The Wolf Wore Plaid

by Terry Spear

  Even now, he had to quit thinking about Heather and what she did to him. He needed to sleep because tomorrow would be just as rough as today had been and he had another several days of fighting in the battle scenes before the filming was done. But he planned to do something special for Heather tomorrow night. A first real date. If she wanted one. Not in courtship, but just to prove they could be friends and go out on a platonic date.

  It was hard to plan for because they couldn’t leave until the director said the shooting was a wrap. Enrick needed to see where she would like to go, what she would like to do. Maybe they could go to the MacNeill lands and he could run with her as a wolf afterward, if it wasn’t too late.

  Enrick was thinking of a special inn that had a seafood restaurant with excellent cuisine on the waterfront. They could watch the sun set, if they finished the shoot before that happened.

  He didn’t think he would fall asleep, but the next thing he knew, it was time to hurry down to eat breakfast before he had to put on his grungy clothes and head back to the battlefield.

  In the great hall, Heather was sitting at a table and surrounded by women, so he couldn’t mention having dinner with her tonight just yet. He didn’t want to text her because he didn’t want her to take the offer of dinner the wrong way. He needed to meet with her face-to-face.

  He took a seat next to Lachlan. Grant and Colleen were sitting on the other side of the table, Colleen smiling at Enrick.

  Lachlan slapped him on the back. “You are late to breakfast, Brother, which means you missed out.” He glanced in the direction of Heather sitting with the other ladies.

  “Aye, I’m late when I normally never am.” Enrick wasn’t going to comment on the missing-out part of Lachlan’s comment. “I guess the workout I had really helped me sleep.” Enrick would never admit it had really worn him out. He hoped the whole pack didn’t know Heather had given him a muscle massage last night.

  He glanced in Heather’s direction, but she was animatedly talking to Lana and some other lasses and didn’t look his way. He hoped she hadn’t regretted giving him a massage, thinking she had been a little too intimate with him last night.

  “Are you taking Heather someplace special anytime soon?” Colleen asked.

  Enrick finished off his blood pudding and began working on his eggs, then glanced up at Colleen, wondering why she’d ask him that.

  Colleen shrugged. “I’ve heard all the rumors about the two of you.”

  Enrick’s ears suddenly felt hot, and he raised his brow in question.

  Colleen sighed. “Okay, look, I know you don’t think you’re right for her, but you’ll never know if you don’t give it a chance. It’s not like you have to make a commitment or anything. I swear everyone in the pack—except for you—seemed to know she was trying to see you when she’d come visit her friends at Farraige Castle. They teased her about it all the time. Don’t make the mistake of not giving it a chance and letting her get away with the wrong wolf again.”

  He opened his mouth to speak, and Colleen amended, “If you happen to be the right wolf for her.”

  He let his breath out. “If all goes well with the shoot today, I hope to take her to the inn for a seafood dinner on the shore to watch the sunset.”

  “Oh, good,” Colleen said. “That sounds really nice. Sorry, I guess I spoke too soon.” She glanced at Grant.

  Enrick was certain she wanted his brother to do the same for her.

  “Heather’s brothers have been asking me to keep an eye on things,” Colleen said.

  “Between Heather and me?” Och. It was enough they’d threatened him at her place of business that one day. Enrick didn’t need the whole pack and Heather’s brothers’ involvement in his affairs. “They don’t have any need to know.”

  “Today, the wolves will take part in the battle, at least one segment of it,” Lachlan said, changing the subject, to Enrick’s relief.

  “No fighting for you, I take it.” At least Lachlan could rest up a bit. Enrick almost wished he could “handle” the wolves instead. He must be getting old.

  “No. Well, later, maybe. It depends on if we need to do a bunch of retakes with the wolves. The wolves should be fine in their parts, but you never know when you actually get out in the field and they begin filming.” Lachlan ate some of his haddock. “Or if the key actors mess up their lines and the wolves have to do their parts again.”

  “True. I haven’t seen your cousins since the shooting began,” Enrick said to Colleen. “Are they doing okay in their roles?”

  “They’re having a blast. So are the others who are serving as wolves. It’s the only time any of our kind can play our other halves for all to see—and get away with it.” Colleen smiled. “And some of the men, not my cousins, have been out in the field sword fighting when they don’t have to be wolves.”

  “Good. I’m glad everyone who wanted to participate can. Don’t you miss it, Grant?” Enrick couldn’t imagine not taking the time to fight in a few takes at least.

  Grant chuckled. “No. I saw the way all of you dragged in last night. Everyone looked so ready to fight in the morning, and you guys looked done in after the shoot was wrapped up.”

  “It’s a good thing we had lots of sword practice to get into shape beforehand or we would never have made it.” They would have been hurting for a few days after all this fighting if they hadn’t been working out.

  “Concerning injuries that the men battling in the scenes suffered yesterday, all the sprains and bruises and cuts were minor. Sore muscles were the biggest injury we saw,” Colleen said.

  Enrick was glad she was seeing to that. He’d been too worn out and wanting a shower too badly to look into that. Then he saw Heather getting up from her table and carrying her plate to the kitchen, and he grabbed his plate. “See you later.” He hurried after Heather, even though he hadn’t finished his breakfast yet.

  When he reached her, she glanced at his plate. “You haven’t eaten any of your toast or half of your eggs and sausage. You’ll need all your strength to get you through the battles until lunchtime.”

  He set his plate on the kitchen table and grabbed his buttered toast and coated it with blackberry jam. “I want to take you to the Seaside Inn. We can have supper there and watch the sun set. Tonight. After the shooting is done.” He ate a slice of toast.

  Heather’s eyes widened. Then she smiled. “I would love that. Just let me know when, after you’re done.”

  “I’ll have to run up to my room and shower and get dressed, but after that, we’re out of here.” He finished off his eggs.

  “That would be fun.”

  He ate the last two sausages. “Are you going to watch me fighting the others in the rain today?”

  She smiled. “Maybe. I might just enjoy a day off and make sure the shop is running fine without me being there, unless I’m needed for something else during one of the shoots.”

  He nodded. “I’ve got to run and get dressed in my muddy clothes.”

  She wrinkled her nose. “Glad it’s you and not me. Though I think I would wash my clothes at night and roll in the mud the next day to get the muddy battle look.”

  He laughed. “You have to have the sweaty smell to really feel in character.” Then he set his plate in one of the sinks, and before he could say anything further to her, her breakfast companions walked into the kitchen with their plates. He smiled at Heather and hurried off.

  It wouldn’t do for him to be late when he was responsible for all the male extras fighting in the battle scene. At least as far as Grant said. The director was of a different mindset.

  But Enrick almost felt lighthearted about having dinner out with Heather tonight, as long as the whole pack didn’t put too much stock in it. It was just a nice date between a man and a woman. Nothing beyond that.

  * * *

  “Are you going to watch the men ba
ttling it out today in the rain?” Lana asked Heather.

  “I don’t know. I want to. I wish it was drier out today.” Heather really wanted to watch Enrick. She couldn’t help it. She worried about him and the other men out there. “He asked me to go out with him.”

  “So are you?” Lana raised a brow.

  “I guess so.” Heather knew Lana was dying to ask her about the date.

  “Okay, well, you can tell me how it went. I don’t want to go out there today.”

  “I’ll do that.” Now Heather had to.

  “I can’t believe he finally asked you out on a date,” Lana said, taking hold of her hands and squeezing, her face alight with excitement.

  Heather had known that was coming. “How many first dates have you been on?”

  “Tons.” Lana shrugged.

  “That’s what this is. It doesn’t mean anything.”

  “Except for last night.”

  Heather let her breath out in exasperation. “I shouldn’t have told you about last night.”

  “You couldn’t have hidden what you were doing from me.”

  That was true. As soon as Heather had left their chamber with the lavender lotion, Lana had been dying to know what she was up to, suspecting just what had happened since Heather had been talking to Enrick beforehand.

  “See you at lunch.” At least Heather could return to the castle and have lunch and get out of the rain. She didn’t have to go back out there this afternoon if she didn’t want to. She was trying hard not to be overly excited about having dinner with Enrick tonight. She kept telling herself this wouldn’t amount to anything and they would prove to each other, at least to her way of thinking, that he wasn’t the right one for her.

  She got bundled up in her kilt and a waterproof wool cloak, then headed out into the rain. It wasn’t bad, just a light rain, as she hurried to the hill that overlooked the battlegrounds. Some of the cameras were situated on top of the hill, too, so they could get a bird’s-eye view of the battle. The view was really impressive with some men on horseback in their leather armor and kilts, others on foot, covered in mud and fighting each other, swords slashing and clanging, men shouting, even calling out some choice Gaelic words.

  It looked so real.

  Then she saw Enrick, though it was hard to tell individual warriors because of the mud they wore. But that was the position Cearnach had told her he would be in when the fighting started. Enrick was slashing his sword at Cearnach, and she admired how they could swing their swords, thrusting and parrying, slashing and defending themselves as they battled it out, even though they were getting stuck in the mud and slipping on it. No wonder the director had to take so many shots to get it right.

  Then another warrior shoved Cearnach down and struck at him with his sword. She was kind of surprised, thinking Enrick would be the one to take Cearnach down. Then to her further astonishment, Enrick began fighting the man who had attacked her cousin. What in the world…?

  Enrick should have been on the same side as the other man since he had attacked Cearnach. She narrowed her eyes and looked closer. Ohmigod, it was one of the Kilpatrick brothers. Redheaded Robert, she thought.

  In a hurry, she fumbled to pull her cell phone from the pouch at her waist and called Grant right away. “Unless I’m mistaken, Robert Kilpatrick is fighting Enrick. He went after Cearnach first and knocked him down, but Enrick is fighting him now.” She hoped she wasn’t wrong, but she didn’t believe so.

  “I’m on my way. Where are you?”

  “Widow’s Peak.”

  “I’ll be right there.”

  If Robert was in the mix, his brother surely was. And maybe some of the McKinleys. Heather knew why Robert would go after Cearnach. It all had to do with Cearnach saving the Kilpatricks’ cousin from their greedy grasp. Robert would never let go of the anger he felt toward the MacNeills for stealing Elaine away.

  Even though this play fighting was supposed to be just that, Heather knew Robert would take it further, then think to slip away. No one would be the wiser that he had injured or killed Cearnach. Everyone was so busy making the battle look good that most wouldn’t have noticed. But Enrick knew.

  Enrick and Cearnach had been focused on each other until Robert attacked Cearnach, so she imagined everyone else would be doing the same, fighting the same people in the scenes, choreographed to an extent.

  Grant and four of his men wearing period dress joined her shortly after that, and she pointed down the hill to where Enrick was still fighting Robert. Cearnach was just getting up when another redheaded man struck at him with his sword—Patrick, she thought—and Cearnach parried in defense.

  Grant and his men were armed and wet, but they weren’t all muddy. She feared for Grant and the other men’s safety, too, because she knew the Kilpatricks were out for blood. Grant headed down to the battlefield, his sword at the ready. The other four men were carrying them too. She was glad about that, though she wouldn’t feel any real relief until this situation was resolved to the MacQuarries’ satisfaction.

  Grant and his men headed down the hill to charge into the fight as if they were latecomers to the party.

  The director was watching them and didn’t say anything, just continued to observe the newcomers to the fight.

  She prayed the Kilpatricks were the only ones to suffer injury for starting the attack in the first place.

  * * *

  Despite the seriousness of Robert and Patrick attacking Enrick and Cearnach, Enrick hadn’t wanted to mess up the shoot. Not that he’d had much choice. When Cearnach went down and Robert struck at him again, Cearnach managed to fend off the attack despite being on his back in the mud. Enrick was glad about that because he slipped in the mud when he tried to reach Robert. Regaining his footing, Enrick immediately dove in to attack Robert and protect Cearnach, giving him a chance to get to his feet.

  It was problematic when the enemy wolves attacked them for real, not in choreographed play, because they couldn’t just kill them like Enrick wanted to, not on camera and among humans. They had to handle the situation carefully.

  As he struck at Robert again, Enrick worried that more of Kilpatrick’s kin were fighting his people and their friends, the MacNeill clansmen. If there were fatalities on the battlefield, Enrick thought the company would shut down the film and the MacQuarries would have a black eye over it, just what the Kilpatricks and McKinleys would want.

  Cearnach had managed to get to his feet to help Enrick when Patrick attacked Cearnach out of the muddy sea of men. Enrick wanted to warn Grant about the severity of the problem but couldn’t get to his phone while fending off Robert. However, Grant and four of their men suddenly appeared behind Robert. Grant had a sword in hand, and he hit Robert so hard in the temple that the man fell onto his back in the mud, out cold.

  Two of the other men with Grant knocked Patrick unconscious, and then Grant said to Enrick and Cearnach, “Are you both okay?”

  “Aye, thanks, Brother,” Enrick said.

  Cearnach nodded.

  “Come with us. We need to find any other of their kin here and knock them out before they seriously injure any of our people,” Grant said.

  Enrick and the others were fighting through the swarm of muddy bodies. They were constantly being engaged in combat, until some of them saw Grant in the middle of all the fighting.

  “Keep fighting, men. The McKinleys may have infiltrated our battle. Knock them out cold, if you find any. Don’t kill them.” Then Grant and the others resumed searching for any of the McKinleys.

  The men continued to fight for the film but were also watching for any sign of the McKinleys.

  The director finally called, “Cut!”

  Enrick was worried the director had stopped the battle scene because of the mess Grant and the others were making while searching for the villains.

  When the fighting was s
topped, Enrick and Cearnach pushed through the mob of men, trying to reach the place where the Kilpatricks had been knocked out, ready to take them into custody and, reluctantly, give them first aid.

  “I know they were around here somewhere.” Enrick couldn’t smell the brothers’ scents since there were so many scents crowding the area.

  “Maybe over that way a wee bit?” Cearnach motioned with his hand as he moved through the men.

  “Has anyone seen the Kilpatrick brothers in the mud?” Enrick called out.

  “Nay, neither of them are over here,” one man said, the words repeated in every direction.

  “Hell, they must have scurried off,” Cearnach said.

  Enrick scoffed. “Like a couple of mud-coated rats. The arses.”

  “Do you think they messed up the shoot?” Cearnach glanced around at the men there.

  “Our part in it, maybe. Though I’m sure the director shoots a lot more film than they actually need to make the movie. So we can probably be cut out of it, if anything looked odd.”

  Then they saw a path being cleared for Grant and the men that had been with him. He looked ready to kill some McKinleys and a couple of Kilpatricks. Since they weren’t dragging any McKinleys with them, Enrick assumed they got away or, best-case scenario, only the Kilpatricks had been here.

  “Where are the Kilpatricks?” Grant asked.

  “No one’s seen them. We should have kept a guard on them,” Enrick said, wishing he’d thought of it. But he really had believed the men would still be out cold when they returned for them. “Were any McKinleys here?”

  “Aye, at least five of them, but when they saw me coming, they hightailed it out of here,” Grant said. “We’ll have to meet about this tonight.”

  There went Enrick’s dinner plans with Heather, but this was important too. It was dangerous business.