A Highland Werewolf Wedding - By Terry Spear Page 0,106
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.”