“What’s he doing?” Tara asked Kaia as Magnus neared them.
“Looks to me like he’s coming over to chat you up,” the New Zealander answered with a knowing grin.
The fans surrounding them started yelling about how Magnus Scotswolf was coming this way!
“You didnae text me back…” a voice said in her head. It was Magnus, pushing words into her mind before he’d even reached the stands.
Tara thought about answering him out loud. But she doubted he could hear her with all the background noise, even with his superior wolf senses.
“Sorry,” she said, tentatively pushing words into his head for the very first time. “I was busy. Some guy sent me on an over-the-top shopping trip.”
“You liked it then?”
“Yes, of course, I liked it! Who wouldn’t? Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. So…?” he came to a stop in front of where she and Kaia were seated.
“So...” she repeated. Not understanding what he wanted from her.
“Did you miss me, too?”
It was an unexpectedly painful question. And Tara found herself thinking, I miss you already.
But here, with thousands of people looking on, was definitely not the time or place to have a conversation about why she needed to leave him after the best week of her life and go home to her pack. Instead, she answered as best she could.
With a kiss…
Bending down, Tara pressed her mouth to his, tongue swirling just like he’d taught her except, “I didn’t ask the king’s permission before touching him,” she pushed into his head. “Sorry about that, Your Majesty.”
“You’re forgiven, mo leannan,” he replied, deepening their kiss. “Completely forgiven.”
“Well, that kiss’ll end up in tomorrow’s papers,” Kaia chortled as they waited with the other WAGs in the Rovers’ clubhouse. The clubhouse was a state-of-the-art facility located next to the stadium. On the outside, it looked nearly as modern and sleek as Iain’s apartment building, but with only two floors instead of seven. According to Kaia, the facility had showers and a gym on the ground floor with offices taking up most of the second. But at the moment, the two women stood in a large room with rows of flat screens lining each wall, chairs, tables, and even a full-service bar.
Kaia steered her right to the large group of WAGs who’d situated themselves next to the bar. After Kaia made introductions, an elegant blonde handed her and Tara a glass of white wine and assured her they’d be switching to champagne as soon as “the fellows” came out.
The WAGs, Tara noted after handing the wine off to her non-pregnant new human friend, seemed to be of two distinct camps: over-the-top designer casual like her—thanks to Ana—or leggings, a sweater, and a good peacoat, like Kaia, who was happily double fisting both her and Tara’s wine. But Tara soon discovered that fashion aside, the other WAGs all agreed on one thing—she’d pulled off a bloody miracle in getting Magnus Scotswolf to settle down.
“Never seen him make concessions for any woman, that’s for sure,” commented a petite blonde named Emma.
“If you don’t watch out, he’ll make you tour with him on the road, because he won’t be able to live without you—at least until the baby arrives!” a brunette WAG in gray leggings said.
“I mean, he’s even coming to this post-game do which he’s never done...” one of the Scottish WAGs pointed out. “Always says groupies are too much work and he’d rather go to a local pub to get sorted. So spill…what did you do? Enchant him?”
“Um…” Tara said, not quite knowing how to answer.
“And also, please tell us where you got that fabulous jumper!” Emma said. “Is it true Magnus convinced Chloe Rose to let you borrow her stylist? Her Ana won’t even return my calls!”
“Yes, um…I guess so,” Tara answered, trying hard to keep up. “It was really nice of her to take me shopping. Maybe she owed Magnus a favor?”
“Or maybe she doesn’t really believe he’s settling down at all and she’s looking to get under him next. You better watch her. Keep your enemies close and all that,” another WAG said.
But before Tara could further analyze that somewhat disturbing comment, Kaia jumped in and said, “I’m trying to convince Tara to put in a good word for me with Ana.” She took Tara by the arm like they were long-time besties. “Maybe we could all take a hen’s trip to Bond Street before your wedding since you can’t really have a normal party being pregnant and all.”
Tara’s eyes widened at the thought of a hen party combined with another luxury shopping trip. It definitely sounded like a dream come true—pregnant or not.
But then all thoughts of shopping ceased when a commotion broke out at the front entrance to the bar-slash-waiting room. Tara and Kaia had sailed right through just thirty minutes ago, but now a striking older woman with long silky black hair nearly down to her butt was having an intense discussion with a ginger-bearded security guard.
From the way the woman was wildly gesticulating, it was obvious she wanted in. But the guard, who looked like he should be in an advertisement for heavy duty Scottish paper towels, folded his arms across his beefy chest and shook his head.
“Groupie nutter, probably,” Kaia said.
“Little older than the ones who usually try to slip in here, though,” Emma noted.
“She looks good for her age,” quipped the elegant blonde who’d handed Tara the glass of wine. “Maybe we should tell the guard to let her in, so we can get the name of her surgeon.”
Most of the WAGs fell out laughing at that. But not Tara…because unlike the other women, she could actually hear what was being said.
“I demand you let me in! My future daughter-in-law is inside, and she’ll want to see me. Her name is Tara Hamilton!”
What the…? Tara squinted hard trying to figure out why this woman looked so familiar. Then it hit her. Iain. She looked exactly like Magnus’s brother. Which meant…
“Wait, where are you going?” Kaia asked when Tara suddenly started toward the room’s double-door entrance. “Do you know that woman?”
As she approached, Tara heard the brawny security guard say, “Yeah, tell me something you couldn’t have read about in the news this weekend. Plus, everyone knows Magnus and his ma don’t talk. So even if you are who you say you are, I greatly doubt he’ll want to speak with you.”
“This isn’t a problem since I am not here to speak with my son,” the beautiful woman replied. “I’m here for Tara. At her request, I might add—”
The woman broke off when she saw Tara approaching.
Seemingly tired of keeping up the pretense that the guard could hold her back, the older she-wolf easily pushed him aside and pulled Tara into her arms as if they were long lost friends. “Oh, there you are, cara! I am Magnus’s mama. It is so very lovely to finally make your acquaintance. But are you all right? I came as fast as I could.”
“I’m fine,” Tara replied, her voice weak with confusion. Magnus’s mother wasn’t anything like she’d expected. She was a tall, willowy brunette with fiery brown eyes and one hell of a bear hug. She towered over Tara but wasn’t the least bit intimidating. In fact, she struck her as warm and inviting.
“Um…hello,” Tara continued. “It is so nice to meet you, too. But…what do you mean you are here at my request?”
“Si, come with me,” she said. “Quickly! Quickly!”
And before Tara knew what was happening, the older woman had pulled her out of the waiting room, past the stunned guard, and out the front of the clubhouse’s large entrance.
A blood-red Ferrari was parked sideways just outside. Tara could only assume it belonged to Magnus’s mother. But… “How did you get your car all the way up to the clubhouse?”
“I might have told the guards I was a very special friend of the head coach. And they might have believed me,” the older woman answered with a saucy wink. “But come, come…we do not have much time…”
“Much time? For what?” Tara
asked, so confused she could barely keep up mentally or physically.
“Oh, sorry. Lachlan always said I talk too fast for others to catch up. Iain sent me...” the fashionable beauty threw that bit over her shoulder like an afterthought, before bringing them to a stop beside the zippy red car. “He asked me to fly over and convince you not to leave Magnus.”
Tara’s eyes widened in shock. “He did…what?!”
“Oh, but do not worry, cara. I am here to do the opposite of that. I have his private plane and so I will fly you home. This is why I have come…” Magnus’s mother spread her arms like a goddess come down from the mount, “...to help you leave my son!”
“Wait…WHAT?!”
This time, the voice didn’t belong to Tara…
She and the other woman looked up to find Magnus, now dressed in a well-cut three-piece suit, standing in front of the clubhouse’s glass doors. Too far for a human to hear what Valentina had said. But as Tara had been reminded far too many times already, Magnus was a wolf…
Chapter Twelve
Kaia and the other wives had been wrong, Tara thought to herself as Magnus stormed toward them down the steps. He did own a pair of trousers. A whole suit in fact. And he would have cut a dashing figure if he wasn’t staring them down like they were members of a rival rugby team.
His mother recovered before Tara.
“Magnus, cucciolo, calm down,” she said. “Do not be upset.”
Magnus, head crooked to the side, growled, “Dinnae be upset? Why are you even here, Valentina?”
“I am only here to help Tara,” Valentina began to answer.
“Oh, really?” Magnus interrupted. “By putting ideas into her head? You’re trying to convince her to quit me like you quit Da? Just when I thought you couldn’t possibly be more of a shite mother…”
That’s when Tara found her voice. “Magnus, don’t speak to your mother like that. This isn’t her fault. I invited her…sort of. I mean, I asked Iain to help me get home to Canada and for some reason he sent her. But she only came here to help me.”
Now it was her turn to receive the full ferocity of Magnus’s famous temper. “What kind of help is she providing, then?” he yelled at Tara. “You decide to knock off with my bairn in your belly, and then mother of the year comes along and says, ‘Ach, bonnie idea. Don’t fash yourself about how my son might feel about it. Hell knows I never gave a care to his feelings when I left his da.’”
Valentina covered her heart as if Magnus had just put one of his ancient daggers through it. “How can you say this?” she demanded, her voice so low you’d have to be a wolf to hear it. “I never wanted to leave you or Iain. But you were already grown and you both chose to take your papa’s side in this very complicated matter—”
Magnus turned his back on Tara to growl, “Because you were and apparently still are a faithless witch who doesn’t care who you hurt as long as you get your way and can live your cushy town life!”
Now it was Tara’s turn to gasp. Respect for one’s parents was one of the foundational tenets she’d grown up with, and she didn’t care what his mother had done… “Magnus, I’m not going to let you talk to your mother like that!” she stated in a firm voice while moving to stand in front of the older woman.
“And I’m not going to let you leave Scotland,” he returned viciously, his eyes flaring with barely checked rage. “Ken this, Tara. I am not nearly as understanding as my da. I willnae lose my mate just because she can’t stand the thought of breaking her heels on cobblestone.”
“What?” Tara said, shaking her head in disbelief. “That’s not why I’m leaving—”
“Son, you do not own this she-wolf and you do not speak to her like that,” Valentina said, her voice hot with emotion as she pushed past Tara to confront Magnus. “You are just like your papa. Just like him. So, I will tell you as I told him. It is no longer the middle ages. And I do not care about all your stupido, stuuuu-pido woman-hating laws. She-wolves are allowed to make their own decisions. And you are not married yet, so you cannot make her stay.”
Tara couldn’t take much more of this. “Will you two stop arguing and just listen to me?” she said, getting between them. “Valentina, let me talk to him. And please, Magnus, just listen to me. For once in your life listen to someone other than yourself.”
“Ye think I haven’t been listening to you?” he exploded. “All I’ve done is listen to ye whinge for nearly a whole week. About how much you love town life. How hard you fought to live in Edinburgh. Because it’s such a bloody feat to get a job and live and work in a city, just like nearly every other boring human on this planet. I listened to you, and I committed to giving you the lifestyle you wanted. I even wore this piece of shite suit for ye!” he said, thumping his hands against his chest. “All because you lied about truly wanting to be my mate…”
His face twisted into a disgusted snarl. “I would’ve done anything to make you happy. But it was never going to be enough for you, was it? Because you’re selfish, just like her,” he speared his mother with a glance, “aren’t ye? It’s all about you and your pretty clothes and precious humans. You cannae possibly understand wanting to see to other wolves, caring about others more than you care about yourself. This life you want. These name brands—they don’t matter. Nothing matters as much as people and clan and home. But you wouldn’t understand that, would you? Because you’re faithless. Only loyal to self and self same. Just like my mother. But I’m done with the wooing of ye, Tara. Pretending to be someone I’m not. You’ve done this to us. You’ve forced me to play my king hand.”
He finished with a look so spiteful that anyone who came across them would assume he hated her. And maybe he did. Was that what he really thought of her? she wondered, her heart clogging her throat.
Tara had no idea what a king hand was but from the tone of his voice, it couldn’t be good. “I never asked you to pretend to be someone you aren’t,” she pointed out, struggling to keep her voice level in the face of his rage and fury. “I wasn’t lying about anything. I like you. Just the way you are. But I have to go home.”
He closed the little space between them, his head dipping along with the volume of his voice. “Nae, ye dinnae,” he replied, guttural and low. “And ye willnae, because—”
“Hey, Magnus, mate! Trouble in paradise?”
They all turned to see a man with a press lanyard hanging around his neck. He had his phone out, and it looked like he was recording the whole thing.
“Are you two breaking up, then? Before the baby’s born, even?” The human man asked, sounding almost gleeful at the prospect. As if broken homes were much happier news than upcoming babies.
But as it turned out, this reporter picked the wrong day to mess with someone he assumed was just another human rugby player.
Magnus moved with supernatural speed up the stairs toward the reporter, letting off a growl that sounded more animal than man.
And the gleeful look fell right off the guy’s face. He turned and tore off running back into the building. But Magnus was right behind him and Tara could only imagine what he’d do to the guy when he caught up.
“Come on!” Valentina said, tugging her arm. “Get in the car. Quick, before he gets back!”
“No, wait, I have to talk to him—”
“No, we cannot wait, Tara,” Magnus’s mom said with a sad shake of her head. “Do you not see it? He is just like his father. Unreasonable. And Scotland is an absolute monarchy. That means if he wishes to, he can end all argument from you with a decree that you cannot leave Scotland. Believe me, Lachlan threatened to do just such a thing to me several times when we were going through our divorce year. Now you must come. You must! The full moon is tomorrow, so it’s now or never.”
Tara hesitated. She didn’t want to leave it like this, but the fight had escalated so quickly and Valentina was right…
Magnus had seemed about one second away from a total declaration when that reporter had interrupted them.
&
nbsp; Magnus was too hot to reason with right now. And who knew if he’d feel any more reasonable once she told him the truth about why she needed to go home.
So Tara turned and jumped into Valentina’s sports car. Because unfortunately, in this case, leaving was truly the only way to reason with her hot-tempered Scottish king.
Chapter Thirteen
RUGBY PLAYER ROW! WEDDING PLANS OFF?
Normally, Magnus didn’t read the internet headlines when he was at Iain’s house using his brother’s computer. Especially when they featured him. Because the answer to those inane headline questions was always nae. THINGS HEATING UP BETWEEN MAGNUS AND HOT ACTRESS? Nae, mate, it was only a one-nighter. MAGNUS SMITTEN WITH SEXY SINGER? Nae, not even close. They’d only spent a couple of hours together. And she was rubbish in the sack if you want the truth.
But unlike that type of fake news planted by “close friends” who were really publicists for the women he’d slept with, RUGBY PLAYER ROW! WEDDING PLANS OFF? was accompanied by a clear photo of him arguing with Tara. He looked like he’d gone off his dinger, with arms spread and mouth wide open while wee Tara looked…not like her normal fierce self. But hurt and terrified. Like she’d rather be any place in all the world than getting yelled at by the Rover’s star centre.
Nae, that wasn’t exactly a headline he could deny after that biff in front of the clubhouse.
And unfortunately, his mid-morning call with the Alpha King of Ontario didn’t bring him any closer to getting an answer to the headline’s ultimate question.
“Hello, King Scotswolf! So nice to make your acquaintance,” the Ontario alpha said cheerily. “Thomas Farkas here. I received the messages you left for me last night and wanted to give you a call as it sounds like there’s a situation afoot with…the, ah…let me see my notes here, the mother of your newly conceived pup?”
Her Scotttish King: (Howls Romance) Loving World Page 10