A Highland Werewolf Wedding

chapter 26

Cearnach was so angry that he could barely think straight except for the need to go after Elaine. What in the world was she doing? He’d thought she’d be safe in the kennels. He knew he’d been wrong when he saw the wolf racing out of the building after her and Elaine heading for her car. At first, he’d been stunned. He thought she meant to get into the car for protection, lock the doors, and stay there until he could kill the wolf.

When she drove off, he couldn’t figure out what was going through her head.

“Elaine,” he said, half groaning her name.

Duncan was right behind him, his boots tromping against the pavers. Out of his peripheral vision, Cearnach saw Guthrie headed for another car.

“Where the hell is she going?” Duncan yelled.

“Damned if I know,” Cearnach said, climbing into the car and slamming the door.

As soon as Duncan shut his door, Cearnach tore out of the garage, men and wolves scattering to get out of his path.

The wolves and men from the enemy clan took off toward the gate, escaping, as if they’d finally gotten what they’d wanted: Elaine beyond the protective walls surrounding the keep.

“She can’t believe that her leaving will stop the fighting.” Actually it had, damn it, but how could she believe they couldn’t deal with her kin in a satisfactory manner?

“Did you recognize the wolf who was in the kennels with her?” Cearnach asked, unable to suppress his anger and concern.

In the rearview mirror, he saw Guthrie barreling down the drive after him and Ian giving orders in the inner bailey, waving his hands, red-faced and angry. Not at his brothers. He knew they’d do whatever was right to bring Elaine back to the pack. Ian was furious with her kin for attacking them at Argent Castle.

“He wasn’t any of the McKinleys or Kilpatricks,” Duncan warned. “He’d been in her rental car. I smelled his scent when I opened the door and took a good whiff. I smelled him again when he ran past me to get to her. Worse?”

Cearnach glanced at his brother.

“He’s the wolf who’s been living in her keep.”

“Why? Who the hell is he?”

“A henchman of her clansmen?” Duncan guessed.

Cearnach shook his head. “It’s personal between Elaine and him. Whoever he was, he forced her to run. Now she’s beyond the keep and beyond our protection.” He mulled the situation over further, but he couldn’t come up with any logical explanation.

“You don’t think whoever it was told her where the stolen goods were located, and she had to get there before someone else did, do you?” Duncan asked, then shook his head as if dismissing the idea. “She probably doesn’t know these roads that well. I doubt she’d be able to find any place quickly. She looked terrified when she raced past us.”

Cearnach recalled how she’d missed the turnoff to Senton Castle before. He didn’t think she’d easily find her way anywhere quickly without someone to guide her.

“Where is she going?” Cearnach asked, thinking out loud and not expecting Duncan to know any more than he did.

“I’m not sure.” Duncan put his cell on speakerphone and called their brother. “Ian, we’re pursuing Elaine. We have no idea where she’s headed.”

“What happened?” Ian asked.

“We don’t know. The wolf who was with her in the kennels forced her to run. That’s all we can figure.”

“Bring the lass back,” Ian said. “Whatever she’s afraid of, we’ll straighten it out. We’ll be cleaning things up here. Let me know what’s happening and where she’s headed. I’ll send backup as soon as you have some idea.”

“Aye, Ian. Thanks.” Duncan rested his phone on his lap. “Are you sure she went this way and not toward Edinburgh and the airport?”

“Why in bloody hell would she be going there?” Cearnach growled.

“Just a thought, Cearnach. I haven’t any idea why she would. Or why she would leave our protection.”

“Her solicitor wanted to speak to her alone,” Cearnach said. The notion continued to bother him. Something had been wrong from the start.

Duncan didn’t say anything.

Cearnach let out his breath. “It was something important. Something he said he’d ask Kilpatrick if it was all right to discuss with her.”

Duncan pulled out his cell. “What’s his name?”

“Hoover.”

“Is he a wolf?”

“Aye.”

Duncan searched for the number, then finding it, tapped on his cell and put it on speakerphone. “Mr. Hoover? This is Duncan MacNeill.”

“Yes, sir? What may I do for you?”

Cearnach thought the solicitor sounded defensive, like a wolf backed up against a wall, even though he couldn’t know why someone from the MacNeill wolf pack was calling him.

“I’m calling on behalf of Elaine Hawthorn, mate of my brother, Cearnach. You had some news for her but didn’t wish to give it to her. Some important news. I need to know what it was.” Duncan was all business, his voice taking on a tell-me-or-else tone. Most wolves would bend to the pressure.

“I’m sorry, sir. I can’t give that information out to anyone but—”

Typical solicitor response. Wouldn’t work with alpha male wolves who expected an answer… pronto.

“Fine. We’ll come call on you, and then you can decide if your answer is still the same,” Duncan said, his voice so dark that even Cearnach glanced his way. Duncan gave Cearnach an evil smile, his brows elevated just a fraction.

“Sir, if you’re threatening me—”

Cearnach couldn’t help snorting.

“I’m making a promise. I don’t threaten anyone,” Duncan said.

Cearnach smiled at that. With just a look, Duncan could change any beta wolf’s mind. Hoover was definitely a beta wolf.

Hoover cleared his throat over the phone. “Sir—”

“Just… tell… me.”

Despite Duncan’s ability to get what he wanted out of someone, the man still hesitated. Then probably envisioning Duncan coming to meet him at his office and dealing with the wolf face to face, the solicitor said, “Kelly Rafferty’s come for her. He paid Kilpatrick to seek her out and encourage her to come to Scotland.”

“Kelly Rafferty? Who the hell is that?” Duncan asked, glancing at Cearnach.

Cearnach nearly grabbed the phone out of his brother’s hand. “He’s dead! Damn the man.”

He knew Elaine wouldn’t have lied about it. Why in the hell had the man kept the truth from her about his being alive for so long? Then the realization hit him. That’s why she’d run!

Duncan stared at Cearnach, then said, “Who’s Kelly Rafferty?”

“Elaine Hawthorn’s mate,” the solicitor said.

***

Elaine’s cell phone rang, nearly giving her a stroke as she headed away from Argent Castle in the direction of Edinburgh. Robert Kilpatrick had charged up her phone? She lifted it off the seat as she drove as fast as she was able on the narrow, winding road.

“You can’t mate with Cearnach,” Robert said vehemently.

Elaine glanced in the rearview mirror. No sign of any car yet. She drove faster on the twisting road, hoping she wouldn’t end up in the trees, her car disabled like Cearnach’s had been.

“You knew all along, didn’t you? That Rafferty was still alive.”

“Oh, aye, lass. You’ve come home to him. The near-death experience changed him,” Robert said as if he was assuring her that the man was someone she’d want to be with again. “When he could, he made his way here. He’s been living here as a respectable businessman. He owns three pubs and a hotel. He gave up on ships after he was able to make his fortune and settle here.”

Elaine didn’t believe Rafferty was a changed man. She understood his need for revenge, that he’d killed the men who’d tried to kill him. But he’d murdered the men who’d wanted to mate her, her parents, and her uncles by having them turned in. None of them had deserved to die.

Tears filled her eyes and she choked back a sob. He hadn’t changed. He was the same as before. She didn’t want to be mated to him any longer. But wolf law only allowed a mating for life. They didn’t believe in divorce, and most never re-mated if they lost their mate early on. The bond between them usually was too great and no other wolf would do.

“I was supposed to meet with you to coordinate a meeting between the two of you later. He was certain you wouldn’t go to him if he tried to arrange the meeting himself. Then you didn’t arrive and I had to go to the wedding and try to figure out a way to find you… again,” Robert said.

For all these years, she’d felt happily secure in the knowledge that Kelly Rafferty was dead.

“Did you know he killed my uncles? Your kin, too?” she asked.

“Lord Whittington had them hanged.”

“Because Rafferty told him they were arriving in St. Andrews!”

Robert didn’t say anything.

“You knew. You wanted their stolen goods. You bastard.” She hung up on him. He was just like all the rest—thieving pirates who cared nothing for their distant relatives except for the money they could help them get from the dead.

She drove and drove and drove. The maps she’d used to find her way here were gone. At least her suitcase and purse and clothes all seemed to be in the car.

Then she remembered Calla. She had to get hold of her. To see if Rafferty had lied about holding her hostage. She called information for Cearnach’s mother and heard the older woman say, “Elaine, where are you?”

“Did you call Calla to have her go to Argent Castle?”

“Aye, about your wedding. Where… are… you? My sons are frantically searching for you.”

“Have you talked with Calla recently?” Elaine asked in a rush. Please, please, Calla, be okay.

“Aye, I told her to wait to arrive here until after the fighting ended between the wolf packs. She couldn’t come here in the midst of it.”

Elaine bit her lip, trying to judge the time that had passed. An hour? Two? “Call her and make sure she’s okay.”

“She’s here, dear. Right here with me. What is this about, lass? Cearnach is ready to have a heart attack over you vanishing like you did.”

“There… there won’t be any wedding. I had to know Calla was safe.”

Elaine stared at the landscape she was passing—a small house in a glen, fenced-in Highland cows, a creek half hidden in woods.

Everything seemed familiar as she drove farther away from Argent Castle. She was sure she was heading back to Edinburgh where she could return the rental car and get a flight out to anywhere that she could. Not to the States, though. She couldn’t return there yet. Not without him finding her too quickly.

“Elaine? Calla arrived at Argent Castle a few minutes ago. What’s wrong?” Cearnach’s mother asked, her voice troubled.

Thanking the heavens Calla was safe, Elaine realized she was in real trouble. “I’m sorry for everything,” she said with tears in her voice. “Don’t make any wedding plans. There won’t be a wedding.”

Before her almost mother-in-law could say anything, Elaine cut off the connection and stared at the road she was on, finally recognizing a few of the landmarks. She’d been so shook up that she hadn’t realized she had gone the wrong way. She was on the road to Senton Castle.

Like a wolf returning to its own territory, she was back home again—at her family’s castle.

She was so turned around. So angry with herself that she could scream. She hated getting lost more than anything else in the world. How could she do this to herself now?

If she continued past the castle, she had no idea where she’d end up.

She pulled into the parking lot at the castle ruins to turn the car around, figuring that she’d have to drive to the nearest city she could find and get directions, when three vehicles rushed in behind her.

Heart nearly failing, she glanced over her shoulder to see them tactically blocking her in. They must have been following her. The road twisted and turned so much that as long as they kept back far enough, she wouldn’t spy them. Or maybe they had suspected where she was headed from the direction she had taken and had come straight here. As if she’d come here of her own accord.

Or had they planted a device in the car that would make her easy to follow? Sure, that’s why Rafferty had suggested she take the car and run. Oh, how could she have fallen so easily into his trap?

Her heart was pounding so wildly that she didn’t know what to do. They’d blocked her in and she had no way to move the car. As a woman, she had no defenses. As a wolf, sure, but if anyone had a tranquilizer dart, she wouldn’t stand a chance against her kin, either.

She could run. But they could shift and run after her. Males could catch up to her with their longer legs.

She didn’t have a choice.

She closed her eyes. She could only do one thing. Attempt to return to Argent Castle. God, how could this nightmare get any worse?

As much as she hated to, she had to solicit the MacNeills’ help to get away. Like Cearnach had intended to aid her so many years ago.

She shoved open the car door, yanked off her clothes, and heard the men shouting, “She’s shifting!”

Car doors were thrown open. She willed herself to be a wolf, and before anyone could strip or chase after her, she dashed off. She would never be Rafferty’s punching bag again.

She would have to find a way to defend herself in the future. Arm herself. Be prepared. Kill him if he ever found her again.

She raced toward the castle ruins, wishing she had an army of men who could rain arrows down on her own kin. Then she tore down the stairs until she reached the walkway and leaped to the beach. She would have to find her way home. No not home. To Argent Castle. Cearnach’s home. Not hers.

He’d be so angry with her. She didn’t want to face him. She’d ask Ian instead. He’d probably be just as angry with her. She’d mated with his brother when she should never have done so.

What a mess she’d made of things.

All because she’d returned to Scotland, wanting the treasure, just like her own family whose greed had made them pirates.

She ran as fast as her legs would carry her, knowing some of her kin would turn wolf and follow her. Had they picked up Rafferty, too? Probably. He was much older than her. He probably couldn’t keep up with her or the rest of them like some of the younger, stronger wolves.

If they got hold of her and could stop her from running, Rafferty would catch up to her, too.

***

Cearnach had been flooring the gas nearly the whole time and hadn’t seen any sign of her on the road ahead. Which way did you go? Which way, Elaine?

Duncan’s phone rang, and he lifted it off his lap. “Yeah, Guthrie?”

“She’s running as a wolf. Up near Senton Castle. Five wolves are trying to track her down. Three are McKinleys—Vardon, Baird, and another brother. And both the Kilpatrick brothers are in hot pursuit,” Guthrie said.

Cearnach was already turning his car around.

“How the hell did you know she went that way?” Duncan asked.

“You went one way, I went the opposite,” Guthrie said.

“Where’s the wolf who met her in the kennel?” Duncan asked.

“Up on the walk to the castle. He’s in wolf form still, but he’s older, and I figured he’s letting the younger wolves chase her down and bring her back to him. Or he’s planning on catching up to them if they can grab her and hold her for him.” A pause followed. “Hell, he’s run after them.”

“They’re dead wolves,” Cearnach growled. Then he frowned. “Why would Rafferty hold back?” Cearnach asked. “He’s alpha. I didn’t see that she’d been physically abused when she dashed out of the kennel. He’s a hitter. He had to know she’d been with another male. And now, up on the walkway. Why would he let the others go after her first? He should have been the first one after her. Why would the bastard have held back?”

“He’s older, in charge? Paying the money for her kin to bring her to him? Above chasing her down? In the kennels, he couldn’t afford to beat her. Injured, she wouldn’t have been able to escape him, or us,” Guthrie said. “She appears to be headed south toward our castle.”

“Bloody hell,” Cearnach said, thinking of how she knew the way on foot, smelling their scents, tracking better than she could find her way while driving a car. She would face the farmer’s wrath again, the dogs, and the falls.

He pulled off onto another road.

“This isn’t going to take you to the ruins. Where are you headed?” Duncan asked.

“To intercept her, fight the other wolves, and take her home.”

“She’s mated to another wolf,” Duncan warned.

“Aye.” He cast Duncan a dark look that told his brother just what he had in mind.

Duncan nodded. “Aye. Guthrie, you get all that?”

“I don’t understand,” Guthrie said.

“The wolf who was watching from the pathway is Kelly Rafferty, Elaine’s mate. He was thought dead since a year after her uncle’s hangings,” Cearnach said.

Duncan snorted. “If he’s waited that long to reclaim his mate, he doesn’t deserve her.”

“He beat her, killed her parents, and I suspect, murdered the men who became interested in mating her. He forced the mating. He’s a dead wolf,” Cearnach said. “She should have known she didn’t have to run.”

“I remember when she got away from us in St. Andrews, Cearnach,” Duncan said. “She was frightened then, had no family to call her own. This is the only thing she knows how to do. To her way of thinking, she’s dishonored our clan, the pack, you. She has no family to fall back on. She won’t return to Rafferty, so she intends to disappear again.”

“Aye, she’s a woman. She doesn’t think like a warrior,” Guthrie said.

“If you don’t kill him, I will, Cearnach. She should never have run. She’s one of us now,” Duncan said.

“I’ll kill him,” Cearnach promised.

“Where do I need to go to meet up with you?” Guthrie asked.

“A quarter mile south of Oglivie’s farm. She’ll be headed for the river, and we’ll need to stop her kin from pursuing her and keep her from crossing the river,” Cearnach said.

“Oglivie’s got two border collies,” Duncan warned.

“Aye.” How well Cearnach knew.

“Meet you there,” Guthrie said.

“Be careful,” Duncan told him.

“And you.”

“She won’t make it to the river.” Duncan set his phone back on his lap.

“Not without me to help her.” Cearnach headed down another road.

Duncan frowned. “You’re going to intercept her earlier? You’re not going to include Guthrie in the fight?”

“I have to do it this way.”

Duncan sighed and folded his arms. “That means facing five wolves.”

“I wanted Guthrie with us. But I can’t describe the location adequately so that he would find it. The best I can do is to have him meet us beyond the Oglivie’s farm and his dogs. We’ll rescue her, then take her to the car, then get in touch with Guthrie.”

“All right.” Duncan made another call. “Ian, she’s running as a wolf, headed back to Argent Castle from Senton Castle and pursued by some of the Kilpatricks and McKinleys. We’re going to intercept them.”

“Why did she run? She has to know we’d protect her,” Ian said over the sound of men shouting in the background at Argent Castle and the dogs barking wildly.

“She learned she has a former mate who’s still alive.”

Ian snorted. “The pirate Rafferty? The wolf is a dead mon. Guthrie with you?”

Cearnach swore under his breath. When had Ian learned the truth?

“Not exactly,” Duncan said to Ian.

“How many wolves are after her?”

“Five. We can manage.”

“Duncan, I know how capable the two of you are. But you have to include Guthrie. I don’t want to lose either of my brothers or the lass.”

“Cearnach doesn’t think he can guide him to the right location.”

“Try. I’ll send men to Senton Castle to grab their vehicles and hers. This time they’ll be stranded. Give them a taste of their own treachery.”

Duncan smiled. “Aye. Revenge is sweet, Ian. I’ll call Guthrie.”

Cearnach could envision his pack members driving the cars back to Argent Castle while Kilpatrick and the others had to return home as wolves. Let them face Oglivie’s gun and dogs. He hoped if the farmer saw the pack of wolves, he’d be drinking a wee bit much and believe he was seeing things.

“Guthrie,” Duncan said, “change of plans. Head north of Oglivie’s farm.”

“Aye, meet you north of that location.”

Duncan shoved his phone into the console between the front seats and began yanking off his clothes.

“Another five miles to go yet, brother,” Cearnach said.

Duncan smiled. “Aye. If you get stopped, just say I’m your pet dog. I’ll give the nice policeman a big grin.”

Cearnach knew his brother would, too.

The five miles seemed to take forever. When they reached the place Cearnach had in mind, he pulled the car off the road into a turnout and began to strip. Duncan was panting, waiting for him to open the door for him.

Cearnach reached around his brother and pushed his door open. Duncan jumped out of the car and shoved the door closed with his nose.

Cearnach pushed his own door open and locked the doors with the electronic keypad. Thankfully, they had a keypad on the outside door panel on their cars, so there was no worry about getting back into their vehicles after they were done with business.

After shifting, he pushed the door closed with his paws and joined his brother. Duncan greeted him, nose to nose, then the two ran to where Cearnach was certain Elaine would be headed. When he didn’t find her scent, he figured she hadn’t made it this far, and his heart began skipping beats. Hell, what if the wolves had already encircled her much closer to Senton Castle? What if they had forced her to return to the car park already?

He went north, hoping to reach her quickly. They were now northeast of the Oglivie farm.

Guthrie would be able to detect their scent once he’d reached where they’d left their car and begun to run on foot. Their paws would leave their scent, easy for him to locate.

Cearnach heard growling about a half mile away. He recognized the vocal sound at once. It was Elaine’s warning growl—long and low and threatening. Not quite like when she had stood beside him in the woods outside Argent Castle and growled at Baird McKinley and Robert Kilpatrick. Loud this time as if warning them that if any got near, she’d rip them to shreds.

Fear for her engulfed him. He tore after her, his brother racing beside him. His stomach was knotted, every muscle tensed, adrenaline coursing through his veins.

Male snarls and snaps greeted her as she responded in kind. Her cousins were trying to force her to return with them, and she was telling them in wolf terms—no way.

Someone yipped twice.

Not her. He remembered the sound of her yip when he’d startled her by coming up behind her in the river.

Then a yip sounded from her.

Cearnach saw red.