“We saw it in one of the pictures,” Meghan said.
“It was beautiful, wasn’t it? Chrissy’s harmless. But sometimes people can see her peering out the attic window after she’s cleaned the room, wishing for a mate and a different life,” Aunt Clarinda said.
“That’s so sad,” Ellie said.
“She seems content,” Aunt Clarinda said. “She just flips the light on and off every once in a while.”
Laurel exchanged glances with her sisters.
Ellie smiled. “So, it’s not an electrical short in the light switch.”
Laurel wondered if Chrissy was the woman that Carol, the psychic, had seen peering out the window during the grand opening, and not a premonition of someone else staying in the attic room.
“The painting was moved from the hotel to the house,” Laurel said.
“No ghost did that. My son Stanton said he moved it.”
“Why?” Laurel asked.
“Trying to scare you into believing the ghosts haunting the hotel had a lot of power. The same thing with painting the X on the ceiling and moving the paint and ladders. They had planned to do a ghost show that showed how terribly haunted the place was if they couldn’t find a way to get the hotel legally. But then you stopped them by denying permission.”
“How do you know all this?” Ellie asked.
“CJ told me all that had been going on, and I asked Stanton. He told me what they had been doing. But he said it was because he really believed the hotel belonged to his family—and at the time, he didn’t know that you were family. The boys never knew my maiden name. John hated my first name, so he called me Claire instead of Clarinda. So I could see why they wouldn’t make the connection. And they had no idea that I was alive.”
“What about Elroy, the cabinetmaker?” Laurel asked.
“I felt so bad about him. He was a good man, but I was already mated and I couldn’t tell him the truth. Elroy thought Warren didn’t think he was good enough for his sister. I just couldn’t let him know. His son was so upset with me, knowing his father loved me, and I really cared for the son, but everyone’s life that I touched would have been in danger if John Wernicke had learned the truth. It was heartbreaking for me, yet I could do nothing about it. After his father died, Jacob learned who I was, but he never said anything because what did it matter at that point? I was gone, and so was everyone else involved in the affair—John, Sheridan, Elroy, and Warren.”
“Who replaced the deadfall? You thought the murderer had done it to hide the body,” Laurel said.
“Whoever killed Warren at first. When another animal fell through, Jacob told me he did it. He was afraid his father had killed Warren, and he wanted to keep the pit covered up.”
“Who really killed Warren?” Laurel asked.
“I suspect John did. When I talked to my sons, we tried to piece together the sequence of events. Their father disappeared for a while, and they learned he had gone to see Warren and said he had reconciled with him. He didn’t. I saw John arrive in front of the hotel, and Warren told me to leave. So I did. When I returned, Warren was gone. Vanished. I took over the hotel, but the rest is as I said. Sheridan threatened to tell John I was running the hotel. I had to abandon the place and start over. But I never once stopped looking for Warren.”
“I wish you could have told the pack about your abusive mate,” Laurel said.
“I wish we could have had some resolution as well.” Clarinda came over and gave each of her nieces a hug. “But in the end, this is all that matters.”
Chapter 24
Everyone had such a wonderful time, Laurel vowed they’d do it again next year.
Once everyone had said good night and left, she was ready to slip into bed with her wolf. She wondered what he had gotten for her for Christmas. She had wrapped presents and placed them under the tree for him, but he hadn’t put one gift under the tree for her.
She hoped he hadn’t forgotten and ordered them too late. Despite knowing she should be in the Christmas spirit, she felt like withholding his gifts until hers arrived. “Tell Jake, if he’s agreeable, that we’d love to hang one of his beautiful photos of the Rocky Mountains on the wall where the letter C was. Ellie told me the letter is back.”
CJ shook his head as he turned out the downstairs lights and followed her up to bed. “I’ll tell Jake that you’d love to showcase one of his photos. He’ll be pleased. I have a question. You hired only men outside the pack to work on the place. Later, we learned it was because you were worried that one of the pack members might be guilty of your aunt’s disappearance. But why did you hire Jacob then?”
“He gave us such a great bargain on his electrical work, after we had gotten other estimates, that we just couldn’t hire anyone else.”
“Ah, okay.”
“And we still have to schedule our special dinner for winning the snowman competition.”
“A couple of days after Christmas?”
“Okay.”
“I saw Stanton slip a present to you. What was it?”
Laurel chuckled. “The first season of their ghost busters show.”
CJ laughed and pulled the covers back. “And your aunt?”
“A year’s subscription to a chocolates box-of-the-month club. She really is devious. She knows that will never be enough, so she’ll get me into the shop to see her more often. And buy. She also gifted the highboy and the blanket chest to my sisters to keep in the house where Clarinda had loved Warren.”
“I’m glad you have her in your life again.”
“Me too. She was so pleased to have her locket back with the picture of her and my mother in it.”
“How had she lost it?”
“She said it had disappeared when she went to run as a wolf. When I told her that Sheridan had it, she said it figured. He probably planned to use it as evidence to prove to John she was there, if she didn’t pay up.” Laurel began stripping out of her clothes. “Hmm, talking about sweets and subscriptions, and not having enough…”
As soon as CJ was naked and had climbed onto the mattress, waiting for her, she tackled him. She wasn’t sure why she felt compelled to launch an assault. Maybe because of the lack of Christmas presents for her under the tree. Or maybe because he’d beat her to it the last two nights and tackled her first.
He laughed as she took charge, licking and nibbling on his taut nipples, rubbing her naked body against his, arousing him fully. She ran her hand over his cock and said, “This is the only thing I ever want to come between us.”
His grin couldn’t have stretched any further.
Her hair dangled about his head as she leaned down to kiss his mouth, his hands cupping her breasts, massaging. Her knees speared the mattress on either side of his waist as she deepened the kiss.
One of his hands pulled her closer. Not expecting what came next, she was startled a bit when he moved his hand between her knees and started to stroke at the apex of her thighs. Straddling him made her feel more exposed, the craving for completion greater. With a hand on her thigh, he continued to stroke her. She arched back and gave into his fondling, coming unglued, ready to howl at the moon. To her shock, she was so close, so hot and wet and ready, that when he plunged two fingers into her, she screamed with release.
He quickly re-situated her on his cock, pushing in, penetrating deep, then guided her as she rode him hard. He smelled like musky, male wolf: her wolf, her mate, powerful, hot, and lovable. She couldn’t have chosen a better mate for herself, and she loved him with all her heart.
“Beautiful,” he said on a groan, and she didn’t know if he meant she was or this was, but it didn’t matter.