The wolf led me to a small lake where it ran headlong into the water. Laughing as I watched it splash around, I climbed down from the horse and stripped out of my gown before diving naked into the water.
I swam out as far as I dared, then rolled over onto my back to stare up at the stars, floating peacefully as the wolf paddled along beside me. It was the first moment since my uncle had tricked me from my bed that I had felt completely at peace.
After a while I swam back to the shore and dropped down onto the bank exhausted. Joining me, the wolf shook its large body, throwing large droplets of freezing cold water over me, and I shrieked when they hit my skin then laughed as the wolf dropped down onto the grass right next to me.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
***
I awoke in the early morning to shuffling in my room to see the wolf’s tail disappearing out my door. Rubbing my eyes, I sat up in bed, then hurried out after the wolf. I had been growing increasingly eager to know where the great beast disappeared to every day.
I stuck my head out into the hall to see its tail disappearing into a room a few doors down. I hurried quietly down the hall until I reached the door and pressed my ear to it, listening for a sound, before quietly pushing it partially open.
As I watched, the muscles of the wolf began to roll and shift and my eyes widened as it began to take on the form of a man. I gasped loudly, unable to move as the MacGregor swung around to face me, looking just as horrified as I was.
“Glenna…”
I turned to run but his arm snaked around me like an iron band and hauled me off the floor, pulling me back into his chamber. I opened my mouth to scream but his other hand came up to cover my mouth. My nose was assaulted with the smell of rich, damp grass. Grass that we had been lying in just hours before. When he was a wolf.
I struggled against him and tried to cry out, but he pressed my back against the chamber door, blocking me in with the bulk of his own body.
“I can explain, lass. Please, let me explain.” His eyes searched mine, and he kept his hand pressed firmly against my mouth.
I squeezed my eyes shut, sure that this was some sort of terrible dream, but when I opened them again he was still there. I nodded my head slowly and stopped struggling.
“Now if I remove my hand, do ye promise not to scream?”
I didn’t move for a moment, then nodded my head slowly again.
The MacGregor removed his hand from across my mouth but did not remove his large body from mine. As the shock of what I had seen slowly started to fade, I became more aware of the fact that his large, naked body was pressed up against me and I flushed warmly. I had not been this close to him since the ride to the castle, but that was nothing compared to this. I could feel every hard inch of him molded against me, and I shut my eyes to force back the wave of desire that was building within me.
“I want to release ye, lass, but I need to know that you’re not going to try to run the moment I do. I don’t want to have to restrain ye.”
“I won’t run,” I promised, opening my eyes again.
He eased his body away from mine and took a step back from me. I blushed furiously as the entirety of his nakedness came into view. My eyes ran over his body, taking in the broad expanse of his chest and the firm muscles of his stomach, but when my sight dropped down to his manhood I jerked my head up again then turned my face away from him while he covered himself with a shirt and reached for his plaid.
“Ye can look now, lass,” he said to me once he was fully dressed in his kilt.
As I waited for him to clothe himself my desire had given way to anger, and I wasted no time unleashing it on him.
“You are a liar and a deceiver, Alastair MacGregor!” I shouted at him. “I fed you from my plate. I swam with you naked. I scratched your flea-ridden belly!”
I looked around the room for something to throw. Snatching a bowl off the side table, I heaved it at his head. The MacGregor ducked and the bowl shattered on the wall behind him.
“How could you do such a thing?” I demanded.
I looked around for something else to throw and picked up a cup.
The MacGregor crossed the room to me in three long strides and grabbed hold of my wrist before I could throw the cup at his head as well.
“Ye were going to make yourself sick. It was the only way I could think of to get ye to eat something. And then ye seemed happy to have a friend in the castle. Someone that ye could confide in instead of spending your days all alone.”
“And now you’ve stolen my secrets. You know things that I would never have chosen to tell you. Ever! And in doing so you’ve taken my only friend from me, and now I have no one in this wretched place. No one!” I cried as I tried to tug my wrist free.
The MacGregor kept his firm grip on me, but raised his other hand and ran it along my cheek, wiping away the tears that I hadn’t even realized had started to fall.
I jerked my head away from his touch. I could already feel my anger ebbing with him being so near to me. But I wanted to be angry. I wanted to keep throwing things until I had broken every single item in his bedchamber.
“I’m sorry for that, lass, I truly am. Ye were not meant to find out this way.”
The strength to fight went out of me and I dropped my head, the tears now running freely down my face. All of the fear and loneliness I had been battling back surged up and overtook me and my shoulders shook as I sobbed.
The MacGregor released my wrist and wrapped his large arms around me, pulling me in to his hard chest. Then he lifted me and carried me over to the bed where he held me on his lap while I emptied myself of my tears.
A long while later the tears had finally stopped but I stayed curled against his chest while he held me.
“What are you?” I hiccupped into his shirt.
“That’s going to take a bit of explaining.”
“I have time. It’s not as if I’m going anywhere.”
“Come on, then. Let’s get ye a bit of fresh air and I’ll see if I can explain.”
CHAPTER 8
“My clan has been cursed with the wolf for as far back as anyone can remember. There is no time we know of when it has not been a part of my people,” Alastair told me as we strolled through the trees.
After the kindness he had shown me I had started to think of him by his given name instead of as the MacGregor. It was hard not to think of our connection more intimately after all that I had shared with the wolf.
“There are two ways to become a wolf,” he continued. “Inheriting it through the blood at birth, or through the bite of a wolf.”
“Does that mean every member of your clan is a wolf?”
“No. It does not surface in every child born, only a select few. Mostly when both parents are wolves, especially if they are both blooded wolves. Like recognizes like, ye see, and over time we have found other wolves, not of our clan. When those wolves wed and mated, they had wolf children. It does not happen as often when a blooded wolf takes a non-wolf to wife. And I have yet to hear of a wolf being born to a bitten wolf and a non-wolf.”
I nodded, my mind racing as I scrambled to understand it all. “All of the legends about you, the tales?” I asked.
“The first tales were started by our own clan long ago. They believed the only way to keep us safe and to keep from becoming the hunted was for the MacGregors to position themselves as the hunters.”
“So you ensured that the rest of us would be too fearful of you to ever try to claim your land.”
He nodded and continued to walk in silence.
“But how can you stand it? How can you stand knowing that your named is whispered in fear all throughout the highlands? That you’re believed to be a rapist of women and an enslaver of children? That you may be the very devil himself?”
His shoulders went stiff and his hands bunched into tight fists at his sides.
“I stand it because I must,” he said coolly. “I stand it because I must protect my clan. W
hat the rest of them out there think of me means nothing so long as my clan has no need to fear being hunted for what they are.”
My heart ached at the pain and determination in his voice and I reached out, laying my hand against his arm. He stood very still for a moment, then covered my hand with his own.
“I’m sorry, lass. I’m sorry that your uncle betrayed ye the way he did in an attempt to appease me. And I’m sorry that you’re trapped here now, all for the sake of honoring a bargain that you wanted no part of in the first place.”
“Can I not go home, then?” I asked sadly. “Even now?”
He shook his head and removed my hand from his arm. “I’m sorry, lass, but no. There is no way for me to be able to return ye to your father now. I could not explain my actions and maintain my position of power if I did. It would be seen as weak, or as a declaration of war, to hand back what was given to me as a peace offering. This is your home now. There is no going back.”
“Is my father to never know what happened to me? My brother? Is my uncle to just get away with whatever poisonous lies he is sure to have spread?” I stood there shaking in fury at the injustice of it all.
“We could write to him if ye like, to let him know that you’re safe,” he offered.
“Safe?” I snorted. “My father would never for a moment believe that I am safe knowing that I am here with you. But it would be better he know where I am and about my uncle’s hand in all of it than to have to sit and wonder for the rest of his days.”
“I’ll send a messenger to him, Glenna. I promise you that.”
CHAPTER 9
That night I sat at my dressing table and fixed my hair, plaiting it around one side of my head and letting the rest fall loose over my shoulder. After some consideration, I chose a pale green gown to wear with matching slippers. Once I felt sufficiently ready, I took a deep breath and exited my chamber to make my way down to the great hall in time for supper.
I followed the sound of voices until I came upon the great arched room, filled with rows upon rows of tables seating the castle’s many inhabitants. Hovering in one of the archways I bit my bottom lip, hesitant to go any farther. I could see Alastair seated at the head table and, as if able to sense my presence, he looked up at that very moment, his eyes focused in my direction.
Now that he had seen me it was too late to make my retreat, so I gathered my courage and swept forward into the room with my head held high.
I could hear the curious whispers from the tables around me as people turned to watch my procession up to the head table. When I reached the dais Alastair stood, along with the other men at the table with him, the ones to his left each moving down the table a seat in order to make room for me.
“Ye look quite bonny this evening, Miss Gordon,” he said to me, helping me into my chair.
“Thank you,” I said graciously. I inclined my head to him, sliding easily back into the manners that I had been trained to from birth.
“I’m glad that ye chose to join us.”
“It occurred to me that if this is to be my new home, it would behoove me to treat it as such. And I thought… I thought that it would be nice to share my evening meal with my… with you, in a more lively location this evening than on previous ones,” I said nervously, my eyes flicking quickly over to him and then down to my plate. But not before I saw a small smile tug at the corner of his mouth.
By the time dinner was finished I was feeling decidedly uncomfortable. Never before had I had so many curious eyes focused on me for so long.
“If you would excuse me, I think it’s time for me to retire to my room,” I told him as I stood up from my seat.
“I’ll show ye back to your chamber, then.”
Alastair offered me his arm and I took it, allowing him to escort me out of the hall.
“MacGregor,” a soft voice called as we started down the hallway toward the staircase.
I turned around to see a lovely young woman swaying toward us. Her long, fire-red hair was a mass of curls that fell over her shoulders, framing a sweet heart-shaped face. Her moss green eyes sparkled as she looked at him and I felt a tinge of jealousy spike through me.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I dinna realize ye were busy.” She tore her gaze away from him to glance my way for a split second before dismissing me, then enveloped him in a warm smile. “I was just wondering if ye will be needing anything.” She paused meaningfully and leaned in slightly. “Later.”
I could not believe her baldness. I was sure that she was trying to make an assignation with him right there in front of me. Not that I had, nor wanted any claim on the man, but it simply was not the thing to be done in front of a stranger. And a female stranger at that.
“No, Allina, I will not,” Alastair told her tersely through gritted teeth. He continued up the stairs with his jaw clenched tightly.
I looked back over my shoulder to see Allina staring at me, her eyes full of fire and her hands clenched into tight fists at her sides.
“I’m sorry about Allina,” he said when we reached my door.
“I’m sure it’s none of my business.”
“The lass is young, and fancies herself a wee bit in love with me.”
“Does she have any reason to?” I asked him, and then blushed. “I’m sorry. It’s just that she was so bold. As if she had a right to be. But as I said, the matter is none of my concern.”
But even as I said it I remembered the way she had looked at me. This was no young lass with a crush. The look had been one of pure hatred. I shivered and wrapped my arms around myself.
“What is it, Glenna?” he asked.
“I just realized how lonely I will be here at night now that I won’t have the wolf to keep me company any more. I noticed the collection in your study. Would you mind very much if I were to borrow a few of your books?”
“Ye like to read, then?” He looked at me, surprised.
“Very much. I was my father’s only child for a long time, so he wanted to ensure that I had a proper education.”
“You’re welcome to borrow any book ye wish if it will ease your time here, but you’ll find more variety in my library than my study. Shall we go now and find something?”
“I would like that very much. Thank you.”
***
My hands slid over the soft spines of the books in his library but my eyes were blind to the words in front of me. It was much too hard to concentrate when I could feel his eyes focused on my back as I made my way around the room.
“This is quite the collection, MacGregor.” I looked over my shoulder to smile at him, trying to relieve some of my tension. The air in the room seemed to get heavy whenever we were quiet for too long, as if the very air around us swelled with anticipation.
He leaned against the mantle of the fireplace watching me, an intense expression on his face as if he were working on a puzzle that he was unable to solve.
“Have ye found anything in here that is to your tastes?” he asked me.
“Oh, yes. I could easily lose myself in here for months on end. You’ll have to be very careful or you may never see me again. Your library is even greater than my father’s. I can hardly believe it.”
“High praise coming from you, lass.”
I laughed and turned back around to the bookcase. “Do you have a favorite?” I asked him.
“I do,” he said simply.
I turned back to him and raised an eyebrow questioningly. “Are you going to tell me what it is, or am I going to have to guess?”
He smiled slowly and nodded toward the bookcase. “Guess.”
I stepped toward him, enjoying the new game. “And if I guess correctly, what will my prize be?”
“What would ye be wanting?”
I tilted my head and studied him. “I’m not sure yet. I’ll have to think about it.”
Alastair straightened himself and came toward me. His long, graceful strides reminded me so much of the wolf I had known that I took a step back, then another,
until I bumped into the bookcase behind me.
He stood too close to me, the toes of his boots almost touching those of my slippers. He raised his hands and rested them on the shelf behind me, effectively caging me in.
That was what came of thinking of him like a friend instead of my captor. I should never have joked with him so freely. I couldn’t breathe with him so close.
“Are ye afraid of me, lass?”
I swallowed and shook my head. “No, it’s just a bit… unnerving. You are nothing like what I was expecting. I thought you would be… wild… and cruel.”
“And now?” His deep voice was low, barely above a whisper.
I looked up into his vivid green eyes and resisted the urge to touch him.
“Now I just think you’re wild. But how could you not be, being what you are?”
“Aye, lass, I’m wild.”
“And dangerous,” I whispered.
“Why do ye say that?” he asked, leaning closer.
“Because when you’re near me like this, I cannot think straight. I forget who I am and how I came to be here. I forget my loneliness. I forget everything but how badly…” I shook my head, trying to clear it of the fog. “How badly I want you to touch me.”
He lifted a hand to cup my cheek, then trailed his fingers down and around the back of my neck.
“If anyone here is dangerous, lass, it’s you. My family may be cursed with the wolf, but you… you have bewitched me. Who are you truly, Glenna? Are you one of the fairy folk come to lead me to my doom? For my days are filled with thoughts of ye. Hidden away in your room. Why else would I go to such lengths to be near ye? To try to make ye happy?”
“I’m no fairy,” I told him.
“No? A witch, then, come to test me? For from that first moment I saw ye in the woods and heard ye curse your wretched uncle I was taken with ye. Well, I’ll tell ye now, sorceress, that whatever test you bring, I’ll face it. And I’ll face it gladly knowing I’ll have this memory to take with me.”
I gasped as his hand tightened around the back of my neck and he pulled me forward. I stood frozen as his head dipped down to mine but made no sound of protest as he moved to kiss me. His lips were soft and firm, and I quickly melted into his touch. I felt like I had been waiting for this moment from the first second I had set eyes on him in the woods. No matter how hard I had fought it at the time, I could admit it to myself now.
Claimed by the Highland Wolf Page 5