Chapter 13

13

A fter Isobel told Agnes and Dawy that the man she had killed on the beach was one of the men from the clan they’d been living with, Dawy asked, “Have you told Alasdair?”

She suspected the laird would not like hearing it. “Nay, no’ yet.”

“Tell him, dear,” Agnes said. “He needs to know. When the rest of the clan that raided our lands return to their longships and see that their guards are dead and the ships are ashes, they’ll smell your scents and could even track you here.”

Isobel took a relieved breath. “They’re human. We didna live with a wolf pack there. Only our kin were wolves.”

“Oh,” Agnes said. “Then there’s naught to worry about.”

But Dawy didn’t seem happy about it as he frowned at Isobel. “The clan chief didna know where you went?”

“Nay. We had packed our things before my uncle tried to kill the chieftain and left right after that. We never saw anyone following us. They would have no idea where we ended up. If…” She paused and ran her hands through her hair in frustration.

“What are you thinking?” Conall asked.

“Gods, what if they had come after us? I was thinking they were already here. But they could have come after us and landed first because they had more manpower, stronger rowers, better winds, just any reason.” Isobel’s head was filled with tension.

“My thought exactly,” Dawy said. “Though it is good news, they’re no’ wolves, or they would have come here before long.”

“Had they plans to leave Iceland to raid here before you escaped?” Agnes asked.

“Vigge, the chieftain’s son, said they had already gone, but the chieftain knew my uncle was going to try and kill him. What if the chieftain told Ari to hold off leaving but no’ to show himself until he needed him? That way, it appeared the chieftain didn’t have that many men to support him at the longhouse.”

That wouldn’t be good. If it were the case, not only would they have been raiding since they were there already, but they would have been searching for her and her kin. Still, they might have believed she and the others would never have made it on their own to Scotia. Chills ran up her spine, believing no one had followed them across the ocean.

“You must tell Alasdair. He’ll want to know this,” Agnes said.

“Aye. I will.” She would tell him tonight when he came to the loch, hoping he wouldn’t be angry with her for not telling him sooner. Or mad at her for being a member of that clan.

After eating the fish dinner and getting the younger ones down for bed, Agnes and Dawy also went to bed.

Conall walked outside with Isobel and breathed in the fresh air. “Are you going to guard Alasdair at the loch again tonight?”

Isobel looked crossly at him, but she was fighting a smile. She couldn’t wait to see him, though she hoped he wouldn’t be angry with her once she told him about Ari. “Whoever told you such a thing?”

“Hey, even I was asked about your relationship with the pack leader while working on the wall.”

She wouldn’t have shared the information with Conall, but she didn’t want him to leave the croft for any reason while she visited Alasdair. At the castle, it was impossible to keep any secrets. Then again, the pack had still shared their meeting at the loch.

“Aye.” She wondered how that had happened unless someone had been watching out for Alasdair while he was swimming, which neither had suspected.

“That’s all I wanted to know. Since Alasdair plans to turn Cleary and Baine tonight, I figure they willna bother us this eve. They’ll be locked up in the barracks with the other men and willna be able to leave the castle.”

“Aye, true. So we’ll have naught to worry about.” At least not until the morning when she returned to the keep and ate breakfast there.

“Are you going to sit out here until he shows up?” Conal glanced at the dark sky filled with stars.

“Nay. I’m tired. I’ll rest a bit and listen for his arrival. I’ll hear his horse when he comes.”

“All right. I’m going to bed. I’m exhausted.”

“Me too. But in a good way.”

They returned to the croft and closed the door as quietly as possible. Conall settled down under his furs. Isobel lay on top of hers, planning to close her eyes, and didn’t intend to fall asleep. But when she heard Libby scream, she was startled awake. Libby screamed again. She was outside the croft in the bracken, the door to the home left wide open!

Isobel yanked off her clothes, shifted, and raced out of the croft to rescue Libby. Her cousin had slept-walk before. Isobel hadn’t expected her to do it now. Conall, likewise, was wearing his wolf coat and rushed out after her.

When Alasdair heard a child screaming, he thought it was Libby. They had searched everywhere for Cleary and Baine and hadn’t located them, not even anywhere around the croft. Had they slipped through their search parties and found a way to reach Isobel and her kin?

His heart racing, Alasdair and Hans galloped toward the sound of the child’s screams, the rest of his men who had split off from them converging on them as they raced to save the child.

That’s when he smelled that Cleary and Baine had navigated through the trees here, crossing the creek, and were moving through the bracken. The ferns were so tall that they hid a man who stood his full height. A rider on a horse could see above it. They might not be able to see the brothers, but they could smell their scent.

Suddenly, Alasdair heard wolves growling. He assumed Isobel and Conall had gone to rescue Libby in their wolf coats. A man cried out. Alasdair thought it was Cleary’s voice.

“Stay back, or I’ll kill you,” Baine shouted. Then he screamed out in pain.

Alasdair feared they wouldn’t make it there in time to take charge of the situation. Libby was sobbing. Cleary and Baine were groaning. One of the wolves was growling. Then he heard Isobel’s voice, soothing, coaxing. “You’re okay, Libby. Come on. I’ll take you inside.”

When he and his men finally reached Cleary and Baine, they could smell the gray wolf sitting there. Conall was growling low at the two men, guarding them and not letting them leave.

Then Alasdair saw Isobel’s naked backside as she carried a sobbing Libby inside the croft. Drummond was standing in the doorway. Dawy and Agnes were standing behind him, Dawy’s hands on the lad’s shoulders. Conall woofed at Alasdair, then raced back to the house, and Dawy closed the door.

God’s wounds. Nothing had gone as planned and Alasdair had to find the underlying cause. “Why was Libby screaming?” Alasdair asked the brothers, his tone of voice angry.

“Your—or I should say MacEachans’ hounds attacked us.” Cleary sounded astounded. “We didna provoke them, I swear. We’re always good with animals.”

It was good because they were among a pack of wolves and needed to have a good relationship with them, especially with the Icelandic wolves.

“Me too.” Baine ran his hands through his disheveled black hair.

He and Baine showed Alasdair where the wolves had broken the skin on their arms, and they were bleeding. If Isobel and Conall had turned the brothers, Cleary and Baine were now of Icelandic wolf ancestry.

“I asked you a question. Why…was…Libby…screaming?” Alasdair asked.

With care, Cleary cradled his injured arm. “No one would tell us if they were Vikings. The lad, Conall, was wearing clothes like they wear.”

“And they sound like the bastards,” Baine said.

“So you grabbed Libby to force her to tell you?” Alasdair was certain that the men had threatened Libby, and she screamed. Ironically, they were now related if Cleary and Baine felt any animosity for them being Icelanders.

“Cleary did it. I mean, she was out here wandering around by herself. She coulda gotten lost,” Baine said.

“Or fallen in the loch and drowned,” Cleary said.

“Or been accosted by the likes of you.” Alasdair knew they had threatened her.

Shocked didn’t cover how Alasdair felt about the whole matter. Both men appeared as stunned as everyone else there. Everyone looked at Alasdair to see what he wanted to do about it.

“We’ll talk in the morn when we break our fast,” Alasdair said, needing to speak at once with Isobel. But then he added, “Unless you need to discuss matters with them as they play out, Lorne.”

“Certes,” Lorne said.

Alasdair wanted to know what they had done to Libby and was angry that no one had been watching them as they were supposed to.

“Take Cleary and Baine to the barracks. Lorne will oversee the men who will watch over the newly turned...wolves.” Lorne might need to explain what had happened to them if they had been turned. But if they didn’t shift until daybreak, there was no sense in trying to explain it to them until then.

“Aye,” Lorne said.

“I will see you in the morn. Though if there is any trouble”—more so than what Cleary and Baine had pulled—“come and see me.”

Alasdair headed straight for the croft to speak with Isobel when he realized Hans was sticking with him while the others rode off with the brothers. “You dinna need to be with me for this. Go. Get your rest. I’ll return to the keep shortly.”

“Dinna be too angry with her. She only wanted to protect her kin,” Hans said.

“Do you think I dinna know that? How will it look to the clan when a woman—an Icelander—turned the Scots without my permission?”

“Like she was protecting her cousin.”

“Dinna stick up for her. You know what I mean. Aye, she and Conall were doing so, but some will still believe they could have threatened them with swords, not bite them.”

“I am only saying that’s how I’m sure our people will view it—that they were protecting Libby. Isobel lost her uncle and the rest of her family. She has had to do so much to keep her cousins safe for weeks.”

Alasdair growled. “Didna I tell you to return to the keep?”

Would no one listen to his orders now that the woman had arrived?

“I was thinking of swimming in the loch.”

Alasdair looked sharply at his brother.

Hans smiled at him, then frowned again. “She and her kin fled a certain death from her kind. She was responsible for their safety on a long and perilous journey when two of the five of them were but children. She would do anything to protect them, dinna you see?”

Alasdair rubbed his whiskered chin. “I know that.” The problem was that he felt it was his fault for not keeping his promise to turn the men and keep her and her cousins safe.

“Mayhap you should wait until morn to speak with her.”

“Nay. You think I willna hold my temper when speaking with her?” Even now, as Alasdair neared the crofters’ home, he wasn’t as irritated. All he had to see was the loch in the meadow and think of the naked Icelander who made him want her like no other lass had ever done, and he felt the anger melting away.

“You are still furious with her.” Then Hans shook his head. “I know you.” He sighed. “After we learned the two of you were at the loch last night, I spread the word that everyone must use the one in the south. ‘Tis closer to the keep anyway.”

“Good.” Alasdair let out his breath. “I will watch my words with her. But I’m no’ pleased with their actions this eve, and I canna guarantee that I willna”—Alasdair ground his teeth—“I will try to keep my temper.” He didn’t want his people to turn against her.

“Aye,” Hans said.

“Go back to the keep and watch things for me, will you? It willna be long before everyone knows what happened, and I need you to quell the unrest if our people believe the lass was at fault for shifting and biting the brothers.”

Isobel was responsible for the attack because Alasdair suspected Conall wouldn’t have done it alone.

“Aye. I will see you in the morn unless there’s trouble before then.” Hans turned his horse around and rode back toward the keep.

Alasdair charged ahead, wanting to get this over with and hoping he could keep his temper in check. He didn’t remember a time when he felt he was losing so much control over his pack.