Hunter bowed his head. “Likewise, Leidolf.”
Tessa took a deep breath and her shoulders relaxed a little.
“I would have gone to see your brother, Tessa, but thought you might like to spend the time with him alone. With Hunter, of course. Are you any closer to solving the murder mystery?”
“The two who were in the house when you and Hunter came home after cutting up the tree had done some work on our circuit breaker. And Michael said that the guy called Jessup had been driving the truck, and he’d seen him at a number of his art exhibits.” Tessa looked over at Hunter. “When Jessup said they’d been casing Bethany’s house for valuables, I didn’t think they were really thieves, but maybe they were. And maybe they were planning on ripping off the art gallery, but it had too much security so they hoped to find some of Michael’s paintings in the house. Easier to break into. Butch was at Michael’s trial. Why? To see if he really got time or if he was going to be released? If Michael had been found not guilty, we would have been home and it would have been harder for them to steal anything from the house.”
“Or,” Leidolf said, “he was calling ahead to the others, who were breaking into your house while you were at the trial. Once you left, he would warn them you were on the way home.”
“Was anything missing from your house besides the gun?” Hunter asked.
“I didn’t look. I figured Yoloff had only stolen the gun. I never thought anyone would be running around in that weather stealing paintings.”
“Do you have anything else of value?” Hunter asked.
“Computers, electronics. My photographs. But again, I would doubt they’d be interested in any of that because of the weather. The ice storm hadn’t started yet, but it was on its way.”
“Searching for evidence of wrongdoing? Maybe they’d been involved in Bethany’s murder, and they were afraid Michael had some proof against them that he didn’t know about,” Leidolf said.
“Michael mentioned the sheriff could have been covering up for his son, Ashton, also,” Tessa mentioned.
Leidolf shook his head. “I’m glad all I have is a simple case of knocking some sense into a red’s head if he thinks he’s taking over my pack. Keep in touch, and I’ll help any way I can if you need me. Your new cops won’t be returning with you for a couple of weeks until they settle their affairs here. Your widow is staying with the one cop, but the rest are taking the Ford Escape, making it kind of crowded. I’m gifting you my Humvee, travels in any kind of weather.”
“But—” Tessa said.
Leidolf held up his hand. “I’ve got another back at the ranch. I’ll ride home with my people. Maybe Hunter won’t hold a grudge against me about the jail situation for too long then.” He grinned. “The last time I had to deal with a gray pack leader, Devlyn Greystoke had targeted a red he mated who reminded me of you. She was a redhead also. Bella was her name.”
“Devlyn changed a human, too?” Tessa asked.
“No.” Leidolf looked at the table for a second, then back up at them. “I was too late for her. She should have mated a red.” He shrugged.
“Only a lupus garou would do, isn’t that right, Leidolf?” Hunter asked.
Leidolf managed a smile. “Sure, that’s right, Hunter.”
But Hunter suspected it wasn’t so. If he had given Leidolf the chance, he might have claimed Tessa for his own, especially since she reminded him of the last one he’d lost.
They finished their meals in silence, and then Leidolf paid the bill. Hunter kissed Tessa’s cheek. “Are you ready to meet the rest of my pack?”
No, not now. But that wouldn’t be very alpha of her. Yet, Tessa shivered internally anyway. What if they put her to the test? Tried to prove to her that she couldn’t be their pack leader’s mate? She didn’t have a clue what she was supposed to do.
She stiffened her spine as she walked between Leidolf and Hunter. At least while she was wedged between the two alphas, she almost felt alpha herself.
Caruthers and a pretty brunette on his arm Tessa figured was Greta, both in their midforties, were sitting at a long table with several others. Allan, the other cop, and the woman he was interested in, a woman with chestnut hair curled on top of her head in swirls with a quick smile and sparkle in her amber eyes, sat next to them. And three other males, maybe in their late twenties, early thirties, all tall. one with black hair and eyes, who seemed too interested in Tessa, but quickly changed his posture to a contrite expression when Hunter gave him a quelling look. The other two had light brown hair cut short, dark brown eyes and appeared to be twins, except the one was slightly taller.
“Kenneth,” Hunter said, motioning to one of the twins, “and Kensington.” He waved at the black-haired man. “Adam.” He smiled at the woman. “This is Genevieve who seems to have found her new mate. Everyone, this is Tessa, my mate.”
All bowed their heads slightly.
“About time,” Genevieve said, and hurried forth to give her a hug.
Greta did the same. The men didn’t dare.
Hunter shook Leidolf’s hand. “Thanks for the Humvee and the offer to help. We’ll keep in touch. If you need any of my aid, likewise, give me a call. We have a long drive ahead of us, and I don’t want to leave my sister in charge of a couple of new lupus garous much longer, so we’ll be on our way.”
Hunter shook hands with the police officers who would join them in a couple of weeks. Greta whispered to Tessa, “I’ve been where you are, honey. I’ll show you the ropes.”
“It’s not exactly the same.” Caruthers kissed his mate on the cheek. “She’s an alpha leader’s mate.”
Greta grinned. “Like I said, Tessa, I’ll help you all I can.”
Caruthers shook his head, and Tessa gave Greta and Genevieve a hug, already feeling like one of the pack and it was a damned good feeling, too, but for her brother’s continued incarceration. “I look forward to seeing you both soon.”
Once Hunter’s people were packed into the Escort, Hunter led them in the Humvee.
“I thought they might want to eat me alive, but they were really nice,” Tessa told Hunter as he drove out of town.
“A couple of my males would have eaten you all up, but not the way you mean.” He gripped the steering wheel tighter, then released it, but still seemed as tense as before. “What do you know about your great-grandfather?”
Here they went around about the gold again. “He was from Colorado originally, but got the gold fever. First he went to California and made it big, then came here. He met my great-grandmother who was working for her father’s mercantile. Supposedly, he found a lot of gold here, too. Just had a real nose for it. But all the money in the world wouldn’t buy him happiness. Shortly after finding the gold, my great-grandmother died of a fever, and he returned to Colorado. I couldn’t find out what happened to him after that.”
“What about your grandmother?”
“She was just an infant when her mother died. Her father couldn’t take care of her. She went to live with her mother’s brother and wife. But my grandmother said her father was generous and had left her aunt and uncle all the gold, enough to make them wealthy. Much of it was put into the bank later on, but some of it was hidden. They never had any children, and Grandmother eventually inherited it all and married a wealthy merchant. They settled where the house is now, where my great-grandparents had once lived in a shack. What happened to Seth?”
“He was killed in a rock slide. Apparently, he must have left your great-grandmother, returned to Colorado, but then rejoined my great-grandfather in California. Three of them died. My great-grandfather, Seth, and my father’s twin brother. A fourth man, Caleb McKnight, was the only one who survived.”
“The one in the news clippings.”
“Right. Did your grandmother have any special abilities?”
“Like you do? Everyone used to tease her that there was no sneaking around Grandmother because she heard everything. She knew things, too. Like when the weather was changing. She explained it was due to her arthritis. As for her sense of smell? She definitely smelled things more acutely than we did. She seemed to always sense people’s emotions also, whether they were scared or angry, even when they were hiding their feelings.”
“She could smell their fear.”
“Yeah, although I thought it was because she was super-observant.”
“What about the gold?”
Tessa frowned at him. “There is no gold on the property.”
“Seth told my father he’d stockpiled it somewhere in Oregon for people who needed it more than he did. Never in a million years would we have thought Seth had a child by a human. Did you ever find a marriage certificate?”
“No. Lots of records are pretty difficult to locate. No birth record for my grandmother either.”
“Apparently in rare cases a human can conceive a child with a lupus garou. But in all the years I’ve lived, I’ve never met anyone like that, and Leidolf had only met one during his lifetime.”
But what if her line had an affinity for getting pregnant by a lupus garou?
Hunter must have realized what she was thinking because he smiled at her and patted her leg. “Seth must not have changed your great-grandmother and that’s why she died of a fever. Maybe she didn’t want to be changed, or maybe he couldn’t do it. But you’re already one of us, and the babies you have will fully be lupus garous.”
She’d never thought about that. How was she to deal with being a lupus garou and raising offspring like that when she was totally clueless about herself still? Tessa sighed.
Hunter slowed down as wrecking crews waved them past a rock slide. Tessa glanced back to see if the red Escort was behind them.
“Heavy traffic. About five vehicles slipped in between us, but I’ve given my pack directions if we get separated.” He pulled back into their lane past the rock slide. “So what else do we know about Bethany’s murder? How come the sheriff found her? Was there a 911 call made?”