With tears streaking down her face, she didn’t believe it for a minute, although it wouldn’t have made any difference because she didn’t have a clue if there was any gold anyway. All that mattered was whether Hunter had made it or not.

Jessup tugged her in the direction of Bethany’s house, but she fought him every step of the way, wanting to climb down the cliff to Hunter. He had to have survived the fall like before. He had to have. And she had to go to him.

But Jessup tightened his grip on her, cutting the circulation off in her wrist, her hand numbing. He hurried her faster to the house, forcing her to run to keep up. What about Hunter’s pack? Where were they when they needed them most?

Jessup shoved the front door open and yanked her into the house. “She’s yours, Butch. Just like you wanted.”

“The others?” Butch asked, offering Jessup a beer.

Jessup forced Tessa onto the couch next to Meara and Cara, their hands and mouths bound, their eyes wild. Ashton and Rourke were bound, but unconscious on the floor. Meara looked at Tessa, trying to read her expression, but Tessa sobbed, attempting to appear so inconsolable that she was useless, and so that they wouldn’t tie her up also, while she looked for another weapon. Not that her tears and upset weren’t genuine, but she tried to keep a clear head until they were able to destroy the men before they harmed anyone else. And then she had to go to Hunter.

She spied a poker next to the cold fireplace as Redmond took a seat at the dining table. If she could just slip over to it.

“Hunter took care of Yoloff’s brother first. Although he worked on Yoloff in the beginning. His tactics threw all of us. Especially, when Hunter forced Andreas off the cliff.” Jessup took a swig of beer.

But then Tessa worried that if she got the poker, Jessup still had the rifle and three men against one woman wouldn’t do. If she could free Meara, she could shapeshift, whereas no one else could. Tessa had to chance it. She moved closer to Meara and began working on her bindings.

“But Yoloff’s gone also?” Butch asked.

“Yeah, Hunter got him, too, only he had the last laugh. He pulled Hunter off the cliff and both hit the rocks below.”

“You’re sure Hunter was dead? He survived before,” Butch warned.

“Yeah, he was dead. Last time, he hit the water and managed to swim to Tessa’s beach. Not this time.”

Her heart in her throat, Tessa felt the ties loosen on Meara’s wrists. Meara quickly yanked them free, then tugged her clothes off. Tessa dove for the fireplace poker and Meara shapeshifted.

As a wolf, Meara targeted Jessup, the leader, and Tessa went for the rifle, poker in hand.

But no sooner had Meara’s teeth clamped down on Jessup’s arm, making him drop the can of beer, than Butch dove for the rifle.

No, no! Tessa swung the poker at Butch’s head and knocked him out cold. But somehow Redmond had managed to slip by her in the shuffle and went for the rifle.

Growling furiously, Meara lunged for Jessup’s throat, while he grabbed onto her muzzle to keep her from killing him. Tessa froze as Redmond grabbed the rifle and pointed it at her. He could shoot her, but she wouldn’t die. Yet, Tessa couldn’t let go of the fear that Meara could. Meara was their only real chance at survival, and Tessa had to protect her. She prayed her lupus garou genetics would save her and leapt forward, swinging the poker at the rifle.

Her hands and mouth still bound, Cara had managed to slip behind Redmond and gave him a shove. The bullet fired into the carpeted floor.

Before Tessa could take another swing at Redmond, a different wolf growled low. She turned and saw Hunter, his hip bleeding. Alive! Tears filled her eyes and she wanted to rush to him, to hug him, proving he was really real.

His fur smelled foul, like he’d rolled in a bed of rotting kelp. He quickly targeted Jessup, and Meara swung around to get Redmond.

But even over the growling and the sound of a porcelain lamp crashing, Tessa heard a vehicle driving up. Finally, Hunter’s people had arrived.

She ran to help untie Cara, but Butch came to and grabbed Tessa’s ankle.

Redmond slid down next to her, his throat ripped out. Hunter didn’t hesitate to make short work of Butch. Jessup was already dead.

“Hello?” a man called out.

Hell, it was the sheriff.

Still in their wolf forms, Hunter and Meara looked in the direction of the front door, then raced out back.

Tessa continued to work on Cara’s bindings.

“What the hell,” the sheriff said, his gun drawn.

“A pair of wolves saved us from these men,” Tessa said, her voice and hands shaking.

“Ashton?” The sheriff ran over to help his son.

“These men knocked Ashton and Rourke out. They planned to kill the whole lot of us.”

The sheriff stared at Butch and Redmond. “Hell, those two were seeing Bethany.”

Staring at the sheriff in disbelief, Tessa untied Rourke. All the time he’d said Michael had lied and Bethany hadn’t been seeing anyone. What if one of these guys had killed her?

Ashton moaned and rubbed his head. “I thought you said no one had been seeing Bethany, that Michael had made it up. How do you know they’d been here?”

The sheriff appeared flustered.

“How?” Ashton asked his dad again, his eyes slightly glazed, his tone threatening.

“Who the hell do you think you are, questioning me?” The sheriff glanced at the men and added under his breath, “The little whore.”

Ashton’s face lost all its color. “You were the one who discovered her body. No one questioned you because you were the sheriff. You said she’d called you because she worried Michael might kill her he was so angry. But she didn’t, did she? You used her phone to make the call. You killed her. Why?”

Tessa’s skin chilled.

“Because,” Hunter said, stalking in through the back door with a limp, his pants leg bloodied, blood on his sweatshirt, his face bruised, his expression deadly, “Bethany reminded him of his unfaithful wife. Isn’t that right, Sheriff? Didn’t want a two-timing woman to hurt your own son?”

Dying to hold Hunter tight, Tessa’s eyes filled with tears of joy that Michael could be exonerated. But the menacing look Hunter gave the sheriff warned her to keep her distance.

What about Meara? Her clothes were lying on the floor next to the couch. Cara’s gaze followed where Tessa looked, and Cara left Rourke, grabbed Meara’s clothes, and headed outside.

“You must have staged the phone call,” Hunter said.

The sheriff reached for his revolver.

His look feral, dangerously challenging, Hunter asked, “What are you going to do? Kill all of us? It’s over, Sheriff. Time to be a man and face the judge and jury.”

Chapter 17

SEARCHING FOR THE GOLD IN THE AREA BEYOND the house, Tessa tried to settle the way her stomach flip-flopped. Thankful Judge Graydon had obtained Michael’s release and agreed to try Sheriff Wellington for Bethany’s murder, she still felt badly for Ashton, who was torn between hating his father and still loving him. But now Devlyn Greystoke was speaking privately with Hunter inside her house about Hunter making Tessa his mate without her cousin’s permission, and he was pissed.

Tessa hoped to god the two could settle the matter without bloodshed, but she was annoyed they’d dismissed her like she didn’t have any say in the matter.

Although, secondary to all that was the fact Hunter was still perturbed with her for biting her brother and changing him. As if she’d go through life without sharing it with her brother.

She took a deep breath of the salty air and of the sea kelp rotting on the beach she normally despised. But if it hadn’t blanketed the rock where Hunter had fallen, he probably wouldn’t have survived. Where Yoloff and his brother had fallen, the tide had cleaned the rocks, leaving them bare and deadly. The police had eventually found Andreas’s body on a different beach, thank god.

She poked around the tree roots of a massive pine, the water and unusually high winds having washed away a ton of soil, the snow long since melted away and something had drawn her attention. Metal? Something shining in the pale light of the moon.

The gold!

Footsteps approached, crunching on the fallen leaves and she looked up to see him—Devlyn. Their mutual great-grandfather, Seth Greystoke, was known in these parts as the gray devil wolf, and Devlyn had taken after him. Right now, he looked fearsome enough to hold the title. A strap of leather tied back his coffee-colored, shoulder-length hair, his equally dark brown eyes studying her, no hint of a smile on his stern face, as rugged as Hunter’s, and he had the same kind of sturdy jaw. Tall and just as broad-shouldered, his unyielding posture gave her the impression he was a commanding alpha, not one to disobey.

His eyes raked over her and his gaze focused on her hair, a hint of a smile playing on his lips. But then the scowl returned. “It appears I’m too late to take you under my wing, dear cousin.” His words were tight and terse.

She stood and brushed the dirt off her hands, faced him, her chin tilted up, although to look him in the eye, she had to anyway. “I’m Hunter’s mate,” she declared to make it very clear she had no intention of leaving him. Not that she guessed she could, according to what Hunter had said about their kind.

“In our way, I’d be compelled to deal with Hunter, wolf to wolf, for taking you without receiving my permission when he knew damn well I’d ordered him to keep his hands off you.”

The thought anyone would have ordered that of Hunter made her smile inwardly, but outwardly with Devlyn, she steeled her expression. “I’m sure Hunter took your order under consideration, but my life was in peril and you weren’t here to protect me.”

Devlyn bowed his head slightly. “In truth, I didn’t believe either Hunter—after what Leidolf told me about him—or you, would mind me. And now Hunter tells me you’ve turned your brother?” He raised a brow, his look still feral. He tsked. “I don’t envy the task Hunter has cut out for him. But Bella is dying to meet you when she can travel. With triplets on the way, she’s confined to her greenhouse and home.”