunter didn’t mention it to you, but Nathan wanted you and me to protect him while we learned about the tree-farm deaths.”

“Why would Nathan want me to help? I understand him wanting you—but with me, he doesn’t even know me.”

“He’s heard of your exploits on the last mission here.”

“What exploits?”

Bjornolf shrugged. “I have no idea what rumors were spread in the pack about your mission when you were protecting Meara.”

“Nathan better not have heard about you tying me up in the hotel room and think he’ll get to see a repeat performance firsthand.” She closed her eyes and groaned. “That’s probably exactly what he’d heard about.”

Bjornolf chuckled. “Hell, if I have to have a mate, I want someone like you who can take anyone down.”

She fought smiling at him, but she wasn’t successful.

“You really never had a tree?” he asked, not liking that she’d missed out.

She shrugged and looked out the window. “First time for everything, I guess.” Then she considered him again. “Don’t expect me to do anything with it.”

“You mean decorate it? Nathan and I’ll set it in water and all.” He hadn’t thought a whole lot about what went on the tree. He hadn’t helped decorate one in years.

Anna didn’t say anything.

“We’ll figure out something. We don’t have any stored ornaments from last year like we would if this had been for real. We’ll have to go shopping for some.”

“Actually, you should take Tessa. If you have a fight over an ornament with another customer, Tessa will win the confrontation with a growl.”

“She nearly gave Hunter heart failure. He thought she was ready to strip and shift. I’d rather go with you. You’re a known commodity.”

She cocked a brow at that.

“As far as the shifting part goes. The rest of you I’m still trying to figure out.”

“Shopping is not my thing.”

“Now there’s a woman after my own heart.”

***

When they arrived at the tree farm, Bjornolf drove into the parking lot next to a building all lit up with white twinkling lights and a green and red sign that said “Everton’s Christmas Tree Farm and Gift Shop.” Five other vehicles were parked out front, making it look like business was fairly good.

Nathan shoved the gift-shop door open and hurried out to greet them. Bjornolf swore the teen had grown another inch or two since the last time he’d seen him, his hair blond and naturally curly. He wore a heavy navy wool sweater, blue jeans, and hiking boots. Bjornolf got out of the car while Anna hesitated.

Nathan was watching Anna, looking hopeful. She pushed open her car door and Nathan rushed forward. She’d barely stood before the tall, lanky kid enveloped her in a heart-warming bear hug and said, “Aunt Anna, I’m so glad you’re here.”

Bjornolf closed his gaping mouth and waited for the explosion. Instead, Anna gave Nathan a hug back and whispered, “Are we being watched?”

Nathan grinned, and that wasn’t faked at all. Neither was his exuberant hug, Bjornolf noted, and he wondered if the kid had a crush on Anna.

“Uncle Bjornolf.” Nathan shook his hand, then took hold of Anna’s hand as if he was afraid she was ready to flee. From the expression on her face, she looked like that’s what she had in mind. “Let’s go inside and we can have a cup of hot chocolate first. All the customers are treated to that. I made you both some ham sandwiches so you could eat out in the woods when you go to pick out our tree.”

Bjornolf thought Nathan was going to hand Anna over to him, but instead he walked between them, keeping a firm grip on Anna’s hand. Her cheeks actually turned a little rosy.

He smiled at Nathan, following along with the game for now. He decided the kid was sure good at playing people.

“Did you want me to cut the tree down for you? Or do you want to do it?” Nathan asked.

Anna was looking over her shoulder at the tree farm, taking a deep breath. Bjornolf was also trying to smell any odor of decay.

“Maybe you can show us where the best trees are,” she suggested.

“Oh absolutely! I hope you want a big tree. They’re the coolest.”

Anna cleared her throat.

Bjornolf figured she wanted one that was as little as possible. Something small enough that it wouldn’t take long to decorate, take up too much room, or be noticeable. “As tall as we can fit into the cottage, Nathan,” he said. “We have to make sure we can put a star on top.”

“Angel,” Anna said, contradicting him.

Bjornolf stared at her, then smiled a little. “Yeah, an angel.”

“Angel. I like that.” Nathan led them inside the shop where the smell of coffee and hot chocolate, cinnamon and spices scented the air and a fire burned in a cheery fireplace. Christmas wreaths were hung up all over the gift shop.

“You can see red deer, elk, red-tailed hawks, squirrels, and tons of birds in the trees out there,” Nathan said, pouring Anna a mug of hot chocolate.

Anna sipped the chocolate slowly, and Bjornolf indicated that he wanted a mug, too.

“If you’ll show us where the best trees are,” Bjornolf said, drinking the chocolate, then putting the empty mug down on the table, “we’ll be good to go.”

Nathan took Anna’s hand again, and she glanced at Bjornolf. He raised his brows, not sure what to do.

Nathan seemed to miss the interaction—either that or he was ignoring the looks they’d given each other—and started giving his sales pitch as they walked outside. “We’ve got noble fir, Nordmann’s fir, grand fir, Fraser fir, Scotch pine, white pine, and blue spruce trees either left wild or moderately trimmed.”

“What do you think, honey?” Bjornolf asked, drawing close to her free side and wrapping his arm around her shoulders.

Nathan grinned at Bjornolf but did not release Anna’s hand.

“It’s up to the two of you,” Anna said. “How many acres of trees do they have here?”

“Five hundred,” Nathan said.

“How did you find… what you found?” Anna asked, being careful since customers were shopping for trees somewhere in the vicinity.

“I was looking over the tree farm with Jessica—she’s the owners’ daughter. We were working way out there, and we smelled a hint of something dead.”

“Hunter told me she’s human,” Anna said.

“Yeah, but anyone can smell dead stuff when the odor is so strong. It’s just that only we can tell what died if there’s no sign of a body.”

Anna and Bjornolf kept smelling the air, but all he could get were strong whiffs of the pine and fir trees.