RESCUED BY THE HIGHLANDER

by Preston, Rebecca

  “Stay together,” she said to the people behind her. “Don’t let it frighten you apart. It won’t attack unless it senses weakness. And the men will be here soon.”

  Anna hoped very much that that was the case. The wolf began to circle the little group, its great paws leaving prints in the forest floor as it padded in a wide circle around them. Anna followed it, staying close to the group but moving around the circle with her weapon outstretched. She was looking it hard in the eyes, trying to keep its focus on her — and it was working. The creature understood her to be the group’s protector, something about the way its eyes kept track of her movements told her that. Good. It would have to go through her before it got to the servants. With any luck, she could hold this tense standoff for as long as possible — keep the wolf staring at her until the men came running to their rescue.

  But as the wolf grew bolder, moving closer and closer to the circle of servants, Anna began to re-evaluate that strategy. It was realizing that the people weren’t going to strike at it — that the fire couldn’t harm it, that in comparison to the group of bodies in front of it, there was precious little iron to stand in its way. It was only a matter of time before it decided to strike, to call Anna on the bluff she was leaning into. She couldn’t allow that to happen. If it struck — if it ran at them, its huge body in motion, its great jaws open in a snarl — the servants behind her would panic and scatter. It would be a bloodbath. The only way to successfully avoid that situation was to take the element of surprise for herself. So, without warning, tensing her body in the same moment as she sprang, Anna ran straight at the wolf, summoning the most frightening battle cry she could in the moment.

  It worked. The wolf shied back, clearly surprised by her sudden attack — and wary of the iron she held in one hand, outstretched toward it. Its sinuous body flexed out of her way and it regained its footing, glowering at her and snarling as it held its ground. She jabbed at it with the iron, causing it to shy back — then unexpectedly, it lunged toward her, its jaws slicing through the air toward her head. She ducked the attack, spun and slashed at it with the dirk, whooping in triumph as the blade sliced through the thick fur on its powerful neck. There was a hiss and a sudden, surprising burst of steam shot up from the creature’s neck — it howled in pain, skittering away from her in panic before regaining its footing and circling her at a greater distance.

  The servants behind her cheered, but she knew she had to keep her wits about her. The creature, now injured, would be angry — she had to stay sharp, make sure she got out of its way if it attacked her. Good to know how effective iron was against it, though — though the smell of singed fur and wet dog was an unpleasant one, she relished it as a sign she’d harmed the creature. If she could wound it, she could kill it. Maybe the men wouldn’t be necessary after all. God, the men — she hoped they’d arrive soon. She didn’t fancy coming up against that thing’s teeth again.

  It lunged again, unexpectedly, and she dodged aside — but this time her feet tangled in a root and she stumbled, almost losing her footing. It was enough of a window for the animal to pounce, and she felt the force of its body send her flying. Panicking, she hit the ground hard, already scrambling to her feet with her dirk outstretched — but the creature was there, and before she could react, its jaws were snapping shut over her arm. She yanked it back with a yell, managing to avoid the worst of the bite — but she was in close quarters with it now, and her body was throbbing with pain where she’d hit the ground. The wolf snarled, whipping its head around to bite at her, and she drove the dirk into its shoulder again, feeling it part the hair and drive deep into the muscle there. Yelping, the wolf staggered away, limping on its right foot, and she pressed the advantage, running forward in the hopes of driving the dirk straight into its eye.

  Too fast — too reckless. The wolf snapped at her, and this time the blow connected. She felt her jacket tear as the teeth plunged through the fabric, locking tight around her left arm — and to her horror, the creature shook her like she’d seen dogs shake their toys. The power in it was immense, and she felt pain split through her arm. The only thing to do was to go limp, let it shake her — and throw her toward the trees. She rolled, her mind on the pain in her arm, and on getting her weapon up. She dragged herself upright, glad at least that it was her left arm the wolf had torn at — her right arm was still strong. She could still fight. She struggled to her knees, feeling blood starting to pour down her left arm. A brief flex of her hand brought pain, but not debilitating pain — the bone wasn’t broken, then. That was good. A flesh wound she could handle.

  She jabbed her blade at the wolf, menacing it with the iron — and warily, it circled back a little, still limping on its right leg with its menacing, glowing red eyes fixed on hers. They were both injured now, it seemed to say. But who was going to last longer, the wolf or the woman? She was bleeding a lot, she knew, but she still had some fight in her. The frightened cries of the servants drew the wolf’s attention, and hers — she realized with a sickly jolt of fear that she’d allowed the wolf to separate her from the little group she was defending.

  “Don’t you dare,” she yelled at the wolf now, moving toward it — it snarled, blocking her from moving past it to the group of servants. This was bad. From this angle, there was nothing to stop the wolf from turning on the group and tearing through them like so much wet tissue paper. The only thing she had on her side was the wolf’s reluctance to turn its back on her. And a good thing too — the minute it turned, she was going to leap on it with everything she had in her. Something told her that if she could stab the dirk deeply into its chest, piercing its heart, then the fight would be over.

  But she was losing blood. And the wolf, injured though it was, didn’t seem like it was in any hurry — it watched her with its head lowered, the snarl on its maw almost like a smirk in the torchlight. I’ve got all the time in the world, it seemed to say.

  But Anna’s time was running out.

  Chapter 34

  Her heart was starting to pound as worry set in, fear beginning to curl around the corners of her awareness even as she kept her eyes fixed on the wolf. It was wary of her — that was all she had going for her at this point, its unwillingness to turn its back on her. If she let her guard down for a moment, if she let the wolf get even a couple of seconds of spare time, it was going to turn around and hurl itself into the group of servants. They were all trying to look brave, she could tell. Over the wolf’s shoulder she could see the little group, standing close together, their torches and iron weapons outstretched. But if the wolf ran toward them…

  Wait. She’d forgotten about something. There, in front of the little group, lying on the ground — the net, covered in iron pegs for weight. Could that be an option? She moved toward the wolf slightly, heard its growl — and raised her voice so the servants could hear her.

  “I’m going to distract it. One of you — grab the net and get it ready to throw.”

  Two men at the front of the group nodded, bending lower in readiness to grab the net. So, Anna took a deep breath — then feinted at the wolf, her iron blade moving swiftly toward it. With a snarl, it moved back, then lunged at her in response — she dodged aside, spinning around to keep the weapon between her and the beast. In the few seconds it took, the men had gathered the net, splitting it between them so that it was ready to throw.

  “Good. Now — be ready to throw it at the wolf, okay? I’m going to try to get it to head toward you —”

  But she broke off. The wolf’s head had rocketed up, its black ears standing on end, and its glowing ember-eyes seemed to dim a little as it focused on what it was hearing. Anna saw her chance to dive in and stab the creature in the eye while it was distracted — but as if sensing her thoughts, it snarled, taking a few steps toward her in warning. But what had it heard? Could it be — Anna’s eyes widened as she listened to the sounds of the forest. Yes — that was footsteps. Definitely. And plenty of them, too — at least twenty men, headed this w
ay. As the steps grew closer, she could hear shouts, too. The panic in the wolf’s eyes was clear, and she grinned at it. Who had the advantage now?

  And as if on cue, Donal came crashing through the trees on the other side of the clearing, his iron dirk held in one hand and a flickering torch in the other. She never thought she’d be so happy to see the arrogant Laird. He was at the head of his group of men, and at his signal, they fanned out, forming a line behind him. The servants were murmuring in relief, but Anna knew the fight wasn’t over. The wolf looked panicked, ready to run. She wasn’t willing to let that happen. Otherwise, this whole situation may have to be repeated… and she wasn’t sure Donal would let her come out again. He was already staring at her as though he’d seen a ghost, and she could tell from the expression on his face that they were going to have a rather explosive conversation about this.

  Well, not yet. Not until the wolf was dealt with. Anna gritted her teeth, knowing she had to act now, before the wolf ran off into the forest — so she lunged forward, yelling at the creature and stabbing at it with her dirk. Startled by her sudden attack, the wolf snarled and snapped at her, but it was clearly frightened of the iron, staggering away backwards on paws that were a little clumsy in reverse. She looked up at the servants — the two men were still holding the net, but their eyes were on Donal, who was advancing across the clearing.

  “Now!” she barked — and the men turned to her with a start. They hurled the net as hard as they could at the creature.

  It wasn’t a direct hit — the net ideally would have ensnared the entire creature. It made it over its hindquarters but fell short of covering its head. Still, the impact was immediate. The creature howled in panic, its hindquarters flinching away from the feeling of the iron pegs that were now dangling across it — it lunged forward, an impulsive reaction, trying to escape the touch of the iron on its body. And that lunge carried it directly into Anna’s reach. She lifted her dirk —

  “No!”

  Suddenly, Donal was there — to her shock, he’d sprinted across the clearing and hurled himself bodily onto the wolf’s back. The wolf screamed again, a horrible sound like nails scraping on a blackboard, and Anna felt her whole body shudder involuntarily. Donal’s weight was enough to knock it down — the two rolled in the dust, Donal somehow avoiding its gnashing jaws as he stabbed at it again and again with his dirk. Anna couldn’t get a clean shot at the wolf — she didn’t want to stab the Laird by mistake — but it didn’t matter. Within seconds, Donal roared in triumph as he drove his long iron blade straight into the wolf’s throat to the hilt. With one last bone-chilling howl, the creature shuddered… and finally lay still. A pool of black blood began to spread around its felled body as Donal climbed to his feet, breathing hard.

  “Are you hurt?”

  “What the hell are you doing out here?” he demanded, ignoring her question as he took several long strides to grab her by the shoulders. He shook her angrily, and she felt anger rise in her chest — still full of adrenaline and unable to restrain herself, she struck at him with her elbow, hitting him hard in the solar plexus. It wasn’t a great shot, but it surprised him enough to let her go.

  “I came with the servants,” she said, her teeth gritted. “I was carrying supplies —”

  “That’s all very well, but what the hell were you doing playing the warrior here?” He gestured at the dead wolf at his feet, a disgusted look on his face. “Do you have any idea how dangerous your actions were? You could have been killed. You all could have been killed. Not only have you endangered yourself, you endangered all of these people.”

  He gestured behind him to the servants, who had come out of their tight-knit clump. Anna caught Emily’s gaze — the woman shrugged helplessly. She realized that none of them were going to speak in her defense — they were all too frightened to speak up to the Laird when he was in this kind of a temper. Well, that was fine. They didn’t need to defend her. She was more than capable of defending herself.

  “First of all,” she said, her eyes narrowed, “I was not playing the warrior. I was doing my job. A job I trained for, for most of my life, just like you.”

  “Oh, aye, of course,” he said with scorn dripping from his voice. “Do you even know how to use the weapon you’re wielding? Where did you get that, anyway? Did you pickpocket it from a guard?”

  “I took it from the armory,” she snapped, “and it’s a good thing, too, because without me, your entire supply line would have been left completely unguarded.”

  There was a murmur of surprise from the men gathered in the clearing. Donal glanced over his shoulder, seemingly surprised to remember their presence there. He must have forgotten that they had an audience, so intent was he on chastening her for having the audacity to protect his people from a monster like the dead wolf at their feet.

  “These men are the best trained in the country for dealing with monsters like that one,” Donal said flatly, raising his voice a little so that his men could hear him. She could see Brendan and Malcolm standing in the crowd, looking very curious to see how this argument would go.

  “Oh, is that so?” she asked. She knew she was losing her temper — she knew the way she was speaking wasn’t the most constructive way to give feedback on tactics, knew she risked burning a lot of bridges here, alienating the very Laird of the castle she was staying in. But she was exhausted, full of the afterburn of adrenaline, and her arm was beginning to hurt quite a lot. She ignored the blood running down it. Donal hadn’t noticed it yet, and she wasn’t going to draw attention to it if she didn’t have to. There’d be time later to sort it out. For now, she had to defend herself. “I don’t care how good they are at fighting creatures like this,” she said, low and deadly. “It doesn’t do anyone a damn bit of good if they don’t have the discipline to stay in formation and guard the unarmed members of the party.”

  His eyes widened in shock. That had dealt a significant blow to his ego, she could tell. The men were shuffling their feet — she could sense them beginning to turn against her. Insulting a soldier’s discipline was a serious affront, she knew. Best to mitigate that. “It’s not their fault,” she continued, loud enough for everyone gathered to hear. “They were excited for the hunt, they wanted to move fast. It’s their commander’s job to keep them in line. It’s their commander who failed them.”

  Donal’s gray eyes were ice cold in the torch light. “Are you questioning my command of my men?”

  “Yes,” she said flatly, jutting her chin out. She made sure her voice was loud enough to be heard by everyone present, too. She didn’t want anyone missing what she had to say. “And if it wasn’t for me and my stolen weapon, all of these civilians would be dead by now. You all went on ahead — the creature circled around to pick off the unguarded stragglers. Any leader worth their salt would have predicted that. You were complacent about hunting down a wolf — so complacent you gave no thought to how a wolf would behave.”

  “Silence,” Donal said, and for a moment she was convinced he was going to strike her, so much rage was in his face. She dropped her weight into her lower body. Exhausted she may be, but if he was going to try to hurt her, she was sure as hell going to make sure he had a few scars. After all, she still had the dirk in her hand, stained with the creature’s black blood.

  But he didn’t strike her. He just stared at her for a long moment, his anger and frustration plain on his face. Then he moved toward her, sharply. Reflexively, she dodged back, raising the weapon — but it was the weapon he was after. He seized the handle, wrapping his huge hand around her smaller one — they locked eyes for a minute, the point of contact burning between them. Should she fight him on this? Should she insist on keeping her weapon? The frightened eyes of the servants behind Donal caught her attention.

  No — she’d said her piece. He was a disgusting chauvinist, but he didn’t deserve to be completely humiliated in front of his men. He was still the Laird of the castle — the error he’d made had been foolish, but not worthy
of mutiny. So, she released the weapon. She didn’t miss the slight sigh of relief he breathed, and she felt a pang of smugness at that. Good. Let him be a little worried about what she was capable of. He was probably regretting being so condescending to her when she’d first come to the castle. Maybe if he’d just let her spar with him, he’d have some respect for her prowess as a warrior. Maybe if he’d just acknowledged that women could fight too, she’d have been among the soldiers on this mission, not the supplies-carriers, and she’d have been able to ensure the servants didn’t get left behind.

  “You will not get this back,” he warned her, voice low and flat. She braced herself for a telling-off. This was what men did — they had to get the last word, no matter how in the wrong they may have been. She’d had plenty of experience with smiling and nodding and accepting a tongue-lashing for the purpose of preserving a man’s ego. “You will not leave the castle. You will not leave your room until I am satisfied I can trust you to move around my castle again. Is that understood?”

  Anna nodded meekly. What other choice did she have?

  Chapter 35

  They didn’t walk back to the castle straight away. Shortly after the tongue-lashing of a lifetime, Anna found herself at the edge of the clearing. All the guards were trying to look at her while pretending they were looking somewhere else — it would have been funny if she hadn’t been so worried about her standing in the castle. She hadn’t regretted what she’d said — Donal had sorely needed to hear it, and if he was smart, he’d let his embarrassment turn him into a better leader and a better soldier. Everyone made mistakes — it was what you did with them that was important. But still, she worried. What if he kicked her out completely? How was she supposed to find her way back home if she was forbidden from moving around the castle at all? She’d just have to be on her best behavior until he decided she was allowed out again, she resolved. Bat her eyelids, play the good little woman. It was galling, but Anna had always been the kind of person to do what she had to do to survive.