A Highland Werewolf Wedding (25 page)

The next morning, tangled together and half asleep, the bed curtains drawn around
them and hiding them from the world, Elaine cuddled against Cearnach. He was the most
consummate, tender lover she’d ever had, and she was thinking that she never wanted
to let go of him when a knock sounded on the bedchamber door.

Cearnach growled at the interruption of their half sleepy bliss. Elaine stroked his
arm with a soothing caress. He uttered a low, “Hmm,” that was part loving her touch,
part rough with need.

Guthrie said beyond the door, “Cearnach, a word with you.” He sounded gruff and concerned.

Cearnach groaned, moving out from under Elaine as she stirred. She realized then that
she had captured him again in the middle of the night, her leg resting over his, locking
him in place. He was hers. She loved possessing him when
he
thought he possessed
her
.

Only this time they were completely naked.

She wasn’t awake enough to fully register the worry in Guthrie’s voice. Or maybe it
was that Cearnach didn’t seem to think the world was coming to an end in the way he
moved, stretching his sleeping muscles and giving her a view of a hot body that was
muscled, toned, and with an erection that had her taking a second look. She was ready
to pull him back into bed with her.

As if he knew just what she was thinking, Cearnach winked at her, then threw on a
pair of boxers and went to the door and pulled it open.

“Aye, Guthrie? What’s so wrong that you couldn’t have waited until
later
this morning?” He sounded like a growly Highland bear.

“Oran said that Ian wished to let you know he is having the gate opened and wanted
you to be there.”

The
car!
How could she have forgotten all about it? Cearnach did that to her. Just the way
he had worked his magic on her, bringing her to a thousand pleasures with his touch
half the night.

She quickly sat up, wanting to leave the bed, get dressed, and race down to the gate.
But she had no clothes near enough to the bed that she could grab. Guthrie stood on
the threshold of Cearnach’s room, though he couldn’t see her for the curtains drawn
around her side of the bed.

“I’ll be down at once,” Cearnach said. He sounded like he was ready for battle.

“Me, too,” Elaine called out from the curtained bed. She wasn’t going to be left out
of this. “Close the door so I can get dressed.”

“Ian doesn’t want any women in the inner bailey until we ensure it’s safe for everyone.”
Guthrie sounded as tactful as a man could be who was giving her orders.

“I’m going,” she reiterated, not about to be stopped in her mission.

Cearnach cleared his throat and said to Guthrie, “We’ll be right down.”

If he thought to change her mind, Cearnach was welcome to attempt it, but she wasn’t
buying it. She half expected Cearnach to close the door, ending the discussion with
his brother. But he didn’t.

“Ian won’t like it,” Guthrie said to Cearnach.

“He doesn’t have to like it.” Elaine spoke as if the conversation included her. She
wasn’t being left out of this. “The car is registered in my name. I want to make sure
everything’s there.”

“You can do so once the car is within our gates and everything is secure. He’s your
pack leader now, lass.” Guthrie acted as though she needed reminding.

“See you in a moment,” Cearnach said to his brother. The door shut, then Cearnach
opened the curtains to her side of the bed and smiled down at her. He was all warmth
and energy, and if not for the car business, she would have tugged him into bed again.

Frowning up at him, she let out her breath. “I won’t be coddled.”

“Or dictated to,” he said.

“Right.”

He touched her cheek with a gentle caress, eyeing the bruise that remained. “If you
have your heart set on doing this, hurry and get dressed as Ian won’t wait for us
once he’s decided to do something.”

She quickly climbed out of bed, then headed for the bathroom. “He really doesn’t expect
a force of Kilpatricks and McKinleys to attack, does he?”

“As a battle-trained warrior and leader of men, he always prepares for the worst.”

She didn’t believe anyone would attack whoever retrieved the car. Not when the castle
was so well defended. And not if Robert wanted to meet with her.

She quickly washed off in the shower, barely drying herself, then struggled to get
into a pair of jeans and sweater, her skin still wet in places.

As if he knew her thoughts on the matter, Cearnach said, “We wouldn’t put it past
them to offer a show of force. They will not like that they had to return your car
here instead of you coming to them.”

She joined him in the bedroom and sat down, but before she could slip on a pair of
boots, Cearnach leaned over and pulled one on for her. He wasn’t just doing so to
help hurry her along. Smelling her scent, he was checking how she felt about this
whole issue. He would recognize that she was both afraid and pissed.

She ruffled his hair with her hand. “I’m not worried.” She slipped her other boot
on. Well, maybe a little worried. She was concerned for everyone’s safety, should
her kin attack them. She was much more pissed, and she hoped that scent reigned over
all else.

“You smell delicious,” he murmured, looking up at her as he crouched at her booted
feet, his hands shifting to her knees, then sliding higher.

He pushed her knees apart, suggesting he wanted her again. Moving in between her legs,
he cupped her face in his large hands and kissed her mouth tenderly and lovingly,
his tongue darting into her mouth gently, and then hungrily as a groan escaped his
lips. Liquid heat poured through every inch of her, making her instantly wet for him.
He smiled, so wickedly sexy, and took another deep breath of her, his smile growing.

“You are so bad,” she said, shoving at his shoulders, but she didn’t budge him.

“What?” He feigned innocence as he rose and towered over her, pulling her to her feet.

“For making me want you so badly.”

He chuckled, grabbed her hand, and headed out the door.

His mother was on her way down the hall and quickly said, “I want to speak with Elaine.”

“Later, my lady mother.”

His mother furrowed her brows. “She can’t go out there. It’s too dangerous.”

“I will protect her.” He headed down the hall.

His mother snorted. He glanced over his shoulder at her.

“They’ll pull something. They’re pirates,” his mother warned.

“Aye, of that I’m well aware.”

When she and Cearnach left the keep and made their way across the inner bailey, she
saw a small crowd of men and wolves gathered near the gates to the entrance of the
bailey. She realized after they opened the wooden gates that the defenses protecting
the front entrance included three portcullises with an area in between each other
where invading armies could be scalded with boiling water or struck with arrows, reducing
their chances of successfully entering the inner bailey. All of the portcullises were
down.

She still thought that the pack’s extreme caution was unwarranted, though what did
she know about Highland wolf fighting?

As soon as Ian and his brothers turned to see them approach, Ian gave her a bow of
his head in greeting. Guthrie had his arms folded across his chest, his brow furrowed,
and appeared very annoyed with her.

Duncan gave her a small smile.

Ian said to Cearnach, “You’ll stay with her?”

“Aye.”

So Cearnach would be forced to babysit her. “Cearnach can go.” She didn’t want him
to feel obligated to stand beside her the whole time.

A few of the men chuckled. The wolves quit panting and swung their heads from looking
at her to observing Ian.

“You’re my responsibility, Elaine, first and foremost.” Cearnach sounded proud of
the fact.

Ian said to Duncan, “Ready?”

“Aye,” Duncan said and pulled out his sword.

“What if the men—saying that there are any out there, hiding, waiting—have guns?”
Elaine whispered to Cearnach.

“Not sporting enough.” Cearnach folded his arms as he stood so close to her that his
body was touching hers. She felt pleasure, warmth, and security in the intimate contact
on this cold, windy, damp day.

Men lifted the first of the portcullises, which made a grinding sound all the way
up.

Duncan and Ian headed toward the next one, six wolves walking beside them.

“Are the wolves still out there?” Elaine asked, her voice hushed. She hadn’t heard
them in the middle of the night again.

“They might be. We don’t want to take any chances.”

The second portcullis whined as it was raised, and the men and wolves continued on
their way.

Another dozen or so wolves, men, and Guthrie still stood protectively near Elaine.

The last of the portcullises was opened, and when Cearnach’s brothers and the wolves
reached the final gate, Ian waited to give the order to open it.

He glanced up at the tower. Oran nodded that it was all clear. Ian said, “Open the
gates.”

The gates creaked open as two men put their backs into moving them aside, the oak
so heavy she imagined only muscled men could manage.

Then she saw her vehicle—undamaged. Thank God. Water droplets collected on its shiny
silver surface, but the Mercedes looked the same as it had when she saw it last night;
only in the daytime the scene appeared a lot less scary. A thick fog still clung to
the trees surrounding the castle, and she couldn’t make out the long curving drive
because of the heavy mist.

Tension was riding high as everyone in the inner bailey waited, barely breathing.
She heard the swishing sound of a few swords being unsheathed to the left and right
of her position as Ian and the other men and wolves headed beyond the gate and moved
toward the car.

Every muscle in her body was straining with tension, and she could tell Cearnach’s
were the same by the way he stiffened next to her. All eyes were on the men exposed
beyond the castle walls. Several were standing on top of the wall walk, and she noticed
then, they were equipped with bows and arrows. She felt she had suddenly become immersed
in a Highland battle.

Ian approached the driver’s door of the vehicle, and she worried that her cousins
might have planted a bomb inside. What if she had been the one to drive it into the
inner bailey? They would know she wouldn’t. That one of the men would.

The wolves sniffed around the car, and she wondered if they could detect the smell
of bomb-making material. Sure they could, as sensitive as their sense of smell was.

Duncan made a move to open the door. She held her breath.

He pulled the door ajar and the buzzer sounded, indicating that the keys were in the
ignition. The car had been sitting in the drive all night with the keys in the ignition?
Great
. Someone could have stolen it. Then she rethought that scenario. The MacNeill men
probably had been watching the vehicle from the wall walk all night long. If anyone
had made a move to get near it, their archers could have prevented it.

Duncan jerked the passenger’s door open. Ian leaned inside. The trunk lid popped open.

Ian’s cousin Oran peered into the trunk, sword ready. “All clear,” he shouted.

So they thought her rental vehicle might be like the Trojan horse, bearing armed soldiers
instead of gifts? Or in this case, her clothes and Cearnach’s?

She started to move forward now that the car was safe, but Cearnach seized her arm
and glanced down at her, wearing a fearsome expression. “Wait.”

The single word was both a command and a plea. He wished to protect her above all
else.

She nodded, acknowledging that he knew the Highlanders and their tactics better than
she did. Ian got into the car with Duncan and they drove in through the gates.

Guthrie said to Cearnach, “We finally broke into the man’s computer at the keep that
Elaine owns.”

Expectantly, Cearnach and Elaine looked at him, waiting to hear what he’d learned.

Guthrie frowned. “Nothing. He’s lived centuries like us undoubtedly. Yet there was
nothing in the keep or on his computer to say a thing about him. As if the place was
a model home. Clothes in the drawers, and necessities in other drawers, food in the
kitchen. Nothing personal. Not one thing. No financial statements, bills, nothing.”

“Which means?” Cearnach asked.

“He knew we’d investigate the place. Maybe that Elaine would, and he didn’t want her
to know anything about him.”

Without warning, wolves snarled and growled in the woods, and then attacked.

Cearnach shoved Elaine behind him as a pack of at least a couple of dozen wolves raced
out of the woods flanking the drive to the castle. In the inner bailey, Ian and Duncan
threw open the doors to the car and hopped out. Some of the wolves went after Ian
and Duncan, none getting too close to the men’s swords, while the six MacNeill wolves
were fighting with those of the McKinleys’. Another dozen or more McKinley wolves
ran through the gate, targeting the rest of the men in the inner bailey.

Damnation! Cearnach couldn’t protect Elaine like this. “Run to the kennels,” Cearnach
shouted. “Lock yourself in.”

The kennels were much closer than the keep, if she could just reach them in time.

Guthrie and Cearnach swung their swords at two of the wolves while the others were
fighting her cousins in wolf form.

Something more than wanting the treasure had stirred them to fight. Did they think
Calla was staying at the castle? Was Baird going to war for her? Was the treasure
worth a lot more than they had imagined, and Kilpatrick would do anything to get hold
of it?

Elaine barely made it into the kennel, slamming the door behind her, as a wolf crashed
into it, unable to turn away fast enough.

Cearnach pivoted to fight a wolf, glad Elaine was inside the kennel. Yet he still
wished she was safely inside the keep and that he’d insisted that she stay there in
the first place, even if it hurt her fiercely independent pride.