A Highland Werewolf Wedding - By Terry Spear Page 0,72
vulnerability to get back at him for Calla standing him up at the wedding if he could.
“Where’s that brother of yours, Baird? Vardon? I demand an apology from him,” Elaine said.
He was standing beside the second car, looking angry, his hands fisted at his sides. Cearnach imagined that Vardon wanted to punch her again, except not by accident this time. He’d kill him before the wolf ever got close to her again.
Baird glanced at Kilpatrick and the irritated looks they shared said that no way in hell was Vardon going to apologize.
“You got in the way,” Robert said. “He didn’t mean to punch you. He was aiming for Cearnach.”
Cearnach growled under his breath. Vardon was a bastard for not apologizing to the lass, and her cousin Robert just as much of one for defending Vardon’s brutal behavior. Cearnach opened his mouth to tell him so, but Elaine was running the show.
“That doesn’t excuse what happened. Accident or no accident, he missed Cearnach and struck me. I’ll have an apology. He doesn’t have to get down on bended knee, unless of course he wants to, but a sincere, heartfelt ‘I’m sorry’ will go a long way,” she said, her voice cold with fury.
Robert and Baird’s faces couldn’t have hardened any further. Cearnach and his kin were grinning. Cearnach heard a few snickers from his own people. He could just imagine everyone envisioning Vardon on his knees in front of Elaine, pleading with her to accept his apology.
No one said anything for a moment.
“You can’t stay here,” Robert reiterated. “It’s an insult to our name. Beyond that, they’ll tell you that the stolen goods came from their ships and that you have no right to keep the goods.”
So the matter was no longer private? Good.
“If they had belonged to the MacNeill clan?” Elaine asked.
Robert scowled. “Don’t tell me the scoundrel has already set you against your own kin. You can’t mean to give him the goods.”
Rapid feminine footfalls echoed on the stone pavers behind Elaine and Cearnach and the others with them. They turned to see his mother and aunt approaching. Cearnach frowned at them, not wishing their interference. What now?
“Robert Kilpatrick.” Cearnach’s mother’s voice was sharp. She sounded like she was scolding a small child as she stood on the other side of Elaine, close, protective like a mother wolf. “I thought your mother raised you better.”
His eyes narrowed. “This is between Elaine and me and no one else.”
“Seems you made it our business when you stole the lass’s car. Be off with you. She’s with us now and perfectly content to enjoy our hospitality. Whatever financial dealings you had planned to discuss with her are over. Do you understand?” She turned her sharp eyes on Elaine, who quickly closed her gaping mouth and smiled a little.
Cearnach liked it when his mother was giving someone else hell.
“What part of ‘I’m not going anywhere with you’ did you not comprehend?” Elaine asked Robert. Then she did the unexpected—slipped her arm around Cearnach’s waist and said, “I’m ready for breakfast and a walk in the gardens.”
Every one of her kin looked as though they wanted to thrash her soundly. Even though they didn’t know her, they would expect her to remain loyal to them through kinship, no matter the circumstances.
Cearnach was proud of her. “You heard the lass. When her wishes are met, she’ll grant you an audience.”
The looks on their faces said they could kill Cearnach right this very minute.
Standing beside Cearnach, Duncan gave a murmured, “Aye.”
Before anyone could say a word, Cearnach wrapped his arm around Elaine’s small waist and headed her back to the keep. His brother and cousins hung around the gate, waiting for the McKinleys and the Kilpatricks to vacate their lands.
“You know they’ll test your resolve,” Cearnach said to Elaine. “They suspect you’ll want to return home before long and need to finish your business here. They’ll try to force you to come to them on their terms.”
“Too late for that,” she said, giving him a wicked smile. “Seems I’ve made my bed and I’m staying in it.”
He chuckled low, planning an early night for both of them.
Chapter 18
Cearnach escorted Elaine back to the keep for breakfast, and she was hopeful that everyone was away working at their jobs so he and she would have some privacy.
“I do have a question for you.” He led her through the great hall.
He sounded so serious that she looked up at him expectantly.