Chapter 3

3

W hat were the chances that two clan leaders would abduct Accalia in two days? Furious that one of Freigard’s men was carrying her away from camp on his horse, she was anxious to know if Logan was all right. Four other men were riding through the woods beside them. Six had come for her. Had Logan killed one then?

A steady rain began to fall. The chilly drizzle made it even colder. The men in human form wore heavily padded leather armor and were armed with swords and bows like soldiers. They smelled like gray wolves which was another reason she knew they were Freigard’s men and not thieves.

She prayed Erik’s brother was alive after he had fought so valiantly to rescue her. But he’d been way outnumbered, six to one. She’d pulled out her sgian dubh tucked in her belt and stabbed one of the men in the thigh, but he’d moved before she’d cut him deeply. Another of the villains had wrested the dagger from her hand, twisting her wrist painfully.

She’d kicked and scratched and even bitten one of the men on the arm. His leather was so heavily padded, that she doubted she had injured him in the least. Her wolf’s teeth might have torn through it though, had she been able to shift.

The five men rode as fast as they could through the forest, trying to distance themselves from Erik’s camp. The one held onto her so tight that she couldn’t wriggle free no matter how much she tried. She hated them and was irritated with herself for not alerting Erik sooner.

Horses tromping the ground some distance behind them made her pray that Erik and his men were coming for her. Then again, what if the riders were more of Freigard’s men she hadn’t seen before?

The heavy, drenching rain turned to a lighter rain shower, but by then both she and her captor were wet and slippery against each other, and she hoped she could break free still. She didn’t want them to get away with her and she didn’t want Erik to believe she didn’t have the wherewithal to stand up for herself.

She tried to wrench free of her captor’s iron grip. She nearly got free, felt herself slipping from his grasp before he struck her on the side of the head with his fist hard and she saw a sprinkling of stars. If he thought that would make her compliant, he was gravely mistaken. She threw back her arm at him, striking his black-bearded chin with her elbow as hard as she could while she strained to hear the men coming for her.

He gave a harsh laugh. “You think you can hurt me? Freigard will see you dead before you mate with Norwulf.”

She was surprised to hear it as she tried to gain her freedom.

If Erik’s men were looking for her, she knew they would smell her scent. But if they were not aware that she had been taken yet and Logan could be injured, dying, or dead, she had to warn them. She howled, knowing her human howl could carry much farther through the woods than her human’s cry of distress. Besides, her howl made her feel more in control.

“Shut her up,” one of the men shouted.

She was glad she shook him up.

Just then, an arrow flew past her off to her right and hit the rider in the lead in the back. The rider fell from his horse, but the one holding onto her rode on, desperately attempting to outdistance Erik’s men.

Another arrow whooshed past them. Another villain in the party cried out, but he remained seated, slumped in his saddle, his horse still racing forward with the others. Aye! She was so grateful to Erik and his men for coming to her aid.

Two more arrows, one man went down, the horse running still. Another injured man struggled to hold onto his horse. Another two arrows targeted him, and he fell to the ground with a thud, his horse still running with them. Then she was alone with her captor.

“They willna get you back,” the man growled.

She assumed then that these men’s orders were to kill her before she fell back into Erik’s hands.

Then white wolves appeared out of the mist, looking like her saviors.

Horses owned and raised by the wolf packs weren’t afraid of wolves under normal conditions. But snarling, growling wolves caused the horse she was on to rear up. The man fell, taking Accalia with him. As soon as they hit the ground, she grabbed for her sgian dubh tucked in his boot. She yanked it free as he struggled to get to his feet. She jumped away and he unsheathed his sword.

She didn’t stand a chance using a dagger against a sword, especially when the man was as tall as Erik and forty pounds heavier. Before they could engage each other, Erik rode up to her and pulled her onto his saddle, holding her tightly in his grasp, protectively, concern etched in his furrowed brow. At once, she felt safe and was glad for the feeling.

“Are you all right?” Erik asked, looking her over and gently touching the area near where she’d been struck.

She was still shaken by the fall and from the brigand hitting her in the side of the head. “Uh, aye.” She finally reached down and slipped the sgian dubh into her boot.

The wolves surrounding her captor were still growling, but they didn’t tear into him. Normally, wolves fought wolves, men fought men. Not all shifters honored the code of the wolf though. And desperate circumstances changed all the rules.

One of Erik’s men would kill her captor with his sword. She didn’t have any regrets because they could very well have killed her or Eric or any number of his men, his brother included.

“Your brother,” she said at once.

“He is well, though he should have called out a warning.”

“He was injured while fighting six men!”

“Aye, and he should have called out a warning. They were Freigard’s men?”

“They were. The one said Freigard wanted me dead before you could have me. I assume it’s because he doesna want you allied with my da.” She couldn’t believe how comforting Erik felt, how warm, solid, and protective he was, the rain subsiding, his hair wet and rainwater running down his face. She wanted to brush away the droplets with a tender gesture, but she resisted the silly notion.

“Then he is determined to have you. For him to attempt to steal you away from me shows such determination.”

“But the man said he would kill me.” She realized she was shivering from the danger she had experienced, and Erik must have noticed it too as he held her closer to his hot body and she soaked his warmth in, smelling his manly wolf scent and the air cleansed by the rain.

“Mayhap to keep you in line. I doubt he would have harmed you,” Erik said.

“What about you? What do you want?”

“I want what’s best for my people. But we are white wolves and you are a gray wolf.”

She frowned. “We are all gray wolves, from what I understand. Then at some point, the gray wolves in the northern regions started changing. It was said so your kind could blend in with the white winters.”

“Aye.”

“So we are all the same.”

“Do you feel this way?”

Erik’s white wolves were as beautiful as her kind and she hadn’t expected that. “Aye.”

“We shall see.”

“You havena lived long here.” She knew their history. He and his wolves had left their lands, looking for someplace to conquer that was more hospitable. He had taken over the weak chieftain’s lands, but then he’d dispersed the residents or turned them as they would have to keep their secret.

So he’d been known as the Great White Wolf Chieftain, even though humans didn’t know that the white wolves with him were shifters, nor that he was one. Only that he used the white wolves from his homeland to hunt his prey. Others wouldn’t know that he was one of the white wolves on the prowl. But still, she—and her kin—had wondered if there was more to their reason for coming here.

“You shouldna have been so far away from our encampment.”

She figured he wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. “They wouldna do the same thing twice, would they? The closer we get to your castle, willna they give up?”

“You are no’ a warrior, my lady. They willna give up until we reach the castle. Some skulk nearby, I venture to guess, just out of sight.”

That didn’t make her feel in the least bit comfortable.

They reached the encampment that had been packed up and he dismounted before she could, then he helped her down only to set her on her horse. He was firm but gentle and seemed troubled about all that had occurred. About his brother being injured? Her nearly falling into his enemy’s hands, because surely now, Freigard was his enemy? Or concern for her? Maybe a little of each.

Then they were on their way again.

She watched for signs of Freigard’s men lurking in the woods they traveled through. Every rustle of a branch or flutter of a bird caught her eye now. As a wolf, her senses were always on higher alert than a human’s, but even more so now. She realized then that though she had trained as a warrior in the event they were ever overrun, she didn’t know their tactics out in the wild.

Then she saw Logan looking a little pale some distance off, heading in her direction, his head wrapped in a cloth bandage. She caught Logan’s eye and mouthed a silent thanks to him. He didn’t look pleased. She realized he was probably in trouble with his brother over the matter of her abduction. But he had to fight six men and was lucky to be alive.

Erik had moved ahead to speak with his men and two others were ordered to stay beside her as they made their way through the woods.

With no one to talk to, she rode in silence, wondering what his castle and people would be like now that he had taken it over. All she remembered of the castle was that it had towered over her, dark, and dreary. She had made certain her castle was comfortable, clean, and presentable. Had his kind made any changes? If not, she would make some changes while she stayed there which might not be for long.

Logan rode up and replaced one of her guards, a little blood staining the center of the bandage on his forehead.

“You were valiant, and I thank you,” she said, relieved to see him alive, and wanting to hug him for trying to keep her safe.

“Dinna tell the chieftain such.”

She scoffed. “Any man who could fight against such odds and come out unscathed”—well, nearly so—“is a warrior and he should be proud of you.”

“You were stolen away when I was guarding you.”

“Who made the assignment?”

Logan smiled a little at her. “You will have to be stronger, more in charge if you are to interest him. Though your choices—and his—are slim.”

She laughed in an annoyed way. “I have no choice in the matter. ‘Tis my place to please my da and help my people.”

“So you think to have an alliance between your pack and ours if you please Erik?”

“Tis better that, than mating with Freigard and having no alliance. There is no guarantee that Freigard willna attempt to take over our pack later.”

“Or sooner. What if he takes over your pack before my brother decides about you?”

“Then I will have to be returned to my people and do what I can to help them through the situation.”

“You wouldna want to stay with us?” Logan asked, looking surprised.

“Your brother would have no need of me, and I would have no need of him.” But her da and her people would need her, she knew in her heart.

“We will be at Whitehaven Castle by late tomorrow. I would warn you of two things. Cook doesna like Erik, but we lost our own and she is the deposed clan’s cook. She prepares good meals so Erik keeps her on.”

“She was turned?” She knew the former clan ruling there had been human, though her da and the lord had never been able to agree on an alliance. Even though she’d been but ten moons, the lord had wanted her for his wife and her da wouldn’t agree. Not when she and her clan were wolves, and she had been so young. Accalia had liked Cook and many of their staff that she had met.

“Aye, she wanted to leave and didna want to serve the chieftain and his devil wolves, but we had lost our cook, and we had no one else to manage the kitchen staff.”

She frowned. “Did you turn the whole staff?”

“Aye. They wanted to be like us.”

“I’m surprised she hasna poisoned the chieftain then.”

“He requires that she tastes all of his food just in case she intends to poison him.”

Accalia shook her head. “So she and the others are white wolves then.”

“Aye, devil wolves.” Logan smiled. “We have learned you know her, and she has threatened Erik that she will poison him when he’s least expecting it if he even hints at turning you.”

“She wouldna. Didna you tell her I’m a wolf already?”

“Aye, she wouldna believe us.”

“You said there were two things you wanted to tell me.”

“Aye. My brother had a mate and lost her.”

Accalia couldn’t believe it. No one had said anything to her about it. Their kind often mated for life, though if a wolf lost his mate, he or she might take another. Especially in the case of a chieftain who needed an heir.

“How long ago and how did she die?” Accalia couldn’t help wanting to know. This was such a shock to her. She had expected to mate with a wolf who had never been mated.

“A year ago. He would have mated before this, but he was waiting until after he conquered Crawford so that he had a castle and lands to call his own.”

She didn’t say anything. The old chieftain had never allied with her da, but they’d kept the peace between them all these years. When Erik had taken over, they worried he would take her clan over next.

“Erik…has triplet sons,” Logan said.

Accalia stared at him.

“They are five summers old.”

“How did his mate die?” she asked, saddened for the children and their mother.

“Of a fever. A dozen of our clan members died, and it was dark time for us.”

“I’m so sorry to hear this.” Not only that Erik had lost his mate, but that her boys had had to live without their mother, like when she had lost her own. How did Erik feel about her loss? How did the boys feel? She felt bad for them.

For her, it took years to learn to live with the loss. Nannies had tried but couldn’t take her mother’s place. And her da would never remarry. This put the whole situation in a different perspective. Could his boys even love her if she tried to take Erik’s mate’s place?

She brushed away a wet curl of hair that had blown across her eyes. “Then why does Erik want me for a mate? He doesna need an heir. He has an heir and two spares. Truth be told, goddess forbid if anything were to happen to him but if it did, you or your brother Finlay or some other impressive wolf in the pack would take over, not a young boy.”

“Certes. But he still needs a mother for his sons. If you dinna get along with them, he will look elsewhere for a wife. He wants the best for them.”

Accalia hadn’t expected this and wasn’t certain she could handle it. Nurse maids took care of the young ones in her clan. And where did that leave her? Did he not even wish to mate with her, but be a mother to the three boys who might not even like her?

“I see. Well, this trial period may be very short-lived.”

Again, Logan smiled. “Your da says you’re very good with bairns.”

Her da would say anything, it seemed, just to make this happen between them. He should have told her what he had expected of her!

“I dinna know the first thing about bairns,” she said, honestly. She wasn’t about to lie her way through this. She could see it could be a total catastrophe. They had a few bairns in their clan, but no one had expected her to be a nanny to them.

Logan bowed his head to her. “Then it behooves you to make the effort.”

“Mayhap I should look for another prospect.”

“Such as?”

“A wolf who desires a mate, no’ a nanny, since he has some of those already.”

“Aye, my lady. I have said as much. We will speak later.” Then Logan turned and rode to the back of her escort and the other guard returned to walk beside her.

She didn’t have the faintest clue about raising wolf cubs or bairns. Her da had made her take warrior training if he was off to battle, and she had to lead their people in defense of the castle and how to manage the castle staff. The child-rearing was left to the nannies and nursemaids. The children sat among their people at the meals, and she had seen them playing games and learning their parents’ trades, but she was not responsible for them.

Did her father know the situation with Erik? If he did, why didn't he inform her? He probably kept it from her because he feared she would reject Erik if he couldn't move on from his mate's death. The same went for his sons losing their mother.

A sense of unease crept over her. All she could picture was the boys despising her, never getting to know Erik and the consequences that would bring.