by Terry Spear
“Did you call Calla to have her go to Argent Castle?”
“Aye, about your wedding. Where… are… you? My sons are frantically searching for you.”
“Have you talked with Calla recently?” Elaine asked in a rush. Please, please, Calla, be okay.
“Aye, I told her to wait to arrive here until after the fighting ended between the wolf packs. She couldn’t come here in the midst of it.”
Elaine bit her lip, trying to judge the time that had passed. An hour? Two? “Call her and make sure she’s okay.”
“She’s here, dear. Right here with me. What is this about, lass? Cearnach is ready to have a heart attack over you vanishing like you did.”
“There… there won’t be any wedding. I had to know Calla was safe.”
Elaine stared at the landscape she was passing—a small house in a glen, fenced-in Highland cows, a creek half hidden in woods.
Everything seemed familiar as she drove farther away from Argent Castle. She was sure she was heading back to Edinburgh where she could return the rental car and get a flight out to anywhere that she could. Not to the States, though. She couldn’t return there yet. Not without him finding her too quickly.
“Elaine? Calla arrived at Argent Castle a few minutes ago. What’s wrong?” Cearnach’s mother asked, her voice troubled.
Thanking the heavens Calla was safe, Elaine realized she was in real trouble. “I’m sorry for everything,” she said with tears in her voice. “Don’t make any wedding plans. There won’t be a wedding.”
Before her almost mother-in-law could say anything, Elaine cut off the connection and stared at the road she was on, finally recognizing a few of the landmarks. She’d been so shook up that she hadn’t realized she had gone the wrong way. She was on the road to Senton Castle.
Like a wolf returning to its own territory, she was back home again—at her family’s castle.
She was so turned around. So angry with herself that she could scream. She hated getting lost more than anything else in the world. How could she do this to herself now?
If she continued past the castle, she had no idea where she’d end up.
She pulled into the parking lot at the castle ruins to turn the car around, figuring that she’d have to drive to the nearest city she could find and get directions, when three vehicles rushed in behind her.
Heart nearly failing, she glanced over her shoulder to see them tactically blocking her in. They must have been following her. The road twisted and turned so much that as long as they kept back far enough, she wouldn’t spy them. Or maybe they had suspected where she was headed from the direction she had taken and had come straight here. As if she’d come here of her own accord.
Or had they planted a device in the car that would make her easy to follow? Sure, that’s why Rafferty had suggested she take the car and run. Oh, how could she have fallen so easily into his trap?
Her heart was pounding so wildly that she didn’t know what to do. They’d blocked her in and she had no way to move the car. As a woman, she had no defenses. As a wolf, sure, but if anyone had a tranquilizer dart, she wouldn’t stand a chance against her kin, either.
She could run. But they could shift and run after her. Males could catch up to her with their longer legs.
She didn’t have a choice.
She closed her eyes. She could only do one thing. Attempt to return to Argent Castle. God, how could this nightmare get any worse?
As much as she hated to, she had to solicit the MacNeills’ help to get away. Like Cearnach had intended to aid her so many years ago.
She shoved open the car door, yanked off her clothes, and heard the men shouting, “She’s shifting!”
Car doors were thrown open. She willed herself to be a wolf, and before anyone could strip or chase after her, she dashed off. She would never be Rafferty’s punching bag again.
She would have to find a way to defend herself in the future. Arm herself. Be prepared. Kill him if he ever found her again.
She raced toward the castle ruins, wishing she had an army of men who could rain arrows down on her own kin. Then she tore down the stairs until she reached the walkway and leaped to the beach. She would have to find her way home. No not home. To Argent Castle. Cearnach’s home. Not hers.
He’d be so angry with her. She didn’t want to face him. She’d ask Ian instead. He’d probably be just as angry with her. She’d mated with his brother when she should never have done so.
What a mess she’d made of things.
All because she’d returned to Scotland, wanting the treasure, just like her own family whose greed had made them pirates.
She ran as fast as her legs would carry her, knowing some of her kin would turn wolf and follow her. Had they picked up Rafferty, too? Probably. He was much older than her. He probably couldn’t keep up with her or the rest of them like some of the younger, stronger wolves.
If they got hold of her and could stop her from running, Rafferty would catch up to her, too.
* * *
Cearnach had been flooring the gas nearly the whole time and hadn’t seen any sign of her on the road ahead. Which way did you go? Which way, Elaine?
Duncan’s phone rang, and he lifted it off his lap. “Yeah, Guthrie?”
“She’s running as a wolf. Up near Senton Castle. Five wolves are trying to track her down. Three are McKinleys—Vardon, Baird, and another brother. And both the Kilpatrick brothers are in hot pursuit,” Guthrie said.
Cearnach was already turning his car around.
“How the hell did you know she went that way?” Duncan asked.
“You went one way, I went the opposite,” Guthrie said.
“Where’s the wolf who met her in the kennel?” Duncan asked.
“Up on the walk to the castle. He’s in wolf form still, but he’s older, and I figured he’s letting the younger wolves chase her down and bring her back to him. Or he’s planning on catching up to them if they can grab her and hold her for him.” A pause followed. “Hell, he’s run after them.”
“They’re dead wolves,” Cearnach growled. Then he frowned. “Why would Rafferty hold back?” Cearnach asked. “He’s alpha. I didn’t see that she’d been physically abused when she dashed out of the kennel. He’s a hitter. He had to know she’d been with another male. And now, up on the walkway. Why would he let the others go after her first? He should have been the first one after her. Why would the bastard have held back?”
“He’s older, in charge? Paying the money for her kin to bring her to him? Above chasing her down? In the kennels, he couldn’t afford to beat her. Injured, she wouldn’t have been able to escape him, or us,” Guthrie said. “She appears to be headed south toward our castle.”
“Bloody hell,” Cearnach said, thinking of how she knew the way on foot, smelling their scents, tracking better than she could find her way while driving a car. She would face the farmer’s wrath again, the dogs, and the falls.
He pulled off onto another road.
“This isn’t going to take you to the ruins. Where are you headed?” Duncan asked.
“To intercept her, fight the other wolves, and take her home.”
“She’s mated to another wolf,” Duncan warned.
“Aye.” He cast Duncan a dark look that told his brother just what he had in mind.
Duncan nodded. “Aye. Guthrie, you get all that?”
“I don’t understand,” Guthrie said.
“The wolf who was watching from the pathway is Kelly Rafferty, Elaine’s mate. He was thought dead since a year after her uncle’s hangings,” Cearnach said.
Duncan snorted. “If he’s waited that long to reclaim his mate, he doesn’t deserve her.”
“He beat her, killed her parents, and I suspect, murdered the men who became interested in mating her. He forced the mating. He’s a dead wolf,” Cearnach said. “She should have known she didn’t have to run.”
“I remember when she got away from us in St. Andrews, Cearnach,” Dunc
an said. “She was frightened then, had no family to call her own. This is the only thing she knows how to do. To her way of thinking, she’s dishonored our clan, the pack, you. She has no family to fall back on. She won’t return to Rafferty, so she intends to disappear again.”
“Aye, she’s a woman. She doesn’t think like a warrior,” Guthrie said.
“If you don’t kill him, I will, Cearnach. She should never have run. She’s one of us now,” Duncan said.
“I’ll kill him,” Cearnach promised.
“Where do I need to go to meet up with you?” Guthrie asked.
“A quarter mile south of Oglivie’s farm. She’ll be headed for the river, and we’ll need to stop her kin from pursuing her and keep her from crossing the river,” Cearnach said.
“Oglivie’s got two border collies,” Duncan warned.
“Aye.” How well Cearnach knew.
“Meet you there,” Guthrie said.
“Be careful,” Duncan told him.
“And you.”
“She won’t make it to the river.” Duncan set his phone back on his lap.
“Not without me to help her.” Cearnach headed down another road.
Duncan frowned. “You’re going to intercept her earlier? You’re not going to include Guthrie in the fight?”
“I have to do it this way.”
Duncan sighed and folded his arms. “That means facing five wolves.”
“I wanted Guthrie with us. But I can’t describe the location adequately so that he would find it. The best I can do is to have him meet us beyond the Oglivie’s farm and his dogs. We’ll rescue her, then take her to the car, then get in touch with Guthrie.”
“All right.” Duncan made another call. “Ian, she’s running as a wolf, headed back to Argent Castle from Senton Castle and pursued by some of the Kilpatricks and McKinleys. We’re going to intercept them.”
“Why did she run? She has to know we’d protect her,” Ian said over the sound of men shouting in the background at Argent Castle and the dogs barking wildly.
“She learned she has a former mate who’s still alive.”
Ian snorted. “The pirate Rafferty? The wolf is a dead mon. Guthrie with you?”
Cearnach swore under his breath. When had Ian learned the truth?
“Not exactly,” Duncan said to Ian.
“How many wolves are after her?”
“Five. We can manage.”
“Duncan, I know how capable the two of you are. But you have to include Guthrie. I don’t want to lose either of my brothers or the lass.”
“Cearnach doesn’t think he can guide him to the right location.”
“Try. I’ll send men to Senton Castle to grab their vehicles and hers. This time they’ll be stranded. Give them a taste of their own treachery.”
Duncan smiled. “Aye. Revenge is sweet, Ian. I’ll call Guthrie.”
Cearnach could envision his pack members driving the cars back to Argent Castle while Kilpatrick and the others had to return home as wolves. Let them face Oglivie’s gun and dogs. He hoped if the farmer saw the pack of wolves, he’d be drinking a wee bit much and believe he was seeing things.
“Guthrie,” Duncan said, “change of plans. Head north of Oglivie’s farm.”
“Aye, meet you north of that location.”
Duncan shoved his phone into the console between the front seats and began yanking off his clothes.
“Another five miles to go yet, brother,” Cearnach said.
Duncan smiled. “Aye. If you get stopped, just say I’m your pet dog. I’ll give the nice policeman a big grin.”
Cearnach knew his brother would, too.
The five miles seemed to take forever. When they reached the place Cearnach had in mind, he pulled the car off the road into a turnout and began to strip. Duncan was panting, waiting for him to open the door for him.
Cearnach reached around his brother and pushed his door open. Duncan jumped out of the car and shoved the door closed with his nose.
Cearnach pushed his own door open and locked the doors with the electronic keypad. Thankfully, they had a keypad on the outside door panel on their cars, so there was no worry about getting back into their vehicles after they were done with business.
After shifting, he pushed the door closed with his paws and joined his brother. Duncan greeted him, nose to nose, then the two ran to where Cearnach was certain Elaine would be headed. When he didn’t find her scent, he figured she hadn’t made it this far, and his heart began skipping beats. Hell, what if the wolves had already encircled her much closer to Senton Castle? What if they had forced her to return to the car park already?
He went north, hoping to reach her quickly. They were now northeast of the Oglivie farm.
Guthrie would be able to detect their scent once he’d reached where they’d left their car and begun to run on foot. Their paws would leave their scent, easy for him to locate.
Cearnach heard growling about a half mile away. He recognized the vocal sound at once. It was Elaine’s warning growl—long and low and threatening. Not quite like when she had stood beside him in the woods outside Argent Castle and growled at Baird McKinley and Robert Kilpatrick. Loud this time as if warning them that if any got near, she’d rip them to shreds.
Fear for her engulfed him. He tore after her, his brother racing beside him. His stomach was knotted, every muscle tensed, adrenaline coursing through his veins.
Male snarls and snaps greeted her as she responded in kind. Her cousins were trying to force her to return with them, and she was telling them in wolf terms—no way.
Someone yipped twice.
Not her. He remembered the sound of her yip when he’d startled her by coming up behind her in the river.
Then a yip sounded from her.
Cearnach saw red.
Chapter 27
If his tongue wasn’t lolling out of his mouth as he ran, Cearnach would be grinding his teeth. He’d kill the bastard who had frightened her so.
He knew her cousins would be pissed off at her. They’d take out their frustrations on her because of her perceived disobedience.
What did her cousins plan to do with her? They couldn’t knock her out with drugs, not while pursuing her as wolves. They had to be trying to corral and take her back to the cars parked at Senton Castle and to that bastard Rafferty. That’s all Cearnach could imagine they’d try to do.
He wanted to call out to her, howl, bark, to let her know her Highland warrior was on his way. But he didn’t want to alert her kin that he was coming to rescue her, afraid they might deal with her more harshly if they thought their time was quickly running out.
Instead, he moved swiftly over the glen and through the woods, scattering birds, and then he dashed across a shallow stream, sending the water flying, trying to judge where she was.
Dogs began to bark south of them. Oglivie’s collies. He frowned and glanced over his shoulder, couldn’t see anything but trees. He and Duncan were too far from the farmhouse for the collies to come this way. Unless… Guthrie had to be passing the farm. Cearnach briefly worried about the old man getting into his rusty pickup truck and trying to hunt Guthrie down.
Then Cearnach saw Elaine standing proud and tall, tail straight out behind her, her fur standing on end to make her appear more threatening. Five male wolves circled her, ganging up on her, bigger, meaner, more powerful. She was just as aggressive as they were. Every time one moved in close, she charged him, and the wolf would veer out of her path.
Trees surrounded the area on all sides but one, and that backed up on a swiftly moving river.
It was a game for them. A well-executed game. She knew it, but she had no other options but to keep them at bay.
They were trying to wear her down. Five against one. They were resting in between. She was tense, and with one perpetually attacking her, she didn’t have time to rest. Even so, everyone’s tongues were hanging out.
He noted then that Vardon’s ear dripped with blood.
Damn, the woman had balls.
He saw the blood streaking down her right hip. Someone had bitten her.
Cearnach turned his head to look at Vardon again. The wolf’s mouth was bloody also. He was a dead wolf.
Vardon and Robert saw Cearnach and his brother first. Their mouths snapped shut, their ears perked, and their gazes focused on the bigger, more dangerous male wolves.
They realized at once who Cearnach and Duncan were. Knew that they had a real fight on their hands now, not just with a she-wolf who was battling five males at once. The odds were still in her kin’s favor, but the odds were a wee bit better now.
She swung her head around to see what had taken the wolves’ attention. At first, Cearnach saw the relief in her expression and then the sorrow. She was mated to him but couldn’t be. The other wolves quickly moved around to face the oncoming males, but only Vardon need have worried about fighting a male.
Cearnach hit Vardon so hard with his body in a frontal assault that the wolf fell backward and landed hard on his side with an oompf. He quickly scrambled to his feet as Duncan growled low, warning the other wolves not to interfere.
Cearnach attacked Vardon again, ripping at his other ear, the flap dangling and bloodied. Vardon howled in pain and anger, then swung around to bite Cearnach, but then paused, looking past him.
Cearnach didn’t dare look to see what was happening behind him. A wolf never turned his head away from another that he was fighting if he wanted to live.
Guthrie gave a low growl, letting Cearnach know he had arrived. So now they were more evenly matched in the event that the other wolves wanted to fight this out.
Vardon growled at Cearnach and lunged again, but Cearnach tore viciously into him, ripping at the skin of his throat. The wolf fell back and ran even farther away, turning quickly in case Cearnach was following him. He wasn’t. He was standing his ground, not about to put more distance between him and Elaine.