“Do you have any idea where Jim might have gone?” Dylan had to know what had truly gone down. He felt sick that they could have let the real murderer go. That they had all believed Fennel’s story.

  “I don’t,” Aaron said. “I’m sorry. I wish Jim would turn himself in so this could be settled. But I understand he’s worried that no one will believe Fennel did this instead because of how carefully he framed Jim for the murder.”

  Even with their enhanced abilities, Dylan realized how they could have been manipulated. Not that Fennel, if Jim’s story turned out to be true, knew they could smell scents, but he’d planned this out well enough that he wanted the blood spatter on Jim’s clothes, not his own, when he shot Eddie.

  Dylan figured CJ wanted to stay here at the cabin in case Jim showed up. He was glad about it, thinking that would work out well for them.

  But when morning came, Jim hadn’t shown up, and Dylan wasn’t sure where to look next. CJ was on his phone, updating Peter about what they had learned. The sheriff would get in touch with their pack leaders and let the rest of them know what had happened in case any of the men showed their faces in Silver Town or the surrounding area. Damn, it was Valentine’s Day, tonight was the party, and Dylan was torn about the whole matter. He wanted to be with Roxie in the worst way, but he wanted to get Jim into custody so they could hear from him firsthand what had happened. At least according to him.

  Roxie and her brothers and sister, along with a slew of other pack members, were busy setting up things in the three ballrooms for the Valentine’s Day party tonight when she got a call from Dylan. She was always thrilled when she heard from him but also a bit apprehensive when he called. She hoped he’d tell her they’d caught Jim and were coming in, but she had a feeling that hadn’t happened. “Yeah, what’s going on?”

  “A friend of Jim’s said Fennel shot Eddie, not Jim.”

  “The friend witnessed it?”

  “No, Jim told him. But I’ve thought about it all night and it’s possible it went down the way he said it had. CJ’s calling the girlfriend that he supposedly was seeing at the same time Eddie was. But Jim says Fennel was seeing her.”

  “Hmm, okay. That’s quite a twist. But Luke said he heard one of the men cry out, ‘No, Jim.’”

  “Right. Another nail in the coffin? Both Fennel and Jim are the same build and coloring, so if Xander had shouted, ‘No, Jim,’ then anyone witnessing the killing would think Jim was the one holding the rifle. Because Jim’s on the run, and there’s also the business where I thought he had struck me at your swimming pool—”

  “Well, what about that?” Roxie just couldn’t wrap her mind around the whole scenario that Fennel had done this and not Jim.

  “According to Jim, as his friend told us, Fennel was wearing Jim’s clothes.”

  “Ahh, okay. So you’re still looking for Jim.”

  “Yeah. He has to realize that Fennel might want to eliminate him so he can’t dispute what Fennel and Xander have concocted. If that’s the case, we need to give him protection and get his testimony.”

  “All right.” She didn’t ask Dylan if they thought they might make it home tonight. She didn’t need to tell him how much she wanted him to be here with her. But she knew he felt the same way and there was no reason to make him feel badly about it. “Well, you’ve got to locate him.”

  “We do. CJ is on the phone with the girlfriend to see who she really dated.”

  “Oh, good. I love you, you know. I want you to get the right guy who not only killed Eddie but nearly killed you. I know you’ll do it,” she said.

  “I want to be with you. I wanted to help you get ready for tonight. I hate that I’m not there for you.”

  “You have a job to do. Everyone is helping set things up for the party so we’re good here. And if Fennel is the guilty party, he needs to be re-arrested.”

  “I agree. I’ve got to go. CJ has some news. I’ll call you later.”

  “Okay, thanks. I’ve got to go too. I love you,” she said.

  “I love you, honey. And I will be there if I can.”

  “I know you will. Just don’t take any chances.”

  “Right.”

  They ended the call, and she took a deep breath and saw Kayla coming to join her. “Hey, what’s up?” Kayla asked, looking worried.

  Roxie told her what had happened.

  “Ohmigod, they released Fennel from custody,” Kayla said.

  “Yeah. Fennel thinks he has gotten away with this if it’s all true.”

  Kayla gave her a hug. “Well, if the guys don’t get back in time for the celebration, you know everyone will be dancing with you, Carmela, and Laurel. I know you want to be with your mates, but the guys will make sure you’re not all wallflowers.”

  Roxie laughed. “Thanks. That’s great.”

  “So what’s up?” Landon asked, stopping what he was doing. The same with Blake.

  Roxie adored her family. They wanted to make sure she was going to be okay if Dylan didn’t make it back tonight in time. That made her feel a little better. Her family was the greatest.

  When CJ got off the phone with Jana, Aaron had already left the cabin to go bowhunting as a ruse to see if Jim would meet up with him. “Okay, so here’s the story. Jana dated Fennel, but he was way too volatile at times and way too controlling. She had dated him for about two weeks when she called it quits and began to see Eddie. She really liked him. She dated him for a month before this all went down. She can’t believe that Eddie is dead. She was crying. When I asked her who knew she was seeing Eddie, she said Jim and Xander saw her out with Eddie on a date. She and Eddie were careful not to let Fennel know. Eddie had told her it wouldn’t go over well with Fennel if he learned of it, even though Fennel was dating a slew of other women at the time. He just wouldn’t want to see her dating one of his buddies and really liking him.”

  “So she thought Fennel was capable of killing Eddie for it?” Dylan asked.

  “Yeah. She said she’d never dated Jim. He was seeing a girl named Trixie. He really liked her, and he wasn’t in the least bit interested in Jana,” CJ said.

  “Okay, so that means that Fennel has lied to us,” Dylan said.

  “Exactly. So we need to find Jim. I’m thinking we should head out to see if he tries to join up with Aaron,” Dylan said.

  “Let’s go.” CJ pulled his backpack onto his shoulders, and everyone did likewise, then they all headed out of the cabin and took off in the direction that Aaron had gone.

  An hour later, they finally located him. But he was alone.

  Aaron took a deep breath and let it out. “If you all are going to pursue me, Jim’s not going to try and meet up with me.”

  “This is serious business with Jim,” CJ reminded him.

  “Yeah, I know. And I appreciate you for trying to take care of him. But I haven’t seen him, and he hasn’t reached out to me. I don’t have any idea where he might have gone.”

  “Okay, thanks, Aaron. We’ll get out of your hair,” CJ said.

  Then they continued to search for any sign of Jim. They just weren’t finding his scent anywhere. The snow had fallen during the night, and if he’d left tracks, they were buried. But they should have smelled his scent still.

  They smelled someone else though. A man’s scent and it was recent. “Hell,” Dylan said.

  “What’s wrong?” CJ asked, glancing at him.

  “I smell the trapper’s scent. The guy has set traps all over. Poison traps, leg traps, both illegal. I don’t know who it is, but it’s the same man’s scent that I’ve smelled before when I came across one of his traps in the past.”

  “That’s the same guy that we were supposed to help you locate?” CJ asked.

  “Maybe. My boss didn’t have any names. But if we can catch any of these guys, the better for all of us. Let’s spread out and look for any traps he left behind,” Dylan said. They needed to at least confiscate them. Maybe they could lift some DNA off the traps to prove who he was, if he was in the system.

  Then they all moved apart and started looking for any traps, using long sticks to poke around at the snow wherever they smelled the man’s scent the strongest, wherever he had lingered the longest.

  That’s when Daniel called out. “Got one here!”

  They joined him and dug it out and set it off. Dylan hated men who did crap like this. Anyone could be at risk of stepping into one of them.

  They spent hours continuing to search for more of them and found three more when the light was beginning to fade.

  “Hey, we haven’t found any sign of the trapper or Jim and it’s getting late,” CJ said. “Let’s head on back to Silver Town.”

  “Yeah, it’s getting to be party time,” Michael said, sounding eager to get back to his mate.

  “Let’s go.” Dylan pulled out his phone to call Roxie.

  CJ said, “Better just surprise them, in case we end up running into either of these guys we’re after and don’t make it home in time.”

  “Yeah,” Michael said. “They’d be more annoyed or worried if we said we were coming home and then never made it.”

  Dylan conceded, though he still would have called Roxie if the other guys weren’t adamant about going silent.

  They returned to their snowmobiles and took off for home. It was going to be late when they got in. He wanted to speed up, but it would be bad if anyone ended up flipping his snowmobile in a race to get home.

  Chapter 23

  The night of the Valentine’s Day party, Roxie was so excited, but she was worried about Dylan and the other guys too. She had spent all day getting the ballrooms ready for the whole pack, which helped get her mind off waiting for word from Dylan. She’d had one call from him that said they hadn’t located Jim, but they’d found four traps set by the trapper Dylan was trying to locate, so that was good news. But that probably meant they wouldn’t make it home in time for the party.

  Even Luke and his girlfriend, Everleigh, and her brother, Benjamin, came to assist them. Everything was done in pink, red, and white heart-shaped helium balloons, tables covered in white tablecloths, pink candles surrounded by white roses, elegant and fragrant. It was beautiful and she was so glad it had all turned out so well.

  “Let’s go home and get dressed,” Kayla told her, giving her a hug. “Everything’s done to perfection. It looks beautiful. Everyone will just love the whole setup.”

  Roxie took a deep breath, put on a smile she wasn’t feeling, and hugged her sister back. “Let’s get ready then.”

  Kayla, Nate, Blake, and Nicole headed out with her to their homes to dress for the party. Nanny wolves were babysitting the babies. Landon went home to dress and bring Gabrielle back to the lodge. Roxie just wished she knew what was going on with Dylan and the others.

  When they were dressed to the nines, they returned to the ballroom. Everyone was arriving to the party with smiles and hugs. Roxie, Blake, Gabrielle, and Kayla were greeting all the pack members who were attending the party. Landon was making sure the servers were serving all the drinks. Nate was checking on the food. They had an open bar and the food, buffet style, was ready for everyone to eat.

  Carmela and CJ’s wife, Laurel, also came to stand with Roxie since both their mates were out there with Dylan searching for Jim though Laurel had two mated sisters who were coming soon. Darien and Lelandi and the rest of the Silver families were arriving and meeting with everyone too. Luke was with them, and his date, Everleigh, was just beautiful.

  Nelda and Gary arrived all dressed in their finery and looked wonderful. Nelda gave a hug to each of the ladies whose mates were searching for Jim and the trapper. Gary said he’d dance with each of them if their mates didn’t arrive at a decent time. Roxie loved them both as if they were her own parents. Then Nelda and Gary went off to get some food.

  “I brought CJ’s tux with me and texted him to tell him it’s here in your office if he makes it here in time,” Laurel told Carmela and Roxie.

  “Oh, me too,” Carmela said. “I brought Bryan’s and Daniel’s also. If they arrive before midnight, it’ll be faster for them to just dress here rather than go home.”

  “Since we live right next door to the lodge, I just left Dylan’s tux at home,” Roxie said.

  “I don’t blame you,” Carmela said. “I’m starving. Let’s get something to eat.”

  “And to drink,” Laurel said.

  The ladies were right. Even though Roxie could barely think of anything other than wanting to wait right at the entryway to the ballroom for Dylan’s arrival, she knew he wouldn’t want her missing out on the party and worrying about him. Besides, she figured he enjoyed the thrill of the hunt for bad guys more than he was interested in dressing up for a formal ballroom affair.

  “That’s the spirit,” Carmela said as the three ladies clinked their glasses of champagne together. “Besides, you know the guys would rather hunt than dance in tuxes. So there’s no reason for us not to enjoy ourselves.”

  “That’s exactly what I was thinking.” Roxie set her glass on the table where they were going to sit, and then she and the other ladies followed suit before they went to the buffet table and started serving themselves dinner. “This is so much fun.”

  “Oh, you outdid yourself. Everything is just wonderful. The decorations, the food, the music. And everyone looks so elegant,” Laurel said.

  “Yes,” Carmela said. “Everything is so grand.”

  Then Roxie got a call and answered it, seeing it was Dylan, and she braced for the news.

  “We’re here,” Dylan said.

  “Really? Seriously? You’re back home? Oh, thank God.”

  He laughed. “We’re at your house. We needed to shower, but the guys’ tuxes are at your office.”

  “Oh, we’ll get them right over to you.” Roxie got off the phone. “They’re here, at my place showering.”

  “We’ve got this,” Landon said, overhearing her, and he and Blake headed for the office and then carried all the tuxes to Roxie’s house.

  Roxie, Carmela, and Laurel all hugged each other. They were delighted the men were coming to the party. So were the single she-wolves who were waiting to dance with Daniel and Bryan.

  So many things had happened this year, and Roxie was thrilled she actually had a wolf taking her to the Valentine’s Day party. Luke had decided that living with Darien and Lelandi and the triplets was great. The pack leaders had adopted him that week.

  Then everyone who was attending the party was at the buffet, choosing from specialty drinks and carved roast beef on the sideboard along with another of pork roast and several side dishes including roasted carrots, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, gravy, and potato rolls. Guests were using the tables around the dance floor to enjoy dinner first while a band was playing music.

  When the men had taken their showers, dressed, and arrived at the ballroom, they looked like a bunch of suave, sexy James Bonds ready to right any wrong. The ladies were thrilled.

  Roxie threw her arms around her handsome wolf, who looked absolutely dashing. She didn’t care if they hadn’t found Jim or the trapper, just as long as Dylan was with her tonight. She had kept telling herself that he needed to do what he needed to do, but she couldn’t help being glad that he was here with her tonight.

  They kissed long and hard. “Do you want to eat something?” Roxie asked, not letting him move from her tight hold.

  “I want to dance with you just like this. All night long.”

  “Hmm, I’m all for that. But I hear your stomach growling. We’ll dance to two songs, and then you need to eat. I bet you haven’t had dinner yet. The ladies and I were about to eat when you called.”

  “No. We were too eager to return home in time for the celebration.”

  “I so agree. Tomorrow, you can go out again.” Though she really wanted to spend the day with him.

  “No way. I’m home. I’ll begin looking for the trapper and Jim again the day after that.”

  “Okay. That’s a deal.” Though she knew if he had word that either man was in the vicinity, Dylan would be on the case, and she loved that about him. He didn’t shirk from his job, even though he could have probably been on medical leave through today at least. But for now, she was dancing nice and slow with her wolf.

  Now this was nice. She’d never expected to be dancing with a mate at the Valentine’s Day party. This couldn’t have worked out any better for her. She so loved him.

  She moved her body against his in such a sensual way that he quickly became aroused.

  “Hmm, I wouldn’t mind taking you home right now,” he said.

  She smiled up at him. “I’d love to, but I helped to set this all up.”

  He sighed and kept her snuggled in his arms, not loosening his grip on her as they danced to the music. When the next song played, they didn’t want to release each other and both continued to dance for three more songs.

  But then at the end of the last one, she finally pulled away from him and said, “It’s time for you to eat. I don’t want you to pass out on me, and you’ll need all the energy you can get for right after midnight. You don’t think you’re going to just go home to bed to sleep, do you?”

  He laughed. “Nope. But I’m damn glad I’ll be waking up to you.”

  “I bet. I’m sure glad you will be too.”

  He filled up a plate of pork roast and roast beef, potatoes, carrots, and okra. She grabbed a plate and added roast beef, potatoes, and okra for herself. They got some pink champagne and sat down together at a table with her family while Laurel had joined CJ with the Silver family. Luke and his date and her family sat with the Silvers too. Carmela sat with Michael and their extended family with the Silvers, since she and her brother were Lelandi’s cousins.

  “Hey, we’re sure glad you made it here tonight for the celebration,” Landon said.

  “We all are,” Kayla said. “But the guys were all going to dance with Roxie so she wouldn’t have felt left out.”

  “No need to now. But thanks.” Dylan leaned over and kissed Roxie. “I’m glad to be here.”

  “Are you going out tomorrow to search for these guys?” Blake asked.