by Leela Ash
“Lord Rose is lucky to have you Muriel,” he beamed, “You are a treasure and a valuable asset to Clan Calder and he will know this and treat you right.”
Muriel blinked back the tears. She didn’t want reassurance, she needed to feel something, anything… she needed to feel as if this was meant to be, but everything in her entire being was screaming for her to run.
The entrance to the hall was adorned with candles and Ivy garlands, and the guards that watched her every move only made her more nervous as she stood at the threshold, about to pass down to the aisle.
Her father kept hold of her lightly and she took a deep breath as the doors fully opened and the sea of faces that were waiting all looked back at her. She was the woman of the moment… everyone had been waiting for her, and as the bard starting playing and she began to walk down the entire length of the Great Hall, men and women gasped with awe as she passed. She looked radiant and beautiful, even if inside she was dying.
The congregation at the head of the room parted and by the altar Muriel could see him standing there… her intended… Lord Rose. The instant their eyes locked her skin began to crawl and she knew instantly that she despised him.
His small, weasel-like eyes, his peppered sandy hair and thin, shallow shoulders turned her off the second he turned to face her. She could see his weedy frame beneath his armor and it was then that she couldn’t hold the tears back any longer. As they slipped freely down her cheeks her father dug his rough nails into her forearm and shot her an angry glance.
“Don’t ruin this Muriel,” he hissed out of the corner of his mouth.
She swallowed down her disgust and panic and as she reached the front of the room and stood side by side with the man that she was supposed to spend the rest of her life with, she looked up at him and knew that she would never be happy again.
He smiled and as his lip curled she felt a wave of nausea pass over her. He was the most unattractive man she had ever seen and she knew that there was no way that she could ever love him.
“We are gathered here today…” the priest began.
Muriel felt her mind close off and the ringing in her ears got louder as she tried not to hear any more of what was going on around her. She thought about her younger brothers. She would do it for them. If it meant that they had a better future, then she would wed this man and ensure just that. She had to be brave. She had to stay strong. Who knew what was waiting out there in the rest of the world. She sighed deeply and was about to pull herself together and turn to face Lord Rose when suddenly there was a loud roar and banging and crashing reverberated around the rest of the castle.
The Priest stopped speaking and an eerie silence descended on the hall. Somewhere, out in the corridors, came the curdled screams of men, alongside the growls and snarls of what could have been wolves… Muriel looked up at all of the people around her… and in a wave, the entire congregation began to panic.
“We’re being stormed!” Muriel’s father bellowed as he lunged forward and grabbed hold of her mother.
Muriel was so shocked she didn’t know where to turn. She could hear the sounds of a battle close by, somewhere in the castle, and she knew that they were surely heading for them.
Within seconds the doors to the Great Hall burst open and a clan of big, burly, red haired highlanders came bursting through. They were like no one Muriel had ever seen before, they were so tall and muscular, they almost could have been monsters, not human. At their sides were huge, red wolves… big snarling beasts with bared fangs dripping blood. Muriel couldn’t believe what she was seeing… the wolves were so big… so incredibly powerful, they surely couldn’t have been from Inverness. Her blood ran cold and she felt her breath catch as she stood frozen to the spot in blind panic.
All around her men and women were running. Her parents disappeared and she was aware of the clash of swords and the growling and sounds of ripping flesh. Her mind was spinning and she knew that although she was conscious… she was on the verge of collapsing with fright.
As the army of men and beasts that were storming the castle grew closer Muriel’s shaking hands reached out and grasped hold of the altar. She tried to keep herself upright, but she was faltering, she was so afraid and she had nowhere to turn. She shook as she reached out again to try and keep her balance before she fell in a willowy heap to the ground. As a battle raged on around her, the blackness engulfed her and swallowed her whole.
6.
She awoke in her own bed and as she rolled over and looked up at the ceiling, she thought for a few moments that it had all just been a terrible dream. None of it could surely have happened? Creatures and men like that didn’t exist…
She tried to lean up on her elbows and realized that her wrists were tied with rope to the headboard and she was indeed wearing her wedding dress, the ivy crown still placed on the top of her head.
She shook her arms and tried to shake them free, but it was pointless, the ropes were so tight she stood no chance of getting herself loose.
“Elizabeth?” she called out as she frantically looked around the room. But her maid was nowhere to be seen.
She leaned up further and strained her eyes in the darkness to look around the room. The fire burned low in the hearth, but its embers cast just enough light for her to make out the outline of a foot resting against it.
“Hello?” she whispered.
“Muriel Calder,” the voice came from next to the hearth.
It came from a man. A man with a low, gruff, deep voice that commanded attention. She held her breath, not daring to respond. Her heart was racing and her palms were sweating. Whoever this man was, he was most certainly a stranger.
Is it my new husband? She thought. Did I pass out during the ceremony? Am I now a married woman and this is my wedding night?
The man got to his feet and stood at the foot of the bed. The low orange glow from the fire silhouetting him in front of her. As soon as she saw him in full, she knew there was no way this man was the same one she had stood with at the altar.
He was tall. His shoulders were broad. His hands were big and menacing. As he breathed his chest heaved with power and his hair was rugged and unkempt. This man was a giant. A warrior. He was power personified.
“Who…are…you?” she whispered.
The man took a step forward and her breath caught in her throat. As he moved out of the darkness and came forward enough so that the light fell on his face she could see now that he was the most handsome man she had ever seen in her entire life.
“I’m John Campbell,” he said strongly. “And I’m here to claim this castle… and you as my wife.”
Muriel blinked and shook her head. Had she heard him correctly? His wife?
“But…” she stammered, “I was betrothed to Lord Rose… the ceremony…?”
“The ceremony wasn’t completed,” John Campbell said sternly.
Muriel began to shake with fright. This man was part of the clan that had stormed the castle and had slaughtered members of Clan Calder.
“You… you’re a murderer,” she whispered.
“We are here to take the castle,” he said. “And to do so, I will marry you and make you my wife.”
“My family….” Muriel’s voice trailed off and she felt the tears welling behind her eyes.
“Your parents fled,” he said with amusement, “And your brothers are all safe and well. Do not fear. None shall be harmed.”
Muriel breathed a sigh of relief. She had been so worried about Hamish, the smallest of the boys. He was so young, so innocent, surely no one would harm him.
“The wolves,” she suddenly remembered, her hands shaking. And in an instant her mind jumped back to the memory of the peasant boy who had been carried into the Great Hall the previous day. Could the legends be real? Was this what her parents had been fearing all of this time? Had they known that one day a pack of wild wolves and men would storm into Cawdor and take over? She shuddered at the prospect as the man sat down at
the end of the bed and she felt herself recoil with nerves.
He stared at her hard and with so much fire she barely knew where to look. His eyes burned holes into her and she felt completely exposed. Even though she was fully clothed, she felt as if she could have been tied there naked and on show for him to see.
He smiled and looked down.
“I’m sorry I had to tie you,” he said. “But I didn’t know how you would react when you woke.”
Muriel’s head was scrambled. She didn’t yet know how she felt… The last thing she could remember was that she had been betrayed by her parents and promised to a man she had never even met… and not only that, the man had been hideous looking and vile. Muriel knew that she would have been miserable with him… and now she had the handsome and strong John Campbell sat on the end of her bed… saying he wanted to claim her for his wife and take over Castle Cawdor…
Which is the lesser of two evils? She thought as she looked back at him and she felt her heart began to race as their eyes met.
She would have done anything to not marry Lord Rose… but there was something about John Campbell and his rugged power that was pulling her in. The sweet scent of his sweat mixed in with the dirt he had clinging to his skin was driving her crazy. She had never met a man so unruly and wild. He was like another species and she was intrigued. His handsome features were definitely more appealing… and she could easily see herself staying put at Cawdor and getting to know him much better as the days progressed.
She shook her head and snapped herself out of her daydream. When she focused she realized that he was still staring right at her with a devilish grin on his face. She felt her whole body go weak. She was completely at his mercy, with no way of escape.
“The Great Hall is waiting,” he said as he got to his feet. “We may as well put it to good use.”
He leant over her and began to untie the ropes at her wrists. Her irrational side told her to struggle, to try and break free and run from him. But common sense told her that she didn’t stand a chance. He had told her how it was going to be. She was his now.
And as she took hold of his big, rough hand and he led her out into the corridor, she realized that that certainly wasn’t an unappealing prospect. She smiled to herself and went willingly. John Campbell was a lot of man… and she wanted to know more…
7.
John Campbell whisked her through the corridors of the castle and back to the Great Hall. Her heart pounded harder with each step they took and as she looked up at him and he looked down at her, she found herself smiling. There was something about him that was almost familiar. As if they had known each other their entire lives.
As they burst through the doorway and began back down the aisle the scenes around her were not pretty ones. She could see members of the Rose family in bloodied heaps on the ground and Lord Rose was nowhere to be seen. She covered her eyes and willed the bloodshed to disappear, but there was something appealing to her curious nature, she wanted to know what was happening. She could tell that Clan Campbell were different and she needed to know.
As John wrapped an arm around her and the priest began to read out the vows Muriel smiled and sighed with relief as she caught sight of her brothers. They looked up at her and smiled back shyly, as if they didn’t know what on earth was happening.
As she and John were declared man and wife, her head was spinning. She turned and saw wolves looking up at her with adoring eyes and John himself seemed to growl as he leant in to kiss her for the first time. As their lips met she felt like putty in his arms. He was so big, so powerful and so incredibly sexy she could barely pull herself away. She looked up into his eyes and ran her hands down his bare shoulders, feeling an intense heat that was rising from within him.
The congregation cheered and John quickly swept Muriel up in his arms before he began to charge back down the aisle with her flung over his shoulder. The only causalities she could see seemed to be people she did not know or recognize and she felt herself relax some more as John charged with her back through the castle.
In her bedroom he closed and locked the door behind her before he turned and stared. His eyes were so big and deep, it was as if she could have fallen in and never been able to climb out.
“That was… fast…” she panted.
“It was essential,” John said, “There was no time to lose.”
“But, why?” Muriel was trying not to sound too rude or overbearing. Her heart was still racing, and although she was intrigued by him, she was also nervous.
“You were being lured into a trap,” he said sternly, “Lord Rose would have harmed you if you had gone with him.”
Muriel felt her skin go cold.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“The Roses were going to destroy Clan Calder,” he began, “They have been travelling around the highlands and forging false alliances… once they have gained a way into a new clan, they overtake and destroy it.”
Muriel couldn’t believe what she was hearing. The real threat wasn’t Clan Campbell and their huge wolves… it was the sneaky and duplicitous Rose Clan.
“We got wind of this several months ago and we have been on the hunt to defeat them ever since.” He continued. “We got here just in time.”
“The hunt?” Muriel asked curiously.
“Aye,” John snarled. “The Rose’s have left a path of destruction… my pack and I have hunted them down and finally caught up with them… none of them will survive by the time we are through.”
Muriel shuddered and she remembered how all of the casualties in the Great Hall seemed to be from Clan Rose.
“You saved me?” she whispered.
“Aye,” John smiled. “And I wed you instantly so you would never be vulnerable again.”
“But why?” she gasped. “We don’t even know one another.”
John took a step forward and took hold of her by the shoulders before he looked at her deep in the eyes and spoke softly…
“Our Clans have crossed paths before… many, many years ago… and it has been written in the stars ever since that you and I should come together to start a new blood line… a new clan… one so powerful it shall rule the whole of Scotland.”
Muriel looked up at her husband. She didn’t know much, but she did know that she trusted him entirely. There was a sincerity in his words, and in his actions. She had felt something between them the second she had laid eyes on him. The complete opposite of what had happened when she had first seen Lord Rose. He had made her skin crawl and she had known there was something disloyal and evil lurking beneath his surface. Now John had come and saved her and her family from making a terrible mistake.
“My parents…” she began, “Do they know?”
John shook his head.
“No,” he said, “The Rose’s have been deceiving people for generations. But, Clan Campbell is very different to any other clan you will have ever come across before,” he smiled.
“In what way?” Muriel whispered.
“Here,” he reached out and took her hand, “Let me show you.”
8.
The night had fallen swiftly and the ground crunched underfoot as they walked together underneath a sky that glistened with the light of millions of bright stars. Muriel looked up and couldn’t believe how beautifully perfect it was, it was as if the heavens had opened up just for them to celebrate their union.
“Your parents will return safely,” he reassured her as they walked hand in hand, “News will reach them soon enough that their castle is intact and their family waits for them.”
“But then what?” Muriel asked. “We all just live here together?”
The thought was so ridiculous she almost couldn’t keep a straight face.
“Well that all depends on you,” John smiled.
Muriel wanted to ask him what he meant but she was distracted by a shooting star overhead and she stopped to look up into the sky.
“This is so incredible,” she gasped
.
“It’s because it’s meant to be,” John pulled her closer to him and she felt his warmth.
They continued on past the loch and towards the forest. The moonlight glinted down on the water and lit the path ahead. It was the first time that Muriel had noticed it was a full moon and as they continued she felt a change in John’s demeanor, as if he was trying to restrain himself from saying something and holding back with each step they took.
He finally stopped on the edge of the loch and sat down on a rock. He motioned for Muriel to follow him and she sat down at his side as they looked up at the beautiful night’s sky and all of the splendor that was being opened up to them.
“Clan Campbell are very different indeed,” he continued their conversation from back in her bed chamber, “We have many secrets. Some of which have become legend and some that are just wild whispers around the highlands.”
“What sort of legends?” she asked, although she had the feeling that she already knew what he was going to answer.
“Wolves,” John said sternly, “Clan Campbell are half men… and half beast.”
Muriel felt a twinge of excitement. Even though she was confused, she had known the instant they had burst into the Great Hall that there was something distinctly different about them. The men and wolves were far too big to be anything short of supernatural.
“I’m not sure I know what you mean,” she stammered.
John reached up and took hold of her face before he kissed her passionately and deeply on the lips. She allowed her body to submit to him and for him to take her roughly in his arms as he lay her back against the rock. She was as timid as a virgin should be, and although she had never felt or known passion like it, her wedding night nerves still thumped through her and held her back from truly letting go.