And then the wolves from the Silver pack began to gather around the pit. The three Wernicke brothers were still lying on their bellies in a submissive way, though CJ suspected that all three were alert and ready to jump up and fight. The women were standing near the woods, tense, waiting, and watching.
Lelandi walked through the snow to reach them, escorted by Trevor and Peter in their wolf forms for protection. “Darien’s on his way.” She glanced at Laurel and the white wolf. “I need the two of you to come with me.”
Laurel licked the white wolf’s face and then moved a little, watching to see if the white wolf would follow her.
She hesitated.
“Come on,” Lelandi said, half an order, half an entreaty. “I’ve got to get back to my toddlers.”
Laurel began to walk toward Lelandi, and the white wolf joined her. Some of the wolves watched them as they left, but most of them kept their focus on the Wernicke brothers.
CJ and the others waited another half hour until they heard some others crunching through the snow on their way there. Darien and five other men finally appeared. “You’re coming with us. Dead. Or alive. Your choice,” Darien said to the Wernicke brothers. His patience was shot to hell.
CJ smiled a little at his cousin. But he knew the pack leader meant it, and he’d shift right then and there to prove it.
Stanton reluctantly stood. His brothers followed his lead. And then they moved toward Darien, who turned and headed back the way he’d come. The wolves of the Silver pack flanked the Wernicke brothers and a few followed behind. If the brothers did anything that appeared threatening to Darien or anyone in the pack, the rest of the wolves would tear them apart.
CJ didn’t know what Darien planned, but he figured they were back to questioning the brothers. CJ stopped where he’d left his clothes and found Laurel’s were gone but his still there. He quickly shifted, dressed, and ran after the wolves. He thought Darien would haul the brothers to his house in the back of a police car, but instead, he opened the door to CJ’s truck and said, “Stanton, you and your brothers will ride with CJ. He’ll bring you to the house.”
CJ thought Darien was crazy! He sure as hell hoped his cousin knew what he was doing.
Even so, Brett and Eric got in with them as wolf backup. His whole truck smelled like wet wolf.
“Why did you lie to us about who Charity was?” CJ asked, not that anyone could answer him as a wolf.
Stanton shifted. “We’ve been looking for our mother for years.”
Chapter 23
By the time everyone arrived at Darien’s place, a couple of the men had retrieved the Wernicke brothers’ clothes so that they could shift and dress, and then they all met in the outdoor hall reserved for larger pack events.
Maybe thirty wolves were in attendance, the rest going home to their families at Darien’s request. Most everyone had shifted and dressed. Ten were still in wolf form, providing wolf muscle if things got out of hand.
It seemed strange meeting in the Silver Hall when it was all decorated for Christmas. The business at hand seemed too onerous to suit the occasion.
Laurel and the white wolf were in the house, CJ figured when he didn’t see them. “I’m going to check on the women.”
“All right, CJ. We’ll wait while you ask them to join us,” Darien said.
CJ stalked out the door and headed along the path to the house. When he walked inside, calling out to Lelandi to let her know he was there, she replied, “We’re in the sunroom.”
He hadn’t made it two steps before Laurel ran out of the sunroom, raced across the living room, and threw herself into his arms. She was crying tears of joy. The only way he could tell was that she was smiling at him.
He hugged her tight, suspecting the white wolf was her aunt, and Laurel was glad to know Clarinda was alive and well. “She’s my aunt,” Laurel confirmed, choking on the words. “Ellie and Meghan are on the way.”
“Happy, I take it?”
“Ecstatic.”
“I figure she had hidden her identity from an abusive mate.”
“Yeah. John Wernicke.”
CJ’s brows lifted. “Warren’s brother?”
“Yeah. John really was Warren’s brother. They had a sister named Charity, but she died from a fever the year before Clarinda arrived. Charity had never lived with Warren, so no one knew that Clarinda wasn’t his sister. Warren and John had had a falling-out about his treatment of his mate—my aunt. When she managed to run away, she took refuge in Warren’s home, praying he would take her in and that John wouldn’t find her.”
“She left three young sons behind.”
Laurel frowned up at CJ. “What? Oh God, no.”
“She knew her husband would kill her if she took his sons with her, so doing the worst thing she could imagine, she left them behind and pretended to be Charity.”
“Stanton and his brothers…” Laurel looked ill.
CJ didn’t blame her. “Come on. Let’s get your aunt, and we’ll all go to the meeting Darien’s having.”
They headed for the sunroom, and Laurel said, “I don’t want them as my cousins.”
CJ chuckled. “To get into the Christmas spirit, I thought we could have them over for Christmas dinner.”
She scowled at him.
He smiled and kissed her lips. “We’ll do whatever you want to do.”
“I want my aunt to have Christmas dinner with us. My sisters. Your brothers. And your cousins and their mates.”
“Deal. But if your aunt wants her sons to have dinner with us?”
Laurel growled. “Under coercion, I’ll agree. But against my better judgment.”
He smiled at her and tucked her under his arm as they walked together to join her aunt and Lelandi.
When they reached the sunroom, Lelandi was talking about the pack Christmas celebration and New Year’s party they were having and how much they wanted Clarinda to be there.
They grew quiet when Laurel and CJ entered the room. “Lelandi, Aunt Clarinda, Darien wants us to go to the hall to discuss the Wernicke brothers’ situation,” Laurel said. “Are they really your sons?” she asked her aunt, sounding as if she still didn’t believe it.
“I didn’t know they were here looking for me.”
CJ didn’t believe the brothers had been either. They were here to get what they thought was theirs: the title to the hotel. Instead, it had belonged to John’s mate until the pack took it over.
“Why didn’t you tell us who you really were?” Laurel asked.
“I didn’t know John was dead. He was a brutal man. I was certain he wouldn’t have changed how he acted toward me. I couldn’t risk involving you or your sisters, or your mate either. It was just safer that way. Had I known he was dead, I would have told you the truth.”
“I’m so sorry for all that you’ve suffered,” Laurel said.
“It’s in the past. Now I’m reunited with my sons and my nieces, and I don’t want that ever to end.”
“Agreed.”
But CJ didn’t think it would be an entirely happy family reunion.
As soon as Meghan and Ellie arrived, they walked into the hall, where everyone turned to watch them. Darien joined Lelandi and pulled her into a hug, and Laurel loved how affectionate he was with his pack leader mate in front of the pack.
Clarinda took a seat, but everyone else remained standing, tense and alert as Darien said, “Ladies first. Clarinda O’Brien?”
“Wernicke,” Clarinda said. “I was mated to John Wernicke. He beat me so badly the last time, I miscarried our next set of twins. I did the only thing I could do. I abandoned my three four-year-old sons, whom John adored. I knew he’d never hurt them. I found refuge with John’s brother, Warren, knowing they were estranged. I assumed John would never look for me there. Warren loved me and wanted me for his mate, but we couldn’t be, not while John was still alive. Warren had a heart of gold. Elroy Summers was new to the area, and he thought to woo me, believing I was Warren’s sister.