She raced upstairs. She didn’t want to put back on the gown she wore last night. She would have liked to put on pants and take a weapon with her, but she had no other clothes. She started to put them on when Meggy the maid entered. She smiled. “’Ere, let me help ye wi’ that.”
Sadie’s hands trembled while she got dressed. She raced out of the room and headed for Callum’s room, but she met him coming the other way. She rushed at him and threw herself into his arms. “Listen to me. You have to fight him as a dragon. You have to defeat him. All the brothers plan to attack you as a pack. You have to be ready. You have to destroy them once and for all.”
He kissed her. He paid no attention to Christie standing right there watching the whole thing. “I cinnae destroy them. They’re neighbors tae our Clan. If I dinnae hold meself back, they’ll start a war me relations cinnae win.”
“Are you nuts?” Sadie blurted out. “You have to kill him. You could flatten with one foot. You could wipe them all out and they would never bother you again. They would never bother me again. Do you know what he’ll do to me if you don’t defeat him now?”
He bent over to kiss her one more time. “I cinnae. I dinnae ken how I can defeat him withoot makin’ the situation worse, but I ha’e tae try. I cinnae leave him tae fester up plans tae attack me Clan. That’s all there is tae it.”
“You’re playing by a different set of rules,” she told him. “You think honor and fair play will win this. He’ll betray you the first chance he gets. He knows you’ll play fair with no funny stuff, and he’ll exploit your weakness. Don’t you realize that?”
He pushed her back. “It’s no weakness. Ye mun’ understand that above all else. If he plays dirty, it’s he alone that suffers.”
“Not if you’re dead,” she pointed out.
He separated from her and set her aside. “Come alaing. Just dinnae get in me way out there. Do ye understand? Dinnae try tae make it better fer me, or ye’ll only make it worse.”
She choked back tears. “I only want to help you. I can’t stand by and watch them kill you.”
He turned to Christie. “Ye look after her, lad. Ye make sure she doesnae interfere.”
“Aye, mon. I’ll do it.”
Sadie heard her voice rising. “How can you do this? How can you let him do this, Christie? How can you let Lachlan end it like this?”
Callum took her hand. He kissed her knuckles and walked away down the landing with Christie on his heels. He didn’t look back.
Chapter 26
Callum stopped in the castle entrance to adjust his saber at his belt. He checked the dirk stuck into his sock, too.
“What’re ye doin’?” Christie asked
“Got tae be ready fer ’em,” Callum muttered. “They’ll be at me wi’ all their teeth, I ha’e no doubt.”
Christie gasped. “Ye dinnae mean tae fight ’em wi’ yer weapons!”
“Aye. What else?”
“Ye mun’ use yer flame,” Christie told him. “Ye mun’ flatten ’em like the lassie says so.”
Callum suppressed a smile. “These are yer brothers, lad. Ye’ll fight wi’ ’em, I’ll wager.”
“I’ll no fight at all,” Christie shot back. “I’ll back ye.”
“Dinnae talk daft, lad,” Callum muttered. “They’re yer brothers, and Lachlan is yer Chief. Ye’ll stand wi’ yer own Clan.”
“I’ll no leave ye tae fight alone,” Christie told him. “I’ll no let ’em cut ye down fer all that.”
Callum gave a sad chuckle. “Lad, think on it. They cinnae touch me. They dare no touch me. Ye’ll ainly harm yerself standin’ by me at a time like this.”
Christie cast a wild glance through the door into the open field south of the castle. Callum couldn’t see anybody out there, but they were there. Lachlan and the others waited for him out there. His senses and instincts told him so.
Christie whispered under his breath. “I cinnae allow them tae do this. Ye saved me life, and I cinnae forget’t now. I dinnae want tae be one o’ ’em if they’ll do this tae ye. I dinnae want the name McLean if this is how they get their way. It’s no Clan o’ mine. If I harm meself turnin’ against me Clan, I ha’e lost naught in the doin’ o’ it.”
Callum laid his hand on the young man’s shoulder. “Ye’re the best o’ ’em, lad, and I’ll no forget this. Go alaing now. Ye’ll ainly hinder me standin’ around. If ye wish tae help me, stand ye by the lassie. She needs ye more than I do right now.”
Christie hung his head. “Aye.”
Callum squared his shoulders and faced the door. He took one quick breath and started walking. He had to face this. He had to face whatever Lachlan threw at him, but he already knew what that would be before Sadie told him.
Lachlan would do his best to kill Callum, and that meant wolves. Never mind. Callum knew how to handle wolves. He got to the bottom of the big steps outside the entrance door when he heard ringing footsteps running up behind him, followed by a cry. He didn’t have to turn around.
“Callum, no! Don’t go out there! Let me go, Christie! Don’t, Callum! Don’t let them kill you like this. I love you! Do you hear me? I love you! Don’t go out there. Get off me, Christie! You bastard! Let me go!”
Callum clamped his eyes shut against the voice. It stabbed him in the guts, but he had to block it out. He had to go out there, no matter what she said.
She loved him. He wore that badge over his heart. No one could penetrate that as long as he wore it. It surrounded him in a bright bubble of divine protection.
He would return to her. He would take her in his arms and make it all right, but first, he had to deal with these wolves.
He gripped his saber hilt and kept walking. She kept calling out behind him. Christie murmured in her ear, but Callum didn’t hear what he said. Callum made a mental note to find a way to reward that boy for holding her back. He had to repay Christie if he could possibly find a way to do it.
Callum didn’t like to think about what Lachlan would do to Christie if Callum lost this fight. Then again, Lachlan never had to know Christie turned against his Clan at the eleventh hour. If Christie played his cards right, he could slip back into Lachlan’s entourage without missing a beat.
That wouldn’t happen, though, because Callum wouldn’t lose this fight. He might hurt one of the McLeans. That’s the worst that could happen. Callum dreaded the outcome of that, but he would do it in the end to protect himself.
He pressed out into the field. He stopped in the center of the little promontory where Duart Castle perched between three surrounding sea shores. Callum swept his surroundings with flashing eyes. He rested his hand on his weapon, but he didn’t draw it.
The longer he stood there, the more confident he became. These wolves were nothing but cowards. Under all their brash talk, they hesitated to show themselves and confront him. They would have to attack him as a pack the way Sadie said if they hoped to get anywhere near him. At bottom, they feared him.
Something moved in the trees down the hill. The wolves ran in an arc around him, but they stopped short of breaking into the open. He didn’t even have to look at them. As long as they stayed hidden, they posed no threat to him at all.
His mind screamed, Cowards! Come out and show yerselves! Beneath the surface, he kept his body still and silent. They would come, and the more collected he appeared, the more terrified they would be. They would hold back their most murderous rage in fear of the moment he burst his skin and shifted.
His heart pounded. He owned this fight. He stood above them on a pinnacle while they groveled in the dust, and they didn’t even know it. He would never shift. He would never debase himself by fighting these puny dogs in his dragon form. He wouldn’t stoop so low.
Sadie was right. He could flatten them without breaking a sweat, but he wouldn’t. He would fight them and give them their day in the sun. He would let them come near and yap their teeth in his face before he cut them to shreds. He would defeat them like this, as a man, and that would make his victory
ten times more satisfying. He would humiliate Lachlan by showing restraint and control while Lachlan bawled and howled.
He closed his eyes and listened. The wolves crisscrossed the trees. They disturbed the leaves under their feet. They took a long time to come out onto the field, and when they did, their toenails clicked against the rocky ground. They loped into the open. They passed back and forth in front of him, but they never came near.
They circled to surround him in a black ring. He followed all their movements with his ears. He envisioned their sleek bodies rippling around him. They flashed past each other in smooth eddies of movement—all but Lachlan.
The big grey wolf stood in front of Callum. He didn’t run in circles. He fixed his eyes on Callum’s face and waited for Callum to open his eyes. Callum crammed his jangling nerves down hard where they would never see the light of day. His stomach twisted in knots, but he guided himself through slow, deep breaths. He had to stay calm. He had to control this outcome, no matter what.
The click of toenails sounded all around him. Sadie stopped calling out. Only Christie stood at her side in the castle entrance. He would stop her rushing in to rescue Callum when he didn’t need it.
All of a sudden, the clicking sound stopped. Callum’s eyes popped open, and he came face to face with Lachlan. Callum would recognize that big wolf anywhere, and this time, Lachlan wouldn’t say please.
Callum faced the creature, and all his nervousness vanished in a puff of the breeze. Callum could defeat this man-wolf. Lachlan never stood a chance against Callum in a man to man fight. He wouldn’t dream of confronting Callum as a wolf if he had.
The wolf peeled its black lips off its dripping fangs. It snarled in Callum’s face. Callum narrowed his eyes at the thing and tightened his hand on his weapon. He would have one chance to get this right. If he missed his timing by a fraction of a second, he was a dead man.
Lachlan slathered and spat in his face, but Callum made no move. This was Lachlan’s fight, and Callum wouldn’t start it for him. He would never attack one of these people the way Lachlan and his brothers attacked him. Callum Cameron might not be as big or as flashy as some, but he was the better man here and everyone knew it.
Lachlan gave a quick bark. That was the signal, and the entire pack wheeled and rushed Callum at once. Callum stood his ground. The wolves’ toenails scratched the rough ground in their charge.
Callum pulled his saber and crouched. He flexed his knees. Time stood still. The breeze ruffled the individual hairs on Lachlan’s fur. The silver-grey coat waved down the sleek powerful body. Callum didn’t have to look over his shoulder to see the other wolves flying at him in a mass.
He waited until the last possible second. The whole scene passed before his eyes in such slow, crisp detail he could have run Lachlan through the heart and never missed an inch, but he didn’t. He hesitated just long enough for Lachlan’s teeth to rush into his face. At the last second, Callum lunged.
He shot his saber past Lachlan’s shoulder. The hilt struck the wolf’s collarbone. Callum grabbed the wolf in both hands. He spun on his heel and hurled the wriggling body in a smooth arc. He used Lachlan’s weight to club the other wolves out of the air.
Their own momentum carried them past Callum’s head. He let them go and flung Lachlan after them. They collapsed in a squealing, scratching, clawing heap some distance away.
They bounded to their feet in an instant, but Callum made his point. He wouldn’t cut them down if he didn’t have to. If they wanted to kill him, they would have to do better than that.
The other wolves ran sideways to start their infuriating circle again, but Lachlan rocketed at Callum in a foaming rage. He bellowed out loud. He just didn’t get the message. Callum dropped his saber for a moment, seized Lachlan by the fur, and slammed him down hard on the stones.
For an instant, Lachlan lay stunned. In that brief interval, the other wolves joined the attack. Callum snatched up his saber just in time to meet them coming. He slashed his blade across the nearest wolf’s shoulder. He couldn’t tell one from the next. It might have been Alec, but he couldn’t be sure.
The wolf screeched in pain. It landed on its feet some ten paces away. It rounded on Callum, but it didn’t come back for more. Callum had no time to challenge it. He whipped around to confront another eight wolves coming at him from the other direction.
He didn’t bother holding himself back any longer. They would overpower him with their numbers. Once they pulled him down, it was shift or die, and he didn’t want to let this fight come to that. He swept his blade in a wide slash. He hit three wolves, who tumbled to the ground shrieking. He stabbed and cut in all directions. Was one of them Lachlan? He couldn’t tell.
All at once, a body hit him from behind. He knew this would happen, but he never imagined it could terrify him so much. He never saw his attacker before cold fangs sank into his shoulder. Claws ripped his shirt to shreds and dug into his back.
Once that wolf mounted his back from behind, the others pulled him to the ground with no trouble. One after another, they leapt on top of him. They tore each other in their desperate fury to bring him down. Razor fangs gouged his flesh. Three of the creatures pounced on his sword arm so he couldn’t lift it.
He went down on one knee. He groped for the dirk in his sock and stabbed. A sickening groan answered him, and one of the wolves fell away—only one. He couldn’t win, not like this.
Sadie’s voice pierced the din of yapping and growling. “Shift, Callum! For God’s sake, shift before they kill you.”
His own soul revolted against this atrocity. His indominable spirit called on him to do it. He could rear up out of this fragile skin and shake these wolves off like so many pesky midges. He could eliminate them with one quick breath.
Some part of him still wouldn’t do that. He bowed under their weight. One of them slid down his arm and knocked the saber out of his hand.
“No, Callum, no!” Sadie screamed. “Get up, Callum. For heaven’s sake, please get up.”
His heart ached. He never wanted anything but to love her. Why did these fools have to reduce him to this?
Sadie’s screams changed tone. Tangled up in her cries and the wolves’ horrible snarling, a new voice touched Callum’s ear. He concentrated hard to figure out what it was. Then he figured it out. It was Christie. He screamed and yelled, too, but he didn’t yell to Callum to shift. What was going on?
Callum struggled under a mountain of wolfen bodies to look up. A shadow blocked out the sun. Something dark crossed the sky and circled Duart Castle. All the wolves froze at the same instant. Everyone stared in awe at four gleaming dragons soaring out of the western sky on their magnificent wings.
A brilliant golden dragon led the group. It flapped its smooth wings in effortless flight, but its hind leg tucked into its body instead of trailing out behind the creature the way it should. At its shoulder flew a huge dragon of the most startling emerald green, and a slender, muscular woman rode on its back.
Behind them flew two more dragons side by side, one blue and one bright red. The sun reflected off their scales in a thousand prismatic shades. They swooped low over the castle, rocketed over the battle scene, climbed high into the clouds, and bent low once again.
Sadie and Christie jumped up and down. They both screamed themselves hoarse, and tears streamed down Sadie’s cheeks at the sight. The dragons hovered over the battle and eventually touched down.
The golden dragon kept its hind leg retracted off the ground. It limped when it tried to walk, but the others all moved over the rocky ground in smooth, deliberate movements.
They turned their piercing eyes on the fight scene. They strutted into position to form a towering circle around wolves piled on Callum’s bent form. Callum bowed his head and closed his eyes. He couldn’t contain the emotion welling up inside him. He never dared believe this could happen. Now they were here. His brothers, his friends, his family came to protect him and help him in his hour of need.
> Why did he doubt them? Why did he have to carry this alone for so long? He sent up a silent prayer of thanks to Jamie for ignoring his order and going home for help against Callum’s express wishes.
The dragons formed their ring around Callum and leveled their ferocious glares at the wolves. The green dragon let out a deafening roar to shake the skies. He lashed his long tail around and smacked a wolf off Callum’s back. The wolf ran for its life yapping and whimpering until it disappeared into the trees and didn’t return.
One by one, the other animals sprang off him. They slunk away from him with their tails lowered and their bellies close to the ground. They crawled a few paces away from him before they dashed between the dragons’ legs and vanished.
Chapter 27
Callum knelt on the ground. His saber lay at his heel, but he didn’t pick it up—not yet. A single wolf still perched behind his head. It growled at the dragons, but it didn’t leave.
The green dragon bent its head low to bring its burning eyes right up close to the wolf’s face. It drew a deep, sulfury breath and screeched so loud the air rushing from its lungs blasted the wolf’s fur aside.
The wolf reared and stumbled off. It landed on the ground behind Callum. Inch by inch, Callum raised his head. His fingers closed around his sword hilt. He turned his head to glare at the big grey animal.
The wolf cast a quick glance around the circle of high scaly walls. The dragons’ rough bodies scraped over the rocky ground. No other sound disturbed the scene. Christie and Sadie stood silent and watched to see what would happen.
The grey wolf didn’t slink along the ground or tuck his tail between his legs. He trotted in a brazen circle around Callum. All of a sudden, he made a dash to sneak between the blue dragon’s legs.
The blue dragon reacted so fast the human eye couldn’t follow his movements. He stomped down one big foot right in front of the wolf to block his escape. The wolf sprang clear. He made a dive to slither under the red dragon’s stomach. She cracked her long tail through the air, and the mighty rippling torrent of dragon flesh smashed in the wolf’s face. Rocks bounced out of their places, and the ground vibrated.
Wolf Castle Page 18