to the hotel and watch what’s going on over there?”
CJ answered the door, found Eric standing there, and motioned for him to come in.
“There’s been a slight change of plans,” CJ said to Peter as Eric walked into the house and shut the door. “Laurel wants Trevor to stay there instead, if it’s all right with you.”
“Anything…wrong?”
“Hell, yeah. I didn’t tell her about the skeleton we found in the pit last night, and now she’s pissed off at me.”
“We didn’t even know who it was, and it didn’t turn out to be her aunt.” Peter sounded annoyed with her.
“Right, but…well there’s more.” Hell, CJ hated to admit any of this, but he’d rather his boss and his brothers know what happened than for them to think Laurel was being completely unreasonable. “We’re mated.”
Dead silence.
Eric shook his head, but he was smiling. And heading for the kitchen.
“So she’s pissed because… Okay, got it. I’ll have Trevor stay there, and you can try to run down who our dead man is.”
“Thanks. I’ll get right on it.” CJ ended the call and followed his brother into the kitchen.
Eric stared at the blackened pan. “Looks like breakfast didn’t go over too well either.”
“I’ve screwed up everything this time.” CJ poured hot water and dish soap into the plugged sink and shoved the cooled pan into the soapy water to let it soak.
“Hey, it wouldn’t be the first time and it won’t be the last.”
CJ frowned at him. “Thanks. I know that. But how do I fix it?”
“If it were me? I probably would have done the same thing. And been in the same bind the next morning. Have you told Darien that you’re mated to Laurel yet?”
CJ let out his breath. He really didn’t want to do this now. But he made the call to Darien and said, “Okay, Laurel and I are mated wolves. Just needed to let you know.”
“Hot damn, CJ. That’s good to hear. I’ll tell Lelandi, and we’ll let the pack know.”
CJ wanted to groan out loud. “Okay, I’ve got to talk to Eric about the case.”
“Good show. Talk to you later.” Darien ended the call with CJ.
“Darien’s glad, I take it,” Eric said.
“Yeah, he is. I just didn’t want to let him in on the latest development.”
“Understand. The two of you will work it out. So what was Doc’s finding?”
CJ showed him the findings Peter sent him over the phone, including the picture of the stickpin.
“Send the picture to my email, will you? I’ll forward it to Brett since he’s digging into all the photos of that period. Maybe he’ll see a man wearing that pin.” Eric frowned as he studied the picture. “Why would a man be wearing something so dressy when he’s running around in the woods?”
“That was one of my thoughts too. Was he chasing after someone? Lured there? I’m guessing he wasn’t just out for a Sunday stroll in the woods when he fell into the pit. It’s too far from any road.”
Eric read through the report. “And since his clothes were there, that meant he hadn’t been in wolf form. Okay, what else did you need me to do? Don’t ask me to fix things between you and Laurel though. You’re on your own there. Oh, and by the way, congratulations.”
CJ snorted. “I think that was the shortest mated relationship in history.”
“You’re mated for life.”
“I know. But I don’t think she’ll have anything further to do with me.”
“She’ll come around. Give her time. First, the skeleton wasn’t her aunt. And second, you didn’t mention it because you didn’t want to worry her unnecessarily. Which was heroic.”
“But then I mated her.”
Eric smiled. “Good move.”
“Hell, Eric, now she doesn’t want to see me again.”
“Learn what happened to her aunt. Then maybe she’ll realize why she wanted you to be her mate in the first place.”
“And if I learn her aunt was murdered?” CJ shook his head. “Somehow I don’t see how that’s going to get me out of hot water with Laurel anytime soon.”
Chapter 18
“Ohmigod, I can’t believe you mated with CJ and didn’t tell us! You can’t seriously be thinking of breaking up with him. You can’t as a wolf. He didn’t tell you about the skeleton because he didn’t know anything about it and didn’t want to unnecessarily upset you,” Ellie said. “He was devastated. I wanted to give him a hug and tell him everything would be all right between you, since you have such a forgiving nature, but I was afraid you’d