Chapter 17

17

I n the distance behind them, Isobel and Conall could hear the rhythmic sound of horses' hooves pounding against the ground, indicating that someone was approaching them rapidly.

“Friend or foe?” Conall asked, riding faster to the croft.

“Some of Mege’s friends?”

“I doubt that many would come to terminate you, well, us, because they couldna very well hurt you and get away with it. Then they would have to kill me. I’m sure many of Alasdair’s people know how much you already mean to him and wouldna go against his rule.”

“Then they could be Alasdair’s men and worried about us.”

“Lorne,” Conall said, smelling his scent now as the breeze carried it to them.

“Good. No’ the enemy.” She was relieved that no one was coming to fight them.

“Aye.”

“Have you come to protect us?” Isobel called out to Lorne as soon as he and the others came into view.

“Aye, my lady.”

“Because of Mede?” she asked.

“Aye. The woman must have been crazy to have threatened you.” Lorne shook his head, and he and his men joined them. “Especially after she saw you practice fight in the inner bailey. She might have believed you hadna actually killed the Viking guarding the longships. But once she saw you swinging your sword at Bessetta and the others, she knew you had the skill to fight.”

“She wouldna have come after me herself. She would have had to send a man or two.” That was the thing. Mege would have talked someone else into it, and that person would have suffered the consequences.

“Aye.”

“You didna see anyone coming after us, I take it,” Isobel said as they approached the croft.

“Other than the men who came here to return Cleary and Baine to the castle, nay.”

“Thank you for looking out for us,” Isobel said as they reached the clearing at the croft. She dismounted.

Conall leaped from his horse and took Isobel’s horse's reins. “I’ll take care of the horses.”

“I’ll check on Agnes and Dawy and learn if they need anything. Thanks again!” Isobel waved at Lorne and headed for the croft’s door.

“If you need us, let us know.”

“We will.” She couldn’t wait for Alasdair to show up at the loch again and didn’t want anyone out here but her and the laird when the time came.

When Alasdair rode to the loch, he hoped Isobel would come out of the croft to join him for a swim. Then he saw Lorne and his other men returning from the croft.

“No sightings of anyone,” Lorne reported. “Do you need me to post a guard for you in the meantime?”

“Nay. We’ll be fine.”

Lorne smiled. “Aye, I’m sure you will be. You’ll be returning in a while?”

“Aye. If you see Rory or Hans, tell them I’ll return when I’m done here.”

“See you later.” Then Lorne and the rest of the men rode off.

Alasdair continued on his way to the croft, still watching for any sign of trouble, but he didn’t see anyone on the way there. When he finally arrived at some rowan bushes near the croft, he smelled Isobel’s wild wolf scent. He took a deep breath and hurried through the rowan bushes to join her if she had left the croft already.

He craved having her like no other woman before her, and he felt he had to make her his or die. He passed through the bracken and finally to the end of it when he saw her naked by the loch, getting ready to enter the water. His heart skipped a beat. No other lass had ever made him feel so drawn to her.

Her freed blond hair whipped about her shoulders and breasts in the warm breeze. Creamy white skin, rosy nipples, and curly blond hair between her thighs covering her more intimate parts were all revealed as she removed her chemise and dropped it on the shore. Then she waded into the loch. Aye, he had it bad for her.

But he wasn’t planning on guarding her from the shore. He walked his horse out of the bracken to show her he was there, not intending to sneak up on her or watch her surreptitiously. She entered the water and waded out until it was deep enough for her to swim.

He called out to her, “Do you want me to join you, or do you want me to guard you?” He tied his horse up to the sheep’s corral.

She whipped around, her long blond hair flying, and gave him the most beautiful smile. “If you’re no’ afraid of me, you can join me in the loch.”

“I can protect you in the water.”

She laughed.

He smiled, his brother’s comment returning to him— who will protect her against you? Then he stripped off his clothes, and he swore that whenever he did it to bathe or swim or shift, it was just second nature, but when she watched him so studiously, he felt like he was getting ready to mate her.

His body reacted in a way that said he was very much interested in her.

She smiled, looking amused that she had aroused him so.

Then he walked into the loch, dove in, and swam out to see her.

“I was hoping you would join me out here. I hadna thought you would be here already,” he said, drawing close, reaching out to take her hand.

“I planned to swim before you got here so I could dress and guard you properly. Then here you are, joining me instead.” She held her hand out to him and grasped his hand.

He pulled her into his arms and kissed her, her soft, silky body sliding up against his, making him want her even more. “I am going to have to mate you.”

“Is that so?” Isobel asked, holding him close.

“Aye, it’s the only way I can truly protect you?—”

“And I can protect you?” She raised her brows.

“Aye, exactly.” He kissed her deeply, and she kissed him back just as passionately. “I have spoken to Mege and her family. You will have no more trouble with her. It doesna change the way I feel about you.”

“You dinna think it is too soon? For us to mate each other? Dinna you think we should wait until your people are more accepting of me?”

“Nay. I have waited for you all my life. I have dreamed of you.”

“Nay.” She sounded like she didn’t believe him.

“Aye. We were meant to be together. When you first arrived, I hadna known if you had come with a force of Vikings to invade our land. But I knew I wanted you from the first moment I saw you. You stole my heart at once. How did you feel about meeting me?”

“I was much impressed with you also. You are my light when I thought I may only see darkness. Ja , you are mine.”

He smiled and loved her. “You will be my mate and rule my pack jointly with me.”

“I love you. I would never have thought saving my family would come to this, finding a wolf mate, who happened to be a pack leader in Scotia, finding a home for them that would be safe for them.”

“And finding you meant making my dreams come true. I love you.”

They kissed again, but he was trying to figure out where to take her to consummate their love for one another in a mating. He didn’t want to take her all the way back to the keep. Not this minute.

She smiled at him. “The bracken will do.”

“Are you sure?”

“Aye. What were you thinking? We canna do it in the crofter’s hut. Not with everyone in there. Riding to the keep will take too long. Besides, I like doing this without everyone knowing.”

“That’s what I was thinking. Then in the bracken, it is.”

They swam to the shore, and he grabbed their brats and carried them through the bracken. Once they found the perfect spot, they laid the brats down on the ground, spreading them out, creating a makeshift bed surrounded by green ferns that stretched toward the sky. The full moon illuminated the dark sky, loch, and the tops of the bracken.

It seemed the perfect place to mate his wild Icelandic wolf. He laid her down on the brats and began kissing her soft mouth meant for just kissing him. She ran her hand through his wet hair, and he loved their intimacy.

No woman had ever done that to him before. She kissed his mouth back, her kisses just as rampant, desirous, filling him with an unquenchable need.

Her heart was beating the same rhythm as his, hard and fast, as he moved his head down her body, trailing kisses from her mouth to her breast. He licked and suckled on the rigid nipple and then began to work on the other, giving it its due.

She moaned, her eyes shut as she took deep breaths every time he licked a nipple, and then he kissed the one and suckled and released.

“Join me,” she whispered as if she couldn’t wait to be mated to him. Maybe she was afraid someone would come looking for him, and she didn’t want to be caught in the middle of the act. He didn’t believe she would think he would change his mind if he didn’t hurry.

But he wasn’t about to rush through the first mating between them. He slid his hand down her smooth belly and found her curly blond hairs. He nudged his fingers through them until he located her woman’s bud, swollen, aroused.

His staff was as stiff as a pike already, and he truly wanted to mate her as quickly as possible, yet he had to show her how important it was to him to pleasure her also.

“I’m ready,” she said softly before he began to stroke her nubbin.

Yeah, she was, but not like he suspected she thought. When he began stroking her, she moaned. “Oh, goddess, what—are—” She bit her lip, unable to speak further, and he kissed her mouth while he continued to run his finger over her nub.

She was wet for him, ready for his staff, and moving her hips to get even more pleasure from his touch. Her heart was beating even more wildly now, and he tongued her mouth while she sucked on his tongue with desperation, trying to reach the climax, but he suspected no one had ever pleasured her in this way.

She nipped at his lip, and he smiled, but then her face tensed, and she gritted her teeth, growling, embracing the wolf and woman as she cried out with joy.

He immediately hoped no one would hear her and believe she was in peril and come to the rescue. He kissed her mouth then, licking her lips, nipping on her lower one. “Are you ready?”

“For you to be mine and only mine,” she said softly. “ Ja , aye, I am.”

He wanted to ask if she’d ever been with a man like this, not wanting to hurt her for the first time, but he couldn’t ask without it sounding like he wouldn’t like it if she had been. So he treated her as though she was a virgin, slowly pushing into her. As much as he wanted to begin thrusting, he was so ready.

He went cautiously until he felt a barrier. She was so tight. He was certain she’d never been with anyone before like this.

She held her breath and then released and breathed through the pain. And then he pushed all the way in and began to thrust. Not hard, but enough to keep the momentum going.

Her inner core was still gripping him in waves of climax, and then he released in a burst and growled out, “Isobel, gods, you are mine.”

She smiled at him as he kissed her again. “Hmm, and you are mine.”

As wolves, she could have made love all the way with a human, and not have been mated. With wolves, it would have been a mating, and they couldn’t be with another wolf unless they lost their mate. Oftentimes, a wolf who lost his mate wouldn’t take another. But she hadn’t been with another man, and he was glad he was her first.

“Was it good—” he started to say, and she pushed him off her and straddled him, then kissed him deeply.

“Oh, aye. I never knew a man could pleasure a woman like that.”

“Aww, lass, you deserve to be pleasured like that every time and more.” He ran his hand over her thighs.

And then she snuggled up against him, her head on his chest. “As much as I dinna want to ever leave our little fortress of ferns, someone’s going to miss you.”

“And you. But aye, we need to dress.” Not only because he worried his brothers would check up on him again—just to make sure he was safe, but also because he wanted to take her to the keep with him, to tell the rest of the pack that they were now mated wolves. That she was also now their pack leader.

Isobel loved being with Alasdair like this, hidden in the bracken, glad that they had mated, but she wondered what to do about her kin and the crofters regarding sleeping arrangements. She didn’t want to take the young ones to live with her in the castle when the crofters wanted a family so bad, and her cousins seemed to adore Agnes and Dawy.

Isobel had to admit they treated them like their own children, not distantly or harshly as their own da had done. This had to do with the hard life they had been faced with after their mother had died. Conall was such a help to the crofters, and he seemed eager to learn shepherding and growing crops.

Isobel could be impulsive at times, and this was one of those times. She should have waited until she was sure that she could move to the castle without Dawy and Agnes needing her. Though she would make trips out there daily, like she was doing now by going to the keep and returning.

She supposed she was a little anxious that his people would be shocked and unhappy with the idea that she had mated him. Mating as wolf shifters amounted to being bound to each other forever. Elene had told her that marrying a Highlander only required both their consents, no witnesses needed, so they were lawfully married as well.

“What do we do about the living arrangements?” she asked Alasdair, running her hand over his bare chest, her cheek resting against it.

“I’ve considered the situation, and I believe we should let it be up to your cousins. Agnes and Dawy will abide by any decision they make. Of course, the MacEachens would like to keep the rest of your family at the croft, but it’s ultimately your kin’s decision. You know I will want you at the castle from now on.”

“Guarding it.”

“Guarding me.” He kissed her. “As I will guard you. The crofters have never had any trouble before. If they ever believe they will, they will turn into their wolves and escape to the castle. I have watched Conall fighting with the others in practice combat when he is not building the wall.”

“That is good.”

“He is a formidable opponent, despite his youth. He will help Dawy if he ever has difficulties with encroaching neighbors.” Alasdair ran his hand over her belly.

“Aye. We teach all children how to fight. Even Libby will fight like I did.” She sighed.

Alasdair nodded. She was glad he didn’t see anything wrong with the women fighting. She would teach his women to fight, too, if he desired it.

“And this eve?” she asked.

“’Tis late. I need to get back to the keep before my brothers send a rescue force. I wish to take you with me, though.”

She wanted to go with Alasdair in the worst way tonight, but she felt she had to discuss this matter with her cousins before she just abandoned them. And she didn’t want to wake the wee ones or disturb Agnes’s and Dawy’s sleep this eve as late as it was.

“I will stay the night at the croft and discuss this in the morn with my kin and Dawy and Agnes and see what everyone wants to do. But on the morrow, I’ll stay with you no matter what my cousins agree to do as far as living arrangements go.”

“All right. I understand.” He kissed her again, and then he said, “Wait here. I’ll gather our clothes.”

She waited for a few minutes, listening to Alasdair as he moved through the bracken, but then she heard a startled gasp and a thud and her heart pounded in overdrive.