“Over my dead body,” Hunter growled. “He’d be ten times worse than you.”

Amused at the comparison, Finn smiled.

“I mean, as far as his work goes.”

“I knew what you meant.” Finn refilled his coffee mug. “Bjornolf said he’d try to track down Cyn and see where he’s been these past six months. If he was in the SEALs, we should be able to come up with something.”

They heard someone walking through the living room. Hunter turned at the bar and looked to see Meara approach. Her chin was tilted up in defiance, but she still looked a bit unsure.

If Hunter took her to task for what had happened between Finn and her, Finn would give him hell right back.

Chapter 15

To Finn’s consternation, Meara looked snappish, probably waiting for Hunter to give her hell. And she’d give it right back to him—forget about Finn getting the chance. But she looked a little worried, too, as she shot a glance Finn’s way, most likely looking to see if he was wearing bruises now like Bjornolf was.

“Hey, Hunter,” Meara said, trying for a casual greeting, but Finn noted the tension in her voice as she walked into the kitchen, twisting her hair into a knot that looked damned sexy, and then leaned over to give her brother a light, sisterly hug.

Hunter looked just as tense but gave her a perfunctory hug back. She tried to shrug off his mechanical reaction to her, but Finn noted she was bothered by it.

Finn filled the teakettle with water and started heating it for her tea, knowing she’d want some first thing and that it might make her feel more at ease. Hunter gave her a disgruntled look but then watched Finn in amusement as if he thought that a lot more was going on between Meara and Finn than his teammate had revealed.

“You didn’t have to come here and protect me, Hunter.” Meara inserted a finger though Finn’s belt loop and gave a tiny tug that made him want to haul her right back to the damned bed. But he got the distinct impression she wanted him close by to stand up for her if she needed him. Or maybe she was trying to protect him from Hunter if her brother showed hostility toward him. It would be like her to do so.

He slipped his hand into her back pocket and smiled down at her. She looked up in surprise at him, her face warming like soft sunlight on a sunny day.

“Finn’s doing a great job. Except…” She pulled his phone out of her front pocket and waved it at him. “…he keeps forgetting to take his phone with him.” She tried to hide it, but she bit her lip slightly with anxiousness. “Bjornolf wanted to talk to you.”

“Bjornolf?” Finn said, astonished. He figured Hunter was again running the show, and Bjornolf would have called him with any news.

“Yeah, he wanted to know if Hunter had killed you yet.”

Hunter chuckled darkly in amusement.

Smiling, Finn took the phone, kissed her cheek, and set a tea bag in a floral cup for her. He redialed Bjornolf’s number, and when he answered, Finn said, “Meara told me you called.”

“Yeah, did she tell you what about? I thought maybe I had a chance with her if you were gone now.” Bjornolf sounded like he was only half joking.

Finn chuckled. “Yeah. Hunter said he’d let you near her only over his dead body.”

Meara glanced at Hunter who gave her a small shrug. “It’s true.”

Bjornolf laughed over the phone. “Okay, well, although I told Hunter I’d get back to him, since you’re still around, you can give him the news.”

In that instant, if Finn wasn’t reading too much into the situation, Bjornolf was acknowledging that Finn was still in charge of Meara’s safety? He wondered if the way to impress Bjornolf was to catch him unaware and sock him. Or if it had to do with Finn getting the woman. Maybe a little of both.

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.”