A Highland Werewolf Wedding - By Terry Spear Page 0,104
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.