Terry Spear - A SEAL in Wolf's Clothing

He looked down at Meara. Hell, she’d sure hooked him. And he wasn’t letting her go. But as far as a mating, this wasn’t the time to propose it. No matter how much Hunter might think he should have a say, this was strictly between Meara and Finn.

“Cyn formed a team of four men, who, from what I could learn, were from his own home pack in Georgia. The one you killed when he attacked Meara in his wolf form was one of them. I assumed Cyn was hiring any old assassins off the street, in addition to using his wolf team, to see if he could eliminate anyone protecting Meara without jeopardizing his own people too much.

“He and the other three men had been SEALs. They quit the Navy right before you attempted your mission but after Hunter told him no about joining his team. Apparently, Cyn had the notion that Hunter was the top wolf and that working for him would be the pinnacle of Cyn’s career. But Cyn knew Hunter handpicked his own men and figured he might need an in, so he went after Meara first. Which was probably his first big mistake.”

“So he thought Meara had kept him from his chance at being on Hunter’s team?” Finn asked, running his hand over her arm in a soft caress as she watched him, still possessively holding onto his belt loop. “But what about his sister? Didn’t he want on the team to rescue her?”

“Not sure. I doubt we’ll know the truth until we catch up to Cyn. From the looks of it, he and his men sabotaged Hunter’s mission, hoping to destroy the team in the process. Not sure if they’d planned for all of the team members to die or just to curtail the mission to give Hunter and all of you a black eye, but the situation got out of hand.”

“But his sister… how does she fit into the equation, if Cyn had anything to do with the sabotage and had hoped everyone on the team would die? His sister could have been killed that way.”

Meara broke in and said, “What if he was involved in the hostage taking?”

Not having considered that, Finn stared at her with awakening pride, glad she had come up with a new angle. “Bjornolf, did you hear what Meara asked?”

“Yeah. Hell, if he was involved, he probably wanted a share of the ransom money and maybe even intended to be the sole survivor of the team, had Hunter agreed to allow him to be on it. Then he would have sent the women safely home, having earned all the glory and the money.”

Finn shook his head at the idea that anyone could have sold out the team and risked his own sister’s life. But then another thought nagged at him, one that Bjornolf had set him to thinking about in the inn’s lounge. “How did Meara save us?”

“Ask her about the coded message she intercepted that was meant for Hunter. That she consequently destroyed. She probably thought it was about another dangerous mission and wanted to save him from going on it. Instead, it was a message changing the location of the meet. If Hunter and his team had gone there, all of you would have been dead.”

Finn frowned at Meara. He wondered if Hunter knew about the coded message she’d gotten ahold of. Thinking back to the way she had been pondering his question on the beach about how she had saved their lives, he assumed she’d recalled something about deleting the message.

“One other thing, your formerly wounded team member, Allan, is on the move, headed in your direction. Paul told him where you all are.”

“ Shit .”

“Yeah, I told you the whole team would be in one spot and then they’d come for you.”

“Fine with me.” Except that Finn didn’t want Meara here when the fighting went down. But sending her to some other location where he couldn’t protect her wasn’t a viable option, either.

Finn wrapped his arm around Meara and held her close.

“A little birdie told him Meara was interested in mating him,” Bjornolf said. “So apparently, he wants to stake his claim before he’s too late. He was in a real rush to join all of you.”

Finn frowned down at Meara. She raised her brows in question. “He’s too late,” Finn said but wouldn’t elaborate.

The moment he’d seen her in her cabin making small talk with Bjornolf, Finn had known the only real choice he had was to send her packing to Hunter in Hawaii. So what did he do? Pretended to be her lover so he could protect her instead. And now? He didn’t want to give her up. But he was certain she wouldn’t go along with him going on dangerous missions any more than she wanted Hunter to do so.

“Hmm, I figured Allan was too late where Meara is concerned. Does Hunter know about the two of you?” Bjornolf asked, a hint of dark amusement in his voice.

“He will.” But only after Finn discussed the conditions with Meara.

Bjornolf didn’t say anything for a moment, then added, “With the team all coming together again, I think you can handle this. I’ve got a job elsewhere that’s of national importance. If I’m not there to avert this new crisis, God knows what a mess it’ll be.”

Finn was surprised to hear that Bjornolf planned to leave them behind to take on another mission when this one wasn’t quite resolved. Although he suspected the other paid and this one didn’t. He wondered if Bjornolf’s leaving had anything to do with Finn’s declaration that Meara would be his mate. But he appreciated all that Bjornolf had done for them up until now.

“Thanks for helping us out, Bjornolf.” He stopped short of saying they couldn’t have done it without him, as he still felt testy about Bjornolf’s kissing Meara and feeling her up before that. “Do you want to talk to Hunter?”

“No. That’s all, except, hell, if you decide not to mate Meara, let me know, all right?” Then there was a click, and Finn realized the phone line had been disconnected.

Finn stared at the phone for a minute, then slipped it into his pocket. He didn’t know if Bjornolf had really meant want he’d said about Meara or if he’d only wanted to push Finn into making a decision concerning her. On the other hand, Bjornolf had kissed her, and the way he’d slid his hand in her pocket, yeah, the bastard was damned interested. But he must have known he’d have a real fight on his hands if he went after Meara when Finn wanted her.

Turning his attention to Hunter, Finn said, “We’re on our own. Bjornolf’s got another assignment, and Allan’s on his way here. Cyn’s got at least two other wolves left on his team.”

Hunter swore under his breath. “Okay, I want Meara safely away from here. Tessa’s home. You take her and you watch over her.”

“There’s Anna and me,” Meara said, objecting to Hunter’s wanting her out of the way. “We can help. And you’ll need Finn.”

Finn could tell from Hunter’s expression how much he didn’t want her here or involved.

“Tessa’s home, south of Meara’s. An hour and a half away. That’ll work,” Finn said, agreeing with Hunter. He handed the cup of tea to Meara. Trying to lighten the mood, he said to her, “Somehow Allan must have gotten word you want him for a mate, Meara.”

Meara’s eyes widened. “Who would have said such a thing to him?”

Finn shrugged. “You told everyone that. Maybe Paul joked with him about it. Who knows?”

Hunter shook his head at Meara. “I knew I shouldn’t have left you alone. As soon as I was gone, you led my whole former team astray.”

“That’ll teach you to tell them to stay away from me.” She smiled mischievously in the way only she could, looking halfway innocent and a whole lot devilish, and then she took a sip of her tea.

So that Hunter and the others could discuss among themselves what they intended to do about the impending threat—and knowing they didn’t want her in on the discussion since she wasn’t a highly trained operative like them, only she wished they’d let her help if she could—Meara retired to the master bath to take another long soak, without the bubbles this time.