The Wolf Wore Plaid

by Terry Spear

  “She told me how gallant you were when you carried her up the stairs. Her mate was grateful too. He couldn’t believe she wanted to go through with the scene as long as she did. Until she knew the babies were coming and she couldn’t hold off any longer,” Julia said.

  “Had she shifted?” Enrick asked.

  “Aye, she did to give birth. Easier as wolves. And then she shifted back for a few minutes to check over her babies. That’s when they began crying as babies,” Heather said.

  Julia took a bite of her pizza, then after she finished it, she said, “If you hadn’t heard, Catherine identified the three men who had attacked Colleen’s cousins and the MacQuarrie. They’re all alphas. Once we reported who they were to Paxton, he banished them and Robert and Patrick Kilpatrick from the pack and the territory. It turned out the three McKinleys had also invaded the one battle scene being filmed. Two others had taken part in the battle, but no one would say who they were.”

  “I suspect Robert and Patrick and the other three men know exactly who they are. Maybe even others. Maybe even Paxton. But since they weren’t caught in the act, no one wants to give them up. That could be a dangerous business as the two men still in the McKinley pack could cause dissent. Hopefully, just for them and not any more for the MacQuarries or MacNeills,” Enrick said.

  “Agreed.” Grant lifted another slice of pizza off the platter.

  “Catherine went home,” Julia said, “but she’ll definitely have a place in my new novel.”

  “Is she redeemed?” Heather asked.

  Enrick rubbed Heather’s back. “You know you’ll want to read the book, and you don’t want to know all about the story before that.”

  Heather sighed.

  Julia chuckled. “I’m not sure. I’ll have to write the book, and if it works out, then yes, but who knows where the story characters will take it.”

  Heather drank some of her tea. “Well, from what some of our people said, Catherine arrived at the shop early this morning, eager to work, doing anything they deemed necessary.”

  “Oh?” Enrick said.

  “Aye. They had her cleaning the windows first thing, then the tables outside. The ones inside were clean, but the wind blows dust around and the tables outside have to be washed down each morning before the shop opens.” Heather picked up another slice of pizza.

  “I’m glad to hear she’s working out,” Enrick said, the others at the table agreeing.

  “Me too. We’re still watching her. She understands she has to earn our trust.”

  “Good,” Enrick said.

  “The men who were banished after Catherine confirmed who they were at Argent Castle were furious she was the one who told Paxton. But she said she is loyal to her pack and to the pack leader. What they did was akin to a mutiny. She wanted no further part in it,” Lachlan said.

  “That’s good. I hope they don’t try to take it out on her,” Heather said.

  “Hopefully, Paxton will realize this and ensure she’s well protected.” As much as Enrick was angry that she’d pulled what she had in the name of love, at least she’d turned around. He didn’t want her paying the price for revealing the identity of the coconspirators.

  After the lunch break, Enrick led Heather out of the great hall and into the gardens, glad he could take a break from constantly sitting around, waiting for something to happen.

  “Are you sure Catherine’s going to work out all right in your shop and not cause trouble?” Enrick was concerned for Heather and her shop’s reputation.

  “Aye. I suspect if she did something like contaminate the food in my shop, her brother might just banish her too. And I really don’t think she wants that. I still can’t believe I was the one who pulled a sgian dubh on her and I’m the one who she finally opened up to.”

  “You also were the only one who offered to work with her so she could do a good deed to repair the damage she’d done.”

  “You know, deep down she might have wanted to get caught. She pretended not to see that I was watching her in the kitchen. She might have been hoping I would stop her and end the whole business.” Heather frowned at Enrick. “Are you sure you’re not supposed to be down at the pond, just in case they need you?”

  “No battles, nothing Guy needs a double for. It’s just a scene with talking and then kissing between Guy and Missy. Then some more scenes in the castle and bedchamber, but nothing I need to be part of. We have a ton of security all around the area, watching out for trouble.”

  Then they heard a woman scream and a man shout out.

  Enrick and Heather raced to the garden gate and saw Gutzie, the gander, chasing Guy and Missy away from the pond. The goose, Buttercup, was watching and Enrick swore if she could, she would be laughing.

  Enrick probably shouldn’t have, but he laughed out loud. Not that the film crew or the terrified actors could hear him. He couldn’t help himself. A Highland lord should not be chased off by a gander.

  Enrick loped down the hill toward the pond and Heather ran after him. “What are you going to do?” she asked.

  He had no intention of kissing Missy in the scene, like Guy was supposed to do. But he could get Gutzie to come to him, hopefully, and he could lock him up for the time being. “Can you get some oats for them, Heather?”

  “Aye, sure.” Heather ran back to the castle.

  Behind him, he heard one of the women say, “Here are the oats, Heather. Gutzie’s in rare form today.”

  “Aye, I’ll say. And thanks!”

  Then he heard footfalls behind him and saw Heather running to catch up to him with a bag of oats.

  “Thanks, Heather.” Enrick ran the rest of the way to the pond with the bag of oats clutched in his hand. When he reached the gander returning to the pond, he spoke to him in greeting. “Hey, Gutzie, Buttercup, here are some oats for you.”

  Both the goose and gander headed toward him for the meal, along with a number of ducks.

  As long as Gutzie wasn’t making a beeline toward Enrick with his neck stretched forward, head down, and hissing at him, Enrick was in good shape. He hoped.

  If he wasn’t and the gander tried to bite him, he was sure Heather would laugh this time. Geese had a sharp tip on the end of their upper bills and when they pinched, twisted their head, and pulled back, they could leave some nasty bruises. Not to mention that the bony edge of their wings could beat on a person with some force. He was glad Guy and Missy had gotten away unscathed. With the issues the film had already suffered from Kilpatrick’s clan, they didn’t need animal trouble from their own.

  “You don’t ever want to run,” Enrick told Guy and Missy as they watched from a distance. Though his advice was shared with anyone out there who might encounter trouble with the geese in the future. “You have to stand up to them and wave your arms around to make yourself look bigger. They’ll think you’re meaner than them then. You can extend your arm, making it appear you have a long neck and point your finger like it’s a beak and tell him, ‘No! Don’t bite.’”

  Enrick didn’t think Guy and the woman were going for it, from the way they’d folded their arms and shaken their heads at him in unison. If he had to, he would demonstrate, but he was glad he hadn’t had to.

  He encouraged the geese to follow him to a shed with a promise of more to eat. Once they were inside eating happily, he shut the door so that the film could go on without the actors, or anyone else, having to contend with the menacing geese. Though he thought it would make for a funny addition to the scene if the gander had chased Guy off and the film star had showed he was only human.

  Enrick called out to the director, “The geese are locked up.”

  “Thanks!” the director said.

  Enrick should have realized Gutzie could get cantankerous if Guy and Missy were at the pond and not feeding them anything. It didn’t always happen, but with so many people milling about,
he was certain the gander was aggravated. His pond, his space.

  Enrick was glad he’d been close by to help, even though he hadn’t thought they would need him for anything. The security detail had strict orders to watch for Kilpatricks and McKinley men and weren’t to budge from where they were positioned, except to do their duty. Chasing after the geese didn’t qualify.

  “You sure try to show Guy up,” Heather said, a sparkle in her eye as they moved out of the area.

  Very seriously, Enrick said, “I don’t try.”

  She laughed. “I know the geese have chased you before. Weren’t you worried they would do it this time?”

  “Not when I had the bag of oats. Besides, I learned my lesson when I was a kid tending to the geese. Particularly when they were mating.”

  She chuckled. “Aye, my da always warned me not to go near them, or to be really careful when I had to feed them.”

  They watched Guy and Missy kissing, and Enrick was ready to take Heather back to bed. She reached over and took his hand and squeezed, smiling up at Enrick. She looked like she had the same thing in mind.

  Watching Guy and Missy making love near the pond really wasn’t Enrick’s thing. He would much rather be making love to his mate.

  Chapter 22

  The next morning, Enrick woke to Heather cuddling against his bare chest.

  She kissed his chest and smiled up at him. “We were supposed to get some sleep.”

  “Hmm, tonight,” he said, kissing the top of her head and sweeping his hand down her back in a loving caress. He sighed. “We need to get going.” As much as he wanted to just stay in bed the rest of the day with Heather, they had jobs to do. “I’ll be glad when the shooting is done.”

  “You know you love it.”

  The phone alarms and the one alarm clock went off, Enrick having returned all the rest of the clocks to Lachlan yesterday so he could find their owners.

  Heather and Enrick scrambled out of bed to turn off the alarms. “Okay, so maybe you’re right,” Heather conceded after they turned off the alarms. She grabbed Enrick’s hand and hauled him toward the bathroom. “Shower first.”

  “Together.”

  “Aye. What better way to start our day?”

  He scooped his naked mate up in his arms and carried her into the shower. “I couldn’t agree with you more.”

  * * *

  Enrick and Heather ate a hurried breakfast in the great hall where most everyone had already eaten and left, and Maynard was giving Enrick the evil eye for being late—again. After that, Enrick was busy watching things with Heather and being part of the security force while Guy was supposed to cross moss-covered rocks over a creek to reach the heroine. Missy was waiting for Guy to follow her after having crossed the stones off-screen, and the trick was for him to run across them in his exuberance to reach her.

  The film crew had cleaned the stepping-stones the best they could to ensure Guy could make it across without slipping and falling into the creek, which, to Enrick’s way of thinking, had diminished the sport of it. Not to mention it looked odd when everything else was covered in moss.

  Enrick was standing by in case he was needed to fill in for Guy. In fact, he assumed Guy would want Enrick to cross the rocks because they were wobbly, and Guy wouldn’t want to fall and injure himself. But the actor did like doing his own scenes as much as possible, Enrick had learned, and Guy was determined to reach the heroine himself. How hard could it be?

  “And action!” the director called out.

  Guy headed for the stepping-stones like a man with a mission while Missy, wearing his clan’s tartan now, was standing on the other side, waiting for him to join her.

  Guy made it across the first four stones, wobbling a little on the last one, but when he took a step on the next one, he must not have balanced himself quite right. He tottered, tilted, and tumbled into the creek. And swore.

  For a second, no one said anything, and then he got to his feet in the waist-deep water and smiled at the director, who immediately called, “Cut!”

  Missy was laughing then, and so were many of the crew and other onlookers.

  Enrick smiled.

  Heather laughed. “You probably would have done the exact same thing.”

  “No way. I have the balance of a cat.”

  “Hmm, and other moves like a wolf.”

  He smiled down at her.

  In the meantime, Guy was quickly changing into dry clothes. They had several sets for him to wear, in the event he ended up in the creek, and Enrick suspected the director, or his film crew, hadn’t had a lot of faith in Guy making it the first time across. Or even several times across.

  “The stones are wobbly,” Guy said.

  “Aye, and they would have been in ancient times,” Enrick said, not meaning to say anything to Guy about it.

  Everyone looked to see how Guy would react.

  Heather punched Enrick in the ribs, undoubtedly annoyed with him for making the comment.

  “Any Highland lord worth his salt can make that.” Enrick didn’t mean to badger him, but to say he could do it.

  Heather looked up at Enrick, her expression one of disbelief.

  He smiled at her. It was true and she knew it.

  Guy’s growly look faded, and he glanced back at the stones where some of the film crew were trying to make the rocks more stable.

  “Do you want me to do it?” Enrick wanted to tell the men to quit messing with the stones. They’d already done enough to them to make the scene look fake. The stones had been set there centuries ago by people living in the area. Through the ages, lads and lassies had crossed them with never a mishap. Adults too, and no problem at all. He couldn’t see that the American star could be that…unbalanced. Then again, Enrick and his kin had traversed many a water crossing in such a manner, not wishing to get wet, and so they were used to judging the slipperiness and instability of the rocks, even if it was a new path they hadn’t taken before.

  “No, I can do this.” Guy had finished changing into dry clothes.

  “Aye, you can. Feel the movement in the soles of your boots, adjust before you take the next step. Have confidence and you’ll make it.” Enrick folded his arms across his chest.

  Guy nodded to the director. He was ready to chance crossing the creek again. He must have thought he could manage the first four rocks, and so he hurried across them in a way that said he could do this. Enrick looked on with approval.

  But then Guy hesitated at the fifth rock. The one that had given him trouble before. If Guy didn’t overcome his fear of that rock, he would never make it across.

  He took a step, and another, and that rock became his new albatross as he lost his balance, waved his arms frantically about like a bird trying to catch the wind under its wings and take flight, and fell.

  Everyone laughed before they could even see how Guy was feeling about the situation. Enrick included. Not in a mean way. It was just…funny.

  Heather sighed.

  Enrick glanced down at her. She gave him a stern look telling him nonverbally not to say anything more to poor Guy. But the man needed encouragement if he was going to overcome his shortcomings.

  This time when Guy waded out of the water, he was much glummer.

  “I’ll be right back,” Enrick told Heather.

  “Enrick,” she said in a warning tone.

  He leaned down and kissed her cheek. “He needs some more encouragement.”

  “Aye, but not the way you would offer it, I’m sure.”

  “Like any of us would when we’re trying to overcome what seems an insurmountable obstacle.”

  “He is an American, raised in a city, not like you and our kin.”

  “Aye, but he’s a McNab. Somewhere in his genetic makeup, he’s a Scottish warrior at heart.” Enrick was certain of it. He stalked off toward Mc
Nab, and Guy frowned at him as he dressed yet again in another set of dry garments.

  “You do not need to tell me how to do this,” Guy said to Enrick, sounding vexed.

  “Aye, I do.”

  Guy frowned even harder at him.

  “Listen, we’ve been doing this since we were able to walk. I understand this. I’m sure you’ve had other obstacles to traverse that you had to work at. You’ll do this. I have every faith in you. Just don’t think of everyone else watching you. Concentrate on your footing. You can do this.”

  The breeze shifted and suddenly, Enrick got a whiff of a wolf, of Guy standing before him, wet, and irritated, and wolfish. He had to have been wearing hunter’s concealment.

  Enrick’s eyes widened. “Hell, man,” he said under his breath. “You’re one of us.”

  * * *

  When Guy’s jaw dropped and his eyes widened, Heather wondered just what Enrick was saying to him. She really couldn’t imagine him belittling Guy, but the Highlanders could be brusque about saying things in a way Guy might not understand and would instead cause him to take offense.

  For several minutes, Enrick spoke to Guy and then he finally slapped him on the back as if they were great friends, though Guy didn’t look like he reciprocated the feeling. Enrick headed back to Heather out of the view of the camera. Guy was just staring after Enrick, looking dumbfounded.

  What in the world had Enrick said to him?

  Enrick smiled at her as if she had nothing to worry about, but then his expression changed to a bit of a frown as he turned to watch Guy try to cross the creek again. “He’ll do it. He’s one of us.”

  Heather said, “Aye, he’s got a Celtic name, so I agree. He will. What did you say to him?”

  “Nay…I mean, aye, he’s got a Celtic name, but he’s one of us.”

  Heather stared at Enrick, not knowing what he was saying. “Kin?” she whispered. “A wolf?” She barely spoke the word. No way. Guy couldn’t be. Then she smiled. “Oh, if he is one, the single women in both of our clans will go crazy over wanting to get to know him better.”