A Highland Werewolf Wedding - By Terry Spear Page 0,108

river.

It was a game for them. A well-executed game. She knew it, but she had no other options but to keep them at bay.

They were trying to wear her down. Five against one. They were resting in between. She was tense, and with one perpetually attacking her, she didn’t have time to rest. Even so, everyone’s tongues were hanging out.

He noted then that Vardon’s ear dripped with blood.

She had bitten him? Her mouth was bloodied. That’s who had yelped? The biggest, strongest of the wolves?

Damn, the woman had balls.

He saw the blood streaking down her right hip. Someone had bitten her.

Cearnach turned his head to look at Vardon again. The wolf’s mouth was bloody also. He was a dead wolf.

Vardon and Robert saw Cearnach and his brother first. Their mouths snapped shut, their ears perked, and their gazes focused on the bigger, more dangerous male wolves.

They realized at once who Cearnach and Duncan were. Knew that they had a real fight on their hands now, not just with a she-wolf who was battling five males at once. The odds were still in her kin’s favor, but the odds were a wee bit better now.

She swung her head around to see what had taken the wolves’ attention. At first, Cearnach saw the relief in her expression and then the sorrow. She was mated to him but couldn’t be. The other wolves quickly moved around to face the oncoming males, but only Vardon need have worried about fighting a male.

Cearnach hit Vardon so hard with his body in a frontal assault that the wolf fell backward and landed hard on his side with an oompf. He quickly scrambled to his feet as Duncan growled low, warning the other wolves not to interfere.

Cearnach attacked Vardon again, ripping at his other ear, the flap dangling and bloodied. Vardon howled in pain and anger, then swung around to bite Cearnach, but then paused, looking past him.

Cearnach didn’t dare look to see what was happening behind him. A wolf never turned his head away from another that he was fighting if he wanted to live.

Guthrie gave a low growl, letting Cearnach know he had arrived. So now they were more evenly matched in the event that the other wolves wanted to fight this out.

Vardon growled at Cearnach and lunged again, but Cearnach tore viciously into him, ripping at the skin of his throat. The wolf fell back and ran even farther away, turning quickly in case Cearnach was following him. He wasn’t. He was standing his ground, not about to put more distance between him and Elaine.

Vardon’s gaze shifted to another wolf. Out of the corner of his eye, Cearnach saw which wolf it was.

Baird.

He’d inched closer to Cearnach, wanting to attack next. Cearnach was certain Baird was still angry that his presence at the wedding had changed Calla’s desire to mate with Baird.

As soon as he took Baird on, Vardon attempted to move in closer to Elaine. Guthrie ripped into Vardon. The other wolves watched and waited, Duncan keeping an eye on them as Cearnach fought with Baird.

Baird was too angry, too wild in his actions, too unfocused, making mistakes that he probably wouldn’t have otherwise. Cearnach was about to make some headway with the wolf when a snarling wolf came out of the woods and hit him broadside.

Elaine barked and tore into the male wolf. The newcomer. The one that had to be Rafferty. His eyes nearly black with rage, his fur a little grayer than any of the wolves here, he was still strong.

He swung his head around to bite Elaine as Duncan charged Vardon, and Guthrie went after Baird.

Cearnach attacked Rafferty with a snarling, growling bite to the face.

The Kilpatrick brothers and the remaining McKinley brother could have made a difference, but none of them advanced. Suddenly, those wolves turned their heads and listened to sounds from the direction of Senton Castle. Tires crunched on gravel. Car doors slammed. One, two, three, four, five, six. The three wolves looked back at the ones still fighting, then ran off toward Senton Castle.

Cearnach knew they’d never reach their vehicles in time to stop his kin from using their lockpicks to break into the vehicles and move them to a new location.

With his concentration back on Rafferty, Cearnach knew he had to kill him. The pirate wolf would never lay another hand on Elaine’s sweet body, never mar her creamy skin, never break another one of her bones, never say another cruel word to her