Tessa hurried over to hug Anna. “Thank God it worked. Hunter’s been trying to figure out a way to get the two of you together since the last mission here on the Oregon coast.”

Anna and Bjornolf looked at Hunter. He smiled a little, then shook Bjornolf’s hand and gave Anna a hug. “I didn’t know that Meara had the same idea. That was why she sent Bjornolf to watch our backs in the Amazon.”

Bjornolf grinned. “I should have known.”

“This means the two of you are also going to be on the team for missions, right?” Hunter asked.

“Bjornolf told me only if it’s not too dangerous for him,” Anna said, smiling.

Bjornolf slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her tight. “She’s right.”

“Having well-seasoned wolves who could help us with pack issues and on covert missions, too? The scenario couldn’t be better,” Hunter said. “I was worried about Anna being alone, and now…” Hunter breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m glad for you, Anna. And glad for you, Bjornolf. I’m pleased you’re no longer a ghost. That you want to be part of the team. Not just on the outside looking in.” Hunter saluted them with a cup of wassail. “Welcome to the pack.”

***

When Bjornolf, Anna, Jessica, and Nathan arrived back at the house later that night, Jessica and Nathan wanted to talk to them about future living arrangements. Bjornolf wanted to take Anna to bed, but he knew this was important, too.

They all sat down on the couch, and Jessica started the conversation as they sipped eggnog. “We’ve been thinking. Nathan sold his house, and he’s got money so he could help with the cost. And I could sell the Christmas tree farm…”

“It’s not in your name—yet. Your adoptive parents claim it’s theirs,” Bjornolf warned.

Jessica’s eyes narrowed a little. “But we know it isn’t. It’s my parents’ house. And they’re dead.” Jessica spoke as if she was coming to grips with what had happened. That under all this other talk, she was hurting, angry, and wanted to settle things a bit. “I think I know where they’re buried.”

Anna should have been shocked at Jessica’s revelation, but she wasn’t. She guessed that Jessica was compartmentalizing things. Taking care of one major issue at a time. Jessica had been worried about being pregnant. Now she was concentrating on something else.

Her parents’ deaths.

Jessica loved the people who raised her, and she was struggling with giving them up, too. No teen should have to deal with issues like this.

“How do you know?” Anna asked.

“I started analyzing the sections of trees and the years they were planted. We have tons of records dating back some years before that. I was trying to match up when my parents might have been buried on the farm.”

“I’ve been pondering that same thing about the DEA agents,” Bjornolf said. “Hunter’s police officers are going to look into it.”

“What if your parents died in the Amazon, Jessica?” Anna asked, trying to be realistic. If they’d died there, no one would ever discover what had happened so long ago.

“Sure, I considered it.” Jessica folded her arms. “When I was little, maybe five or so, I was playing in the basement, and I smelled blood.”

“Your parents would have been gone about three years by then.”

“Yeah, I don’t know. I never really gave it any thought until later when I fell and split my forehead open. I was six at the time. Head wounds bleed a lot. The doctor couldn’t find the cut in my hairline so they couldn’t stitch it. I remember smelling all that blood. It reminded me of the blood I’d breathed in earlier in the basement.”

A wolf’s strong sense of smell.

“I don’t recall getting a whiff of any blood when we were in the basement,” Anna said.

“That’s my fault. I told my parents I smelled it on one side of the basement, opposite where the dartboard was. They said that I was imagining things, but they used bleach to clean it up. I could only smell bleach after that.”

“It’s not your fault, Jessica. Forensic scientists can still discover bloodstains using luminol, which reacts by turning fluorescent.”

Jessica nodded. She didn’t look happy about the situation, but she appeared resigned. If her adoptive parents had murdered her own parents, they’d lost the right to be her family.

“Where do you think they were buried?”

“Two different areas. Seedlings were just being planted. The other trees were too mature.”

Bjornolf had his cell out and was already calling Hunter. “We think we’ve got a possible location for Jessica’s parents’ bodies.”

Chapter 25

After Nathan and Jessica returned to the other pack member’s home where they were staying and Anna fell asleep, Bjornolf left the bedroom and went into the living room. He turned on his phone to check the order status on the clothes he had ordered for her. He smiled when he confirmed that they would arrive in time for Christmas. He couldn’t wait to see Anna’s face light up when she opened his presents. He would do anything to make her smile.

“What are you doing?” Anna asked as she walked into the living room, naked and mouthwatering.

He quickly turned off his phone. “Nothing. Did I wake you?”

“If you’re not doing anything, why don’t you come back to bed and do something?” she purred and slipped her hand around his arm. Her eyes took in his nakedness, giving his thickening cock a long, hungry look. She smiled as she gave her upper lip a little lick.

He couldn’t help but give her a cocky grin. His mate was insatiable. So was he. Muscles tensing and ready for action, he swept her up in his arms and carried her back to bed. He was just glad the earlier upset was over.

His feet were soundless on the thick carpeting. When he dropped her on the bed, she bounced and gave a little “oh.” As he joined her, he looked into her eyes, their gazes locking, and she teased, “So who were you texting? Old girlfriend?”

“Are you kidding? Mated to a she-wolf with lethal moves, I’d never be that foolish.” He raked her from head to toe with his gaze, and then he ran his hands over her feet. She gave him a look that was particularly devilish, as if she wanted to try her moves out on him right then. Instead, she waited to see what he was going to do next, hands behind her head.

He settled his cock against her nest of curls and lifted her legs around his waist. He ran his hands over her hips and waist, caressing her breasts while her smile broadened. He shrugged. “And these? A total distraction when I’m trying to take you down.”

He slid his hands over her silky arms. “You’re all I ever wanted in a woman in one heavenly package.”

“Hmm,” she said, her fingers sliding down his back and making him want to plunge into her. The moment he’d lifted her into his arms and carried her to the bed, he’d been ready.

He kissed her long and hard, their tongues tasting of cinnamon and oranges. He shifted his attention to that sweet spot that had her writhing beneath him and begging him to finish her off.

His cock was rock hard, throbbing with the need to find release, as her fingers dug into his shoulders. Every muscle in her body was toned to perfection as if she was meant just for him. For his pleasure. For his touch.

She smelled of she-wolf and peach shampoo, of sweet wassail and sex and desire. Her heart was racing to the moon, and her breath caught when he sensed she was close to climaxing. He pushed her over the edge by pressing his cock between her folds. She cried out, not needing to hide their lovemaking from the teens tonight.

He joined her, pressing hard and deep, surrounded by her hot, wet heat, as her muscles contracted with thrilling little ripples of climax. He told her he loved her and stretched her as he deepened the penetration.

Her fingers were all over him—clawing at his back and ass, pulling at his shoulders.

He wanted to hold on to the peak, wanted to make it last even if it killed him, but he couldn’t. He reminded himself that as needy as she was, they could do it again after a little bit.

And he let go.

“You’re so hot,” she murmured.

“Hell, you make me hot.”

Satiated, he pulled out of her, rolled onto his back, and moved her over to cuddle with him. No matter what happened, he would always love her.

***

The next day, several investigators gathered at the Christmas tree farm, searching for bodies. Yale, Hunter, Finn, Anna, and Bjornolf watched the proceedings as teams of men dug up the areas that most likely held the bodies of Jessica’s parents and the DEA agents who were murdered.

“Over here,” a man shouted, and they all moved to the area of freshly planted seedlings only a couple of weeks old. “Two bodies.”

The bodies hadn’t decomposed much. Bjornolf was able to ID the first man as Montoya Sanchez.

One of the men on the scene located an ID in the pocket of the other dead man. “Thomas Cremer,” he said.

“The missing DEA agents,” Yale confirmed.

A man hurried to speak with Yale and said, “Second dig site yielded the skeletal remains of a man and woman.”

“If the young girl will agree to it, we’ll get DNA samples and see if we have a match.”

***

After the day of excavating the bodies at the tree farm, Bjornolf got a text message from Nathan.

Can we see you tonight?

Bjornolf was afraid they’d already heard about the bodies being found. Then again, the feds might have contacted Jessica for DNA samples, so she probably knew.

He showed Anna the text message. “Invite them to dinner,” she said.

Come for dinner.

They were early, and Bjornolf suspected they were really worried about something. Everyone was quiet as they ate the spaghetti and meatballs he’d made from scratch. He half expected someone to bring up the weather—they were going to get a snowstorm—but no one even mentioned that.

They finally cleaned up the dishes and retired to the living room. Jessica and Anna turned on the outdoor lights and Christmas tree lights, and he and Nathan started a fire.